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SimulationCommander's avatar

This is the predictable consequence of the ratcheting-up going on at least since Russiagate/Crossfire Hurricane. I think Republicans think the Democrats won't limit their actions when they get back into power, and I think the Republicans are right about that.

The press is right back into "Everything Trump does is evil" mode, and Trump is right back to calling them fake news. I hoped that people might be a little more sane since Trump is gone in 2028 either way, but.......

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

No.. you don't know? Trump is going to be in power forever. He's going to declare national emergency, and change the constitution and suspend elections like his buddy Putin. I know I read that somewhere, and I know at least 70 Million "Highly" "Educated" people believe it in their hearts because college taught them how to feel.....

Yes.. Highly and Educated needed separate quotes...

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Mad Dog's avatar

I think there's nobody less educated today than a recent graduate of a DEIvy league college. Sure, they've got diplomas but they also have the critical thinking skills of a five year old, the fund of knowledge of a houseplant, and the personal hygiene of a housefly.

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Kelly Green's avatar

At least they know the difference between "We Are the World" and "Do They Know It's Christmas".

Seriously, Matt. "The Bono role" in We Are the [your cause here], huh?

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Pat Robinson's avatar

Yes he mixed up that reference

Not hard since “We are the world” was so utterly forgettable

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BD's avatar

I was a HUGE Quincy Jones fan, but “We are the world” wasn't one of his better moments.

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

Q’s best moment?

Streatbeater!

🔥AKA the theme from Sanford & Son🔥

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Mad Dog's avatar

I'd vote for "The Birth of a Band!" as his best album.

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Savi_heretic33's avatar

No it wasn’t.

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Stxbuck's avatar

Fucking Bono rule-I go by the Stevie Ray Vaughn rule-Bono came into his home base club, Antone’s, in Austin, TX in the mid 80s and got onstage prattling about “feeling the blues”. The regulars rolled their eyes and continued getting drunk.

To put this another context, I’ll quote the great Eric Hoffer “The reason why America has never had a working class revolution is because the working class is too busy working”.

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curt s sanders's avatar

Yes indeed!

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Salusa Secundus Snape's avatar

Careful... Matt and Walter received the same elite education.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

another time and another galaxy far far away.............from what they are teaching today.

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Salusa Secundus Snape's avatar

How would you know? You never went to an Ivy League school.

Meanwhile, Matt seems to only have learned how to shrink his audience to the point where he can't afford to speak outside a prescribed boundary of opinions.

https://salusasecundussnape.substack.com/p/afraid-or-a-fraud

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Admiral Glorp Golp's avatar

Yet here you are posting your floundering substack on his substack to get people to read your pig slop. Funny.

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MG's avatar
May 1Edited

Number of paid subscribers to your substack?

Number of paid subscribers to Matt's substack?

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

How would you know you went there..........and learned nothing.

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LEC's avatar

Actually, no. They attended college before the total demise of American Higher Education, post 2008.

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Salusa Secundus Snape's avatar

Right right... their posh education doesn't count, it is everyone else who is at fault. If that ain't elitism I don't know what is.

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BookWench's avatar

But they are obviously capable of critical thinking.

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Salusa Secundus Snape's avatar

Well, except when it comes to Israel... precious, precious Israel.

https://salusasecundussnape.substack.com/p/afraid-or-a-fraud

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GenericBot6886's avatar

so are you marketing your substack on here as nothing but a critique of Taibbi based solely on a perceived lack of Israel criticism?

The only article on your substack is saying just that. Just curious?

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Admiral Glorp Golp's avatar

You are what desperation looks like. Or a bot. Hard to tell these days.

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MG's avatar

Glenn? Is that you?

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Burnt taco's avatar

You mean the colleges funded directly by China and Qatar? Like every Ivy League bastion of “liberal democracy “?

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Lisa's avatar

Harvard is busy defending free speech these days after kicking out Martin Kulldorff for his unpopular (although accurate) views on Covid. Also recently preserved individual rights by forcing all students to get vaccinated with shots that were neither safe nor effective. And also liability free for the manufacturers, despite minimal testing. I wonder what societal beneficence is next.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

but, but, they are being mean to Israel

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Salusa Secundus Snape's avatar

Well, if YOU believe in free speech, why aren't you defending Harvard, Columbia, et. al. despite your complaints?

https://salusasecundussnape.substack.com/p/afraid-or-a-fraud

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Mad Dog's avatar

Believing in free speech doesn’t mean footing the bill for someone else’s megaphone. If Harvard, Columbia, or any other institution wants to promote open dialogue and controversial viewpoints, that’s their prerogative — but they should do it on their own dime.

When universities rely on taxpayer funding — in the form of federal grants, subsidies, or loan guarantees — they need to recognize that public accountability comes with the package. You can’t take public money and then act shocked when the public has opinions about how you’re using it.

If these schools want total independence to say whatever they like without political or financial consequences, they’re welcome to operate without government support. Free speech doesn’t entitle you to someone else’s checkbook.

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nedweenie's avatar

Big Government comes with Big Ideology and strings attached. Especially purse strings that open or close. If anyone should know that, they should.

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Admiral Glorp Golp's avatar

You gotta be a bot right?

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Mad Dog's avatar

That does not compute. ...Beep Beep...

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Salusa Secundus Snape's avatar

Qatar is also the funder of the Netanyahu governmernt.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

or face the wrath of Merav Ceran running US foreign policy

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Han's avatar

You seem to be confused, or misinformed. It wasn’t Putin who suspended elections it was Zelensky.

Here a Vlad, there a Vlad, everywhere a Vlad Vlad

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Taras's avatar

Also Winston Churchill: no elections in the U.K. between 1935 and 1945. And they didn’t have 20% of their country occupied by their enemy.

Putin doesn’t fear going through the motions of an election. He simply arrests, exiles, or kills anyone he sees as a political rival.

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Han's avatar

Churchill wasn’t prime minister until 1940; England doesn’t have regular elections but can be initiated by Act of Parliament ; ten years was not historically unusual; Churchill demanded a vote of confidence during the war; in short, you are completely mistaken.

I don’t disagree that putin is what he is; merely that the other fellow got the wrong Vlad

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Taras's avatar

“Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections. There was no general election in the UK from 1935 to 1945.” Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson on X.

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Han's avatar

World War II started in 1939 not 1935. Britain was not invaded at any time 1939-1945. The last time England was invaded was 1066 A.D.

A ten-year-long Parliament was not unusual.

Possibly you do not have a grasp of history. Wikipedia is a roughly valid starting point for some simple knowledge of these subjects as long as you keep it strictly ~~ pre-1960

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michael888's avatar

The Ukrainian Constitution requires a Presidential Election every five years.

Maybe Zelensky and his American and Brit friends care no more for constitutional rights and laws in Ukraine than in their own countries.

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JAE's avatar

Hahaha, you’re quoting Boris, I recommend not doing that. He’s a Hooray Henry as we Brits say.

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John Bowman's avatar

Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister who declared war on Germany and then resigned, and Churchill became Prime Minister. He formed a coalition Government with the main Opposition Labour Party - rather than putting them in gaol - which ran domestic affairs whilst Churchill ran the war. No media outlets were shut down, the BBC wasn’t censored and became trusted as a reliable source of information. Parliament sat regularly wherein Churchill was often criticised for his handling of the war.

Elections in the UK are held at least every 5 years, the last pre-war election being in 1935 meaning the next one should have been held in 1940. 1940 was the year of the Battle of Britain an air war for air supremacy over southern England and the Channel necessary to facilitate Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain. Early 1940 saw the British Expeditionary Force in retreat in Northern France and ultimately about 250 000 rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk. The whole of the UK was preparing for invasion.

These factors plus the fact that although the Luftwaffe lost the battle for air supremacy, it continued with an intensive campaign of aerial bombing of British towns, cities and infrastructure which would have made holding a General Election impossible. One in seven homes was rendered uninhabitable, 67 000 citizens killed.

The war in Europe ended on 08 May 1945, a General Election was held in 05 July 1945 - the earliest convenient date allowing the usual 8 weeks for election campaigning. Churchill lost the election.

If you are going to make comparisons, read a history book first and make sure the comparison is sensible.

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Taras's avatar

John — To improve the analogy with Ukraine, you would have to imagine that the German invasion was not only threatened in 1940, but actually occurred, with Germany occupying large beachheads in the north, the east, and the south, slowly expanding at enormous cost in lives. And German bombers constantly hitting civilian targets in all parts of the country.

A little blind spot: while difficult conditions in 1940 explain why general elections were suspended in 1940, they don’t explain why they were suspended in 1941. Or 1942. Or 1943. Or 1944, when Germany was clearly losing the war.

Also in 1940, Sir Oswald Mosley, head of the British Union of Fascists (a legitimate political party at the time), and his wife (!!!), and all active fascists were arrested, and imprisoned for years without trial. The BUF was formally banned a few months later.

Censorship was so severe that George Orwell couldn’t get even his animal fable, Animal Farm, published until the war was over. His 1948 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was partly inspired by his experiences as a censor during the war.

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John Bowman's avatar

Invasion had actually occurred… France, Belgium, Netherlands, fallen, occupied, Scandinavia next … you cannot isolate the UK from the rest of Europe to make a convenient argument - our backs were literally to the sea. Aerial bombardment was nightly with a huge amount of disruption, destruction of civil infrastructure, records, many injured and killed. By 1944 hundreds of thousands of British men were scattered overseas - thousands in German and Japanese prisoner of war camps by the way - in war zones. Under these circumstance how on Earth do you imagine an electoral campaign could be carried out with voting representative of the whole population? Perhaps the Germans and Japanese would have helped with postal votes from British troops.

As for Ukraine. The point isn’t about not holding elections, of course not possible, the point is the suppression of political opposition, shutting down the media, Zelensky ruling like a dictator. Reminder: the UK was governed during the war years by a coalition, and in fact the domestic affairs were run by Churchill’s political opposition.

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John Bowman's avatar

Animal Farm was written between 1943 and 1944 and first published in England in August 1945. It was initially rejected by British and American publishers not a victim of Government censorship. Censorship related to military details, not political opponents. The BBC nightly broadcast to Europe giving accurate accounts of outcomes of military battles, air-raids, RAF losses and casualties - undoubtedly some sensitive details were withheld. That is why it was widely trusted throughout Europe. Hardly severe censorship. Mosley was a Fascist aligned with Hitler and his Party. He was interned in 1940 and released in 1943.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Seriously.............

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trembo slice's avatar

My thoughts on a Putin are like Clarence Worley’s view of Elvis from True Romance:

He’s not so much a good guy as he is a bad motherfucker. There are ZERO American statesmen that could’ve done what Putin has done with Russia since taking power…

Our politicians would be too busy fucking us in the ass. Most of Putin’s political enemies are Westetn pawns so I don’t feel sorry for them when their deal with The Devil (US hegemony) vista them their lives.

Putin is not a good man, but he is a respectable world leader. I’d trust my nieces and nephews were treated well if he was responsible for them. I’d trust Biden would’ve tried to rape them.

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Taras's avatar

Affection for Putin (or Xi) is directly related to how much you look forward to Orwell’s “picture of the future, [as] a boot stamping on a human face— forever.”

Currently the Russian Empire’s minorities are being decimated, as Putin sends their men into the Ukrainian meat grinder, instead of ethnic Russians.

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Just an observer's avatar

Putin is in his fifth term. He didn’t suspend the elections. Just like previous Soviet leaders didn’t. They simply always “won” the elections for decades in a row - until a party rebellion replaced them or until their death. Not a good example of Democratic election. Ukraine, on the other hand, is at war and is fighting for its survival. Suspending elections under the circumstances is understandable. And Zelenskyy is more popular than his opponents anyway, based on the polls. Especially after the infamous scene at the WH.

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Han's avatar

Why do you leap to the conclusion that I’m defending putin?

I feel terrible for ukraine; just another example of a color revolution.

Last I saw vladZ was polling around 04% in ukraine

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Taras's avatar

Han — You should know better by now than to take any numbers Trump comes up with literally. He uses numbers for effect, not information. Actually Zelensky is more popular in Ukraine than Trump is here — even before the tariff fiasco.

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Han's avatar

Does Trump do polls? How does he find the time?

I doubt your opinion about comparative popularity, and about polls, and about tariffs. And, well, everything tbh

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Just an observer's avatar

My apologies if that was the wrong conclusion. As far as polls in Ukraine are concerned, they are all unreliable and sample a tiny fraction of the population. Also, they vary wildly depending on the political standing of the publication: predictably left exaggerate his popularity and right diminish. This may be middle of the road, but I am not sure.

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/how-popular-is-zelensky-in-ukraine-what-the-polls-show/.

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Han's avatar

Lol so roughly identical to American polls.

Ya who knows if he’s popular or not, I mean look at Mitt Romney or Hillary Clinton or G.W. or Jamie Raskin

Somebody actually voted for that

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Taras's avatar

AEI is a right-wing source, but it shows Zelensky’s favorable-unfavorable at 52-31 in February; which is better than Trump ever got. Zelensky’s polls have improved since then, while Trump is way down, as we all know.

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Stxbuck's avatar

The difference is that Zelensky’s ability to do so was written into the Ukrainian constitution/ruling document BEFORE his election to power. Not so with Putin.

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Why are you nit-picking a sarcastic hypothetical?

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Han's avatar

Why are you nitpicking a conversation you weren’t in?

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

These are forums, Han, they aren't private conversations. Everyone's comments are up for responses. That's how these things work.

I won't write another word aimed at you.

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Han's avatar

And for that I am truly, truly grateful.

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Alan Collinge's avatar

I think you mean "High" and "Educated"...

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VA Dawg's avatar

High and indoctrinated.

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Alan Collinge's avatar

Yes! Better!

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flipshod's avatar

There's nothing inherently wrong with being high and educated. I've spent much of my adult life in such a state. ;)

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JAE's avatar

Then how would you even know if there was “nothing inherently wrong”?

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Alan Collinge's avatar

:-)

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Bill Cribben's avatar

Educated but uninformed

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John Bowman's avatar

The same highly educated people who believed “safe and effective”, pieces of paper across the face and 6 feet of separation could defeat an aerosolised, respiratory virus, and who believes Mankind can control the Earth’s climate system by legislation, taxes, deprivation and penance.

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Bill Cribben's avatar

Trump will depart but TDS lasts a lifetime.

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Janet's avatar

It’s true. Ultimately a fatal condition. Or they just die bitter and angry, clueless to the end.

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RAO's avatar

It's crazy what these folks think. Sad, really.

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Kelly Green's avatar

Hahahaha "these folks think"

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Mark Donaghey's avatar

When did Putin "suspend elections"? You're like senile Joe Biden, confusing Zelenskyy and Putin lol!

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

See my previous comment regarding being too literal-minded about a sarcastic dig at press lies against Trump.

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GJ's avatar

Well, more than a few Trumpistas have said that Trump will be president again in 2028. Bannon appeared on Bill Maher and promised it. And Trump himself has floated the idea to rabid applause. I'm not prepared to blame people for believing what Trump himself says or call them "alarmists" for believing what he says. He might be an inveterate liar, but he's also a worthless, narcissistic scumbag. It would be utterly unsurprising if he made a play for a third term.

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Like his former boss, Bannon is a master troll. Trump is maybe too good at trolling, since his comments about annexing Canada appear to have galvanized Canuck boomer idiots into electing another Turd-eau.

P.S.

He may be narcissistic, but he is far from "worthless." Good luck keeping Vance out of office in 4 years.

What alternative can you get behind, wiseass?

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GJ's avatar

In formal logic, anything follows from a contradiction. A variant of this principle is that if the net of rationality is lowered, anything goes. Trumpistas are fond of celebrating Trump's vomitous drivel as possible trolling. Who the fuck knows what he means, right? He's an irrational conman and serial liar with a rotten mind. When he says that he wants to do x, he might mean that he wants to do -x.

This comes at a cost: Trump might mean x when he says x. Imagine that. All bets off when you're dealing with someone irrational.

I meant "worthless" in the sense that he's an outline of a human being, a black hole of narcissism and bile. If you think he's useful, you really must go fuck yourself.

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Stxbuck's avatar

Vance is going to have a tough road in 28’. He doesn’t have Trump’s celebrity or bizarro comedic skills to outkick the media.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Might not matter by `28.

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Melissa Fountain's avatar

Proud to be your 100th "like." Well-said! You must have read Charlotte's Web as a child. "People will believe anything that they see in print...".

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Why? The separate quotes I mean

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

It's easier than writing "Highly" Educated, or Highly "Educated." In my opinion "Highly Educated" isn't correct. It narrows the field too much in my mind.

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

More like Educated and must be high.

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Timothy G McKenna's avatar

LetitSnow!

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Paul Harper's avatar

Agreed. We're right back to COVID March 2020, when folks were panicked into reaction emotionally about a problem we couldn't fully understand beyond the basics, similar to those you lay out.

Back in 2017, my first-year undergrads were all writing journals about the "end of the world" with the Trump election. After outing myself as a Trump supporter, I asked one of the brighter more reflective students what he thought of Trump 1.0 that spring.

His reply: "I think it's too early to tell." That's as true with Trump 2.0 today as it was then.

Let's think, please. Where were we on July 13th last year? - a split second from CNN broadcasting the president's head exploding live on screens around the globe.

The establishment still controls many of the levers of power and their message today is: "we're not going anywhere." So, yes, we've ample cause for concern.

Whether they regain their full power is an open question - which is about ten zillion times better than where we were right up to November 5th, 2024.

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

I contend that Trump is still in so far over his head he needs the Burj Khalifa to even be able to use a straw to breath. We all look at the deep state as just an American thing. It's global. The EU is already fully compliant to it, and there is simply no possibility of Trump removing it in his time here, and the next fool in line has no prayer.

This whole thing is about nothing more than making people believe they are horrible lunatics for ever voting against the Democrats and global power again. This playbook already ran through the EU, and there are a couple of hold-outs, but it won't take long for them to be squashed too.

Every time the people vote in Europe to go against the globalists? They cry Russian interference or arrest the politician on some petty charge and bar them from being in the election, or nullify the election results entirely. EXACTLY what the morons on the left say the Right is doing here.

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Paul Harper's avatar

Every single sincere Trump hater is a human being fully deserving of love and respect. Not so, the cynics on both sides who are trying to amp up the hate and fear for profit, "pleasure", or both.

Are people confused? I sure am and I don't expect that to change much. We're in this together and I think most folks understand that - and always will as long as we show others the same respect we'd like to receive ourselves.

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

Respect is becoming increasingly difficult to find or earn. Me? I just go through life figuring everyone I encounter is a moron.. just like me. It makes life easier. I assume every person behind the wheel of a car is stupid and trying to kill me. Makes me a better driver.

I guess I am one of your cynics, but I enjoy reading your comments when I see them for sure. The left of which Democrats are loosely a part of (and I was a part of for almost 30 years) spent my whole life convincing me that Hill-Billy Bob was one bender away from packing his pick up truck full of his gun toting friends and lighting up the mall... the reality? The left is the party of violence and hate.

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Paul Harper's avatar

Cheers! I don't see you as a cynic, btw.

The only moron I'm really concerned with is the one I see staring back at me in the mirror each time I care to look.

We're living in the best of times, yet act like its the end of the world 24/7.

What does that say about us? So, perhaps you're right.

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trembo slice's avatar

My Dad reminds me all the time that I suffer from y’all’s affliction… I too am a moron.

Raised conservative. Be Libertarian. Honestly consider myself Liberal. The Left today would label me as a transphobic bigot.

What’s clear, The Left is the faction currently out of control, imo. They’re literally imploding - playing to the same 8% of very loud people in their party. This will not serve anyone well.

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

It's nice when people get it.

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I remember the 70s's avatar

Were you surprised by Will Johnson not going in the first round?

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

No idea what you are talking about... Maybe that's a good thing?

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Shelley's avatar

The scary part is the Don Jr. re: crypto piece.

Part 1

Head of the Rothschild banking empire Nathan Meyer Rothschild put it simply when he stated, "Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws."

Expunged presidents have either flirted with or did devise means to change the monetary status quo. Cases in point: Andrew Jackson escaped assignation by luck - both pistols used by the assassin, Richard Lawrence, failed to fire.

President Zachary Taylor - murdered/assignation Taylor died on July 9, 1850 after eating a bowl of cherries and milk rumored to have been poisoned. The symptoms he displayed are consistent with acute arsenic poisoning.

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Shelley's avatar

Part 2

President James Buchanan - poisoned with arsenic and survived, although 38 other people at the dinner died.

Lincoln; Greenbacks were pulled from circulation, back to an economy based on bank notes borrowed at interest from the private bankers.

Garfield - murdered/assignation "Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce, and when you realize that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate." -- President James A. Garfield, two weeks before he was assassinated.

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Shelley's avatar

Part 3

McKinley favored gold-backed currencies and a balanced government budget which would free the public from accumulating debt.

McKinley was shot by an out-of-work anarchist on September 14, 1901, in Buffalo, NY, succumbing to his wounds a few days later.

Kennedy wrote and signed Executive Order 11110 which ordered the US Treasury to issue a new public currency, the United States Note. Five months later John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas Texas, and the United States Notes pulled from circulation and destroyed (except for samples held by collectors).

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Shelley's avatar

And this: Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail

By MATT TAIBBI 2013

How HSBC hooked up with drug traffickers and terrorists. And got away with it

https://conspiracyanalyst.org/2013/02/14/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail/

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Bill Cribben's avatar

I can’t find any reputable source claiming the National Hotels deaths were caused by arsenic poisoning. The most common explanation cholera which was ever present in cities with poor sewerage. Buchanan was not present at any dinner with 38 victims of arsenic poisoning. His group had five people and the others did die, but not from arsenic poisoning.

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Shelley's avatar

160 years after the fact, hard to find any sources let alone a reputable one.

What is known: During the panic of 1857 he attempted to set limits on banks issuing more loans than they had actual funds, and to require all issued bank notes to be backed by Federal Government assets.

Cholera would have made a great alibi. Perhaps there were more about 40 people in the Hotel's dining room, just not at his table.

Thank you for at least looking for the truth!

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

Khadafi tried to unify Africa on a gold standard.... Regardless of what other things he did, none of those atrocities got him killed. In fact, I'd contend most of our dear leaders applauded him for those. But screw with the monetary systems of the world? DEAD!!!

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TeamOfRivals's avatar

This very same, knowledgeable lady was interviewed by Tucker Carlson a few days ago and says exactly what Rothschild said. She blew my mind.

https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-catherine-fitts

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Pat Robinson's avatar

Very shortly the AfD will be the biggest party in germany, shit is going to hit the fan if the Luft Reich tries to ban it

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TeamOfRivals's avatar

Stating the obvious seems appropriate here. Your agnosticism is showing. Remember when Joshua and Caleb were the only two among all of the Israelite leaders who believed their God could defeat the giants in the land and lead them into the land of milk and honey which He had promised them? And remember when God said that only these two men would survive the wilderness and reach the Promised Land? I mean, everyone (almost) must know that story from the Bible. God let the naysayers and the doubters-of-Him die in that wilderness for 40 years. I just couldn't resist relating this to the pile of depressing poop you just shoveled. Sheesh! Have some faith, man, in your fellow citizens at least OR as a famous wife is quoted as saying to her husband, "Curse God and die!"

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Hamilton M's avatar

2% of Trump voters say they would have voted Dem. 3% said said they would have simply not voted. He is doing exactly what he was elected to do, he simply needs to do more on the economic recovery and investigating the corrupt players who think they are above the law.

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Stxbuck's avatar

This is true-Hegseth-whom I think is a well intentioned moron-is already having his ankles grabbed by the octopus in the Pentagon.

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

Hegseth was a really dumb pick.

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TeamOfRivals's avatar

Or a really smart pick destined to draw fire while Trump does his magic elsewhere. I can't help but think Trump knows everything in this thread. I hope though that for the sake of his life and the plan that he speaks not a word about it until the deed is done. Let them accuse him and rail against his "unconstitutional plan" to run for a third term. That waste of energy will be fun to watch. He's going where angels fear to tread and he needs our prayers.

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John Oh's avatar

There's also a lack of alternative policies, just propaganda about constitutional crisis. Most of the complaints seem frivolous when emotion about "Trump" is removed from the equation. Why does a retired CIA official need a security clearance? Why is anyone entitled to a security clearance? On July 13 last year the USA was on a collision course with bankruptcy and the administration's policies focused on more illegal immigration, printing as much money as needed to inflate the middle class into poverty, dei and trans. We're still in danger but at least there is a course change, I hope in the right direction.

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BookWench's avatar

I recall that they also kept the border wide open during the steep rise in housing costs, which made things particularly difficult for those of us seeking affordable housing.

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LEC's avatar

Precisely. The are devoid of practical policy. Just lies, screaming, threats of/or actual violence.

I learned that you can't change corruption from the "inside" as a "registered" Democrat, as I was encouraged to do for decades.

I couldn't spend another day in this post-2016 unhinged Democratic Party.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Who is the establishment and where is their base of operations?

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BookWench's avatar

WEF lackeys, who are everywhere.

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Cosmo T Kat's avatar

Yes, the trained seals are clapping for attention.

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Dazed and Confused's avatar

Demogogues like pritzker know exactly what they are doing. They want their more unstable followers to do something in the hopes it sparks a backlash which they will blame on trump. When the progressive foot soldiers start assaulting parents at school board meetings that's when the violence will begin.

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MG's avatar

When the Supreme Court rules that public schools must allow parents to opt of the their 3-year old preschooler's "find the drag queen" storybook hour, lefties will go crazy.

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BD's avatar

Yes, then we'll have the 'New Summer of Love 2025'

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Hamilton M's avatar

Except for the new DOJ/FBI.

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WI Patriot's avatar

Is it a 'Hands Off' protest or 'Hands Up'? The money train is drying up and the people on the dole may have to find 'legitimate' work. Working class people have zero sympathy.

The protest are the most astroturfed I've ever seen. The BLM crowd had four years under Biden's inflationary nightmare and will sit this one out.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

"Hands Out"

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Bill Clinton is a Pedophile's avatar

Oh no, government employees are being laid off en mass!!

And supposed to give a shit after being "kicked to curb" on a few occasions in my working life? Fuck them.. No one gets a free ride in this life.. This is America, we're on our own, now give me my money muthafuka..

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DancingInAshes's avatar

All we have to do is look at the ideological twins of the federal Democrats: the western European governments putting people in prison for criticizing crime from third world “refugees” and immigrants that have never, and will never, assimilate.

That level of authority and population suppression is what the Biden admin wanted.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

Exactly. Canada's recent election is a perfect example of how they're just EU West.

That's what Harris wanted for us, too.

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Melissa Fountain's avatar

Aw, my friend, I think that you were not surprised, however. "Orange Man Bad" will remain their mantra and of course you can just "see" his eyes rolling. Not-only has this remained the same, but so is mankind in general. I am glad to know you and your sanity is refreshing.

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Bunker Bob's avatar

This is a general problem with the left and right. The right has a limiting principle built in (limited government, limited spending, etc.), while the left is always expanding, and never limiting. To paraphrase a medical adage, there are two types of people in the world: those who understand the financial/budgetary situation we find ourselves in, and those who have not seen the data.

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Mr. Bob's avatar

I read an interesting article in NYT recently about preppers. The content was typical, but the style wasn't. They're no longer sneering at preppers as racist MAGAtards. The whole thing is about how prepping and learning to shoot isn't fringe anymore. Almost like they're giving their readership (which, let's be real, is mostly liberal) permissions to prepare for violence and disaster.

I did some more checking, and his previous article was about a rise in gun stores catering to women and the gay community.

Real news? Coincidence? Propaganda update to prepare liberals to embrace violence? You decide.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/us/prepared-citizens-guns.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/us/gun-stores-women-lgbtq.html

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Matt Taibbi's avatar

That is really weird. Good catch.

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David Cashion's avatar

FFL FBI checks are down.

They only go up when the gun grabbers are in power.

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Gilgamech's avatar

There are liberal “armed prepper” stacks here on Substack. Not something I’d ever seen before this year.

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Belling the Cat's avatar

These days, you don't have to run NICS in about half the states if the buyer has a CCW or similar, so, I wouldn't lean too heavily on that stat as a proxy (those are going to be the states with the most guns and the most repeat buyers, I'd bet).

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David Cashion's avatar

Best gauge of 1st time buyers are traning programs.

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Belling the Cat's avatar

Best gauge of responsible first-time buyers ;) for sure.

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Mr. Bob's avatar

Okay, but what's the relative proportion of first time gun buyers in each case? That's the number that matters for this, and I'd wager a guess that relatively more guns sold under Dem administrations are repeat customers.

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Belling the Cat's avatar

Lots of articles about first-time gun buyers during the mostly peaceful riots, firebombings, lockdown looting festivals: exceptionally high in women, minorities, and gays. The trend continued through the rest of the Autopen years, I believe, which makes sense given crime rates. Shooting ranges and gun stores around here ran special days for women to learn and practice, along with specials on CCW classes.

June 2024 industry article: https://www.nssf.org/articles/since-2020-election-new-gun-owners-equal-population-of-florida/

Also cites: Normal is about a quarter of buyers are first-time; in 2020 8.4m 1st-time gun purchasers, approx 40% of buyers; 2021, about 5.4m, around 30 percent of buyers.

A 2023 Reason article cites new owner demographics 2019-21 approx 50% female, 20% black, 20% Hispanic. https://reason.com/2023/07/05/the-ranks-of-gun-owners-grow-and-so-does-their-resistance-to-scrutiny/

In short these are longer trends linked more to crime and demoralized & depleted police forces in blue areas than progs arming up against MAGA. Not to say that their calls to mobilize won't activate more crazy people, unfortunately.

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richardw's avatar

Great point! Women who used to be able to get some order of protection from abusers saw this go away with defunding police and soros judges. They had to get some other means for protection.

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Bob Pfister's avatar

I can vouch for that, my latest FFL went thru in minutes just yesterday, as compared to over an hour last year…

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Bunker Bob's avatar

The rate of time for a NIC check depends a lot on how many other people are applying at the same time. My experience has been the opposite of yours. About 5 years ago, I was sailing through. Recently it's taken longer (20-30 minutes). I work in an area where my background is checked regularly, so I'm never concerned about anything, but it has been a noticeable delay in results.

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Nobody's avatar

I've been seeing such articles since COVID lockdowns and the defund the police movement started getting pushed hard by the MSM. Not from necessarily from the NYT, but they're been around:

Examples:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/business/gun-control-debate-women-minorities/index.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/lgbt-gun-owners-pink-pistols-b2114776.html

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Tardigrade's avatar

Is it weird? Is it unusual for a writer to spend time investigating in a certain area and producing multiple articles on various aspects?

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SyberPhule's avatar

So, just coincidence, eh? Wink wink nudge nudge.

Not that anyone has ever used propaganda before, amiright?, to achieve an objective.

Like a prez being a foreign puppet? But another senile prez is sharp as a tack?

New here? To the planet I mean.

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Tardigrade's avatar

Please take my comment at face value. I was not making any political statement. I was simply asking a question of a writer about what another writer was writing about.

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

After some really bad hurricanes I decided to get a ham radio license as ham radio works when cell towers go down.. I joined a radio club. I learned to solder and connect wires and all about emergency communications. There are hundreds of clubs like this. They aren't political. Getting weapons isn't part of it at all and if this NY Times writer has any depth he will learn about AUXCOM.

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Rick Olivier's avatar

Also teenagers putting CB radios in their trucks, breaker breaker 1-9, discreet antenna. New Networking

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

Except CB range isn't far and no license and can't use the specific bands assigned to ham radio. But yes, fun for local use.

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Andy's avatar

Hello from KB1QDQ! Have you looked into Software Defined Radio? Computer software takes the place of a hardware tuner. It seems like a great concept, but there’s not a lot of recent info I can find on the interweb. There ought to be a ham radio Substack.

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

KN4IJM here. Well, I've been to programs about SDR. Am only Technician. Still learning. I'm my club's PIO because I'm better at that. There are a few HR Substacks but could be more that explain things for new hams. Why not write one?

Have you looked at DLARC?

https://archive.org/details/dlarc

I know I've wandered off-topic but this post by MT looking at NYT on soft civil war makes me realize that those advocating uprisings depend on social media and as we have seen in Spain that goes away when cell towers fail. Ham radio never fails if we have emergency power. 73 KB1QDQ

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Andy's avatar

DLARC looks like a great resource—thanks. If I ever get around to acquiring a PC and preferably running it on Linux, maybe I’ll write about my efforts here. Ham radio is definitely a high-priority prepper consideration!

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Belling the Cat's avatar

I really want to pick up that skill but the learning curve seems steep!

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

Locator Map for Field Day 2025: https://www.arrl.org/field-day-locator

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

I thought so before I went to a club meeting. They want you to learn. There are so many study guides. It's free usually. Most counties have a club.

But the radio people also do events to get you started. Some still do Morse Code, but no longer required. But what you might do is stop by your closest ARRL Day. Field Day is a 24 hour event all the clubs do every year, last weekend in June to encourage people getting a license. https://www.arrl.org/field-day (June 28-29 this year).

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Belling the Cat's avatar

Thanks a lot! That sounds like a great way to dip a toe in and get encouraged.

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Rick Olivier's avatar

I had an eccentric neighbor, former tube amp/tv repairman, who had a massive collection of ham equipment. Unfortunately, I never dreamed I would one day become curious about it. He died and the gear all went away. I did a photo essay on his interior decor called "Oscar's House". Maybe I'll dig that up. thanks for the links

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

The accumulation of equipment seems to a characteristic of the hobby. When a ham radio operator dies he is called a SK (silent key--harkening back to when it was all Morse Code). As club members become SKs their spouse often calls in members to sort. Then we have a swap meet and recycle it or sell it and put up antennae on water towers with the profits.

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

There is a guy on X--Ross Radio--who posts images of ham shacks and radios. He has over 9K followers.

--https://x.com/cqcqcqdx

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Art's avatar

Once they removed the mandatory Morse code portion of the licensing test, it got much easier.

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

There are still a number of people use CW but not many. Here's a fun site: https://morsecode.world/international/trainer/generator.html

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Katie Andraski's avatar

This sounds like a good idea.

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BookWench's avatar

Interesting.

Thanks for sharing.

I remember when CB radio was popular, but you can do a lot more with ham radio.

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

This is really interesting. I'm looking for a new hobby. What sort of alternative power sources are there if the electricity is out?

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

The people in the clubs have amazing backgrounds. One of our older members did work for NASA on the moon launch, another was a studio engineer for the Allman brothers. Here is a good place to look the hobby over: https://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Thanks!

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

portable solar panels!

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Tardigrade's avatar

We have frequent power outages here, and I recently got a "solar generator" which is essentially a battery that can be charged from house current or solar panels. I got it to keep my refrigerator and freezer going in the more lengthy outages. I did not want a noisy mechanical generator that requires fuel.

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Nobody's avatar

Did you get one of those jackery things? How long will it power the fridge for?

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Tardigrade's avatar

I got a different brand (Anker, because of my personal experience with their stellar customer support on other products.) You don't need to power a fridge continuously with it, just plug it in periodically and let the fridge cycle. This way, I can rotate it among my refrigerator and two freezers.

We had several eight-hour outages last summer, and based on that I figured I could keep the freezers going for several days, which could be longer if it was sunny enough for the solar panel to be used.

The batteries come in several different sizes/capacities, so it took some research to find one that would be adequate.

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BookWench's avatar

Very cool!

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Lightwing's avatar

Propane, gas, or diesel generators I would imagine.

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Some Guy's avatar

There is a major disconnect between the language being used here and the numerous legal actions being taken against 2nd ammendment rights at the state level in democratic majority states, at the federal level via the ATF playing semantics and abusing their rule making authority to criminalize common use firearm configurations, and even at departments like the CDC where Javier Bacerra, a state AG appointed by Biden to run DHHS, maintained a gun violence emergency that his friends in California's congress abused to pass gun control (and excessive taxes) with emergency authority. If there is any blue party calls to violence, its definitely not the kind that gets done with guns, because if their party had its way they would all be taken away. If you were to do even a brief review of gun laws passed under Gavin Newsom you'd be very confused with the logistics of how to legally carry a gun on your person, in your car, or in the woods, as well as how to store a gun in your own home, purchase a gun legally, and modify one. And that's just the laws they managed to pass. The bills that died are comical in their retardedness.

In short, the only type of anti-tyrannical battle that the democrats would advocate for is the kind we saw in the 2020 George Floyd riots. Burn down private property, not government property. When the people shoot at you for attacking them and burning down their neighborhood, we will put them in the pillory like Kyle Rittenhouse and make the whole thing about scary black guns instead of civil unrest and anarchy. According to CNN, "He crossed state lines!" to a "mostly peaceful protest." When the police try to stop you or start hitting back, we will defund them, and then somehow blame them when the communities they abandon turn to shit. The democrat playbook for civil war is to keep poking people with sticks until they get punched in the face, then declare facepunching an act of domestic terrorism.

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

The Democrat playbook for civil war is simple. Keep dumbing down the people through the Department of Education so that they don't have any clue how to actually think or do any meaningful skills like count to 10 or read a book. Then you have your media write sensational headlines that give people enough idea to not bother reading anything for themselves because they are too busy to do so, but they know that the person they are supposed to hate is there.

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Mad Max's avatar

Fortunately (hopefully), it appears that the Department of Education won't survive the Trump administration.

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richardw's avatar

Look up the “sold a story” podcast to find out how they accomplished the can’t read a book part. You will have to get over the fact it comes from an npr-ish source. It’s not political at all.

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Turd_Ferguson's avatar

NPR has some good stuff honestly. Just like occasionally Fox has some good stuff.. You just have to root through a LOT of trash to find them.

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Kathy Hix's avatar

Hands down the best podcast I’ve ever listened to

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PW1104's avatar

Excellent comment. So true!!!

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Mad Max's avatar

If they try the George Floyd riot thing with Trump this time, the results will likely be they'll be facing the US military and will be Federally prosecuted for conspiracy to commit terrorism. Trump won't be running in 2028 and has nothing to lose.

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Some Guy's avatar

That's the thing, their strategy would be to do whatever it takes to draw out a response that looks, or can easily be perceived as, totalitarian, while they can continue acting like a victim of it. Then they can continue to justify escalation and a little extremism on their side, while maintaining the ability to wash their hands of useful idiots who push the boundaries. Along with projection, this seems to be their preferred method of doing things in general. Slowly but steadily change things against the will of the people while demonizing them a little more for each step that they refuse to fall in line, until eventually some of the people break. Those people then become the example that represents all the other dangerous naysayers and justifies new laws.

We went from "a man can identify as a woman" to "a kid can transition" to "schools and medical professionals must aid in a kids gender transition without telling the parents" in like ten years. Initially the naysayers were called bigots but by the last step, parents protesting at school board meetings became "domestic threats." It is an incredible feat to get between children and parents like that without getting their heads bashed with clubs. It seems to me that they are experts at putting on the appearance of being noble while playing dirty games and bringing down everyone who sees through it and tries to stop them along the way. I won't be surprised if the next career criminal who gets shot by a cop gets highlighted on the news and used to justify more riots.

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Vet nor's avatar

The proverbial nose of the camel mode of "nudging" us all into the leftist utopian authoritarian playpen.

The question is, can normies resist and push back in time to save democract/republic form of self government?

The globalists have captured the EU, banning political parties and politicians they dont like, the left tried to keep Trump off the ballot here so they will certainly be trying that again in the future against any candidate that threatens them.

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Mad Max's avatar

I don't think the American public is buying the BLM/Antifa thing anymore.

If they riot and loot and the US military shoots or imprisons them, Joe Average is going to cheer.

They'll be considered the boy that cried wolf and their fate will get about as much public attention as the J6ers (very little).

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

That would certainly be a clever strategy, but the left fringe that might be interested in some sort of insurrection is too chaotic and has no central organization. The DP is too cowardly and too reliant upon our system's liberties to overtly encourage organized violence, though, as you point out, they are certainly making noises that will encourage the rabble, and we may see one or two more crazed trannies go off the deep end and spray some innocent civilians with badly aimed gunfire.

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Jack Osgood's avatar

Especially since the Roberts Supreme Court has given him immunity for essentially anything he does while occupying the Presidency.

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Rick S's avatar

Yea, And Rittenhouse was acquitted in an hour by a local jury after he was smeared for months pre-trial.

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Danno's avatar

My hope is that once the USAID money that funds Democrats' leftist NGOs and their paramilitary thugs in Antifa is cut off, their "protests" will be rendered toothless.

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Nobody's avatar

I think it will have a big effect. A billion is a pretty heft sum even for someone like Soros to pony up, but it was a drop in the bucket with USAID's 40billion annual budget. The rich have always been better at spending other people's money than their own.

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Mick's avatar

I would say that 95% of the left wouldn't touch a gun for fear of upsetting Moms Demand Action (not sure if that's an anti-gun group or an OnlyFans creator.)

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Indecisive decider's avatar

The problem isn't the majority of lefties arming themselves. The problem is that a large percentage of them suffer from moderate to significant mental illness. Depression, anxiety, sleeplessness and of course the thousands that have what the DSM states as body and gender dysphoria. Eating disorders is a big problem, as we see with the popularity of semiglutides.

These people are not well. Let's say that it's just 5% of them falling into some severe category. That's millions of people. Luigi, for example. Or the school shooters. Or the rioters from the Summer of Love or on campuses.

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Deb Hill's avatar

Ignore them at your own peril. These people are not right in the head. I wouldn't put anything past them.

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Gary Creamer's avatar

Luigi is a good example. How did he get the intel to ambush his victim like he did? The Democrats will do anything or say anything to get their way; to keep their gravy train moving their way. Murder is nothing to a Democrat.

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Ellen's avatar

Only murder of the "right" people, mind you.

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Mrs. Erika Reily's avatar

Many people are unwell on many levels, not just lefties. Leftover covid stuff (damage to social skills and networks, plus either vax injuries or long covid, depending on your tribe), smartphone addiction, widespread marijuana and other intoxicant use, terrible eating habits, constant overstimulation (headphones in every waking moment; TV screens on very surface; incessant noise and advertising polluting the environment; double or triple screening during so-called relaxation time): it's a wonder so many people function as well as they do, which isn't great.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Exactly. Loonies with guns…..most will shoot themselves in the foot… literally

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Ellen's avatar

I might even hope some of the self-inflicted wounds would be to more vital parts . ..

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

We can teach them appendix carry is the safest way to carry a handgun, and hope for the best

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Ellen's avatar

I like that! Thanks for the morning giggle.

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richardw's avatar

Maybe the dsm should publish a new disorder based on the physical symptoms. Call it purple hair syndrome.

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BookWench's avatar

Ha!

It could go either way.

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Feral Finster's avatar

Permission structure.

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Alison Bull's avatar

A soft way to push violence toward acceptance.

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rtj's avatar

"Permission structure."

Has to be one of the dumbest concepts the Dems have come up with.

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Feral Finster's avatar

It applies to all sorts of human activity.

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rtj's avatar

Doesn't make it any less dumb.

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Paul Harper's avatar

Worked for billions of years in evolution across species, but ok.

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carton's avatar

It is the yang to Kaczynski's "oversocialization."

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Granny62's avatar

Matt, thank you for this, I hope it gets traction. I am interpreting events and rhetoric similarly- Friday’s arrest of Hannah Dugan and subsequent rhetoric by sitting US Senators such as Amy Klobuchar is a great example.

Here’s the formula:

- Trump admin takes decisive action, ie arrest of a judge for clearly unlawful conduct.

- Opposition quickly and loudly frames action stressing incorrect &/or incomplete information. Complicit media regurgitates until false narrative is securely embedded in the public consciousness.

- When admin action is affirmed by the courts (Dugan stripped of her judicial robe while due process progresses,) pivot to next rage inducing topic.

- Rinse, repeat.

The result is growing unrest and rage among the polity, dropping poll numbers, freak outs of squishy Republicans.

I think people like Klobuchar hope it works to neutralize Trump - it’s all the Democrats ans establishment Republicans have. They are truly desperate and dangerous right now. Everything is at risk.

But I really think they are underestimating the temperature of the country and the depth of the insanity that exists in their party faithful.

When it inevitably explodes, they are going to find themselves in a situation beyond their control.

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LMS's avatar

These letters and interviews aren't for American consumption, they are for Davos, MI6 & the European politcos that have been paying these deep state officials to do their bidding for decades. They WANT us to think open warfare is about to break out. After watching the greatest show on Earth that started on 1/20/25 I am now amazed that every new administration didn't fire every effing DC employee at the start of each new administration. It is the only way I see to get things done, it the only way I see that the will of the electorate might ever be carried out.

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James Kannas's avatar

Cultural permission. Very interesting. I hope they purchase a Gadsden flag while they linger over the Glocks.

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rtj's avatar

The Libertarian nominee last year called himself "armed and gay". And didn't need any permission form Democrats.

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Jeanne's avatar

I’m surprised the link left out Trans in all caps. I couldn’t read the article I don’t have an account. Was it strictly preparing for emergencies and hunting for food or was it a dog whistle to the lgb community to start taking white Christian people that love our country? Why can’t we just all get along?

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Bunker Bob's avatar

I think real violence is coming when the weather gets warmer. When I was a kid, prepping was something done by a certain "tin foil hat" crowd. Now, I think it's crazy *not* to prepare (although I admit, there are still some people who I think are somewhat nuts). Also, for all this talk of gender norms, and "modern thinking," all it takes is an extended electrical outage, and I think you'll see many "traditional" norms come right back. The modern world is far more delicate than people think. Covid proved that to me...

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Drew's avatar

Saw the same piece. Had a similar unease about why that story was being written now, when the prepper movement has been around seemingly forever. But rolling it out as a kind of permission for their readers seems as good a theory as any.

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DancingInAshes's avatar

They finally did the math and logistics and realized a bunch of urban rainbow warriors does them no good if a few thousand people with rifles and drones can cut off food and energy supplies to any given city.

Therefore, the need to be prepared.

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Tim Flannery's avatar

Great insight.

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C.C. 95's avatar

They're hypocrites and don't care that they're hypocrites. Ant-2A, Anti-gun....but are buying guns?

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Rick S's avatar

Yea well maybe the uptick in Army enlistments is attributable to NYT readers...

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

The descendants of student deferments during VN draft.

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Rick S's avatar

Might now be too old to enlist. My kids certainly are but I did VN, in the Infantry, so was un-deferred. If younger surplus elites wish to skirmish in the brush to oppose Trump?? They can handle weapons training like Yoga sessions without a full contact Army enlistment. There are some serious logistical challenges to be sure but the highly motivated will overcome them...

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EndOfTheRoad's avatar

We've been in a soft civil war since the Russiagate hoax. The establishment decided they would rather tear down the US than let Trump win.

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Stop Being Lied To's avatar

Perhaps a slight correction. Hillary Clinton and her flying monkeys decided that.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned...AGAIN!!!

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

It’s delicious that she’ll never be POTUS and has to wake up everyday knowing this fact.

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Stop Being Lied To's avatar

I still get half a stalk thinking about her reaction when she realized she'd lost in 2016.

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

It’s one of life’s little pleasures.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Imagine ole Hillary waking up everyday and looking in her mirror. Whew!

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Tom High's avatar

We’ve been in a soft Civil War since Appomattox, and were in one from 1776 until Fort Sumter.

If all you have is the propensity to call a ‘side’ morons, you’re playing right into the hands of the corporate fascists.

Gaza shows us how irredeemable the U.S. really is. We deserve whatever hell comes our way. No politics but class politics, or we’re done.

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

"We’ve been in a soft Civil War since Appomattox, and were in one from 1776 until Fort Sumter."

Do you have any sort of reasoning and evidence to back up this weird thesis?

And what does "Gaza" have to do with anything? I swear, that fiasco in the desert is driving half the country insane.

Maybe someday the left and the DP will return to class politics, but they will never win back the working class after their betrayal. I've been wondering if the DP ever really had the interests of American workers in mind.

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Chris's avatar

No - they certainly didn't. Thomas Sowell's thoughts on how democrats have 1) ruined black families and 2) decimated the ability of the poor to get ahead prove this without a doubt.

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Tom High's avatar

The ruination of black families has been a two-party political project since the American Revolution. To suggest the Democrats held a monopoly on the ruination responsibility, well as the lack of ladder access, is disingenuous.

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Tom High's avatar

The reasoning and evidence are in the history. American racism was a creation of the capitalist class to further its grip on power. It has been a constant tool to further that end ever since.

Gaza, in its illustrative example of what actual victimhood (as opposed to the fake, propagandized Israeli version), racist, neocolonialist, geopolitical capitalist oppression look like, is a mirror into our rot. The fact that ‘the fiasco in the desert’ is only driving a sliver of this country insane, nowhere near half, is indicative of our moral decline.

The DP never had the interests of American workers in mind; it just had the slightest ability to respond to worker pressure in order to ‘save’ capitalism (New Deal) by throwing the occasional bone to the working class (SS, Medicare, etc). Unlike the GOP, which never had any interest in the working class, and still doesn’t.

The DP will never return to class politics as long as it relies on monied interest/corporate donors to win elections. Those two positions are irreconcilable. The could win back betrayed working class voters by renouncing corporate donor fealty and vigorously fighting for working class policy Rx, but I doubt the establishment rot holding the levers of party control will allow it.

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BD's avatar

It's a crying shame that you are still breathing.

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Tom High's avatar

It’s a crying shame that you are stupid enough not to be embarrassed by having Christopher Rufo and Bari Weiss on a reading list.

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Dr. K's avatar

I grew up in an America where everyone dialoged on virtually all issues. We had Dems and Repubs and they often lived next door. When someone went house-to-house collecting quarters for March of Dimes (or some other charity) everyone would stop with each visit, catch up on current events, and often chat civilly about how they each saw an issue. As I child I went on many of these visits and found them both educational and, mostly, socially satisfying.

No one wanted to kill everyone else. No one thought that the person who felt differently was horrible...perhaps misguided but they were entitled to be misguided. We were at an age where the only Psyops came from "That's the way it is" and "Goodnight Chet". We did not realize how good we had it.

Now most of the people, largely Democrats, are unable to engage in civil conversation. I have wonderful people who work for me who are just completely captured by TDS for reasons not only can they not explain, but that they are unwilling to even examine. They refuse to entertain a single thought that someone might legitimately feel differently or that they might be wrong.

Further complicating this is the strong emergence of by far the most corrupt branch of the government: the judiciary. These self-aggrandizing fools, most of whom have lifetime appointments, make a mockery of jurisprudence every day but are so self righteous they are unable to see it. And each day it gets worse. I have been noting for years that while the executive and legislative branches are clearly corrupt, much of their corruption is recognized and some is visible. None of this is true with the judiciary -- it is just corrupt, foundationally.

Unless someone figures out how to break this fixation and the judicial mess, and I see no signs of anyone able to do so, I expect the end will not be pretty. Forewarned is forearmed.

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Anti-Hip's avatar

Same here. Democrats and Republicans once simply held differences of opinion on how to run the country, no matter how strong those opinions might be. One was not instead wedded, as today, to one side in a jihad between the Good and Smart vs the Stupid and Evil. It was diplomacy, not war. Something very weird and sinister has happened in our education, both formal and by the media.

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rtj's avatar

The working classes woke up and realized that the Dems and Repubs were in fact a uniparty who supported war and cheap labor and were joined in screwing them. It's class war now.

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Mad Max's avatar

I sure hope so.

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FlaMac's avatar

Here’s a hint. Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, founders of the violent Weather Underground in the 1960s eventually ended up back on the for good in positions to influence both education and law. Revolutions can happen fast or slow. When fast didn’t work in the 60s slow became de rigueur.

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Taras's avatar

FlaMac — The Left has a name for this. It’s called the “March Through Institutions”.

I’m so old, I remember when the Left proposed “deschooling America”. Then they figured out they could take over the public schools instead, especially by controlling the teachers colleges.

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Bull Hubbard's avatar

Angela Davis is of this ilk, too. I think she still has a professorship somewhere.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

You mean the same Ayers and Dohrn who hosted the Obamas?

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BookWench's avatar

But Barack said that Ayers was "just a guy in the neighborhood."

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Ha! Like Tony Rezko was in real estate.

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FlaMac's avatar

Yep, that be the same.

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Caroline Kwas's avatar

NVR (non violent revolution) á la Gene Sharp...

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baker charlie's avatar

My mom was a member of the League of Women Voters in southern IL when I was a kid (60's-70's). She was pretty conservative, but I remember her fellow members being all over the place with voting. They came together, discussed things civilly and were more about getting out the vote and issues of actual voting than being wedded to any particular issue. Mom was a republican who left the party when they went all PTL in the late 70's as she did not care for the heavily 'gospel' language that things were being framed in terms to pander to the evangelicals (being a sedate Presbyterian and all). I am glad she is not here to witness this fuckery, yet I sometimes wonder what she'd make of it.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

As a 60’s-70’s Nebraska Dem relocated to southern Illinois, I am disgusted at the bastardization of Title IX in the service of the world of transgender, whatever that is. It is tough to witness.

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baker charlie's avatar

lME too. 60s 70s dem is so different. My dad was farming stock from central IL. They were dem because FDR and I remember even then in 1990 my uncles and cousins deriding 'slick willy'... and things like title IX are part of the reason my Mom did things like this: she wanted all girls to have the funds to participate and compete in school sports like she had out east where they had been funded.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

I graduated from a rural Nebraska high school in May, 1972. Title IX passed in June. Signed into law by Richard Nixon, BTW?

That not women men are allowed to invade women’s sports, and not to mention, private spaces pisses me off.

BTW, do we all have a right to participate in whatever sporting event we want? Why don’t the Dems pass Title IX And A Half, making it a law that former men get into women’s’ sports?! They are ridiculous.

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baker charlie's avatar

I am a bit younger but I remember when that passed. And girls still had to fight to compete in certain events. I was in track in the late 70's and we had no races longer than a 440. And I was a miler, LOL. I think there were similar issues with swimming, etc. Kids these days have no idea how hard women and girls fought to merely compete in a wide range of sports. That men are invading these sports and many women are supporting it sickens me.

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Deidre K's avatar

Hey, I grew up in Madison county. Have lived in NJ for thirty years. Never gotten over that culture shock. How do folks feel about Pritzker?

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

I am old school Dem. The Party left me. Illinois sucks on so many levels.

Who is moving to Illinois?

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

The left has been adhjucated as suffering from various mental illnesses, to the tune of almost double the right, with female lefties leading the looney bin crowd. It’s hard to negotiate with mentally ill peeps. Good luck to all of us. If the left arms, double good luck to that crowd. We have millions of weapons trained young veterans from the lefts love of war. So, buy a pink handgun, Karen and welcome to the dance.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

This is the thing that makes me laugh at this news of Dems urging people to "go to the streets".

They are at record low approval ratings, inner city minority groups they used to count on for votes have mostly left them, working class suburbanites have mostly left them, the massive amounts of USAID NGO funding is all but gone, and now we have Pritzger trying to lead a protest against *checks notes* OLIGARCHS?

Just hilarious. Who the fuck will go to battle for them?

Will they activate all of the illegal migrants they've imported for the body count in census and vote rigging? I can't see someone coming in here form Venezuela or Haiti actually wanting to go die in the streets for a Mayor Wu or Gov. Healey.

They definitely lost the backing of the Hood. Nobody I've ever seen in the big cities felt like the Dems had their backs, ever... so what does that leave them with?

An army of troons?

An army of pampered liberal white women who love to go around scolding people over pronouns and offending them at every turn and who are reliant on psych meds and shopping for trash online?

Like, this isn't the fucking 1850s. There isn't an army of racist poor white trash standing by to be sent to die to a Union army.

They have almost nothing left besides making judges risk their careers to score cheap political points and a host of retarded candidates and elected freaks.

WTF will they accomplish with ANOTHER Democrat led civil war?

The last one didn't work out well for them, but they clawed their way back using Jim Crow laws, Eugenics and the KKK.

I say: bring it on.

Let's have it out and we can enjoy watching them be completely destroyed once again and the cities will be rebuilt.

It'll never get that far though, because they are just noisy idiots who can't even change a lightbulb.

Fuck them.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

It is completely hilarious that our Gov. Pritzker is sounding the call to arms. Paul Revere’s horse is grateful it was PR and not JB he had to lug around at midnight.

It is comforting to know that the Dem army will be sporting a lot of piercings. That has got to hurt to have them forcibly removed in hand-to-hand. Makes for a short conflict.

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Mad Max's avatar

We'll just use a microwave weapon that makes metal get hot...

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Mad Max's avatar

Maybe we need to stop having lawyers become judges. Maybe the qualifications should be someone that actually worked for a living for 35-40 years and not as a politician or lawyer.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Few respectable, successful individuals would answer that call

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AMWL's avatar

Judges appear to be very full of themselves. Ditch the

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

We had girls track; no uniforms, no track shoes. I was a “high jumper,” except my landing pit was left over foam from the boys. You can only scissors kick so high.

Title IX meant so much to us girls. It really angers me that ignorant carbon units appropriate TIX for their newly created devises.

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AMWL's avatar

Ditch the robes and cut the “Your Honor” crap.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Especially that . Your honor, my ass.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

About forty years ago I was running for office here in rural Illinois. Our elderly neighbor agreed to go vote for me, even though she had not voted in —- forever.

I drove her to our precinct, and she was escorted into the polling booth by a Republican election judge. I could hear hear my neighbor saying, “I want to vote for (my name)! Then that election judge said to her, “Do you want to vote for the rest of the Democrats?”

That is how it used to be.

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JRitch's avatar

I don’t think we’re just politically divided anymore—we’ve lost the idea of a shared truth. Everything’s filtered through personal belief or identity, and we’ve replaced objective reality with individual interpretations. That kind of fragmentation makes real dialogue nearly impossible.

When everything is cast in black and white—us vs. them, oppressed vs. oppressor—we stop functioning as a unified society. It’s not sustainable in the long run.

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Lisa's avatar

I think the press is to blame. I somewhat enjoyed the recent Owens resignation from 60 Minutes, in which he predictably and dramatically cast himself as a victim. Almost like one of those overacted silent movies with a piano accompaniment.

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JRitch's avatar

Absolutely—Owens’ resignation was a perfect example of the performative self-victimhood that’s become so common in media. What once aimed to inform has devolved into dramatics and division. The press doesn’t just reflect our fractured discourse—they engineer it. They rely on sensational headlines, strategic omissions, and outright distortions to manipulate a low-info, low-IQ populace that’s easier to sway when emotionally charged. And the real kicker? These distortions don’t stay contained—they get amplified and echo endlessly across social platforms, turning misinformation into gospel for millions. It’s not journalism anymore—it’s narrative warfare.

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a peacock's avatar

I agree about the press. None of the coverage in legacy media is balanced -at all- so people can’t understand each other, and everyone assumes the other side is misinformed

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Chilblain Edward Olmos's avatar

The Postmodern Chickens have come home to roost.

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Sue Seboda's avatar

Agree. It is hard to have a conversation with some people because our “knowledge” bases are completely different. People have stopped asking what the truth is. Critical thought has diminished as emotions have been whipped into a frenzy.

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Vet nor's avatar

Not to worry, AOC's recent video throwing her hat into the ring for 2028 blamed the right for dividing us by race and gender, but she will bring us together!

I can hear the leftists rendition of kumbaya now!

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JRitch's avatar

Ha—right? Nothing says unity like doubling down on identity politics and blaming half the country for division. It’s the classic bait-and-switch: sow outrage, label dissent as hate, then market yourself as the great unifier. The “kumbaya” chorus only works when everyone’s reading from the same script—and AOC’s version leaves no room for nuance, let alone opposing views.

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TruthCanHurt23's avatar

Best comment of the day. Thank you.

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FlaMac's avatar

At 80 years of age I’m part of a diminishing minority of citizens who remember the 60s. Moreover I’m still blessed with particularly acute recall and have lucid memories of SNCC, SDS, Black Panthers, Weathermen and the Weather Underground. IMHO the American Right has bent over backwards all this time to mollify the perpetually adolescent Left but I fear we’re done. Having done everything they could to disrupt Trump’s first term and the interregnum before the current term if mass demonstrations and the Left’s usual violence arise to disrupt Trump’s last term, I fear one or both sides is going to reap the whirlwind. I hope not but as my Dad used to say when he’d had enough … “I’m at the end of my rope”. Few governments have lasted 250 years and if the Left don’t start acting like adults this one might not either.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

Well, their version of "government" won't last.

That generation has the Midas Touch, except everything they touch turns to shit.

Banking, healthcare, bond markets, futures, stocks, medicine, insurance, higher education, lower education. Name it and it's ruined now.

They were whiny bitches back in the 1960s and were easily derailed with an influx of drugs and music festivals and now they're outright DEMANDING that the rotten systems they have perpetrated on the rest of us be left alone and protected.

Not gonna happen at this point. The whole country is over it.

It'll look more like the parking areas around Woodstock than the aftermath of Appomattox.

Fuck it, time to drive a stake in the heart of this retarded commie fuckfest.

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The Scratch's avatar

"Gov. of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker's....magic talent is that he's run Illinois--the worst governed state in America history-- deeply into the ground. Under Pritzker the state squandered $54 billion in federal Covid relief. Wirepoints.org has reported Illinois has the largest state/local debt in the nation, averaging $110,000 per household. Residents continue to flee. Public schools don't work. Kids do not read or write or do math at grade level. And not only older retirees flee, but younger residents- particularly the high earners that the state can't afford to lose--are gone. Chicago continues to lead the nation in murder. But Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have the answer: Rhetoric, race-baiting, and screaming. They scream at President Trump and they allege our fundamental rights are under assault. It's all political horse poop to distract from their failures as administrators."- John Kass 4-27-2025

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Chris's avatar

"Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker just joined in the call for “mobilization” and “mass protests” in a New Hampshire speech, comparing Republicans to Nazis, saying their names will be reserved for museums dedicated to “tyrants and traitors"

Gee, the people who should be in the museum include Pritzkers so that we never forget Trans Insantity which is still roaring along. The Pritzkers were key in getting this into our hospitals including for children. Quoting just a bit from Jennifer Bilek:

"The Gender Multispeciality Service (GeMS) at Boston Children’s Hospital, “the first major program in the U.S. to focus on gender-diverse and transgender adolescents,” was founded in 2007. “Since that time,” says the GeMS website, “we have expanded our program to welcome patients from ages 3 to 25.” The first such clinic for children in the Midwest, the Gender & Sex Development Program at Lurie Children’s Hospital, opened in Chicago in 2013 with a $500,000-$1 million gift pledge from Pritzker. (The husband of Jean “Gigi” Pritzker, another cousin, sits on Lurie’s board of directors.) The Gender Mapping Project estimates that there are now thousands of similar “gender clinics” around the world, and over 400 that offer to medically manipulate the sex of children.

Like Stryker’s Arcus Foundation, the Pritzkers have forged a close relationship with the psychiatric establishment. The Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at Lurie was launched with a $15 million gift from the Pritzker Foundation in 2019, and received another $6.45 million in 2022 to address “concerns about mental health consequences for children and adolescents arising from the COVID pandemic.” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Jennifer’s cousin, signed into law SB 2085, Coverage of the Psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM)—the American Psychiatric Association’s model legislation requiring private insurers and Medicaid in Illinois to cover CPT codes for CoCM, which “requires a primary care (or other) physician or clinician to lead a team that includes a behavioral health care manager who checks in with patients at least once a month and an off-site psychiatric consultant who regularly reviews patients’ progress and offers advice.”

Jeanne Pritzker, married to J.B.’s brother Anthony, who is Jennifer’s cousin, is a training psychologist at UCLA where she and her husband established the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Scholarship to support medical students at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Mrs. Pritzker is a member of the Board of Visitors at the Geffen School, which is affiliated with a children’s hospital named after Mattel—the multinational toy company that debuted a “transgender Barbie” recently made in the likeness of the actor Laverne Cox."

"The Billionaire Family Pushing Synthetic Sex Identities (SSI) TABLET - JULY 17, 2022

The wealthy, powerful, and sometimes very weird Pritzker cousins have set their sights on a new God-like goal: using gender ideology to remake human biology"

https://www.the11thhourblog.com/

I guess JB cannot afford to have his side lose.

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C.C. 95's avatar

Yes- but let's not ignore this gift that keeps on giving: the left keeps choosing the dumbest hills to die on. Let them continue to stupidly die on 80/20 issues.

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Sue Seboda's avatar

Exactly. It begs the question - is Pritzker fighting for the country or his investments. I trust nothing he says.

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Chris's avatar

I tend to think it is his and his family's investments.

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Sue Seboda's avatar

In my mind there is no question. The helped launch Obama and one of his day 1 orders helped launch the ideology mainstream.

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Chris's avatar

And it has been destructive to individuals, families, and society.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

The people who demand everyone call transitioned men "women" are the flat-earthers of our age.

If someone wants to change their gender, great. Go at it. Nobody cares really. It's when you invade women-only spaces like sports and locker rooms, prisons that everyone's hackles get raised.

No, you're not biological women; you're transitioned women. There IS a difference.

But please, DO go on denying biological science some more instead of expanding the definitions. Zero-sum retardation.

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Chris's avatar

I agree to some extent - but the greatest numbers of people transing now are teen girls and young women which is concerning. And, then there are all the children.

"My Colleagues Have Failed You

A message from Dr. Miriam Grossman Apr 30, 2025"

https://www.pittparents.com/p/my-colleagues-have-failed-you?utm_source=publication-search

"Why is this happening to my family?

A viral tweet suggests a new theory of race-based social identity threat and identity exit Aug 09, 2022"

https://www.pittparents.com/p/why-is-this-happening-to-my-family?utm_source=publication-search

"

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Thea McGinnis's avatar

The Pitt parents article was illuminating. How often we feel we are just some loony researcher’s petri dish

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Lisa's avatar

I just saw a quote from Pritzker, who is not anyone’s idea of the picture of health, saying RFK Jrs.’s ideas on health were “dangerous.” Holy Twinkie!

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John Duffner's avatar

Pritzker puts the "mass" in "mass protests," though I don't see him doing much "mobilization" personally.

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Sasha Stone's avatar

First comment! I've been thinking about this for a while now, mainly because I have crossed enemy lines. First Civil War about what America would be going forward as we expanded out west. This Civil War is about what America will be now that we've migrated to the new frontier of the internet, AI, etc. You can feel the pull between nationalism and globalism. To me, the Left is like the South - stuck in a utopia of the past. Maybe that's right. I don't know. But it does seem like a Civil War. Our second. How bad will it get? Does it stay confined to the US or is there some creepy alliance with Canada, the UK, etc, to unseat Trump and MAGA? I don't know.

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The Scratch's avatar

"....the South- stuck in a utopia of the past"

?????

"Black-Migration is Now From North to South"- BET 3-24-2014

"there is a better quality of life for them there"

"New Great Migration: Black Americans Return South" brookings.edu 9-12-2022

"The movement is largely driven by younger, college-educated Black Americans, from both northern and western places of origin."

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Lis's avatar

I am guessing she meant they were stuck in their version of utopia not what reality was.

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The Scratch's avatar

It's the version of the South of a lot people not from the South.

I ran construction job sites in both Atlanta and the NYC area. About a third of the sub-contractor companies and workers on my jobsites in Atlanta were African Americans. Of the 100 or so sub contractor and construction companies I've dealt with in the NYC area, zero have been African American.

The prejudice against AA workers is much more prevalent up here.

It's not surprising so many AA are migrating back to the South.

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BeadleBlog's avatar

Key words were "does seem like."

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Science Does Not Care's avatar

Actually, the first civil wars were between and within American colonies, and then early in the history of the new United States. Perhaps not much shooting, but there was some and variable military response.

But I get your points. And in cyberspace, the first shots were fired long ago, with online assassinations and virtual violence (mostly from the left).

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Science Does Not Care's avatar

"Trump is who he is. He makes outrageous statements, often means them, and has never been anybody’s idea of a tribune of Jeffersonian probity."

OK. In some abstraction of a society and its politics, we might like to think that when some faction goes extreme, and counter to core national values, the right solution is sober and calm critique leading to steady institutional correction. But what if that does not work?

IMO Trump, and "MAGA", are the necessary corrective action to the insane Democratic Party fringe, and their progressive distortion of our society. BTW, when they say "democracy" and rightfully fear the threats that Trump poses, they mean not some ideals about public participation in self-governance, but a highly partisan and ideological establishment of institutions, physical and conceptual.

Is this turmoil a good thing? No. But when the screaming driver was steering off the road-side cliff, jerking the wheel to steer into the mountainside might be the best of poor choices.

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C.C. 95's avatar

Michael Malice said (paraphrasing) "When they say 'Our Democracy', they mean 'Our Hegemony'"

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Karen's avatar

Or “Our Bureaucracy”

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Lisa's avatar

I understand DOGE is now looking at the Peace Corps which has approximately one bureaucratic employee for every three actual Corps volunteers. That’s crazy!

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Kathy Hix's avatar

It’s a jobs program for the ill-educated children of rich leftists, as are most NGOs.

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Sue Seboda's avatar

Yes but we cannot fight using the oppositions playbook. We have to be smarter.

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Madeline McCormick's avatar

Everyone has collectively lost their minds and it's quite unsettling.

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Daniel Lee's avatar

It's all just The Deep State Strikes Back, nothing more. The threat to democracy and the constitutional order has been and will continue to be the arrogant, censorious, and belligerent Progressive Left.

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C.C. 95's avatar

And, of course- they are the ones who are actually a threat to democracy and have zero love for the constitution. When you are able to see the big picture- it is quite scary and unnerving how evil the progressive left is. Had DJT not won - they probably would've been able to finish their plan to lock in one party rule forever.

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I remember the 70s's avatar

It will happen the next time they win the presidency, 50 seats in the Senate and a majority of one in the House. There will be no return from it.

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C.C. 95's avatar

If/when that happens (and that's a big if/when-sinsce the D's or at their lowest point in party history) we will already have dismantled the hidden mechanisms that made the cabal possible. (Like the previously hidden USAID/NGO slush funds, the end of MSM propaganda and section 230 protections, etc)

No doubt they would still try these gambits (like allowing in mass illegals and shipping them to purple states to change the census numbers to try to turn it blue and gain extra electoral votes and representatives) - but people see it now.

It makes it look on its face that D's care more about illegal migrants than their own citizens. And that is a BAD look. I think it will be a while before we see them back in any substantial way. (Normally I always give them credit for being very resilient - but they are a hot mess right now. They have no leadership- and are choosing to champion issues that are 80/20 losers politically. I mean, really? Trans Rights? (Less than even .1 percentage point of the population). Bring back illegal El Salvadorian gang members?! these are the hills you wanna die on?!)

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Kathleen McCook's avatar

The "Timeline on “Political Advocacy by Open Letter” by Greg Collard is a terrific resource. It gives perspective.

[The most famous open letter was J'accuse...! by Émile Zola (1898)].

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NothingButNet's avatar

Can we get thru this? Sure, but it’s gonna be painful. Dems are like little kids caught with their hands in the political cookie jar. Rather than drop the cookies and accept their punishment, they’ve instead become indignant, self righteous and pompous, refusing to acknowledge their disgusting activity and unwilling to relinquish their ill gotten gains 💵💵. Seems like it’s going to be important to punish the miscreants Dems (prosecute, impoverished and incarcerated and incarcerate) if we ever want to get back to a society where normal people can live in peace ☮️.

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KaiKai's avatar

I don’t understand why democrats want the country to fail. Is it to build it back better as a socialist utopia? Sounds like we are at risk for another Cultural Revolution. Better stock up on the shotgun shells.

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BookWench's avatar

Who knows?

They probably think we're just beyond fixing because of slavery.

They simply cannot accept the fact that not everybody agrees with them on every issue, or may have a different interpretation of events than they do.

They're like a pack of rabid chihuahuas.

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C.C. 95's avatar

Most of the entire world had slavery. (And it still exists today). The "sins of the father" idea is a slippery slope you really don't wanna go down. (i.e. when are North Africans going to pay reparations for enslaving white Europeans for over 200 years in the Barbary slave trade?)

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

LOL they'll scream til they're blue in the face against that idea but when you mention dystopian 15-min cities owned by Jeff Bezos and Oprah they leap up and clap like trained seals.

Fucking idiots.

Maybe we should do what the federal government did to them in the 1960s when they became a problem: give them loads of drugs and drive their demise with terrible ideas and fashions.

It worked once before, it could work again.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

They even lie like children do.

You see them eating the last cookie and ask:

"Did you eat all of the cookies?"

"No. YOU ate all the cookies."

Right.

Probably they're heading for a reckoning with reality.

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C.C. 95's avatar

Thankfully- the last election and the end of MSM hegemony means that people are getting wise.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

If they ever started forming a "standing army" I'm sure people would REALLY get it.

They're fascists. Authoritarian commie fascists.

They're more right wing than anyone they claim as being "right wing" and the ultimate irony is they can't see the forest for the trees.

I bet if they started something they'd end up in worse shape than after the last civil war they started -for the "right" to own human beings as slaves.

Just unreal levels of self-delusion; much like the assholes of the Confederacy.

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C.C. 95's avatar

They have reached the highest levels of 'confession through projection'.

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Frank Paynter's avatar

I'm a septuagenarian and once knew a time, long ago and far away, where schools were where high schools were where kids went to learn civics, geography, physics, and math, and most college students (except for the few trust babies) went to learn something useful for getting a good job, getting married, buying a house, having kids, and living - and supporting - the American dream.

Then we went through the last few decades where 'the elite' decided they didn't need Americans, and the American dream was 'too good' for Americans. So they started trashing all our institutions, from grade school to the poison-ivy league institutions, and they damned near finished the job.

Then by some miracle(s), we managed to snatch the helm of the Ship of State back, despite 34 felony convictions, 'Russia Collusion', '51 intelligence professionals', and two different assassination attempts (one of which was almost surely an inside job - why else would CNN cover that one rally live, having skipped all the others?)

And now Matt wonders why we might be just a little pissed off? Why we might not be seeing the issue of 'norms' in quite the same way as the 'elites'? I will say that he is dead right to be concerned about getting through this presidential term without major violence, but I don't think the 'elites' have any idea what's going to happen if they pull the trigger on real violence. Think about what happened during the French revolution - the elites were quite happy getting rid of the rabble - right up to the point where it was *their* heads going under the guillotine!

I think when the history of this period is written, it will be describable in one phrase: The 'elites' FA and then FO.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

Hey, when one of these idiots starts talking as if they'd love another civil war, I like to express my disgust by snorting, "Really? The Democrats are going to start ANOTHER civil war? Like the only other time in US history we've had one? Over slavery??? Please tell me you're joking, because it sounds like it's going to go exactly the way the last one went."

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Frank Paynter's avatar

Well, first they would somehow have to get over their repulsion of guns, calling everything an "assault weapon". Maybe they think they could win a civil war with strongly worded messaging?

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Harvey's avatar

The blind devotion to one side or another is what is making this so difficult for people like myself who don’t like Trump and don’t like Biden/Kamala/Etc either and would prefer someone much more progressive than either of them. Can I have a different choice than a billionaire or a corporate hand puppet? The answer is of course yes, but not one that has a chance of winning. Wanting a major candidate that supports worker's rights should not be radical.

Honestly, both sides have their zealots, but I find Trump people are more willing to acknowledge Trump’s obvious flaws than the Democrats are Biden’s. Biden was practically comatose for his entire term and has a giant closet of skeletons and yet he was the guy, right up until he wasn’t, which could apparently only be decided by George Clooney.

“That’s just what you gotta do to fight Trump! Shut up about the laptop!”

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Tardigrade's avatar

"Shut up about the laptop!”

You're quoting my best friend there. Luckily, she has not disowned me yet.

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Pacificus's avatar

Yes, you can have your zany far left choice, but America is not going to vote for that, not now, not ever--not, at least, if our elections are not rigged.

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Norma Bown's avatar

I have also been asking this question. When it reaches the point where one party thinks it has to burn down the country and constitution to feel "right," we are fucked. Sorry. but we are two countries and let us admit it and execute it. All the coastals must pick ONE coast and the other side gets the other. (hint: don't pick the west coast, goners.) Let's sensibly divvy up the dividends, And then let's build a Great Wall. No illegals allowed on our side.

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Mr. Bob's avatar

Can't be done. National divorce is a myth. The split is no longer between states, but between big cities and everyone else.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

City-states! Let Portland be as weird as it wants without screwing up Oregon.

https://simulationcommander.substack.com/p/ancient-problems-require-ancient

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Jim Rudolph's avatar

As long as Amazon can deliver across national boundaries, I’m okay with it

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Gathering Goateggs's avatar

I figure it will probably be more like the border between Minnesota and Manitoba pre-9/11 than like the Korean DMZ.

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Giant asteroid for 24's avatar

SC- you should know that every population center in Oregon is the same. Even Medford and Grants Pass and all the Williams outlaw hippies got co-opted into woke. Been to Jacksonville lately?

I live in Seattle and honestly I find less conformist here per capita than in Barnardsville, NC. Being in a place where you can earn a good income with a 10th grade education is great. I tell people I encounter professionally to fuck off on the regular and they don't have the balls or talent to challenge me because all the rich fucks we work for demand results above all else.

If more talented hicks moved to these West Coast cities they would realize what a gravy train it is.

Changing the zeitgeist of these credentialed pricks is another thing, but it is nice to watch them squirm when you tell them they are morons and there is nothing they can or will do about it.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

Well the other part of that equation is that the Not-Portland parts of the state have to handle their own business and can't just nab tax money from the urban centers. Newport might be woke, but they're broke, too!

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Stickerbush's avatar

I don't understand how the hell you can afford to live in Seattle without working for one of the big tech companies and that requires more than a 10th grade education.

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The Dandy Highwayman's avatar

Nah, just level it.

See how they fare rebuilding it.

Without any real skills they'll wither and die.

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Science Does Not Care's avatar

OK by me if progressives have to stay in their blue metro areas and I have to stay out.

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Rich Bradfield's avatar

100% City states vs. everybody else.

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