for democracy
★ Kamala for President Putin is playing him
we are for democracy, decency and humanity.
US voting rights since 1965.
"...and we're going to have some fun with this, aren't we?!"
the Lincoln Project is dedicated to the preservation, protection and defense of democracy. lincolnproject.us podcast YouTube
the rise of Christian nationalism and the unholy deal for money and power, against democracy. An organized group with a sophisticated agenda to take down democracy and install an autocracy of Christian elite. Bad Faith badfaithdocumentary.com
blue 0015bc D
we are free people and we care about each other. Things should be getting better for everyone. This is inequality in America, do not mistake it for poverty.
Trump sabotaged the peaceful transition of power after the 2020 election, and incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, aka Jan. 6.
lying liar who lies
I like slinging a little bull every now and then, but this mf is perverting the truth.
he is incoherent and vindictive. a sad, grievance-filled campaign focused only on himself. he does not care about country - he is trying to stay out of jail.
it's a character issue. He's a liar, rapist, and convicted felon on 34 counts of fraud.
convicted felon on 34 counts of fraud
Trump was convicted on 053024, on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Here is a little history:
DA announces 34-count felony indictment of Trump.
he is on trial in NY on criminal charges of falsifying NY business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.
during the election, Trump and others employed a catch and kill scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects. Trump then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.
note: to cover up a hush money payment in order to hide the story from voters shortly before the 2016 presidential election. The criminal trial began April 15, 2024. hush money was paid to Stormy Daniels to prevent her from disclosing discreditable information about his marriage infidelity. This was an arrangement to keep damaging information secret. Hush money is slang for bribery.
"He's a peach," Rachel Maddow. "... oathbreaking insurrectionist," -SCOTUS. Trump is a fraudster. Lies to and betrays the voters. autocracy, an autocrat is a ruler who has absolute power. Putin, Pres Russia and Orban, PM Hungary.
"He should not be allowed on any ballot because Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who has held public office and taken an oath to protect the Constituion from holding office again if they have engaged in insurrection against the United States. He cannot again be trusted with public office. He led an insurrection. " Robert Reich Dec 2023
the Constitution
what he did was treachery against the Constituion. An insurrection is a riot with a political purpose. It is not a simple riot, and it is not a revolution. Trump led a violent insurrection on Jan 6 to block the peaceful transition of power, and overthrow the constitutional order.
immunity ?!
presidents will not be deterred by the criminal law.
"I'm immune from criminal prosecution because I'm president," would be like if I take a bribe to veto a bill then I am immune from criminal prosecution.
Lawrence Tribe, "the Supreme Court gets it upside down." Their decision is incoherent, and leaves the country open to autocracy and a dictatorship. The law is intended for everyone. The Constitution doesn't give any immunity to anyone. The president must obey the criminal law.
| a thoughtful treatise on democracy | |
|---|---|
| Democrats | vs. Republicans |
| progress | chaos |
| democracy | fascism |
| freedom | tyranny def: cruel and oppressive government |
| equal protection | racism |
| climate reg | oil production |
| vote Democrat to save our freedom and protect our climate | |
the internet
there is only one source of the truth.
as a civil society we are acting against extremism, hate and disinformation. The internet can give global reach to misinformation and rally people to believe impossible things.
common prosperity
entitled inconsideration vs common prosperity.
- public transportation
- affordable housing
- universal healthcare
consider what happened to the middle class, while the wealthy prospered. We have the money for public transportation, affordable housing, and universal healthcare.
Republicans: the Bush and Trump tax cuts have added $10 trillion to the debt. Republicans slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. Tax cuts and jobs act of 2017, Trump, Nov 2, 2017. The middle class needs a tax cut Brookings
Democrats: President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is driving historic climate action and investing in America to create good paying jobs and reduce costs.
be discerning about where you get your news to avoid disinformation.
Neo takes the red pill and awakens in the real world
red pill or blue pill refers to the choice of learning the truth by taking the red pill or remaining in contented ignorance with the blue pill. The red one frees you from the enslaving control of the simulated dreamworld. The Matrix, 1999
democracy rather than autocracy
democracy involves a low level of control, "everyone has a vote." In a democracy there is a common role in the decision-making process. Whereas autocracy means a high level of control, "you are told how it is." An autocrat is a ruler with absolute power over a state.
| U.S. budget deficit: $2.7 trillion, 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Democrats | vs. | Republicans |
| ✔ | climate action | No |
| ✔ | voting rights | No |
| ✔ | women's choice | No |
| ✔ | gun regulation | No |
| $28.43 trillion in federal debt | ||
climate and healthcare
the climate is being destroyed by a small group of oil salesmen. We need to do what the scientists say we need to do and transform our energy system away from fossil fuels. We need to end corporate influence on policy. And we need to pass universal healthcare.
as a civil society we are acting against extremism, hate and disinformation. The internet can give global reach to misinformation and rally people to believe impossible things.
Isaac Asimov 1980
"There is a cult of ignorance in the US, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" Isaac Asimov, 1980
common good
democracy is a system where people can change their rulers by voting. Democracy is equality, social equality and civil rights. voting rights, women's rights, immigration and healthcare. making a path out of poverty. willing to give up privilege for the common good.
if you understand democracy and how narrow, nationalistic interests threaten democracy, then you must consider the common good and put common needs ahead of private interests.
infrastructure, transportation, corporate taxes, clean water, green energy, combat climate crisis reduce emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to prevent the planet from warming to more extreme temperatures, manage forests, end border wall construction, end oil pipelines and drilling on federal lands and fragile environments like the Arctic. Revive global cooperation.
Whitehouse
collective goals. not so individualistic. more like "let's create a better world," and less "me, me, me, me, me."
Chomsky
Noam Chomsky, leading public intellectual: "That's normal in a political system mired in corruption. It's often been observed that the U.S. has a one-party political system - the business party - with two factions, Democrats and Republicans."
"... where the impact of corporate lobbyists, always significant, has exploded since the 1970s as the corporate-run neoliberal assault against the general population gained force."
Noam Chomsky chomsky.info
Robert F. Kennedy, 1968
Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 on the night Martin Luther King was killed: "Let us dedicate ourselves to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world."
"We must rid ourselves of all division, hatred, violence and lawlessness if we are to survive as a nation. It is our capacity to love and have compassion for one another that will build the nation."
"... it is now unmistakably clear that we can change these disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who are now making them." Robert Kennedy, 1968
social benefits
$3.5 trillion infrastructure: "I already negotiated. The truth is we need more." U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, democratic socialist, Wed 25 Aug 2021
democratic socialism is a program of social benefits funded by taxes, a democracy based on the principle of one person one vote.
Socialism is an economic and political system based on public ownership of the means of production. The government is involved in the rules, collection, and distribution of funds. Everyone gives a little and everyone takes a little.
Social Security is a form of social welfare that ensures that the elderly, disabled workers, and their dependents have some minimum level of income.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to block the $735m arms sale to Israel, as he added, "Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism." The resolution is not likely to pass, said everyone. Thu 20 May 2021
vote them out
- Donors give huge sums to elect politicians to office
- Elected officials rewrite the rules in the donors' favor
- Donors make a huge profit
- Repeat
language war
it's a language war: the racist rhetoric is fueling the violence.
it's a language war, and mainstream Republicans are constructing a new moral panic using the qanon messaging: that top Democrats were involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings.
alt-right ideologies, white supremacy, racism, spread only because they convince there is a bad guy. it is not us it is them. us vs them, there must be a monster. "They are taking our jobs, they are grooming our kids!"
alt-right Republicans are using the tactic of attaching a negative label (communist) to those who hold different beliefs and relentlessly repeating that label regardless of its accuracy.
tax breaks for super-rich donors
see Trump's 2017 Tax Reform Act, a.k.a. Trump's Tax Scam, enriching the super-rich and corporate sector at the expense of everyone else - the bill that Joseph Stiglitz termed the U.S. Donor Relief Act of 2017, which "embodies all that is wrong with the Republican party, and to some extent, the debased state of American democracy."
populist
a populist is a person who strives to appeal to people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups. Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite."
populism is associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment.
a populist autocrat
Bolsonaro is a populist autocrat. far-right former president of Brazil.
"It kept getting more insidious," they all said, everyone said, of Trump.
protect and serve, with shields and tear gas?!
To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. demilitarize police Brennan Center
Trump deployed DC police with shields against citizens who were demonstrating peacefully.
CS tear gas
tear gas is a pain nerve gas deployed by federal agents to disperse rioting protestors or crowds of peaceful demonstrators. Tear gas is the generic term for a class of compounds that cause a burning sensation. LE use a chemical called CS, 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile. CS activates a specific pain receptor, and it is 100,000 times stronger than the sting from wasabi. When inhaled, the pain induces people to cough.
history
John Lewis knew that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country's history. Of our own history. Where there are whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again. Bull Connor may be gone, but today we witness with our own eyes, police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.
we are not asking for special treatment, just equal treatment
Supreme Court @repAOC: the biggest scandal in american democracy which is the extraordinary corruption and wholesale purchase of the supreme court. referring to the fishing trip flown on private jet, Justice Samuel Alito and billionaire Paul Singer. disclosure would be required, and he did not disclose. when Singer had business before the court, Alito did not recuse himself from the case, the court ruled in Singer's favor, and Singer's hedge fund was paid $2.4 billion.
Russian disinformation
Putin is playing him.
Richard Stengel, get his book: Information Wars. He says this a redux of 2016 by Russia's govt to create a proRussia stance. Russian scheme: this is a $10million scheme of Russian disinformation.
In order to win their land war against Ukraine, Russia needs Trump in power to vote against aid to Ukraine.
political strategy
Senator Bernie Sanders. People are hurting. In America today, corporate greed and corruption is destroying the social and economic fabric of our society. This is wealth inequality. advocate for expanding Medicare, home healthcare.
Timothy Snyder, book Freedom.
Mark McKinnon, political strategist, known for wearing a hat. thinks Harris will win, and by alot. MSNBC.
Simon Rosenberg, democratic strategist.
how to pay for Medicare for All
"We have the money to make health care a right in this country. What we need is the political will." Robert Reich 5 Aug 2020
- repeal the $1.9 Trillion tax scam for corporations and the 1%
- pass a wealth tax
- shrink our bloated military