On Monday he criticized the legislation, which would provide an additional $60 billion of military aid for Ukraine, claiming it is “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country” in reference to illegal immigration.
This cynical motherfucker. Says you can’t fund Ukraine until we work on the border. Dems agree. Dems drafts a bipartisan bill that puts hard caps on the border and shuts it down when capacity is reached.
Then this guy tanks the border bill because Trumps wants border chaos so he can run on fixing it. Then he says Congress needs to address the border, after he just tanked a border bill that Congress could’ve easily passed.
Corrupt and selfish people like him are why US government is broken.
Yikes on bikes. I’m guessing this is yet another person that probably should’ve been in a mental institution instead of alone, ignored, and getting suckered into the alt right pipeline. Surely the level of violence he exhibited is pathological.
Sadly, there’s a chance that he wasn’t alone and ignored but was getting as much help and support from his family as they could give on their own. The thought of which makes it even more heart-breaking.
He brought increased scrutiny on himself, resulting in multiple damaging revelations. Despite promising in 2020 to donate “every dime” he makes in Washington to veterans’ causes, Tuberville has yet to actually do so. He appears to have completely fabricated his father’s military record, and he has lived in Florida, not Alabama, for nearly two decades.
Military leaders called him out by name, accusing him of “aiding and abetting Communist and other autocratic regimes”—a devastating insult for any Republican but especially a far-right one.
Jordan Sather, a prominent promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, suggested that Swift’s life had been orchestrated as part of a sinister plot to encourage her fans to vote.
There a few other people quoted in there but it’s all the same sinister plan they are proposing: The psyop is encouraging people to vote.
Republicans see large voter turnout as a bad thing because they are less popular than they want you to think they are. This is not new, it’s just a new target.
Swift’s life had been orchestrated as part of a sinister plot to encourage her fans to vote.
Reminds me of the time Republicans in some local election had sent out a mailer smearing the Dem candidate. There was a big box on one part of the card, in a large font against a dark background proclaiming that the Dem candidate wanted to "Educate and Transform you!"
Well, I thought, do your donors know you are campaigning for the Democrat?
they are less popular than they want you to think they are.
With all do respect, you are definitely wrong about that. According to Gallup's most recent polls a few months ago, 36% of Americans identify as "Conservative", 37% as "Moderate", and only 25% as "left wing".
Last that I checked, 36% > 25%; but I could be wrong... (no).
There is a historical phenomenon where moderate and independent voters overwhelming vote right wing during general and mid term elections. Anywhere from 66% - 75% of independents end up voting Republican.
That's the problem with your view point. You are likely projecting and don't realize it. That's okay, as it's normal psychology that you're nervous that your world view is no where near as popular as you wish that it were. That's a coping mechanism that makes people feel more positive in their belief system and to avoid feel depress or losing hope that your opponents are just... more popular and you don't understand how or why.
Couldn't find their new poll from two months ago, but the one in my link has the exact same results.
Republicans don't want election officials to get overwhelmed with too many potentially fraudulent registrations. Voter fraud, election fraud, and voter suppression is rampant on both sides and add too many voters too soon makes it far harder to fix these problems.
If the left would only just agree to pass sweeping voter ID laws in all 50 states, then Republicans like me would have no problem ramping up voter turnout because Republicans will win by far larger margins than we currently do if there is little fraud.
Democrats say that they want to be "...more like Europe..." on a million different issues? Well, all 44 European countries have voter ID laws. So what is the problem?
This is the only major sole issue that prevents Republicans from ramping up voter turnout.
Voter fraud, election fraud, and voter suppression is rampant on both sides and add too many voters too soon makes it far harder to fix these problems.
For example, after the 2020 election, a months’-long analysis by the AP found fewer than 475 cases of potential voter fraud in the six battleground states challenged by Trump (here). For context, there were over 3.3 million votes casted for the presidential run in Arizona alone, the state AP found had the highest number of potential fraud cases (198) ( here ). The AP also found no signs of a coordinated effort and reported that “virtually every case was based on an individual acting alone to cast additional ballots.”
He added that hardliners have little to show for all the effort they’ve put into dragging House GOP leadership their way this session. “We hold the House, yet we’re not accomplishing anything. I mean, the most that we’ve actually accomplished this year is kicking out George Santos,” Burlison said of expelling the disgraced New York GOP fabulist.
No, you petulant fuck. REPUBLICANS hold the House. You hold like twelve seats and are a feeble minority that represents a dying slice of the electorate. The reason you can’t get whatever your right-wing boner brigade wants is because you’re dramatically out of step with the rest of the fucking country. I’m absolutely loving the fact that this shit keeps getting shoved into your face, and I hope your feckless infantile flailing continues indefinitely, or at least until the GOP loses their razor-thin majority.
I would prefer them to lose their razon thin majority, personally. I’m an idealist who would be quite pleased to see a minimally functional government.
I’d prefer them to be voted out in a fucking landslide so we can get past the fillabuster, expand the SC, and fix all the shit the Republicans have fucked up since Reagan.
It depends on what the culture defines as acceptable politics. It’s so extreme that it’s an executable offense in some countries and has been so in our culture too. We have to fight to keep it from that
The document lists symbols that violent extremists use, but explicitly calls out that not everyone who uses those symbols is a violent extremist.
The punisher skull is also in there, but that doesn’t mean they’re claiming every asshole with a punisher skull on their truck is a terrorist. Just that if someone with a punisher skull on their truck shoots up a mosque, that the punisher iconography is evidence that it was an act of right-wing militia terrorism.
But he… wasn’t. He lost the presidency in 1932 to Paul Von Hindenburg (53% to 37%. not even particularly close) who later appointed Hitler under pressure to the channclorship (which was an appointed role) in 1933. Hindenburg died in January of 1934 and Hitler de facto merged the presidency and chancelorship into one office (Fuhrer). The story isn’t “regular people put Hitler in power”, it’s “broken legislative systems are vulnerable to facists”.
Not sure entirely about that. Nazis were still a party that held up to 44% of seats in the reichstag (before they were all nazi) with like 6 different parties. Hitler wasn’t isolated. The population voted for him and his party. Hindenburg didn’t like Hitler but essentially passed away at a terrible time and Hitler outplayed Papen who was meant to keep him in check. Hindenburg felt he had to since they had the closest to a majority in the reichstag.
"In the end, the president, who had previously vowed never to let Hitler become chancellor, appointed Hitler to the post at 11:30 am on 30 January 1933, with Papen as vice-chancellor.[91] While Papen’s intrigues appeared to have brought Hitler into power, the crucial dynamic was in fact provided by the Nazi Party’s electoral support, which made military dictatorship the only alternative to Nazi rule for Hindenburg and his circle. [Sauce]
Yes, there was support in the population, but there was also a lot of violence to suppress dissent. The historical consensus, as I learned it, is to call it the “seizure of power” (“Machtergreifung” in German), because Hitler wasn’t simply voted into power by a majority.
This somewhat misleading, Hitler and the NSDAP were indeed voted into the position to seize power by democratic means which they then abused, the voter supression mainly happened in later elections when the undermining of institutions and the consitution was already well underway. “Machtergreifung” is the propaganda term the Nazis used themselves to describe the process of what happened after the fact, which in reality was much more cloak and dagger-y than the term suggests.
P.S.: Germany didn’t have a two-party system, so having a majority wasn’t that important. You would form coalitions of parties after an election which then had a majority, or even form a minority government that then has to actively hunt for their missing votes from other parties to get any legislation passed.
That is not correct. Neither according to Wikipedia, not to what I learned in school. The term “Machtergreifung” was avoided by the Nazis, they used “Machtübernahme” as to not alienate their moderate conservative supporters. But “Machtergreifung” is much more fitting, when applying it to the process that was started in January 1933.
And yes, Hitler convinced Hindenburg to appoint him as the head of a coalition government, as the NSDAP had lost votes and came in “only” at around 33%. The normal rules of how to govern in a multi-party system don’t quite apply, because it was never Hitler’s goal to rule as part of a coalition, having to compromise.
They used both terms as well as “Machtübergabe” (transfer of power) to refer to Hitler being appointed chancelor, but that was neither the beginning nor the end of the multi-step coup the Nazis enacted, which is what I wanted to highlight. The term makes it seem like a singular event, when in reality it was a longer process.
i always thought that’s mostly because german fascists dragged both of those countries into war by attacking them, which caused severe backlash by proxy, and not really antifa being particularly effective in those countries.
explains why the U.S., despite having a large fascist movement at the time, reversed course and turned on fascism as an ideology (in public); they got attacked.
same in Britain; early attacks in the war, plus some lingering resentment from WWI, combined overcoming a push towards fascism…
I’d love to hear/read more about successful antifa movements in the UK/US, but that’s what I’ve always thought/read were the major reasons for failing fascist movements in those countries: other fascists…
You really expect a politician to tell the truth, especially when it comes to history? She and the rest of the US political elite for decades now are just mouthpieces for interest groups, mostly military groups who make money with wars abroad. Together with the media, they sell you wars abroad, while waving any currently popular flag at home for votes. The US elections are so loud, you don’t hear the sounds of pain and misery those events create abroad, especially in Middle East.
After the reports of Israeli invasion in Gaza, the first smile I saw in media was that of Hillary. When the wars and killings across northern Africa and Middle East started during the Arab Spring, her smile was the most prominent one for months.
Every time this slime of a human being crawls out of a crack in the wall in Washington somewhere, a war is either being prepared or needs justifying for the american voters. All that with a smile, while the cameras are rolling.
it’s “broken legislative systems are vulnerable to facists”.
She would know all about that. Bernie was killing Trump in the polls. Hilary was neck and neck with Trump.
The DNC cast their votes for who was going to General. A winner was announced. Everyone started to go to the announcement and for the only time in DNC history, the announcement was rescinded and everyone was broken up into different groups. Hilary staffers were observed scurrying around between groups. Then everyone was forced to vote again. THEN Hilary was declared the candidate going to General.
It was all live tweeted. It was all loudly publicized, but noone seemed to notice. Noone seemed to care.
Of course she is now going to make a historically inaccurate statement that casts actual democracy in a bad light.
Don't forget that there are many, many appointed superdelegates who each have around 8,000 voting power each.
There were 618 pledges from DNC superdelegates in the 2016 nomination, equaling 4,944,000 voting power (meaning votes equivalent to ~5 million regular voters in the DNC). These are not delegates assigned to states but to specific groups and people in positions in the DNC itself.
For reference, 16,917,853 of the popular vote itself went to Hilary Clinton and 13,210,550 went to Bernie Sanders according to this eye cancer of a website. If all of the DNC superdelegates voted for Bernie Sanders, he would have won the 2016 DNC primaries, even though the DNC voters regardless that the actual regular DNC voters voted for Hilary.
Anyway, I'm only making a point that system was broken.
The DNC did reform this afterwards, in that, if the first ballot doesn't have an absolute majority then superdelegates will cast votes but otherwise, cannot (as a superdelegate).
At the end of the day, I think the United States is just too damn big to run this type of system.
Red states are so entrenched in their beliefs and blue states are so entrenched in theirs, there is no way to cap them off with one cohesive federal government.
By design, every advancement is a crucial blow to the other side.
And then the real rub.
We have been at it long enough that there are not 2 parties. There is one mob of selfish egotistical asshats who struggle and toil keep federal office the best place to get richer and more powerful.
We keep calling it a government divided. IT ISNT. They are of one mind, taking a foot but making sure not to take a yard. Giving up a foot but making sure not to lose a yard. And every time the ball moves one half of The mindless masses feel validated, one half of The mindless masses feel violated, and the whole effort had an earmark on page 1672 of 3000 that assraped EVERYONE except the rich and the politician.
My betting money is on the fact that we will crumble like the USSR before I die. No grand civil war two electric Boogaloo. Just a pathetic crumbling.
The difference between US and the USSR is that we don't have a pre USA history/culture to fall back on.
DNC’s lawyers used the legal defense that they’re a private party and can run anyone they want in the general, and because of that, it doesn’t matter if they influence a primary election.
They flat out said primary elections are just a performative act, and the judge agreed with them.
Which is correct if you look at the history of how primaries came to be. Parties simply nominating someone is exactly what used to happen. The first Presidential primaries started in 1901, and they still don’t even happen in every state. Plenty still use the caucus system, where a bunch of insiders (usually local people who have volunteered for the party in some capacity) take off a day from work to decide on a candidate. The caucus system has historically been far more susceptible tampering by powerful interests. It literally was a smoke filled room, and is where that metaphor started.
Primaries aren’t some system enshrined in the Constitution or anything. It’s just how both parties have evolved over time. The general population gets its say in the election later on. The system now is far more democratic than the one that existed 200 years ago (with the caveat that we don’t have to stop with progress here).
Obama would never have gotten the nomination in 2008 if the caucus system was still the norm. The leaders of the party wanted Hillary.
That said, I think this approach would work better if there were more than two viable parties. If you don’t like who the Democrats nominated, look the Green Party or Progressives Party or Send Billionaires to Guillotines Party. If they all put a candidate out there selected by party insiders, that’s fine, just vote in the general for whomever you think is the best out of a wide range of options. It’s far harder for corrupt party insiders to game the system in this scenario–for example, it’d be harder to have a place in all parties and setup the candidates you want so you win no matter what. It’s only a problem because we have exactly two parties that matter. Treating multiple parties as private organizations who can nominate whomever they want under any system they want would be fine.
That’s not the only thing you just said that I disagree with, it’s just an objective fact and it’s pretty much what the rest of your comment is based on.
“I beseech you to control him if you can,” [Judge] Engoron said. “If you can’t, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.”
Ultra-mega-fucked.
Trump attorney Alina Habba at one point stood up and argued that the judge was there to listen to what Trump had to say. “I am not here to listen to what he has to say!” Engoron reportedly shouted, telling Trump’s counsel to sit back down. “We are here to hear him answer questions,” he added.
LMAO at a bottom tier lawyer trying to tell a judge how to do their job.
She was also complaining, after court, that the judge was telling her what to do and she doesn’t stand for that in her life.
Um, you do when you’re in the court. If the judge tells you to shut up, you shut up. You can be offended that the judge told you to shut up, but you’d better not argue with the judge and tell them that you have a right to say whatever you want to say in their court. Not unless you want to spend a night in a jail cell.
Also, Judge Engoran has 20 years of experience being a judge, and he was a practicing lawyer before that. He was a judge before Habba got her license, and he’s probably more than double her overall experience.
The fact that she didn’t even know that witness testimony means answering questions really puts a big question mark over her 13 years, anyways.
The fact that she didn’t even know that witness testimony means answering questions really puts a big question mark over her 13 years, anyways.
I know that and my legal expertise is just what I’ve picked up over the course of my life. No law degree or anything. The fact that I might be more qualified to be a lawyer than Habba is bad news for Trump. (For the record, you do NOT want me representing you in court. Get a real lawyer, not some guy whose best qualification is “knows more than a Trump lawyer.”)
I have to say, none of that means shit if he lets the guy run all over him and do whatever he likes with no consequences. Most people can’t piss a judge off that much without spending time in jail.
I see you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.
no consequence
lmao
Trump is trying to frustrate the fuck out of Engoron, that’s why he and his lackeys have been attacking the law clerks and pushing false narratives about them like the dating a senator or donated to dems bullshit.
Engoron is weathering this storm by slowly and methodically building a trail of evidence so if this is taken to appeals based on the “unfair judge” bullshit they keep spewing about, the judge has an undeniable response to that.
Summary judgment was already granted, he’s guilty, this is about determining size of disgorgement. Trump isn’t running away with a damn thing, and I think it’s hilarious that you do.
Most people can’t piss a judge off that much without spending time in jail
Wow thanks for telling us. Guess what? trump isn’t just some fucking guy, he has a large portion of republicans that will truly do anything he asks, he has a very long history of using litigation to bully his way to what he wants and like it or not he has connections and funding to keep pulling on those same threads.
This is about letting Trump sink himself, it’s not a goddamn race to the finish line (well… aside from 11/24)
It’s almost like court justice is never swift but methodical, and it’s almost like with these cases methodical is the way to go instead of snap punishments. Thank god the judge can think past any current moment and look to the bigger picture, unlike you.
I’ll save you the trouble for your inevitable reply
b-b-but nothing has happened to him so it just won’t ever!!!
Try not to forget there is NO precedent for ANY of this. WE CANNOT RUSH ANY OF THIS.
You have a bad day or something? That’s a whole torrent of nastiness, and it seems like you missed the context of my comment.
The judge is letting him behave horribly. That usually gets you at least a night in jail. That’s the lack of consequences i’m talking about.
If you don’t think that’s a big deal, consider that trump only acts the way he does because a long succession of people who could have and should have put him in his place didn’t do it.
That is the point. This is the only path to a proper outcome. Patience will be very well rewarded with a conclusion and punishment that is undeniable and sticks permanently.
The person you replied to didn’t say anything mean. They literally explained that the judge is doing exactly what those of us that want Trump to finally face permanent lasting consequences would want him to do. Whether we understand it or not.
Thank you. I understand why people are itching for Engoron to send Trump to jail for contempt. It would be very satisfying in the short term. The problem is that the judge has to think long term. If he sends Trump to jail now for a day and that tanks the whole case Inc appeal, that’s in the judge. So Engoron is putting up with Trump’s shenanigans while building an appeals proof judgment.
Is it more annoying in the short term seeing Trump “get away with” so much with, at most, little fines? Sure, but this is what’s best in the long term. Engoron has been a judge for decades. I trust he knows his job better than people whose legal experience is “I watched a few Law and Order episodes, listened to a law podcast once, and watched a few legal YouTubers.” (No offense intended to legal YouTubers. I love Legal Eagle especially. But you can’t assume you’re a legal expert just because you watched those videos. There’s a reason that it takes years to study law.)
Watch the proceedings of that “sovereign citizen” idiot Darrell Brooks who drove a car into a Christmas parade in Wisconsin. That guy never heard the phrase “just shut the fuck up”. It’s so maddening to watch that insolent manchild, I couldn’t make it past two minutes of footage.
I feel like I have to clarify that I’m not American before making comments so there’s enough wiggle room for potential ignorance.
I think it probably is a tactic he is using so that when it’s time for consequences, there’s plenty of leeway given to trump to show that he wasn’t acting biased, it’s just that trump is a fucking moron that can’t shut up, when the lunatics decide to shout about it.
It almost seems like parody to say, but the people defending Trump are not compatible with rational thoughts like “the judge gave Trump leeway because he wasn’t biased”. Even serving them those thoughts on a silver platter would just end in them rejecting it with whatever platitude they prefer to use when realizing they have nothing they can say (i.e. “bah that’s just cancel culture”)
That’s possible. People literally get years added to their sentences for back talking judges. You are simply not allowed to derail a trial even a little bit, and the consequences for attempting it are swift and harsh. For anyone else.
I’m so tired of this fuckwit’s behavior, but i’m even more angry that at every turn people have had the ability to stop that behavior and haven’t. And now we’re here. Anyone else would be immediately taken to jail for the stuff he’s doing inside the courtroom and out and he’s still not stopped.
It’s a mockery, and if the courts can’t handle this guy they have no business ruining people’s lives for things that don’t compare to anything trump has done.
if the courts can’t handle this guy they have no business ruining people’s lives for things that don’t compare to anything trump has done.
I’ve been looking for the right words to say this, so thanks.
The justice system has failed if it’s able systematically arrest people in parts of new York, Baltimore, and Chicago, but can’t do anything to this clown for a literal attempt to overthrow the government and constitution.
That appeal would be quickly denied. The Judge is absolutely right: They "are here to hear him answer questions", not "to listen to what he has to say." The Judge has a responsibility to keep testimony responsive to the questions asked and relevant to the case, not to let witnesses give monologues about whatever nonsense is running through their heads at the moment.
I thought this was overblown at first glance but reading into it…
From Wikipedia:
Accountability software typically functions by continuously making screenshots of the user’s mobile phone or computer screen and monitoring their internet traffic. It checks both for keywords (such as “gay” or “porn”) and images associated with the behavior the software is intended to detect.
So like even if the Speaker is on a VPN securely viewing classified material, if it’s on his phone or laptop, Covenant Eyes now has screenshots of it. That is very much a breech of national security if that is happening.
Right, even if he had access to classified information in an unsecured space, the classified system would have its own encryption device and its own systems separate from the unclassified network.
If he is following proper protocols and procedures: Yes
If he were following proper protocol, he wouldn’t willingly install spyware in the first place.
And unless he is VERY strictly separating his work and his personal devices, there is inevitable leakage. Even something as simple as getting too close to the line on “So I need to fly out to Nevada to check out these weather balloon things and make sure everything is fine” and so forth.
But also? All of this is publicly available information. At a high level, there are two kinds of classified material. Stuff that is classified by specific rules and are generally based on science and technology. And the other is “national security” and is more or less anything a bureaucrat thinks is important.
So the POTUS liking two shots of soy milk in his coffee is not classified because soy milk and coffee are not classified. But if it is decided that “terrorists” might attack the soy milk supply chain? Suddenly there is an argument that that information is sensitive.
And there are a LOT of arguments to be made regarding the Speaker of the House’s personal ties and vulnerabilities becoming “sensitive”.
And then you have people like trump who just give zero shits and are likely to take a picture of a document so they can show it to other people later.
That’s only part of it though. Another component is that anyone having access to his personal devices --let alone his porn habits-- potentially has compromising information on him. Once he’s compromised, he’s a national security threat, full stop.
What if he’s having an affair and there’s evidence of it on his phone? What if he’s doing other shady shit that involves not having a bank account? You better believe the Russians and/or the CCP would love to have compromat on the Speaker.
Fun fact: Before starting his weird anti-porn spyware company the CEO of Covenant Eyes, Ronald DeHaas, worked as a geologist for Chevron in the 70s. In fact, he’s still helping to destroy the planet by working as a consultant for the petroleum industry. He never actually stopped. So he’s always been an unscrupulous P.O.S.
Holy balls, it costs almost as much as Netflix ($204/year) and all it does is spy on you?! I’m not an evil man but these idiots ask for this service. I wish I’d thought of it.
LMAO what?! My god, it could not be more obvious that every single anti-porn crusader out there has serious issues with self-control and project it onto the rest of society. And let’s not even get into the fact that they have a ridiculously unhealthy understanding of human sexuality.
Actually fetish porn is around because it's a billion dollar a year industry. You're not only not the only one enjoying it, you ARE in the majority of men who watch such things. And why not? It's there for that very purpose.
This, they have been indoctrinated into “original sin” where everything is bad (especially most all sexuality outside of a male and female in a government-issued wedlock) and must be controlled, even if purely natural given by their “God”.
Sure, but MDM software is easy enough to make into a product that does this service on autopilot. And it sounds like the people moderating the content are the users themselves. Genius!
Why always get the gays involved? I swear, these people are obsessed with penises and projecting at this point.
I mean I’m a straight woman, I watched one video just because I was curious about the practicality of things and was too embarrassed to harass a gay friend about it.
But when I want to get horny now, it doesn’t even cross my mind. Even though there was one scene with Nick Offerman that was really hot in The Last of Us.
Some Christian men talk about “SSA” (same sex attraction) and their struggle to “resist the temptation”. As a non-repressed straight man, this is not something I’ve ever dealt with. I feel bad that these people are so indoctrinated and intimidated by their weird-ass culture that they can’t just relax and go grab a dick.
It’s because Christianity (and by nature, offshoots of it) was, and still is, a means of control.
Let’s not forget the roots of Christianity was from when it was a literal cult; you were considered a part of the Christian Cult if you practiced Christianity before iirc either Theodosius or Constantine became the Roman Emperor and made it into the state religion. Christmas was also stolen from Sol Invictus as a means to help bridge the transition into Christianity.
Constantine. Allegedly had a vision/dream where he was told to put either a chi-rho or tau-rho symbol on his shields ahead of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, and after victory he converted, with the rest of the Roman Empire following his lead.
That's exactly what it is, a major projection of their own inner sexual turmoil. Whether they are closeted homosexuals or not, and really in the case of Mike Johnson I hope he isn't because I don't want him among us LGBTQ folks, they definitely are projecting some hugely enormous interest in the sex behaviors and genitalia of other dudes. As a gay man - I'm kind of in awe of their penchant for penis worship.
The thing is, being a closeted homosexual isn’t even a binary thing. Everyone’s sexuality is a little bit fluid. I seriously believe that most of these people are bothered by the fact that they don’t find the male form completely repulsive, or by the idea that they may even have romance-adjacent feelings about another man without necessarily wanting to bottom for them.
These people aren’t closeted, they are just repressed. It’s like living among a group of people who insist that the color orange doesn’t exist and shame anyone who says they can see it. Obviously everyone sees orange, and choosing to live with the cognitive dissonance of orangephobics is incredibly stressful.
I totally agree, everyone has the capacity for a spectrum of sexual feelings and/or behaviors, but some men never acknowledge that and keep their homo feelings way too oppressed. The concept of having to find men "completely repulsive" for example - what a terrible way to view humanity and have to go through life. They are definitely repressed by their own fears and the phobic society around them. But being gay I have found that it's so much easier and better than being in the closet, if others don't like it - that's their f#ckin problem.
All this monitoring and over monitoring of what people are looking at online. Honestly if people aren't trolling for underage sex hookups or trying to encourage gross behaviors online, who the hell cares what people look at. Covenant Eyes - that name just says it all about the hypocrisy of religious zealotry. You can be happy! You can be free! Just do what the hell we tell you and don't you DARE look at anything we don't approve of, you born sinner and miserable wretch!!! WE'RE WATCHING YOU!!!!! Because Jesus would want us to.
Any time someone whines about cAnCeL CulTuRe RuN AmOk all I hear is “I’m incredibly angry that I faced consequences for my actions.”
No dude, it wasn’t cancel culture on steroids. You sexually harassed eleven women and only managed to avoid criminal charges due to statutory limitations of New York law. Kindly go fuck yourself.
Oh, but the younger generations are too sensitive to being sexually harassed by their boss. So declares Bill Maher, who hankers back to the days when jokes about bosses chasing secretaries around their desks were the height of humor. That way his stand-up will be relevant again.
The question is answered in the first three words. “I’m a Republican” = YTA.
The democrats are not to blame. They have been consistent throughout. They didn’t want McCarthy back in January and they didn’t want him three weeks ago. The GOP filed the motion to vacate, forcing the democrats to answer honestly: Nope, We Still Don’t Want Him. At any time it would have taken about five republicans, fewer than half the number of republicans (and only republicans) that held the chamber hostage for three weeks, to cross the aisle and elect Hakeem Jeffries. If anyone thinks the D bear responsibility, they must admit the GOP bears tenfold.
And if they didn't want Hakeem Jeffries specifically, they could have bargained for someone else. If they were in the mood to cross the aisle, they would be holding all the cards.
There are a few moderate Republicans and yes they could have gone across the aisle, but they would never let Jeffries become Speaker. That was never an option on the table and it would have created a very dysfunctional House. After all, Committees would still be run by the Majority and it just wouldn’t be possible to run the House that way. Too many logistical challenges and broken norms to make it work. What they would have done had moderate Republicans reached across the aisle is to elect a Republican speaker with several concessions that would ensure Democratic legislation could stand a chance of getting out of Committee and onto the Floor for a vote. That price was apparently too high as well, since 100% of Republicans voted for Mike Johnson.
There's a handful of things I find myself having to repeat and repeat, to the point that it's starting to annoy me. I'm sure someone is going to give me shit about it real soon.
Look. Soon enough these assholes will stop beating around the bush and make their move. It will be undeniable but they will skip right past shame and whole heartily accept the fact that yes, they actually are aligned with Nazis. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. During Bush they said they weren’t racist. During Trump they said they weren’t fascist. Next they will say they won’t attempt mass genocide.
You're not wrong. Fascism isn't coming; it's here. And every time some fascist bullshit happens without consequences, they get stronger and democracy gets weaker. Fascist leaders have seen no consequences. The American Fascist Party (I said it again) has to be called that, because not only are they refusing to eject fascists from their ranks, they are promoting them to positions of real power.
“Once a woman has sex, there’s really no limit to the pain that Republicans believe is her just deserts. Bleeding out from an untreated miscarriage, losing a job, delivering a baby to watch it die on the table, struggling to feed young children, being stuck in an abusive relationship: They understand perfectly well that these are among the likely outcomes of forced childbirth for women. But of course, making women suffer is, and always has been, the point. Ed Durr’s only mistake was saying so out loud.”
This is super personal to me because it almost killed me. I’ve told this story on reddit, but it bears repeating:
tl;dr lost my doctors due to an insurance change 4 weeks in to a 6 week open heart surgery recovery…
In 2018, my company was in the process of being sold. No big deal, above my paygrade, nothing for me to worry about.
Then I got sick right after Thanksgiving. Really bad heartburn that lasted 5 days. It wasn’t heartburn. I had a heart attack. 12/3 I had open heart surgery, single bypass, and that started a 6 week recovery clock.
On 1/1, the sale of my company closed and we officially had new owners. I also officially lost all of my doctors because the new employers don’t do Kaiser in Oregon. They do it in WA and CA, but each state has to be negotiated and they never had presence here.
1/2 I start working with Aetna to find doctors, hospitals, etc. Beyond the cardiologist I need a new pharmacist, podiatrist, diabetes care and a general “doctor” doctor.
Fortunately, my new employer is a big enough fish, they have their own concierge at Aetna and she gets me into the Legacy system.
On 1/3 I start developing complications, but I don’t know it at the time. It starts with a cough. All the time. Then, when I try to lay down, like to sleep, I’m drowning, literally choking and gagging.
The concierge and I try to get an appointment, we’re told 2-3 months. For a dude still recovering from open heart surgery? Best they could do is 2 weeks. 1/14.
I can’t lay down to sleep so I buy a travel neck pillow and sleep sitting up.
I get to see the new doctor at the “official” end of the 6 week recovery. He doesn’t know me or my history so he wants to run tests.
I’m sitting at home playing video games and waiting on test results when the call comes… Congestive heart failure. Report to the ER immediately.
My heart developed an irregular heart beat, which caused fluid build up in my chest. They admitted me and were getting ready to pull fluid off me.
“What happened to your foot?”
“I dunno, what happened to my foot? I can’t feel my feet.”
Remember when I said I was sitting around playing video games, waiting for test results? Yeah, my foot was touching a radiator and I didn’t know it. 3rd degree burns, first four toes. Pinkie was spared.
So I’m in the hospital a week. I lose 4 liters of water per day. 50 lbs. of water. No wonder I was drowning. Regular bandage changes.
So now I’m facing two procedures. Electrocardio version to fix my heart, skin grafts to fix my toes.
This whole time the new insurance covers 80% until I reach the out of pocket maximum of $6,500. Then it will cover 100%.
The old insurance? ER visit for heart attack, hospital admission, 8 days in the hospital, open heart bypass… $250.
So we hit the out of pocket maximum almost immediately. My wife had a problem with her foot running through the Seattle airport. The doctor who did her toe amputation was decided to be out of network so that was another $1,100.
I was never unemployed through all this. I had enough vacation and sick time banked to cover it. Cobra didn’t apply. Buying my old insurance wasn’t an option, it was far too expensive without employer backing. Income is too high for assistance (thank god) and I took steps to max out my HSA account, which is good because we drained it twice.
Three 1 week hospital stays (2 for me, 1 for my wife), multiple ER visits, two more major medical procedures… That would be enough to break most people even with good insurance.
So if you read any of that, let me ask you something… Why does the quality of my health care and my quality of life have to depend on who I work for and what insurance companies they choose to work with?
So, a couple of things… Kaiser is a membership hospital, if you aren’t a member, you don’t get in and as of 1/1/2019, I wasn’t a member anymore. :(
There is this thing called “Continuity of Care” but that only applies for services I had under the old hospital that aren’t available under the new one.
Because the new hospital DOES have a cardiac department, continuity of care didn’t apply.
Lastly, the Hippocratic Oath is largely a myth. ;)
“According to a 1989 survey, barely half of U.S. medical schools used any form of the Hippocratic Oath and only 2% used the original. In a 2011 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, about 80% of practicing physicians reported participating in an oath ceremony, but only a quarter felt that the oath significantly affected how they practiced.”
This is always what I think of when I hear arguments that our health care is “free market”. If it were, you could fire AETNA and go back to Kaiser. But that’s not the case, so insurers aren’t really beholden to satisfying their users, because their users aren’t their customers.
Yes exactly, anyone is free to set up a competing business, and incumbant players are free to make that as hard as possible while also being free to provide poor service because there is no viable competition.
and to top that up, OP could had just bought an additional care package by paying by his own pocket in the health clinic that he initially was. Completely free to do it if he wanted to pay 3 times the price. People don’t understand that in the so called free market there are actually unwritten rules set by the ones in power. They think that they would somehow be benefited from the lack of regulations while the regulations should be there in order to protect them from the greed of the mega-corps.
Registered to vote, told this story to the Bernie Sanders campaign, told it again for 4 days at the HLTH 2023 conference in Vegas. And I’ll keep telling it until something changes…
I hate to say this, but you are asking for meaningful change in a trillion dollar industry. It’s not going to happen through stories, public awareness, or by any other peaceful means.
So what, they should just give up? No. Change will happen as more and more people resist the status quo.
It may seem slow, it may be painful, it may feel like it's never going to actually work but you've got to keep going because one day and all of a sudden it will.
Of course they shouldn’t give up! I’m just saying, that’s not going to be enough.
It may seem slow, it may seem painful, it may feel like it’s never going to actually work but you’ve got to keep going because one day and all of a sudden will.
You’re deluding yourself. The wealthy will NEVER part with that much money willingly.
That’s why I partnered with a company called Savvy Coop and was invited to the HLTH 2023 conference in Las Vegas last week.
I had many good meetings with providers and health companies telling my story and our team was maybe a dozen or so patients with multiple medical conditions.
It’s getting out there. I’ll be on a podcast tomorrow.
Yeah and Sanders dropped out and we got fucking Biden. And people defend Biden because he’s not Trump. Nothing’s going to change now that Trump took over the Republican party, because why the fuck should Democrats try to do better? All that matters to voters is that Democrats are not Trump.
I feel bad for him, really I do. And I’m sorry to hear your story as well.
I’m just frustrated that Biden is the best we can do against Trump now, and nobody seems to care because he’s not Trump. We need to do better than this, but every time I bring up the Democrats’ shortcomings, the response I get is always “Doesn’t matter because Trump exists!” or they assume I’m a Trump supporter.
I’m afraid that now that Trump exists, Democrats are just going to stop trying to do anything like universal healthcare. Hell, they couldn’t even be bothered to codify Roe.
Trump is splintering his party though. Progress can’t happen as long as he’s around, Democrats have to pick up “moderates” (on the US Scale) and that puts everything else on pause. Pushing a progressive agenda now would just amplify Trump and potentially pull those moderates to him.
If we need more parties and more voices, then we need voting reform. FPTP always devolves down to two primary parties. Any secondary party would just be spoiler candidates.
Ain’t that the truth. As it stands now, I get called either a Nazi or a Libtard depending on who I’m talking to. It’s frustrating. Both sides will accept mediocrity as long as the other side doesn’t win.
And that’s why it suits the Democratic Party to tone down the progressive wing and focus on attracting moderates. If Donald breaks his party in two, then we’ll have a repeat of Perot in 96 or Nader in 2000. In both cases there were plenty of votes for the alternative candidate just in a few key districts that would have totally flipped those respective elections had they gone to the first-party candidate more closely aligned with them.
I read that with EU dates and thought it was weird to wait from Nov to March to get your heart looked at, and then March to Jan to actually have the operation. ISO 8601 FTW.
Really sorry for you both and your toes though, that sucks. Glad you’re still with us!
She has had multiple problems with ill fitting shoes and infections. She was running through the Seattle airport to make a transfer for a flight, got rubbed the wrong way, by the time he trip had ended the damage was done, the infection went to the bone and the toe couldn’t be saved.
She just had too much going on, her mother had died so it was a super fast emergency trip from Portland to Kansas and back.
I couldn’t go because I was still on my back from the heart surgery, so it was just her and our adult son.
Someone at some point should have told you this, but it rarely gets communicated until its too late. If you have peripheral neuropathy, even if you are not a diabetic, you should be doing nightly foot inspections with the aid of a mirror.
It drops the likelihood of acquiring an amputation by around 70%. Pretty much all my patients who have had amputations acquired them because they didn’t know about a foot wound before it became infected and spread to the bone.
Simply flashing your feet at a mirror kept propped next to a nightstand can significantly improve your overall health outcomes.
This is the kind of story libertarians can’t imagine because they simply lack an imagination. We don’t choose when we get sick. Your companies merger should have had no impact on your ability to get healthcare. What an absolutely insane thing to read.
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