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On Nov 6 the Isreali military announces that it will not allow Palestinians to return to Northern Gaza.

This is ethnic cleansing & forced displacement. These are war crimes.

Joe Biden could stop funding this at any moment but even now he won't. Reckless.
theguardian.com/world/2024/nov

The Guardian · Palestinians will not be allowed to return to homes in northern Gaza, says IDFBy Bethan McKernan

@Npars01 @QasimRashid
This is the new reality: no accountability for oligarchs.
A Republican congress guarantees that nothing will come of it.
Get used to it. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

@Joe_Hill @Npars01 @QasimRashid

We must adopt the same playbook they used. Slow, small changes, small wins, until we have enough power back to do as they did.

Just remember, we are the more intelligent party, so we should be able to get things back much quicker. They took decades to pull this off because that's what it takes for stupid to develop.

Truthfully, I expect the GOP to be too drunk on power to get anything done. Watch. Nothing meaningful to the country will get done. The economy, the food & gas prices, nothing will change.

@jeff @Joe_Hill @QasimRashid

Republicans want to dismantle the ACA, give tax cuts to the rich, deregulate pollution, thwart the phase out of fossil fuels, force women to boost the birth rate for economic reasons, suppress wages & voting, create slave labor camps for detainees, end federal agencies, end all social safety net programs, privatize & loot all federally owned assets, protect the gun lobby, reward megadonors using tax dollars, raise drug prices, adopt crypto,..

1/2

Nicole Parsons

2/2

.. inflict ruinous tariffs on automakers, farmers & distilleries, end all unions, eliminate the minimum wage, end student loan relief, convert government jobs into Tamanny Hall style graft, and profit from war & pandemics.

Republicans have a false reputation for being a "Do Nothing" party.

They plan on making 99% of the country poorer, sicker, and less long lived, while the favored few reap the rewards of being loyal apparatchiks.

@Npars01 and I'm saying they are too stupid to make any of it work. When they deport everyone that does the manual labor in this country, then what? You don't think MAGA is going to pick fruit or work at McDonald's do you?

Watch and see. They "want" to do a lot, but per usual do not have the critical thinking skills to see beyond their hate. They think they will just bus everyone they hate to the border and kick them out, turn and drive away, and be done with it.

I am betting on many mistakes happening and when they meet resistance even more mistakes will happen. We can take this country back.

@Npars01

I'll say it again.

They are too stupid to pull any of it off.

I'm not ready to give up.

@jeff @Npars01 While this may be true, they're going to hurt a lot of people trying. So we all have to pull together, throw sand in the gears and resist.

@samhainnight @Npars01

100% resist. I luckily live in a state with a governor that just told Trump, "If you come for my people, you will have to go through me!"

@jeff @Npars01 I'm in CA and Newsom just called a special session of the state Senate to combat Trump.
The US needs CA more than CA needs the US - from a Federal standpoint,
(We all need each other as people, of course), so I'm glad we have a strong Democratic governor who stands up to Trump.

@samhainnight @jeff @Npars01 I would like to see CA, OR. and WA succeed and form a new nation, possibly called Pacifica.

@sisu42 @samhainnight @jeff

Putin would adore it if the USA became like the former Yugoslavian states: weak, small, fractious & exploited as an agricultural backwater.

Easily picked off, one by one.

Strength comes from unity.

@sisu42 @jeff @Npars01 I'd like to see CA, Wa & Or kick the fascists ass and help save the country.

@samhainnight we can do that economically together as blue states. Just California plus NY equals almost a quarter of the entire US GDP!

@sisu42 @jeff @Npars01

@sisu42 @samhainnight @jeff @Npars01

Republic of Cascadia would be an alternative name 🙂🤷‍♂️

Edit: This Republic doesn't normally include CA (but does include BC in Canada) however it's inclusion would be a valuable addition.

@Npars01 @jeff This has Devo's and Erik Prince all over it! 🤮🤮🤮🤮

@Npars01 @jeff

"He's rewarding his private prison donors."

Hah, one of my thoughts for “What Biden should do now" is to blanket pardon just about every federal inmate with a sentence of fewer than say 5 years. See what that does to private prison income…

@Npars01 @jeff@soapbox.hackdefendr.com fascism is at its heart a huge grift. Now all the other criminals are gonna climb aboard.

@Npars01 @jeff
You can always see who paid in.
That's why tariffs (or suddenly not tariffs) are to watch.

@Npars01 @TheDailyBurble @jeff
💯

But the machine is even more efficient then that. When the government debt gets too big, and/or a financial bubble bursts, the Democrats are allowed to take over and clean up the books - all while being constantly blamed by the GOP

Then, as we just saw, a Democrats can be leading an economy that is "the envy of the world" (Economist mag) yet somehow personally responsible for the price gouging that drove inflation.

I blame media for amplifying GOP lies

@TCatInReality @Npars01 @TheDailyBurble @jeff

Also it seemed to me the Democrats didn't run on those record breaking accomplishments, yielding (as they often do) to GOP lies.

@stargazersmith @TCatInReality @Npars01 @TheDailyBurble

With 38% of registered voters either not voting or were blocked/prevented from voting is the ultimate reason Trump won. Not the only reason, but a primary reason.

They did everything they could to change the rules in their favor and forced a lot of people to just give up and not vote.

As for the 32% that actually voted for Trump consists mostly of low information voters that just don't watch the news. Mixed in with try MAGA cult members gave them that 2% lead.

@stargazersmith @jeff @Npars01 @TheDailyBurble
100% agree with No Name

And I'll push back hard on the rightwing narrative that Dems didn't message well, or "yielded" to GOP messaging.

America essentially has two media:
- right wing propagandists and
- mainstream bothsides media that normalizes and sanewashes GOP insanity and downplays Dems

And that's because billionaires control the media and want this outcome. 9 years of relentless brainwashing made a criminal acceptable.

@jeff
It's not even the Felon that won...
Capitalism and the Heritage Foundation won.
That's who now controls our nation.
We are going to see a lot of deaths in the next couple of years because they will be removing anyone that they consider dead weight.

@TCatInReality @Npars01 @TheDailyBurble @jeff Democrats run Black, Gay, and Female candidates. It is forbidden to vote for them except in emergencies.

Except in those emergencies, nothing they say is to be taken seriously, everything said by Republicans is TRUTH.

@TCatInReality @Npars01 @TheDailyBurble @jeff Been like that as long as I can remember. Personally I am getting ready for the inevitable Republican recession and job layoffs. Probably have a few years to save up some cash, am going to need it.

@Npars01 @jeff And everyone will go along with it, shrug, and smile, and say 'aww.. just Trump being Trump'. 🙂

@Npars01 @jeff It’s too late. Just watch was the dope does.

@Npars01 @jeff
Exactly right, everyone should be reading about how Stalin consolidated authoritarian rule over the Russian empire in order to see what we have in store unless our resistance is effective.

@Npars01 @jeff

so many people have no morals or values

they cherish and seek money and power to the exclusion of anything else

it really is disgusting

@Npars01 @jeff
I've read estimates of what the arrests alone would cost taxpayers. Forgot the figures because I couldn't wrap my brain around them.

@Nazani @jeff

Republicans consider the American taxpayers as an exploitable resource to enrich their billionaire donors.

The 2008 Financial Crash taught Wall Street how to buy politicians to escape consequences & profit from the disasters they orchestrate.

Covid Pandemic relief made the rich a lot richer.

Both Trump presidencies will do the same. Enrichment & impunity for the moneyed.

@Npars01 @jeff
I think they'll enrich themselves off the broadening avian flu, too.
I read that peasants & craftsmen had a lot more value after the Black Death killed 30% of Europeans- but they were still stuck with kings.

@Nazani @jeff

Kings or any other dictator cannot cope with modern complexity.

Simplistic governance produces simplistic "solutions".

Converting modern government into a monarchy-style system of patronage hastens the collapse from crises like pandemics & prolong a painful recovery.

Population size wasn't restored for centuries after the Black Death because of the constant warfaring of despots between themselves.

@Npars01 @jeff
It must be tough, understanding cause & effect, & living in a world that largely doesn't.

@Nazani @jeff

Systems thinking seems to be a relatively new way of observing political decline.

The tech industry shares a lot of concepts that I wouldn't have encountered otherwise. Grateful for the broadening of horizons.

Not everyone sees that perspective. For them, knowledge is to be hoarded to benefit themselves personally.

Some use tech to narrow horizons, limit benefits to a tiny few, and manipulate others using information asymmetry.

@Nazani @jeff

Good books on Systems Thinking.

Derek & Laura Cabrera "Systems Thinking"
David Peter Stroh "Systems Thinking for Social Change"
Albert Rutherford "The Systems Thinker"

It can be applied to so many global problems, like backsliding democracies & fossil fuel funded fascism.

& spent 50 years building a right wing ecosystem to keep its captive consumers captivated.

A bandaid was attempted by focusing only on electing Democrats.

Voting is ...

1/2

2/2

... only one element of a larger & broader effort necessary to save democracy & the planet. Build communities & ecosystems.

Fund law students careers right in college like Koch does. Fund progressive influencers. Fund a ground game.

Start with not participating in or contributing to any venture funded by GOP billionaires.

AI. Cryptocurrency. SpaceX. Twitter. Walmart. Loans. RTO. Fox News. CNN. NYT.

If a Republican wants it, you don't.

Sabotage their efforts to divide & conquer.

One aspect of fascism is the development of dark economies & tax evasion.

Populist tax revolts are responses to being harvested like wheat by billionaires.

Republicans have used tax evasion & tax revolts to undermine the common good for half a century. Turn the tables.

Think about the significance of the cash-only economy of India in response to Modi.

If billionaires can evade taxation, so can the poor, and then how will Musk get his government subsidies for SpaceX?
caravanmagazine.in/vantage/ind

caravanmagazine.inAn Account of India’s Attempts to Curb the Black Economy, and Why They Don’t WorkArun Kumar details misconceptions regarding the functioning of the black economy, and why moves such as demonetisation fail to curb it.

@Npars01 @Nazani @jeff@soapbox.hackdefendr.com I’m not sure that ancient systems could cope with plague either. Look at what happened to Rome after the Antonine Plague (165-180 CE) and the Justinian Plague 541-549 CE. I think that the only difference now is that the consequences are more widespread and playing out more rapidly thanks to modern communications and technology.

@Npars01 Klingt nach einem guten kapitalistischen Geschäftsmodell.

@Npars01 @jeff Prison labor is happening now. Look, too, at the Prop. that was just voted on, in California, allowing the continuation of enslavement for purposes of punishment.

Shocking but nonetheless accepted is that CoreCivic in Tennessee is a donor to arts, the Middle Tennessee YMCA and other seemingly benign institutions. Here's a random article about prison labor:

confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/co

confluence.gallatin.nyu.eduThe Genesis of Corecivic’s Privatized Prison Labor – Confluence

@Npars01 @jeff Private prisons are an essential part of Tennessee. I live in Nashville, a Dem enclave, but it's difficult to avoid CoreCivic's ubiquity.

Over in California, someone reminded me that prison labor was used to combat forest fires. And this is going to continue.

@Npars01 @jeff Yes, it'll get worse. It's gotten much much worse in Tennessee since I first set foot here. I'm glad my kid is done with school here and left for the west coast with a whole little colony of other graduates.

@Npars01 @jeff I think they will use all those „illegalizations“ (immigration, pregnancy, you name it) to increase pressure and incite fear. And then, immigrants‘ labour will be cheaper, women will be more subordinated (again), people will do their biddings and so on. 1984, The Handmaid‘s Tale and many other dystopian fantasies coming to life. That‘s what reactionaries dream of. Stupid? Of course. But also evil.
BTW: Coming soon: Bow to the royal family!

@ahm42 @Npars01

"BTW: Coming soon: Bow to the royal family!"

Yep, and I'll bow with my ass facing towards them.

@jeff @Npars01 Slavery is still legal in the US as long as the cops are the ones doing the enslaving.

That's why the private prison system exists, to exploit captive labor.

@gooba42 @Npars01

Well look. I get all that, I know that's what they'll try. I just don't think they are smart enough to pull it off. They'll be drunk with power for years, all the while people like me who haven't given up yet will sneak past their guards and take the castle back.

I'm not ready to give up!

I will die right here in my home under my own conditions before I give up and let some tiny handed moron win this way.

@jeff @Npars01

They don't care. They're in it for the performative impact. The greater the impact, the better

@jeff @Npars01 in the midterms maybe if he screws up

@jeff @Npars01 The first time I told someone that Mexico is not going to agree to accept millions of people, especially all at once, they looked so confused.

@MiriShuli @Npars01

I'm not going to Mexico, I'm going to Canada.