#electoral tie

[rabbitcruiser]

An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the United States House of Representatives on February 17, 1801.

#electoral tie #Thomas Jefferson #Aaron Burr #US President #17 February 1801 #Mount Rushmore National Memorial #Gutzon Borglum #controversy #landmark #controversial memorial #Black Hills #George Washington #Teddy Roosevelt #Abraham Lincoln #Theodore Roosevelt #original photography #South Dakota #tourist attraction #summer 2019 #anniversary #US history #travel #vacation #USA

[revolutionarysuicide]

how come dems are always like "uh we can voot for biden without endorsing him, it just means we oppose trump more" but if u hope that genocider loses an election it's bc you support trump. ok guess only you guys are allowed to oppose one candidate without supporting the other

#cw us electoral politics #same shit here i hope labour loses soooo badly next ge #tie me to a missile and fire me at the houses of parliament

[robertreich]

No Labels Isn't What It Claims to Be

The “No Labels” Party is not what it pretends to be. It’s a front group for Donald Trump.

Now I understand, if you’re sick of the two major parties, you might be intrigued by a party that claims to be a “common sense” alternative that finds the middle ground.

But if you or anyone in your life is planning to vote for No Labels — or any third party — in 2024, please watch and share this video first.

Here are three things you need to know.

First, No Labels is a dark money group with secret far-right donors. Investigative reporting has revealed that they include many of the same Republican donors who have pumped huge sums of money into electing candidates like Trump and Ron DeSantis. They also include the rightwing billionaire Harlan Crow, who spent years secretly treating Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to a lifestyle of the rich and famous.

If the No Labels Party is backed by Trump donors, in an election where Trump is on the ballot, there’s actually a label we should give to “No Labels.” Clearly, they’re a pro-Trump group.

Second, the premise No Labels is based on — that Donald Trump and President Biden are at equally extreme ends of the political spectrum — is preposterous.

Trump has been impeached twice, found by a jury to have committed sexual assault, is facing 91 criminal charges in four separate cases — two of them in connection with an attempt to effectively end American democracy.

There is no “equally extreme” candidate as Trump!

Finally, the structure of the Electoral College means that as a practical matter, a third party only draws votes away from whichever major party candidate is closest to it. No third party candidate has ever won a presidential election.

And in this particular election, when one of the major parties is putting up a candidate who threatens democracy itself, we cannot take the risk.

Donald Trump has already tried to overturn one election and suggested suspending the Constitution to maintain power. It is no exaggeration to say that if he takes the White House again, there may not ever be another free and fair election.

Democracy won by a whisker in the last presidential election. Just 44,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin — less than one tenth of 1 percent of the total votes cast nationwide — were the difference between the Biden presidency and a tie in the Electoral College that would have thrown the election to the House of Representatives, and hence to Trump.

If candidates from No Labels— or any other third party, like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party —  peel off just a fraction of the anti-Trump vote from Biden, while Trump voters stay loyal to him, Trump could win the top five swing states comfortably and return to the Oval Office. And No Labels’ own polling shows they would do just that!

Let me be absolutely clear. Third-party groups like No Labels are in effect front groups for Trump in 2024, and should be treated as such.

The supposed “centrism” No Labels touts is nonsense. There is no middle ground between democracy and fascism.

Please share this video and spread the word.

#youtube #politics #Donald Trump #Joe Biden #No Labels #election #video #videos

[simonalkenmayer]

I want to show you something interesting that was done recently. Something you can show your Trump supporting relatives.

Yale did a study with death stats that shows that prior to and during the pandemic, Republicans and Democrats were largely dying at the same rate. However once vaccines came out, Democratic deaths dropped at a staggering rate, while republicans continued to (and still are) die at a much higher rate.

The study looks at “excess death”—as in deaths occurring outside the normal death rates. It does not, however, tie into COVID related death tolls via the CDC, because there’s no real way to correlate that data without knowing individual medical history. So the study approaches the idea as best as it can.

You can see from the graph that death rates seem very even among the two groups, until you get to the moment the vaccines became available.

The vertical line is vaccine roll out. Horizontal line is zero. The spikes follow alao v with the waves of spread that the CDC tracks, when variants make rounds and spread. The stats deviate from one another prior to the introduction of the vaccine, when republican disinformation began telling people to return to normal life and participate in events. However, you can see the sharp divergence clearly, when vaccines became available. They continued to diverge as months went on. Currently, Republicans have an abnormally high excess death rate, at nearly double the Democratic death toll. Even with interaction between the two groups in uncontrolled settings, Republican death rates are higher than Democratic death rates., because of vaccine efficacy. I’m sure future studies will be done to further illuminate this phenomenon, but this is an excellent first glimpse.

This is memetic selection. They chose not to be vaccinated. They chose to have less protection. And so…they cease to exist. However, because this type of selection doesn’t act as strongly on younger people who are breeding, it doesn’t drastically shift future rates of potential Republican indoctrination. It does, however, drastically change the current electorate.

Whoops.

This is the GOP platform: no plan, take away equality, bodily autonomy, privacy, social security, medical care, benefits. No rule of law, lower wages, higher aggregation of wealth in top .1%, and a destitute dependent, undereducated populace. Disposable people who die when they’re no longer useful as misinformation spreaders to facilitate their control. 

This is the consequence of compassionless governance, in mathematical, quantifiable terms.

TL;DR COVID kills more Republicans than Democrats, at rates twice as high, because the party engaged in stupid misinformation on a communicable disease for the sake of retaining power.

#covid #covid vaccine #politics #selection

[bugswapau]

NEW AND IMPROVED DESIGNS AND CHARACTER BIOS!

For a while now, I’ve been unhappy with the current designs of the Bugswap cast, so instead of wallowing in my frustration, I decided to finally do something about it. So after a few days, I whipped up the most recent and updated version of the cast — both in designs and in profiles!

Under the readmore, I’ll go into more detail about my design process and what I changed. So if that stuff makes you curious, feel free to read on!

Now with all that soft rebooting out of the way, things should be back up to speed! Thanks for all your patience and support!

Filbo: I feel like Filbo’s design was too cluttered. So, the most I did was just cut off Filbo’s sleeves. Additionally, I gave Filbo a hat reminiscent of old Newsboy hats. I also shifted his electoral badge to his hat, so it’d mirror the press paper commonly seen on hats on journalist designs.

Ripley: I decided to make Ripley look more like my design for the journalist. I also removed the pattern on their shirt.

Triffany: I decided to make Triffany wear just one shirt with a ribbon around the neck. It gives her more of a rustic old-fashioned feel.

Wambus: I didn’t change much of Wambus’ design. Yay for Wambus!

Cromdo: I ditched Cromdo’s previous outfit altogether and gave him a tacky tourist shirt with a pattern similar to his necktie. I felt like the previous outfit didn’t reflect his personality in this AU, so the Hawaiian shirt leans more into the sleaziness of him!

Beffica: Like Wambus, I didn’t change much with Beffica. The most I did was replace her sash with a vest (common in Girl Scout juniors) and simplify the detail on her necklace.

Gramble: I decided to remove the Strabby and bandana to keep his color pallet consistent. Additionally, he now longer plays the banjo and is now a violinist (or rather fiddler).

Wiggle: I made her color pallet consist more of browns because her previous color palette was too clashy. She also has a little Cinnasnail beanie. In terms of backstory, I decided to remove the aspect of her being a child star and made her more of a traditional “lonely rich child” archetype.

Snorpy: I took Snorpy’s hair down and made it more au natural, mostly so he and Flooftix look more similar. For a while, I was divisive about Snorpy’s outfit, but I figured the “shirt-atop-a-long-sleeves” look fit his skater style. I also gave him a new T-shirt to fit him being a skater more.

Chandlo: I gave Chandlo a new outfit altogether since his previous one didn’t fit him. I gave him an outfit closer to Snorpy’s current outfit, so he resembles something of a blacksmith.

Flooftix: I didn’t change much with Flooftix. I simplified the pattern on their flower crown, and I now gave them a little stick cane to tie back into them being disabled (here, they just have a really bad knee as apprised to self-induced amputation).

Shellsy: I didn’t change Shellsy all too much. She’s pretty tried and true.

Eggabell: Her new outfit is a mix of both Lizbert’s canon outfit and her previous outfit. I think the dark browns create a nice contrast on her primarily white color palette.

Lizbert: I decided to just give her Eggabell’s canon outfit. Other than that, not much else has changed.

#bugsnax #bugswap au #filbo fiddlepie #Bugsnax Filbo #the journalist #the journalist bugsnax #triffany lottablog #bugsnax triffany #wambus troubleham #bugsnax wambus #cromdo face #bugsnax cromdo #beffica winklesnoot #bugsnax beffica #gramble gigglefunny #bugsnax gramble #wiggle wigglebottom #bugsnax wiggle #snorpy fizzlebean #bugsnax snorpy #chandlo funkbun #bugsnax chandlo #floofty fizzlebean #Bugsnax Floofty #shellsy woolbag #Bugsnax Shelda #eggabell batternugget #bugsnax eggabell #lizbert megafig #my art

[collapsedsquid]

Once upon a time, it was decided that many public sector pay settlements would be decided by an independent pay review body.  This seemed reasonably sensible at the time; it de-politicised the question and allowed for the possibility of unpopular decisions being made without being subject to too much public pressure. Once upon a time, it was decided that anti-inflation policy would be assigned wholly to the independent central bank.  This seemed reasonably sensible at the time; there was pretty good economic theory in support of the idea that we’d get better outcomes if things were handed over to a body that could commit to policy over extended periods and wasn’t subject to the electoral cycle. Once upon a time, it was decided that the overall level of tax and spending should be subject to a fiscal rule.  This seemed sensible to a lot of people at the time. To be honest pissed me off mightily and I have been complaining about it ever since, but the idea was that nobody trusted politicians and it was better to tie their hands and maintain confidence of the markets so that they wouldn’t sneakily run up the national debt. You can see that all of these things are, at some level or another, excuses.  In the forthcoming book I call them “accountability sinks” – they are ways to avoid the unpleasant aspects of having to make a decision, by creating a system to which undesirable public feedback can be directed and dissipated. [...] It's sort of an aristocracy of excuses.  You can sort of see how people get alienated from politics and inclined to vote for populists.  To be honest, a dictatorship by ChatGPT no longer seems like it would be so much worse.  The overpowering political theme of my adult life has been a retreat, on the part of those with power, from any idea of making a decision and living with it. 

#more and more people are saying it

[chribby]

Pluto Square = internet observations

The World Wide Web was created on 6 August 1991, in Geneva, Switzerland.

According to the astro-databank, Tim Berners-Lee formally introduced his project to the world on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. This date marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service. I am going with this date as this is the main … thing for … the world wide web lol.

The internet, as we know it, is a largely Aquarian thing, with the dot-com bubble following as Pluto entered Sagittarius. But since we’re talking about Pluto, we’re going to look at the Internet. I think this is the most important example of what happens during a Pluto square. NOW, we have quite some time before Pluto perfects that square. Something that I am noticing about Plutonian energy is that yes, it is intense in nature. Naturally, you will start to feel the more intense things first, right? It’s how we’re beginning to see the effects of Pluto in Aquarius without it not actually being there yet.

Another thing I’m noticing is that pluto – though intense – likes to ease its way into signs. It usually stops in a sign for a few months, then most of the year, then it starts its 20 year path. That’s what I’m seeing with Pluto – we will spend 80% of the year with Pluto in Aquarius.

Except, of course, September 18th and November 18th. You know. During an election year. Very good news.

[I will write about Pluto in Capricorn thoughts later as this is turning into a ramble, but with Pluto relating to power and Capricorn relating to power structures built – this literally manifesting into power in the corporations and money making interests – I think that will be a very interesting look at those last few months during the election. At this point, I have given up on electoral politics entirely, but! I wonder how that last hurrah in Pluto in Capricorn will feel after spending 80% of the year with the Power materializing into the People.]

Back to what I was saying. Pluto will not yet be at 17 degrees Aquarius for some time, but I can already see changes brewing within the internet sphere.

People are exhausted with the social media sites. The draw of them was to help connect with people you knew in a different, more meaningful way – different than the forums, ircs and Bbs of the time. This was back when anonymity was valued, your art getting posted everywhere meant you made it big, AND there was little financial incentive to tie yourself to your online identity.

I will not pretend I understood the original draw of all of the social medias – I can’t even fathom an inference. I mean, it seemed obvious facebook was about sharing memories and making friends, creating groups and talking to people. IG was about sharing pics quick. YouTube was about recording yourself with rudimentary software and Twitter was about talking about what you were up to.

What. The hell. Happened?

As Pluto has been dipping its toe into Aquarius, I have been seeing a lot more complaints about this. I predicted this, but let’s elaborate in a more meaningful way so that you’re able to apply this with you and your friends.

There’s a lot to think about when it comes to the way that we use the internet. I believe it was Summie who said that gifs used to be just gifs, but now they’re all advertisements in some way. Like a Fresh Prince gif used to be a Fresh Prince gif. But now, it’s a Fresh Prince gif along with Paramount+, so you create that mental connection instantly to know where you *could* watch it if for some reason this dancing image of carlton spurred you into that.

Reminds me of when I watched Fresh Prince on TBS and I noticed that everything was so much faster, and then a few years later there was a reddit post about how all syndicated shows on TBS are like, xyz faster to fit in more ads.

Speaking of GIFs, GIFs used to be artful. 256 colors or less, a beautiful dither. We did so much more with so much less, and I think that’s what I’m trying to get at here.

Of course, with time, things change. That’s what Pluto squares kinda examine if we’re looking at it from an as above, so below perspective. But I don’t think it’s ever been this, shitty…

So many apps have hired psychologists to pick the right colors, use the right hand movements to keep us hooked. The algorithms are trended towards whatever the user is most likely to interact with – good or bad. People are being rewarded for spreading misinformation, DISinformation. Almost all socials (idk about tungle) are feeding every bit of UGC into their own personal LLMs to create … chat bots. Connecting any of these accounts shares data between the socials, and enhances each consumer profile to sell to advertisers.

And don’t get me started about this app listening shit.

No, what’s really infuriating is the apps that intentionally get shittier and then force you to pay for shit you already had previously. The ones that are baiting you into feeling miserable. The bird app is unusable because you have to block 10 people a day, mute 5 words, and lock comments in order to get a semblance of peace. Like, why do I want to use an app that does that? Why do I want to feed into this garbage? Why do I want to constantly get trapped into this machine?

I think in 2024, we’re standing on business as far as understanding the types of stimuli we let ourselves engage with. I feel like this square is helping us understand how far we strayed away – and I believe that with the Aquarius aspect, we’re going back to our roots as far as the internet goes. I see reddit being hyped up, and every time I see it it’s because of its forum like aspects. We could just go to a forum.

I go on forums all the time still. I plan on running one in 2024. I can’t STAND discord (which also uses LLMs) … Skype was always horrible too. Voice chatting, hmmm… well we’ll have to think ab this entirely bc of how GenA/I is working with voices… hmmm…

I feel like Streaming will be big. Public Access is coming back – I feel like there’s a lot of Power to the People and Power to the Demagoguery ass shit going on. Independent music (no spotify/apple music), independent videos (youtube, other apps ARE coming out though. Could YouTube be unseated? In 20 years, YES.) Independent creativity. The problem will *seem* to be the lack of funding, but just like I said earlier – we can do so much, with so little.

But Public Access TV shows are coming. If you haven’t started your stream or your YouTube or whatever, you should! Right now!

We’re straying away from algorithm based trends and aspects and we’re rebuilding our muscles into seeking out the things we believe we will like. I’m going to go back on soundcloud and I’m handcrafting my music tastes again, no algorithms.

[Sorry, another rant: there was nothing worse than me listening to a song and thinking I’m the only one in the world listening to it, and then I would hear it on numerous coworkers spotify radios without our accounts ever interacting. Like I couldn’t even bop to the song. As an Aquarius Venus this is so serious to me.]

Another thing is – we’re going back to internet safety. Four years ago, I had a dream that I needed to change my passwords. I changed them all immediately and told all my friends to do so as well. I’m not sure what happened after – I guess I could look it up. But, that restarted my journey into caring about my digital hygiene. I think that’s a big word in 2024. Digital Hygiene.

But, one thing to watch out for? Tech accelerationism. I am not sure why people are so vested into the end of humanity as we know it. Why do people want to transcend humanity when we haven’t even begun to understand the different parts of ourselves yet? I feel like research into humans is still deeply in its infancy to give up on humanity and the earth like this.

I think for my last little piece, one thing I’ve noticed is that when Pluto goes into a Sign, the connotation of the sign changes RADICALLY from what it used to. I saw this in a tweet (I’ll edit this post with the tweet when I find it) where Capricorns used to be seen as broke and miserable but now they’re seen as money makers, methodical, etc.

Aquarius is seen as futuristic, nostalgic, technological. People and the self. In the book I use for most of my correspondences, The Rulership Book by Rex Bills, and Capricorn and Aquarius had the least amount of rulerships. I think it’s because the outers didn’t really touch either of these signs until the late 20th century, so there wasn’t a lot of things to reference besides the inner planet stuff.

Pluto is the last of the outers to complete this most recent Aquarius transit. I feel like during this time, we will be looking at tech accelerationism and pushing future nostalgia to its limits. As I come up with more theories, I’ll let you know, but I’m excited!

#chribstradamus #pluto in aqua #pluto in aquarius #pluto in scorpio

[decolonize-the-left]

"youre being an alarmist"

The party of Telling on Themselves is actually conflating queer ppl/our allies with pedophiles and would happily see us tried to death as pedophiles if we get in between Desantis and human rights.

Fascist ideologues taught that national identity was the foundation of individual identity and should not be corrupted by foreign influences, especially if they were left-wing. Nazism condemned Marxist and liberal internationalisms as threats to German national unity.

Fascists in general wanted to replace internationalist class solidarity with nationalist class collaboration. The Italian, French, and Spanish notion of integral nationalism was hostile to individualism and political pluralism. Unlike democratic conservatives, fascists accused their political opponents of being less “patriotic” than they, sometimes even labeling them “traitors.”

[...]

Scapegoating

Fascists often blamed their countries’ problems on scapegoats. Jews, Freemasons, Marxists, and immigrants were prominent among the groups that were demonized. According to fascist propaganda, the long depression of the 1930s resulted less from insufficient government regulation of the economy or inadequate lower-class purchasing power than from “Judeo-Masonic-bolshevik” conspiracies, left-wing agitation, and the presence of immigrants. The implication was that depriving these demons of their power and influence would cause the nation’s major problems to go away.

x

Which includes everyone else they targeted of course. Queer folk included. For depriving the Aryan race of children.

From the same entry:

Populism

Fascists praised the Volk and pandered to populist anti-intellectualism. Nazi art criticism, for example, upheld the populist view that the common man was the best judge of art and that art that did not appeal to popular taste was decadent. Also populist was the Nazi propaganda theme that Hitler was a “new man” who had “emerged from the depth of the people.”

This is the ideology behind banning drag. Labeling it as legally obscene which generally means "offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency." There is no singular legal definition. Whatever locals see fit. Which is how Desantis is getting away with what he's doing.

Pretty direct tie to that is this next bit:

Revolutionary Image

[...] Under the Third Reich, Goebbels subsidized an exhibition of modern art not to celebrate its glory but to expose its decadence; he called it simply the “Exhibition of Degenerate Art.” Fascism’s claims to newness did not prevent its propagandists from pandering to fearful traditionalists who associated cultural modernism with secular humanism, feminism, sexual license, and the destruction of the Christian family.

And for all the leftists constantly saying to disregard the rural, more conservative areas like the ones I'm in. To the ones saying "they're a useless effort" and to focus on cities.

Antiurbanism

Fascists also pandered to antiurban feelings. The Nazis won most of their electoral support from rural areas and small towns. In Nazi propaganda the ideal German was not an urban intellectual but a simple peasant, and uprooted intellectualism was considered a threat to the deep, irrational sources of the Volk soul. Jews were often portrayed—and therefore condemned—as quintessential city dwellers. In 1941 La Rocque commented: “The theory of ‘families of good stock who have their roots in the earth’ leads us to conclusions not far from [those of] Walter Darre, Minister of Agriculture for the Reich.” Romanian fascism relied heavily on the support of landed peasants who distrusted the “wicked” city. The agrarian wing of Japanese fascism praised the peasant soldier and denigrated the industrial worker.

Yeah. Gives new meaning to "those damn city folk" which is you guessed it: a dogwhistle.

"oh but the Democrats aren't racist or-" I mean they are but even if they weren't:

Varieties of fascism

Just as Marxists, liberals, and conservatives differed within and between various countries, so too did fascists. In some countries there were rivalries between native fascist movements over personal, tactical, and other differences. Fascist movements also displayed significant differences with respect to their acceptance of racism and particularly anti-Semitism, their identification with Christianity, and their support for Nazi Germany.

Identification with Christianity

Most fascist movements portrayed themselves as defenders of Christianity and the traditional Christian family against atheists and amoral humanists. This was true of Catholic fascist movements in Poland, Spain, Portugal, France, Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

[...]Although fascists in Germany and Italy also posed as protectors of the church, their ideologies contained many elements that conflicted with traditional Christian beliefs, and their policies were sometimes opposed by church leaders. The Nazis criticized the Christian ideals of meekness and guilt on the grounds that they repressed the violent instincts necessary to prevent inferior races from dominating Aryans

Sound familiar maybe?

Many fascist ideas derived from the reactionary backlash to the progressive revolutions of 1789, 1830, 1848, and 1871 and to the secular liberalism and social radicalism that accompanied these upheavals

Hmmmm

Secular liberalism- Political ideology: Secular liberalism is a form of liberalism in which secularist principles and values, and sometimes non-religious ethics, are especially emphasised. It supports the separation of religion and state.

Radical politics denotes the intent to transform or replace the fundamental principles of a society or political system, often through social change, structural change, revolution or radical reform. The process of adopting radical views is termed radicalisation.

So they just took advantage of people in rural areas, used their support for subtle fascist policies to develop fascism and silence to people who opposed them fascism. In a time of social upheaval. Huh.

That's funny, it sounds just like the radicalization of people in rural areas across the US that are sick of the status quo and politicians using that momentum to push discriminatory bills and silence opposition... happening right now...in 2023 after a few years of protests in a row.

This one's easier to read in modern day if you interpret this as being "anti-woke"

Racial Darwinists such as Vogt, Haeckel, Treitschke, Langbehn, Lagarde, and Chamberlain glorified the survival of the fittest, scolded humanitarians for attempting to protect the racially unfit, and rejected the idea of social equality (“Equality is death, hierarchy is life,” wrote Langbehn). Chamberlain saw no reason to give inferior races equal rights. Treitschke raged against democracy, socialism, and feminism (all of which he attributed to Jews), insisted that might made right, and praised warrior imperialism (“Brave peoples expand, cowardly peoples perish”).

But surely it couldn't have listed even trad-wives and the divine feminist TERF nonsense right???

Ha

In the late 19th century many conservative nationalists were philosophical idealists who accused liberals and socialists of materialism and thereby portrayed their own politics as more spiritual.

And lastly:

Although in principle there were significant differences between fascism and nonfascist conservatism, the two camps shared some of the same goals, which in times of crisis led some nonfascists to collaborate with fascists.

As Weiss observed, “Any study of fascism which centers too narrowly on the fascists and Nazis alone may miss the true significance of right-wing extremism. For without necessarily becoming party members or accepting the entire range of party principles themselves, aristocratic landlords, army officers, government and civil service officials, and important industrialists in Italy and Germany helped bring fascists to power.”

[...]During the Great Depression, thousands of middle-class conservatives fearful of the growing power of the left abandoned traditional right-wing parties and adopted fascism. The ideological distance traveled from traditional conservatism to Nazism was sometimes small, since many of the ideas that Hitler exploited in the 1930s had long been common currency within the German right.

[...]

Fascists also received support from Christian conservatives. Between 1930 and 1932 Hitler was supported by many Protestant voters in rural Prussia, and after 1933 the Catholic church in Germany largely accommodated itself to his regime. In 1933 the Vatican, which had previously interdicted Catholic membership in socialist organizations, signed a concordat with Germany that forbade priests to speak out on politics and gave Hitler a say in naming bishops.

Neofascism

The postwar period to the end of the 20th century

[...]Neofascist parties differed from earlier fascist movements in several significant respects, many of them having to do with the profound political, economic, and social changes that took place in Europe in the first decades after the end of the war.

For example, whereas fascists assigned much of the blame for their countries’ economic problems to the machinations of bolsheviks, liberals, and Jews, neofascists tended to focus on non-European immigrants—such as Turks, Pakistanis, and Algerians—who arrived in increasing numbers beginning in the 1970s.

[...] Finally, the gradual acceptance of democratic norms by the vast majority of western Europeans reduced the appeal of authoritarian ideologies and required that neofascist parties make a concerted effort to portray themselves as democratic and “mainstream.”

Some neofascists even included words like “democratic” and “liberal” in the titles of their movements.

Most neofascists abandoned the outward trappings of earlier fascist parties, such as paramilitary uniforms and Roman salutes, and many explicitly denounced fascist policies or denied that their parties were fascist. Noting this transformation, in 1996 Roger Eatwell cautioned: “Beware of men—and women—wearing smart Italian suits: the colour is now gray, the material is cut to fit the times, but the aim is still power.…Fascism is on the move once more, even if its most sophisticated forms have learned to dress to suit the times.” Similarly, historian Richard Wolin described these movements as “designer fascism.”

As with fascist movements of the interwar period, neofascist movements differed from one another in various respects.

The rhetoric of neofascists in Russia and the Balkans, for example, tended to be more openly brutal and militaristic than that of the majority of their Western counterparts.

[...] Portuguese, British, and (for a time) Italian neofascists advocated corporatism, in contrast to French and many other Western neofascists, who promoted free-market capitalism and lower taxes. In the 1990s in Russia and eastern Europe, neofascist movements were generally more leftist than their counterparts in western Europe, emphasizing the interests of workers and peasants over those of the urban middle class and calling for “mixed” socialist and capitalist economies.

One of the largest neofascist movements in western Europe in the 1990s was the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano [MSI]; renamed the National Alliance [Alleanza Nazionale] in 1994). Founded in 1946, it was led at various times by Giorgio Almirante, Augusto De Marsanich, Arturo Michelini, and Gianfranco Fini. As an official in Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic, a puppet state established by the Germans in northern Italy in 1944, Almirante oversaw the regime’s propaganda machinery.

When the MSI was launched in 1946, Almirante sought to give it a modern image, urging its members to “beware of representing fascism in a grotesque way, or at any rate, in an outdated, anachronistic, and stupidly nostalgic way.”

Fascists aren't stupid and they've had a long time to plan out how to make their beliefs publicly acceptable.

Tumblr user daj2793 is showing us how that includes aligning their opponents with people that the majority would find reprehensible to defend.

It's a very simple pill to swallow if you don't know what's in it.

#democrats are fascist #and #Republicans are fascist #and thats because the USA is a fascist country #Democrats #republicans #liberals #whiteness #white supremacy #fascist #fascism #lgbt #leftist #capitalism #politics #elections #electoral politics #biden 2024 #trump 2024 #marianne 2024 #2024 elections #biden #leftists #anarchist #communist #socialist #learn your history #current events #queer #solidarity

[arizonaconservativegal]

Recently polls released about the fact that Biden trails Trump while Democratic senators are leading against the Republican senators they are up against.

This is the sour I was talking about since again people seem to dislike Biden more than Trump.

Do you think if they replace Biden it should be Newsom or Sanders? Idk about newsom since there was polls saying he has it worse than Biden and I want to say Sanders is better but I'm kind of wondering if there is something misguided about it at this point.

Ok I'm going to say this in a way that's going to make me sound like an asshole and that's because I am a little bit lol sorry in advance because I don't mean to be short with you specifically but I do mean to be short with people in general.

I understand you have polls that you think say Trump is leading Biden. I also have a poll that says 7% of Americans think chocolate milk comes from brown cows. Do you think that's an accurate number? It's not.

Polls are not gospel. And more importantly, you are reading them with an understanding so elementary that you're missing what they're actually saying. At the very least, I almost always see people forget to account for margin of error and they declare victory on a poll that actually shows a tie.

If you want a more detailed walkthrough of how to read a poll, I broke one down a few weeks ago here. If there's a particular poll you're looking at, I'd be happy to give it a look with you if you send me a link.

That aside, I think Sanders is a non-starter. The Dem machine is still mad at him for his stunt in 2016. Newsom is someone they'd consider but I don't think he's strong enough electorally. I've also seen Michelle Obama's name floated and she's definitely strong enough but I don't think she's dumb enough to want it. I wouldn't be surprised if Gretchen Whitmer were under consideration for a run at some point but she'd need an image revamp and I'm not sure they can pull it off fast enough. Stacey Abrams is a possible but I think she's more likely for a vp, as is Mayor Pete. Jared Polis would be a decent strategic choice but he'd need to start making some noise asap because no one outside Colorado has a clue who is. I've also joked that they're going to go with Chelsea Clinton but honestly, I don't think they pull Biden from the ticket willingly. Unless he dies or it's looking like he's going to before election day, I think they stick with him. Most of their replacement choices are either too unknown, too crazy for the machine, or too old to be any better. Truly, RFK Jr would be one of their better choices but they're pissed at him almost as much as they're pissed at Sanders.

[rabbitcruiser]

An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the United States House of Representatives on February 17, 1801.

#electoral tie #Thomas Jefferson #Aaron Burr #US President #17 February 1801 #Mount Rushmore National Memorial #Gutzon Borglum #controversy #landmark #controversial memorial #Black Hills #George Washington #Teddy Roosevelt #Abraham Lincoln #Theodore Roosevelt #original photography #South Dakota #tourist attraction #summer 2019 #anniversary #US history

[oddbunny]

Another Gael interview found in an ancient comment thread. GQ 2012, I believe.

Star of such major art-house hits as Y Tu Mamá También, Bad Education, The Motorcycle Diaries, and Babel, Gael Garcia Bernal has spent the past decade chiseling out an impressive résumé of provocative, politically engaged movies that speak to audiences around the world. His latest, Pablo Larraín's No, which debuted this weekend at the Cannes Film Festival, is no exception, recreating the moment when widely feared Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was shockingly ousted during a 1988 referendum by a brilliant marketing man (played by Bernal) who retooled his own soda-pitching prowess to get out the vote.

···

GQ: You're basically a Cannes vet at this point, right? Is this your sixth time?

Gael Garcia Bernal: There must be another time that I came. I think it's the seventh year I've been here.

GQ: Fair to say you're pretty comfortable here.

Gael Garcia Bernal: Yeah. And one thing that is wonderful about this festival is the fact that once the lights come down and everyone's in the cinema, we're all equal. And if the film's a good movie, everyone hears about it no matter what.

GQ: How do you pack?

Gael Garcia Bernal: Well, the first time nobody gave me clothes at all, but now my good friends at Dior send me stuff, and with that I'm sort of good. They give me a tuxedo to wear, and a couple of suits and things. That's fantastic because you can get kicked out if you don't dress up. I've been kicked out once.

GQ: You're kidding. When?

Gael Garcia Bernal: I came to a screening, and I was trying to go in with not a tuxedo suit, but, like, just a jacket and a made-up tie, and they said no. Impossible.

GQ: Fair to say you're not a fan of that aspect of Cannes.

Gael Garcia Bernal: Well, I'm a fan of now, since I'm still caring about those things. But one thing I must mention is that the parties used to be better.

GQ: How so?

Gael Garcia Bernal: When we brought the movie Deficit, we had a party from midnight until eight in the morning. We brought friends from Mexico that played music and everyone was dancing full-on—a complete blow-out. So much fun. God. Deficit obviously didn't win any awards, but the Hollywood Reporter did name us Best Party.

GQ: Distinctive.

Gael Garcia Bernal: I'm very proud of that award. Yeah.

GQ: Let's talk about No. You mentioned how word gets out when there's a good movie, and this is definitely one of those moments. Why do you think people are responding to this film?

Gael Garcia Bernal: Because it's a good one! Its complexity is immense. It's a highly intellectual movie and a very moving film as well. It deals with a universal issue, which is the relationship of a person with politics and power.

GQ: But it's also about using ad language to sell human rights as a product.

Gael Garcia Bernal: Well, there is a clear warning in the film. Because we think that democracy can change a lot of things, but we're being fooled, because democracy is not the election. We've been taught that democracy is having elections. And it isn't. Elections are the most horrendous aspect of democracy. It's the most mundane, trivial, disappointing, dirty aspect of it.

GQ: Because it's turning voting into a commodity.

Gael Garcia Bernal: Every democracy is constructed day-to-day. And the electoral process reduces and minimalizes every single aspect of human complexity. We're putting it into pamphlets. We're doing a publicity show. We're becoming symbols. Let's not give the electoral process so much importance. We have to be cynical about it. Let's give importance to the real democracy that's constructed on a day-to-day basis. That's my hopeful perspective on it. But my realization while I was doing the movie was like, ****, the electoral process is really horrible.

GQ: Are you a politically active person? After all, your daughter's name is Libertad.

Gael Garcia Bernal: Well, fortunately that is a well-known name in Spanish, so it's not like all of a sudden calling someone, I don't know, Mountain.

GQ: But it must have been on your mind somewhere, right?

Gael Garcia Bernal: It was. It was. I mean, it's possibly the best word ever, together with Love. My daughter is incredible and she really symbolizes that.

GQ: At this point, you are such an international star, but you still seem very committed to making films in South America. Is that important to you?

Gael Garcia Bernal: Well, it's important because it's the best place for me to fly—I feel like I can play more roles. I can kind of get a more biological grasp on what's being done and then, I can play around more. In English, I'm a little bit limited. I speak English as a second language, and that's a little limitation that I have to work around and I have to use it to my favor. So, yes, that's why I end up wanting to do more things in Latin America.

GQ: You started acting at a very young age, and starred in a Telenovela when you were a teen in the late '80s. Since No was made with vintage U-Matic video cameras to recreate the visual flavor of the late '80s, was it crazy to see yourself shot on low-grade technology again?

Gael Garcia Bernal: Well, I wasn't aware of the technology when we were shooting the soap opera, since I was very young. But I must say that one great surprise that happened is that before doing this film, we'd talk about how horrible it was to do soap operas and how horrible that video was. But when I saw the movie, I was like, man, isn't it strange how all of a sudden this format seems so nostalgic and filled me with longing for that time. It's just kind of like, wow, this nostalgic feeling—looking at how light comes into the window and everything. It gave me a good feeling. This horrendous video feels so romantic now. Who would have thought?

#gael garcia bernal #gael garcía bernal #interviews #just imagining Gael getting kicked out of Cannes 🤭

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Capitalism: trickling down bootstraps since the Industrial Revolution.

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 6, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 7, 2023

In the Washington Post today, Marianne LeVine, Isaac Arnsdorf, and Josh Dawsey reported that the Trump camp is eager to get people to stop focusing on Trump’s authoritarian talk, noting that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says the presidential candidate was just joking when he said he would be a dictator on the first day of a return to the White House. While the Republican base appears to like Trump’s threats against the people they have come to hate, two Trump advisers told the reporters that “recent stories about his plans for a second term are not viewed as helpful for the general election.”

Republicans have also moved quickly to cut ties with Florida Republican Party chair Christian Ziegler, who is under police investigation for rape. Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, co-founded Moms for Liberty, an organization that has focused on removing from schools books that they find objectionable, generally books by or about racial or ethnic minorities or LGBTQ+ people. Often Moms for Liberty members have implied, or even claimed, that those trying to protect school libraries are sexual predators or “groomers.” Ziegler herself has been active in shaping anti-LGBTQ+ policies in the state.

But the police and court documents about the case revealed that the Zieglers and the woman Ziegler allegedly raped had participated in a three-way sexual relationship in the past. The rape allegedly occurred after they had set up another encounter that Bridget could not make. The woman then canceled, telling Ziegler “I was mainly in it for her.” He went to her home anyway.

The story of a key anti-LGBTQ+ activist engaging in same-sex activity as part of a threesome sent Moms for Liberty hurrying to say that Bridget Ziegler was no longer on their board (although both Zieglers were still on their advisory board) and purge her name from their website. And though no charges have yet been filed, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has called on Christian Ziegler to resign from his position at the head of the state Republican Party. 

The Zieglers helped to tie the Republican Party to Moms for Liberty shortly after the organization formed in January 2021, and DeSantis was very much on board, apparently seeing their message of taking the war against “woke” to the schools as a political winner. But, as Amanda Marcotte pointed out in Salon, the 2022 midterms revealed that most voters did not like the extremism of that group and that it was a political liability. 

The fact that DeSantis is dropping his former ally Ziegler so fast suggests that DeSantis is eager to divorce himself from both the story and from the extremism of Moms for Liberty. 

The Trump Republicans took another hit today as well, when a grand jury in the state of Nevada charged six people who falsely posed as electors in 2020 in order to file fake electoral votes for Trump to replace the state’s real votes for now-President Joe Biden. The six Republicans charged with filing false documents include the chair and the vice chair of the Nevada Republican Party. If convicted, they face up to nine years in prison and $15,000 in fines. 

Nevada is the third state to charge the fake electors with crimes. Georgia and Michigan have also done so. 

Ten fake electors in Wisconsin today settled a civil lawsuit over their own participation in Trump’s false-elector scheme. The settlement involved correcting the historical record. The ten agreed to withdraw their paperwork with the false information, explain in writing to the federal offices that the filings had been “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results,” and acknowledge that Biden won the 2020 election. Going forward, they agreed never again to serve as presidential electors in an election in which Trump is running. 

But while there are signs that even leading Republicans recognize that the extremism of the Trump Republicans is unpopular in the country, Trump Republicans are tightening their hold on Congress. Today former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that he will resign from Congress at the end of this month. Far-right MAGA Republicans ousted McCarthy from the speaker’s chair in October.

Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), a McCarthy ally who took over as acting House speaker after McCarthy’s removal, announced yesterday that he had changed his plans from earlier this year and will not run for reelection.    

While hardly moderates—both refused to work with Democrats either to pass legislation or to elect a speaker—they appear to be ceding ground to the MAGA Republicans. 

Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone reported today that one of those MAGA Republicans, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), spoke freely Tuesday night at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., at a celebration for the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. Although the address was being livestreamed, Johnson apparently believed he was speaking privately. He told the audience that the Lord called him to be “a new Moses.”

Johnson, an evangelical Christian, told the audience that the U.S. is “engaged in a battle between worldviews” and “a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” He said he believed far-right Christians would prevail. 

The influence of Trump is also evident in the Senate, where there is broad, bipartisan support for supplemental funding for Ukraine, but where Republicans are refusing to pass such a measure without attaching to it an immigration package that overrides current law, replacing it with Trump’s immigration plans. Such plans could not pass on their own, as Democrats would stop them in the Senate. But by attaching them to a bill that is imperative for national security, Republicans hope to force Biden into it.

Democrats have repeatedly called for new immigration legislation, but their refusal to remake immigration policy as the hard-right wants has made Republicans balk. Now Democrats are still offering to negotiate a reasonable package, but as Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said earlier this week: “I think there’s a misunderstanding on the part of Senator Schumer and some of our Democratic friends…. This is not a traditional negotiation, where we expect to come up with a bipartisan compromise on the border. This is a price that has to be paid in order to get the supplemental.”

In a speech this afternoon—just a day after Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) finally permitted the Senate to fill 425 senior positions in the U.S. military and while he is still preventing 11 top-level positions from being filled—President Biden called it “stunning that we’ve gotten to this point…. Republicans in Congress…are willing to give [Russian president Vladimir] Putin the greatest gift he could hope for and abandon our global leadership not just to Ukraine, but beyond that.” 

“If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” Biden warned. “It’s important to see the long run here. He’s going to keep going. He’s made that pretty clear. If Putin attacks a NATO Ally—if he keeps going and then he attacks a NATO Ally—well, we’ve committed as a NATO member that we’d defend every inch of NATO territory. Then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops—American troops fighting Russian troops if he moves into other parts of NATO. 

“Make no mistake: Today’s vote is going to be long remembered. And history is going to judge harshly those who turn their back on freedom’s cause.”

“Extreme Republicans are playing chicken with our national security, holding Ukraine’s funding hostage to their extreme partisan border policies,” he said. 

Biden reiterated that he and the Democrats are eager to pass new immigration legislation, but “Republicans think they can get everything they want without any bipartisan compromise.  That’s not the answer.... And now they’re willing to literally kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security in the process.” He begged Republicans to get past partisan divisions and step up to “our responsibilities as a leading nation in the world.” 

Hours later, Senate Republicans voted against the supplemental aid package.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#U.S.Senate #political #Jesse Duquette #The Daily Don #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #authoritarianism #fascism #NATO #Extreme Republican #national security

[18thcenturythirsttrap]

'...My decision isn’t based on a desire to see Labour for ever in the wilderness. Reaching it has been a gradual, painful process of realising the party won’t even do the bare minimum to improve people’s lives, or to tackle the crises that have led Britain to catastrophe; and that it will, in fact, wage war on anyone who wants to do either– making anyone with politics to the left of Peter Mandelson feel like a pariah on borrowed time.'

100% correct. Unless we do something to back decent electoral candidates, and quickly, we risk the Tories being replaced by a Labour Government that does fuck all more for ordinary people.

The We Deserve Better campaign (Sign Up | We Deserve Better) is setting up a fund to support Green and left-wing independent candidates in key seats, as well as socialist Labour MPs. I really think this is our last chance to send a message via any form of electoral politics that ordinary people in the UK want something else than shit in a blue tie, shit in a red tie or the shit of the far right.

#uk politics #electoral politics #owen jones #fuck the tories #fuck labour

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Hi! This is probably a little biased, but didn't gable win the round? It lights up as the winner for me, even though it's 50/50? I wouldn't care that much if there hadn't been talk in the Nicky advocate reblogs that there may have been people making alt accounts to vote for Nicky a second time (This is unfounded, as I don't know if anyone actually did in fact do that, but it's just troubling to me I guess)

I don't know if this is the same Anon or not but I'm going to answer this ask here too:

Gable was the clear winner (picked by tumblr because their bar was blue) so only them should continue. And also to the person who wrote the propaganda that Nicky is practically queer,Gable is actually factually on paper on voice on podcast queer. They are also from 1. A much smaller podcast 2. The previously shared screenshot of dndads fans making alt accounts just to vote. It's just a tumblr poll but we should do things well and admit faults.

You're right, Gable did win the poll. There ended up being an odd number of votes so it would have been impossible to have a pure 50/50 split. I previously stated that I would accept Tumblr's rounding, and it would be hypocritical for me to go back on that now. I know there are other Tumblr Tournaments that use an even larger gaps between the characters as a tie. This is the rule I'm running this poll with.

Here's the thing with voter fraud: I don't have a way to check it and people have differing definitions. I would agree that a single person using multiple accounts to vote is fraud, but I've also seen on another tournament someone claim that letting people know about the polls on other social media platforms is also fraud and that is something I have done not only with this tournament (I've shared it on Twitter and Cohost), but back in March I tried to get Lovelace to beat Cecil in fictionpodsexyperson's bracket by going to the Wolf 359 Discord server previously known as the Hell Server (if I remember right).

I think my point got away from me.

What I'm saying is forbidding alt accounts from voting wouldn't stop people from doing so, it would just mean they would be quiet about it on this specific platform. I am not a cop and do not want to spend my freetime policing people on Tumblr.

All I ask is that people do not pay strangers to vote a certain way (blazing posts is okay however) (paying your actual friends is acceptable too but how good of friends are you really if you can't figure out a way to cajole them into voting for your choice without monetary bribes?) (yes apparently this did happen in another tournament).

If you really don't like the idea of Nicky sharing Gable's limelight, think of back when the second place person in US presidential elections would become the vice president. Not that we should treat any aspect of the US Presidential Election system as ideal, especially not the parts relying on the electoral college. Rather, embrace the dysfunctionality of Tumblr polls.

#Not A Poll #Ask #Anonymous #Rules #Mod Update #Voter Fraud

[ancient-string]

Australians Assemble!

Are you Australian and sick of our governments weak-arse, spineless response to the Israeli government committing war crimes?

Sign this petition calling for a ceasefire. It is a small action, but the more pressure we put on parliament the more seriously they have to take it.

Don’t forget to keep calling your local MPs and Senator Penny Wong’s office! Not sure who your local MP is? Click this link and type your postcode into the search bar!

To call and email and write to Senator Penny Wong, Senste leader and minister for foreign affairs:

Electorate Office (Principal Office)

Level 4, 19 Gouger Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000

Postal address: PO Box 6237, Halifax Street Adelaide, SA, 5000

Telephone: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

Local Call*: 1300 301 698

*Calls will be charged at a local rate. Charges may vary for mobile phones

Parliament Office

PO Box 6100, Senate, Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600

Telephone: [phone]

Your message doesn’t have to be long. “I am an Australian citizen/resident/constituent in [electorate]. I’m calling to urge you:the Australian Labor Party to call for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza”. That’s all you need. If you’re calling your local MP, emphasise that you’re a constituent. Those calls are taken more seriously that calls from outside.

Call Penny Wong endlessly. Let’s tie the lines up with our demands for ceasefire!

#auspol #Australia #Israel hamas war #war crimes #genocide

[worldcylinder]

i already asked some but

down to the ark, catherine antrim's kid and we shall all be healed

i have so many unreleased tracks downloaded and all of them have the best lyrics :)

Ok, now you're just flexing :P I'll play though.

Down to the Ark: I'm going with the first refrain: And we pull down our blindfolds / Reach out for the lever in the dark / Get a sticker for our shirts / As we head into the sun / Proudly bearing the mark / Headed down to the Ark. This song is so bananas. I can't tell if it's about a Satanic cult taking over America, or if it's about how participating in liberal electoral politics is apocalyptically doomed to failure in the face of rising fascism and climate change. The image of someone voting blindfolded, then heading down towards Noah's Ark wearing an "I Voted" sticker sure is something.

Catherine Antrim's Kid: And the night wrapped me up in its long, dark embrace / I had that same expression on as that one picture of my face / Which was all anyone would ever know about me / After my visitors got done with me. These lines remind me really strongly of Tyler Lambert's Grave: Young man in a yellow tie / Hair gel in his hair / No context for the picture / Just kind of standing there. The idea of a person being crystallized down to a single photograph in the national consciousness, to the point where the photograph comes to epitomize them... There's a passage in The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold about the murdered main character and how her school picture comes to encapsulate her for her parents. I don't remember the exact quote, but it talks about how the photo becomes how she always looked to them, "my eyes never bluer than they were in that photo" or something to that effect. I'd have to go find it again which would mean rereading half the book. The idea of this child narrator being the victim of some high-profile violent crime (murder, presumably? I'm assuming this is about a real person) and that one photo being all anyone would know about them ever again... It's a powerful concept. You don't get to pick that photo, you know?

We Shall All Be Healed: Much as I love it when JD names names, I'm going with the very end. And someday we will all never be alone again / When the sun comes up and the night has passed / We shall all be healed, at last, at last, at last. I find myself reminded of Steal Smoked Fish -- Some of you will be dead next year / I see your destinies above you / Like angels who don't love you / Let them kiss you and hold you tight. The "someday" referred to here is presumably after death, given that "we will all never be alone again." This song is more heartfelt than lyrical, and I applaud it for that. I think it's a song about grief, and about hope -- about mourning dead friends, or old friends or ex-friends who will die someday, and about having hope for them to find peace at last in the grave and beyond. We all love to hate that one tweet that's like "The Mountain Goats is just Christian rock for gay twentysomethings" but it's absolutely true, and I think this song kind of epitomizes that genuine prayerful impulse that threads through their work of, well, maybe Heaven is real. Maybe God does love us, after all. God bless all my old friends / and God bless me too, why pretend?

#down to the ark #catherine antrim's kid #catherine antrims kid #we shall all be healed