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From day one we’re indoctrinated to love the art of the grift. American history is designed to elevate lies instead of truth. We revere all the wrong people. We build statues to them and savagely attack anyone who points out the contradictions.

“That’s so disrespectful of you to say.”

We learn to self-censor at a young age. When we drive by a church and I call it an indoctrination center, my kids go, “Dad…” as if they’re afraid I might say more. I get where they’re coming from, they’re just trying to keep their head down and survive.

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However, the only way to survive is to fight.

But why shouldn’t I be allowed to speak? Those damn churches protect child rapists and oppress women. It pisses me off frankly. It should piss you off.

Another thing that pisses me off is how Republicans are selling America for pennies on the dollar. Heck, they’re not even getting pennies. They’re getting memecoins, whatever that is. They’re trading our land and our infrastructure and our future for literally nothing.

The second you call them out on their bullshit, they trot out JD Vance to scold you. “Dad…” he growls. I think his beard is fake.

Foreign nations have learned it’s really easy to purchase the United States. That’s because our conservative supreme court justices are completely corrupt and inept. They were so fixated on short term profit that they couldn’t predict the country would fall apart if they made bribery legal.

Screw these people.

At this point, everything is a joke. I want all the statues taken down. I’m so disgusted by the crimes of our corrupt, white ancestors that I think we should dress them up as clowns and beat them in effigy.

It’s a fire sale! Everything must go! We’re getting rid of the land, the roads, the schools, the hospitals and the military. Yee-haw! When the dust settles, the billionaires will be in their bunkers, and the rest of us will be shaking old beverage dispensers in the hope that a can got jammed in the mechanism the ravagers missed.

I’m referencing “The Road.” Do you know “The Road.” It’s a book. Remember when we read books instead of scrolling?

It was better. You looked up two hours later having learned something. These days you look up cross-eyed and blind. When you complain about it, JD Vance shows up at your house to mutter, “Dad…” and fuck your couch.

How do we shake off this indoctrination? In the conservative rural town where I grew up, the teachers raped kids. When I used to criticize that, people would point and say, “Dad…”

They don’t even tell you to stop. They just manifest this vague aura of disapproval. What do they disapprove of? Is it justice?

If you do manage to get out a criticism, they go on the attack.

“How dare you accuse me! How dare you! Don’t you know how awful it is to make a false accusation…”

“But it’s not false!”

“Don’t interrupt, show some respect!”

Our enemies are always on the attack, always. They lecture us even as they loot our house and our nation and our families and our lives. They talk and squeeze and talk and squeeze until every drop of vitality is extracted and we’re dead. Then they scrape the remains off their hands and attack our children because the abusers insist it was a crime that we left a mess behind.

We’ve got to rouse ourselves.

We’re led by liars and criminals and rapists and con artists and thieves. We build statues to them. We give them power. We’re never allowed to point out their blatant deceits.

The blue states are forced to subsidize the red states. Did you know that? Liberals are forced to subsidize MAGA.

Of course MAGA is worthless. They don’t believe in math or education or books or facts or truth or consequences. What could they possibly contribute to the world? The only thing they have to offer is grievance and intolerance. Yet whenever anyone points this out, somebody is there to utter, “Dad…”

I’m told to be silent even before I’ve begun to speak. Meanwhile the oppressors never face any headwinds.

When it comes to my objection, what is the complaint? What is the complaint?

Why should there be an expectation that I stand silently by as these monstrous people set the world on fire? If you want to criticize something, criticize them and their lack of humanity. Criticize their entitlement and destruction.

Don’t criticize the person who points it out. Doing nothing won’t make it go away. They’re going to burn us all down no matter what we do. We can’t get it worse if we call out that we want them to stop.

So call it out damn it!

Call it out!

The worthless, useless, inept, grifter president is selling the whole nation. He’s loading our possessions into boxes and giving them away. He’s laughing all the while. He’s pointing his finger and calling us “communists” even though he’s taken more taxpayer money than anyone.

They talk and they talk and they talk.

You never get a chance for a rebuttal. If you try to speak, they become hostile. “How dare you interrupt, I’m speaking.”

But they’re not just speaking, they’re thieving. They’re murdering and raping and stealing. Decorum be damned, this has to stop!

The Republicans are running a fire sale because they don’t care about the future. All they care about is the illusion of profit. But there is no profit if their actions mean that we’ll all die.

They want us all to die!

Absolutely everything they say and believe and stand for is a lie.

Somehow they managed to even indoctrinate my children to believe that this is something we should abide. There’s no space for reason, education, compassion, or humanity.

Conservatives destroy everything they touch. They always have and they always will. It’s a parasitic ideology. But I’m not even allowed to stand on a street corner and say so. If I do, I’ll be arrested and replaced with some unlicensed priests who bleats all about the most horrific parts of the Bible. He’ll discuss the child rapes and the slavery and then he’ll accuse you for intolerance if you try to oppose him from grooming and indoctrinating your babies.

He will be allowed to get away with it by people in your community. They’ll try to stop you instead of him.

That’s where the battle is. It’s further up the line.

We can’t be content to interrupt a rape, we have to stop the rape from ever happening. We can’t be content to halt the theft, we have to stop the thieves from becoming so emboldened.

Our challenge is psychological. We have to rewire our brains.

Encourage your friends and allies to call out injustice even when it grates against cultural decorum. Your action will become like sandpaper. We’ll reform our culture into something history will admire. We must.

Conservatives and Republicans are killing us. Stop enabling them.

Don’t be mad at me for calling Republicans child rapists.

Be mad at the Republicans for raping children.

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It has been too long since I talked with . I’ve known her for years. I’ve always admired her work on Medium, and she was one of the first person I reached out to for a live after the fascists took control of our country.

I reached out to a lot of people then. Anxiety gave me courage. My email went something like, “Zuri, you barely know me. I’ve read your articles. Would you like to talk? I’m so nervous about the future! What can we do?”

So we nursed each other through the first hard days. We were both counting down to the midterms and trying to find a strategy that might work in the face of hopelessness.

Zuri went through that strategy again in this talk. We have to build a community. We have to support each other. We have to shake off all the lies and indoctrination of the Republican party and conservative ideology.

Once she said that, I realized that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve come so far since 2024. There’s still a long way to go, but I feel better now. I feel more powerful. I’ve created strong bonds with people of integrity like Zuri Stevens and so many others.

The wind is at our back. We’ve got momentum and we’re not stopping. As always, I left this conversation feeling more powerful than when I started. What more can you ask from a conversation with a friend?

Please subscribe to Zuri and support her if you can. She’s a pillar of decency in a world that’s crumbling into ruin!

We Need A Black Woman In Charge

From Michelle Obama to Oprah Winfrey to Rihanna to Beyoncé, when Black women are in charge, the world is a much better place. We need more Black women in charge.

By Zuri Stevens

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My senior year English teacher was a pedophile who preyed on my classmates, so was the teacher in my sophomore year. One was a man, the other was a woman, and they both engaged in acts of statutory rape.

This betrayal was not something I found myself equipped to manage.

High school years are confusing years anyway. Things go from bad to worse when you’re expected to navigate your confusing feelings about self-identity and sexuality while under the control of cruel and sadistic people.

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This was a conservative town. Conservatives are committed to the idea of punishment. When you’ve done nothing wrong, they invent something. One of their favorite forms of punishment is rape.

How much did I know about life at age 17? In the 80s, it wasn’t unusual to be sexually active in high school. It’s an odd thing to reflect on how rural conservative areas view their daughters.

These are communities filled with men who have never gone beyond the city lines. The most accurate way to describe their worldview is one of fear. They’re terrified of everything because they’ve never had the courage to attempt anything new.

Part of that is a side effect of the conservative worldview. They consider themselves “superior.” They consider themselves “hyper-masculine.” But you can’t get better at anything unless you fail. These are men who long to achieve a life of significance, but they lack the support system to achieve any valuable skills.

They content themselves with fishing, hunting, and driving fast. They also spend their time leering at the daughters of their adult male friends.

The friends permit this, because it buys them license for their own transgressions. It’s a sick form of bartering, and children are treated like chattel.

I remember a classmate bragging about his conquest of the tenth grade English teacher. She was an attractive woman, but not exceptionally attractive. She wore short heels that she’d purchased at the local tackle shop. It wasn’t exactly fashion, but she lived in a town where grass grew through the cracks of the road and sidewalks. If she wanted the male attention of that town, she had to attract the men who had convinced themselves it was acceptable to leer at each other’s children.

I guess she decided to follow their lead.

Surviving that school felt like living in a fishbowl. We were surrounded by adult men and women with years of life experience and frustration. I got the sense that they viewed us all more as morsels than as people. The boy athletes were revered by the frustrated adult women of the town. The girls were pursued by the lecherous men.

There were stories that went around about how some of my classmates were dating both their girlfriend and the girlfriend’s mother. “Dating” is a generous term.

We had a newspaper. We had small talk. But gossip was the true mechanism of communication in that town. Fights would break out and it was often as if everybody knew exactly what the fight was about. Everybody knew who was hooking up with who. The people with the power to do something about it seemed to think it would be seen as an act of resentment if they fulfilled their obligations.

“You’re just mad because you want her for yourself.”

The senior year English teacher was the worst. He used to hand out books to his favorites, and in these books he’d “accidentally” leave a schedule revealing the days his wife wouldn’t be at home. At least half a dozen girls I knew have told me that they received one of his offerings.

One even told me that she felt “flattered.” Getting invited to the house of that teacher was like being anointed as conservative, rural, ignorant royalty.

I looked that teacher up a few years ago. His face has transformed. When I went to school he was still young and hesitant. I wonder what a few decades of no accountability had done to him? You could see it in his face. There’s a certain expression that sexual predators wear. Americans have been indoctrinated not to see it, but once it’s been seen it can’t be unseen.

In my opinion, just about every Republican politician wears that face. It’s the look of knowing you’re about to get away with a crime. It’s the look of knowing that you’re committing depraved acts openly and nobody has the guts to do anything about it.

This English teacher was the first to point the finger at others. He called me “morally bankrupt” more than once. Meanwhile, he went home and spent the night plotting new ways to assault my classmates.

These are the things you recognize later with the benefit of experience.

In the film “Pinnochio” there’s a scene where the innocent, titular character is led astray by two ne’er do-wells. The first time I watched that, I was as oblivious as Pinnochio. When I watched the same film with my infant daughters, that sequence evoked a sense of pain I can barely put into words.

Conservatives look at vulnerability as an opportunity to appease their most foul, animalistic urgings.

Decent people want only to protect. When I reflect on how many predators are enabled by our corrupt American culture, I get the taste of blood in my mouth.

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The conservative men of my rural town thought of themselves as “conquerors.” They’d spent decades within the city limits of a community with only 2,000 people. We had a stale library with ancient books, and a video store that went out of business a few years ago.

It was like a place of stagnant water. Nothing was ever replenished, so the pool only became more and more putrid. That’s the heartland.

It was an open secret that the teachers in my conservative rural town raped the students. Everybody knew, but it just was something that nobody talked about. In fact, if you tried to talk about it, you’d be designated as a “troublemaker” and exiled never to return.

The hypocrisy grew so thick you could harvest it with a scythe.

The only time people like that are motivated out of their pool of fouled water is to impose their corrupt viewpoint on the rest of us. We know where the predators are, yet rape kits go untested, and child traffickers enjoy the protection of the highest office in the land.

We’re not supposed to talk about things like this.

Start talking.

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There’s an old saying that if you’re the smartest person in the room, then you’re in the wrong room. Even that statement misrepresents what actually needs to be said. The issue at play isn’t intelligence but knowledge. No matter how brilliant anyone might be, there’s always a room where they can go to learn something.

Life learning needs to be our objective. It keeps you kind, humble, and effective.

Over the last two years, I’ve had the privilege of speaking to the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met. After the 2024 election, I dedicated myself to elevating anti-establishment political candidates. I did this out of a sense that I had to do something. But I never could have anticipated what I’d learn from the experience.

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I started to sit down with dozens of truly accomplished individuals. I’ve talked with doctors, lawyers, career educators and military experts. After a while, I started to ask the question, “Why do all these wonderful people want to waste their time talking to me?”

The answer was sobering. It was because nobody else wanted to listen.

The United States of America worships celebrity over achievement. Intelligence is met with distrust. I learned that growing up. Though I got good grades and I was called “gifted,” I discovered I was more often looked upon with suspicion rather than admiration.

As an adult, I’ve learned the answer to that too. It’s because the people who benefit from our abuse culture are wary of anyone they can’t manipulate. Oppressors see intelligent children as the future commanders of the resistance, and they’re right.

Two years ago I didn’t know that. I just went forward out of a need to participate and to act with integrity. Even prior to the election, I sought out brilliant people who I sensed had information I needed to absorb. I’ve had regular conversations about race with . When you discuss challenging topics with brilliant people, there are moments of discomfort. You have to face the incorrect assumptions that have been fused with your identity. Sometimes you have to observe the toppling of ideological pillars. Even when you come to recognize that ideas are flawed, a sense of nostalgia makes you mourn the loss.

All of these feelings and beliefs have to be evaluated. It takes time and it’s not easy.

The number of tactics that have been leveraged to transform us into enablers of oppression is greater than you can imagine. Every knowledgeable person you meet knows one of them. They can all teach you how to strip away the lies and become a better version of yourself.

Our society coddles us and tells us that the benefit of growth isn’t worth the pain. That’s the biggest lie of all.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been having challenging conversations with . She’s been crunching the numbers on our healthcare system and what she’s found is highly concerning.

Her work hasn’t been motivated by any political or ideological viewpoint other than the essential pursuit of scientific fact. When you make measurements and record data, you achieve a perspective on reality. Often, that perspective is different than what we want to believe. Often that perspective is terrifying.

But truth doesn’t go away just because we don’t like it. If we allow ourselves to live within a pleasantly scented cloud of denial, we again become enablers of abuse. Sooner or later, the wind kicks up and blows the cloud away. Knowledge is the only thing that gives us the power to act when we have a rude awakening and find ourselves in a dystopian wasteland.

Our whole nation is on the precipice of waking up.

In talking with people like Will Fullwood and Dr. Yamicia Connor, I’ve found that I’ve become a more effective champion of justice. I have a background in Physics. It was my minor in college and I’m a licensed high school teacher. Math doesn’t scare me, but for most of my life, I’ve been surrounded by the talking heads of the celebrity media. These are people who have been paid to hypnotize us into thinking that they know more than we do. They want to tell us that every time a brilliant person issues a warning, it’s an exaggeration.

“Things aren’t really that bad.”

I may not have hundreds of millions of dollars in my bank account, but I know how to record data and crunch numbers. Celebrities don’t know how to do that better than I do. Their opinion doesn’t mean more than mine.

Americans are indoctrinated to believe their opinions don’t matter. Even educated people are vulnerable to this influence. This is why you have to seek out the rooms with the more knowledgeable people every day. Brilliant people keep you sharp.

If you’re not sharp, you get lulled into complacency and you do nothing even when we have the time and resources to make a change. Look around. That’s the kind of lackadaisical thinking that got us here.

For the last two years, I’ve made the deliberate choice to not be the smartest person in the room. Every day I have a chance to interact with somebody who is far more knowledgeable than I am. It causes your mind to stretch. It causes growing pains. It’s glorious.

Your thoughts tighten. You learn to shift your focus from the propaganda to the facts. You start to recognize distractions which are designed and deployed to steal your power. You gain confidence in your own ability to interpret data and discern the truth.

Math does not lie.

The consequence is that your self-doubt begins to dissipate. You become a more effective speaker. You disregard the social pressure that insists it’s “wrong” to engage certain topics. You find your voice and your strength because you understand that if you remain silent, innocent people will die by torture.

By sheer force of frustration and will, we’ve developed a whole community of activists who are pushing a knowledgeable perspective back into the mainstream. We’re cultivating a new respect for achievement and education instead of bluster and empty threats. We’ve witnessed the nation when it’s led by a cabinet of incompetence. Today, more and more people are demanding to be led by reason.

I’d always heard that you should never be content to be the smartest person in the room. I didn’t understand it before. In my ignorance, I thought that statement was an admission of inferiority. Today I know that the only way you become inferior is if you succumb to your fragile ego and never find the courage to seek out people who know more than you do.

The world is filled with people who know better. Anyone with an experience different than yours has something to teach you. Anyone of another gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or profession has knowledge it would take you a lifetime to acquire.

But all you have to do is ask and they will give it to you. All you have to do is listen and absorb.

Go find a room with people who are more knowledgeable. Don’t try to prove yourself by speaking. Prove yourself by asking questions and listening. In the first days, it will be a struggle. As time goes by you’ll find your mind begin to tighten and you’ll see your reality with greater clarity. At that point, you’ll inherit the power to make a productive change.

You’ll become exactly the type of person that the oppressors feared.

It feels good.

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Hey Everybody!

Well, the distraction media is at it again. They want us to disregard our power and get caught up in petty arguments rather than coordinated action. Yeah, the big creators know that they can steal huge follower counts by indulging in salacious material and gossip, but that doesn’t do any of us any good.

and I had a lively discussion on this topic. We tried to throw a fair amount of humor in there, but this is serious business and we have serious challenges ahead.

I just want to ask that we all keep our focus on our mutual objective. We want everybody to have their basic needs met and their basic dignity respected. Anything that takes you away from this objective is a tactic of the enemy. Remember that!

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I’m 100% grassroots and your generosity makes this possible! This would be a great article to share and cross-post 😊💯❤️🙏!

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I was chatting with and we both mentioned how we’ve been extremely tired this week. Maybe it’s the end of summer. Maybe it’s stress cause by the transition into the next school year. But I don’t think so.

I think we’re exhausted from having to face the collective delusion of politicians, journalists, and our fellow Americans. When you sit down and start counting, we are on the precipice of about ten different catastrophes that threaten to end humanity. I’m not kidding. We’ve got a fascist dictator in charge of the most powerful military in the world. He’s already threatened to nuke an entire civilization. Our healthcare infrastructure is collapsing. They blocked off fertilizer from going through the Strait of Hormuz. Farmers are going broke. The oceans are boiling, fish are dying, and the climate is changing so fast that the world will soon become uninhabitable.

But what are all the people with a platform talking about? Well, they’re complaining about a little known “streamer” who keeps helping to get alternative candidates elected. There is nothing the establishment democrats hate more than seeing grassroots democrat win seats of power. They HATE that.

Our media and our politicians always come rolling out with immaculate make-up and wardrobe. They speak with absolute conviction that their bullshit ideology that caused this mess will also guide us out of it, even though they never waste a single breath addressing the real issues. They’re only ever mad that we don’t seem to treat them with the respect and reverence they deserve.

“How DARE you talk about your problems?” say the rich and entitled.

But not for much longer. The fact is, they’ve been steadily excavating the foundations that hold up their ivory tower. When it collapses, they’ll be the ones who endure a hard fall, not us. When the time comes to rebuild, we’ll know exactly what to do. We’ve been working our whole lives. I’m so sick and tired of propping up these entitled jerks who never offer anything but criticism and scorn.

They’ve overstepped. The system is coming down. There’s no saving it at this point. That’s why we’re tired. We’re sick of waiting. Honestly, I’m ready for the rebuild. I think we all are. We just have to make sure the first wall we build encloses all the ignorant loudmouths who think the spotlight belongs to them. I’m sick of seeing our children be forced to drink from the fountain of ignorance. It’s time to elevate some reasonable, rational people who are willing to recognize the facts about our reality.

Let’s put qualified people in charge of powerful government offices. What a concept!

The receipts are there. We just have to read them.

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Friday 8/21

The republicans never get to claim they are the moral majority ever again

The media isn’t doing democracy any favors with

How we learned to stop worrying and embrace the end of humanity

Saturday 8/22

The 50 state strategy is back in play with

Traditional values are to blame for mass shootings

Sunday 8/23

We are going to overcome these challenging times with courage with

Monday 8/24

How collapse became inevitable for America’s for profit healthcare system

Easing economic anxiety in the collapse with mutual support

Tuesday 8/25

Evaluating my writing with an AI tool is not the flex you think it is

What’s next for Congressional candidates after the primaries? with and

Republicans sabotaged farmers to buy land cheap for data centers

Wednesday 8/26

How I celebrated the news I’d become a father by flexing my power and antagonizing bigots

Healthcare infrastructure: The disappearing hospitals, clinics, and workforce with and

What’s the vulcan neck pinch daddy?

Thursday 8/27

We’re going to have to put the entire MAGA cabinet on suicide watch

It’s time for the Democratic party to pull together and support each other with and

Don’t wait for a narcissist to give permission, just go behind their backs and act

Articles on “Rise Together”

There are reasons to be hopeful

Create “Glimmers,” Don’t indulge in hate

That’s it!

I want everyone to keep in mind that we’re just over two months away from the midterms. The Republicans have managed to loot the country for the next 1,000 years, and they’ll be spending all of that money RIGHT NOW, with lies, attacks and propaganda. They know that if they lose, a lot of them are going to jail… maybe all of them and many of the Democrats as well. They’re going to try to confuse you.

I’m going to do everything I can to dismantle and counter their narrative, but I do not have the platform or the resources of what we’re up against. But we’re the plucky resistance, we have integrity on our side, but more importantly we have the NUMBERS! We are going to win this, but it’s going to be a bumpy road and it’s going to get really confusing.

As always, thanks so much for sponsoring me. You make this all possible. I’ll keep elevating candidates. I don’t have a plan right now for after the midterms. Keep working hard everyone! We’ve done the work. Now we have to go out there and get (and defend) the wins! Thanks for being part of this movement, you all bring me peace and comfort when times get hard. Let’s do this!

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Oh my goodness, what a fun time this was! The whole idea was to laugh and let off a little steam! Mission accomplished. I so enjoyed hanging out with and . They did me the honor of referencing the Blue Whale story, so if you haven’t read it, here it is:

Be sure to follow these two, they’re a lot of fun. You can find them here:

ShālahBPookie - TheRebelCrone

Gen Xer, lifelong learner, podcaster, crone, explorer INFJ, photographer, rebel scum - Live long and prosper. 🖖🏼

The Photographer’s Perspective

A space for photographers and photography enthusiasts. Jason P. Odell is a professional photographer in Colorado, USA. Here you’ll go behind the shots, learn new techniques, and discover ways to kindle your creativity with a camera.

By Jason Odell

Thank you , , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video with and ! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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Over the last few days I’ve seen a lot of people suggesting that we need to rebrand “Democratic Socialism.”

“Republicans don’t like the word ‘socialism,’” they say. “We need to use something different.

I had one person insist the solution was to use the term “Social Democracy.” I had to laugh at that one. I don’t think that all the Republicans who start screaming about “Democratic Socialism” will instantly be pacified if you call it “Social Democracy.”

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My response is consistent even when people provide terms I like. Somebody said the policies should be called “Common Sense Democracy.” That’s actually good branding and I think it’s a significant improvement over “Democratic Socialism.” The problem is calling it that still isn’t going to work.

This issue isn’t about branding, it’s about going on the attack versus going on defense.

The highly paid Democratic consultants always get this wrong and this is one of the main reasons why I think the party should stop paying them. For some reason, the people on our side of the aisle can’t understand that we are not dealing with good faith opponents.

The Democrats seem to think that if we just used the right language and got the right candidate and expressed approval for the right policies, the Republicans would be willing to work with us.

That’s not the case at all. The truth is that no matter who we run for office or what they say or what they stand for, the Republicans are going to find fault with our candidates.

This is because the Republicans are a pack of dishonest liars.

I’m seeing this already in the aftermath of the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary. Democratic strategists are still lamenting Hong’s acknowledgement that Thanksgiving is an insensitive holiday for some people. I mean, let’s be real, it’s a holiday that celebrates genocide. That’s a fact. If we taught that in schools, maybe our society would be less hostile and divided.

But the Democratic establishment never tries to “gasp” educate the public. Instead they retreat. They did everything they could to swap out Hong for David Crowley, though it’s only a matter of time before the GOP uncovers some “scandalous” tweet or statement on his part.

Can somebody please call up the DNC and tell them to wake up? They have to stop bowing to the will of the Republicans and start going on the attack themselves.

Here’s an example, “Oh, you don’t like that tweet I posted about Thanksgiving? Well, I don’t like the fact that the Republican party enables and protects child rapists.”

See how much better that is?

Attack, attack, attack! Never, never, never defend. This is like the first rule of debate, but for some reason all our over-educated, rich, gated community democrats have never seemed to hear it.

Well, we can’t do much about them, but we can do something about the people that show up in our communities. The next time somebody starts in with their passive defenses of intellectually dishonest Republican attacks, gently correct them.

Say, “We do not engage in debate with fascists.”

Say, “No matter who we run or what we say, the Republicans will try to create a scandal by lying and smearing us.”

Above all, stop worrying about what the Republicans will do. You know what they’re going to do. All they do is lie, cheat, and steal.

Even now, in the state of Wisconsin, I’ve seen Tom Tiffany advertisements where he’s attempting to adopt Francesca Hong’s platforms. Hong demanded a moratorium on data centers. Tiffany has started to replicate her language. The difference is that Hong would have actually followed through while Tiffany is a Republican and therefore a liar who will say anything to get elected.

The Democrats could shatter this charade if they only found a spine. The problem is they haven’t had a spine for 50 years. They go on television and they try to explain themselves.

Please, don’t do that! All you have to do is attack. It’s not about nuance. Just make bold promises. Listen to the people and above all, please don’t try to appeal to the Republicans!

Haven’t you figured it out yet? The Republicans are intellectually dishonest! They’re narcissists! They’re a party that defiantly runs sexual predators for political office. They cannot be reasoned with. They’re never going to accept us no matter what we say. They must be opposed.

It has never been easier to defeat Republicans than it is right now. The ammunition at the disposal of the Democratic party is beyond anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. All they have to do is use it.

Go on the attack! Stop defending. Defending makes you look weak. The people need fighters. The people will vote for the candidates who look strong.

It’s time to look strong Democrats. Stop listening to the Republicans complain and start telling us what you’ll do to ease our pain. The voters matter, not the liars! Attack, attack, attack!

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I really had a wonderful time talking with and . I’ve known Cryn for a long but this was my first time talking to Mark. He’s got a background as a democratic activist, and he really brought a steady hand to this conversation. He’s the first to admit that we’re all just speculating, but I really appreciated his confidence and hopefulness.

You can follow Mark here:

America’s Fractured Politics

A publication about politics and the law by a longtime Democratic activist and attorney.

By Mark Mansour

And follow Cryn here:

Cryn’s Substack

On my main Substack, I write book reviews on history and philosophy, as well as current events. I also sporadically jot down personal essays. On Gather, I write endless recipes for baking and cooking, plus anecdotes about travel + my time living in ME.

By Cryn Johannsen

I hope you enjoy this!

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We have to put the entire MAGA movement on suicide watch. We’ve long known that these people are a threat to others, it’s soon going to be obvious that they’re a threat to themselves.

For more than a decade, MAGA has been following Hitler’s playbook for self-destruction. Unfortunately, reading isn’t a strong suit for these people. They should have gotten to the end before they got all excited about those leather jackets with the silver skulls.

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Spoiler alert, Hitler dies by suicide. Oh, and it wasn’t just Hitler. The other members of his inner circle that died by suicide were: Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Martin Bormann, Herman Goring, Robert Ley, Eva Braun, Magda Goebbels, and I’m sure many, many more.

That list doesn’t include the people that Hitler had killed. Even if I limited that list to the names of the ignorant fools that thought they were Hitler’s friend, it would still be longer than I’m allowed to publish here.

Are you sensing a pattern yet?

It’s a sad fact that evil people are usually the least likely to commit suicide. The narcissistic mind encapsulates itself against the specter of accountability. They exist through deflection and denial. That’s how we get a president who insists he’s a tremendous athlete even though all he does is cheat at golf and stumble on the stairs leading up to his private plane.

Consider the dude for a moment. He posts all these AI enhanced glam shots of himself where he’s rippling with muscles and other delusional nonsense. You have to understand that’s how he thinks he actually looks. He’s so out of touch with reality that he probably destroys mirrors for reflecting an accurate image.

Do not laugh at this. I’m not even kidding. You have to understand that the entire MAGA movement lives in constant denial of reality. They would have collapsed under their own weight years ago but for the fact that rational, hardworking people are forced to subsidize them.

That’s right. Working class people have been forced to subsidize MAGA. That’s what happens when you belong to a death cult that discredits education, reason, and personal achievement in favor of a false narrative of unassailable superiority.

But here’s the catch, you can’t maintain the delusion forever.

The current United States government is filled with delusional cowards that have been coasting along on an absurd bluff. They exist wholly on bluster and the threat of violence. That’s what they want us to believe. But here’s the thing, they’ve been exposed.

They’re not a bunch of determined hardbodies. They’re flaccid and impotent. The president’s out there trying to insist he’s going to have a third reich… er, term. He clearly thinks he can rig the midterms. He’s bragging openly about it.

A year ago I was worried. I’m not worried anymore. It’s not because the threat isn’t serious, it’s because the guy is so inept. I don’t think he has the force left to rip open a packet of ketchup from a fast food restaurant. He thinks he can steal the midterms, but like all his plans, it’s going to end in desperation and failure.

We’ve been seeing the rats flee the sinking ship for a while now. Majorie Taylor Greene is gone, Tucker Carlson is gone, Michael Cohen briefly made an appearance of being gone but he’s so inept he decided to return.

It’s interesting to mention these names because they all demonstrate how completely without merit everyone within the MAGA movement actually is. What was the name of that pillow guy? What was the name of that woman who shot the puppy? What about that guy with the eye-patch? They’re like the villains from a canceled television show that aired in 1984.

Nobody cares. Nobody talks about Rush Limbaugh anymore either. There was also this guy named Charlie Kirk who is largely forgotten. All the members of this deranged cult of personality have rendered themselves completely insignificant to history.

That is irrefutably the truth about them. They are empty shells that only appear to take the forms of human beings. They’re nothing but thunder and bluster, they have no substance. The moment the world figures this out, they evaporate as if they weren’t even there.

Cruel people like the current cabinet of the United States are terrified of accountability. They can’t even recognize they got a problem wrong on a test because it makes them doubt their own mental image of all-conquering superiority. They think that’s strength, but it’s the weakest, most pathetic thing in the world.

Can you imagine having to create AI renderings of yourself winning gold with the US Hockey team, or dumping fecal matter on American citizens, in order to feel a fleeting sense of personal satisfaction? That’s the level of weakness running our country right now.

It’s laughable. It’s absurd. It’s tragic.

We let them get away with it because it’s so cruel to provoke identity death within a narcissist. They literally can’t survive if somebody exposes that they’re not the “best” or the “greatest.” This is why bullies flee every contest. They can’t stand the thought of losing. This is why they always cheat.

So decent people look the other way because, at the end of the day, we don’t want to render anyone into a crumbling, sobbing, pathetic heap of humanity.

Except, MAGA has gone too far. Our enabling them has allowed them to murder innocent people. They’ve dismantled our healthcare and educational systems. They’ve corrupted law enforcement. They’re sabotaging our military.

It does break my heart, but we can’t permit MAGA to persist in their delusions any longer. That’s why I say we have to put them on suicide watch. Let me be clear, I do not want any harm to come to anyone in the movement. I don’t want them to hurt themselves. Instead, I want them alive and well so that they can understand the consequences of their behavior.

The people in this regime are weak. I expect that when the dust settles, the list of suicides will be even longer than we saw in the third term… er, reich. The ones closest to fraudulent Captain Ketchup ear will be the first to go. The question is how far the ripples will extend. Will Joe Rogan be consumed by the social backlash of hatred that will be compelled by our mutual awakening?

It remains to be seen.

I dearly wish all of these people would have recognized the error of their ways before now. It would have prevented a lot of self-inflicted suffering. But the sad truth is that the amount of suffering the MAGA movement has inflicted on the innocent is exponentially worse.

Fascism ends in a bunker.

The president was denied the funds to build his own bunker. That’s how weak he is. But when the illusion of his identity is ripped away and replaced with the truth, the resulting whimper of inept cowardice and self-loathing will resonate throughout history.

Make sure you watch. Humanity has to learn the lesson to prevent this kind of tragedy from ever happening again.

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I’ve been having regular conversations with and . Dr. Connor has been tracking the rapid deterioration of our healthcare system as a result of the cuts and cruelty of the current Republican regime.

It is extremely difficult to discuss how women in the United States of America are being forced to endure torture and needless death because they’re denied the right to basic healthcare. We’re not even talking about abortion, we’re talking about women dying in agony from sepsis because physicians are too afraid to remove dead tissue.

This is the consequence of self-righteous conservative ideology, and our media is covering it up. The corrupt people behind the levers of power who also own the means of communication are more concerned about protecting their own feelings than saving the lives of women.

What we’re seeing is Project 2025 in action. Conservative groups like the Heritage foundation know that they can’t control women directly. So, instead of understanding that their viewpoint is contrary to humanity, they’re doing everything they can to attack decent people at every point of vulnerability.

Who is more vulnerable than a pregnant woman who is enduring complications? The cruelty is the point. The conservatives in our society are like vultures when it comes to exploiting the people in our community who are most in need of help.

The time for a collective realization is overdue. Conservative ideology can’t be reasoned with. You can’t look for “common ground.” They have to be opposed. They have to be stopped.

If you tolerate them, you enable death by torture. Full stop.

Unfortunately, one consequence of the right-wing authoritarian movement is a systemic dismantling of our already strained healthcare system. The screaming voices on right wing media don’t understand that there’s no protection in wealth or in living in a gated community. Healthcare is a collective fabric that extends across the land. If you start poking holes in it, the whole structure comes undone.

For decades, our for-profit healthcare scam has been allowed to limp along like a zombie propped up by absurd and unsustainable government subsidies. There’s so much propaganda stoking fear about “socialism” and whatnot that nobody has the courage to face the fact that our system is about to implode.

The death blow is coming shortly after the midterms when the massive cuts to our healthcare infrastructure provided by the Republicans’ Big Beastly Bill are going to take effect. The consequence is going to be a death spiral. Rural hospitals will close down which will cause a strain on urban hospitals and an increase in cost. The rising costs will lead to an increase in healthcare premiums. Hospital staff will feel increased stress and pressure that will lead to burnout and more professionals leaving the field. No replacements are coming since Republicans have already gutted the education pipeline that supplies the system.

I’ll say it again, US healthcare is dead. The only thing that can save us at this point is government intervention. The Republicans have made universal healthcare an inevitability. The tragedy is that a lot more of our friends and loved ones are going to have to die in agony because of the reckless incompetence that brought about our current reality.

Denial isn’t going to save you, neither is money.

What’s become clear to me is that the horrific crimes against humanity we’re seeing in American hospitals are the deliberate consequence of the cruelty of conservative ideology. The entire right wing of our political spectrum cares absolutely nothing about human life. Everyone would know this already, but the regime is doing everything it can to erase evidence of the dramatic increase in death by torture in this country. Maternal mortality was already on the rise when the databases were erased.

The regime can erase the numbers, but they can’t erase the graves. The evidence is still available for anyone with the courage and integrity to look.

The collapse isn’t coming, the collapse is here. We have to change our rhetoric because Republicans have subjected American women and children to the kind of torture that should never be possible in a civilized society. Self-delusion and denial are what got us here. We also got here because we’ve shown too much tolerance for people who insist they’re “champions of the unborn” even though their ignorance only results in the death of both the baby and the mother.

We have to take back this narrative. Stop being concerned about the feelings of the monsters who deprive women of the right to reproductive healthcare. Get in this fight. Make those people feel ashamed of themselves. Make them cry. Have uncomfortable conversations.

If this requires ruining Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, then do so. We all must be resolved to never break bread with anyone who casts a vote that prevents a doctor from saving the life of a pregnant woman in agony.

It’s uncomfortable to get into arguments with the people you love, but it’s not as uncomfortable as standing beside a hospital bed while your wife screams for help that will never come. It’s not as uncomfortable as standing beside your mother’s grave because a doctor refused to save her life.

It’s time that we restored faith in our experts. We can’t allow ignorant people like Joe Rogan to insist they know more about appropriate treatment than a dedicated, compassionate, and educated doctor. The state of our country isn’t just ridiculous, it’s offensive.

Women and children are suffering needlessly. We have the knowledge to save them, but our society lacks the will. People are dying in the worst possible way after enduring twenty hours of agonizing torment and neglect. This has to change, and everyone who reads this has to be part of a humanitarian movement to ensure our doctors have the support structure they need to do their job.

Their job is to save the lives of our loved ones.

Their job is to save our lives.

This isn’t complicated and it shouldn’t be controversial.

Get angry. Stop compromising. Stop being a passive enabler of needless torture and death.

Politicians, church leaders, and failed comedians need to be prevented from getting involved in the discussion between doctors and patients.

Ignorance is killing us.

Ignorance is killing our children.

Here’s a resource Dr. Connor Shared.

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