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Post by Merge on Jul 15, 2024 2:13:24 GMT
Speaking truth is not divisive rhetoric. Truth is truth.
It is true that the Trump party intends to impose a version of religious authoritarianism on this country, or stand back and allow red states to do so where they cannot impose federal control.
It is true that the Trump party has fetishized guns and have fought tooth and nail any attempt to come to a consensus on common sense gun control.
It is true that the Trump party has canonized killers and seditionists as “patriots.”
It is true that the Trump party has falsely and without any evidence made Democrats and anyone perceived to be supported by Democrats into targets, to the point where election workers and educators often receive death threats and people with brown skin are targeted by mass shooters.
It is true that the Trump party has falsely accused Democrats of rigging an election, reducing faith in our election system and supporting additional voter suppression in some states.
It is true that the Trump party wants to destroy our federal infrastructure and replace career civil servants and institutional knowledge with Trump loyalists and chaos.
Saying that Democrats need to stop speaking truth because it makes the Trump party look bad is flat out wrong. The Trump party needs to own its misdeeds and crimes. Truth is truth.
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Post by Merge on Jul 15, 2024 1:47:52 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 15, 2024 1:33:54 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 15, 2024 1:16:16 GMT
Who’s spouting divisive rhetoric now? (This clown is GOP chair for Fort Worth and some of the more racist suburbs up there. By Democrats, he obviously means POC and the poor. You know, the “bus kids.”)
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Post by Merge on Jul 15, 2024 0:46:52 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 15, 2024 0:34:34 GMT
After I posted this, I learned a 2nd cousin is still without power. She lives in Westbury. I live in Westbury. I am fortunate to have power, but large sections here still do not.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 22:17:12 GMT
I do not personally own or carry a gun. I can read facts, and the fact is that the risk far outweighs the potential benefit. DH has a couple that are kept locked up. He hasn't taken them out years and doesn't carry them around like an idiot. And as a former Marine, he doesn't feel that the near equivalent of the weapons of war he was trained to use should be sold to civilians. (Believe me, I'd be perfectly happy if he sold them. One is his grandfather's bolt-action hunting rifle, so it has sentimental value. The other is a pistol an idiot friend talked him into buying in 2008 because "Obama is going to take all our guns." He has never fired it.) You and your husband are responsible gun owners. Do you think you're the only ones? Do you think it's only those on the right, that are white, that are irresponsible gun owners?
If what I've heard is true, yesterday's shooter wasn't on any law enforcement radar, and the gun was legally purchased by his father (again...if this is accurate). IF he didn't have mental health issues his father was aware of, what could have stopped him?
I don't believe an average non-LEO citizen and the like should have a gun, period. So guess what? We don't own one. I think there should be stiff penalties for anyone caught with one, using one, or selling one, that isn't supposed to have one. But, for some reason, that discussion doesn't take place. Where's the disgust for the shootings that happen on the daily?
You're joking, right? Right? A right-winger complaining that the left isn't showing enough disgust for shootings that happen on the daily? The school shootings, mass shootings, gang violence, domestic violence, instances of toddlers shooting their siblings ... we're the ONLY ones talking about it unless a R wants to bring up Chicago. (Which doesn't even rank in the top 20 US cities for gun crime, but who's concerned about facts?) I don't think people should be able to purchase a gun without, at the least, thorough background and mental health check, updated every few years. So we agree on that. The reason the "discussion" doesn't take place is because we can't even get the right to agree to universal background checks. Any gun safety laws, red flag laws, or restrictions on gun ownership we suggest are shot down (pun intended) immediately by the "shall not infringe" people. I honestly don't know who you think you're talking to here. The right has spent the last sixteen years or so accusing the left of wanting to take away everyone's guns and blocking every attempt we make to regulate their purchase. Beto's presidential campaign was literally torpedoed because he said, hell yes, we're coming for your guns. And you want to blame US for not doing enough to prevent shootings? You must be on crack.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 21:58:40 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 21:29:39 GMT
The hurricane flattened my native pollinator garden. All the potted stuff I brought inside, so it's still doing it's thing.
I just got some collard and kale seeds I'm going to direct-sow as edible ornamentals for the fall.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 21:06:21 GMT
Not to mention the fact that a local police officer apparently saw the shooter before he reached the top of the building, but he "retreated" when the shooter pointed his rifle at him. This was a trained LEO presumably armed with a pistol in a holster. And he didn't feel it was safe for him to engage a shooter with an AR-15, so he ran. But we're supposed to believe that the average American running around with a weapon is going to make himself or anyone else safer? Sure, Jan. People who believe that need to have their heads examined. You should really give up your own gun then-it’s the gun, not the person, right? I do not personally own or carry a gun. I can read facts, and the fact is that the risk far outweighs the potential benefit. DH has a couple that are kept locked up. He hasn't taken them out in years and doesn't carry them around like an idiot. And as a former Marine, he doesn't feel that the near equivalent of the weapons of war he was trained to use should be sold to civilians. (Believe me, I'd be perfectly happy if he sold them. One is his grandfather's bolt-action hunting rifle, so it has sentimental value. The other is a pistol an idiot friend talked him into buying in 2008 because "Obama is going to take all our guns." He has never fired it.)
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 20:59:18 GMT
Not to mention the fact that a local police officer apparently saw the shooter before he reached the top of the building, but he "retreated" when the shooter pointed his rifle at him. This was a trained LEO presumably armed with a pistol in a holster. And he didn't feel it was safe for him to engage a shooter with an AR-15, so he ran. But we're supposed to believe that the average American running around with a weapon is going to make himself or anyone else safer? Sure, Jan. People who believe that need to have their heads examined.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 19:07:05 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 19:01:08 GMT
Republicans created a country where any of us can be shot at by a guy with an AR-15 while going about our business in broad daylight, but somehow they want to make this Democrats' fault.
And they'll be interested in actually having a real conversation on guns when pigs fly.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 18:43:56 GMT
Other wealthy countries have problems with mental health, disgruntled young men, violent video games etc. They don't have the mass shootings and political violence at the level we do because they don't have the same access to guns. unfettered access to gunsShannon Watts @shannonrwatts Every peer nation is home to disgruntled or dangerous men; only America gives them unfettered, easy access to arsenals and ammunition. ONLY AMERICA. Right? It’s mental health, it’s mindset, they cry. But they fight shamelessly against additional funding for mental health and against any kind of waiting period, red flag laws, mental health checks before purchase, background checks at gun shows, safe storage laws, etc. They’re perfectly happy with the status quo and they’re the ones who created a country where this can happen so easily - to any of us, not just to cult leader Trump.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 18:25:22 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 17:28:16 GMT
JFC. None of them have any shame.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 14:00:11 GMT
States like Texas aren't just a little more conservative. Abortions are available if the life of the mother is at risk in name only. In reality, thats not what's happening, it's nearly impossible to get an exception. In states like Idaho, OBs are leaving the state, only 1/2 the counties have an OB. Women's lives, physical and mental health are at risk because of abortion bans. Maternal mortality rates for black women in particular were already really high. Post Dobbs, they're now even higher. Women who have been denied abortions are at a significantly higher risk of poverty. More children are already in the foster care system as a result of abortion bans. It's too early to track other long term effects, but there will be negative repercussions of abortion bans for years to come. Republicans' ultimate goals are complete abortion bans with no exceptions, banning abortion medication and criminalizing abortion. That's not just a little more conservative, it's inhumane, lacking compassion and cruel. If you don't recognize this, you're not paying attention. abcnews.go.com/US/fighting-lives-women-impact-abortion-restrictions-post-roe/story?id=105563174publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/abortion-bans-impact-on-mental-healthwww.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-abortion-restrictions-have-disproportionately-impacted-black-womennationalpartnership.org/report/state-abortion-bans-threaten-black-women/www.bidmc.org/about-bidmc/news/2023/10/abortion-bans-linked-to-increase-in-children-entering-foster-systemwww.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/dobbs-era-abortion-bans-and-restrictions-early-insights-about-implications-for-pregnancy-loss/www.liftlouisiana.org/criminalizedcarewww.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/19/1239376395/louisiana-abortion-ban-dangerously-disrupting-pregnancy-miscarriage-carewww.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/sick-sick-enough-end-pregnancy-doctors-state-laws-are-odds-rcna129039rollcall.com/2023/12/07/state-abortion-bans-bar-exceptions-for-suicide-mental-health/www.brookings.edu/articles/the-criminalization-of-abortion-and-surveillance-of-women-in-a-post-dobbs-world/I must have missed the “a little more conservative” comment and I don’t care to go back and find it. From my front row to the shit show here in Texas, let me concur with everything you posted above, in addition to the fact that we’re rolling back attempts to provide equal opportunity by banning DEI, erasing the history of people of color, discussions about vaccines and any suggestion of climate change from our curricula. We’re forcing LGBTQ kids and adults back into closets to keep bigots comfortable. We’re destroying our public schools and, oh yeah, we’re a case study for how the conservative push for privatization of public infrastructure has left millions of Texans in the dark while the companies post record profits. We’re denying climate change while simultaneously suffering some of its worst effects. We’re suppressing voters and the lege has plans to do even more of that in the next session by making statewide elections a kind of electoral college situation by county. We’re in a situation where counties that vote blue, like mine, are ignored by our leaders in natural disasters and denied emergency funding as political punishment. And of course, our governor and lege have completely disenfranchised Houston voters by removing our democratically elected school board and installing a gang that is directing our tax dollars and schools without any accountability to taxpayers. Taxation without representation - is all that really just “a little more conservative?” Don’t anyone fucking tell me Dems are overreacting and are being hyperbolic in warning of the coming corporate fascist nightmare. We are living it here. Stop gaslighting us.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 13:47:52 GMT
I think what angers me most is Rs claiming that this whole thing was instigated by Democrats *accurately* pointing out that Trump means to be an authoritarian dictator on day 1. He has said as much. His supporters have voiced their agreement. Project 2025 lays out exactly how they will do it, and indeed, many red states have already gotten a jump on the process. So we’re supposed to tone down accurate, fact-based criticisms, while Rs continue to say that Democrats are baby killers who want open borders, that public school teachers are groomers and pedophiles, and that “DEI hires” are responsible for all failures. All without any evidence except their own fevered imagination. And their response is to openly call for violence in the form of civil war. This is the worst kind of gaslighting. And meanwhile …
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 13:32:47 GMT
Good lord. I thought I was joking. Should have known they haven’t yet plumbed their lowest deaths. Next thing you know, we’ll hear that the shooter was a trans communist atheist and illegal immigrant, despite all evidence to the contrary.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 13:11:00 GMT
Really, she should've been in the damn kitchen instead of helping TFG put his shoes back on. I clocked at least three female agents in the security detail. Next we’ll hear from Republicans that this apparent SS failure was due to DEI in their hiring.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 3:19:40 GMT
Thoughts and prayers? Is that what we say? Trump can at least pat himself on the back for helping to create a country where anyone who can fog a mirror can easily purchase the weapon used to attack him.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 3:11:47 GMT
And there it is. I am in a lot of crafting groups on FB and I've already seen SVG files of this photo pop up, decals for sale, t shirts, hats, bumper stickers. Other acquaintances are full of posts about Trump being ok because "he wears the full armor of god". It's truly frightening. I have a lot of unfriending and unfollowing to do tonight. It’s a cult.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 1:51:17 GMT
And there it is.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 1:26:08 GMT
We all know whose playbook they’re following. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire(And to be clear, I have never wished Trump dead. I would like him to have a very long and healthy life in prison, where he belongs.)
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 0:56:14 GMT
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 0:33:11 GMT
Keep in mind also that both Project 2025 and the Epstein Files are getting a lot of play right now. Both damaging to Trump. What better way to change the conversation, knowing that Dems will be too polite to keep hammering on those issues while the shooting is still in the news cycle? ETA: as expected, the Biden campaign will now go into a “media blackout” while the footage and photo get 24/7 airplay on every outlet worldwide, and while Trump and his surrogates start whipping up violence against Democrats. Planned. 100%.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 0:30:42 GMT
Again: sociopath.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 0:24:09 GMT
Dude, nobody’s coming to save us. This is real life, not an Avengers movie. The only thing we can do is vote against T and Project 2025. Bruh, I don’t need an Avenger to save us. I just need to have a candidate that holds high standards, has the countries best interest in mind and can help get a handle on the cost of living. That would be hero material in my book…….if he happened to look like Thor….. well that would just be the icing on the cake for me! Cost of living is not in the president’s power. You’ll have to talk to the corporate CEOs who prioritize shareholder value over consumers.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 0:23:14 GMT
This is a sad place our country is in! Peas here jumping to conclusions before all the facts are known, wishing death on another human being. So sad for the hatred in your heart.
With that said: I did not vote for Obama, nor Biden. But I have never ever wished them dead. In fact when traveling overseas we were asked about Obama, our response "we didn't vote for him BUT he is still our president, the POTUS". Do I like how inflation, immigration, etc has effected our country in the 3.5 years? No . . . .
We do not yet have a full report on DJT injuries. We do know now that one spectator was killed, another seriously injured. So this was not staged. There were Secret Service Snipers who neutralized the threat. Perhaps "the call" that those on the ground were waiting for before they moved the former president.
As pointed out, the shooter could have been outside the Rally grounds. We won't know until the investigation is complete. Assignations, unfortunately have been part of history, not just in the US.
I do not write assumptions about those on the other side of the aisle. Nor do I use profanity to describe those in office or Peas here that do not believe as I do. I have purposefully stayed out of the political threads for that reason. Yes, it’s important to be nice and use nice language when talking about fascists and killers. My bad. Above all, be nice.
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Post by Merge on Jul 14, 2024 0:14:24 GMT
Look, I hate Trump. I think he's horrible, despicable, vile, scum of the earth and a waste of skin and bone. I hope to God he's not reelected because I shudder to think what it will do to this country and our citizens. That being said I think this talk of it being a hoax or staged is very dangerous and something I expect from the Republicans, not the Democrats. That's horrible and despicable as Trump is I don't think r a second think this was staged. First of all he is way too cowardly. Second of all even as evil as he is I don't believe he would potentially cause harm to his followers. I wish this talk of it being staged or hoax would stop, it's just going to fuel people's righteous indignation. Democrats need to focus on making sure that everybody knows how dangerous Trump is, how dangerous 2025 is, and how important it is for people to rally behind our candidate and f****** vote Joe Biden/Vote Blue. Hm. I think he would kill anyone to get what he wants. He had no qualms about putting his supporters in danger on J6, after all. He was quite happy to use Ashli Babbitt as a martyr to the cause. We have to stop talking like he’s a normal person with a moral compass. He’s a sociopath. No empathy and no concern for anyone but himself. Remember, the right applauds killers and martyrs. Kyle Rittenhouse, the J6 murderers, and the guy who killed a protestor here in Texas (now pardoned by Abbott!) for starters. They endorse vigilantism and the militants among them talk frequently about dying for the cause. We are not dealing with normal people here. (There is no way the US secret service just didn’t notice a guy with a rifle climbing up a nearby building. That simply didn’t happen. Watching for threats is their first priority. They would already have identified that building as a potential issue and placed people to watch it.)
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