One year ago things were not so calm here.

#politics It’s difficult to hold these two thoughts in mind at the same time:

(1) Everything Donald Trump represents has been at least latent in movement conservatism and the Republican party since the days of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

(2) Trumpism represents a qualitative transformation of the GOP into an explicitly authoritarian anti-democratic party, and this transformation makes that party a fundamentally different entity than it was even eight years ago. https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/03/34-weeks

20 albums that greatly influenced your taste in music. One album per day, for 20 consecutive days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#20Days20Albums
#cosomusic

Day 16

#20Days20Albums #AlbumChallenge #CoSoMusic

@fugitive247 #20days20albums

FOTC - I Told You I Was Freaky

@InUnfunky what a great album! While there’s lots of Rock & Funk ‘Breaking the Girl’ is a nice departure in style and whoever suggested Mellotron flutes made the track. Did I mention it’s a great album?

#politics #christofascism

"SACR stands out in the pantheon of right-wing extremists not necessarily due to the exclusivity of its membership — there are militias and groups across the country which are men only and Christian only...

What sets SACR apart is that its members come from and are recruited from the upper crust of American society. They are wealthy — independent wealth is a requirement for membership, per documents TPM obtained. And they are credentialed."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-a-secret-society-of-prominent-right-wing-christian-men-prepping-for-a-national-divorce

Hard to argue with "our water is more important than [...] electric vehicles," despite us needing *both* to move forward.

#ClimateChange

https://fortune.com/2024/03/08/tesla-rivian-evs-automotive-manufacturing-environment/

@JLong They also don't grasp that there are a lot more of us than there are of them.

Like, 300 million of us aren't going to prison if one of us beats one of you to death, guys. One of us is going to prison and the rest of us are just free of your tyranny.

@danialexis Totally. The only thing that has ever kept them from ending up like the Tsars and house of Bourbon is legislation. They should have waited until they have spaceships.

@gemswinc have you had a Covid vaccine??🤣🤪

I'd never heard of Zyn. Looks like a product for beta cucks like Tuck who are clearly low on testosterone.
I'm my day, we put a splash of bourbon in our can of Copenhagen

In all seriousness, all forms of nicotine are bad for you. I found quitting dip to be much harder than quitting smoking. Don't try it kids

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/10/zyn-nicotine-pouches-us-culture-war-front

@JLong I'm reminded of other crime lab scandals, including this one from the FBI less than a decade ago:

"The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/fbi-overstated-forensic-hair-matches-in-nearly-all-criminal-trials-for-decades/2015/04/18/39c8d8c6-e515-11e4-b510-962fcfabc310_story.html

...and then they eat their own. It's a familiar story arc
#news
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/09/republicans-georgia-purity-tests-fines

@BrentSullivan @LnzyHou @Idissent @Punisher1976 @WeThePeople

It is an odd sentence, Brent, but very much understood. Most of my family are maga, including my dad, which blows my mind. I rarely talk to them, but, like you said, I love who they once were. Sadly, I have no clue who they are now.

Bring it.

Major US corporations threaten to return labor to ‘law of the jungle’

(Fun fact- labor laws also protect big business from arson, kidnapping and murders, courtesy of their exploited employees, none of which were uncommon before Roosevelt's Labor Relations Act of 1935.)
#History #Labor
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/10/starbucks-trader-joes-spacex-challenge-labor-board

@JLong I really think that billionaires fail to understand the stakes here.

...or maybe they do and that's why they're all building bunkers

@Idissent @Punisher1976 @JoyfullyDazed @LnzyHou @WeThePeople
I've lost family too
Today's my brother's birthday and I'll call. Get togethers are rare because he can't seem to go a couple hours without saying something MAGA/racist
My older brother is almost as bad
My dad's girlfriend is MAGA. Don't know how he does it, having lost a brother in the Normandy invasion.
A decade ago, Mom said a civil war was coming and her sons would be on opposite sides
Thought she was overly dramatic then

@Idissent @Punisher1976 @JoyfullyDazed @WeThePeople

We do what we must. There is no winning with these folks. Except control the dialogue.

@Punisher1976 @JoyfullyDazed @LnzyHou @WeThePeople
I'm so sorry, this is so hard! I can't talk to my daughter or son in law about any of this without fear of not being able to see my grandkids. It's crazy