‘Demonrats’ is usually what I hear, and it’s about as far from clever as Albuquerque is from India.

I remember Sandy Hook. I was working in a primary school at the time and helped harden in the pointless ways we actually could. And, like, I get that, but it isn’t the whole society. We haven’t gotten to the point where rule of law actually disintegrates. As bad as that is, I fear for true war from one side against the other(s), where we will see everyone pull out weapons and hold them to the heads of the other side in order to get their way, blast away at those they see as other… not just use laws to slowly strangle the ideas of self-autonomy and democracy.

It’s becoming more of a worry in my mind that within my remaining lifetime I will see an uncivilized society in America. So far the majority of people seem to at least scoff at the Jan. 6 actions, and no true movement of insurrection (meaning they are willing to wage war and not back down when confronted with armed resistance, not that Jan. 6 wasn’t treason) has seized the country.

From a fictional novel, maybe a thriller or a horror, I could see it. If the nebulous they that is acting against the protagonist takes out the protagonist’s side-kick, it would make sense the plan is to then come after the protagonist. If he wasn’t republican, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a big reader of fiction. I would expect a man to be as deep into fictional novels as he is into couches. They make great places to read.

One of those throwaway lines that still make me grin.

Texas, specifically, passed a law since the last election that lets them throw away votes from democratic areas areas with ‘issues.’ It basically only targets a specific democratic area right now, but I would put the chances of them using it well above 50%.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/texas-senate-passes-bill-allowing-secretary-state-overturn-elections-h-rcna82631

I’m surprised. Most trainers get into vaporeon at the least…

(>o.o)>

(^o.o^)

<(o.o<)

Spider-chan did nothing wrong! She was attacked first!

Even funner fact: anyone remember the USS Liberty? A common thought is Israel did that to pull us into their war then. Nowadays you would have a presidential candidate boldly declaring that [insert ‘vile’ country of choice] killed our troops and we must rush to war against them. I bet there are israeli leaders just salivating at the idea of repeating the scenario.

Ah, a fellow enjoyer of greek mythology!

This is classic republican style speech/base-rousing. ‘[insert city/state/region/country here] is terrible, it was once so much better, but now it’s horrible. It’s not you [insert crowd euphemism here] here, it’s all those damn [insert boogeyman euphemism of choice here] coming in and ruining things! We’ve gotta take back the city/state/region/country!’

It’s exactly what old what’s-his-face did with the Haitians and dogs, the ‘illegal’ settlement in Texas, etc. Trump and his team are just so stupid because they take it so far that even the republican politicians in those areas look at them with stupefied expressions and correct the record.

I wish that the criminal laws against violating someone’s civil rights would get applied in these situations. The mere potential of a (way) post hoc punishment from a civil trial is too small punishment for first amendment violations. Those laws exist to give teeth against police officers violating rights (even if they’re rarely used), and should be used to go after the politicians who direct these actions. In order to not punish poor Greta who just works at the office handling these though, they should be automatically applied to the highest level that signed off on it, and whoever wrote the policy/procedure that is carried out. That will create a daisy chain effect where each person asks their supervisor for approval, and will eventually snowball desantis right onto his face (or desk).

Aye, going into it now with the knowledge of where most stuff is has definitely taken some of the shine off. I’m currently playing it again though. It’s a bloody black hole that I can’t escape from long term.

I was with you until the Deep Rock Survivor, but good lord, that one is way better than halls of torment. While it’s not necessary, the ability to mine traps and hallways to escape is a sweet addition.

I have seen constant spewing of the bit about FEMA wasting all their money on illegal immigrants and ‘now they don’t have money for americans!!!’

Plus, Elon controls the conversation on shitter, so I’ve already seen his retorts being spread by acquaintances deep into fud territory. You can’t even argue with the idiots, because the facts don’t matter. The only thing that matters is how much the post in question resonates with their beliefs.

That’s actually one of the few I think the turdsicle won’t do. He has it in his head that China is oooooh the enemy! Maybe they refuse to bribe him with some kind words like papa putin did.

Because while the concept “the cruelty is the point” doesn’t apply to every person who votes republican, it applies to a whole damn lot of them. Nearly every single one of the political actions taken by republicans that we have issue with: not feeding kids at school; trying to get rid of welfare, food stamps, assistance for people with newborns; not implementing healthcare for all; state level republicans targeting cities like Houston, Tx; Montgomery, Alabama; etc.; all comes down to them not wanting ‘those people’ to be helped.

For anyone not believing this, go to https://consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer and do that consumer report. They are (depending on your state) required to tell you everything they have on you, and they include where it came from. It’s eye-opening.

Sure, facebook has been doing it for years. They build shadow profiles on people, allegedly ‘only’ (massive air quotes around that one) so if those people ever join they’ll have links and photos and such already waiting for them.

Texas is pretty dang purple. As others have mentioned, there is some serious voter suppression that goes on. Just take a look at that crazy law that targeted (basically, only) the county that Houston is in, allowing the state administration to throw out their votes.