241 Comments

The Republican party itself is preying on mental illness. People of compromised mental health always gravitate toward fear and negativity

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Biden was in Wisconsin today touting Microsoft building a new AI datacenter in the area where Trump's failed Foxconn facility was supposed to have been.

'Infrastructure Week' every week for four years and we didn't build a damn thing," he said.

"He and his administration promised a $10 billion investment by Foxconn... In fact, he came here with your senator, Ron Johnson, literally holding a golden shovel, promising to build the 'eighth wonder of the world.'"

Biden recalled to the crowd a promise he said Trump left completely unfulfilled.

"Are you kidding me? Look what happened!" he exclaimed. "They dug a hole with those golden shovels -- and then they fell into it!"

Biden noted that many homes in the area were bulldozed for the project, even though it never came to fruition.

"Foxconn turned out to be just that -- a con," Biden said. "Go figure!"

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Well they're not going to know because Faux News isn't going to tell them; surely Sinclair's News Desk isn't going to tell them. And the NYT isn't going to tell them because Joe Biden is old. Bothsiderism rules the day, from mainstream to pundits to shit-stirrers like Jon Stewart.

This is the great benefit of the rightwing media human centipede. But it's not invincible. We've got our work to do this November.

Mount up!

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The liberal media doesn't exist. They all work for Mango Manson, whether they know it or not.

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And oh by the way, Politico (a.k.a. "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" [thanks Charlie Pierce]) sure as shit ain't gonna tell them!

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May 8Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

I think your average maga asshole admits making mistakes as well as their mega maga asshole leader. So rather than saying " Jesus Christ, This $1,900 a month truck payment is breaking my balls! How my dumbass ever thought I could afford a $90,000 pickup truck I'll never know!" they're more inclined to say something like" This damn Joe Biden inflation is killing us! You can't tell by looking at me, the old lady and the kids, but we're wasting away to nothing! "

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They are narcissists who project everything onto everyone else and blame them for their lot in life. It is NEVER their fault, if it was they would be Ds.

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Sorry if mentioned already, but US delayed munitions delivery to IDF.

It's a start.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68978322.amp

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Huh, guess Biden *wasn't* powerless these last 7 months.

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You seem to have forgotten WHY Gaza has been getting pounded for the past few months. Let me remind you:

1) They killed 1200 people, many of them young people at a music festival.

2) They raped women and killed children.

3) They took a few hundred hostages.

They've been offered a ceasefire if they return the hostages. They don't want it. They use Palestinians as human shields, they steal money from their own people. The leaders of Hamas live in other countries, on all of the money they stole from their own people.

PLEASE, tell us all how Biden can put an end to this constant fighting. I guess nobody has EVER tried to get these 2 groups to peacefully co-exist before now.

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No, they've been offered a six-week timeout if they return the hostages, after which the bloodshed starts up again. You don't have to convince me Hamas sucks, but none of this, not even the events of October 7th justify what's been done since, and Biden has condoned and materially supported Israel every step of the way.

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And they refused to return the hostages after the deal was agreed to changing from 33 living humans to a dozen corpses of people they had tortured and murdered.

This is a fucking op. There is no way Biden solves a conflict as old as the existence of Islam.

What can it do? Get Trump elected because of fucking hater idiots like you.

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Have these people never heard of the joke of Middle East Peace. Remember Jarhead was supposed to fix that his first week working with his orange moron of a FIL. Instead he got a BILLION from Saudi.

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Great news!

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Good.

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Bibi has always assumed the US will *always* help Israel otherwise the US will be called anti-semitic. I think that mindset is changing a bit here in the US.

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He also probably was gambling on the Republicans using the issue to attack Biden; remember that time House Republicans invited Netanyahu to scold Obama?

Unfortunately, the current House GOP is too busy shooting themselves in the face to actually take advantage of the situation.

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The Israelis had to respond to Hamas's attack, but Bibi is becoming a pariah because of his desire to level Gaza. I suspect mainly to keep himself in power, and out of jail.

There are 1 million people in Rafah, and the Israeli army can't root out Hamas fighters in that group? Maybe offer the Palestinians a cease fire AND a bounty if they turn over any member of Hamas.

I'm not sure there will be any type of cease fire unless the Israelis get rid of Bibi.

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The best, perhaps only, way to destroy Hamas is to give the Palestinian people hope in something other than surviving to take revenge later. Unfortunately, both Netanyahu's political and personal instincts, plus his own political and perhaps physical survival, depend on him *not* understanding that.

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And get rid of UNRWA and stop teaching hate.

Demilitarize Gaza, accept the existence of Israel, and there could be peace.

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An eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind.

That's why I said for a ceasefire, the Israelis need to get rid of Bibi, and I should add that the Palestinians need to get rid of Hamas. Neither side is blame free, and they've both got blood on their hands.

People in that part of the world seem to be very interested in holding on to grudges, instead of trying to make peace.

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May 8Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Don't remember whether it was Mother Jones, Politico, or Vox, but a psychologist they talked to says that our inexplicable dissatisfaction with the way things are going is due to the unresolved trauma of the COVID pandemic.

We isolated, used protection, massively disrupted our daily lives, watched loved ones die and feared getting sick ourselves......and then nothing. No memorial for the dead, nothing to mark that it's over....just this nagging unease at the back of the mind.

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May 9Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

At my training today, we were explained the bare rudiments of trauma informed care. It's my favorite part of the job, and I've been training at it for years (my second favorite is motivational interviewing). In class today I said what I've been saying for the past two years: Because of the pandemic, the entire world needs trauma informed care.

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Death Panel calls this the "sociological end of the pandemic". The politicians, particularly the ones in power in 2021, wanted the "pandemic" to go away as quickly as possible, hence the lack of closure you're seeing.

Don't worry, the pandemic never ended.

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That makes sense, but what doesn't make sense is some wanting to put the guy who bungled the Covid response back into the WH.

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So he can kill another million

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May 8·edited May 8Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

Yeah, the fucking NYT could have been pointing out all this stuff instead of 'Americans think Biden Too Old' bullshit...There's a fucking REASON the average American is so fucking pig ignorant and disengaged...The NYT can fuck itself in the neck with a sharp stick...JFC!

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FUCK YEAH!

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Man. I needed this. I was flirting with the black dog over recent events and my fears about the coming election.

Now I shall go donate to the Biden campaign. Time to dig deep and find my resolve, also too.

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Save some for the close senate and house races you're following. Joe has a pretty enormous war chest already.

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For MAGAts, it's not about any political considerations whatsoever. Those of us who are former or current deadheads should be able to recognize it - what they have done is form a new counterculture, and Trump is their Jerry Garcia. All the same attractions exist: unequivocal love and acceptance for insiders, the belief that you have knowledge over the outsiders, rituals, symbols, new slang, and above all - parties to go to, big, big shindigs with thousands all loving you for the misfit you are.

Yeah it's a cult, but remember: Garcia died two decades ago, and the cult survives. We got big problems folks.

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Not really, Garcia never told anyone what to do, ever. People followed the music of the band and called Jerry "Captain Trips". Jerry made it clear in no uncertain terms he was not a cult leader. MAGA is a pure cult with a textbook deranged leader telling them what to do on a daily basis.

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No comparison to Garcia whatsoever, I'm only talking about the followers.

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good point. They currently exist WITHIN the republican party, but if asked to choose between the two, they would pick Trump...

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Ooh oohoo hoo yay!

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May 8Liked by Rebecca Schoenkopf

After reading the actual poll numbers I would say that the headlines don’t really match what’s in the poll.

For example the main headline is :

“Poll: Biden touts his four major infrastructure and clean energy laws. Voters doubt they’re working.”

Yet the first poll on the IRA shows 46 percent of RV saw it as being positive or a mix of positive and negative with only 21 percent saying it was negative.

Subheadline :

“Voters say they don’t see the benefits”

And yet right below it the results show

52 percent show a major or minor impact and only 30 percent saying no impact.

Finally the other subheadline

“Many voters credit Trump, not Biden, for doing more on infrastructure”

Also includes in the poll question the sentence :

“Percentage of voters who say Biden or Trump “has done more to promote infrastructure improvements AND job creation.”

And we know that people always think Republicans are the “job creators”

And still the results show Biden winning that poll 40-37.

So bottom line - Every poll showed an advantage for Biden but that don’t get the clicks do it?

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May 8·edited May 8

“Many voters credit Trump, not Biden, for doing more on infrastructure”

As per usual, pollsters aren't interested in the actually important question: *WHY* do you think that?

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Well and think of what that headline really says. It basically is meaningless really. Biden could have 1 million votes for and 5 against and the headline still works right? It’s bs clickbait for the most part.

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"“Voters say they don’t see the benefits”

And yet right below it the results show

52 percent show a major or minor impact and only 30 percent saying no impact."

----

Basically:

'If it doesn't effect or help me directly or RIGHT IN FRONT of me then it doesn't exist'

low empathy reasoning

Federal funding to feed school children???!!!?! How does that help ME??!!! I'm 60 years old!!!

sometimes I fucking hate people

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Probably some of them believe there's a lot of assistance and funding going towards *too many* people with skin darker than a paper bag.

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WE NEVER BEGIN SHORTLY

[end of rant]

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Rain delay?

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"Shortly" is a relative term ... in geologic time, they *always* start shortly.

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May 8·edited May 8

And in other news

Mitch McConnell threatens the ICC if they bring charges against Bibi or Israel for their war crimes in Gaza

Perhaps we should refer the entirety of the GOP to the ICC for their engagement in crimes against humanity and their policy platforms denying queer folks, immigrants, and asylum seekers civil rights

https://newrepublic.com/post/181339/republican-senators-threaten-icc-israel-netanyahu-warned

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Threatens the ICC with what? War crimes?

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What can he do? He's not even an alligator snapping turtle.

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The United States, to its great dishonor, has declined to join the ICC convention. So the ICC should probably tell the United States to fuck right off, who the fuck are you to tell us what to do.

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"Hey, ya'll didn't wanna play then, so ya'll can't play now!!"

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Biden vs. Gravel Pit 2024

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Right, so that speech from yesterday... you guys did pick up the racism, right?

https://twitter.com/SxarletRed/status/1787884148096442684

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Hamas are nothing but filthy fucking blood thirsty, viciously raping terrorists.

I have NOTHING remotely civil to say to anyone who would drape their butchery and brutality under a sickening cloak of "racism" in an effort to defend it.

Take a fucking hike, troll...preferably off of a short pier with a LONG drop into some rough, damned cold water.

It's still a damned sight better than YOU deserve.

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Hamas is younger than I am. Nothing "ancient" about their "desires" unless you're insinuating Palestinians or Arabs in general are just pre-programmed to be antisemitic.

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So just what was it that motivated that vicious assault upon Israel on October 7?

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Probably 70 years of occupation. Some amount of corruption in there too.

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So, Mackenzie, you want Israel to disappear.

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I'm not big on nation-states as a whole, really. If Canada were to disappear tomorrow... eh, wouldn't be too broken up about it. There are other ways of organizing ourselves, ones with less genocidal ideation, considering the Residential School system and how we treat indigenous communities.

Oh, you're... you're conflating the nation-state with the people living there. Easy mistake to make; seems to be a vested interest in conflating the two whenever discussing rectifying past wrongs. See it all the time in the Truth and Reconciliation discussion where I live.

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That's it. You've convinced me to vote Trump now!

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Better yet, don't vote at all! It's not like sitting passively by and helping to help Trump will have any repercussions in Gaza, Ukraine, America, or around the world.

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Yeah!! Voting is for sell outs anyway! Both sides are the same!

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Yeah, that region of the world isn't renowned though history for literal millennia-long blood feuds or anything.

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Correct.

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So is Albania. I think the bigger clue is that he says "ancient" when the current Arab/Islamic beef with Jews is barely a century old.

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Uh huh. And surely that's the only one.

Surely.

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The point is that Biden was, maladroitly, referring to "ancient" anti-Semitism but had phrased it in a way that one could read it as a hatred that's inherent to Hamas via race or religion.

Making it sound like people in the Middle East are somehow inherently given to blood feuds or ancient hatreds is inadvertently making the OP's point for them.

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Except: I never said it was inherent, merely historic.

I also never said it couldn't be helped or was endemic to any group in any way.

Good guess though.

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But that's the implication. You get that, right? In an environment shaped by post-9/11 anti-Arab racism, assigning anything "ancient" to them, terrorists or not, not only obscures what actually motivates them, but also makes it seem like there's some kind of racial memory animating them rather than anything sociopolitical.

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Hamas are terrorist assholes who have explicitly stated that exact thing, so I don't have a problem with it

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That they're operating on "ancient desires"?

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Antisemitism was only invented yesterday?

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I don't think bigotry emerges as a "desire", let alone an "ancient" one.

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Really?

Bigotry isn't a desire to see your group be dominant over another? One that's been around and used by power-desirous human beings against the marginalized for thousands of years?

Pull the other one, why don't you. What silly semantic games.

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You almost have it. It's used by power-desirous human beings, but for their own power and purpose, not simply for dominance. For instance, Edward I of England obtained loans from the handful of wealthy Jews living in England, unable to do so with his Christian nobles because money-lending was considered usury by the Church. These loans were often guaranteed against the indebted noble's landholdings. The unsustainable taxes levied on Jews forced them to sell their debt bonds, which were then purchased at cut-rate prices and called in by other nobles eager for land-transfers. Nobles like Simon de Montfort used the dispossession to stir up the animosity towards Jewish citizens of London and elsewhere in England. Once the Jews had been bled dry by the taxes, Edward simply expelled them.

There's always an underlying sociopolitical environment where these things take place. Just ascribing it to some kind of ancient primordial need to do evil on the outgroup only mystifies these factors rather than coming to grips with them.

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May 8·edited May 8

I listened, the "ancient desire" appears to me to be a (poorly-phrased) reference to anti-Semitism generally.

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Which is primarily a European Christian phenomenon.

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May 8·edited May 8

Precisely, which is why I don't think he was making racial commentary: the modern-day issue between Arabs and Jews is only a century old, which is hardly ancient, but anti-Semitism as a concept certainly is.

I'm not sure who's to blame, but it was a mistake of poor wording, not racism.

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*checks my replies* I'm sure that's how it'll be read.

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There's nothing more ancient than tribalism and religious bigotry. If we are to have peace we must, absolutely MUST get rid of all gods and superstition. Think that'll happen?

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You know it "intuitively," huh.

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May 8·edited May 8

Since when has 1919-1948 been considered ancient times?

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Since it predates when da yutes these days had parents who were alive.

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Hamas is a peaceful organization that just wants to spread world peace! I'm sure they're not in any way opposed to any group in particular, and the way they treat women...SWOON!

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They were only founded in 1987. What's "ancient" about them?

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I never said Hamas was ancient, I said they were peaceful, and loved everyone, and treat women wonderfully.

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*Biden* claimed they were operating on "ancient desires". What "ancient desires" are these?

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So you think anti-semitism is a new fangled cocept?

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In that part of the world, in the grand scheme of human history, yeah. What's the point of describing antisemitism this way unless you're trying to play to anti-Arab bigotries promulgated after 9/11?

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Religious bigotry even predates antisemitism!

Sing along at home, TRADITION!!!

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It’s 8:30 PM for this person, they’re a bit tipsy by now.

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The irony is that the people here who support Hamas will be in for a very rude awakening when Trump becomes POTUS again, because they couldn't support "Genocide Joe." Trump will let Bibi do whatever he likes, including bulldozing all of Gaza, and chasing every Palestinian out of Gaza.

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Palestine won't survive a 2nd Trump term. Heck, I don't think the United States will, either.

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The USA will survive, but democracy, a free press, a functioning judiciary, etc...will not survive.

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At the rate BiBi is moving there wont be a Palestine by the election.

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Never make the mistake that Trump won't make things far worse than they are.

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