>

It has already been happening, and they have not.
McCarthy stripped Swalwell of his committee positions and called the California Democrat a “security threat” due to his link to a suspected Chinese spy.

But pay no attention to the known russian spy who infiltrated the nra and other high gop circles. >

swalwell bad, santos good - gop >

Need some accountability laws here.  Threats are 'real' and should have consequences. >

Indeed.  The attack on Paul Pelosi a prime example of the violence due to venom and hate that has become common language among the GOP and its water carriers like Fox News.  Not only that but the lies purported as truths used to amplify it.  Trump led the way in coarse and hate on a new level of public messages from a political leader.  
It is time for some long overdue changes.
Edited misspelled word >

They know. And they're smirking about it. They're counting on good people to play by the rules and not fight back. >

Just bc we play by (and within) the rules against known cheats, does not mean we can't fight back.
Edit: my point is that if you compromise your principles bc the other side is willing to do so, you've already lost. >

Your version of fighting back won't work if you only play within the rules when your opponents can stop you from making new ones. >

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.”  In this passage Sun Tzu uses the metaphors of Heaven and Earth to represent the moral and physical capacities of the conflicting parties.  In particular, it is noteworthy that the GOP has no endgame.  Their lack of morality (Heaven) precludes victory. >

That is not what Heaven and Earth mean. Sun Tsu literally explains what those phrases mean in the art of war. 
Sun Tsu even includes moral law as its own thing to be measured, unrelated to Heaven. 
"Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons."
"Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death." >

Insightful.  I appreciate your reply.  I have absorbed Art of War in bits and pieces over the years, so excuse my misunderstanding. >

No problem. If you only read the quotes it's easy to interpret it in a million ways. 
It isn't very long, and it is worth reading all the way through. The gist is largely get information, apply your strengths, know your weaknesses, and manage your logistics. >

I have pushed people on this sub to read Machiavelli and Sun Tzu for years with a less than tepid response, as if I was pushing a war narrative or that's the only thing they are good for. The books are more than war/ruler "manuals", they are strategy guides that can be useful in today's politics when dealing with such extremists on the right, you can see the proverbial battle play out in real time (or even ahead of time) and understand what they are attempting and then be much more prepared for their culture war maneuvers. >

The ability to rant against pedos in one breath and threaten to rape and kill specific children in the next  basically sums up the GQP at this point. SMH >

It’s like that top Q conspiracy theory guy that turned out to be child molester living in a trailer. He was in This Place Rules. >

That was such a good set up by Andrew. Interview the dude, get him to solidly choose the hill to die on, then bring out the court records to rug pull the guy. When he pulled out the documents, that was the most nervous Andrew looked throughout the whole documentary. >

It's a real shame Andrew chose to be a shitty person too. Can't really bring myself to watch the doc after all that's come out, but it sounds like solid work.
edit: added article for context >

What has come out? >

Sexual harassment/assault allegations >

Link? I haven't heard about this. >

Article here, also added to my original reply. Thought it was more common knowledge, my b >

nbd for not including the link.
It's such a shame that he did those things. But, I'm glad he's seeking help, and his apology didn't consist of "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt" bullshit victim blaming apology that we usually get from folks who do these things. >

Nah, definitely big deal. Help only does so much, the people he assaulted have to live with it for the rest of their lives. >

A GOP candidate just shot up a bunch of Democrats homes. This is not an isolated incident >


This is not an isolated incident

But, hey, here's 30 more stories about cops running a train on another cop instead! >

But the stories are all going to be centered on how bad the woman is. Also, cancel culture somehow! >

I mean, they're all bastards, but homegirls been getting DRAGGED on the internet and especially black Twitter in a way I haven't seen since Rachel Dolezal >

This week happens to be the 25th anniversary of that time that Bill Clinton cheated on his wife.
It's worth going back and listening to Monica Lewinsky talk about this type of online bullying. Lady has some informed opinions on how gender impacts the fallout of this type of scandal. >

I remember reflexively disliking her because of the persistent narrative and me being only ~18 and ignorant. She was fucking railroaded and seems like a perfectly decent person who was just in over her head and victimized over and over by her 'boyfriend", her "friend", and then the entire media apparatus and public opinion. >

And they call themselves Godly 🤮 >

Point taken ! >

Democrats: "Man we really hate Republicans we need to vote in more Democrats in next election."
Republicans: "We really hate Democrats, lets try and kill them."
Both sides are not the same. But hey, Republicans, keep calling yourselves patriots, or something. >

For real though. I always think of that Mad Men scene with Don in the elevator and a guy is laying into him for being a piece of shit. It’s obvious that this man is consumed with hate of Don and has thought about him constantly. ~~He finishes and Don doesn’t even look at him~~ he finishes by telling Don he feels sorry for him and Don replies “I don’t think about you at all.”
And that is Democrats and Republicans >

Wait you mean it's not normal to put out multiple flags of your favored politician all year long, even after they lose? >

Youre supposed to hang them on your lifted pickup so its already terrible fuel efficiency drops even further. >

Don't forget the silly coded messages plastered all over it so they can chuckle to themselves for being SO clever. >

Fomenting violence has become the GOP go to it seems.  

“People parrot what Kevin McCarthy is saying when they call and make the threat,” Swalwell told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Wednesday’s broadcast of “Deadline: White House.”

.....

Swalwell had told and “publicly broadcast” to McCarthy that his rhetoric “leads to threats to me, my wife, our kids,” he said to Wallace.
“Recently someone said that they were going to rape and kill my children and they were using the language that Kevin McCarthy was using so there is a cost to this,” he added.
But McCarthy “doesn’t care” and instead just “wants to focus on, you know, carrying out the vengeance that he has promised in this corrupt bargain,” he claimed, alleging McCarthy “won’t even stop and talk to me when I have tried to talk to him.”

Article continues... >

Not only does McCarthy not care, he sees it as a power move >


Not only does McCarthy not care, he sees it as a power move*

This is what I think Dem congressional leaders still don't understand. 
GOP is in Martyr, kamikaze, jihad mode, being willing (and to have taken an oath) to sacrifice themselves (career, life etc) for the cause to ensure God's will is realized no matter the cost. 
They see every step as closer to achieving their mission as warriors for Christ. 
A (albeit deeply miguided) holy war that will supossedly bring a heavenly kingdom on earth attained only through the destruction of a perceived "demonic" order. 
They won't stop. >

It seriously bothers me how much of the GQP's fascination on Israel and Jerusalem is LITERALLY because they believe the sooner they can get Isreal to build the Third Temple in Jerusalem so that what's in Revelations can come to pass and Jesus will come rule again.
Like yeah nuclear holocaust from these assholes is bad, but there's so many with the literal platform of "Time to end the world!" >

I have no clue what this means in doctrine but if it really means literally building a temple they can do that for less than the cost of one or two days campaigning for a single house seat.
But then again, no one has ever accused them of actually being Christian. It is all a front to get the stupid to vote for them. >

The problem is the Temple has to be built in Jerusalem (see Trump moving the US Embassy moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - the US had passed a law to make the move in 1995 but every president until Trump deferred it because that's a fucking geopolitical land mine move) or Jesus won't come back.
The GQP Evangelists doesn't care about Israelis, Muslims, or whoever the hell else think they have a right to the area - they just know there has to be a Temple on the Temple Mount to get Jesus to come back and they'll all get snatched up to heaven like good little believers. They hope. >

My point was more that it seems like there is very little stopping them from doing this outside of the government (i.e. via private means). I'm pretty sure the council that manages Jerusalem is just as corruptable as anyone else. $1B to bring about the end of times would be nothing to actual believers with budgets like theirs.
Point being, they're frauds and don't believe any of this end of days nonsense that the voters do. >

The biggest obstruction to building the Temple is not the cost or bribing the Jerusalem council.
The biggest obstruction to building the temple is the fact that there's a 1400-year old mosque sitting right where the Temple supposedly has to be built. >

Yup. Was just about to make this comment. You beat me by 17 minutes. I too used to be interested in conspiracy theories before the whole genre was co opted by these fucking morons >

My favorite conspiracy theory is the dilution theory.
Add so many bullshit wackjob theories around that you get painted as a loon for being skeptical. >

Interesting. So the people crying about pedophiles and groomers want to rape his children?! Why am I not surprised >

“Democrats don’t like rape.  Therefore we can (1) accuse them of it and (2) threaten them with it. Because they will hate both.”
Not about what they believe. Only about what tools/tactics they can use to cause grief. >

Considering the maga Qanon nut job in NM (allegedly) def did hire hit men to shoot 4 democrats cuz he lost w 26% of the vote (wtf voted for him) >

His name is Solomon Peña
Why don’t you mention his name ? >

Say it's name: Domestic Terrorism >


Say it is name: Domestic Terrorism >

Man why does it need an adjective? Isn't it just straight up TERRORISM? Enlighten me so I can learn >

It underscores that it's local perpetrators, not some vague overseas threat. It's happening in our backyards, it's done by our neighbours, and it's many times more harmful to our safety and well being than any external threat. It's a domestic issue that needs to be dealt with at home, not by pumping money into the military. >

That makes sense, thank you. Doesn't it kind of give people an excuse to downplay it though? "Just more culture wars" >

Those losers would downplay anything no matter how you label it so I don't care what they say. >

Yeah the situation is pretty scary at the moment. And it's the dumbest of the dumb that are actually feeling ballsy enough these days to do it >

just another day of stochastic terrorism in america, folks >

He has the power to force a new speaker thanks to their own stupid rules. I'd say this would be a good reason as any >

It’s the new normal. This is what happens when politicians seek power through whipping up hate.
Half of the US supports going in this direction strongly. >

When no one fought back and allowed it to get to this point, did anyone really think they would self correct? >

The people who are supposed to stop it aren't being held to task because a lot of them are in support of the same ideologies. >

Masturbation is a grievous sin because you are thinking about sinful thoughts about the other person. But threatening to rape and murder someone's family is apparently totally ok. >

This country is under a very slow moving coup and something needs to be done about it before it really is too late. Laws are being broken and there's no DOJ protecting us. Corruption has taken over. >

Unfortunately I think seeds have already been sown, maybe too deep for us to pull, or pull without damage. We do nothing and what happens? Republicans tell more lies until their lies are believed more and more until their base is committing even more outspoken acts of violence. We go in and arrest tons of republicans for insurrection and treason? They see it as a act of war against them and will probably again motivate their base to resort to violence. Obviously, we don’t have a choice, we have to go with the second one if American democracy is to survive, but I don’t think we’re getting away Scott free >

I think this is the end of something, not the start -- the final grasps of Republicans clinging to power using any and all methods, because their party and power are quickly diminishing now. 
Every year more boomers die, and the GOP even helps it along by condoning vaccine conspiracy theories and pushing back against COVID measures. We saw in this last midterm that their craziness has hit a point of strong condemnation by most American voters. Candidates backed by Trump and who called elections rigged and stolen lost up and down the ticket. The crazies in Congress with solid red districts even faced some trouble, like Boebert in Colorado. 
Voters chose legal weed and abortion rights in red states on referendum. Republicans lost a Senate seat. They took the House by such a thin margin that they've become a complete laughingstock, and they're empowering exactly the kind of people Americans don't want to see in power. Democrats held and took governorships and state legislatures too, notably in some swing states. All of this, even though Republicans had so much in their favor: midterm year against the opposing party in power, high inflation, and a rocky economy. Add that to the voter suppression, gerrymandering, and general ratfucking, and they still floundered. 
Unless they excise the radical right, I think this is the best they'll get. It's only downhill from here. Boomers, leaning Republican, continually shrink, and eventually disappear. The next generation, Gen X, is 50/50 split. After that are millennials, who lean solidly left, and Gen Z, who have an even bigger lean left. Zoomers are starting to vote, Millennials are entering the age band where they reliably vote, and aging hasn't changed views. The GOP has nowhere to turn for more votes. 
I know this was a very long comment, but there's reasons to be hopeful. There really aren't many signs pointing in favor of Republicans, and if they don't speak out strongly against these attacks and threats, it'll only get worse for them. I'm worried about the people who might get hurt, on a more micro scale. But all we can do is do our best -- shame the "moderate" Republicans, vote in bluer Democrats, and demand these terrorists get held accountable. >

You're completely ignoring the historic trend of the tendency of voters to get more conservative as they age.
Plenty of boomers were hippies at one point, and they watch Fox News now. 
And, I don't think that the GOP will go quietly in to the night. They won't accept that the electorate has changed and they need to, as well. That's WHY we're seeing an increase in right-wing terrorism. They also see the writing on the wall and are increasingly becoming comfortable with breaking rules and norms, now laws, and eventually enacting violence in order to retain power.
No one willingly lets go of power. Especially not folks with their sort of ideology. >


You’re completely ignoring the historic trend of the tendency of voters to get more conservative as they age.

You’re completely ignoring that this is a myth perpetuated by folk wisdom and disproven by numerous studies. Voters don’t get more more conservative, society gets more progressive. Meanwhile our political values tend to remain largely the same. >

If you’re a minority, if you’re black or Asian or LGBTQIA+, or Native American then you’ve lived your whole life knowing that you are walking among people who want you dead, who want to rape you, who want to torture you and your people. The far-right has always been like this but it has become normalized to speak like this, to use this abhorrent language and then pass it off as if the other people are being “too sensitive”. And depending on where you are in the country, it is essentially like living among terrorists and Nazis. And you have no one to turn to for safety because you don’t know who is going to be the next Agent Smith. Is it the police officer? Your teacher? Your priest? Your coworker? >

McCarthy stripped Swalwell of his committee positions and called the California Democrat a “security threat” due to his link to a suspected Chinese spy. But Swalwell has never been implicated in any wrongdoing and the FBI has praised him for being “completely cooperative” with its investigation. The right is pushing a lie about Swalwell being a spy for China. What happened was China infiltrated California politicians from 2011-2015. (8 years ago) Swalwell was just one of the people affected. When the FBI alerted Swalwell to the woman, he broke off all ties and cooperated with them. >

Imagine that, the Party of Pedophilia wants to rape his kids. Just another day in the life of a right wing christian. >

What the fuck is up with the GOP and r*ping kids? This party is fucking disgusting and needs to be disbanded. >


What the fuck is up with the GOP and r*ping kids? 

They're well practiced, they do what they're skilled at. >

Not what coach meant by “play to your strengths“... >

Just standard rank-and-file Republican rhetoric any more.
These people are animals. >

I was watching a clip talking about this on CNN yesterday and the CNN reporter immediately tried to both sides this and said that republicans recieve threats too and didn't provide any examples lmao.   Fuck CNN. >

Treat them all like the monsters and terrorists they are. >

They're pro life so they can threaten children of people they hate >

What if - hear me out - laws applied to Republicans? >

I know I may be dating myself a little here, but I actually remember a time when people didn't threaten to rape and murder the children of politicians.    
Just like dreaming of getting the GI Joe Aircraft Carrier for Christmas, it's something today's kids will never understand. >

The Sears Wishbook had pages of GI Joe stuff I wanted >

God forbid someone actually goes through with these threats, do you think the GOP will come to their senses?
I doubt so.