Elect progressives all across the ballot this fall 🌊🇺🇸💙 for democracy and prosperity. Democratic leaders best serve the public interest and the US economy.
Joined February 2020
- Tweets7.6K
- Following4.8K
- Followers2.4K
- Likes409K
Let’s not miss the forest for the trees.
The fact is, after tonight Florida has shown itself to be just as purple as Texas. Maybe Dems won big statewide offices in Texas tonight and the GOP won here in Florida, but essentially the 2 states affirmed that they’re evenly blended.
In Broward County I voted for
David Jolly for Florida Governor
Angie Nixon for US Senate
JosĂ© Javier RodrĂguez for FL Attorney General
Joey Mendoza Atkins for FL Agriculture Commissioner
Oh wow, a million likes in just half a day. It was the perfect treatment by Mayor Mamdani to the VP’s shameless post.
The Founding Fathers of the USA believed that our grand experiment in democracy depended on an educated and politically informed & engaged populace, and envisioned that we could/would be that; more so with each generation.
Our founding documents were written for smart citizens.
Yup. Trump is the Heel.
What’s happening currently is not normal. I don’t know of any other country where this happens — that half the electorate is looking for a candidate to advance the country and the other half votes for schadenfreude entertainment.
The GOP, especially MAGA leadership, works full time to direct as much public resources as possible into the pockets of already rich individuals, corporations and PACs. The funds are then used to keep Republicans in power, stealing from public services.
Reasoning101 retweeted
These quick thoughts by Michael Jochum on the disturbing reason Trump gets as much support as he does is a must-read 👇
I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.
If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.
Reasoning101 retweeted
I read the “Save America Act,” so you don’t have to. Most of the media apparently *hasn’t* read it because, if they had, they would be sounding the alarm about the provision in Point 1, below, which almost none of them have even mentioned. I hope this helps raise awareness. 1/
Holy crap! U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just told NBC News host Kristin Welker that if FedEx wins its tariffs lawsuit they should refund the proceeds to consumers.
So, we DO pay the tariffs; foreign countries do not. It’s a tax on us.
Reasoning101 retweeted
WATCH — “Per the Heritage Foundation’s own data, out of 2 billion votes cast since 1982… just 10 (!!) involved undocumented immigrants.”
Republicans are dismantling voting rights over a fake problem. The “SAVE” Act will only save Trump.
Reasoning101 retweeted
I always think it’s good to start the week with a few words from my friend Robert Arnold.
🎥 TikTok - vm.tiktok.com/ZNRDj3rrJ/
How far we have strayed from being a country of honor, of protocol, of respect for erudition and patient service to democracy.
Not fallen, because the USA does not tumble. This shameful MAGA era will pass, and the American renaissance will be beautiful, trustworthy and enduring.
The Trump administration must be losing their patience — and minds — that after ICE and BP agents killed a poet mom and a VA Admin ICU nurse violent protests haven’t erupted. The big goal was to trigger martial law, not deport immigrants.
They misjudged Americans. Bigly.
Medicare4All is the future. But how?
Let’s not rely on the GOP or Dems to come up with an optimal universal healthcare model for the USA. Put out bids for think tanks, institutes and individuals to submit what fits us best. Offer $5 billion to the winning team. It’s a bargain.
Does this make it clear now to decent people outside the USA who ask how a phenomenon like Trump could have happened here?
Let me say this as clearly as possible, because people keep getting it wrong.
Republican lawmakers didn’t stick with Trump because they were hypnotized...terrified...or somehow helpless.
They stuck with him because he’s one of them.
Trump didn’t corrupt a moral party. He exposed a corrupt one.
If Trump were merely embarrassing...reckless...or rude... they would have dumped him years ago. Politicians abandon liabilities fast. What they don’t abandon...are mutual liabilities.
Trump normalized behavior that many of them were already guilty of: ethical shortcuts...financial murkiness... abuse of power...contempt for oversight... lying as policy.
He didn’t invent the rot...he gave it cover.
And here’s the part people don’t like to hear:
For a lot of Republicans in Congress, Trump isn’t the risk.
Accountability is.
Trump absorbs attention like a sponge. While everyone is watching his circus...others operate quietly in the shadows. He’s not a distraction...he’s a shield. A very useful one.
Once they crossed certain lines together...election lies, January 6th...obstruction...weaponization of government ...there was no clean exit.
Loyalty became self-preservation. Defection meant subpoenas...investigations...and career death.
That’s why the so-called “good Republicans” vanished.
They weren’t persuaded. They were purged. Retired. Primaried. Marginalized. What you’re seeing now isn’t universal agreement...it’s selection pressure.
Only those comfortable with ethical decay remain.
This is how systems rot. Not with villains twirling mustaches...but with people who decide, one compromise at a time, that survival matters more than principle.
Trump didn’t take over the GOP.
The GOP recognized itself in Trump.
And that’s why expecting them to “come to their senses” is a fantasy.
You can’t ask people to enforce standards that would incriminate them.
The alliance holds...because it has to.
That’s not psychology.
That’s incentive structure.
And until people stop confusing fear...with complicity... they’ll keep being shocked by behavior that was always predictable.
I’m surprised Noem and Biviano haven’t insisted that that Alex Pretti was trying to kill ICE agents with his car as a deadly weapon (he was a pedestrian), since that seems to be their go-to in every scenario.
People join ICE hoping to kill someone with impunity and “immunity”.
Reasoning101 retweeted
It’s as if it were written for times like today and for people in power. The sooner our Congress reclaims its power, the faster we can end the chaos. #DemsUnited
About 2 weeks ago something big happened to my X account here. It now takes between 1 and 5 minutes to load and when it finally does it says “Welcome to X. There’s nothing here yet, but when you follow people there will be.”
About another 30 seconds later it loads as usual.
???