is this the #Harris2024 campaign's answer to my pleas of DON'T FUCK IT UP đ€
we will only know by her pick of VP.
previously:
https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/112826364566827296
is this the #Harris2024 campaign's answer to my pleas of DON'T FUCK IT UP đ€
we will only know by her pick of VP.
previously:
https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/112826364566827296
I think it's fair to say that much of the media coverage and public discourse surrounding Project 2025 has (rightfully) focused on the fact that it represents a blueprint for transforming America into an overtly (as opposed to covertly) fascist nation where virtually every aspect of political, social, and personal live is governed according to white supremacist, theocratic, Christian Nationalist principles. Given the broad coalition of billionaires and corporate actors working to make Project 2025 a reality however, would it really surprise you to learn that this same blueprint represents a massive financial gift to the rich at the expense of labor class Americans? According to a recent study conducted by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee, that's precisely what Project 2025 will do:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/project-2025-taxes
Trump-Aligned Project 2025 Would Mean Higher Taxes for Workers, 'Corporate Welfare' for the Rich
"An economic analysis of the far-right Project 2025 agenda crafted by at least 140 former Trump administration officials shows that the plan would result in higher taxes on working-class Americans and "corporate welfare" for the rich and large businesses."
Like most right wing proposals that actively harm the labor class, the sausage is made by combining multiple regressive taxation policy decisions that ultimately rob American workers and their families of their hard-earned income:
"Together, these changes to tax rates would mean that a family of four earning $90,000 per year would have paid roughly $2,300 more in taxes last year," the JEC found. "If the Child Tax Credit was also eliminated, this family would have paid roughly $6,300 more. Meanwhile, millionaires would pay a lower top tax rate."
The analysis also points to Project 2025's push for a "national sales tax," a highly regressive proposal endorsed by dozens of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
A national sales tax would "force working families to pay more at the grocery store, gas pump, and any other place they buy goods or services," JEC said Thursday, noting that past GOP proposals "would have hiked the cost of essentials like groceries and housingâusually exempt from state and local sales taxesâby 30%."
This would then in turn be combined with significant tax cuts for American corporations, with more goodies for the rich likely on the way during a potential second Trump presidency:
"Meanwhile, Project 2025 calls for reducing the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 18%. According to The Washington Post, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's advisers have discussed slashing the tax rate to as low as 15%, and the president himself has told leading executives and his wealthy campaign donors that he intends to push for additional tax cuts if he wins another four years in the White House."
Look folks, I don't think you need me to tell you that so-called "trickle down economics" has been demonstrably proven to be failed policy, and an utter disaster for Americans who don't happen to be billionaires and/or corporate CEOs. But the taxation changes being discussed here aren't even "trickle down" initiatives so much as directly robbing labor class families to fill corporate coffers. No reasonable person should need any more reasons to think Project 2025 is a nightmare that cannot be allowed to become reality, but even broke cracker fascists who think they'll somehow benefit from the installation of a permanent white supremacist, Christian Nationalist regime should realize that paying thousands of dollars more per year in various taxes to help corporate CEO's buy yet another yacht is a terrible deal for everyone but rich people who are already living high on the hog.
#JDVance Desperately Tries to Give #Trump Credit for Prisoner Swap
Trumpâs team is pathetically trying to make the #Russia #PrisonerExchange all about him.
After #POTUS Joe #Biden on Thurs announced a deal to free American #hostages in Russia, #Vance somehow tried to give Trump the credit.
#Desperate #pathetic #deranged #weird #criminal #losers #USpol
#Harris2024
https://newrepublic.com/post/184486/jd-vance-trump-credit-russia-prisoner-swap
In the past, I've written a lot about the media at large's "institutional amnesia" when it comes to covering the greater fascist project in America; the short version is that while you can mostly rely on the media to report top-down fascist fuckery, like say attempts to criminalize librarians as part of a white supremacist, queer-phobic book ban crusade, you can't really rely on corporate media to give those stories the impact-based attention they deserve - or to follow up on the outcomes of this fascist fuckery.
As such, you can certainly imagine my surprise when I found this NBC article examining one cop's quest to arrest three librarians in Texas for the high crime of, um, stocking Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison's âThe Bluest Eye,â among other books two local fascists and cracker murderpig Scott London found objectionable.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/school-librarians-banned-books-investigation-texas-rcna161444
Inside the two-year fight to bring charges against school librarians in Granbury, Texas
"Londonâs investigative file offers the most detailed and visceral picture to date of an attempt to prosecute librarians amid the nationwide campaign by conservatives to restrict childrenâs access to books depicting sex and LGBTQ people."
The thrust of this story is about how a cop's two year quest to find a way to charge three librarians with felonies is an assault on free speech rights, and designed to have a chilling effect on speech and access to reading materials cracker revanchists in our society find objectionable; specifically books that talk about sex, sexual assault, white supremacy, and the mere existence of LGBTQ people. The lengths this cracker murderpig went to persecute these librarians is truly extraordinary; including attempting to intimidate the librarians during in person interviews at the school, buying his own copies of the books to photograph passages he found objectionable, unlawfully obtaining information about students who checked the books out, and attempting to upgrade the charges he tried to file to felonies by arguing that students restocking the books on shelves meant that adults were using minors in the commission of a crime. While London was unable to convince the DA to actually file felony charges against the librarians, his crusade did serve its secondary purpose of intimidating educators who've lived for two years in fear of criminal prosecution for stocking books fascist don't like, including one librarian who simply left the district after the investigation was launched.
While that's all certainly ominous, if not outright terrifying, I think the information NBC left largely in the subtext here for the reader to infer on their own, is actually the most frightening aspect of this story; so let's touch on that briefly.
First of all the genesis for the persecution of these librarians originates in nation-wide attempts by fascist Republican officials to ban books and criminalize educations for making them available to students, starting in 2022. This in turn lead school officials in deep red states (in this case Granbury Superintendent Jeremy Glenn) to take action:
"Granburyâs battle over school library books began in early 2022. That January, Glenn, Granburyâs superintendent, directed librarians to remove books that contained descriptions of sex and LGBTQ storylines, according to a secret recording obtained by NBC News, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. The district later appointed a panel of community volunteers to review dozens of books that a Republican state legislator had flagged as inappropriate."
Deciding that this didn't go far enough, two "conservative Christian parents who served on the review committee â a homeschooling mother named Monica Brown and Karen Lowery" took their complaints to chief deputy constable Scott London, who apparently convinced them to file charges against the librarian (although he claims the decision was unsolicited.)
So just who the fuck is Scott London? If you guessed a literal fascist murderpig with an eye on political advancement, you win the grand prize:
"London, who has ties to the anti-government constitutional sheriffâs movement and tried to launch a local chapter of the far-right Oath Keepers militia in 2020, did not respond to questions."
"After investigating for more than a year, in July 2023, London submitted the case file to Sinclair, the district attorney. By then, London had launched a campaign for Hood County sheriff â an election he would ultimately lose."
In other words folks, this was all the fascist political machine in America working perfectly to design. Fascist politicians identified a target, a fascist school official set the stage, fascist busybodies in the community brought in the cops, and a fascist murderpig executed the campaign to intimidate and attempt to criminalize three librarians for doing their jobs in a way none of these fascists liked. The only thing these nazis were missing is a DA willing to prosecute; this time.
Imagine a grocery store that works like this:
There are no price tags anywhere. You only find out how much you have to pay when they send you a bill a month later. They can charge any amount they want, and they always charge ludicrous prices because they can. If you don't pay, you can't get any more groceries at that store, your credit rating drops, and you might even be sued. All other grocery stores in the country work the same way.
That's US #HealthCare in a nutshell.
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal weighed in on my reporting about the companyâs apparent campaign finance violations, arguing that Coinbase is not a federal contractor.
I have updated the article to include his comments, and Iâve also noted that this argument does not seem to square with the law.
The article, with these updates, is here: https://citationneeded.news/coinbase-campaign-finance-violation/
More to come soon.
#CitationNeeded #Fairshake #Coinbase #USpolitics #USpol #crypto #cryptocurrency
This is the line for tonight's Harris/Walz event -- in a Republican district of WI.
YâALL!
đŁ WITH WALZ AS VP, MINNESOTA GETS THEIR FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN GOVERNOR... AND SHE IS A WOMAN!!!
via @QasimRashid
https://mastodon.social/@QasimRashid/112912165015171321
âIf Kamala Harris taps Tim Walz for VP & they win, then Peggy Flanagan becomes Minnesota's Governor, & would be the first female Native American governor in US history.â
Loved hearing Tim Walz today say "you don't just win elections to bank political capital to win another election, you take that political capital and you burn it as fast as you can to improve people's lives". #uspol @kamalaharrisforpresidentnews
The cryptocurrency industry has been working overtime to sell a story: that there is a large contingent of voters voting based on candidatesâ crypto policy stances. The problem is, itâs a story that does not seem to be well supported by data.
https://www.citationneeded.news/when-did-cryptocurrency-become-a-voter-issue/
J.D. Vance awkwardly retreats after bizarre attempt to storm Harrisâ empty plane
That is one creepy-ass stalker weirdo, right there.
#Trump's #Racist Attacks on #KamalaHarris Are Part of a Larger, #Unhinged Plan
Team Trump believes questioning #Harris' racial identity is smart #politics â & is behind him "100 percent," says a person close to Trump
#deranged #weird #racism #WhiteSupremacy #MaleSupremacy #misogyny #MAGA #Republicans #USpol
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-kamala-harris-racist-attacks-larger-plan-1235073171/
The line stretches for more than six city blocks as thousands wait for entry into the first Harris-Walz rally in Philadelphia.
#USPol #HarrisWalz2024 #Philadelphia #TimWalz #KamalaHarris #VoteBlue
What utter nonsense lolâ
Vance spoke of a âhealthy ruling classâ and not turning the country over to âpeople who donât really have a direct stake in it.â
How would she spin that?
~ Usha Vance tries to defend her husband's 'childless cat ladies' comment ~
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/05/g-s1-15408/usha-jd-vance-childless-cat-ladies
SCOOP: Coinbase appears to have violated campaign finance laws with a $25 million donation to the Fairshake cryptocurrency super PAC, made while they were in active negotiations for a federal government contract.
https://www.citationneeded.news/coinbase-campaign-finance-violation/
#CitationNeeded #Fairshake #Coinbase #USpolitics #USpol #crypto #cryptocurrency
Latest comic: Weirdo Welfare
#2024election #uspol #vance #democracy #fascism #billionaires #extremism
As you may have heard, the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA as it's more commonly known, just passed the US Senate by a vote of 91-3; only one Democrat, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) voted against it. The bill was co-written and sponsored by Marsha Blackburn (Nazi Party-TN), one of the most virulently anti-queer fascists in American government, and endorsed by The Heritage Foundation (the very same nazis who brought you Project 2025.) As an American trans woman facing down a real-as-fuck, increasingly mainstream fascist pogrom against trans people, I'm furious at this betrayal by Senate Dems, and more than a little afraid for my future online, or otherwise.
Despite its protested benevolent intentions, this is a foundationally fascist bill that would give the FTC (controlled by whoever happens to be President) and State Attorney Generals (including hardcore nazis like Ken Paxton in Texas) the ability to force online platforms to censor any content they *think* might cause minors "anxiety" or "distress." What exactly is content fascists think might cause "distress" or "anxiety" in young people? Well, given the vague wording of the bill, it's hard to say, but the "conservatives" who support it have repeatedly made clear that they consider information about sex education, sexual abuse/assault, anti-racist literature, history they don't like, information about contraception, and information about queer, particularly trans people, simply existing, to be "distressing" and "damaging" to children, so it's not that hard to guess. Blackburn herself has given interviews where she admits the fascist right intend to use the bill to "protect" young people from "the transgender" and "gender ideology." The Heritage Foundation and various other fascist think tanks who support the bill have also indicated the same. While the far right insists the purpose of the bill is to protect children from harm and pornography, that reasoning falls a little flat when you realize they've openly stated that just knowing trans and queer people exist is "harmful to children" and "pornographic" or "sexualizing" in nature.
Furthermore, the prosecution of an anti-queer agenda, and an ongoing anti-trans pogrom aren't the only horrifying problems with this bill. While the Act is ostensibly designed to protect young people, and its sponsors swear up and down it won't lead to age-gating and violations of privacy for everyday adult users of online platforms, it does require those platforms to know which users are, and aren't, minors; which is going to be pretty much impossible without demanding identification or some form of identifying age-verification process. One can easily imagine numerous ways this poorly-thought out censorship regime can go completely sideways. For example, if "red-state" fascists want to unmask you on large online platforms, all they're going to have to do is flag you as a potential minor, which in turn will force you to essentially identify yourself to prove otherwise or lose access.
Liberal proponents of the bill, and disingenuous fascists trying to hide their already-admitted intentions, have of course insisted that KOSA contains safeguards that will prevent it from acting as a fascist censorship law on large internet platforms. This argument is however clearly divorced from reality when you examine the intentions and standard operations of those platforms. No Big Tech company will wait around to get sued by nazi American parent groups and fascist State Attorney generals, and they sure as fuck aren't going to spend the resources necessary to resolve this on a case by case basis when they can just pre-emptively ban anything myopic wingers might find objectionable and call it a day; especially since that will cost less and reactionary Tech Bros who own big online platforms don't really want to host queer content, resources for sexual abuse victims, or anti-racist content in the first place. Half the folks running these companies already donate to Trump and wholly support the Christian Nationalist agenda Project 2025 is designed to further.
Of course passing the Senate doesn't make KOSA a law yet, but given that fascist Republicans prosecuting a Christian Nationalist agenda hold a slim majority in Congress, and President Biden has already endorsed the bill, I'm not feeling very optimistic it won't be soon. And while I'm certainly outraged at nazis who intend to use this bill to prosecute a fundie fascist agenda designed to pogrom trans people and chase their political opponents out of public life, I must admit I reserve a special ire for Senate Dems empowering that agenda in exchange for warm feelings of "bipartisan co-operation" and the purely hypothetical support of white suburban nazis who call themselves parents. It's pretty hard for me to believe you folks oppose Project 2025, when you're already helping the fascists pass laws that support it and Trump hasn't even been elected President, yet.
the internet is made of cats. it was a huge tactical error to go after the cats.
They should have played this when he entered into congress
#Crypto damages Dems & Americans:
The Dem Party is in an open war over whether or not to re-embrace the fraud-ridden crypto IDU.
With a $120M: pro-crypto PAC Fairshake is the single largest spending operation in the 2024 elections, & has targeted Dem crypto critics in key swing states & dists. The PAC successfully kneecapped Rep Porterâs primary bid for Sen in 2023 with $10M in outside spending... is targeting 2 top Dems on the Sen Banking CMTE, Brown & Tester.
#USPol https://prospect.org/politics/2024-07-31-crypto-cash-affecting-democratic-races/