captainarchmage

[captainarchmage]

Why CaptainArchmage thinks you should vote Kamala Harris for President and Democrats Everywhere

GIF by kinstuck

So tomorrow is the US Election, and while it’s clear that CaptainArchmage (despite trying to avoid posting political stuff, given the situation I have no choice left) would be for Kamala Harris I’m going to make the obvious statement out here. Vote for Kamala.

GIF by lesbianneopolitan

The alternatives don’t bear thinking about and that's what I'm going to be writing about here. No, this is serious. The general reaction below.

GIF by sillyandcoolhomestuckpanels

For Starters, no, both sides are not the yiffing same. This is prima facie false. The current administration is Biden/Harris, and what you’re voting for is Harris/Walz. The Former Guy, when he became president, inherited Obama’s economy and rode on the coat-tails of it until COVID happened and everything hit the buffers. Everything. All of it. He also passed a bunch of tariffs which made life harder for ordinary Americans, did nothing to build infrastructure, and presided over scandal after scandal doing nothing to rectify the concerns of transparency. He put Assange in jail, destroyed alliances, and put in three judges to push forward an extreme agenda through the courts, which given the way the American civic system works, ensured his actions would lead to the end of Roe vs. Wade, and could well lead to the loss of interracial marriage, same-sex marriage, and even rights of certain people to own a bank account, business, or birth control (and fellas your video games and condoms are next).

GIF by insufferable-homestuck

You had enuf yet? When's enuf, enuf?

It wasn’t hyperbole then, and it isn’t hyperbole now. The way out of this mess, and this is really the only way out of the mess except in a few specific and limited cases which are all downballot ones, is to vote Kamala Harris and Democrats.

Biden/Harris rebuilt the economy, managed to reshore industries to America, rebuilt alliances, built infrastructure, and oversaw massive expansion of renewables in America. They also didn’t throw a coup. Which is to say I can't even go over all the issues with the prior admin in one post. And no, "inflation" was a worldwide phenomenon which Biden/Harris managed to get a lid on, to a point. And by "a lid on" I mean the prices stopped rising as fast.

Biden was "forced" to step down due to the media hysteria (where the media seems to have been actively promoting The Former Guy for years now, including providing several billion dollars of free coverage from 2016) and spineless Democrat leaders. Which is to say I don't have *that* high a view of the Democratic party, and many of these supporters, and I know from listening a lot of folks are angry about them letting Biden down. Anyways you got Harris and Walz.

Walz being that football coach guy who had a great time in high school and college and also saved a few folks from addiction apparently. Also he backed free school meals and got them in his state. Which is to say there's not much of a case for going against this guy, is there. Just what are you guys angry about?

Look here, there’s only two arguments against Biden and Harris, and these are shakey: Gaza and “the economy isn’t good for ME”. I’ll address these as follows.

Israel has Congressional law on their side. That’s a Congress-side problem. America agreed to supply Israel a bunch of lethal aid, and that law continues to apply despite the war. They should probably condition aid, and redirect it to Ukraine, but that’s not a reason to enable The Former Guy given everything else. And cutting aid to Israel means Israel will just look to other countries to fill in the vacuum. The notion that Israel doesn’t have supporters and cheerleaders in other countries is based on a totally bizarre worldview where only America has sovereign capabilities. India has Modi, who backs Israel. India also has plenty of manufacturing capacity. This is to say some of the biggest players in the BRICS economically are pro-Israel. Ending American involvement won’t end the conflict in Gaza, but it may well cause it to blow up out of all proportion. I'm not saying it's right, but the issue with Israel isn't just who is president of the US. This is a multipolar world and the new "poles" aren't going to be fulfilling your idea necessarily of what they should be doing. Quite the contrary in this case.

As to the economy not being good for you: I’m sorry, but in the end that’s also like saying the planet isn’t heating up because it’s cold outside. There’s local areas left out from the benefit of the growing economy... they DO have to be helped, and we have to understand what's going on... the causes though need to be assessed. It's also something that ain't happening under a Republican government.

And if you think flipping the table is going to help... think of the amount of organization and materiel that is required for what YOU want to happen. It's a lot. It's also very difficult. It's also something your current trajectory is completely opposed to achieving, because constantly sabotaging any kind of support or trying to turn over the US to fascism isn't the way to build the logistical supply chain you want to achieve your goals. In fact it's quite the contrary.

Like seriously, Biden/Harris went ahead with pulling out of Afghanistan and ending the drone war, tried to clear up student debt... come on, man. What are you angry about?

GIF by muvana

OK, so what happens in the "exception cases"? Well that's a VERY good question. This is the one case where you may be able to vote for a third party candidate in specific and limited circumstances without risking republican fascism, but it won't be for president. Reaction below.

GIF by homestuck-archive

Here's the scenario: You live in an area where Republicans have a VERY low voter count, and the realistic electoral struggle is between a Democrat and an Independent or 3rd party candidate who isn't a "Libertarian" (economic). Is it a good idea? Possibly.

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Except 3rd parties are also not so great on civil liberties compared to Democrats. Right now, Jill Stein, who seems to have been the A1 choice of many Dem-exit proponents now has a transphobic vice presidential ticket, among other things. Really, commander? This isn't progress. Not just in terms of risking The Former Guy... this is a platform I'd be voting against.

GIF by prettyhomestuckpanels

Like I said before, when's enuf enuf? Anyways if you're an American you need to get out and vote. This doesn't JUST include the president that means everyone else right down to the lowest levels. Fact is that the Republican Party seem to have taken a stance to actively smash up everything, so what you're doing now is damage control. And you WILL need Democrats in House and Senate positions too. Split ticket voting ain't the way either, here. See this issue is that at some point in time, Republicans or the "GQP" as it is now decided the best way forward was to smash up the administrative state and everything else really.

If you split ticket, that fascist element is going to bubble up in a nasty way you don't like and won't like.

And that really needs to come to an end, not just for America but for the rest of the world too.

[captainarchmage]

Jimmy Carter's 100th

Again, this account generally isn't dedicated to politics, but this is what it is, and these are the times we're living in. Today, Jimmy Carter turned 100, and once that milestone was passed it felt much was well with the world. For starters, this guy has done, how much for America and the Galaxy? My reaction below.

Once upon a time, not too long ago, there was a time when presidents were not meant to be a national or international embarrassment. This rule generally held for presidents… to a point. As to those who have run that rule to the ground… they come of a specific political bent. Now I've actually had to (years, years) ago ask this... you ask me about Obama... what do I think about him? As a person or as the president? That DID have to be clarified, but in general as a person what you do sets the tone for what you do as president. Most jobs as president... are done by Other People... assistants. Biden is known for having competent aids, apparently, which is one reason his administration is so successfully. Of course ANY Democrat's conduct is decent in comparison with that of The Former Guy.

Quite frankly, I don't have anything to say to those who think the sin of a president is to speak slowly, rather than engage in blatant corruption. I don't have to extol the virtues of Jimmy Carter's life, as president, before, or after, on here because you should be able to look that up yourself in good faith. That said, what we're up against is a huge well of bad faith, and that comes from a specific group of people, globally, who think they can screw over the rest of us. Now you're going to have a choice of how to vote in November to avoid this bad faith and its consequences becoming a long term fixture of America... that choice is pretty binary. And for the record, to dispel all doubts, if I were an American I'd be backing Harris on this one.

[captainarchmage]

Independence Day, UK

Declaring Independence from the Far-Right %$#@

Again I didn't want to make this blog about politics, but given events I have to. It's election day in the UK, and I had my vote in the post a long time ago. Specifically, I voted for the Liberal Democrats, because they had a decent standing in this constituency and explicitly said they're going to try to reverse Brexit. Reaction GIF below.

That doesn't mean the EU will accept, or that the deal we'll get will be the same as last time, but it's a critical move to fixing wrongs. Without rejoining at least the Single Market, Customs Union, and getting freedom of movement back we're going to be having issues with our own supply chains that won't go away. They can't go away, because we're not self-sufficient, because self-sufficiency isn't on these islands all it's cracked up to be, and because setting ourselves out as being a "global player" requires us to be able to easily trade and work with our biggest and most reliable partners, which is to say Europe.

If you're voting today, and are reading this, you should take care to understand what that *means* in terms of action as a citizen. Obviously if you live in Scotland, vote SNP, as they've taken a sensible stance on this and have always been for remain and rejoin in recent history. If you live in Wales, vote Plaid Cymru, for similar reasons. If you live in England, there's no explicit "English National Party" that is for working in a civic manner, but you have a choice between the Green Party and Liberal Democrats, and mostly the latter. Corbyn in Islington (and a few others) - I don't think Corbyn's stance on Ukraine is good, but that doesn't actually matter as he's likely not going to be a kingpin in making any of those decisions. This is about sending a message to the other reactionaries, and will cover this later.

On the matter of Ukraine... if anything DOES happen and Ukraine starts to fall back, this invasion is coming here. That's what history says. There's a lot of excuses, but the fact Russia launched a massive invasion in February of 2022 indicates they're not going to stop. The global conservative movement is behind these people, because something about "transgender anarchy in Ukraine" or "wokeness", according to the talking heads, or for that matter just genociding the Ukrainian people which is literally what's being said on Russian telly.

If Russia gets Ukraine, then they'll push westward. That's why it has to stop in Ukraine, and without Ukraine giving up any land. You know what would also help with defending Europe? An EU Army. This is why we need to rejoin, so you vote for a party that's going to put us on this path.

Note from the list of parties, I exclude from this Labour, as Labour has attempted to court the same socially conservative, anti-migrant, and prejudicial element responsible for running the Conservative Party into the ground. The Conservative Party already had issues before it swallowed the agenda of this reactionary element, but things in Britain took a steep downturn after brexit, with the disastrous handling of the pandemic, and finally the "markets" (hardly a communist creation) finally cracked when the agenda of CPAC-attending Liz Truss was launched. All this at the whim of this "reactionary element". You know, maybe it's better not to court those people AT ALL? At some point you gotta say enuf is enuf, not that it wasn't plain obvious beforehand where that agenda was going.

Trying to placate these people is... how much better than trying to placate people like Putin or The Former Guy? Seriously, people tried that. It didn't work, and none of the systems we thought would snap in to play or individuals we relied on to take action did. It didn't work "last time" either, save for the British PM to arrange re-armament of the country without relying on an alliance of countries that it turned out were quite fascist-curious as well. At least, however, Chamberlain acted in a manner that admitted this was not a long term solution and the push would come to shove. We don't seem to have that notion anymore. You know what's a good idea? Making sure they don't have "their guys" in Parliament in a significant number.

The advantage of getting rid of both Conservatives, and Reform, and knocking them into at least third place (if not fourth place), is that it also ensures these parties don't get a bullhorn in Parliament as they will not be the official opposition. That's due to Parliamentary rules. It means eliminating them from the running. Quite possibly this means the "end" of the conservative party, which is the "ultimate prize" here. It means making sure the main parties in coming decades are ones that are liberals, environmentalists, and civically-minded. Given that Labour seems to be in course for a large majority based on polling, giving your vote to other parties that are more progressive, more internationalist, understanding the coming challenges, more competent, and are also not so willing to let a vocal reactionary minority derail them, is a good idea.

And regards not letting a vocal reactionary minority derail a party, this is critical. How do you deal with these people? You don't give them an inch and you say the buck ends with you. Backing down in any sense of the word is weakness to these people. It's not going to give you any respect, and it may well not give you their vote, or actually telling these people to get stuffed may give you their vote, or you had their vote already and you didn't need to do anything about it. Ask yourself why these peoples' idols are often autocrats and the like. Don't ask me to make it make sense. Their view is more in line with "might is right" than any enlightenment ideals. You don't think like that, I don't think like that, but these people do think like that and you "act accordingly". The sooner you start pushing back, the sooner you free yourself from their %$#@.

Go Vote, and make it Independence Day from these people.

[captainarchmage]

Why CaptainArchmage thinks you should back Democrats in Today's Special Election

Again, I didn't want to make this blog about politics but given the situation, I again have to make an exception, and those exceptions, much like your average Republican candidate for speaker now needing some kind of spyware app to cut down on his pr0n use, is rapidly becoming the norm. Read that until it sinks in, please. Due to other commitments, I haven't been posting any of the content I intended to post on here, but anyways.

So today there's a sort of off-year election day in America, and apparently that involves a bunch of state-governors in certain parts of America and a few state legislature elections. Now once upon a time, I said if I became an American citizen, because political parties go wrong, I'd probably be an Independent. That said, I didn't see ANY election in recent history I wouldn't have voted for the Democrat.

Today, there are some people who think that they can sit this one out, or vote for a third party, and that will work out and stick it to people. My reaction to that is below.

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Really, commander? Well, if your "options" are "Democrat, Democrat, Socialist" or "Socialist, Democrat" I can see it's fair game to vote for the Socialist. If there is a seat which is "Republican" and no other candidates, you can - or rather, I should say, SHOULD, if you fulfilled the criteria, have considered running for that seat. But of course, that time is past. Also those aren't the majority of races. In general, you'll have "Democrat, Republican, Third Party" and too much of that time that Third Party is going to drain votes (or be set up TO drain votes) from Democrats. Voting third party isn't going to help, unless there's a "collective epiphany" of a very large number of people and those don't work that way and the risks are way too high.

I repeat, that's not going to work. Too many "third parties" have turned out to be Republicans with the serial numbers filed off and there's plenty more where that came from. Meanwhile, the people having a "collective epiphany" thus far seem to have decided to turn into raging racists, anti-semites, islamophobes, homophobes, transphobes, and borderline genocidal fascists. So I say, to hell with collective epiphanies and to hell with collective spiritual awakenings in the present and now. It ain't working, and the evidence is it ain't working, and the evidence is also it's making things worse. Maybe we need to stop with that, because that strategy seems to be working best for people with the worse instincts, and not bringing out anyone with better instincts. My reaction below as to, literally, seeing this and see people continue to promote this as a viable option.

GIF by undeadwatcher

A reminder that the Republican party is the party trying to ban reproductive care, prosecute people for miscarriages, ban transgender people, expel all people of a certain religion (and remember that will possibly extend to anyone who has ever been involved with that religion OR looks like the "stereotypical" [in the eyes of the people enforcing that rule, a view that doesn't have to have any rooting in reality, c'mon, you guys have already been protesting this] member of that religion, accept into their ranks take funding from open holocaust deniers, is OK with someone who blames wildfires on "Jewish Space Lasers", and generally destroy democracy in America.

BuT BoTh sIdEs, SO I GUESS TODAY'S FINALLY THE DAY YOU'RE GOING TO FUCK EVERYTHING UP to own the libs or something. Really?

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A reminder that the current credentials of the average Republican politician seem to be corruption, fraud, damn fraud, and requiring your son to be your accountability buddy so you don't watch pr0n. I don't really see a progressive movement succeeding if it ends up putting these people in charge. You've got to hold onto what you already have, too. Gif related, my feelings.

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I'm also starting to highly doubt the leadership capability of many so-called "alternatives". You know, if you want to be a challenge to the Dems, you can't just be someone who is "I'm an Independent". The expectatin is you're going to get better policy than Democrats, but instead both the candidates and the people asking for alternatives keeping making some critical mistakes. For example, like pandering to the "upper left quadrant" of "people who would like to have social safety nets, but only if they were granted exclusively to a small clade". Or to sum up a certain trumpeted "independent" candidate, it's a case of "I Gotta Solution. A Final Solution" populism. The Young Turks "third party" option seems to have an issue with trans people which the old guy in the Presidency doesn't. Cornell West noted getting nominations as an agreed-upon party member would be difficult in terms of ballot access, and instead of rectifying those he made the logical step to run as an independent. RFK, meanwhile, is a vax denier. There's something really unstable, I note, among these people and a drain from movements such as "Occupy Wall Street" to literal neo-nazism, and that has me questioning how viable these really are.

Meanwhile Democrats *HAVE* delivered, such that they can. Biden tried to cancel student debt with considerable success, though SCOTUS is in the way (and that's a Republican problem), reduced inflation, and lead to low unemployment, and an increase in unionization. And no, despite the accusations surrounding Biden and the rail strike in 2022, workers actually did win paid sick leave. Meanwhile, Michigan Democrats with a 1-seat majority on their legislature(s) struck down the "right to work" laws in that state.

So in total, that's it. With Democrats, you get progress in the end, and you maintain protections. With Republicans... you don't, and you might not have anything left at the end of it. There's no third party viability, and believe it or not there's no requirement that there be any viable third party candidates. That's it, and in my view you should give Democrats a chance in this year's elections.

[captainarchmage]

Why CaptainArchmage thinks you should vote Democrat in the Georgia Special Runoff

Once again, I did not, at all, want this particular blog to be devoted to politics or make any political posts. On November 8th, I was thinking I'd *have* to do two, but I'm now leaning towards three as there is this Georgia run-off to vote in a Senate election to see who goes to the Senate, coincidentally, for six years. The race is between a pastor/vicar named Warnock, who is coincidentally a Democrat, and then there’s a former NFL player named Walker with a bunch of women claiming he pressured them into abortions and then there's a bunch of deadbeat dad and domestic violence allegations too on the side.

Really, commander?

In defense of Walker, at least he is not also a wrestler and porn star claiming to be a “conservative republican” (see video at bottom) while bashing gay people (actually Walker is doing that) and tweaking out on amphetamines (no comment) he uses to keep his private parts working (and Walker sure doesn’t keep them to hisself there) WAIT WHAT AM I FUCKING TYPING.

The Republican Party sure does seem to attract a certain kind of candidate, and it’s not just one thing that’s wrong with them. Sure, under the principles drilled into our heads in free western society everyone has a point, but it seems there’s something immediately off about these candidates, and when you start scratching beneath the surface things just get worse. Walker’s one of those people, and he isn’t the only one.

Over in Pennsylvania, the candidate was some “doctor” pushing fake medical advice, who tortured puppies (and had a license revoked over that incident), who drank his own piss, tried to suck his sister’s brain out with a needle, and because that wasn’t enough he also mocked a stroke survivor. Also that guy lost, thank God, but quite frankly none of this should be that close at all. That’s one of the reasons you should get out and vote, and, ideally, not for these people. Like any of them.

The whole Republican lineup, WITH VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS, kind of looks like this screecap (off Hiveswap: Act 2), but to be fair it's a lot worse than that. They always seem to find someone worse. Would you bet on the off chance ANY Republican candidate would somehow turn out otherwise?

https://warnockforgeorgia.com/issues/lgbtq-equality/

In Georgia, and I guess this article is specifically aimed at folks living IN GEORGIA, Walker is actually bashing gay and trans rights, while Warnock has committed to defending the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. That’s important, because these people deserve rights. LGBTQIA+ of course is short for some of what I call “other people”: anyone who doesn’t conform to certain bigoted narrow minded concepts of what someone deserving any rights whatsoever looks like.

And all of whom fall on what I call the “Bumper Book of People Conservatives Don’t Like”. I’m toning down what I think about it here, down to that it’s a huge book.

Having grown tired of trying to make sense of the bigotry, CaptainArchmage decided to create his own Hoochie Daddy Short Short Abridged Short Shorts version of that book, which comes down to two words: “Other People”. We don’t need to extend any more intellectual effort and should not need to extend any further intellectual effort to quantify this.

Put that way, it sounds like these people have a real bloody problem, innit. Conservatives, that is. Or whatever these people call themselves now, something like “national populist pro-herrenvolk...” maybe, you know, maybe, put a cork in this before it gets to where things were in nazi Germany?

The choice should be clear BY THEN. Check your birth certificate, skin colour, age, bank balance, credit card statements, property ownership, and most people will fall afoul of Republican views.

And this is before I get to social security, which is to say you’re one of “needs social security now” or “will need social security in the future”. It’s before I get to voter suppression, and if you’re going to live in a Democracy, you know, it’s kind of important to be able to vote somehow and get your ballot counted or you might as well be considered disenfranchised. You’re disenfranchised in all but name, I get.

There ARE checks and balances, but as it is the US Supreme Court seems to have taken on a number of reactionary judges lately who aren’t actually going to back up voting rights (in fact the voting rights act was gutted if I remember rightly), and might even work to create a constitutional crisis where the logical contradictions build up to the point where nothing works and people, particularly those in power could get away with anything. In other words, those checks and balances are fraying. Fortunately, you CAN assert yourself in this election by adding one more Senator who will actually vote for a progressive or at least not-nihilistic judge and also the Democrats gain control of all the Senate committees instead of them being divided in two.

If you’re worried about “diversity” up there, and “one party rule”, remember the Democrats are a broad church. The fact that there’s constant wrangling between progressives, liberals, and a few outlier conservatives within the party should tell you that there is a functional structure in there that’s not all-out trying to impose a cultish totalitarian agenda in lockstep. No, it’s not ideal, but that’s what you’re working with.

Yes, a functional democracy is supposed to have checks and balances but when those fail, it is the citizens who have to step up where they can. This is what you'll have to do today in Georgia.

Will Warnock do everything he promises? Probably not, but that’s OK. It’s better than the alternative, which is opening the floodgates to insurrectionists and so on.

There’s always something more, isn’t there.

The next couple of elections are more focused on “America Remains a Democracy” or “America descends into Neo-Confederate Hell”. That’s how I sum it up. Democrats are the party of the former, Republicans are mostly of the latter with a few exceptions that are extraordinarily rare (and most have been pushed out or are actively being pushed out).

There’s a lot here but I think there should be enough information out there to convince you WHY this is important. And it’s not just for millennials (Gen Y and Gen Z) but also for everyone else, because anyone living in America (and actually most of the rest of the world) WILL be impacted by this election as by all others down the line.

Go vote.

Will

[captainarchmage]

Why CaptainArchmage thinks you should back the Democrats

This is my first Tumblr post, I thought I'd make it about something else when I created it but anyways I cannot stay silent on this matter.

I'm not an American, if I were I decided (long ago) if I were, I'd probably be an "independent" because political parties can and do go bad, but I also didn't see an election in living memory I wouldn't have preferred the (D) candidate save for a few cases where a third party or actual independent candidate might win, and had a decent platform.

Fact is this election is going to affect all of us on the planet because of the influence of American politics (despite everything else), and one option should clearly be better than the rest. And it concerns society and civilization in general.

First of all, regards democracy (small-d): whatever you want to call "this system", it's supposed to run with a constitution of sorts and it also requires standards for structural reasons.

Not all standards are enforced legally, some of them you have to impose yourself. Think, I DO NOT WANT THAT HAPPENING IN MY HOUSE. Just that.

On this metric alone, Republicans should not be elected in.

Because their standards of behavior aren't going to allow supporting a democratic society. Or a society, for that matter.

There's a lot that Republican politicians, and many connected to them, claim to think is destroying society. I'll just lay down the facts, which of course represent what's going on in reality, and reality has a well known *checks notes* furry, transgendered, liberal, leftist, socialist bias among other things.

-Trans people aren't destroying society. -Homosexuals and bisexuals aren't destroying society. -Polyamory isn't destroying society as long as there is respect for people. -Smoking weed doesn't destroy society, if you moderate.

-Abortions aren't destroying society. -Renewables aren't destroying society. -Immigrants aren't destroying society. -Other races aren't destroying society. -Many *religions* aren't destroying society

-"Edicating" people isn't destroying society. -Basic reading comprehension, writing, and arithmetic isn't destroying society.

And, I'll just stop at this one: -That it costs $50k to diesel up your yacht, isn't destroying society.

The environmental damage though, maybe, as well as your selfishness.

Now also, society isn't just "having children" it's about having and maintaining the whole thing, contributing, having respect for "other people" (that's a term you'll hear a lot).

It also shows that the Republican "agenda" doesn't seem to have a point to it. On the other hand... -Forcing women to give birth and have children they don't want, and refusing to support those kids from the state end afterwards, IS destroying society.

-Destroying the foundation of common truths IS destroying society. -Attacks on folks fueled by lunatic conspiracy theories IS destroying society. -Climate change denial prevents action required to maintain a liveable planet, and that IS destroying society.

-Disenfranchising folks just because they have a differing amount of skin melanin, IS destroying society. -Tossing people in jail over absolute bull[BLEEP] IS destroying society. -Mass surveillance enables a lot of the above damaging behaviour and IS destroying society. -Starting a bunch of wars, IS destroying society. Will cover later.

-Environmental decay IN GENERAL (be it climate change or dumping garbage in rivers) IS destroying society. -Being unable to maintain critical infrastructure, be it electrical, communications, roads, bridges, ports, airports, spaceports, farming, IS destroying society.

-People having to sleep on the street IS destroying a society, because those people can't think beyond their basic needs for survival. -Destruction of education, be it K-12 or university up to the professor level, IS destroying society. -Destruction of arts IS destroying society.

-Rampant sexism IS destroying society. -Rampant racism IS destroying society. -Rampant bigotry IS destroying society. -Rampant transphobia IS destroying society. -Rampant hatred for other religions IS destroying society. -Rampant hatred for *other people*, IS destroying society.

On this whole metric, Republicans SHOULDN'T be in charge. At all. They're the party of destruction and decay. At some point you have to kick that out... else you won't have a society of any kind, or civilization.

Note, I did not add "democratic" before "society".

This kind of "Bec Noir" behavior is not conductive to society however you organize it.

In a democracy, you need to vote that out. Completely. Which is supposed to be the advantage of the system.

It means there's supposed to be a level of respect, so you don't need to have a decision taken at the level of some Earl to raise an army and replace someone.

This also preserves institutions between changes of government so you don't start from square 1.

So, yeah, this "democracy" thing is kind of important as is making sure the Republicans, AKA GOP, really the "GQP" don't get a hold of power. Ideally, this should settle the matter 100%.

For the sake of finishing the "other matters"...

The economy IS doing gr8. There's some consequences that come with full employment, but if full employment is the goal you need to deal with them.

Employment is pretty much "full", lower than ever. This also means it's hard to hire people, because now for the first time in 40 years the employer has to compete and nobody wants to work for $10/hr (or for that matter, $15/hr) when they can earn more elsewhere.

And, there's also quality of life stuff so people might take a dollar cut per hour to not be moving stuff around unless they absolutely *have to*, and that's "state of emergency" level of an event. It means you're invaded and there's a draft, and this is so you keep your freedom or a country in order.

Maybe those whining about the lack of workers should hire immigrants, eh? But that would mean... working with *other people*, and they absolutely do not want to do that for some other reason. So what DO they want? Put that in your pipe and smoke it. And then answer that question. You won't like what you realize when you work it out.

Hint: They don't like "other people".

Next up, inflation, which has MANY causes. Democrats have done what they can, and what they can WITH the level of control they have.

In part this is because conservatives tried to offload manufacturing to other countries with more authoritarian regimes, overseas at a high rate to avoid having to negotiate with unions.

And that it was cheaper, but then you don't want to put all your eggs into one basket in case something goes wrong, or in case the Chinese people don't want to do that work anymore. Which is quite the privileged take, don't you think? Who'd have thought that, Chinese (and Korean, and Indian, and Vietnamese, and Singaporean people, and Thais..., you know, the *other people* I keep mentioning) are... people, with their own desires and the ability to go up in life one way or other, individually or collectively?

Guess what the "folks in charge" did, and remember who they are or where the roadblocks came from in America. Mostly: Republicans, who had a stranglehold over government (they used their power as such).

It's almost as though the modern "conservative" (and self-professed centrist, and self-professed moderate) thinks that those people have an obligation to serve the top 10-20% of society (includes middle-class westerners) for the rest of all time with cheap goods, and that social structure should be *fixed*. It's a neufeudal issue.

And this is completely contrary to any post-enlightenment thought. America isn't supposed to work that way, it's supposed to be a land of opportunity.

COVID came a-knocking, and then China decided not to sacrifice the lives of their citizens and that supply of cheap goods was cut off. Not just that... but also Chinese people (and Indians, and Koreans) were "going up in life", and eventually they have to answer the question why shouldn't they pursue other jobs instead of "supplying the west with an endless quantity of disposable plastic forks and cheap goods".

So there's your long-form, inflation answer. Much likes folks in the west are resigning en-masse, or have been, from jobs that aren't great, in favour of higher-paid jobs (or jobs that have a better quality of life and won't wear you out by the age of 40-50 leaving you at the mercy of underfunded social security systems), Chinese people are thinking the same thing. And the rest.

So the west now has to pick up the slack. Who has a plan to solve this? Only Democrats do.

Democrats' attempts to rebuild industries will solve that... as fast as those industries can be rebuilt. Or built. That takes a long time - more than 2 years. People will have to "stick with the program" proverbially.

Republicans don't seem to have any other solutions to the supply chain issue, except forcibly detransitioning trans people by fascistic means and yelling at women to get back in the kitchen. Sorry, that's just how I'm seeing it, and that's what we're literally seeing.

On top of this you have greedflation. Companies are jacking prices up in lockstep, and reaping profits. This is a "market failure" situation and one where government should step in, and is supposed to, to curb "anticompetitive behaviour" for one.

Normally you'd issue a warning and then use price controls as a last resort, BUT you're dealing with a huge well of bad faith here. These companies just might squeeze the supply, to create artificial shortages. Don't bet against it.

Ultimately, you'd have to use a combination of defense production act, price controls, and establish a whole government agency to oversee this. It requires more democrats in power, not less, to address that.

Regards the price of petrol (gasoline), the US has mostly been able to cope by releasing supplies of crude from the strategic reserve.

Republican commentary on Keystone XL has been utterly irresponsible and contains way too many falsehoods to be even contemplated.

For example: That Keystone XL was intended to supply Americans. It wasn't. The point was to get low-quality oil, which couldn't be handled in American refineries or cost far more (4 times as much), to ports in America and to export it. Not a drop was intended for American consumption, and using it would drive up the price anyway due to the far-higher cost of refining (and retooling refineries to use it, mayhaps).

The last cause of this is the war in Ukraine, and to be honest we didn't start that. The chips had fallen down after Maidan in a certain way, Russia decided to try to disrupt that and it created the Z-war situation with mass-murder of civilians and all kinds of war crimes. This can't be fixed on our end - it's on the aggressor to withdraw.

And Ukraine does have a functioning democracy, for example with Poroshenko stepping down when Zelenskyy won.

These people will continue to fight on with or without western support, the USA *should* support them as they are the ones being attacked here.

So I don't see much happening that ways besides Republicans ruining America's reputation further.

Regards "progressive issues", it should be self-evident that Republicans withdrawing rights from "other people" (read: LGBTQIA+ community, other races, other religions) isn't good, particularly for them, and it's flat out wrong. Actually this should not be considered *such* a progressive issue. You're destroying the lives of these people and destroying their ability to partake in our society. This is just wrong.

Hey, I covered that already.

Further points:

Biden has acted on student debt, at least with a stopgap measure. You're getting stuff delivered from the guy.

Biden passed several reconstruction bills with the help of a Democratic congress, mostly. And the Inflation Reduction Act.

Biden has backed the rights of trans people and other minority groups.

Unionization is up, that's been promoted by Biden, much of the action is grassroots, and Democrats at the House level have not gotten in the way of the process. Expect the opposite with Republicans in control

Lastly... you're going to have to make some sacrifices and what's being asked... isn't a lot. Much is being delivered, and is yet to be delivered if you get more Democratic control. I don't see any good outcomes of any period of Republican control of even one house of Congress.

Or for that matter, state legislatures.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You want to know why the older generation was called "The Greatest Generation"?<br><br>Because they'd put their self interests aside and come together for the good of the nation. A concept so foreign to most of you, that when you call yourselves patriots, I laugh hysterically.</p>— Melo "Super 8/Evil Institute Director" Dotty (@MeloDotty) <a href="https://twitter.com/MeloDotty/status/1478020636471705612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>