#and it would be a landslide im predicting it

[gachapulls]

and i still think jason would die again

[madamepestilence]

This post is very long; consequently I've made a four-part audio transcription (total time of the full uncut file is 32:23) to make it easier to process.

The text of this post can be found below the cut.

I did in fact have multiple recording takes and edits for cleaner audio, but after spending 3 days working on this post I decided to just leave in my stuttering/tripping over words in various places.

Post topics: American politics, democratic party, socialist philosophy, history

alright so i know a lot of liberals both here (e.g. american democrats) and abroad blocked me during the 2024 election cycle because i told people to vote for cornel west and then pivoted to jill stein as i had previously emphasized would be a good backup if west couldnt gain enough traction for their socialist policies (do not give me the, "Trans rights/immigrant rights are gone because kamala lost," spiel. i am a Transfem Communist. my sister's side of the family is Indian. i am well aware of whats going on and am directly affected.) but if any liberals who havent blocked me come across this i need you to listen to me

as a primer, this post is a very long read. please set some time aside to read this post as it may take an extended period; i would personally recommend saving this post as a draft (as it's less likely to get lost in your likes if you use likes as bookmarks like i do) to bookmark it for reading

i get that ive been a bitch in the past and can still be an asshole even now but i need y'all to understand something; this post is going to make a lot of people furious but i need you to listen to me as an equal and not an adversary

voting for democrats is part of the problem. im sorry but you're making it worse for yourself and minorities no matter your intentions

i get the belief that kamala is the lesser evil but to invoke history you are still choosing evil when you refuse an alternative

i had been researching the 2024 election as far back as november 2023 and i could see the writing on the subway walls a year ahead of time

when biden dropped i made three predictions

1. donald trump would win the election. i was correct.

2. kamala would win the popular vote, but trump would win the electoral vote, and the democratic party would blame jill stein for spoiling the election. i was only half-correct, wherein kamala was so beloathed that she lost by such a landslide so that if all the third party voters who voted for stein and west combined had voted for kamala she still wouldve lost.

3. the democrats would not be held accountable for their actions in preserving the Palestine genocide. i was correct.

i need y'all to understand that genocide is not quantifiable. this is not the trolley problem; real life is not metaphor and there is not more or less genocide: there either is or is not genocide and i need y'all to understand that democrat or republican, progressive or regressive, neoliberal or fascist, you all voted for genocide

do you understand how it feels seeing that post of the trolley problem for the 2024 election depicting the death of minorities as stepping stones to progress? as a continual trolley you have to repeatedly pull to prevent another minority from dying?

do you understand how it feels to see Palestinians and Queer people and Trans people depicted on the trolley tracks? you know who was never on those tracks?

white people.

it is always the white man who pulls the lever, because the contraption is built to victimize the person pulling or not pulling the proverbial lever to absolve them of responsibility for avoiding direct action—were we to use the metaphor, that would be derailing or destroying the train entirely

but again: life is not a metaphor. and you do not get to warp metaphors to suit your own purposes, like the twisting of the metaphor of pulling the pin of a live grenade to pretend to try to save people from it being equated to democrat political strategies and then being warped to absolve the democrats of responsibility by stating that a regressive would've proudly held it in your face (even though in both cases, everyone still would have died)

this is not how metaphors work and i would appreciate if we collectively start using metaphors less and instead focus on materialism i.e. the actual fundamentals of reality rather than hypotheticals

and yes, obviously i could get more specific and state that it supports white able-bodied cisgender perisex allosexual heterosexual thin fascist men, but i want you to observe something with me, okay?

when Disability care is taken away, this is in service of the able-bodied, sure, but who does this ultimately benefit? Black, Brown, Queer, and Transgender people often have far worse housing and labour conditions than their white, straight, and cis counterparts. and we already know that Black and Brown people are disproportionately poorly housed or homeless and have worse pay and worse working conditions, and consequently i can safely posit that Black people are more susceptible to Disability.

so ableism - and by extension, eugenics - is in service of white supremacy.

cisgender and perisex we can tackle with the same argument, as these two are inherently tied to maintaining the farce of binary gender or sex (neither of which are upheld by science). i would like to remind you that Black and Brown Transgender and Intersex people are yet again disproportionately legislated against, beaten, imprisoned, and murdered than their white counterparts. i would then like you to observe that maintaining this gender binary reinforces 1. the concept that there is a perfect body (an "ubermensch") and 2. reinforces the concept that sex and gender purely serve for the purpose of reproduction and cannot be used as a form of personal expression.

some of you already know where this is going, but hold this thought for just a moment.

when the world prioritizes being allosexual over Asexual, they are telling you that you are not allowed to abstain from reproduction. they are telling you that you must participate in the act of sex in order to be considered human.

in this same vein, when the world prioritizes being heterosexual over Homosexual, they are telling you that the purest of humans are the ones who participate in the act of reproduction, reinforced by cissexism and misogyny, or even telling you that you are subhuman or inhuman by refusing to participate in heterosexuality

they are telling you that there are only men and women, that this is an immutable class determined at birth, that men and women must reproduce, and that they can only reproduce with the opposite sex

let us then remember that Black and Brown Sex Workers are disproportionately abused and murdered. let us then remember that Black and Brown Queer and Transgender people are disproportionately abused and murdered. let us then remember that Black and Brown people are disproportionately discriminated against by the medical system, making Black and Brown Intersex and Transgender people at higher risk of medical neglect or sexual torture via non-consensual surgical mutilation and modification. let us then remember that Indigenous people are so disproportionately discriminated against to the point that Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit (as well as Intersex and Transgender) People is a well-understood reality

to this extent, we were able to merge the words transphobia, misogyny, and anti-Black racism into the intersectional discrimination identifier of transmisogynoir

with this in mind, id like to point you to a philosophy so rampant among fascists that even henry ford believed in it: miscegenation

miscegenation is a racist concept that when people of different races reproduce, that in itself will create more of one race and less of another

so within miscegenation, if a white person were to reproduce with a Black person, it would make a new Black person, but not a white person. (think to the fact that barack obama had one white parent and one Black parent, but while everyone can accept him as a Black person, he would receive severe pushback were he to refer to himself as a white person). if a white person were to reproduce with a Latino person, it would create a new Latino person, but not a white person.

i dont think i really need to explain that this is grade-a bullshit.

miscegenation inherently hinges on the belief that being a white person is being absent of race, so you are either white or the other - you can even see this worming its way into modern terminology via people being referred to as non-white, or people of colour, rather than as Black or Brown or Latino; there is white and there is not white: miscegenation has become a normal part of culture and language

related to this, if you didn't already know, henry ford used this to justify saying that Jews reproducing with white people would make more Jews rather than white people

with this ideology in mind, with cissexism and transmisogyny disproportionately affecting Black people, and with the belief of miscegenation being rampant, you can see that white supremacists want there to be more white people, and they are afraid that minorities will literally fuck them out of existence: this is what they call the, "white genocide"

it's bullshit.

you can then understand: cissexism, misogyny, and transphobia inherently serve to uphold white supremacy by forcing white people to reproduce while murdering Black people to make even more white people to outnumber minorities by an even greater margin

this is why white people have fought tooth and nail against interracial marriage

so what of fatphobia then? well, let's take a look at the way it's utilized against Fat people. being Fat is treated as a form of Disability, yet they are not subject to the assistance that other visibly Disabled people are given: they are instead of a point of mockery, something to be ashamed of, something reprehensible, something to be avoided.

so, with this in mind, we already have the tie that fatphobia is inherently tied to ableism, which i previously established is white supremacy, but i can go further with this

fat is something that develops as an evolutionary advantage, allowing animals to store excess nutrients in the form of chemical chains that can be broken down and used later, leading to large pockets of fat building on top of muscles, allowing Fat people to exist

its also prudent of me to acknowledge that some people are born Fat or naturally develop fat over their life - depicting it as being, "their own fault," is literally just not backed up by science

however, let's re-analyze this first portion: the development of fat as a biological response to excessive nutrients. Black and Brown people disproportionately live in lower-income neighborhoods, have lower-income jobs, and have less work hours than their white counterparts

Black and Brown people disproportionately live in dense, low-quality urban and sub-urban housing. Black and Brown people disproportionately live further from public services, are disproportionately surveilled by police (leading to it being safer to stay sedentary indoors), and yet also have disproportionately more expensive housing and utilities despite poor living conditions

we also understand that in neoliberal capitalism, it can often be faster and cheaper to buy fast food over healthier alternatives like microwave meals, sandwich wraps, baked goods, etc.

this fast food is often calorie-dense with long carbohydrate chains and can also often have a large amount of grease and fat in them - this leads to the rapid development of fat while also remaining perpetually tired

with this combination in mind, it would not be out of the question to state that Black and Brown people are disproportionately more susceptible to becoming Fat people, and therefore we can acknowledge that fatphobia inherently serves to reinforce white supremacy, even if its ableist aspect were ignored

and with the aspect of fascism, i feel it's fairly obvious to acknowledge that fascism inherently serves white supremacy: it is a pyramid of classism that requires an increasingly smaller, "us," an an increasingly large, "them," that must be eradicated, and with the observation that all these prior methods of classism exist to reinforce white supremacy, it can then be acknowledged that fascism is just extreme white supremacy

you may then refer back to the trolley problem: why can't you just pull the lever repeatedly and elect democrats to prevent a fascist from coming into power? rather than leaving this as a hypothetical, ill actually break this down for you as simply as i can (i say simply because delving into detail would be its own essay)

first, some examples of this failure. how about someone a lot of people are familiar with: andrew jackson. jackson was notable for his gratuitous torture and slavery of Indigenous and Black people, one horrific example including skinning Indigenous Americans and wearing them as clothing

this man was the founder of the democratic party

but sure, let's also acknowledge that the republican party wasn't formed until 1854, and the party swap gradually occurred over the next 100 years til white supremacists fully had power in the 1960s (see: lily-white faction [link])

acknowledging that the republican party was originally the liberal party whereas the democratic party was originally the conservative party, let's take a look at abraham lincoln. lincoln is famous-infamous for enshrining the 13th amendment

why did i tack on infamous? because this amendment doesn't actually ban slavery.

it has an intentional loophole that allows slavery as punishment for a crime, creating the penal slave labour system that the american empire still exploits to this day. remember how Black people are disproportionately surveilled by police?

this also leads to more Black people being imprisoned. which leads to more Black prisoners. which leads to more Black slaves.

this was always the purpose: it was a distraction from the fact that it continues to uphold white supremacy

but let's loop to someone more modern - back to barack obama. obama was a fairly liberal democratic president, even helping to enshrine gay rights in the american empire, right? well, this was a bit of a distraction, unfortunately

obama is infamous for continuing republican president george bush's ravaging campaign of killing Arabs in a wave of anti-Brown and anti-Muslim violence exploiting the fervour around the most successful terrorist attack of all time: september 11, 2001

(i say successful because it's been 24 years and americans still terrorize their children with it every year to reinforce american nationalism under the guise of, "never forgetting," even though the same isn't done for Black chattel slavery, Indigenous genocide, or passports being invented for reinforcing racism and antisemitism)

and of course, there's joe biden. biden and kamala are infamous for relentlessly upholding the Palestinian genocide for years and consistently funding israel's bombardment

you may logically ask: why does this happen? why would people who promise a better life make things worse? id like to emphasize that this isn't inherently the fault of the voters - though it is definitely extremely reinforced by them - but more that you are being intentionally manipulated

let's take a leaf from socialist philosophers past, specifically that of vladimir lenin. im going to summarize an important bit of marxist analysis that stood out to me in what is to be done? [link]

during section 1, dogmatism and "freedom of criticism" [link], lenin describes the path of the social democratic movement (as opposed to a socialist or communist movement)

in subsection a, what does freedom of criticism mean?, paragraph 6, lenin makes the analysis of social democrats (and, applicable to the modern day, anyone who views themselves as a progressive) ultimately eschewing their original morals for what someone says rather than what they actually do:

"He who does not deliberately close his eyes cannot fail to see that the new “critical” trend in socialism is nothing more nor less than a new variety of opportunism. And if we judge people, not by the glittering uniforms they don or by the highsounding appellations they give themselves, but by their actions and by what they actually advocate, it will be clear that “freedom of criticism” means’ freedom for an opportunist trend in Social-Democracy, freedom to convert Social-Democracy into a democratic party of reform, freedom to introduce bourgeois ideas and bourgeois elements into socialism."

in subsection c, criticism in russia, paragraph 5, we can see lenin analyze that the social democratic movement watered down the marxist movement, and began to uphold the prior form of government rather than working towards socialism:

"The rupture, of course, did not occur because the “allies” proved to be bourgeois democrats. On the contrary, the representatives of the latter trend are natural and desirable allies of Social-Democracy insofar as its democratic tasks, brought to the fore by the prevailing situation in Russia, are concerned. But an essential condition for such an alliance must be the full opportunity for the socialists to reveal to the working class that its interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the bourgeoisie. However, the Bernsteinian and “critical” trend, to which the majority of the legal Marxists turned, deprived the socialists of this opportunity and demoralised the socialist consciousness by vulgarising Marxism, by advocating the theory of the blunting of social contradictions, by declaring the idea of the social revolution and of the dictatorship of the proletariat to be absurd, by reducing the working-class movement and the class struggle to narrow trade-unionism and to a “realistic” struggle for petty, gradual reforms. This was synonymous with bourgeois democracy’s denial of socialism’s right to independence and, consequently, of its right to existence; in practice it meant a striving to convert the nascent working-class movement into an appendage of the liberals."

with even this small bit of dialectical materialism (i.e. observing the world as it is and not through the lens of metaphor or hypotheticals) you can immediately draw parallels to that of the american empire's own supposedly democratic party, and even the social democratic movement we find here

many people are willing to suggest that genocide is something that can be quantified, that there can be more of less genocide, and that the genocide of one group of people - who tend to be predominantly Black or Brown - are preferable to those genocides which affect white people, such as the genocides of Queer and Transgender people; and yet even now, we can demonstrably see that the democratic party does not give a shit about us and has, as a whole, ratcheted back on Transgender rights as some sort of, "distraction," to, "freedom and democracy," that ever-present american dogwhistle of imperial conquest

so who does this ultimately benefit? well, let's take a look at a marxist primer: manifesto of the communist party (the communist manifesto) by karl marx and friedrich engels [link] (also this document is a lot shorter than you might initially think; should take you about 20 minutes)

first, let's acknowledge that literally within the preface, marx acknowledges that any party that wants to gain power will be staunchly anti-communist:

"Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?"

during the first section of the manifesto, bourgeois and proletarians [link], marx and engels analyze that the modern bourgeois class was initially a progressive and revolutionary faction that served to usurp the french oligarchy that once oppressed them, seeking to create class mobility wherein someone could gain capital to increase their social class rather than it being determined at birth

(content warning: old marxist philosophers, including marx and lenin, would occasionally use an anti-palestinian slur to describe people with a disdain for the arts. it has been preserved here for historical accuracy. more accurate terms would include anti-intellectual, tech bro, unenlightened, and unrefined.)

"The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of p████████e sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation."

however, he then follows this analysis by demonstrating that the bourgeoisie have, in themselves, become the new oligarchy, and have outlived their purpose

"In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market. Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race."

here, he has broken down the key purpose of the proletariat: to produce capital for the bourgeois class and reproduce more proletariat, and that they may not ever become the bourgeoisie

(though they may live under this illusion, such as the petit bourgeois (self-employed people that still have to work to survive) or bougeois proletariat (proletarians that make much of their income outside of labour, such as via investments, but would still be thrust into poverty were they to lose either their investments or their jobs) inexplicably identifying themselves with the bourgeoisie (people who do not need to work to survive) rather than the proletariat)

and yet again, within capital, volume 1 [link], chapter 1, commodities, section 1, the two factors of a commodity [link], we see marx explain that capital inevitably breaks down to just being a medium through which we express equivalent human labour (note: capital is a very obtuse book to read; this is a massive summarization without marx's mathematical proofs):

"If then we leave out of consideration the use value of commodities, they have only one common property left, that of being products of labour. But even the product of labour itself has undergone a change in our hands. If we make abstraction from its use value, we make abstraction at the same time from the material elements and shapes that make the product a use value; we see in it no longer a table, a house, yarn, or any other useful thing. Its existence as a material thing is put out of sight. Neither can it any longer be regarded as the product of the labour of the joiner, the mason, the spinner, or of any other definite kind of productive labour. Along with the useful qualities of the products themselves, we put out of sight both the useful character of the various kinds of labour embodied in them, and the concrete forms of that labour; there is nothing left but what is common to them all; all are reduced to one and the same sort of labour, human labour in the abstract. Let us now consider the residue of each of these products; it consists of the same unsubstantial reality in each, a mere congelation of homogeneous human labour, of labour power expended without regard to the mode of its expenditure. All that these things now tell us is, that human labour power has been expended in their production, that human labour is embodied in them. When looked at as crystals of this social substance, common to them all, they are – Values."

so with this dual analysis that 1. capital is a medium we use to exchange labour - a middle-man, if you will - and 2. the classes of the bourgeoisie and proletariat - the exploiter and the worker, the dictator and the slave - we can easily make a tie to the first section of this post:

the fact of the matter is that Black and Brown people live in disproportionately poorer economic conditions, doubly so for their Queer and especially Transgender counterparts; so who does capitalism serve?

white people.

it's white supremacy all the way down. (or perhaps up? but i digress.)

with this in mind, let's compare the structures of capitalism and liberalism - in socialist spaces, referred to as neoliberal capitalism, as we understand that social circumstances ("the personal"), economics, and governments are inseparably linked (socioeconomics, as we call it)

first, we'll begin with capitalism:

the structure of capitalism requires at least two classes: a leadership class (the bourgeoisie) and a working class (the proletariat). these may initially have subclasses, but over time will distill (settle, perhaps? as the capital flows upwards and the subclasses settle downward?) into only two: bourgeois and proletariat, eliminating any illusion of middle-class

this creates a rigid structure of two classes of people, one above the other, a king and a slave. this is what we refer to as a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie

then, let us analyze liberalism

liberalism, at least on paper, tries to favour human rights before what is de jure ("the law is on the books, but it would take all of their resources to enforce it" - calvin and hobbes), however de facto (dialectical materialism - actions before words) it upholds the same structures that capitalism does:

a government that must have ultimate power over its people to exercise economic dominance (whether only over its people or abroad), a gradually increasing police state to defend property over people ("the bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar." - karl marx), and the willingness and ability to take away human rights if one does not produce capital (think of how the rights to protest, to speak freely, to eat, to drink, to breathe clean air, to live, can be taken away at will as privileges in exchange for your unwavering labour, yet will also be denied as your wages fall and the services that were once free engage in rent-seeking)

so from this we can acknowledge that capitalism and liberalism work hand-in-blood-soaked-hand to exploit the workers and kill the non-compliant, and we understand that capitalism inherently serves to uphold white supremacy, and so too, then, does liberalism

what, then, is the ultimate distillation of capitalism and liberalism? where does capitalism to liberalism to neoliberalism lead?

think of a society wherein there exists a definite upper class, a greater people who enslave a lesser people, one whose people experience such fervent nationalism as to excuse the human cost at the behest of capital, inflating private property over personal property, one in which the upper class grows ever smaller, and the lower class grows ever larger

you know the word for it. and it scares you.

fascism.

fascism is the ultimate fate of any society that does not become socialist.

with this in mind, you can understand that the current model can only uphold white supremacy, can only lead to fascism, and that the only way out is socialism. what, then, is the tangible path forward?

well, this is what marx called the dictatorship of the proletariat: where proletarians usurp the bourgeoisie and create their own society free of capital, one in which human labour is exchanged for equivalent labour, in a sentence:

from each according to [their] abilities, to each according to [their] needs.

there are two main schools of thought that interpret what must be done to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat:

lenin: a single-party state socialist world government must form to forcibly prevent capitalism from resurfacing

kropotkin: like unto marx's beliefs, the state must be entirely abolished, and people must autonomously organize under anarchy with no defined leadership to prevent any state from reinventing capitalism

which of these schools you adopt is ultimately up to you: we can work out the details of a future society later, but now? now, we must eschew capitalism, and that means you need to stop uncritically voting for democrats

so, what do you do then? to this ill provide what practical advice i have, and i urge you to think critically about what you are going to do as well

as it stands - unless a large mass of people were to autonomously hold an election and elect me as a commissar to serve the proletariat - it isn't my job to lead you (and furthermore, it's harder to be broken down [ex. cointelpro] if we stay decentralized)

i personally find the existing socialist parties in the american empire (cpusa, spusa, psl, etc) to be either incompetent, a security risk, or both - the best ive seen is the gpusa, but given their inability to usurp the democratic party due to the unwillingness of liberals to view genocide as a point of no return, i don't see them as a viable option

this leaves only one remaining avenue: to stop relying on the people in existing power structure to protect us, and instead stand with each other. this, by extension, provides two methods (and i should emphasize that in either case you need to organize in real life, not just online, and be careful what you say [link: shut the fuck up], and only use secure communication (such as signal or talking in person away from all electronic devices):

method 1: debsian and chilean

if you'd like to continue taking the path to work within the system, this is the method you should be taking. rather than relying on the democratic party, form organizations of people who are willing to not just vote, but also run for office themselves

please be aware that this is a dangerous path: you will not be receiving significant funding, those who run for office will be banned from many forms of freelance income during their campaigns and offices (for instance, twitch streaming), and you will be actively maliciously targeted by the police and fascists (which are synonymous, but here are separated to emphasize that both state-supported and individual actors will try to arrest, hurt, and even kill you)

this will be a hard and grueling process and requires you to work within a system diametrically opposed to your success that will put any expense towards ensuring your failure

should communism still be legal in the united states during the 2026 midterms (and i have my doubts...) if you can gather enough people, you may be able to wholly usurp a large amount of occupied positions simultaneously (for instance, over 100 government positions are up for re-election in ohio in 2026, including the governor) and rapidly convert entire states to socialist unions

method 2: marxist and leninist

this method works outside of the existing system: these communist philosophers believed that the only path towards socialism was violent revolution of the working class

earlier philosophers such as lenin believed that a united socialist front was the method forward, and later philosophers such as mao believed that the socialists could convert progressives to socialists to help them achieve their goals: i cannot say which is the more prudent task in the american empire, but to neglect trying to pull democrats to socialism would be a fool's errand (it sends a terrible message when socialists try harder to bring fascists on their side rather than oppressed minorities, to paraphrase ian danskin)

this path i unfortunately can't elaborate on, but ill at least provide some recommendations:

ensure you ally yourself with Black, Brown, Latino, and other oppressed races

ensure you ally yourself with Indigenous people, especially the Land Back movement: true socialism cannot be achieved without Indigenous autonomy; for too long they've been under the boot of white people being propped up by capitalism

ensure you ally yourself with Queer and Transgender people; if you fail to unite with both, fomenting factions against each other (e.g. the LGB movement neglecting the contributions of Transgender people (ex. Stonewall, the invention of the microchip, etc.)) will inevitably lead to a 5th column forming and destroying you from the inside

remain decentralized if possible, working in blocs that communicate with each other but ultimately aren't reliant on a single, organized structure - the point of resistance is to be obstructive, and unless you have the confidence that you can fully usurp the powers that oppress you, don't put everyone's lives on the line

ensure you prioritize communication and transportation networks, especially in the way of creating shelters, food supplies, and underground railroads

this is all the advice ill provide for now. thank you for your time, and i look forward to seeing you as the red star rises over the horizon, comrades

the communist future is still real

[zaynes-ocs]

This is Doomspeaker!

Info/story under read more!

Doomspeaker is Grim’s mother, a nightwing who can only predict terrible disasters, she is a shy, softspoken dragon who isnt very well liked in the tribe for her horrid visions and is seen as an omen of bad luck.

She fears her visions most of all and in the early days of the war she was sent to various different tribes on assignments to help prevent unnecessary tragedies (and keep the bad luck omen out of the tribe), where she met Hawk (another oc of mine) who was a Skywing guard who was actually a spy working with the talons of peace and has a strong belief in the nightwing prophecies.

Hawk was the first dragon to ever tell Doomspeaker that her visions were helpful and good after she predicted a landslide that would have crushed a skywing hatchery, but Hawk believed her warning and was able to rescue the eggs and save many infant dragonet lives.

From there, the two fell in love and Doomspeaker eventually became eggbound, knowing she’d have to return to the nightwings to keep their relationship a secret. She promised Hawk that one day she’d return with their dragonet, that she’d be certain they knew their father and Hawk bid farewell with a final, loving goodbye.

The night of Grim’s hatching, Doomspeaker had a horrid, prophetic vision of the disaster that Grim would cause, of the danger the queen was in from him being born alone and she rushed to the hatchery to smash her own egg, but she was too soft-hearted and couldnt bear to do that to her own dragonet, and her hesitance allowed grim to hatch in a violent burst of heat and flame, too hot for a normal dragon and boiling the other 2 eggs in his clutch as he hatched on the moonless night.

The other nightwings whispered and sneered at how unfortunately “cursed” he was and how fitting it was for doomspeaker’s dragonet, and so Doomspeaker fell into a bought of despair and negligence.

She couldn’t face her dragonet, not after what she knew was to happen when he grew older, the monster he would become. She let the rest of the tribe take him from her, to try and train him to be an assasin from an early age as she begged and pleaded with the queen to banish him so he could pose no threat to the tribe any longer, but they refused to listen until he was of proper age to carry oit assasination missions.

After Grim left the tribe, Doomspeaker closed herself off to the tribe, trying so desperately to use her powers to see anything good for once, to see Hawk again but refusing to face him in person, for she couldnt bear to tell him of the beast their son would become, of how badly she had failed as a mother. She wore herself ragged through her visions, seeing the deaths of thousands except her Hawk, her beloved.

Her horrible visions sent her into a deep depression, and of course the state of her tribe’s homeland didnt make her fare any better.

(Pls forgive any inaccuracies i’m still reading through WOF and im only on book 4)

[tjodity]

GOD IF YOU HAVE ANY COCONUT WINS IDEAS I WOULD LOVE TO BEAR TJEM SO BADLY I WOULD KILL SOMEONE

UM. YES. I have so many fics to try and write in the month of march but i've got writers block so im not really procrastinating so I will talk abt this!!! Some ideas:

-Okay so the big important first change is that Fundy's voter fraud can't be proven. The numbers are still suspicious, but nobody can prove that they were tampered with. COCONUT2020 beats POG2020 and SCHLATT2020+SWAG2020 in a massive landslide.

-Schlatt never lets this go from the second he hears it. he knows in his bones that he was cheated. Niki is on an edge of not being able to make a sure decision about it. Quackity, George, Tubbo, and Tommy are all fairly pissed about it.

-Losing the election to his son and his first lady fully fucks up Wilbur. He mumbles congratulations and then fully leaves L'Manberg to go off into the woods and build like. a house. imagine how he was in pogtopia but he has no one to fight and no one to talk to and no justifiable reasons to himself to be upset at all.

-Fundy and Niki become co-presidents. Niki appoints Tommy as L'Manberg's scout so he has an excuse to try and find Wilbur. With no exiles, no dictatorship, and no underground rebellion L'Manberg has a lot of people who don't see eye to eye and can say what they want.

-opposing political parties form pretty soon after. Schlatt, Quackity, and Tubbo form a party on the basis of preserving L'Manberg's integrity, making it a better place to live, and integrating more with the SMP. This is referred to as the Opposing Party but I'm sure if it was real lore it would have a very stupid name. Niki, Fundy, George, and Karl end up in a looser party focused on getting an upper hand in ongoing external conflicts and maintaining L'Manberg as a cohesive unit. This is referred to as the Presidential Party. Hbomb stays relatively neutral and Tommy tries to play negotiator. I'm not sure which side Ponk would be swayed towards.

-Niki and Schlatt sort of come up as the biggest political figures. Fundy gets increasingly weird and reclusive as time goes on and Quackity handles a lot of the actual logistics of running L'Manberg. Fighting an uphill battle with a team of people keeps Schlatt a lot more grounded than he was in Manberg. Niki on the other hand is fucking panicking because she feels like she's been dragged into a set of beliefs she doesn't really agree with but she doesn't really know how to keep everything moving. She tends to go towards fairly straightforward and firm answers to problems which keeps pushing her towards militarization.

-Dream doesn't really get a chance to be a villain, at least to the extent he is in the main story. The result of 2nd Era L'Manberg politics is that the country is expanding quickly and acting with sporadic violence with no predictable diplomatic policy, which is a nightmare for him. He ends up resolving that L'Manberg is a much more pressing issue than the disc conflict and devotes a lot of his time to normal diplomacy. Also due to the different position of Schlatt he never hears about the Revival Book.

-Tommy and Dream could actually resolve their issues a little here. Tommy is the only L'Manbergian trying to soften conflicts between the parties and also spends a lot of his time out in the SMP as a scout. He's also lost a lot of confidence in most of his friends and mostly wants everything to calm down. There wants align enough for them to partially work together and I think that at this point they could reasonably figure out their shit.

-Sapnap becomes a much bigger threat. Coconut winning basically resulted in the country of L'Manberg becoming his enemy. I don't think he'd get as fucked up as Dream did but he was also a pretty violent person to begin with and I could see him both escalating and broadening the conflict.

-I don't have a lot more ideas I can remember than that! Some more may come to me but I think it's fascinating! Take some very quick drawings

[akkpipitphattana]

it's not like i couldn't have predicted that not me would win against the eclipse. offgun are one of the ogs, political sabotage & property destruction is sexy, not me literally has yok which alone should qualify it to win the whole tournament. but man, did the eclipse really have to lose by such a landslide

NO THATS WHAT IM SAYING!!! like i totally get not me winning out, i may prefer the eclipse but i love not me and it’s a fantastic show and i know how popular it was. but the ratio SHOCKED me like guys the eclipse does not deserve this 😔

[svedupelle]

alright. watched all of re:zero. mixed feelings. its got some good highs but a recurring thread of either baffling or boring writing decisions

i like a surprising amount of the characters. though i do not like subaru (yes he is the main character and yes this makes things difficult).

but i found that no matter how much i could enjoy a character, it was really hard to enjoy them consistently. subaru for example oscillates constantly between pretty fun and unbearable, while other characters tend to get progressively worse the more they develop/are explored. characters will be set up with compelling backstories that make you interested in their development, only for it to become more and more boring?

few examples:

- garfield, at first, seems to be struggling with the fact that both his mother and sister left the sanctuary and him behind, while he is incapable of overcoming his trial to do the same and follow them. its revealed that although their mother left them behind for her own sake, frederica left in order to create a new home for the rest of their people, in preparation for when they one day would leave the sanctuary. this is pretty cool! it gives us a good reason to predict garfield being the one who will liberate the sanctuary in place of emilia or subaru, since it could lead to the resolution of his conflict with his sister, which we naturally want to see. and the trials are literally there to help characters overcome their inner turmoils. except wait, their mother never abandoned them, she just died before she could return (to a landslide, leaving no one to blame for it), and also frederica never overcame her trial, she didnt need to because she could leave anytime, and so could garfield??? its so strange. garfield at the start seems like a representative of the people of the sanctuary (who receive exremely little screentime), both to us the audience and to emilia's gang. someone who was trapped there, and had been trapped for years, and had given up hope of ever leaving, unlike his sister; the most natural arc for his character would be to find that hope and help the people he cares about so much to a brighter future. him being abandoned by his mother would be reflective of his people being abandoned by the outside world, while frederica would be the opposite, sort of like a call to action and a test of faith (someone out there is waiting for the day they're all freed, ergo there is hope for them). instead we get garfield's personal conflict being mostly disconnected from his people's and once he resolves it he just leaves it all in the hands of emilia and more specifically subaru. its so fucking boring

- rem, beatrice and ram. im covering all three at once because they have the same fucking problem and i hate them for it: their personal conflicts are replaced/amount to nothing more than them loving some guy. its genuinely the worst part of the show to me. they all suck. rem and ram have a compelling sibling relationship and conflict at the beginning, but once the mansion arc is done rem's character is so watered down and reduced that i dont think she mentions her sister in the entire second half of season 1 even *twice*. instead its all subaru. subaru subaru subaru. its also just dumb? in the mansion her arc seems to be about being able to find value in herself outside of her relationship with her sister and the service she can provide in ram's place, but it just ends up with ram being replaced by subaru in her mind. before she did it all for ram, now she does it all for subaru, so you end up feeling as though she hasnt progressed at all, and unfortunately i dont find her relationship with subaru that compelling.

beatrice is the fucking same: she was abandoned by echidna to look after the library and wait for someone to take her place, which she misinterprets as someone who would "sweep her off her feet and carry her away" or whatever, effectively dooming herself to never connecting with the people around her and also never learning to love herself, until all she wants to do is die (LEARNING TO ACCEPT OTHERS LOVE FOR ONESELF AND THUS LEARNING TO LOVE OENESELF HENCE FINDING VALUE IN ONES OWN LIFE IS THE *EXPLICITLY STATED THESIS STATEMENT OF SEASON 2*) but the conclusion to her arc is completely half assed! beatrice doesnt leave the library because she wants to live and give the world a chance, she never fucking connects or even interacts with another character except for subaru and puck, she leaves the library because she decides to bet it all on subaru because he's the specialest little boy or whatever. even subaru himself doesnt ask her to give other people a chance, he asks her to choose him, specifically. her arc is nothing. its a bunch of whinging about how she cant wait around for a knight in shining armor to come save her forever, until that exact thing happens. and no, i dont think you can disguise this with semantics about how subaru doesnt choose her over emilia or whatever.

as for ram, i honestly really liked her character until the moment she tells roswaal that she loves him. after that idc

with all of this im just reminded of chainsaw man part 1, where a big part of the characters is the multi faceted relationships they form. "love" is not just romantic. in re:zero, however, when a character loves another character it feels like there is seldom any room for interpretation. the exceptions to this are familial love, such as puck and emilia, subaru and his parents and the various sibling relationships. even if some of these relationships are meant to be moreso platonic, like maybe ram & roswaal, the show makes no effort to really convince anyone of this nor explore it in any measure, and since so many of them are very explicitly romantic i dont really end up feeling compelled to investigate the matter either. its annoying since love is a big theme in season 2, but it doesnt feel explored nor multifaceted.

- subaru. the show seems to try to ~subvert isekai tropes~ by not making subaru all powerful, but it feels half assed because he does end up all important. everyone cares about subaru. subaru can convince anyone of anything. everyone listens to what he has to say and he always has something important to say. characters who find him irrelevant at first will end up admiring him, depending on him and liking him after he dies a few times, just you wait!... there's some dissonance here, because the show DOES try to make it clear to subaru that he should consider the people around him just as seriously as he does himself, in the sense that he needs to respect them. but it doesnt feel like the show itself does that, when every character orbits the star of the show. the show is telling you that the side characters arent just npc's, but it has a hard time actually committing to that at times.

- echidna. honestly not much to say here except i was a bit disappointed. i just sort of expected... more? as it stands i dont think i even had firm grasp on what her goal is, and it doesnt feel like she ends up doing much. at the beginning she seems charming yet off-putting, so you naturally expect her to be the future antagonist, but then that role gets delegated to roswaal instead, leaving echidna with.. surprisingly little. i might have to think some more about her idk

im not sure how i feel about the second season tho. it grinds the overall pacing to a halt and spends the entire time on the sanctuary conflict, but said conflict lacks a good, compelling narrative and emotional core. what is it about? the half-breeds who are trapped? roswaal, beatrice and ryuzu meyer? emilia's backstory? the witches? it wants to focus on all of it, but i really dont feel like it does it very well. parts of it are completely unrelated from one another. season 1 at least keeps a red thread with subaru and emilia's relationship, and season 2 kinda does as well, but idk if i like it as much.

man i dont even know. its really hard for me to pin down my thoughts and what i feel the underlying issue is here. doesnt help that it just.. wasnt my cup of tea.

[thesassysausage]

Drag Race top contestant score board? Decided to try doing one to see who’d win each season if the finale contestants were judged based on a point system. I followed Wikipedia, because I dont feel like going through every season and marking down everything as I watched so my system goes like this with the award/taken points in brackets: Winner (2), High* (1), Safe (0), Low** (-1), bottom 2 (-2). Im also ignoring Lip sync for the crown, because that doesnt mesh with a point system, and not including All-stars because maybe later...also season 12 and 13 have a modification which ill note when I get there.

*High refers to getting positive critiques but not actually winning the challenge

**Low refers to getting poor critiques but not being chosen for elimination

So Season1: We see BeBe Zahara Bennet win over Nina Flowers, but because BeBe had to lip sync during the season she actually scores only 3 points to Nina’s 5. So the point based winner would have been Nina Flowers

Season 2: Tyra Sanchez wins the competition over Raven...and that also occurs in the point based system. Tyra would have earned a total of 8 points where as Raven only earned 3. Raven could always win all stars if Ru doesnt mind doing their own make up for a season.

Season 3: What’s interesting here...is that Manilla Luzon and Raja both score 7 points, which means by a point system season 3 would have had a double crowning.

Season 4: This season brought up a final 3 instead of having one queen eliminated on the episode of the crowning. Sharon Needles still wins the competition, despite how wonderful Chad may have been. Sharon earned 8 points to Chad’s 6, while Phi Phi becomes the bronze (no pun intented...but it works) medalist with 3 points.

Season 5: I honestly expected this season to have a different winner based on the point system, but I was mistaken. Jinkx Monsoon, even with having to Lip Sync for her life, managed to win with 8 points with Alaska placing 2nd with 6 points and Roxxxy Andrews gaining 4.

Season 6: Bianca won by a landslide, the bitch scored 10 points while the 2nd place contestant, Courtney Act managed 4 points, while Adore scored 2. Great Season all around

Season 7: Here’s a “fun” season, I actually checked out the last person eliminated to compare to the third place contestant and...Kennedy Davenport should not have been eliminated prior to the finale. Pearl received 0 points because of their up and down track record where as Kennedy, prior to being eliminated (which honestly is the last episode anyone could gain or lose points), had 5 points making her tie with second place contestant Ginger Minj. The winner, like in the actual series, was Violet Chachki who is so much more likable and funny off Drag Race.

Season 8: I’ll admit, I always though Kim Chi might have had a slightly better score card than Bob the Drag Queen but I was mistaken...They were even. Both Bob and Kim earned a total of 4 points which by points means a double crowning, with runner up, Naomi Smalls, earning 2 points. (it should be noted season 8 was the shortest season since season 2)

Season 9: Here we get into the Lip Sync for the crown and, again, I am ignoring those results. Points here (and for seasons 10, 11, and 12) are based on the competition prior to the finale (and the catch up with the Queens episode). I am sure it’s no surprise that Shea Coulee won the season by points, scoring a total of 9 points to Sasha Velour’s 8, Trinity’s 4, and Peppermint’s...well 0. Honestly though I am still gagging over the rose petals.

Season 10: As much as I enjoy Kameron Michaels and can’t wait for them to be on All Stars, they should not have been in the finale...Miz Cracker had 4 points before she lost the Lip Sync to Kameron...mind you Miz Cracker definitely lost to the Lip sync assassin of season 10...like Miz Cracker did great but Kameron is an insanely good performer to the point that I actually thought she might win the whole competition. Aquaria however did win, both in my make believe point setting, and in the actual show. She scored a total of 5 points, and showed they were also a lethal Lip Syncer. Following behind her was Eureka O’Hara with a score of 4 and then Asia O’Hara with 2.

Season 11: I’d like to state that I love Yvie, I think Yvie is great...but Yvie should not have been crowned. She is definitely runner up, but Yvie Oddly only scored 4 points (and I think did just slightly worse in the Lip Sync for the crown) which places her in Second. Tied for third is Silk Nutmeg Ganche (i feel like her name should be all caps to honour how loud she is) and A���keira Chanel Davenport with 3 points each. Our point based winner, and the Queen of the North, is Brooke Lynn Hytes with 6 points...but being a Canadian I am not surprised she lost since I’m sure Canada’s Drag Race was in preproduction with Brooke Lynn in talks to sit as a judge and no way is a season winner also going to sit as a judge on a new franchise.

Season 12: So this season had 2 debuts with the top queens Lip Syncing for the Win...I decided to count the top 2 as being winners but the one that won the Lip Sync gets an extra point for winning. I also switched out the queen who will not be named with Jackie Cox, which is what I hoped would happen...cuz then it would be a top 4 again and an easier Lip sync for the crown. However I then regretted my decision because Jackie was still in last places with -2 points...Sorry Jackie, can’t wait to see you win an All Stars season. In first place we see GiGi Goode over Jaida Essense Hall in the point system, score 9 points to Jaida’s 7...literally they would have been tied had Jaida not lip sank. The lovable Crystal Methyd comes in third with 3 points.

SPOILERS BELOW

Season 13: I again used the same lip sync for the win points that I did for season 12, but I added a single point addition if a Queen won that episode 1 lip sync...no points removed because, unlike Tamisha, I knew it wasnt gunna be the end for those queens...they were all safe. We are not in the finale yet but currently the challenges are done so I’m using this more to predicts and give my opinion. By points Rose is leading the pack by a synthetic wig hair with 11 points, followed by Symone with 10. Personally I think the crown should be going to one of them and I would argue for Rose considering she has had a better track record...but I’d still be happy with Symone because she is just fantastic and a character. The next highest person is Gottmik, who could potentially win. Gottmik does not have a lot of Lip sync experience but did beat out the season assassin, Utica, in the first episode. Personally I’d love it if Gottmik won because it shows that trans people have a place in drag and may even open up the competition to other trans queens, including those (like myself) that identify as a trans woman and performs as a Drag Queen. So far, she has 8 points, and would be third place in my system but, I love Gottmik. Finally we have Kandy Muse...I love her, she’s loud and funny but also has levels so its not a headache watching her (looking at you, Silky). However Kandy has -1 points...but being a fierce Lip syncer she might still win the competition...but I wouldnt be happy even though it would then, FINALLY, be a plus size winner.

TL;DR

I did a point system for RuPaul’s Drag Race and figured out who would have won based on that system.

Season 1: Nina Flowers

Season 2: Tyra Sanchez

Season 3: Raja and Manilla Luzon double crowning

Season 4: Sharon Needles

Season 5: Jinkx Monsoon

Season 6: Bianca Del Rio

Season 7: Violet Chachki

Season 8: Bob the Drag Queen and Kim Chi double crowning

Season 9: Shea Coulee

Season 10: Aquaria

Season 11: Brooke Lynn Hytes

Season 12: GiGi Goode

Season 13: Rose but I also gave my opinions since the finale hasnt happened yet.

[patriotsnet]

How Can Republicans Win The House

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-can-republicans-win-the-house/

How Can Republicans Win The House

House Republicans’ 2022 Strategy To Beat Democrats: Target Socialist Agenda And Job Killing Policies

How Republicans can win back the White House

House Republicans have laid out their path to winning back the chamber they came close to flipping in 2020. They plan to rely on a similar playbook: slamming the Democrats as socialists who will implement “job killing policies,” while at the same time downplaying any divisions within the GOP.

Since President Biden has taken office, the National Republican Congressional Committee has honed in on the impacts of closing the Keystone XL pipeline and delays in reopening schools.

“It’s going to come down to two different agendas: one is about freedom one is about having the right to self-determine your economic freedom, your individual liberties. The other one is about big government,” National Republican Congressional Committee chair Tom Emmer said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.;

“Every voter is going to have a clear understanding of the Democrats’ socialist agenda and the damaging impact it’s going to have on their daily lives.”

The party is;targeting 47 Democrats and needs a net gain of five seats to flip the chamber. The committee has split its targets into three categories: battleground districts where Mr. Biden lost or won by less than 5%; districts where House Democrats trailed his margins or where they won by less than 10%; and districts in states expected to add or lose congressional districts.

“Liz Cheney not losing her position really showed, ‘Okay we’re going to move on,'” she said.

Reality Check : The Democrats Legislative Fix Will Never Happenand Doesnt Even Touch The Real Threats

Its understandable why Democrats have ascribed a life-or-death quality to S. 1, the For the People bill that would impose a wide range of requirements on state voting procedures. The dozensor hundredsof provisions enacted by Republican state legislatures and governors represent a determination to ensure that the GOP thumb will be on the scale at every step of the voting process. The proposed law would roll that back on a national level by imposing a raft of requirements on statesno excuse absentee voting, more days and hours to votebut would also include public financing of campaigns, independent redistricting commissions and compulsory release of presidential candidates’ tax returns.

There are all sorts of Constitutional questions posed by these ideas. But theres a more fundamental issue here: The Constitutional clause on which the Democrats are relyingArticle I, Section 4, Clause 1gives Congress significant power over Congressional elections, but none over elections for state offices or the choosing of Presidential electors.

Opinion: The House Looks Like A Gop Lock In 2022 But The Senate Will Be Much Harder

Redistricting will take place in almost every congressional district in the next 18 months. The party of first-term presidents usually loses seats in midterms following their inauguration President Barack Obamas Democrats lost 63 seats in 2010 and President Donald Trumps Republicans lost 40 in 2018 but the redistricting process throws a wrench into the gears of prediction models.

President George W. Bush saw his party add nine seats in the House in 2002. Many think this was a consequence of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America nearly 14 months earlier, but the GOP, through Republican-led state legislatures, controlled most of the redistricting in the two years before the vote, and thus gerrymandering provided a political benefit. Republicans will also have a firm grip on redistricting ahead of the 2022 midterms.

The Brennan Center has found that the GOP will enjoy complete control of drawing new boundaries for 181 congressional districts, compared with a maximum of 74 for Democrats, though the final numbers could fluctuate once the pandemic-delayed census is completed. Gerrymandering for political advantage has its critics, but both parties engage in it whenever they get the opportunity. In 2022, Republicans just have much better prospects. Democrats will draw districts in Illinois and Massachusetts to protect Democrats, while in Republican-controlled states such as Florida, Ohio and Texas, the GOP will bring the redistricting hammer down on Democrats.

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Voting With The Party

This section was last updated in 2014.

The following data comes from OpenCongress, a website that tracks how often members of Congress vote with the majority of their party caucus.

The average Republican voted with the party approximately 93.6 percent of the time.

The average Republican voted with the party approximately 94.3 percent of the time.

The top Republican voted with the party approximately 98.2 percent of the time.

The bottom Republican voted with the party approximately 75.1 percent of the time.

Reality Check : Biden Cant Be Fdr

Theres no question that Biden is swinging for the fences. Beyond the emerging bipartisan infrastructure bill, he has proposed a far-reaching series of programs that would collectively move the United States several steps closer to the kind of social democracy prevalent in most industrialized nations: free community college, big support for childcare and homebound seniors, a sharp increase in Medicaid, more people eligible for Medicare, a reinvigorated labor movement. It is why 100 days into the administration, NPR was asking a commonly heard question: Can Biden Join FDR and LBJ In The Democratic Party’s Pantheon?

But the FDR and LBJ examples show conclusively why visions of a transformational Biden agenda are so hard to turn into reality. In 1933, FDR had won a huge popular and electoral landslide, after which he had a three-to-one Democratic majority in the House and a 59-vote majority in the Senate. Similarly, LBJ in 1964 had won a massive popular and electoral vote landslide, along with a Senate with 69 Democrats and a House with 295. Last November, on the other hand, only 42,000 votes in three key states kept Trump from winning re-election. Democrats losses in the House whittled their margin down to mid-single digits. The Senate is 50-50.

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The 2024 Presidential Election Will Be Close Even If Trump Is The Gop Nominee

One very important thing we should have all taken away from both the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests is that the two major parties are in virtual equipose . The ideological sorting-out of the two parties since the 1960s has in turn led to extreme partisan polarization, a decline in ticket-splitting and and in number of genuine swing voters. Among other things, this has led to an atmosphere where Republicans have paid little or no price for the extremism theyve disproportionately exhibited, or for the bad conduct of their leaders, most notably the 45th president.

Indeed, the polarized climate encourages outlandish and immoral base mobilization efforts of the sort Trump deployed so regularly. Some Republicans partisans shook their heads sadly and voted the straight GOP ticket anyway, And to the extent there were swing voters they tended strongly to believe that both parties were equally guilty of excessive partisanship, and/or that all politicians are worthless scum, so why not vote for the worthless scum under whom the economy hummed?

The bottom line is that anyone who assumes Republicans are in irreversible decline in presidential elections really hasnt been paying attention.

Can Republicans Win The House

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee came out with a memo yesterday asserting that the House was not likely to land in Republican hands, but Nate Silver thinks its more likely than Democrats may want to admit:

The DNCC memo, of course,; is meant to serve a purpose other than providing an accurate forecast of November theyre trying to make sure that the base doesnt become so demoralized that they stay home and make a bad election even worse.

Im still not certain that Republicans can take back the House, but its certainly possible for the reasons Silver points out.

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How Republicans Can Win In 2022

STUART WESBURY | Special to LNP | LancasterOnline

For Republicans, the only goal must be to win back the U.S. House and Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.

That should be easy. In November, even though Donald Trump was not reelected president, the down-ballot races boded well for the GOPs future. But we Republicans are not acting like we want to win anything. So where do we go from here?

Of late, Republicans have separated themselves into several distinct groups, each with a different attitude and view.

For one group, retribution is the goal. These enthusiastic Trump supporters, distressed by the seven Republican U.S. senators who found Trump guilty in his second impeachment trial, are in a very unhappy mood. While the Republican Committee of Lancaster County did not pass a vote to censure Sen. Pat Toomey, other local committees did. The Pennsylvania Republican Party rebuked, rather than censured, Toomey.

The other senators who voted with Toomey to convict Trump were subjected to a variety of admonishments, as was, most notably, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. It began to look like an inquisition.

This is very serious. A very large group of Republican voters, numbering in the millions throughout the United States, are similarly angry. They continue to challenge the validity of President Joe Bidens election, wrongly insisting victory was stolen from Trump in November.

In other words, the fight goes on and many solid Republicans are on the proverbial chopping block.

Republicans Will Likely Take Control Of The Senate By 2024

How the GOP can win the house in 2022

The usual midterm House losses by the White House party dont always extend to the Senate because only a third of that chamber is up for election every two years and the landscape sometimes strongly favors the presidential party . But there a still generally an out-party wave that can matter, which is why Republicans may have a better than average chance of winning in at least some of the many battleground states that will hold Senate elections next year . If they win four of the six youll probably be looking at a Republican Senate.

But its the 2024 Senate landscape that looks really promising for the GOP. Democrats will be defending 23 seats and Republicans just 10. Three Democratic seats, and all the Republican seats, are in states Trump carried twice. Four other Democratic seats are in states Trump won once. It should be a banner year for Senate Republicans.

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Reality Check #: The Electoral College And The Senate Are Profoundly Undemocraticand Were Stuck With Them

Because the Constitution set up a state-by-state system for picking presidents, the massive Democratic majorities we now see in California and New York often mislead us about the partys national electoral prospects. In 2016, Hillary Clintons 3-million-vote plurality came entirely from California. In 2020, Bidens 7-million-vote edge came entirely from California and New York. These are largely what election experts call wasted votesDemocratic votes that dont, ultimately, help the Democrat to win. That imbalance explains why Trump won the Electoral College in 2016 and came within a handful of votes in three states from doing the same last November, despite his decisive popular-vote losses.

The response from aggrieved Democrats? Abolish the Electoral College! In practice, theyd need to get two-thirds of the House and Senate, and three-fourths of the state legislatures, to ditch the process that gives Republicans their only plausible chance these days to win the White House. Shortly after the 2016 election, Gallup found that Republican support for abolishing the electoral college had dropped to 19 percent. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a state-by-state scheme to effectively abolish the Electoral College without changing the Constitution, hasnt seen support from a single red or purple state.

Why Republicans Are Likely To Win The 2022 Mid

The public opinion in the United States may indeed be generally opposed to the Republican Party coming to power in the 2022 mid-term election, yet we should not close our eyes to the fact that the GOP is still well-positioned to take back the House and change the balance of power in its favor.

Taking a glance at what happened during recent months, it seems highly probable that the Republican party may have little to no chance to win the 2022 mid-term election. The first and the most noticeable incident that helps this idea prevail is that it was a Republican president who instead of leading the country towards peace in a time of crisis back in January, actually added fuel to the huge fire of division and riot in the U.S. and encouraged his extremist supporters to attack the Capitol Building, creating a national embarrassment that can hardly be erased from peoples memory.

To compound the puzzle, while no one can deny the destructive role the former president Donald Trump had in plotting for and leading the , in the battle of Trump against the truth, the members of the Republican party chose to opt for supporting the former at the cost of sacrificing the latter; It was on this Wednesday that Republican leaders in Congress expressed their opposition to a proposed bipartisan commission designed and created for investigating the Capitol riot that was carried out by Trumps supporters.

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The Plausible Solution: Just Win More

Whether the public sees Democratic demands for these structural changes as overdue or overreaching, the key point is that they are currently exercises in futility. The only plausible road to winning their major policy goals is to win by winning. This means politics, not re-engineering. They need to find ways to take down their opponents, and then be smarter about using that power while they have it.

They certainly have issues to campaign on. In the few weeks, we have learned that some of Americas wealthiest people have paid only minimal or no federal income tax at all. Even as the Wall Street Journal editorial writers were responding to a Code Red emergency , the jaw-dropping nature of the reportfollowed by a New York Times piece about the impotence of the IRS to deal with the tax evasions of private equity royaltyconfirmed the folk wisdom of countless bars, diners, and union halls: the wealthy get away with murder.

Of course this is a whole lot easier said than done. A political climate where inflation, crime and immigration are dominant issues has the potential to override good economic news. And 2020 already showed what can happen when a relative handful of voices calling for defunding the police can drown out the broader usage of economic fairness.

Filed Under:

For The People Act Matters

Gerrymandering, under state laws, can be done by the party in power. That means the GOP has a significant advantage as they control the legislature in most states. In some states, redistricting is done by an independent commission, but that’s a rarity. According to Ballotpedia, the GOP has a trifecta in 23 states, compared to the 15 by Democrats.

In a bid to break their dominance over redistricting, the Democrats have introduced HR 1 or the For The People Act. Amongst other things, the bill bans partisan gerrymandering and state-level voting restrictions, which would make it harder for the GOP to limit voting rights. So naturally, the party filibustered the bill in the Senate. TargetSmart CEO Tom Bonier told Mother Jones, “Absent the passage of HR1, the GOP is poised to gerrymander their way to a House majority.”;

If HR 1 is passed, it would abolish partisan gerrymandering by state governments in favor of independent commissions. It also invalidates existing maps that have the intent or effect of unduly favoring or disfavoring one political party over another. This is an issue that has to be fixed in Congress because as the Supreme Court ruled in 2019, federal courts cannot review partisan gerrymandering. There is however some hope for Democrats. A stripped-down version of HR1 has been proposed by Sen Joe Manchin. It does get rid of some of the more controversial measures but keeps in the ban on partisan gerrymandering.;

You May Like: Did Any Republicans Vote For The Aca

Republicans Can Win The Next Elections Through Gerrymandering Alone

Even if voting patterns remain the same, Republicans could still win more seats in Congress through redistricting

In Washington, the real insiders know that the true outrages are whats perfectly legal and that its simply a gaffe when someone accidentally blurts out something honest.

And so it barely made a ripple last week when a Texas congressman said aloud whats supposed to be kept to a backroom whisper: Republicans intend to retake the US House of Representatives in 2022 through gerrymandering.

We have redistricting coming up and the Republicans control most of that process in most of the states around the country, Representative Ronny Jackson told a conference of religious conservatives. That alone should get us the majority back.

Hes right. Republicans wont have to win more votes next year to claim the US House.

In fact, everyone could vote the exact same way for Congress next year as they did in 2020 when Democratic candidates nationwide won more than 4.7m votes than Republicans and narrowly held the chamber but under the new maps that will be in place, the Republican party would take control.

If Republicans aggressively maximize every advantage and crash through any of the usual guardrails and they have given every indication that they will theres little Democrats can do. And after a 2019 US supreme court decision declared partisan gerrymandering a non-justiciable political issue, the federal courts will be powerless as well.

How The Republicans Can Win The White House In 2016

The Republican Party finds itself in an odd place heading into the 2016 presidential election. Theyve made tremendous gains at the state level under President Obama, hold a near-unbreakable majority in the House, and now control the Senate as well.

But theyve come up short by a significant margin in the last two presidential elections, where turnout is higher and the electorate is more diverse, and have plenty going against them in the next one.

Presidential elections are unpredictable and it often appears that one party can’t lose until it does. Democrats bounced back from three demoralizing blowout losses to win in 1992 against an incumbent, President George H.W. Bush, who seemed unbeatable earlier in his presidency. Republicans could do the same in 2016.

So what does the GOP have to do to finally crack the White House? These are some broad theories on how they win:

Cut Into the Democratic Base

The guiding principle behind a number of Republican candidates is that the party can only win when it reverses its losing margins with Democratic-leaning groups. That means winning converts among the most important planks of President Obamas winning coalition young voters, minorities, and single women.

Recommended Reading: What Is The Lapel Pin Republicans Are Wearing

[candyunicornsateme]

IM SURE SOMEONES ALREADY BEAT ME TO IT, BUT K2 FOR THE SHIP THING

Your message was actually the first Danny!! ;v;

Who was the one to propose: Kyle. Okay. He can be a real sappy romantic and does the whole nice date, favorite activities type of thing before he casually pops it, and it’s so outta the blue to Kenny’s he’s pretty shocked.

Who does the cooking: Kyle would do the majority of the cooking. He’s had a lot of experience helping his mom (whether he really wanted to or not) so he knows how to make a few things and has the eye. Kenny tries his best though I mean he makes some great pancakes on sleepy Sunday mornings and helps out. 

Who is more organized: Kyle’s fairly more organized. Likes being tidy. Kenny is a bit of a mess in comparison, leaves empty cans out and drives Kyle nuts once in awhile. 

Who suggested kids first: Kyle would. Got such a big heart he does. Taking care of people is something he loves doing. 

Who’s the cuddler: Kenny by a landslide. There’s just some days where he can’t seem to keep his hands off and hug Kyle from behind. He’s very affectionate and Kyle does not mind. 

Who’s the big spoon/little spoon: I think they switch really. Kenny usually spoons, like the full arms wrapped about him like a protective mildly-too-warm cocoon. Kyle likes to rest his forehead against Ken’s back or neck, but he’s too damn restless to stay that way long lol.

What’s their favorite non-sexual activity: Probably binge watching a bunch of shows or movies on tv, especially really old or just lame B movie dramas that are predictable as hell. They’ll sit and talk through half of it, laughing at the awkward moments and making little bets. 

Who comes home drunk at 3am: Think this might be pretty rare since I think if they’re drinking they’d be out doing it together, but it’d likely be Kenny coming home from hangin’ with Stan or whoever. He’s giggly and crawls into bed Kyle’s like ok shut up now im sleeping. You’ve told me that joke before. Take a shower Kenny. 

Who kills the spiders: Kenny would likely jump to it first 

Who falls asleep first: Kyle conks out pretty fast 

A head canon: Kenny plays around too much in the kitchen and bugs/flirts with Kyle while he’s busy. He takes the freaking foam hand soap and claps his hands getting soap in Kyle’s hair, so of course Kyle retaliates and there’s shenanigans afoot. 

Do they have any “rituals”? Probably getting ready for bed together, sitting the same way. Kenny always takes the long way on long car trips so Kyle can play a favorite playlist of theirs. And… other things ;)

Who has the most patience? Kenny, by far, has boundless patience compared to Kyle. He’ll look irritated, but he wouldn’t say anything, and certainly would never blow up, because that kinda thing for him would be a recipe for tears…

[worldnews-blog]

Indonesian security forces and emergency workers were racing on Monday to aid victims of a magnitude 7 earthquake on Lombok that killed at least 98 people, while tourists were being evacuated from the worst-hit areas.  The tremor, which came just a week after another quake killed 17 people on the island, was also felt on the neighbouring resort island of Bali, where frightened tourists ran onto the streets. The earthquake struck just 10km underground, according to the US Geological Survey, and was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, prompting many to spend the night outside. "The search and rescue team is still scouring the scene and evacuating (people)," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. "We estimate the number of victims will rise." He described the damage as  "massive" in the north of Lombok, citing an example of a collapsed mosque where worshippers are believed to have been buried during evening prayers. The rescue operation has been hampered by a lack of heavy equipment.  #breaking Dramatic video of people scrambling to evacuate from Gili Trawangan Island, Indonesia. 6.9 quake killed at least 91, injured 200+ & left 20,000 homeless in Bali & Lombok. Thousands of buildings damaged. At least 132 aftershocks. (�� Sutopo Purwo Nugroho) pic.twitter.com/OzKuEhKQEz— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) August 6, 2018 Some areas still hadn't been reached, with rescuers hampered by collapsed bridges, electricity blackouts and damaged roads blocked with debris. He said the death toll had risen to 91 and more than 200 people were seriously injured. Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged. The death toll was revised to 98 later on Monday. Almost 1,000 tourists were being evacuated from Indonesia's tiny Gili Islands, where the damage was extensive. The Gilis are three coral-fringed tropical islands a few kilometres off the northwest coast of the larger Lombok island that are popular with backpackers and divers. A British tourist on Gili Trawangan island said thousands of people, locals and tourists, were trying to get off Trawangan, after spending a night outdoors. A foreign tourists stands near damaged buldings as he tries to flag down a car following a strong earthquake in Pemenang, North Lombok Credit: Reuters Saffron Amis from Brighton said  thousands of people fled to a hill near the hostel where she was staying after Sunday evening's quake, fearing a tsunami. She said: "There was a lot of screaming and crying particularly from the locals. We spoke to a lot of them and they were panicking about their family in Lombok." There was widespread building damage and a somber mood on the island a day after the quake, Amis said, adding she felt lucky to be unharmed. Mr Sutopo saod some 200 "domestic and foreign" tourists had already been taken off the islands. "There are 700 more tourists still waiting to be evacuated," he added. Long lines were seen at the airport in Lombok's main town, Mataram, as foreign visitors scrambled to leave.  https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/1026337753078722560 The Garuda Indonesia airline said it was adding extra flights, and AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted that the budget carrier would also try to assist the evacuation efforts.  Tourists spoke of their terror as the earthquake struck. "I was at the rooftop of my hotel and the building started swaying very hard. It felt like two metres to the left, then two metres to the right, I could not stand up," Frenchman Gino Poggiali, 43, told Reuters.  Mr Poggiali's wife Maude, 44, said they had been holidaying with their two children and were also caught up in another powerful earthquake last week.  "This is it for me in Indonesia," she said. "Next time we will stay in France or somewhere close." Australia's home affairs minister tweeted that he and his delegation had been safely evacuated in darkness from a Lombok hotel where they had been staying during a regional security conference. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told Fairfax Media that he was on the hotel's 12th floor when the quake struck. He said the quake "was powerful enough to put us on the floor" and cut power. Houses damaged by an earthquake are seen in North Lombok, Indonesia Credit: AP Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was on the 10th floor of a hotel in the Lombok town of Mataram at the time of the quake, wrote on Facebook that his room shook violently and walls cracked. "It was quite impossible to stand up. Heard screams. Came out, and made my way down a staircase, while building was still shaking. Power went out for a while. Lots of cracks, fallen doors," he wrote. A tsunami warning was issued but later lifted. Lombok is a popular tourist destination, drawing in visitors with surfing, beaches and hiking trails. Houses damaged by an earthquake are seen in North Lombok, Indonesia Credit: AP The earthquake of last week triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes. Najmul Akhyar, district chief of North Lombok, told local media that he was unable to assess the entire situation due to an electrical blackout.  Television host and celebrity tweeter Chrissy Teigen was on the nearby island of Bali with her husband John Legend, the singer, and their two young children as the earthquake struck. Ms Teigen tweeted: "Bali. Trembling. So long." She added: "Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride." im either still trembling or these little quakes won’t stop IM TRYING TO BE NORMAL HERE— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018 Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, advised people not to panic. "Please go to a place with higher ground, while remaining calm." Ms Karnawati added that small waves just 15cm (6 inches) high had been reported in three villages. A nearby volcano was evacuated after the earthquake struck. Indonesia straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide, making the nation one of the most disaster prone in the world. A woman walks past debris from a collapsed wall following a strong earthquake in Lendang Bajur Hamlet, Lombok Credit: Reuters Some 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes happen in this region. Other countries including Bolivia, Chile, Japan, and the US west coast also sit on the "Ring of Fire." In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia. Why are we so bad at predicting earthquakes? Residents in Mataram felt a strong jolt, causing them to flee their buildings. "Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking," Iman, a local resident, told AFP. Rita Siswati, another local, told AFP the tremor had caused a power outage, and said patients were being evacuated from the main hospital. The Indonesian Red Cross said in a Tweet that it helped a woman give birth after the quake and that she named the boy 'Gempa', which means earthquake. 

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2vHQmrx

[7newx1]

Indonesian security forces and emergency workers were racing on Monday to aid victims of a magnitude 7 earthquake on Lombok that killed at least 98 people, while tourists were being evacuated from the worst-hit areas.  The tremor, which came just a week after another quake killed 17 people on the island, was also felt on the neighbouring resort island of Bali, where frightened tourists ran onto the streets. The earthquake struck just 10km underground, according to the US Geological Survey, and was followed by a series of strong aftershocks, prompting many to spend the night outside. "The search and rescue team is still scouring the scene and evacuating (people)," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said. "We estimate the number of victims will rise." He described the damage as  "massive" in the north of Lombok, citing an example of a collapsed mosque where worshippers are believed to have been buried during evening prayers. The rescue operation has been hampered by a lack of heavy equipment.  #breaking Dramatic video of people scrambling to evacuate from Gili Trawangan Island, Indonesia. 6.9 quake killed at least 91, injured 200+ & left 20,000 homeless in Bali & Lombok. Thousands of buildings damaged. At least 132 aftershocks. (�� Sutopo Purwo Nugroho) pic.twitter.com/OzKuEhKQEz— Will Ripley (@willripleyCNN) August 6, 2018 Some areas still hadn't been reached, with rescuers hampered by collapsed bridges, electricity blackouts and damaged roads blocked with debris. He said the death toll had risen to 91 and more than 200 people were seriously injured. Thousands of homes and buildings were damaged. The death toll was revised to 98 later on Monday. Almost 1,000 tourists were being evacuated from Indonesia's tiny Gili Islands, where the damage was extensive. The Gilis are three coral-fringed tropical islands a few kilometres off the northwest coast of the larger Lombok island that are popular with backpackers and divers. A British tourist on Gili Trawangan island said thousands of people, locals and tourists, were trying to get off Trawangan, after spending a night outdoors. A foreign tourists stands near damaged buldings as he tries to flag down a car following a strong earthquake in Pemenang, North Lombok Credit: Reuters Saffron Amis from Brighton said  thousands of people fled to a hill near the hostel where she was staying after Sunday evening's quake, fearing a tsunami. She said: "There was a lot of screaming and crying particularly from the locals. We spoke to a lot of them and they were panicking about their family in Lombok." There was widespread building damage and a somber mood on the island a day after the quake, Amis said, adding she felt lucky to be unharmed. Mr Sutopo saod some 200 "domestic and foreign" tourists had already been taken off the islands. "There are 700 more tourists still waiting to be evacuated," he added. Long lines were seen at the airport in Lombok's main town, Mataram, as foreign visitors scrambled to leave.  https://twitter.com/willripleyCNN/status/1026337753078722560 The Garuda Indonesia airline said it was adding extra flights, and AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes tweeted that the budget carrier would also try to assist the evacuation efforts.  Tourists spoke of their terror as the earthquake struck. "I was at the rooftop of my hotel and the building started swaying very hard. It felt like two metres to the left, then two metres to the right, I could not stand up," Frenchman Gino Poggiali, 43, told Reuters.  Mr Poggiali's wife Maude, 44, said they had been holidaying with their two children and were also caught up in another powerful earthquake last week.  "This is it for me in Indonesia," she said. "Next time we will stay in France or somewhere close." Australia's home affairs minister tweeted that he and his delegation had been safely evacuated in darkness from a Lombok hotel where they had been staying during a regional security conference. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told Fairfax Media that he was on the hotel's 12th floor when the quake struck. He said the quake "was powerful enough to put us on the floor" and cut power. Houses damaged by an earthquake are seen in North Lombok, Indonesia Credit: AP Singapore Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam, who was on the 10th floor of a hotel in the Lombok town of Mataram at the time of the quake, wrote on Facebook that his room shook violently and walls cracked. "It was quite impossible to stand up. Heard screams. Came out, and made my way down a staircase, while building was still shaking. Power went out for a while. Lots of cracks, fallen doors," he wrote. A tsunami warning was issued but later lifted. Lombok is a popular tourist destination, drawing in visitors with surfing, beaches and hiking trails. Houses damaged by an earthquake are seen in North Lombok, Indonesia Credit: AP The earthquake of last week triggered landslides that briefly trapped trekkers on popular mountain hiking routes. Najmul Akhyar, district chief of North Lombok, told local media that he was unable to assess the entire situation due to an electrical blackout.  Television host and celebrity tweeter Chrissy Teigen was on the nearby island of Bali with her husband John Legend, the singer, and their two young children as the earthquake struck. Ms Teigen tweeted: "Bali. Trembling. So long." She added: "Oh man. We are on stilts. It felt like a ride." im either still trembling or these little quakes won’t stop IM TRYING TO BE NORMAL HERE— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 5, 2018 Dwikorita Karnawati, head of the agency for meteorology, climatology and geophysics, advised people not to panic. "Please go to a place with higher ground, while remaining calm." Ms Karnawati added that small waves just 15cm (6 inches) high had been reported in three villages. A nearby volcano was evacuated after the earthquake struck. Indonesia straddles the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide, making the nation one of the most disaster prone in the world. A woman walks past debris from a collapsed wall following a strong earthquake in Lendang Bajur Hamlet, Lombok Credit: Reuters Some 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes happen in this region. Other countries including Bolivia, Chile, Japan, and the US west coast also sit on the "Ring of Fire." In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia. Why are we so bad at predicting earthquakes? Residents in Mataram felt a strong jolt, causing them to flee their buildings. "Everyone immediately ran out of their homes, everyone is panicking," Iman, a local resident, told AFP. Rita Siswati, another local, told AFP the tremor had caused a power outage, and said patients were being evacuated from the main hospital. The Indonesian Red Cross said in a Tweet that it helped a woman give birth after the quake and that she named the boy 'Gempa', which means earthquake. 

[travelinghermit]

July 31 - Byebye Bolivia

When this journey is all said and done I’ll look back on this incredible continent and think “Damn I miss those freshly squeezed orange juice stands”. They are so wonderful, just a woman with a crate of oranges who has a peeler and juicer rig by her side right there on the side of the road and in seconds I get a fresh cup of orange juice pulp and all for seven Bolivianos ($1.30). I have never seen these anywhere else in the world but its genius, could you imagine someone doing that in Vancouver? It would be a hit.

Today was my final day in the country of Bolivia. What was once a completely unknown, foreign country with a slightly sounding Eastern European name three weeks ago. Im now walking out with nothing but incredible memories of climbing the 6088m Huayna Potosi summit, trying ice climbing with pickaxes for the first time, riding through the Amazon rain forest for the final time, riding on the surface of Mars and the Moon - through the miles of crystal white salt flats, and of course you have to take the good with the bad - traversing the treacherous Sand Highway for over a day and a half, slipping and falling down a icey hill, and breaking down on the first day in Bolivia. Compared to my time in the other three countries, three weeks in Bolivia wasnt much but the experience was just the same crazy adventure as the rest and I believe Bolivia will serve as a very important moment when this is all said and done.

Admittedly I am most uneasy with whatever is to come next in the journey then I have at any other point thus far. Which is funny because compared to riding through Colombia where I chose to ride directly into the Choco region on Day 1 where theres still guerilla activity, and over the high Andes in Peru where finding a landslide has destroyed your path was a pretty normal occurance, and all the rest which is too numerous to name. Chile and Argentina compared should be a breeze as its much more developed with dependable infrastructure (I think) but its not any of that thats worrisome, infact bring all that on I love it all. Its the uncertainty and impossibility to predict the weather that seriously makes me nervous. Snow, ice, extreme cold, nobody in their right mind travels to the Northern edge of Nunavut in February right? Much less on the seat of a motorcycle! Well thats basically what im trying to do on the otherside of the world. Thankfully the North is a bit more extreme than the South from what Ive been told but to what degree I have no idea. What is defined as extreme? Moderate might still be intolerable. I think the road to the capital Santiago should be riding as normal but all bets are off after I continue heading South and into Southern Argentina.

I have said previously that I was hellbent on furiously riding South as soon as I got into Chile but upon further reflection over the course of a few long rides I’ve realised that isnt the best plan of action. Ive got to just go my normal pace, relax, enjoy the country of Chile because I know I have the tendency to zone in on a goal with the narrowest of tunnel vision where I can easily sacrifice enjoying the present day and losing out on experiences while satiating my thirst to reach the final goal. My timeline which is based on absolutley nothing because finding dependable weather projections is impossible but I’d like to leave Chile into Argentina near the end of August and hopefully reach Ushuaia by mid September.

If you were to ask me on March 8, 2017 the day I rode out of Medellin, not having the slightest clue what I was doing yet equipped with the will and passion of a Navy Seal beginning this insane, beautiful journey - to envision myself crossing into Chile on August 1. I wouldnt have even been able to entertain such romantical thoughts because I still had five months and unknowingly over 14,000km seperating then and present and thats a helluva lot of experience and riding. Truth is I never envisioned getting here I just knew that I eventually would. I had so much on my plate every single day there was no thinking about Chile at all. I wrote on here the night before embarking on this journey that I didnt see this adventure as one big journey from Colombia to Argentina. I saw it more as a series of day trips from one point to another achieving incremental goals and thats how I truely believe im here writing this now body intact, mind intact, and bike intact with still the exact same amount of enthusiasm and drive to keep going and now after all that time here we are.

Tomorrow I head West to the Chilean border and from that point onwards I’m riding in one direction for the remainder of the journey. South.

[survivorindia]

His attitude? It ain't helping his whiny ass. - Julia (Episode 6)

I'm still angry espically jaiden he can go fuck Off i hate him like please go block me some more jaiden with your dumbass

Ruben is the most self righteous asshole I've ever met in a game and it pisses me off so bad that he gets to walk around like he is the shit, when in reality the bitch amounts to probably nothing in this game past the new Parvati tribe. His attitude? It ain't helping his whiny ass. It's so annoying like i swear he can quit complaining about challenges he dosent like and maybe actually try and win them by a landslide and not by a point, than we would really not have to go to tribal? I hate having to be nice to him because he is soo fucking annoying. Go back to your other community than bitch if you don't like this one. Fuck off.

I feel like every fucking confessional I make is to bash these people but I honestly don't like them. My game is in their own hands, and I can be leaving because of it. Like go ahead and form your all newbie alliance, see where it gets you and your dumb fucking asses in the merge when you have majority returnees. And not to mention I bet sarah wouldn't be happy if i left

Mastermind was great, I was surprisingly really good at it!!! Getting a tie for the lowest score on my tribe also makes me look good, so that's a plus! 

Well here we are, the dreaded tribal council once again. But WHEW, what a round. So Jaiden has hopefully been called out on all his shit. Me Dom Sarah and Julia all compared notes and i think we've established that he his a lil shit and none of us trust him. Ummm Whitney is probably going this round, probably unanimous with her self voting. I think it should be fine everyone seems to realize she is just given up. So i think I should be safe this round. let's see what happens :)

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/mreidjr/78051217/7913/7913_900.gif So I just went on call with Dom. And you know what he told me? He said that Sarah and Julia have told him everything I said about him. From how I felt like he was too much, how I didn't like him at all, how I wanted to use him to get further in the game. All that shit. That's why I voted for him, according to them. It's real funny because for a while, I did believe those things to be true. Sarah was the first person I talked to about all that. I thought she was my friend, I really did. But I see why she's on the villains tribe, because she's a heartless, cold-blooded viper. The entire Dom vote came as a result of her and Julia wanting him gone. Certainly, I didn't help with them coming to that decision, but it's become evident to me that this is the person everyone parades around and claims to be best friends with. We talk about that Bangladesh final tribal where Sarah cries over how Eddie betrayed her so badly, but then here she is, acting like a complete hypocrite. She can say that these two situations are not the same, which they are not, but the knife she plunged into my back burns the same. I can't say that I didn't see this coming. I fucked up, so it makes sense why everything spilled out in front of me on the dirt floor. Now I have to work on making people like me again, because I don't think they'll trust me for a while. We can say that I have a long road ahead before I can regain their trust, but the truth is that I have a much steeper path to the finish than before. They might not ever trust me, so I need to give them a reason to understand me. I don't know how, but I'll try. I'll take the knife that was firmly planted in my back and return it to its rightful owner one day. I did these things for her, and while she was always on my hit list, no matter that she was low, I think she's found her way to the top. Karma is a bitch, and so is she. Maybe I won't win this fight, but I think I'll die trying, and I'm at peace with that.

So last tribal council was....interesting lol. Going into tribal council I had Alex trying hard as fuck to get Dom/Me and Lexi/Robin to split our votes. I could tell he knew we were all close and when he suggested the girls vote this way and boys vote this way plan, I immediately caught onto what he was trying to do. He definitely had a hidden agenda. What I didn't think about at the time and I should have, but how did he find out about the four of us being close. And my question was answered when one, Jaiden tried getting me to throw my vote on Alex and two, Jaiden fucking voted with Johnny, Alex, and Julia against Dom. This pissed me off because I trusted Jaiden with every ounce of my soul. Between him and the other 3 people of my "alliance", I thought they were all the only people I could trust in the game. Yet he went behind my back and tried voting Dom out. Luckily Dom pulled out his idol, took out Johnny, and gave us the majority going into future tribals. However my trust for Jaiden is gone. And Alex/Julia are both viewed as shady fucks in this game in my eyes. I see how they wanna play the game now, which is fine because they are so predictable... Anyway with Johnny gone, it gave my crew the numbers despite Jaiden playing both sides HARD. He made it clear that he was closer to Alex/Julia when they both told me everything I had said to Jaiden while Jaiden was not telling me this. It's fucked up, because Jaiden went from on of my closest allies to one of the shadiest guys I know. Still, I kinda need to keep him on the good side with me because I already don't know many peeps in this game. Moving on to the next challenge it was revealed as the "Heroes Challenge." Everybody said it was a potential swap with the volunteers from each tribe being captains. And even if that wasn't true, I was confident that whomever competes for their tribe will also receive a clue to the idol. Therefore rather either of those two were true or not, I wasn't about to risk someone like Alex or Jaiden getting that advantage. So obviously I volunteered, despite me thinking I would probably lose or even throw the challenge lol. However I ended up BARELY winning the challenge. I decided I wanted to win it for two reason. One, if I won I might receive an idol clue and Two, I wanted to send the other tribe to tribal to hopefully see Whitney or Liam voted out as I knew they were apparently targets. Plus I guess I sort of wanted to look like a Hero of the tribe. So moving forward, I think I want to lose challenges more. I don't want to miss an opportunity to get out Julia or Alex (thinking that keeping Jaiden around might be smarter for me personally. Especially since Jaiden now has a fucked relationship with Alex/Julia). Still, if it's another volunteer type thing my allies HAS to be the ones to volunteer lmao. The idol must stay out of their hands!!!!

Let this flu kill me. I can't even think rn.

yes im crazy

Watching the NBA Dunk Contest as I write this, but a lot has happened as of late. My #1, Alex, is now in a compromising position given the last tribal on his swapped tribe. Jaden is a snake. I'll finish this confessional after tribal. The Liam vote is mine by the way!

I can't wait for this merge to come up soon. I definitely thought we were swapping with it when Ruben/Sarah went head to head. Now that we didn't, I guarantee the two of them got some special prize for putting their head on the line there. I just need to make the merge or swap with Gavin. Us two are really tight and there's a lot of things that can go wrong to where we can't meet back up and run things. So I'm just praying at this point.

Welp we're voting for Whitney because she is dead as fuck.

Oh no we lost for once. Whitney is prob going tonight cuz who even is she? We dont know.

Hello again, we’re going to tribal for the first time as swapped tribes, which is the thing I dread most in the game. It’s so irritating because I can’t connect with these people excluding Jordan. Casey is never on to talk about the game and doesn’t seem like she ever wants to strategize which is annoying due to the fact that she is the only one from my original tribe. We also have Sarah who I’ve heard speaks to everyone in the game and will barely talk to me. Liam and Whitney haven’t replied to me and Whitney just has not been online at all. Gavin speaks to me every once in awhile but rarely about game and is acting overly suspicious after I notified him I heard Whitney from multiple people. He didn’t agree and didn’t disagree so he does not trust me and does not seem to want to vote Whitney lmao. He can go soon enough even though we could align and make a big move against people who are noticeably aligned with a large majority of the cast. I hate people who want to float by and do nothing while they get played by these power players; it just dulls the experience. I like a lot of the people on the other tribe so being swapped onto this tribe was just a big letdown. Here’s to hoping I’m not voted off over someone who’s never here which would be embarrassing but more so to the ones who don’t know what a big move is.

As for me personally, I’ve been trying to play the dumb role and acting as if I don’t have a clue as to what’s going on most of the time. I also let others see me as trustworthy, make alliances for me so they cannot be traced back to me starting them and will let Jordan assume that I’m his puppet. I considered voting Jordan so I could blame the vote on someone else and I would assume he would believe me over others since we’ve had multiple heart to hearts. It’d bring some necessary fun into this game because quite frankly it’s been dull. The only reason I could not go through it was due to the weird prior connections everyone has had from original tribes and the way the votes would shake down wasn’t 100% so if they decide not to vote Whitney then it would unravel and such. I’ll just try to keep myself safe for now and then would have enough time to make big moves further down the road. Perhaps Whitney could hold off on coming online for a little while longer and just be removed?

I'm so happy I've gotten this far in the game! I'm guaranteed 15th place at this point I believe which is much better than I had anticipated after going through the struggles of being on the bottom in the Nayak tribe. I'm glad we won immunity but I'm also concerned. Jaiden doesn't seem to be doing too well. It looks like a lot of person issues exploded between him and a few other people. Game wise, this is great for me because people play with their emotions so they're more likely to want to get rid of him than me. He's like a meat shield for me. I've talked to him though and I feel bad. It's an online game and I don't think people should be taking these things personally. This should be fun and not affecting someone's mental health negatively. I hope he feels better and that he finds some way to get himself in a better position in the game. I wouldn't mind helping him out with that.

So jaiden betrayed us in the last vote and we had no clue dom was getting votes until the last minute so good thing he played his idol. I wish ruben would of lost that duel challenge so we could of sent julia or alex out the door. Keeping jaiden is beneficial since her and dom will just be at each other and not us.