He had pretty much that his first two years. Maybe not the judicial branch, totally. But, he had both chambers of congress. They could have done a lot but didn’t because of incompetence, a little dissent and fear of electoral reprisals.

Now, they’re more organized and possibly more unified behind the rat-fucking that’s planned.

If they move too fast they’ll lose the House in two years. If they slow boil, we’ll all be cooked before we know it.

I think making them financially and emotionally comfortable. Reduce the wealth gap and convince them that government is advocating for them in concrete ways.

This would be real change and I’m not sure many places in the USA—especially where it’s most needed—are capable of making that change.

Certainly, Trump and his ilk are working to do the opposite while waving panaceas in their faces.

Sometimes, I think Democrats and the left get too caught up in the big picture issues and ignore the ground work that’s needed. They’re trying to grow a forest without clearing the rocks and weeds. You don’t combat transphobia, misogyny and racism just by preaching the virtues of inclusivity. You have to address the insecurities that lead to that kind of hate. That means helping the despicable people and I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to help them. But, that puts us in a vicious circle.

I don’t think change will ever come from the top. It’s got to start very local. Think about conservative talk radio and how influential that is/was. It was someone talking directly to them even if it was a syndicated show it was on a local AM station. They sowed the fear and anxiety that lead us here. The Dems/liberal/left still seems to mostly ignore that.

That was my brother-in-law. In West Virginia. Votes for Obama twice then Trump.

Near as I can tell, they want “change” and doesn’t matter much what that means. They feel powerless in the face of the “other”. The government itself is “other”. It’s who they blame for problems whether it’s taxes or complicated rules for their small business or the way “elites” get away with doing the stuff they can’t do. They have some legitimate gripes with the government and “elites”.

Obama sold “change” really well. So did Trump. It’s not the same kind of change. And, he employed many more “others”. Trump’s change is a lie but Obama’s change never materialized even though he was probably more sincere about it.

These people are dealing with feelings of frustration, inadequacy, envy and shame. They’re lashing out and their only power is their vote. Trump fed those feelings and gave them a target and convinced them that only he could help them.

Except the rapid real estate inflation started years before COVID. WFH may play a part but it’s hardly a major reason.

I have the instance blocked. Nice thing about Lemmy, you can vote with your attention. When toxic bubbles pop up, you can ignore them en masse. Any collateral blocking doesn’t bother me. [insert Nazi party meme]

And Juice, Cotton, Rummy, Sloe, Fizz…etc.

Evangelicals right now:

I really like what they do but mostly find them unlistenable. If you don’t enjoy listening to people just chatting and making lots of—often bad—jokes in the middle of the narrative, this podcast is not for you.

If you don’t mind that, they do a great job of deep diving into the history of despicable people.

You don’t have to deny that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization to call these attacks terrorism.

• Hezbollah is a terrorist organization
• Israel is committing acts of terrorism in Lebanon

Both of these statements can be true.

How is setting off little bombs amongst a civilian population not terrorism?

The media wants a fight because fights get ratings and $. It’s in their interest to make both candidates look equally good/bad. This makes them allergic to charges of bias which helps the shittier candidates.

In addition to the other points made, not nearly as many people use Lemmy so it’s not as much of a target for bots.

The alt-right/Trump content on sites like Reddit and Twitter is amplified out of proportion by bots.

That song, though. Hoo, glad they changed that.

They don’t have or want to take Russia as a whole or even significant part. If they push the frontline east into Russia they may force Russia to give up control of parts of Ukraine in order to defend.

If they do this enough, they can start negotiating trade of land. If Putin refuses to trade Russian land for Russian-occupied Ukraine, it won’t look good to Russians.

Trees. We went into the trees before we came back down and walked on two feet.

They should build a school while they’re there to make a point.

Well, now I know why people hate the Dutch.

All of those things happened in the past, too. Probably even more than now.

I think the difference, now, is that it gets called out a lot more. In the past, it happened quietly and people went along or pretended to not notice. Now, people are calling it out and the shitty people have to openly defend it.

Looks AI-generated with the prompt “the love child of Elon Musk and Donald Trump”.

It really looks like a combination of those two twats.

Almost funny that Putin is so desperate that Jong Un makes Putin come to him to kiss the ring in exchange for ammo.