52 Comments

I AM CONFUSED

As an avid follower of politics, I have witnessed the discussions and policy differences between competing sides in a number of countries.

I have witnessed the British Elections first hand as a student in London and was affected by Margaret Thatcher's pole tax and the significant opposition to it.

This election in the United States will be the first that I take active notice of what the discussions are on the various policies, and frankly, I am confused.

Prior to migrating to the US, I considered myself aligned to the Conservative ideals of the Republican party. In 2016, I was part of a group of Caribbean conservatives who were guests of the British Conservative Party, where we were coached on how to win elections, using big data, by none other than Alexander Knix.

Fast forward 8 years, and as a first-time voter and keen follower of politics, I am confused by the Republican Party led by Donald Trump. I'm trying to rap my mind around how the Party that believes in the "right to life" so easily supports the death penalty. How that same part abhors abortion but will not give families the means to support those children after they are born.

I'm trying to reconcile how the party that wants to legislate morality, is being led by an individual whose moral compass is so far off kilter that his supplicants must feign laughter when he openly describes the manhood of an American golf icon.

I'm a little concerned that trying to assess how, the party that once boasted fiscal conservatism, allowed Donald Trump to use quantitative easing to give tax breaks to the very wealthy, while increasing the American debt by more than any other President in one term.

More importantly, though, I am sincerely trying to reconcile how the same party that is seeking to control women and how they can live their lives is keen on removing government oversight on the conduct of business and the need to ensure that necessary regulatory control of business practices are destroyed.

Finally, how can conservatives embrace a morally bankrupt individual and his numerous distasteful utterances, while they completely ignore that teachings of the bible and Christ like conduct.

I'm confused that the party that touts “America first” is banrolled by and pushing the agenda of an Australian media magnate and a South African former illegal alien whose Agendas are personal.

Listening to Republicans try to normalize Trump's hateful rhetoric, laced with racism, misogyny, anti-Semitic tropes, pure puerile pique, and outright dirty old man talk, I am reminded of the following Australian advice. "If it wags its tail and barks, its a dog, stop trying to convince yourself that it's a kangaroo with an attitude problem."

I am confused because of all of these any many other issues.

First time voter

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It’s called hypocrisy. I was once a Republican but I flipped because of Conold’s behavior. Anyway, Welcome to America we’re glad your here.

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This was my 19th privilege of voting and I'm just as confused about trumputin as you...

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I'm confused about why you're confused. Dude, the writings, hell, the carvings were on the wall. Robert Reich warned you in 1994. Thirty years ago. But perhaps you were just too steeped in conservative values to heed the warnings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnd0eSuxu84

Before moving to Japan after voting for Al Gore, I too was an emigrant to the US. And even at 15 years old, upon arriving in the US, it was perfectly clear to me what those "conservatives" were about.

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Religion is a tool used to control humans. Hypocrisy is built-in.

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The GOP was hijacked a long time ago. It morphed into the current dystopic horror show that is everything you've described. It will likely survive and continue its downward spiral into full-fledged fascism. At some point, the party's candidate will win election. At that point, all bets are off.

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The party became vile under Conold’s tenure and remains that way today.

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Profound lies that the difference saying vs doing.

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Never mind hahaha. I just found it

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I don't claim to be a genius at this stuff but I think your post needs to be put on every phone in America and I don't even know how to share it with myself. Is there some way to share this one post?

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Yesterday, buried within the hate-filled spewings of Trump's legion of right-wing celebrity followers at his Madison Square Garden rally, that was designed to mimic the Nazi rally in that very same venue on February 20, 1939, was a curious denial by Donald Trump.

Trump, out of nowhere, voluntarily denied that he had ever read Hitler's "Mein Kampf". Perhaps this was in response to the widely-circulated report that his late first wife, Ivana, stated that he had kept a copy of it by his bedside.

I think that the true reason for why he volunteered this denial was to take great pride and credit in claiming that he himself thought of and has weaponzied the two most important learnings from "Mein Kampf":

Matthew Parris ( former Member of Parliament) in "Scorn" quotes:

"Only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of the crowd". (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf)

"The broad mass of a nation … will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one." (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf).

That Trump has rarely, if ever, come up with an original thought suggests that his first wife was right after all.

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Yes, everything he blurts out is all created by his pea brain! He should write his memoirs and title it " MEIN CRAP ". This can be done while he's sitting in his jail cell. He'll have a lot of time while he's there. He won't dare leave his cell! He knows too well what will happen if he does.

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Write his memoirs? Write ? The only thing he has been proven by a jury of his peers to be able to write is his signature on hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels and other such ladies. Everything else he has had ghost-written such as his "Art of the Deal", or was that "The Art of the Steal"?

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I'm Excited this morning ☕ this is Terrific News. What a great new way to reach your public, right here on Substack. What a clever idea. Thank You, Mary for letting us know and will reStack ASAP,💥

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It's the 8th day before the election. Tomorrow will be a week. Last night was a nightmare at the Gardens, where we all saw the worst of humanity embodied by a hall full of things that don't belong to it.

A lot of what Donald Trump says is like his full head of hair. If it wasn't sewn in, he would always forget to bring it. And, Mike Johnson is such a genius wonder, that he must be the devil's advocate of Trump's latest stupidity. Look at Gulliani, Mr. Johnson. That's what pandering to Trump will get you. 

Trump said, at his Madison Square Garden NAZI rally yesterday, that he and Johnson have a little secret all the while gleefully clucking, nudging, hugging, and winking at each other.  I'll tell you the secret they share: they are both lazy idiots. Niether has had much exposure to the constitutional amendments or what their country is about, yet alone understanding the basics of their jobs, or what it means to be humane.  Johnson supposedly is carrying out Jesus's work as a Baptist. They are a couple of clowns randomly pushing lots of buttons in God's control room, and will get us all killed as God takes vengence upon them.

Guys, look up the 12th Amendment. Trump's dirty little "secret" is precisely the same game plan he tried to do last time. But, now he's having Johnson do Mike Pence's role. The idea was to disrupt the vote certifying process by physically damaging (or hiding) the state electorial certificates. Pence was then to claim the results were in dispute because he couldn't find them, and congress would have to hold a contested election. I know this is pretty stupid, but that's what Trump's mind put together. He doesn't think about things much further than that.

In a contested election, the electoral results are discarded. Instead, there is another mini-election held in congress. Each house representative and senator get one vote. The house votes to pick a president from the top three candidates by popular vote, and the senate does the same for the vice president. They do this independently of each other, and niether can override the other.

The key to all of this is what makes a state's results questionable? Both the house AND senate have to vote together on this to decide if a state's returns are in dispute. Guidance based on evidence can come from courts, but ultimatley the house and senate determine whether a state election was fraudulent. If the house says it was, the senate can override that conclusion if it believes not. And, even if both sides agree a particular state is problematic, a contested election may still not happen if that state wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

In this situation, its best to have control of the senate as an audit control to prevent Trump and Johnson from manipulating the house. That is actually why the Senate exists. The Democrats have spent a lot of effort to run strong candidates for Senate seats, and are very likely to hold onto the senate after the election.

The only other way a contested election can happen is if no political party gets the majority of the electoral college votes. That is unlikely to happen, as polling suggests Kamala has a 3:2 lead over Trump amongst people who have voted and had revealed their choices.

Stay Strong. Don't Be Gas Lighted

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What a great combo—looking forward to joining at 11 a.m.

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I need to calculate another international time zone? Great! 😈😁😉🙂 I hope to catch you. I love Andy Borowitz! 😎

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Jay Kuo, who is head of Team Takei responsible for StarTrek's George Takei's social media is of Puerto Rican discent.

He has done a really good write up on Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden NAZI rally, from a perspective of personal experience. I could not have done it as well as he did. I encourage you to read his take.

One of the astute observations he makes is in his comparison as to why Hitler called Jews, Poles, Gays, Blacks, and others who had to be weeded out of the perfect blonde blue eyed Arian race as "garbage"...

"Trump’s rhetoric is deliberate, intended to open the door to *atrocities* by his administration should he win reelection. After all, if he’s dealing with garbage, and not real human beings and families, then it’s far easier for him to 'clean it out' of our communities, never mind the suffering, horror and likely deaths that would inflict.

*atrocities means an industrial dehumanization and killing of people on a huge scale by Trump. It includes any citizen who does not conform to, or agree with any of Trump's expectations

Punching Your Own MAGA Face

https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/punching-your-own-maga-face

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Jay's post is wonderful, and everyone should subscribe to his Substack going into election night. (He kept me from losing my mind in 2020 with his reassuring analysis of vote counts and trends that was ultimately proven to be 100% correct.)

But he's of Chinese descent.

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BOYCOTT MAR-A-LAGO The TRASH in The Middle of FLORIDA 🏠 ‼️ They Sleep in SEPARATE Bedrooms 🛌 🛌 @Mar-A-Lago ‼️‼️

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Darn, I teach a class at 11. I hope I can catch this later!

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Can your live with Andy B be replayed?

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Can we watch this after the fact, if we missed it?

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Aggggh missed it - is there anywhere can find it and listen?

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I missed it too. Can’t seem to find it saved anywhere here.

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What a fun show! That was great ! Thank you Mary ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ I’m pumped and positive 💙💙💙💙

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Can't figure it out...and its garbage day. Please someone ask what ever happened to the Egyptian Bribe scandal???

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“Women are meat.” - Donald Trump

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