Juliajms

This thread. 😄

^ Yes. These strange incidents, the constant attempts at gas-lighting, it's all just bizarre. Also strange that we fought a war in which 60 million people died to put down fascism and here we have Trump and his ilk toying with it. Then about a quarter of the country seems ok with it and another chunk doesn't even see it happening. The rest of what you mentioned is just normal Republican policy so I saw that coming too. 😄

Yes. I see people saying that white liberals are the only ones surprised by this, but I don't believe it. I do think that other people have wrapped their heads around it faster because they've been here before in a sense. I find I just can't adjust to were we are. It feels deeply unreal to me. That so many people have fallen for it is incredible to me.

Things are getting worse by the day. You can feel it happening. The open racism is just appalling. I can only hope that it abates a bit after the midterms.

I guess it's not surprising that they tried to come for Mueller. This isn't going to happen. That's the real answer. However, even if it did (which it won't) it would likely apply only to babies being born now to people who are undocumented. You're stuck here in either case. 🙂

It's hard to imagine even our corrupted Supreme Court allowing this. He can't just change the constitution at will (yet).

Yes, otherwise I would have been messaging Marceline and asking her what we should do for you. I can't imagine you harming anyone, but it seemed to me a sign that you were being pushed to far by the insanity that is on the net. It's overwhelming at times and when any one of us feels that way we have to step away and preserve our sanity. That buzz feed article really did explain to me how people have been radicalized. I don't think we can blame it all on the net because if people weren't vulnerable to it it wouldn't be happening, but still. In some cases it seems like a chicken or the egg scenario.

This article was really interesting to me. It lays out the various elections that have been influence by Facebook and such recently. It also explains how the trolls get a serious foothold. I doubt this will be news for people who are internet/computer savvy, but it was interesting to see how the cheese is made, for someone like me who only has a superficial understanding. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/brazil-jair-bolsonaro-facebook-elections

My husband told me Mike Pence had a Messianic "rabbi" at his event and I didn't believe it at first. I thought it had to be fake. There is never a bottom.

It's just plain stupid. How are people falling for this nonsense I will never understand. You have got to get thoughts like this out of your head. If Facebook posts are making you feel this way than mute the people who are upsetting you. Maybe just step away form all of it for awhile and focus on the things that make you happy like the Christmas movies.

I dread the arrival of this caravan. Even if no one dies, it's going to be a clusterf*ck of human rights violations and suffering.

Me too. Maybe we can hope this wave of right wing extremism will pass by then. That may not be likely, but it's not impossible either. People being harassed by these white nationalist while doing nothing except living their lives. People being shot at the grocery store, at their schools, at their houses of worship. It's just sad to see it happening on a daily basis while the people running the show are mostly trying to make it worse. Then when they are called on it they act shocked and do their "who me?" act.

I'm really sorry it hit so close to home for you Vee.

It's awful. I don't think this is the kidd of tragedy that people with personal ties to the event really get over. The individual stories of the victims and survivors coming out now are so heartbreaking. One was a doctor who rushed to help. He had been know for treating AIDS patients in the 80's. Remembered for holding their hands without gloves and hugging them when people were still paranoid about how the disease was transmitted. Two were brothers with intellectual disabilities. A 97 year old survivor of the holocaust was killed. To survive that and be killed in a synagogue in the United States nearly 80 years later is unfathomable. Is it in poor taste to say that this didn't even catch me by surprise? This is what happens when leaders play footsie with white nationalists. When the right wing media starts floating conspiracy theories about rich Jews (Soros!) controlling the world behind the scenes. The only thing that surprised me is that it didn't happen sooner. Sadly antisemitism is rising on the left as well. It's not as bad because it's not sanctioned by leaders, but it's become common place for Jews in general to be blamed for the actions of the Israeli government on social media.

The voter suppression this year is pretty disgusting. There was a time when it really would have stunned me that anyone would try to take away the votes of the people who have traditionally been oppressed in our society. How can you try to stop Native Americans from voting after this country was built on their land and their deaths? After everything African Americans have been through you would really dare to take their voice? I'm an atheist and I think I still have more fear of the lord left in me than some of these Republican bible thumpers ever had. Of course now it's not surprising that people are this awful, it's just Monday.

I have to confess I don't know much about it. I'll have to try to read up on it when I get a few mins. It does seem like there is a wave of far right ideology that is making it's mark on the world right now. It's chilling to witness. It didn't start with the U.S., but its really a shame that we've fallen for it.

This is child abuse, imo. One thing I appreciate about Germany is that Holocaust denial is illegal.

Even now they don't stop.

Damn.

No, I think just a few Republican congressmen got shot. Let me see if I can find an article. I take it back, only one got shot. I doubt even a massacre would change their minds though. It's hard to get through to extremists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Congressional_baseball_shooting

It did and they didn't. Remember when those Congressmen got shot up at a baseball game? I know there are too many shootings to keep up with, but that was a year or two ago.

^ That's about what I would expect from him.

I'm sorry you even have to think like that. I really don't know. The U.S has a gun culture, I'm not sure anything can change it in the short term. The unfortunate thing is now we have an added catalyst for violence in the hate that has become more prevalent in the last couple of years. I think it will get much worse for at least a decade before it can get better. That assumes that young people are less attached to their guns and I'm not entirely sure that's true.

I wonder that too. Maybe when it gets so bad the majority of people decide that gun control is the only way. It's really hard for me to believe it will happen anytime soon. That's always my first guess when we have a violent incident these days. I think most of us see pretty clearly that Trump has riled up the kind of losers who gravitate to these views. I'm not even sure getting rid of him will put the genie back in the bottle, but it sure won't hurt.