Conspiracy-nut-in-chief take down put together for the fam -

I may or may not have accidentally created a guerrilla pirate radio station to arm the more sensible fam, esp. some of the wives dealing with brothers or fathers-in-laws, that have been joining interventions with me (another story for another time, very hopeful one tho).

And just generally, you know, to flood the zone with better sourced information and not wing-ding dittohead stuff.

Anyways, it cracked us up here so I thought you all might enjoy a mornin' laugh as well (also permission to use verbatim, I don't need these words anywhere near as much as truth needs to be dropped on someone right now) -

"
Today, after coming together to put the enemy within, bigotry, down and behind us in a long journey yet to come, it is time to face the enemy without. And their agent-in-chief, Donald J Trump.

Whether the man has dementia or he truly knows what he is doing rather is an irrelevant point, when you see a 75 year-old man shoved to the ground and try to CYA by wiping profusely with a Russian-sourced intelligence product, You. Are. A. Traitor. To. America.

https://twitter.com/ChrisAlbertoLaw/status/1270400247873835010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_America_News_Network
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/09/report-oann-staffers-detract-from-conspiratorial-report-about-antifa-provocateur-cited-by-trump/#1841623d6301

I swear to you, the one conspiracy theory he's avoided so far is saying the moon landing was faked, but if he somehow is re-elected I fully expect him to start up on that, too. Then he can satisfy his ego by trying to tell us no one thought of landing men (and women this time) on the moon until him and that it had never been done before. *facepalm*

Whenever you are confronted by this conspiratorial nonsense and the attempts to pit American against American, whether it comes from 45*'s own thumbs or a dittohead on the radio or Faux, the creator's of that content are Russian Intelligence, and the goal is to keep one portion of the populace enraged at the majority of the country, to keep us off-balance, to keep an incompetent administration in power, to keep the world stage open for bad actors. This is not just a fabrication - our senate has released a bipartisan, joint report on these activities:

https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume2.pdf
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume1.pdf

The interference and use of propaganda managed to sway an election once without an active attack on any actual vote-casting mechanism, by getting three states within 75,000 votes of reduced turn-out from apathetic voters and deceiving one side with conspiracy after conspiracy after conspiracy about the first woman candidate. Playing into America's ingrained misogyny and inability to see a woman in a position of leadership, power or authority, regardless of her shortcomings. Russia loves doing this, because that woman happens to be the female Secretary of State who passively-aggressively trolled Vlad during unrest in Russia (2011-12):

"Ms Clinton was vocal in her concerns about the election.

"The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), for example, cites election day attempts to stuff ballot boxes, manipulate voter lists and other troubling practices," she said.

Mr Putin, refusing to admit his own popularity was under threat, said the US State Department and its secretary Ms Clinton were interfering in his affairs, stirring up protests against him.

"Our partners shake us from time to time so that we don't forget who owns this planet," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-22/vladimir-putin-and-hillary-clinton-hatred-explained/9783076
https://nationalpost.com/news/putin-accuses-u-s-of-inciting-russian-protests-clinton-gave-a-signal
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia/putin-says-u-s-stoked-russian-protests-idUSTRE7B610S20111208

And damn right. Damn right we used to shake Russia and not let her forget who the 800-lbs gorilla on the world stage is. Not some Italy-sized economy mono-resourced criminal oil oligarchy, that's for sure.

So when you see Donald J. Trump, right-wing news repeating whack conspiracies, when you see GOP senators and White House staff smile and pretend they don't see or hear the ridiculous tweets and stories out there, know this is what you are witnessing -

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/09/report-oann-staffers-detract-from-conspiratorial-report-about-antifa-provocateur-cited-by-trump/#1841623d6301
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-calls-buffalo-protester-martin-gugino-antifa-provocateur/

Constantly using foreign aligned, Russian agent employed information and propaganda, is not legally treason. We have no formal declaration of war. But it certainly violates a president's Oath to the U.S. Constitution. And a traitor by any other name...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_America_News_Network
https://sputniknews.com/search/?query=75+old+man
"


-shiv

Re: Family who have uttered "rifle dropper" or "surrender monkey"..

I humbly submit for your review, if you've ever heard a family member historically ignorantly refer to France with the terms: "rifle dropper" or "surrender monkeys", (or if you yourself have uttered these words...)* That s!@% is over after 45*'s presidency. No on has surrendered and retreated more than this man. Mostly just the past months accumulated examples:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/retreat-from-germany-11591566310
https://www.newsbreak.com/news/0PGyRSTH/trump-orders-military-troops-to-retreat-from-protests-says-everything-is-under-control
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/501472-cheney-blasts-trump-move-to-draw-down-troops-in-germany-dangerously-misguided
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-withdraw-us-key-arms-control-pact/story?id=70815149
https://theintercept.com/2020/05/12/two-female-reporters-refused-let-trump-bully-silence-ran-away/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52957113
https://www.web24.news/u/2020/05/donald-trump-has-already-withdrawn-from-these-organizations-and-agreements.html
https://www.vox.com/2020/4/19/21224305/world-health-organization-trump-reform-q-a
https://www.dispatch.com/zz/news/20200605/dc-mayor-bowser-demands-trump-withdraw-military-and-federal-law-enforcement-from-city-amid-protests-over-george-floyd
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2020/06/07/trump-withdraws-out-state-national-guard-members-from/MhwLdw2m2EmitOvDdGg3fK/story.html
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/20/trump-threatens-federal-funding-for-michigan-mail-in-voting-270609

This was just a quick list (*and calling out for else-wheres use) to make a point but would not mind adding to the collection. Peace!

(don't feel it really should be necessary here with the DU but I'll simply add that the Maginot Line and not getting high on your own supply of propaganda are highly relevant to the subject)

edit: the context just dawned on me after posting, as well that, the egregious moment that escalated this even further was him removing protestors from Lafayette Plaza. Just thought I'd add that.


edits for over a month ago suggestions and other things:
https://www.militarytimes.com/opinion/2019/10/16/another-former-centcom-general-weighs-in-with-displeasure-over-trumps-syria-gambit/

Trying to recall..

a poem or song that had some imagery to the effect of - " our dust will rise up & fill their noses " but it's escaping me where I heard it from since it has been many a year. Does that sound familiar to anyone? thanks!

Who the royal f

are these assholes https://www.facebook.com/groups/2033010196816091/

monitored not directly engaged

I'll leave this hear as a resource:

facebook search term: posse comitatus being a hoax

stumbled on them while i was trying to find text from Laws of Land Warfare in my own effort to prevent military family members from buying into all this nonsense, or helping their buddies figure it out with a sit down hear tto heart. hope it wasnt even necessary but.. who knows

I say things can be replaced...

OP: "You say Lives Cannot!

maybe a thought..?


THINGS CAN BE REPLACED!..

"

ON edit:


I've since had time to sleep on it and realized that I had just gotten so fed up, and was trying to do something by pointing the blindingly obvious and it ended up not being helpful. I'm deeply sorry and appreciative of the result, whatever the situation and intentions. I've added some clarification now that I've cooled my heels.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Since I'm the new poster here, if I were to summarize my political beliefs briefly without getting into affiliations, the words I would choose are fanatic egalitarian extreme empathaticist. Ok, so I made one of them up. So I get that to someone of a more conservative bent, I'm basically a super hippie. I'd accept the appellation proudly.

I've had a bit of a chance to discuss this with a fellow DU'er and would just clarify - I meant to call out demonizing justifiably angry, suffering people and not distinguishing between the few of them and the larger number - the ones who are there to destroy someone else's community, that I do have outrage with. That factor is the large share of what I am getting at, and I am not advocating aggravating things with this behavior. If I lead you to believe I'm not utterly disgusted with the fact people from outside the communities affected are taking advantage and escalating things, I apologize. I'm not please with the rest of it, either.

But I can relate to the others without agreeing with their choices. I can try to feel the pain that would lead to it. And sharing in the playbook of amplifying the outrage at all of it as a distraction without that sense of hearing it is not a tactic I enjoy. As this is going on, tens of millions of Americans are unemployed, over 100,000 Americans are have died, and George Floyd is dead with two of his killers at large, and the people stealing TVs or clothes or widgets aren't making things better but they aren't making it as worse as some. They aren't making it as bad as the president who is trying to use the unrest to distract and seem like a tough guy and get his damn poll numbers raised, which will fail miserably. Focusing on the stealing and burning is also a reaction I understand, however, especially from anyone whose gone through earlier periods like this.


I stand with Joe on this, as posted elsewhere, and the other things:
"I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. George Floyd’s last words, but they didn’t die with him. They’re still being heard, echoing all across this nation. They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to virus, and 40 million have filed for unemployment, with a disproportionate number of those deaths and job losses concentrated in black and brown communities. And they speak to a nation where every day, millions of people, millions, not at the moment of losing their life, but in the course of living their life are saying to themselves, “I can’t breathe.” We’re not going to allow any president to quiet our voice. We won’t let those who see this as an opportunity to sow chaos, throw up a smokescreen to distract us from the very real, legitimate grievances at the heart of these protests. We can’t, we can’t leave this moment, can’t leave this moment thinking that we can once again turn away and do nothing."
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/elections/100000007169461/watch-live-biden-visits-philadelphia.html


It's likely we all agree here more than we disagree and have different levels of hunger for change, given varying amounts of time spent living through not enough change. Part of my intensity may be I'm still a mostly young hot-head and haven't had the time to see things not change for as long.

Solutions, not problems. I may be new to posting, but I have put some effort into not overstepping lines, to get caught up in the divisive sort of things that have happened before. I, too, wonder about post counts and what not when someone sounds fishy. If you're on guard against brand new accounts, and quite old accounts, that must be a stressful defensive crouch to deal with when meeting new posters. I'll try to be even more aware of that.

I did have a post count I raced to, I'll own that. It was ten so I could reach out and find support here on a personal issue. So while for a moment it may have felt like it was a mistake to stay engaged after doing so, I know it wasn't.

Let me give you a new poster perspective though, that if others were to allow being appropriately security-minded stray too far into being dismissive or personal, rather than responding to reason with reason, that might feel like crossing a line that feels like the Dark Times *cue spooky music*. I feel bad even invoking them, it's like literary tropes of 'whom shall not be named'.

I'll try not to take it as personal as I did initially which I was ken to, which is the larger share of why I waited to say what I had to say. I'll just say.. I wont waste time with the difference between someone losing their s!@% being morally outraged to the point of needing to be heard and find refuge in an overwhelmingly supportive community; and a sleeper account. Especially not with what I've been advised not to take too seriously without knowing more, cause it triggers a sorta smells like a couple dirty socks feeling. Those who make an effort to get to know me I believe will see me for who I am, and those who don't aren't my problem. I understand vigilance is necessary. I practice it also. I've made my point with my OP and until there is something constructive to do don't see any further comment to my attempt at promoting an empathetic mindset in this challenging way. It's always possible people feel it but aren't remembering to clarify they do to when reacting to specific situations.

//

not wholly my idea: discussing civil unrest and refusing to discuss the root causes is like trying to put a fire out pointing the fire extinguisher in the sky. You point it at the base of the fire where the fuel is burning, not the flickering distraction at the surface.

edit: additional non-kicking clarifying thoughts.

Why Covid-19 Recovery and Reparations are the best BOGO opportunity in all of history.

this seems as good a place as any

I'd had this kicking around for awhile and a few new pieces came to mind last night when I was winding down and wanted to conclude a post with it in a facebook support circle amongst some friends that are coping with events right now, and it felt too hopeful not to find a place to share it over here as well. We could all use something to get our eyes looking up at that horizon right now me thinks.

I've imagined all the beautiful ways the table of solidarity might be decorated one day long after we've built it together and shared it together, I imagine the underside of its old wood carved with initials by the young ones underfoot, who look for a grandparent or great-great-grandparents to amaze at before adding theirs nearby, until the edges of earlier and earlier marks wear are faded and the new marks start to carve a new ever renewing layer over them, just as new generations always carve their mark onto the world. I see new families and brothers and sisters to the cause of solidarity leaving their signature on that old table one day, with that oldest way we've been leaving a sign of our handiwork since we've had something to say on walls, by taking paint and mixing it in our mouths and spraying it over the outline of our hands, the the silhouette of our open palms create a tapestry of bright colours and sizes of hands holding one another across countless generations overlap, and you can see from the signs of callouses and bent fingers on this classic signature or that classic old signature over there, that these hands, these peoples hands all together, have been wounded by good hard-work in a life well lived and have not ever need been wounded by strife.

My father's Covid Denial: An Update

I recently shared my lack of understanding why some people are pushing that their faith justifies somehow endangering other people's lives, be it not wearing masks or violating public health orders to hold congregations. And how specifically it has reared itself with my own father's attitude on the virus. I mentioned that he is a cancer survivor.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13482116

When I tried to call him on it, tried to get through to him, he abruptly hung up on me. Admittedly I came in pretty hot, and there was a lot going on with being worried for him, fed up with his politics, and another family member on my mom's side (whom my dad despises) also spouting nonsense talking points and being a risk to both my grandmother and mom, 90 and 60+ with COPD, respectively. As an aside, you would think the fact I can repeat them verbatim back at each other once in awhile and they get all their information from the same place, that my dad might realize if he doesn't want to be compared with a despicable person in his judgment, not agreeing with him on just about every subject might be a good place to start.

Having since received a few txts from him in reply to my attempt to let it lay. I basically made the point to him that medicaid and doctors were the means that helped him defeat his throat cancer, simplifying cause it was via text, the notion that via science we were able to develop with our cool brains over generations, a sense in our society that we should take care of each other's health, and the skill of doctors who pursue a life tending to the needs of others, he was saved. I specifically added something to the effect that there may have been something guiding the doctors and the dollars, leaving room for a deity's involvement, but apparently I wasn't specific or blunt enough phrasing it that way. My second sentence did include a statement asking him to be mindful and not buy into nonsense. I had thought it would be more obvious than I guess it was that I was referring to the conspiracy theory, death toll denying, talking point stuff we had argued about, and since we hadn't actually discussed religion or the period when he fought cancer, the two statements weren't as easily conflated as they were in his mind.

Cause his response txt the next morning was quite hot, basically accusing me of forgetting God and how sad that was. Now, I have been respectful of his religion, his beliefs and really appreciate most of the time the good it brings him to have that in his life, and tried to overlook the times he veers into using it as a cudgel, a way to dismiss people he disagrees with (including occasionally myself), or the times it goes dark and hypocritical. Haven't always succeeded, but never in a blow things up sort of way. Knowing how he felt and how he was saying God wouldn't let him die from Covid-19 cause, ya know, he hadn't let him die from cancer, and that I was trying to actually get through to him, I had felt I did a pretty good job leaving space him for his faith and respecting that God may very well have been involved at some level microscopic or willpower or one of those nights needing a light to get through struggles I never saw, but goodness. It wasn't like he beat cancer visiting a revival tent and having some man speaking tongues wave a ten foot snake in his face. He had some of the best doctors at the most respected cancer treatment hospital in our state looking after him. I tried to let what I believe or don't stay entirely out of what I said, cause frankly it wasn't relevant to what I wanted him to understand about listening once again to good doctors and the best universities and health institutions.

So, being an imperfect being and given an ultimatum about not telling him what to think and given since our phone call and my text I'd found out my step-mom (whom I do get along with quite well more often than not) had lost her grandma, in Detroit, in a nursing home, and that just that day the very reason I found out he was saying what he was about the virus and what he thought of precautions was he had called my sister to make peace over a disagreement he had been in with her (somehow that detail didn't make it to me before I called to get on his case about being safe, unfortunately), it getting back to me that he was growing annoyed I wasn't responding to his texts, and dismissing an explanation that I might, ya know, be backing off given all those circumstances as giving me too much credit... I've decided it's time to respond.

Before-hand I've made sure my sister is forewarned its coming, I've talked with the step-mom and made sure she understand whatever goes on between my dad and I, or her and my dad in the future for that matter (she is the second step-mom afterall), that needn't have anything to do with the two of us, that I care about her and my brother, worry about her and she can call me anytime she likes. That as long as it doesn't cause her too many problems with him or if she doesn't give a hoot if it does, if she still wants to visit with me (when we can again) when dad is out of town, or if my step-brother needs me, she knows that's still ok with me and where to find me.

If you're interested, this is how that went. Because I am fed up. And I'm not always a nice person when my kindness is taken advantage of for too long.

Thank you for letting me vent and share and being a supportive community. I think the only reason I slept at all the morning after the whole thing was making my first post here after a decade-plus of lurkerdom. Apologies if this is the wrong forum or I missed a line somewhere stepping up. There are a lot of sensitive subjects here but I do feel they are relevant to current events as much as personal events, and I do have a sense of hope some may find a shared catharsis or inspiration with all I have said. Or that it'll just blow by, not upset anyone unduly, and let me put it out of my head and behind me. Either would be cool.

Hi there DU!

I'm largely going to skip introductions cause I've got something burning me up and want to get on to it, but I've been reading on the DU over another long-time lurker's (me mum) shoulder predating this account, which, tbh I forgot I made until I tried creating one this week. I think I recall she started reading here during the whole 2000 Supreme Court Decision... Thing. We've found so much like-mindedness and information and comfort here over the years I can't begin to express. Sunday LOLcats are practically a weekly tradition to scroll through together for us. Cheers to you, SCE.

I think it wouldn't be a problem to share that I'm not sure how my mom would've coped and processed the Ken Blackwell Ohio election night fiasco in '04 with commiserating here. I remember her taking a 20-minute walk, for some reason her car was unavail, to the store, in Michigan, that cold night cause she ran out of cigarettes, and then walking back. It was rough. So I have a lot of gratitude for the DU, for that and a lot more.

The first person I ever voted for to be president was Howard Dean in the primary that year. (Yes, the first election I voted in happened to be a primary!). I would've voted for Gore had I been eligible then. I would've voted for someone's shoe if it had the D nomination, and Since there is only one rational choice at this point, I'm a little piqued I can't set my current 2020 choice to Extinction Level Asteroid Impact on a lark so someone might get an unexpected chuckle.

Okay, enough background. On with it! Cause I am done making excuses for the people I care about.

Is that because..

of a Van Allen belt thing or for some other reason?

I rarely will see or hear something about how deeper space exploration with manned missions is unreasonable, but I haven't really seen it delved into in depth. And a lot of the rest of the people talking about the science seem to overlook the issue. I'd really like to have a better understanding what the serious reservations are about.

I'd hate to think even a massive effort wouldn't be able to eventually overcome such obstacles, leaving us stuck one worldwide catastrophe away from extinction for an already interminably indefinite period. You know, for no particular reason...