US Elections are a scam. It is managed democracy to support a Totalitarian Capitalist dystopia. I don't even think you can credibly call it a Capitalist system at this point, because a Capitalist system implies an ability for one company to challenge the dominance of another company over a market, and by providing a better or cheaper product or service, can displace or replace the dominant company in a market. But that doesn't happen in many so-called Markets in the US dominated International Capitalist System. Instead, a dominant company remains dominant through the careful manipulation of the political economic system itself through a framework of corruption and legalized bribery built into the US Electoral system. So-called Special Interests, in other words Corporate Interests, dominate the Policy discussion. Historically, challengers to the system are harassed, cajoled, manipulated and bribed, and if still a problem, they are persecuted, imprisoned or assassinated by elements in the Deep State.

Democracy NEVER existed in the United States. From the beginning, Wealthy Aristocracy cemented their place in politics by giving Voting Rights only to White Male Landowners. As that political system became less viable over the years, new and more complex ways for the Ruling Class to control and manipulate those elections were found and added to the system even as the country supposedly "democratized" throughout the Progressive Era and Civil Rights Movement.

Today, the system is so peppered with control mechanisms for the Ruling Class, there is virtually ZERO chance of a true challenger to the Capitalist System to become an elected official to the Federal Government, let alone to become President or to take power in Congress. The maze of regulations and rules, the enormous amounts of money required, the various Party controlled electoral mechanisms all combine to act as a safety valve for the Ruling Class to maintain power in the face of Popular Opposition, regardless how popular it may be.

Elections may be real, but the process of putting your options on the ballot virtually guarantees the Ruling Class has the final say in who gets power and who doesn't.

That's not democracy, that's Fascism.

(via Largest School District in Texas Eliminates Libraries, Converts Them to Disciplinary Centers)

this sounds remarkably like classic fascism...yes?

A bipartisan bill would give the secretary of the treasury unilateral power to classify any charity as a terrorist-supporting organization, automatically stripping away its nonprofit status. The bill, H.R. 6408, already passed the House of Representatives in November, and a companion bill, S. 4136, was introduced to the Senate by Sens. John Cornyn (R–Texas) and Angus King (I–Maine) last week. In theory, the bill is a measure to fight terrorism financing. At least, that's what sponsor Rep. David Kustoff (R–Tenn.) claimed. "I urge the swift passage of this legislation that will significantly diminish the ability of Hamas and other terrorist groups to finance their operations and carry out future attacks," he said in a November statement. Financing terrorism is already very illegal. Anyone who gives money, goods, or services to a U.S.-designated terrorist organization can be charged with a felony under the Antiterrorism Act and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. And those terrorist organizations are already banned from claiming tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Nine charities have been shut down since 2001 under the law. The new bill would allow the feds to shut down a charity without an official terrorism designation. It creates a new label called "terrorist-supporting organization" that the secretary of the treasury could slap onto nonprofits, removing their tax exempt status within 90 days. Only the secretary of the treasury could cancel that designation.

Source

Source

To all the communist transvestites, VOTE👏VON👏HINDENBURG👏

I'm just as radical as you; I'm a proud member of the great Social Democratic Party of Germany! I don't know what the crazy communists are telling you, but Paul von Hindenburg is our only hope to defeat the Nazis. After we elect him, then we can discuss other politics, but this is the BARE MINIMUM, and if you don't vote for him, you clearly have this crazy purity test that'll bring us all to fascism.

I know you might be worried about his "senility" and "failing health", and I know you may not like him because of his push to the right, and I know you may be worried about the brownshirts, and the recent persecution of Dr. Hirschfeld and his work, and maybe you STILL haven't gotten over the whole Rosa Luxemburg stuff,

but none of that really matters! We need to keep the SPD in power, or else Hitler will get in charge! This is the most important and most basic thing you could do to help Germany stay a democracy. In 6 years, then maybe we can find a better candidate, but no matter what you think about von Hindenburg, he's the best shot we have at keeping the fascists out of power. We can totally push him left!

Any vote against von Hindenburg is a vote for Hitler. #Hindenburg1932

The Ten Pillars of Fascist Politics by Jason Stanley

Above is a July 6, 2021 twitter thread by Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, PhD, which outlines the 10 pillars of fascist politics. It shows just how fascist most of the Republican Party has become under Trump’s leadership. The current MAGA GQP has incorporated each of the above 10 pillars into its talking points and philosophy. 

This is why the GQP has been up in arms about Biden accurately calling their Trumpist political ideology “semi-fascism.” 

Feel free to share this with your relatives and friends who want to defend the direction the GQP has been going in. [Just be prepared when they counterattack to explain why the Democratic Party is not “communist” or “socialist,” but a center left political party, with its most extreme members being social democrats (even Bernie Sanders and AOC aren’t really democratic socialists)].

[edited]

_______________________

Note: The visual formatting of how the original tweet in the thread appears, as well as the visual formatting of pillars number 2 - 9 were modified from their source; furthermore, the translation of “ARBEIT MACH FREI” AS “WORK MAKES ONE FREE” was added to pillar #10.

history understander has logged on

Have you heard of Red Caesar?

It's pretty terrifying. These people literally believe that the US's "experiment" with democracy is over, and that the only way back to national greatness (which means something different for them than it does for sane people) is for a "strong leader" to take unilateral control. In other words, a dictatorship. They'd have to try pretty damn hard to sound any more like Benito Mussolini - the person who actually created the term "fascist" and wore it with pride.

They have a particular time frame in mind. They're gathering funds and supplies and support. They are actively working to make this happen. In a country that wasn't already corrupted by fascism, some of them would have been charged with seditious conspiracy by now.

kinda fucked up how quickly the united states is descending into christofascism and i just gotta like. go to work

Corporations like Amazon, Google, Twitter and FB are thoroughly infiltrated by Security State operators and govt actors.

Meanwhile, our govt is so thoroughly infiltrated by Corporate actors and the interests of the fabulously rich.

This corrupt synergy between corporations and govt is the literal definition of Fascism.

Fascism is just the logical conclusion of this arrangement.

i love the lesbian couple that lives near my parent's work. they are super nice and they live in a farm with nine dogs and over fifteen cats (not an exaggeration). im pretty sure one of them was in a cult when she was younger. they're both butch and one of them says she doesn't see gender for anyone ever, only presentation and pronouns. she still uses the word lesbian to herself because she thinks it sounds cool. all animals in their farm are rescues. they have more coconut trees that they can account for so everytime we visit they shove coconut at us and we leave with at least ten in our car because they literally don't know what to do with that much coconut. their existence fills me with hope

if you're transgender or you care about transgender people and you live in the US, you need to vote.

all those 1000+ anti trans legislation that have been introduced these past three years have not stopped, and they aren't going to just stop. they might not affect you now, but they will if republicans win the presidency and the majority in the house and senate. federal laws will be passed. that is their goal. their goal is to eradicate us.

it is February of 2024, and there have already been 495 anti trans bills considered. there were 588 total in 2023. this cannot go under the radar.

talk about this. VOTE this November.

do not be complicit in your eradication

Source

Source

At age 14 in Florida, a child is “too young” to use social media but old enough to give birth

"Nazi Town, USA" is a 2024 feature in PBS's American Experience series. It looks into the surprising degree of influence which Nazis had in the United States in the 1930s. There were even Nazi summer camps for kids.

It can be viewed (probably for a limited amount of time) at the series link above. Here's a preview...

To explore the topic more deeply, check out Rachel Maddow's excellent 8-episode podcast Ultra.

Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra | an MSNBC original podcast

Ultra has somewhat more emphasis on Nazi attempts to penetrate government.

Those espousing Nazi-friendly views in the 1930s did not disappear when the US entered World War II and fascism became very unfashionable. Those half-hidden feelings hibernated and occasionally emerged from time to time to poison discourse and endanger democracy. There are obvious echos of that movement today.

if you use the word degenerate/degeneracy you should not call yourself a socialist or even a progressive, this is not negotiable, you have not done the basic work required of you to use such a label