"The SWP was an active participant and builder of the anti-fascist movement. The SWP members, particularly those in trade unions, followed a strategy of counter-mobilisation to fight the incipient fascist groups and advocated the formation of workers’ defence guards to defend working class organisations. Liberals who opposed fascists, on the other hand, focused on relying on the capitalist courts and legislatures to stand up to the fascists."

"

“First, it is a wide mass movement of farmers and small business who face bankruptcy, of youth denied a future under capitalism, of sections of the unemployed. All these layers of the oppressed who are seeking desperately to put their hands on the surrounding plenty become hypnotised by the silver-plated promises of a demagogue who regiments them into blindly obedient shock troops.

“Secondly, it is financed and controlled by the very capitalists who above all are anxious to keep the revolutionary violence of the masses from turning against them. In America — the DuPonts, the Morgans, the Rockefellers — the Sixty Families."

"The key message of The Fight Against Fascism in the U.S.A. is that incipient fascist movements must be identified early and confronted by a broad, democratic and disciplined united front. Taking on rightwing populists and fascists must be done collectively, not in an individualistic or adventurist manner."

I know I should just block (and not OPEN) tags and posts ab '24 but my brain is stupid and likes to be informed even if it makes me worse

I think there's some cognitive dissonance surrounding progress that I really need you all to accept:

Regime changes are not smooth. They're scary even. And rebellions are messy and scary too.

A lot of you are like "yes that makes sense" and I'm glad because when I say this next thing I want you to Not be reactionary and immediately defensive, but listen and remember that progress means taking risks that make you uncomfortable. Remember that you want progress. Don't blurt out the first excuse that comes to mind like Really sit and think about it. Because you're gonna have to accept being uncomfortable if we want things to change.

Stop voting for Democrats and pressuring everyone else to vote democrat. They signed an agreement with Republicans saying that they denounce socialist policies (good welfare programs) in an era of late stage capitalism, poverty, and severe climate change. They intentionally platform extremists to help themselves win (and in fact this strategy backfiring is exactly why Trump won in 2016)

Democrats are not a party of progressives who are trying to fix things. They're literally trying to replace Republicans with extremists on ballots just so ppl feel obligated to vote for them. Democrats are intentionally scaring voters with an alt right & fascist candidates for votes.

If you have ever said "vote blue or else-" or "vote Blue and we might be able to save (state)" then this strategy has worked on you.

If you want Actual progress then you gotta vote for people who are promising you progress. Progressives, independents, green party.

Democrats keep promising that the fire won't get worse, but they've been fanning the flames the whole time cuz they love the heat.

Quit voting for people who prefer that your house be on fire.

And yeah it'll be scary to vote for a party without as much support and yeah maybe it does cause a swing vote.

......But maybe it doesn't.

Maybe we end up with a president willing to do more than compromise our rights with transphobic Republicans. Maybe we get our rights codified & even get a process for handling fascist politicians like trump & Desantis. Maybe we get a president with a personal and genuine interest in the betterment of us not just our economy.

And it starts with you doing something just a little different than usual.

We cant have change if you're too afraid to create it.

I mean, the current republican party has an official plan to make the next republican president (who would be trump) to be a fascist dictator.

Not saying Biden/the democratic party aren’t hot garbage. But if trump was president he’d be doing the exact same, and probably far worse.

Doesn’t make me happy for the next election by any means tho. I hope that whatever power is up above that they smite all of our current leadership. But best we can do for now is protest and call our representatives.

As a non-American who don't care about whatever the outcome might be, because I can't influence the situation whatsoever, it is gonna lead to our death and suffering regardless of who you choose.

i don't know what else to say. i don't want to take attention away from the rest of the global south that also needs help but please talk about argentina

this year is our 40th year of democracy.

next weekend we'll vote to see if we're ruled by an anti-democracy fascist who has been directly compared to Hitler, whose Vice president candidate is the daughter of one of the men who committed genocide.

The alternative is a social-democratic welfare state that isn't my personal taste as a leftist, but it is a thousand times better than someone whose people compare being LGBT to having lice.

Whose people openly deny the more than 30.000 deaths in the 76-83 dictatorship.

Whose people have been so openly racist and xenophobic that BTS FANS have had to come out in condemnation. Whose VP candidate has denied indigenous groups exist.

Whose economy model scares even the USAmerican vultures

who wants to take away public health, public education, welfare state, worker's rights, and believe there is no pay gap.

Whose main supporters are conspiracy theorists.

Please stay informed. You might soon see another humanitarian crisis here.

I’m starting to think Donald Trump is sounding like Hitler on purpose

Satirist Alexandra Petri hits another one out of the ballpark. ⚾😁 This is a gift🎁link, so anyone can read this column, even if they don't subscribe to The Washington Post. Below are some excerpts:

Sorry! I know! You are sick of hearing about Donald Trump! “Don’t worry,” people keep saying. Donald Trump did just promise to “root out” the internal enemies who “live like vermin” in our country, but he only might be the next president. I don’t mean to worry you, but people are running around with their hair on fire, saying they are suffering from intense, nauseating levels of déjà vu, and those people are historians. I don’t like seeing historians this stressed out. If something in my house has to emit an ominous beeping, I want it to be the alarm clock, not the smoke detector. “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump announced on Veterans Day. And when people complained that sounded like something Adolf Hitler would say, a spokesman responded that “their entire existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.” Which, to be fair, also sounds like something Hitler would say. When you say, “What you just said sounds very much like Hitler’s rhetoric,” you don’t want that to be taken as a challenge. The response you are hoping for is something more like: “Oh no! That was not how we meant to sound, and we are going to leave political life and rethink everything about ourselves and hope that by our final day, we can say we atoned a little bit.” This is not a problem that most candidates have! Ominous, dictatorial rhetoric is not a hard thing to avoid for most candidates. Except possibly for the ones who are running for school boards on the platform of “Let’s ban books,” which also, candidly, I do not love. I can see accidentally saying something like, “I love to stand on a balcony” or “I am interested to see more fashion by Hugo Boss,” but those are not the kinds of things we are talking about. You cannot just “oops” your way into dehumanizing huge swaths of the population. [color emphasis added]

I encourage folks to use the gift link above to read the rest of this column. These are frightening times, but I'm always grateful that when some of us get tired of screaming in fear😱, Alexandra Petri can make us laugh.😂

Happy birthday, Smedley Butler! (July 30, 1881)

A career US military officer, Smedley Butler was born to an English-American Quaker family, the grandson of two Pennsylvania politicians. Butler lied about his age to join the Marine Corps during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and spent the next 33 years as a Marine, rising through the ranks to achieve the position of Major General. He served through the Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Boxer Rebellion, and the Banana Wars in Latin America, and became intimately aware of the nature of American militarism to serve imperialist and capitalist interests, something which increasingly disgusted him. After his service, Butler became a touring speaker against militarism, writing the pamphlet War is a Racket. He also helped to expose the Business Plot, a scheme to depose President Franklin D. Roosevelt and install in his place a fascist and corporatist dictatorship in the United States. He died in 1940.

"I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

I'm seeing a lot of leftists complain about Biden not being able to do anything and how Republican presidents were able to write executive orders for seemingly whatever they wanted, and I got confused. So i wanted to ask: why does it seem like Republicans can pass whatever they want whenever they want but Democrats can't?

Welp. This is, yet again, another Online Leftist "argument" that isn't correct, doesn't give an accurate view of the situation, and doesn't propose any helpful alternatives. I know that the Republicans can often feel like an overwhelming and unstoppable evil machine, but the truth is that despite the chaos and damage of Trump's four years to American democratic society and sociopolitical norms, he didn't actually pass much legislation -- even with a compliant Republican-controlled Congress from 2016-18. The Republicans didn't even succeed in legislatively repealing the ACA, despite trying zillions of times to do it, and mostly just passed tax cuts for rich people and other bad economic policy, since they could do it with budget reconciliation (the same process that Democrats used to pass the American Rescue Plan with only 50 votes in the Senate and no Republican support). Because budget/financial legislation isn't subject to the filibuster, the Republicans could pass it with the same simple-majority vote. But they didn't really succeed in doing much else.

Next, Trump's most onerous and infamous executive orders -- withdrawing from WHO and the Paris Agreement, the "Muslim Ban," etc etc -- were all in the list of things that Biden reversed on his first day in office. This is why, as myself and others have said, policy based solely on executive orders is never a long-lasting or ideal way to do something, since it's subject to instant repeal if an administration with different ideological priorities happens to succeed you. Besides, this whole "Biden should just executive order everything!!!" demand basically means that he should just... be Trump and try to exercise the presidency like a king? Online Leftists have no patience for or interest in the American democratic legislative process any more than the fascist wingnuts, and while I get the desire for a quick solution, that's still not going to be a magical panacea that fixes everything. It's not an excuse or an escape from having to put in the work.

Right now, Democratic control of Congress is slender and very contingent on whether Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema feel like supporting something in the Senate, and as long as they won't budge on reforming the filibuster, that means Democrats are likewise limited in what they can do from a legislative perspective. It's unfortunate that people deliberately don't understand that there's a huge difference between 60 Democratic senators and 50 Democratic senators, but there is, and since the Obama-era 59/60 Democratic Senate included seats in red states that a Democrat will never win again in the post-Trump era, it's always going to be a matter of very thin margins and major wrangling. None of this is to say that the Democrats shouldn't be doing more; obviously, they should, and I was sharply critical of Biden's initial response to the Roe overturn. Everything I have seen since has confirmed my opinion that the administration wasn't prepared, might not have thought it would really happen even after the draft leaked, and were wary of taking too "drastic" steps or openly trying to overrule the Supreme Court. This results from, as I have said before, Biden's over-reliance on his outdated belief that American democratic institutions will function more or less properly, even if they're currently staffed and controlled by terrible anti-democrat fascist evangelical nutcases. And that is... just not true, unfortunately.

That said, Biden has picked up the pace in recent days: he issued an executive order to maintain abortion access insofar as possible, the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance that any federally funded hospital must provide a life-saving abortion regardless of state laws, Democrats in the Senate are trying to pass legislation preserving the right to travel out of state for care, and there is talk of Biden declaring a federal public health emergency, which would likewise preserve access at least in the life-threatening cases. None of this happened in the first weeks after the overturn, and I'm glad to see it happening now, even if there are still more steps to be taken. But as I have explained many, many times, an executive order does not magically work everything out and fix it immediately. It directs the relevant federal departments to come up with and implement a solution, and that still takes time and effort. And as I said, it is the least durable and most easily overturned form of policymaking, and should not be the option of first resort for any number of reasons.

The current leftist demand just seems to be "issue an executive order that instantly fixes everything and makes SCOTUS irrelevant so we don't have to feel any guilt about not voting for Clinton and laughing off everyone who warned us that this was going to happen." And that, likewise, is totally unrealistic. Biden can take concrete steps with his executive authority to ameliorate the situation to some degree; he has done some already, and hopefully will be pushed into more. But there is no way to simply remove SCOTUS as a major political piece, or make its decisions irrelevant, or wave our hand and pretend it doesn't exist. There are still obviously far more barriers to abortion care and access than there were while Roe was the law of the land, and that was the direct and intended result of them overturning it. That is not going to disappear.

Anyway. The claim that "Republicans can always do whatever they want and Democrats can't because they just don't try" is not true. As noted, the Republicans didn't actually do that much during Trump's time in office, and all their major victories now are coming as a result of the Republican-hijacked SCOTUS handing down decisions that are not easy to reverse, challenge, or otherwise get around. This is exactly why the Republicans played the long game with the direct goal being to capture the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court, and why Democrats need to expand or significantly reform it if any of us plan on having any civil rights again in our lifetimes. But to do that, we need to get an actual working majority in the Senate, hold the House, and then keep the pressure up for the promised filibuster reform and subsequent legislation to actually get done. I know that pointing out that things take time and have concrete steps that need to be accomplished in a certain order isn't as satisfying or pithy as "just do it all now and stop making excuses!!!", but it is, alas, still the case.

yall roman is not a nazi. kendall is not a nazi. (because ive seen people say shit)

They are something worse*. (addition for clarification: compared to what you think of when you accuse someone of being a nazi/fascist nowadays). They are no conviction no lean people, Shiv included. Who do not care whether the next US president gets his ideas from Hitler, so long as the president is in their pocket.

they will fuck anyone and quite literally everyone for their own selfish interest.

Roman pushing Mencken win because Mencken favours Roman and has spoken to him nicely and told him they're going to go far. So Roman steps onto the floor and pushes the narrative, pushes them to call. (also funny the "we're gonna go far" thing esp compared to roman x gerri implosion).

Kendall who for a few second considers how this shit might affect his daughter (a far cry from caring about people in general but hey). That is until his ego is bruised by Shiv's scheming and he decides to agree with Roman... Pathetic, and tragic. Also a bad father, but overall yeah not a good person really. Just chasing his own validation/interest.

And Shiv. Shivy shiv shiv. Who has always been on her high horse because she was the one working for a left leaning politician. She was the one unmarred by ATN and all these duplicitous deals that happen. Until she wasn't. Until Logan dragged her into the narrative and then kicked her a bit just to test her. Until she was consciously part of the abuse cycle bcs up until then she was at least in her opinion much better than her brothers. Until she was making lawsuits and witnesses go away. Shiv who has always cared about people until they are NRPI, right? And Shiv who when given the chance to find common ground between Jimenez and the Roy bros throws it into trash because I guess she knows... she knows that if she calls Nate up she might be able to get something done.

So, she doesn't. She pretends to call and lies to her brothers because when weighing her own benefit (scheme w/ Matsson) against the well-being of the entire country (not having a nazified douche for president) - Shiv Roy chooses her own self-interest. She appeals to the brothers that they need to call for Jimenez, without trying to broker a deal which she now knows might be a no-go for them. But she doesn't sacrifice her self-interest to get them there. She doesn't talk to Nate or Jimenez, or tell them valid reasons why they should probably block the trade (general behaviour, dodgy numbers etc etc).

And this is why ALL of them are worse than just saying "oh my fave turned out to be a nazi"... nah they didn't. They are worse bcs they're flighty as fuck, trying to sit on the highest nicest chair, eat their cake, and benefit while shit hits the fan.

And they're still doing it because of a man who has died and has never listened to what either of them was saying, or wanted. They're still trying to validate themselves by proving to Logan that they're the best one. But Logan is dead, and wouldn't have approved anyway.

tldr; I LOVE THEM!!

* before I get people coming to my replies reblog and ask saying "you can't be worse than a nazi/fascist" let's just state that yes I agree with that statement and I don't want to be debating this to no end. if you compare how kendall shiv and roman behave vs what mencken (modern day fascist/nazi representation) is doing they are not on the same level imo. mencken while deplorable is at least less of a shady fuck compared to the roy siblings. I am not claiming that anything that has happened in this fictional series is in any way worse than ww2 atrocities.

I truly cannot comprehend how the uncommitted crowd does not understand how much worse Donald Trump is going to be for Palestinians. If Trump gets a second term it’s going to be awful for everyone including LGBTQ people, people with uteruses, immigrants, basically everyone not a conservative, straight white male. Everyone should know that at this point. You only have to listen to what he’s saying at his rallies to know that if elected a second time, he fully intends to try and become a dictator. But theoretically, if someone doesn’t care about marginalized groups in the US and only cares about the war in Gaza, fine, but they should understand that Donald Trump being elected is a disaster for Palestinians too.

Trump was the most pro-Israel president in recent decades. He and Netanyahu have a long history together and were genuinely friends. Bibi LOVED Trump, whereas he had previously had a more tense relationship with Obama (and Biden as VP). It was under Trump that the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem. Jared Kushner spearheaded the Abraham accords which was one of Trump’s proudest foreign policy accomplishments and got several Arab countries to formalize ties with Israel. Apparently, Trump is currently annoyed with Bibi for recognizing Biden as president, however, he also recently told one of his rally audiences that the IDF should “finish off” Gazans. It’s highly likely, that Trump would actively support any action that the Israeli government chooses to take in Gaza or the West Bank if he were re-elected. Believe it or not, Joe Biden does push back quite a bit against Bibi and Trump would not.

The question of whether to support Israel is only really happening within left wing of the Democratic Party. It’s not even a conversion among Republicans. Leftists generally fail to understand or take the right seriously (in my opinion it’s why we lost to the pro life movement) and conservatives support Israel in the war. The only time that Speaker Mike Johnson clapped during Biden’s SoU was when Biden showed support for Israeli hostages. Republican women were wearing blue during the SoU to show support for the hostages too. I’m bringing this up because even if Trump might be mad at Bibi for recognizing Biden, a good portion of his base supports Israel so we are likely to hear more anti-Palestinian rhetoric from him as the general election ramps up. I’m waiting for Trump to start using the American hostages to start criticizing Biden for not getting them back fast enough and I’m surprised he hasn’t yet.

All of this is to say that Trump would be a disaster for Palestinians. By the way, nothing that I’ve just said is some classified secret. I would strongly urge anyone who cares about the Palestinian people to research the Trump administration’s foreign policies and how they impacted Palestinians living in the Levant. I don’t know how you can say you support the safety of Palestinians and their right to self-determination and then allow Donald Trump to get elected.

someone made a good analogy on this whole to vote or not to vote bullshit discourse, and the gist was: legally, if you're in a car accident and there's proof you had the chance to see the other car coming and slow down and you didn't, you're responsible for what happens next. so, if you see the fascists coming, and you refuse to vote against them because of whatever trumped up moral argument you have in your head, you will be responsible for the outcome. you have a responsibility to hit the brakes.

i firmly believe leftists fail when they get to zionism specifically because they cannot recognize christian zionism for what it is. which is everything they claim regular zionism is. christian zionists are only "zionists" because of their fetishized view of jews, racist views on the middle east as a whole, and their obsession with jesus returning. it has nothing to do with actually caring about jews or the modern state of israel. christians want a firm hand in the middle east to be able to control what happens in order to ensure jesus' return. they don't care who lives or who dies, because all that matters is the christian agenda, which ultimately ends in all "sinners" wiped off the earth and the filthy jews finally getting their punishment so the "real chosen people" can have the holy land. republicans don't care about israel because they actually care about israel. it's all a fucking show. but leftists see their support for israel and stop the investigation, and immediately label israel the problem. yes, bibi needs to be replaced (obviously), but christian conservatives will cheer when he gets smited by what they perceive as god all the same bc he's a jew. so while everyone is focusing on israel as a country, christians in the US are steadily taking over america as a whole and doing everything they can to make that return of jesus possible, no matter who has to die. it's all just a big fucking distraction, benefiting a lot of evil people.

Biden: let's airdrop aid to these suffering people.

Also Biden: keep the bombs and weapons flowing to Israel.

These actions can't co-exist pragmatically without absurdity.

The proposed airdrop is damning for revealing what decision has been rejected: strong-arming the Netanyahu government by taking whatever steps necessary to stop its genocidal attacks on the people of Gaza.

Biden could stay Netanyahu's hand right now, this morning, if he was moved enough by the ongoing atrocities. He could take action on what should be the easiest of all moral choices, which is thwarting genocide. There's no lower bar than this. If you can't achieve moral clarity about stopping mass murder, if the gravest admonition post-Holocaust of 'Never again' is not an absolute but an option of political calculation, then what is there to say?

Every expression of tepid disapproval of Israel's crimes by the Biden administration only serves to amplify its overall approval of the attack on Gaza.

As if mocking the public that might have a problem with genocide,

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals. apnews.com/article/biden-west-bank-israeli-settlers-palestinians-80f9e6be6f6a7bb75dc86360ac2fa6ce [Feb. 1, 2024]

Sanctions of pinpoint precision against a few individuals studiously ignores the systemic nature of Israel's violent domination. I'm sure the entirety of the illegal settler movement backed by the IDF and the Israeli court system is quaking in its boots right now.

Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 4, more than 300 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, a dramatic increase in the rate of killing in the last months of 2023, the deadliest year since the United Nations began recording casualties in 2005. washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/01/09/israel-settler-violence-qusra-west-bank/

Every feckless Biden action serves a dual purpose: create a superficial appearance of concern for human rights which then authorizes the continuation of supplying 2000 pound bombs for Israel to drop on residential neighborhoods in Gaza.

Is there any line that can be crossed that will cause the US to fundamentally rethink it's relationship with the Israeli terror state?

‘We are on the brink of a fascist dictatorship’: Knesset member Ofer Cassif aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2024/3/1/israeli-mp-denounces-tsunami-of-fanatic-nationalism-in-israel

My hair is on fire. Yours should be, too.

I'm listening to Lawrence O'Donnell opine on the latest SCOTUS malfeasance. He's assuring everyone "there's no chance of them ruling in Trump's favor on the merits," and "they could make their ruling right away after oral arguments," and other such institutional bullshit. He simply refuses to understand. Four justices took three weeks to decide to take ANOTHER seven weeks to hear arguments on whether or not the President can order the military to kill his political opponents. There is no actual legal argument to hear. There is no validity to the question. The mere act of agreeing to hear it AT ALL is a blatant political gift to their patron and party leader. The additional insult of adding in these delays in the process is a clear effort to delay Trump's other trials until after the next inauguration, in the hopes that a victorious Trump will simply terminate the case by executive fiat. This case will not be judged "on the merits," because there is no merit to this case. If it had been judged on the merits, they would have denied cert the day the case was first bounced up to them. This decision to treat it as if there was an actual argument in Trump's favor to consider is a sham to cover their utter shameless partisanship. O'Donnell's inane notion that "they might rule quickly" is negated by the very fact that they're hearing it. On the contrary - the justices have declared in bold print that they will delay this indefinitely, and eventually rule in Trump's favor, for no other reason that that they can. THIS IS THE SYSTEM FAILING. This is four justices (at least) throwing the power of their office behind a fascist dictatorship. This is the rot underlying the Republican Party and the conservative mindset laid bare - their only goal is power, and they will not let law or public opinion or basic decency stand in their way any longer. This is their announcement to the world that they intend to coronate Trump as the Leader for Life as soon as they can manage it. Yes, we have to vote our way out of this mess. We need to keep Biden in the White House, and get well over 60 votes in the Senate to begin the process of cleaning out this rot. But that's not enough. This decision is so utterly clear that we should ALL be in the streets protesting, at every state capitol, at the Supreme Court, and at the houses of all nine justices - yes, even the ones who might have voted against it, because this attack on our system is so clear that they should break their normal silence and be speaking in public about it. We are literally on the edge of losing our country. We need to act like it.

I was going to make this as a reply in the post but my explanation to @thedragonqueen1998 for the tags was longer than I expected XD

#i mean#look at the bright side desmond#at least it's not secret hitler#or werewolf#oh man#it could have been blood on the clocktower#desmond the bar got off easy XD#<previous tags#Secret Hitler???#EXCUSE ME????#EXPLAIN PLEASE!

Secret Hitler is a social deduction game where the group is separated to liberals and fascists + hitler. (Depending on how many the players are, the number of fascists will also go up, but the main idea is that the liberals should always be the majority) The main point is that the group has to vote for a president and a president has to vote for a chancellor. Then the rest of the group will vote if they like this 'combo' or not. If not, the president goes to the next person (clockwise I think?) until the majority of the votes agree to the current president and their chosen chancellor. The president then gets 3 random cards from the deck which can either be liberal or fascist. Then the chancellor would pick one of the two cards (policies which will be implemented in the flavor of the game). The goal is for one group to pass 6 cards (policies) of their faction before the other side can. That's pretty much the gist of it although there are other win conditions that gets unlocked the more fascists cards are put down on the board (like the president having the one time ability to execute someone and, if that someone is the secret Hitler, the liberals win) or a president electing the secret Hitler as the chancellor if three or more Fascists cards are on the table then the fascists win. The rules and a copy of the game that you can print is free here:

I always assumed it's one of the more common board games but, then again, I do prefer social deduction board games so maybe that's why I know it XD Although you didn't ask, I'll still share cause I really like this game: Blood in the Clocktower can be described as "Werewolf but everyone has powers and can lie and play even after dying" Blood in the Clocktower works with the Werewolf base game that there is a 'demon' among the villagers killing people every night (although there is a demon, Lil’ Monsta, that can't kill and whoever is killed is on the whims of the storyteller) and they have minion(s) to help them and the villagers can execute someone each day until either the villagers execute the demon (minions can be alive at that point) or the bad guys (demon + minion(s)) outnumber the villagers. There's more to it and it is one of the more complicated social deduction game out there and it's better with a more experienced storyteller who can know if they should lend a helping hand to the bad guys or the good guys but it's super fun once you get the hang of it.

Especially if you get one of the most stressful roles like the Saint where if the villagers executes you, your team (good team) loses or the Damsel where if a minion call you out and say you're the damsel in front of the villagers, the bad team wins. There's also the Recluse where powers that can check if you're evil might come up as 'evil' or 'minion'. XD Here's their official site:

And the Blood on the Clocktower wiki that has all the roles and even the rulebook and how to setup a game

If you're curious on how it's played, No Rolls Barred has a lot of Blood on the Clocktower videos. I would recommend Poppygrown if you can only watch one of them because the total chaos of that entire episode was hilarious.

Well, Dutch government fell again lads. What does that mean? It might mean that it stays on as a ‘demissionair’ government till the next elections, changing nothing and pretending it can do nothing (but still trying its darndest to strip refugees of more rights, cut more welfare and blame minorities, and just generally being racist, xenophobic, and classist)

Or we get elections. Here’s a fun fact: we don’t get to choose our minister-president* directly. We choose a party, the parties form a coalition to get a majority, and they choose the minister-president (usually from the largest party… but… not always!!) So if you’re wondering why Mark Rutte has presided over four failed governments, and he still gets to become minister-president, just know that’s why, and not because people are so in love with his eating-an-apple-on-his-bicycle routine (‘look, I am so common!’)

That said, if there are elections, who’s on the roster? Well, we have about 20 parties last I checked. Of which there are the christofascists (SGP), the young fascists (FvD), the middle-aged fascists (JA21), the fascists™️ (PVV), the we-broke-away-from-the-fascist-party-because-they’re-not-fascist-enough fascists (van Haga), the agrarian fascists (BBB), the party our minister-president belongs to and where all these fascists seem to come from AND is super corrupt (‘this keeps happening!’ VVD), the ‘we can sometimes make you forget how racist we are with the few good points we make but otherwise we are SUPER racist’ socialists (SP), the ‘we’re trying our best to combat racism but we only have one member of parliament and lots of infighting’ socialists (BIJ1), the animal party (PVdD), liberals (PvdA, DENK, D66, VOLT), green liberals™️ (GroenLinks), middle-aged people (50PLUS), christian liberals™️ (CDA), christian liberals that may have grown a teeny-tiny spine but who the hell’s gonna vote for them (not fascist enough for the bible belt, not progressive enough for others CU), and a bunch of one-person parties I’m not going to bother looking up because they’ll probably dissolve with the next elections or they’ll be absorbed into other parties

Anyways I might grit my teeth and vote BIJ1 again because they may be super flawed, dysfunctional, have weird viewpoints that suddenly rear their ugly head at the weirdest times, and all kinds of petty drama, but at least it won’t feel like my vote will disappear in the hungry empty maw of the larger leftist parties (I used to be GroenLinks but man, that party is so prepared to throw down its ideals for a whiff of power that it isn’t funny anymore)

*did you know that we’re also a monarchy? So not only do we not directly choose our head of state, we also have a useless figurehead that we pay too much money to!

This would certainly make Jeff Bezos even richer than his current $1.4 million per hour.

Who would ever go to brick and mortar stores if there might be a delay getting in or out while they clean up the blood and gore biohazards and slip-and-fall liabilities?

But that's not really the point. trump is announcing that there will be no rule of law or due process rights -- or any other rights -- except what trump declares. That's how fascist dictatorships work.

House Votes to Remove McCarthy as Speaker

Republicans have a razor thin majority in the house and so they needed the votes of Gaetz and the fascists of the Freedom Caucus to get anything done. To get voted in as the Speaker, McCarthy had to give the Freedom Caucus a great deal of power. One of the powers they were given was the ability to call for him to be removed as speaker any time they wanted.

The Freedom Caucus wanted to use the shut down to push through RIDICULOUS cuts to medicare, social security, and other social service because, during the Trump administration, they passed massive tax cuts for the rich that ballooned the debt by 7.8 trillion during his presidency.

Of course Republicans didn't say a word about the debt during his term despite that 7.8 trillion. But, as soon as Democrats got into power, they immediately began to wail about the debt so they could use it as an excuse to cut social programs. Handing tax breaks to billionaires and then paying for them by cutting our social programs are how the Republican party has been eroding our safety net programs for decades.

But the cuts the Freedom Caucus wanted were far too extreme even for some Republicans. McCarthy didn't have the votes to pass it. To avoid a shut down he turned to Democrats and voted in a debt extension of 45 days.

McCarthy was ousted because he ruined the Freedom Caucus's plan to burn down the country if they couldn't fuck us all over.

Democrats voted with the Freedom Caucus to oust McCarthy because they have no loyalty to Republicans and weren't about to help McCarthy stay in power.

And so, McCarthy is out and Republicans need to vote in a new speaker before this short extension on the debt ceiling expires.

Since Matt Gaetz, Trump, and their ilk have openly proclaimed they WANT a shut down they may intentionally vote against anyone put forward to the seat just so the shut down will happen.

This MIGHT force Republicans to work with Democrats even though it would be political suicide for them to do so. The alternative will be 45 days of failed House Speaker election votes as we march towards the next shut down deadline. Even right wing media would have a damn hard time spinning that circus as a positive.