Category: 2024 Election

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#NEVERSAYHISNAME

This is fabulous and accurate.

Daughter of MLK and Coretta Scott King posted this advice as the next 6 months are going to "get real."

      1. Don't use his name, EVER (45 wll do).
      2. Remember this is a regime and he's not acting alone.
      3. Do not argue with those who support him. It doesn't work.
      4. Focus on his POLICIES, not his orangeness or his mental state.
      5. Keep your message positive. They want the country to be angry and fearful because this is the soil from which their darkest policies will grow.
      6. No more helpless/hopeless talk.
      7. Support artists and the arts.
      8. Be careful not to spread fake news. Check it before you post it.
      9. Take care of yourselves, and most importantly…
      10. Resist!

When you post or talk about him, don't assign his actions to him; assign them to "The Republican Administration," or "The Republicans." This will have several effects: the Republican legislators will either have to take responsibility for their association with him, or stand up for what some of them don't like. He will not get the attention he craves.

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So Much for That "Mandate"

From PalmerReport:

We keep hearing about how Donald Trump won this election in dominant fashion and now has a mandate from the American people. Here's the thing: it's simply not true. The votes are still being counted, and it turns out Trump is now a lock to get less than 50% of the popular vote. What's more he'll end up having defeated Kamala Harris by as little as one percent of the vote.

I can hear you asking now: so what? What's the point? He still controls every branch of government, no matter how narrowly he won. The point is this. One of the reasons Trump and his people (and the complicit media) is hyping this notion of a "Trump mandate" is that they know how hard this is going to be for them to govern. Trump won because Americans are very stupid when it comes to economic issues, and much more racist and sexist than we'd hoped. But the reality is that most people who voted for Trump in 2024 still don't like him, aren't excited about him, and merely voted for him because they stupidly think he'll bring prices down.

Most Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 didn't sign on for his extremism, his corruption, his dementia, or his massive incompetence. They just wanted cheaper eggs. Once they see that Trump can't magically bring prices down, they'll very quickly have buyer's remorse and will very quickly be willing to turn against Trump. He could be looking at an approval rating in the thirties by early next year, which would make him so unpopular that he'd lack the political muscle to accomplish much of what he wants to accomplish.

That's why it's a big deal that Trump isn't entering office with a mandate to begin with. He narrowly won and he got less than 50% of the vote. Hell this guy ran in three presidential elections in a row and couldn't get 50% of the vote in any of them. He's the same unpopular loser as ever.

So we need to be taking Trump's narrow win and lack of a mandate and shouting it from the rooftops right now. We need to shout down any media outlet or talking head who claims Trump has a mandate. He simply does not. We need persuadable Americans in the middle to know right off the bat that Trump didn't even get 50% of the vote and that the American people didn't give him a "mandate" to do anything. That's how we drive Trump's approval rating down further, and ensure that he's too politically crippled for any of his agenda to come easily to him.

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Items Likely Targeted for Tariffs

Fruits and Vegetables

• Bananas, Mangoes, and Pineapples (from Central and South America)
• Avocados (from Mexico)
• Citrus fruits like oranges and lemons (from Mexico and Spain)
• Berries (e.g., strawberries, blueberries) (from Mexico, Chile)
• Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, and Cucumbers (from Mexico and Canada)
• Asparagus (from Peru and Mexico)

Seafood (Fresh, Frozen, and Canned)

• Fresh/Frozen Shrimp (from Thailand, India, Ecuador)
• Salmon (from Norway, Chile)
• Tilapia (from China)
• Tuna (canned) (from Thailand, the Philippines)
• Sardines (from Portugal, Morocco)
• Mackerel (canned) (from Japan, Norway)
• Grains and Legumes
• Rice (from Thailand, India, Vietnam)
• Quinoa (from Peru and Bolivia)
• Chickpeas and Lentils (from Canada, India)

Nuts and Seeds

• Cashews (from Vietnam and India)
• Brazil Nuts (from Bolivia, Brazil)
• Almonds (from Spain, Australia)
• Chia Seeds (from Mexico and Argentina)

Dairy Products

• Cheese varieties like Parmesan, Gouda, Feta (from Italy, Netherlands, Greece)
• Butter (from Ireland, New Zealand)
• Yogurt (Greek-style from Greece, other varieties from Europe)

Canned Foods and Packaged Items

• Tomato paste and puree (from Italy)
• Canned olives and olive oil (from Spain, Italy, Greece)
• Canned coconut milk (from Thailand)
• Canned beans (from Mexico, Central America)
• Canned corn (from Canada, Brazil)
• Canned anchovies and sardines (from Morocco, Portugal)
• Canned fruit (e.g., pineapple, mango, peaches) (from Thailand, Philippines, Mexico)
• Canned tuna and salmon (from Thailand, the Philippines, Chile)

Spices and Herbs

• Vanilla (from Madagascar)
• Black Pepper (from Vietnam, India)
• Cinnamon (from Sri Lanka)
• Turmeric (from India)
• Paprika (from Spain, Hungary)

Beverages

• Coffee beans (from Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam)
• Tea leaves (from India, Sri Lanka, China)
• Cocoa beans (from Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana)

Oils and Fats

• Olive oil (from Spain, Italy, Greece)
• Coconut oil (from the Philippines, Indonesia)
• Palm oil (from Malaysia, Indonesia)

Alcoholic Beverages

• Wine (from France, Italy, Chile, Spain)
• Beer (particularly certain Mexican brands)
• Whiskey and Scotch (from Scotland, Ireland)

Sweeteners

• Cane sugar (from Brazil, Mexico)
• Maple syrup (from Canada)

Condiments and Sauces

• Soy sauce (from Japan, China)
• Fish sauce (from Thailand, Vietnam)
• Sriracha and other chili sauces (from Thailand)
• Italian pasta sauces (canned/jarred) (from Italy)

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The Guardian Will No Longer Post on X

To be filed under FAFO:

The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on Elon Musk's social media platform, X, from its official accounts.

In an announcement to readers, the news organisation said it considered the benefits of being on the platform formerly called Twitter were now outweighed by the negatives, citing the "often disturbing content" found on it.

"We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X," the Guardian said.

The Guardian has more than 80 accounts on X with approximately 27 million followers.

[Source]

Your move, rest of the media…

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Step One in Fighting Against Donald Trump This Time

From Palmer Report:

As we continue to grapple with this startling new reality that we're facing, the same question keeps surfacing: where to begin? The other day I talked about some of the mistakes we made the last time we were forced to resist a Trump regime. Today I want to talk about something we got right last time, because we need to make it Step One this time around.

One thing we've constantly seen with modern U.S. Presidents is that their ability to govern and get their way is based on their approval rating more than anything else. It may feel like just a number on paper. But in reality it's what gives a President political capital with the American public.

Trump's ability to carry out this or that corrupt initiative will be based almost entirely on how popular or unpopular he is with the American people on any given day. He may have Congress, he may have the courts, but at the end of the day both those entities will be more afraid to go along with Trump's antics if he's stuck with a very low approval rating.

We saw this in action last time around. Trump entered office with a historically low approval rating for an incoming President, already down to the forties, and it crippled him politically right out of the gate. The media saw that the public was quickly turning against Trump, and so the media started feasting on him. Each of his initiatives was covered as a scandal instead of as a political plank, and it sank a lot of what he was trying to do.

The one thing we couldn't quite do last time was drive Trump's approval rating all the way below the magical 30% number. If we'd have gotten him down into the twenties, that would have been the only story about him, and it would have meant the end of his agenda. We came close, but we were only able to drive Trump down into the low thirties, before he settled in and ended up around 40% for the long haul. It was just enough for him to limp along with his agenda.

This time around we need to take this even further. We need to quickly make the mainstream American public – yes the same dummies who just tepidly voted for him and/or stayed home on election day – embarrassed by the fact that Trump won. We need to convince these folks to have immediate buyer's remorse. We need Trump's approval rating to already be down in the thirties by the time he takes office, and down into the twenties sometime in early 2025. That way the entire story ends up being about how unpopular and untenable Trump is, and neither he nor his allies have any room to drive anything else.

So how do we make this happen? We focus on the things about Trump that are the most embarrassing. We focus on how deep into dementia he is. We keep asking why he's all but disappeared since being declared the winner. We focus on the extremist and absurd nature of his initial cabinet picks. He's really floating a Fox News host as Secretary of Defense? That sounds so bad to the average American, it's something we can use against him. You get the idea of how this works.

So let's bury Donald Trump's presidency under the weight of his own low approval rating before it even begins. It's the best leverage that we have. If we're going to fight this guy, this is how we do it.

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I Hope You're All Happy Now

This is directed specifically at a former friend (whom I've known since the 80s) who told me last summer that he wasn't voting for Biden because "He's already got California sewn up and this is to protest his policies toward Israel and Palestine."

I haven't spoken to him since.