Echinocentric @Echinocentric@qoto.org

Oh look, we are now calling peaceful protests "mob action" and deeming it a "threat to democracy"

A real argument being advanced by Trump and his lawyer right now is that if a woman doesn’t scream she could not have been raped

Do the Republican officials who have endorsed Trump’s candidacy agree with Trump’s argument that if a woman did not scream, she was not raped?

Time for everyone to make their views known.

Human rights should include education.

A quick history lesson. From 1940-1980:
•Wealthiest paid 70-94% marginal tax
•0 of them went broke from taxation
•0 of them left USA
•All remained exceedingly wealthy
•Manufacturing boomed
•The middle class was 62% of US economy (It's now 40% post 'trickle down scamenomics)
•We had the strongest middle class growth in US History

Let's do that again. Stop protecting billionaires. Start taxing them.
#TaxBillionaires

Please spare us the Republican Party’s fake outrage about the deficit.

The Bush and Trump tax cuts have cost us an estimated $10 trillion since their enactment.

When billionaires and corporations are getting a handout, the GOP couldn’t care less about the national debt.

Imagine a system of government where the final arbiters of everything are a tiny group of judges with lifetime tenure, and these judges are allowed to take money from people on whose cases they rule.

Crazy, right? https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579

In the pandemic’s first year
someone ludicrously suggested
sunlight as a cure
a muddled allusion to the saying
“sunlight is the best disinfectant”
and though we know sunlight
does not destroy the virus
these days some sunlight
would be preferable
to being always in the dark.

Fun fact re: #TuckerCarlson: In his college yearbook, he gave shoutouts to Dan White, the assassin of #LGBTQ+ supervisor Harvey Milk and SF mayor George Moscone, and Sen. Jesse Helms, the bigot who tried to filibuster MLK Day and wanted to put HIV+ folks in camps. Charming guy.

This is the MOST DANGEROUS event so far in the country's lurch to fascism.

This is a Republican governor telling right-wing fascists to start shooting.

He's saying it is OK now, no one will hold you accountable if you murder "those people."

"Texas governor seeks pardon of man convicted of murder in Black Lives Matter shooting"

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-governor-seeks-pardon-man-convicted-murder-black-lives-matter-shooting-2023-04-09/

#fascism #civilwar

So, Lauren Boebert’s son is driving recklessly, high as a kite

He severely injures his friend, causing a permanent disability in the friends hand

Drug paraphernalia in the car.

The friend who was injured gets the drug charges

Boebert’s kid magically gets “careless driving causing bodily injury” reduced to non-functioning headlights.

But tell me about the “Deep State” again?

https://www.westword.com/news/lauren-boebert-son-car-wreck-injured-friend-16586981

The Texas MAGA federal judge banned Mifepristone because “FDA didn’t properly review its health risks” which is reportedly ~14 annual deaths.

Well, guess what, Viagra has ~200 annual reported deaths.

So…when do MAGAs ban Viagra??🤔

Oh right, never, because MAGA only cares about controlling women. They don't care that Mifepristone is incredibly safe for women, and even safer than childbirth. They only care about advancing their agenda to control women. Vote these MAGA Extremists out permanently

With zero self-reflection. Like, can we just live in reality? Is that too much to ask? Can EVERYONE stop pretending that Republicans have any program besides fascist authoritarianism or any values besides raw power? Or that "moderates" have anything to offer except blurring the stakes long enough to help the right (aka the fascists) demonize the left (aka the anti-fascists aka antifa).

When you refer to Musk's site, you should call it "Saudi-funded Twitter" just for the sake of consistency. Bonus: You'd be 5x more accurate than his claim that NPR, which gets about 1% of its money from taxpayers (well, their grandchildren), is "government funded".

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

—Louis Brandeis

In catechism class, the nun made us hold our arms out to the sides until we couldn't hold them up any longer. Then she said, "Imagine what it was like for Jesus having to do that for three hours," and I thought, but he didn't have to hold his arms up. The nails were doing it.

Tennessee has forcibly removed the first of three elected Democrat officials simply because those officials wanted to protect children from unmitigated gun violence

The chamber vote was 72 to 25. Other red states will follow.

In fact, Florida has already made efforts to remove *all* Democrats from future ballots

Republicans are still in the middle of a coup attempt

In the 24 hours since former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, the presiding judge and his family have received multiple threats. Alvin Bragg and his staff have also received multiple threats.

Gosh, it's almost as if the party of law and order has turned out to be something quite different — and has been something quite different all along.

#Trump #crime #criminal #LawandOrder

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/judge-merchan-family-receive-threats-trumps-arrest-rcna78401

We need to seriously consider the ramifications of holding rich people with political power accountable for their crimes.

And then double down on that shit.