SecondJon @SecondJon@qoto.org

Neither political party is in a particularly strong position to campaign on addressing the national debt.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/07/18/national-debt-missing-2020-election-issue/?

#uspol

#Newspeak here in Colorado

Colorado State: 'Avoid' using 'Americans,' 'America' and also “handicap parking,” “male,” and “female” should be avoided, along with many other common words and phrases.

https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13460

I think Trump's personality was in everyone's calculations last presidential election. We know he's a jerk to his perceived opponents. The main attack on Trump my the bulk of the media and the democrats (but I repeat myself) seems to be this. But everyone already knew that. I don't expect Trump has lost voters because of this.

Meanwhile, the democrats are changing, in more openly being farther and farther left. I don't think this gains them voters, maybe they've lost voters.

Trump had no political track record, but now he does, and has done things that many like : employment numbers have never been better, possible momentum with North Korea, cutting regulation. So...

I think Trump gains votes for 2020. But I think the far left candidate gets better turn out than Clinton did. That's not difficult.

I think the left leadership of the media (traditional and social) know this as well, hence the efforts to silence anyone who voices anything but unthinking support of whatever new idea is put out as leftist, and slandering everyone as a nazi fascist.

I'm curious to see how that balances out.

#uspol

Fact check : true

Nation Relieved As Politicians Too Busy Bickering To Push Their Terrible Ideas On The Country

U.S. - The nation reported it was relieved Friday as it appeared that politicians were so busy bickering with one another that they didn't have much time to work on their terrible ideas for running the country.As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi began to fight with one another, the nation breathed a sigh of relief as they were distracted from...

#uspol

https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-relieved-as-politicians-too-busy-bickering-to-work-on-terrible-legislation

I think the most interesting things about this article about abortion is that the word "mother" never appears. Instead it says : "or to save the life of the woman." words matter. These words are chosen to drive an ideological agenda.

Trump abortion restrictions effective immediately

WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration said Monday, declaring it will begin enforcing a new...

https://apnews.com/e0bf2658969c482bb9addf40eb5bd667

What climate change crisis is really about. Spoiler : it's not the climate.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff recently admitted that the Green New Deal was not conceived as an effort to deal with climate change, but instead a “how-do-you-change-the-entire economy thing” 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aocs-top-aide-admits-green-new-deal-about-the-economy-not-the-climate

#uspol #power #control

Trump approval higher than Obama's was.

I'm surprised. We form our opinions based on media, as we don't know the guy ourselves. With an objective media (which I know is impossible), I wonder how different these approval numbers would be. Wildly different, I suspect.

http://m.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/prez_track_jul11

#uspol

How to win in business and limit independent thought :

Step 1: put your competitors out of business by being the place that has it all.

Step 2: with competitors out of business or limited to tiny market share, begin changing your model to only give access to things that match your ideology.

Step 3: having established your business as the market leader, push for new legislation over your market category so that only you can handle the additional overhead and keep competition down.

Amazon. YouTube. Google. Facebook.

In the news : Amazon pulls books by authors who once identified as gay, lesbian

Following the removal of books by a Catholic psychologist amid LGBT activist pressure, Amazon has removed the works of other authors who once lived and identified as gay.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/amazon-pulls-books-by-authors-who-once-identified-as-gay-lesbian.html

Here on mastodon there's always been the offer the top comments line : if you disagree with me you're a fascist and a nazi and people like you should be physically attacked into silence.

Then gab is going to join and proud open federation turns into demands for censorship, and I think : well they called me, someone who disagrees with everything that nazis and fascists stand for, a nazi and a fascist. This is certainly just more of the same : a desire for an echo chamber instead of the open web that's been nearly lost.

Now gab has joined and I'm wondering whether it's in effect not much more than a shelter for trolls who want to spam threads with garbage.

On the one hand people want to use open tools to shut down others through mandate and defederation, in the other side, is it going to be a group who wants to shut down others by shouting over them?

We need more like qoto: the desire to treat others with excellence while having and discussing different ideas.

I thought it silly that people would complain that a mythical creature (Ariel the mermaid movie I've never seen) was recast to be black in a remake, so I watched a video about it, thinking it would be ridiculous or racist, but I heard a line that has me thinking :

this is condescending pandering thinking that the black audience needs a black character, but instead of getting their own character with a story, they get a ******* hand me down.