WatDabney

private Senate Democratic luncheon

And that pretty neatly sums up the whole problem right there.

All they can think to do us sit around and talk to each other, alternately lamenting the fact that the hicks in flyover country can't seem to understand that they know what's best for them and wondering what's wrong with their "messaging "

Or an assembly line worker.

Or, quite possibly, it just struck me - a fruit picker or meat packer or motel maid or any of the other jobs that have traditionally been filled by undocumented immigrants.

Wow....

Yeah, I hadn't thought of that before, but that could well be why Trump is seemingly unconcerned about the economic impact of deporting the millions of people who have traditionally held the shitty, underpaid jobs nobody else will take - because the plan is to replace them with the new generation of private prison slaves...

And more to the point, nobody is going to stop him.

Those who would stop him can't and those who could stop him won't.

And many, many more are going to follow, as Americans learn that they're no longer free to criticize those in power.

And the day will actually come when the notion of someone just being fired for criticizing those in power will seem quaint, since it will then be far more likely that they'll disappear - sucked up into the ever-hungry maw of the corporate police state slave system.

The 20 with billions.

They likely couldn't win - at least couldn't be sure of winning - on the at least somewhat level and rules-based playing field US law and policy established, which is exactly why they're currently focusing on co-opting or destroying all of that.

By the time they're done reshaping government and society, they're going to be unstoppable. By design.

Yep.

The class war is already happening, and the moneyed class is winning it because they're the only ones fighting it.

threatening coverage for over 20 million Americans.

As intended.

Privatized insurers may gain more control, further escalating costs for remaining coverage options.

And as intended.

If you're not a billionaire, you will be a serf, a slave, or a corpse.

Ah ...

I've been wondering what Trump gave the Chinese in exchange for that cringeworthy credit as the supposed savior of TikTok.

It's likely not quite the case that treason has no consequences now.

Actual treason, no matter how egregious, has and will have no consequences if it benefits Trump.

But at the same time, it's pretty much certain that the definition of "treason" is going to just be shifted a bit so that it only applies to opposition to Trump, but will include everything all the way down to just saying mean things about him. And that will very definitely have consequences, and quite often fatal ones.

And still fucking Democrats are sitting in their comfy enclaves with the "good" billionaires, wringing their hands over how they just can't seem to find the right "messaging" to convince the sweaty plebes that they know what's best for them.

All it would take to start winning elections is for them to get up off of their soft, pampered asses and get out there and actually listen to some ordinary people for a change, find out what they want, then fucking well set about actually delivering it for them.

No, it doesn't much matter.

The DNC is more galling though, since serving the interests of the wealthy and empowered few isn't all that far removed from legitimate conservative ideology. All the GOP really has to do to make it a more or less valid expression of their claimed advocacy is to invoke some variation of "trickle-down," so they can claim that what's good for the oligarchs is good for everyone. It's a lie and at some level they know it's a lie, but it's a relatively small one in the grand scheme of things.

For the DNC though, serving the interests of the wealthy and empowered few is diametrically opposed to what the claim to represent, and doing it requires an enormous and complex web of lies and deceit. So even beyond the fact that they're betraying the ideals I prefer, they just offend me more on principle because their deception is so far removed from even vague legitimacy.

It's sort of like the difference between being assaulted by a bouncer and being assaulted by a nurse. You end up the same either way, but at least from the bouncer it's not unexpected. There's an entire additional layer of evil when it comes from someone whose whole identity is wrapped up in not doing precisely what they in fact are doing.

I think it proves me right.

Harris had a clear lead right up until she started backing away from her earlier more populist rhetoric in order to suck up to the corporate donors.