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Internationally, there's a huge correlation between the parties influenced by money and special interests and the ones quite willing to let society burn if it makes their opponents look bad, and it's such a shame that society always seems to have these at the other end because of an influentially gullible voter base.
i always thought it telling that when he first assumed office.
It had to be explained to him.... That he DID NOT actually own the country. This was apparently something he was not aware of.
And he continued to argue that he DID own the entire nation. While he eventually stopped insisting he did
He never seemed to actually believe it.
This has been reported by several ex WH employees
He [Gavin Newsom] said that Trump "just admitted he will block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas. Today it’s California’s wildfires. Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding for North Carolina or flooding assistance for homeowners in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump doesn’t care about America — he only cares about himself."
Way to tie it back to swing states.
I will now self-promote an op-ed that I wrote in 2020. It started as a furious email that I sent to friends and family. Someone told me, "you know if you took out the swearing, a local paper would probably run this." And so:
Opinion: Oakland is a fantastic community, no matter what Trump says
Because it's paywalled and they're my words, I'm pasting the screed below:
spoiler
President Donald Trump specifically called out Oakland as “living in hell.”
Ours is a fantastic community. That’s a word that I use frequently when describing my city: Community. To have some arrogant narcissist say that we live in hell is more infuriating than most of his other outrageous actions.
Oakland has poverty. Oakland has people who live in tents because they are unhoused. Oakland is trying hard.
Oakland has community backlash to the formerly planned euthanasia of an overly aggressive turkey that lives in the park in my neighborhood. The turkey will be relocated because residents opposed his termination.
Oakland has a Buddhist shrine that is beloved by the community and can be found on Google Maps (it’s actually a destination on Google Maps!). A Buddha was installed by a private citizen to discourage illegal dumping on the sidewalk. The community built a shrine around it, and people flock to it as a tourist spot, and locals pray there daily.
Oakland has a strong sense of civic responsibility. The Black Panthers originated in Oakland. While they may be characterized in the media holding rifles, they also ran a free breakfast program to feed the community. They later championed women’s rights.
Oakland is where demonstrators responded to a Karen who called the police on Black residents to harass them for grilling at our cherished Lake Merritt. Hundreds of people grill on the anniversary of her egregious and phony 911 call at an event titled “Barbecuing While Black.” Walking around this lake is one of my favorite pastimes and is definitely my favorite place for a first date.
Oakland has a citizenry who came out, without prior organization, to paint BLACK LIVES MATTER on 15th Street in our downtown. The city didn’t commission this. Our people made it happen spontaneously.
Oakland has an incredible turnout to Pride. The parade includes middle-school and high-school students and their school administrators and parents. A huge festival, with booths and live music, follows.
Oakland has a downtown street festival called First Friday on the first Friday of every month. People come together for live music, dance, performances, street vendors, food, drinks and community. It’s something to look forward to, and we’re bummed out when it’s canceled by rain.
Oakland shut down a freeway with a march in solidarity against police brutality in 2016. This city has been involved in the conversation long-predating the murder of George Floyd.
Oakland is my home. I’m proud to live in Oakland. I’m proud of my city, my community, in a way that I can’t imagine feeling for any other city. I’m not proud to be an American, a Californian or even a member of the Bay Area (well, that last one a little bit).
I’m proud to be from Oakland, something that would have seemed alien to me when I first arrived 12 years ago. This is my community. This is my home. These are my people. Don’t let a blowhard tell you who we are or how we live. We’re the messengers for our city, not him.
Long live our beautiful city,
A Proud Oaklander
Oakland is a great city, and doesn't deserve all the slander it gets. It's just the far right spreading fear and hatred by attacking anyone who doesn't share their politics or skin color.
Reminds me of Charlie Kirk recently talking to a Berkeley grad and interrupting her to say "Berkeley is a slum, it's a hellhole" or something to that effect. It's so comically stupid, but as a Berkeley resident for 20+ years, I hope he keeps it up because it (hopefully) scares away other hateful idiots like him.
Within a few years of moving here, the boathouse on the water by the freeway from the Bay Bridge (should be named for Emperor Norton because he proposed it) had graffiti saying "Republicans go away."
“And Gavin Newscum is gonna sign those papers, and if he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put all his fires,” Trump said, deliberately mispronouncing the governor's name, as he's often done in the past.
“And if we don’t give him money to put out his fires, he’s got problems,” Trump threatened. “He’s a lousy governor.
Saved you a click
Sign what papers?
Edit: unless Gov. Gavin Newsom agrees to divert more water to farmers rather than allowing it to flow to the ocean.
That would make wildfires worse
I'm a Republican who LOVES the Founders and Constitution after a school full of Kindergartners gets MASSACRED by a Gunman and I FULLY SUPPORT TRUMP on this!
Gavin Newsom. #SavedYouAClick
Every day he sinks lower and lower.
California contributes the most to federal tax revenue but also receives the most federal funding (in total). California receives one of the lowest amounts of federal funding per capita ($5,155, ranking 42 of 50). California's ratio of federal funding to income taxes paid is 0.43, which means that California received $0.43 in funding from the federal government for every $1 in tax revenue that it provided.
Overall, California is a donor state to the union.
In fact, of the 18 states which received more federal funding than they paid in federal taxes in 2021, 5 were Democrat-leaning while the other 13 were Republican (How Red or Blue is Your State?) - which is to say that welfare states are more likely to vote Republican. Four of the top 5 most Republican states take more than they give (Wyoming, North Dakota, Oklahoma and West Virginia), while 4 of the top 5 most Democratic states give more than they take (Massachusetts, Hawaii, Maryland, and California).
As are most blue states.
This isn't the instance I was thinking of, but apparently trump broke the law, according to the GAO when his administration withheld aid to Ukraine. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/16/politics/gao-report-administration-violated-law-withholding-aid/index.html
Can some clever historian recall for us the time, if there was one, when trump withheld aid from a US state? I'm a terrible historian, personally.
So? It was an official act and kings are above the law in the US.
He withheld aid from the president of Puerto Rico. Which... Was him.
TY! SMH! Can we please not have trump in any position of power, ever again?
New probe confirms Trump officials blocked Puerto Rico from receiving hurricane aid (Hurricane Maria, 2017)
That was such a wild time with a new scandal or two every morning. I don't blame anyone for forgetting.
I hope to God I don't ever have to explain to my son or daughter how Trump got elected a second time.
Literally every morning from 2016-2020 waking up and wondering what fresh new hell #45 was stirring up. Never again.
I still don’t understand how he’s anyone’s candidate with statements like this.
I also don’t understand why every media outlet isn’t, and hasn’t in the past, just headlined all this blatant self-interest in earnest.
Because Republicans wish California would burn to the ground
Because Trump is not a problem. He is the result of a much bigger problem.
Oligarchs, basically
He‘s still a problem. Having 5 liters of oil dumped on my garage floor is the symptom of a bigger problem. But it‘s still a problem, because I have to clean up the shit from the floor anyways.
A symptom is not a problem. Fighting symptoms will not solve your problem. Cleaning shit while someone has perpetual diarrhea will not clean your floor.
My point was that both things are problems. Wen need to solve both. As long as Trump is spewing lies and hate around, we can‘t solve the bigger problem.
Us vs them mentality at level 900. You must check all of these boxes and never question our dear leader or you're one of them!
The debate messed things up because his loyal faithful have to contend with others' opinions laughing at the absurdity.
Now they can go back to their carefully crafted Fox narrative cave and not come out until election time, fully invested that dear leader is their savior!
Also, dear leader must not debate again at all costs.
No, I just argued with a repub relative. “I heard trump did fantastic.” And they probably won’t watch the debate, just take cues from pundits. So there will be folks who remain blissfully ignorant of what actually happened during the debate.
see 2021-01-06
"I like Trump because he says he will hurt the people I've never met but hate irrationally."
Ah yes, the "you're not invited to my birthday party anymore!!!" method of fund distribution among elementary schoolers.
I get his campaign propaganda in my mailbox every single day. It’s always the same garbage message, super pinky-swearing that he’s not a fascist authoritarian dickhead.
And every single one claiming he has no idea what project 2025 is and that he doesn’t support it. But my question is if you don’t know what it is, how do you know whether you support it or not? Oh wait it’s because you’re lying again isn’t it?
They never send me any of that shit, I feel left out.
I sign up for my two free tickets to every rally. You’ll get the love then.
Are chickens allowed to register to vote? That might be your problem…
We know they can run for president.