The Gridiron Club is one of the oldest and most selective journalist groups in the USA. For 140 years, they've had an annual dinner, similar to the WH Correspondent's Dinner in its humorous tone. Every President in the last 140 years (except Cleveland) has attended at least once.
For the first time ever ever, they toasted the 1st Amendment and not the President.
Incidentally, both Trump and his press secretary have already publicly committed to missing the WHCD, hosted by an intelligent African American woman.
Oh, I am just trying to figure out what the most lawful way would be for the current government to influence upcoming elections.
We have money, with Musk currently trying to influence the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. Then there is prosecution, with the DOJ, the FBI, and other agencies in control by lunatics. Of course, we have the media controlled by billionaires who seem to care very little about democracy. And I am pretty sure violence is also on the table, with enough cultists around who would gladly stop Democrats from voting.
More News about "Freedom Cities" expanding on the wired article https://www.salon.com/2025/03/17/the...s-destruction/ this shit is real and what they are pushing for. We are quickly going to come a head I legitimately don't think we have two years.
You support a guy who is still saying that the 2020 election was unfair and stolen from him even after just winning.
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I don't think these "geniuses" have accounted for the part where they get to convince people to want to actually live there for any serious length of time. These people see a dystopian future as aspirational instead of a dire warning.
Make the people suffer and desperate enough and I'm willing to guarantee a large portion of the population would be willing to slave away for scraps.
That's not even considering the numerous Woke Libertarians that would flock to these enclaves because they're too stupid to understand they're being exploited...
"Why I left the left"
Checks person's history.
Fox News Republican shill before attempting to purge their history.
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What I find wild about these people who want to get rid of social security and medicare are like "Why would you trust the government with your retirement and healthcare?!" Like, YOU'RE the one who wants to take it away. It was working fine before Republicans decided they wanted to get rid of it. It was clearly working just fine and now the argument as for why it shouldn't exist is that one day the government might take it away... an argument made by the people who WANT it taken away.
"Haha, you trusted us with your retirement and healthcare and now we're going to take it all from you, now don't you feel stupid for trusting a government? You should have been putting your money into crypto!"
“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart. Men, women, and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared.”
Diary of Anne Frank
January 13, 1943
In that case they wouldn't have to worry about these magical cities but dodging all the angry people that will be out for their heads. I think it's ego but these guys put themselves out there during the inauguration and Elon is front in center, if they were smart they would be doing this from the shadows to avoid blame.
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There's also an incoherence in the messaging don't trust the government you can vote for let us be the government and we will do better because reasons I guess. I have yet to find any libertarians who have coherent arguments without sounding like anarchists.
It's because it's all grift and lack of morals.
Pretending to be caring isn't actually a sin and their entire framework of good/bad is based on what the "bible" tells them but the bible has been weaponized by grifters.
About the closest people come to "pretending" to being right-leaning people who are left are people who maybe are more center and have certain issues that they're left on and it isn't until the right tries to ostracize them because of whatever outrage of the day they're having.
A good example of this is Tomi Lahren. She was once a rising star right-wing Barbie (Klaus lol). She got suspended from the Blaze for being pro-choice and that's when things went south for her. Now she's got a podcast (I think) and has been a commentator / guest for Fox News for the last 6 years. All because she came out as pro-choice. She moved from LA to Tennessee because she ruined her grift and could no longer afford to live in LA.
When I went to pull up her Wikipedia, I actually forgot her name because it's been so long since I've heard any mention of her and had to Google "Blaze reporter fired for Pro Choice" and then her Wikipedia basically hasn't been updated since 2018.
If she had a couple of brain cells and actually wanted to be right-leaning and "pretend" to be left, she could probably make a killing by making that jump. Instead, she's just going to be an afterthought Fox News guest and likely cum rag for whatever current Fox CEO is keeping her around.
The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped form our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest.
It's more people failing to meet the minimal margin of "don't be a bigoted piece of shit".
Again, all "woke" means is "understanding that there are systemic injustices in society and that we should address them". To be "woke" is just to have basic human empathy and respect for other people. This isn't some high bar expectation.
“Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
Words to live by.
Trump is now trying to claw back pardons thst alone tells you that they aren't planning on there being elections anymore because he would be setting a precedent for his own pardoned to be overturned.
I would imagine it would also be a requirement to live there if you work for the company who owns that "freedom" city. Meaning if Muskville was created, anyone that worked for any of his companies would be required to move there. While you can say you just wouldn't work for any Musk company, I think the goal they have is for all major companies to have their own "freedom" cities, so finding a job without one might get difficult. It'd be the next step of all the recent return to office mandates. "Move to Muskville or we'll consider this your resignation".
That works for largely interchangeable blue-collar workers who in days of yore would work in mines or on assembly lines or what have you and had to therefore live on site and were way prey to company towns.
It works less so for highly desirable tech workers who pull six to seven figure salaries. Which is what these tech billionaires need to run their companies.
“Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
Words to live by.
Donald and Republicans just racing to make America a completely lawless nation, at this point.
Sadly, that's easy enough to solve for. Just tell the tech workers they'll be given housing in the 'good' part of the city and they won't have to deal with the peasants. It would basically be a two-caste system.
Edited to add: It'd actually probably be a three-caste system.
1 - President/emperor/khan/whatever the leader calls themself. And their closest inner circle. Bidding starts at 100 billion to join this rank.
2 - The high society/rest of the inner circle that's not high enough to fit into #1. You can tell all the techs this is where they'd be.
3 - The rest of us living on the crumbs from #1 and #2.
Last edited by btlcryct; 2025-03-17 at 04:07 PM.