Massive propaganda outlets allowed to stir the masses with misinformation and lies, check
Leading perpetrators not held to account, check
Mainstreaming of all of the above by one of the two major political parties and their leadership and candidates, check
How much longer?
Sometimes I think you are actually looking forward to this outcome.
I fear it and if repubs don’t wake the fuck up, we may very well be living it.
Have you noticed the hate out there? Did you see where Lindsey Flimsy Flip Flop Faloozy is going to introduce legislation to enable the US to attack Mexico? Hmmmmm, who else predicated an attack on a bordering nation? I wonder who it might have been? Hmmmmmmmm?
well, it wouldnt be the first time.
Lol I wonder if we will get our asses kicked at the Alamo again?
I really wasn't sure what thread to drop this in, but then I spotted this one, and thought hell, sure, this probably works! Because god knows where stuff like this can lead. There is a paywall to the WaPo article about this unfortunately. If anyone can gift the whole article that would be awesome.
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
By Paul Schwartzman
March 15, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
At first glance, the flurry of real estate sales two blocks east of
the U.S. Capitol appeared unremarkable in a city where such sales are
common. In the span of a year, a seemingly unrelated gaggle of recently
formed companies bought nine properties, all within steps of one
another.
But the sales were not coincidental. Unbeknown to most of the
sellers, the limited liability companies making the purchases — a
shopping spree that added up to $41 million — are connected to a
conservative nonprofit led by Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff to
President Donald Trump. The organization has promoted MAGA stars like
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The Conservative Partnership Institute, as the nonprofit is known,
now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania
Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage
and carriage house in the rear alley. CPI’s aim, as expressed in its
annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a
campus it calls “Patriots’ Row.”
The acquisitions strike some Capitol Hill regulars as puzzling,
considering that Republicans have long made a sport of denigrating
Washington as a dysfunctional “swamp,” the latest evidence being a
successful GOP-led effort to block local D.C. legislation to revise the
city’s criminal code.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
I really wasn't sure what thread to drop this in, but then I spotted this one, and thought hell, sure, this probably works! Because god knows where stuff like this can lead. There is a paywall to the WaPo article about this unfortunately. If anyone can gift the whole article that would be awesome.
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
By Paul Schwartzman
March 15, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
At first glance, the flurry of real estate sales two blocks east of
the U.S. Capitol appeared unremarkable in a city where such sales are
common. In the span of a year, a seemingly unrelated gaggle of recently
formed companies bought nine properties, all within steps of one
another.
But the sales were not coincidental. Unbeknown to most of the
sellers, the limited liability companies making the purchases — a
shopping spree that added up to $41 million — are connected to a
conservative nonprofit led by Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff to
President Donald Trump. The organization has promoted MAGA stars like
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The Conservative Partnership Institute, as the nonprofit is known,
now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania
Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage
and carriage house in the rear alley. CPI’s aim, as expressed in its
annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a
campus it calls “Patriots’ Row.”
The acquisitions strike some Capitol Hill regulars as puzzling,
considering that Republicans have long made a sport of denigrating
Washington as a dysfunctional “swamp,” the latest evidence being a
successful GOP-led effort to block local D.C. legislation to revise the
city’s criminal code.
I read this yesterday. Sounds like a fraternity for repubs where they'll play grabby ass and generally act against all of those "family values" they profess. I look forward to the videos of drag and blackface parties that I'm sure they'll host. More concerning is the ability to launder money via PACs, "think tanks" and Non-profits into and through real estate. Gee, where have we heard that from before?
I really wasn't sure what thread to drop this in, but then I spotted this one, and thought hell, sure, this probably works! Because god knows where stuff like this can lead. There is a paywall to the WaPo article about this unfortunately. If anyone can gift the whole article that would be awesome.
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
By Paul Schwartzman
March 15, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
At first glance, the flurry of real estate sales two blocks east of
the U.S. Capitol appeared unremarkable in a city where such sales are
common. In the span of a year, a seemingly unrelated gaggle of recently
formed companies bought nine properties, all within steps of one
another.
But the sales were not coincidental. Unbeknown to most of the
sellers, the limited liability companies making the purchases — a
shopping spree that added up to $41 million — are connected to a
conservative nonprofit led by Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff to
President Donald Trump. The organization has promoted MAGA stars like
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The Conservative Partnership Institute, as the nonprofit is known,
now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania
Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage
and carriage house in the rear alley. CPI’s aim, as expressed in its
annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a
campus it calls “Patriots’ Row.”
The acquisitions strike some Capitol Hill regulars as puzzling,
considering that Republicans have long made a sport of denigrating
Washington as a dysfunctional “swamp,” the latest evidence being a
successful GOP-led effort to block local D.C. legislation to revise the
city’s criminal code.
I read this yesterday. Sounds like a fraternity for repubs where they'll play grabby ass and generally act against all of those "family values" they profess. I look forward to the videos of drag and blackface parties that I'm sure they'll host. More concerning is the ability to launder money via PACs, "think tanks" and Non-profits into and through real estate. Gee, where have we heard that from before?
I don't quite agree with your assessment of the situation. This tells us that they are getting very well organized financially, which is a really bad sign IMO. Yes, there are doors for some kind of financial crime here, but that doesn't mean they will choose to do that. For me, the main takeaway is that there are a LOT of these extremists organizing in a way that will be far more effective than what the misfits in those crazy right wing militia camps call organizing, and they are setting up shop right there at the Capitol to do it. I know these people are bizarre and awful, but I don't underestimate them in terms of what they might be willing to do to undermine the current system of government. And contrary to appearances, they aren't all stupid. To me, this comes off as a fairly bold first step in a large, organized plan to... well, build fascism, not that they would call it that.
Post edited by PJ_Soul on
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
I really wasn't sure what thread to drop this in, but then I spotted this one, and thought hell, sure, this probably works! Because god knows where stuff like this can lead. There is a paywall to the WaPo article about this unfortunately. If anyone can gift the whole article that would be awesome.
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
By Paul Schwartzman
March 15, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
At first glance, the flurry of real estate sales two blocks east of
the U.S. Capitol appeared unremarkable in a city where such sales are
common. In the span of a year, a seemingly unrelated gaggle of recently
formed companies bought nine properties, all within steps of one
another.
But the sales were not coincidental. Unbeknown to most of the
sellers, the limited liability companies making the purchases — a
shopping spree that added up to $41 million — are connected to a
conservative nonprofit led by Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff to
President Donald Trump. The organization has promoted MAGA stars like
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The Conservative Partnership Institute, as the nonprofit is known,
now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania
Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage
and carriage house in the rear alley. CPI’s aim, as expressed in its
annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a
campus it calls “Patriots’ Row.”
The acquisitions strike some Capitol Hill regulars as puzzling,
considering that Republicans have long made a sport of denigrating
Washington as a dysfunctional “swamp,” the latest evidence being a
successful GOP-led effort to block local D.C. legislation to revise the
city’s criminal code.
I read this yesterday. Sounds like a fraternity for repubs where they'll play grabby ass and generally act against all of those "family values" they profess. I look forward to the videos of drag and blackface parties that I'm sure they'll host. More concerning is the ability to launder money via PACs, "think tanks" and Non-profits into and through real estate. Gee, where have we heard that from before?
I don't quite agree with your assessment of the situation. This tells us that they are getting very well organized financially, which is a really bad sign IMO. Yes, there are doors for some kind of financial crime here, but that doesn't mean they will choose to do that. For me, the main takeaway is that there are a LOT of these extremists organizing in a way that will be far more effective than what the misfits in those crazy right wing militia camps call organizing, and they are setting up shop right there at the Capitol to do it. I know these people are bizarre and awful, but I don't underestimate them in terms of what they might be willing to do to undermine the current system of government. And contrary to appearances, they aren't all stupid. To me, this comes off as a fairly bold first step in a large, organized plan to... well, build fascism, not that they would call it that.
I don't disagree. But what they're doing is no different than in the past. What is different is the Citizens United ruling and the amount of dark money that's in politics. Where do those organizations that buy buildings for these purposes get their money? Who knows and they don't have to disclose it if they're not a 501C3 or whatever the non-profit tax exempt number designation is. Remember Hillary and the Clinton Global Foundation and the purported "influence" it exerted through "donations?" Difference being, their donations were listed on their tax filings. Heck, I'm still waiting for her to be indicted.
You're going to have a hostile neighbor on your border within the next 7 to 10 years.
You have to ask yourself, where is the money coming from?
No Labels group raises alarms with third-party presidential preparations
It has money and name-brand political backers, and declines to describe either President Biden or Donald Trump as acceptable candidates
Former senator Joe Lieberman knows better than most the impact third-party bids can have on presidential elections. His 2000 Democratic campaign for vice president fell just 537 Florida votes short of victory, in a state where Ralph Nader, the liberal activist and Green Party nominee, won more than 97,000 votes.
But that didn’t stop the Connecticut Democrat turned independent from joining a meeting Thursday in support of plans by the centrist group No Labels to get presidential ballot lines in all 50 states for 2024. The group calls its effort an “insurance policy” against the major parties nominating two “unacceptable” candidates next year.
Asked if President Biden, his former Senate colleague, would be unacceptable, Lieberman said the answer was uncertain.
“No decision has been made on any of that. But we’re putting ourselves in a position,” Lieberman said. “You know, it might be that we will take our common-sense, moderate, independent platform to him and the Republican candidate and see which one of them is willing to commit to it. And that could lead to, in my opinion, a No Labels endorsement.”
Uncertainty over the $70 million No Labels ballot effort has set off major alarm bells in Democratic circles and raised concerns among Republican strategists, who have launched their own research projects to figure out the potential impacts. As Lieberman spoke, the Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to block No Labels from ballot access in that state on procedural grounds. Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way has argued that the plot is “going to reelect Trump,” and Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has accused No Labels of wanting “to play the role of spoiler.”
“The only way you can justify this is if you really believe that it doesn’t really matter if it is Joe Biden or Donald Trump,” said Stuart Stevens, a former presidential campaign strategist for George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney, who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “So it is sort of a test. If you live in a world where it doesn’t matter, this is kind of harmless. If you live in a world where it does matter, it is dangerous.”
Splits have also emerged inside the organization. William Galston, a Brookings Institution policy scholar, said last week that he would separate himself from No Labels, which he helped found, over its 2024 planning for a third-party campaign to challenge Biden and Trump.
And if it doesn't concern you that the money may be coming from Russian oligarchs or billionaire 'Muricans with a Christo-fascist agenda, please do us all a favor and turn the lights out upon leaving.
This plan for a third-party presidential bid in 2024 is dangerous
Jonathan Cowan is president of Third Way, Rahna Epting is executive director of MoveOn and Patrick Gaspard is CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
As leaders of three groups that represent various segments of the Democratic Party coalition, we don’t always agree on policy or politics. But lately, we find ourselves strongly united on one alarming issue: the possibility of a well-financed third-party presidential campaign that could help elect a MAGA extremist president in 2024.
Our country is staring down a series of once-in-a-generation threats that strike at the heart of American democracy — corruption on our nation’s highest court, fundamental rights tested at the ballot box and, of course, the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt. Yet instead of responding to these attacks with clear-eyed determination to protect our country, the organization known as No Labels is spearheading an effort to put a third-party ticket on the ballot in every state.
The group — founded in 2010 to combat rising political polarization — has said it is raising at least $70 million for the effort and is planning a convention in Dallas for April 2024. No Labels has condemned Donald Trump and Joe Biden as equally extreme and claims that their likely nominations by the major parties require another choice.
We understand the sentiment that has driven donors to the No Labels banner. But there is simply no equating a party led by Biden to today’s MAGA Republican Party. One side believes in American democracy, while the other has attacked it. One is governing from the mainstream, while the other champions extremism. One seeks to work collaboratively on the issues; the other has given way to conspiracy theorists and cranks.
Moreover, No Labels has yet to say what makes Biden an “unacceptable” candidate. The group’s members say they value cross-party compromise — and Biden has shepherded into law major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, domestic manufacturing, climate change, gun safety, protecting our troops and veterans, protecting same-sex and interracial marriage, election integrity, and more. No Labels says it wants leadership — and Biden has rallied the free world to respond to Russia’s barbaric aggression in Ukraine. It seeks mainstream values — and Biden is a man of abiding decency, faith and respect for the law. The contrast with someone like Trump hardly needs to be detailed.
Despite this glaring hole in its argument, No Labels is forging ahead. It claims to be in it to win it and has released a map purporting to show that its ticket could take nearly 40 states, including Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Such an outcome is sheer fantasy. No third-party candidate has ever come remotely close to winning, including Theodore Roosevelt, running on a Progressive Party ticket just four years after leaving office as an enormously popular Republican president. In fact, no third-party candidate has won a single electoral vote since 1968.
Though it can’t win the race, No Labels can affect the outcome. In 2016, Trump won the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. In 2020, his share of the vote in each actually increased, but he lost all three. The reason? Biden won the votes of those who had chosen Jill Stein, Gary Johnson or another also-ran in 2016 by a 30-point margin. Such voters have peeled away before, and, if given the choice, they could certainly do so again, especially if lured by a well-funded campaign.
No Labels insists that it doesn’t want to field a spoiler candidate. But spoiling is what third-party candidates do. In 2000, Ralph Nader won 97,000 votes in Florida, the decisive state Al Gore lost by just 537 votes. And Nader, Stein and Johnson swung the outcome of their races with tiny war chests. Between them, Stein and Johnson spent less than $16 million, and Nader spent a bit over $9 million. With $70 million or more, the No Labels candidate is nearly certain to outperform all three, increasing the odds of serving as a stalking horse for an extreme MAGA Republican.
Moreover, No Labels is obviously targeting blue states and Democratic voters. The organization’s map gives away the game: two-thirds of its electoral votes would come from Biden states. Republicans know it. As one GOP operative put it, “If Trump is the nominee, the No Labels coalition certainly hurts the Democratic candidate on the ballot.” And Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review,has written in Politico that the No Labels candidate would be “most likely to help elect Trump.”
No Labels is offering an illusion, not a choice. At a time when our nation is being tested, this organization could help defeat a mainstream president and elect or reelect a radical and vindictive MAGA Republican. For the sake of our country, leaders across the political spectrum should call on No Labels to stand down.
Comments
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Steps from the Capitol, Trump allies buy up properties to build MAGA campus
By Paul Schwartzman
March 15, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/15/dc-maga-campus-patriots-row-meadows/
"SNIP.......
At first glance, the flurry of real estate sales two blocks east of the U.S. Capitol appeared unremarkable in a city where such sales are common. In the span of a year, a seemingly unrelated gaggle of recently formed companies bought nine properties, all within steps of one another.
But the sales were not coincidental. Unbeknown to most of the sellers, the limited liability companies making the purchases — a shopping spree that added up to $41 million — are connected to a conservative nonprofit led by Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff to President Donald Trump. The organization has promoted MAGA stars like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).
The Conservative Partnership Institute, as the nonprofit is known, now controls four commercial properties along a single Pennsylvania Avenue block, three adjoining rowhouses around the corner, and a garage and carriage house in the rear alley. CPI’s aim, as expressed in its annual report, is to transform the swath of prime real estate into a campus it calls “Patriots’ Row.”
The acquisitions strike some Capitol Hill regulars as puzzling, considering that Republicans have long made a sport of denigrating Washington as a dysfunctional “swamp,” the latest evidence being a successful GOP-led effort to block local D.C. legislation to revise the city’s criminal code.
Here you go:
https://wapo.st/3ZWG7g4
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
You're going to have a hostile neighbor on your border within the next 7 to 10 years.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqeQYaKsi3T/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
No Labels group raises alarms with third-party presidential preparations
It has money and name-brand political backers, and declines to describe either President Biden or Donald Trump as acceptable candidates
Former senator Joe Lieberman knows better than most the impact third-party bids can have on presidential elections. His 2000 Democratic campaign for vice president fell just 537 Florida votes short of victory, in a state where Ralph Nader, the liberal activist and Green Party nominee, won more than 97,000 votes.
But that didn’t stop the Connecticut Democrat turned independent from joining a meeting Thursday in support of plans by the centrist group No Labels to get presidential ballot lines in all 50 states for 2024. The group calls its effort an “insurance policy” against the major parties nominating two “unacceptable” candidates next year.
Asked if President Biden, his former Senate colleague, would be unacceptable, Lieberman said the answer was uncertain.
“No decision has been made on any of that. But we’re putting ourselves in a position,” Lieberman said. “You know, it might be that we will take our common-sense, moderate, independent platform to him and the Republican candidate and see which one of them is willing to commit to it. And that could lead to, in my opinion, a No Labels endorsement.”
Uncertainty over the $70 million No Labels ballot effort has set off major alarm bells in Democratic circles and raised concerns among Republican strategists, who have launched their own research projects to figure out the potential impacts. As Lieberman spoke, the Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to block No Labels from ballot access in that state on procedural grounds. Matt Bennett of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way has argued that the plot is “going to reelect Trump,” and Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has accused No Labels of wanting “to play the role of spoiler.”
“The only way you can justify this is if you really believe that it doesn’t really matter if it is Joe Biden or Donald Trump,” said Stuart Stevens, a former presidential campaign strategist for George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney, who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “So it is sort of a test. If you live in a world where it doesn’t matter, this is kind of harmless. If you live in a world where it does matter, it is dangerous.”
Splits have also emerged inside the organization. William Galston, a Brookings Institution policy scholar, said last week that he would separate himself from No Labels, which he helped found, over its 2024 planning for a third-party campaign to challenge Biden and Trump.
Continues.......................
No Labels group raises alarms with third-party presidential preparations - The Washington Post
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
This plan for a third-party presidential bid in 2024 is dangerous
Jonathan Cowan is president of Third Way, Rahna Epting is executive director of MoveOn and Patrick Gaspard is CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
As leaders of three groups that represent various segments of the Democratic Party coalition, we don’t always agree on policy or politics. But lately, we find ourselves strongly united on one alarming issue: the possibility of a well-financed third-party presidential campaign that could help elect a MAGA extremist president in 2024.
Our country is staring down a series of once-in-a-generation threats that strike at the heart of American democracy — corruption on our nation’s highest court, fundamental rights tested at the ballot box and, of course, the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt. Yet instead of responding to these attacks with clear-eyed determination to protect our country, the organization known as No Labels is spearheading an effort to put a third-party ticket on the ballot in every state.
The group — founded in 2010 to combat rising political polarization — has said it is raising at least $70 million for the effort and is planning a convention in Dallas for April 2024. No Labels has condemned Donald Trump and Joe Biden as equally extreme and claims that their likely nominations by the major parties require another choice.
We understand the sentiment that has driven donors to the No Labels banner. But there is simply no equating a party led by Biden to today’s MAGA Republican Party. One side believes in American democracy, while the other has attacked it. One is governing from the mainstream, while the other champions extremism. One seeks to work collaboratively on the issues; the other has given way to conspiracy theorists and cranks.
Moreover, No Labels has yet to say what makes Biden an “unacceptable” candidate. The group’s members say they value cross-party compromise — and Biden has shepherded into law major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, domestic manufacturing, climate change, gun safety, protecting our troops and veterans, protecting same-sex and interracial marriage, election integrity, and more. No Labels says it wants leadership — and Biden has rallied the free world to respond to Russia’s barbaric aggression in Ukraine. It seeks mainstream values — and Biden is a man of abiding decency, faith and respect for the law. The contrast with someone like Trump hardly needs to be detailed.
Despite this glaring hole in its argument, No Labels is forging ahead. It claims to be in it to win it and has released a map purporting to show that its ticket could take nearly 40 states, including Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Such an outcome is sheer fantasy. No third-party candidate has ever come remotely close to winning, including Theodore Roosevelt, running on a Progressive Party ticket just four years after leaving office as an enormously popular Republican president. In fact, no third-party candidate has won a single electoral vote since 1968.
Though it can’t win the race, No Labels can affect the outcome. In 2016, Trump won the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. In 2020, his share of the vote in each actually increased, but he lost all three. The reason? Biden won the votes of those who had chosen Jill Stein, Gary Johnson or another also-ran in 2016 by a 30-point margin. Such voters have peeled away before, and, if given the choice, they could certainly do so again, especially if lured by a well-funded campaign.
No Labels insists that it doesn’t want to field a spoiler candidate. But spoiling is what third-party candidates do. In 2000, Ralph Nader won 97,000 votes in Florida, the decisive state Al Gore lost by just 537 votes. And Nader, Stein and Johnson swung the outcome of their races with tiny war chests. Between them, Stein and Johnson spent less than $16 million, and Nader spent a bit over $9 million. With $70 million or more, the No Labels candidate is nearly certain to outperform all three, increasing the odds of serving as a stalking horse for an extreme MAGA Republican.
Moreover, No Labels is obviously targeting blue states and Democratic voters. The organization’s map gives away the game: two-thirds of its electoral votes would come from Biden states. Republicans know it. As one GOP operative put it, “If Trump is the nominee, the No Labels coalition certainly hurts the Democratic candidate on the ballot.” And Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, has written in Politico that the No Labels candidate would be “most likely to help elect Trump.”
No Labels is offering an illusion, not a choice. At a time when our nation is being tested, this organization could help defeat a mainstream president and elect or reelect a radical and vindictive MAGA Republican. For the sake of our country, leaders across the political spectrum should call on No Labels to stand down.
Opinion | A No Labels third-party bid in 2024 is dangerous - The Washington Post
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©