American Politics Thread V: We're Just Biden Our Time ...

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

So, I guess that when Trump was thuggish on the border it was bad (and it was, tbf), but now that Kamala is doing the same, she is either considered "admirable" and or "still too weak" depending on which talking heads you listen to. As opposed to, just, y'know, "politically opportunistic."

The admin has done a decent job on the economy, but on shit like immigration, they're faltering exactly like expected.

Immigration is such a hard issue to really make much sense of, I get that.. at an emotional level.. 'stop all immigrants' seems to work for a large number of the population, and it's an easy mantra to run with.

However it's notable that on two of Trump's key mantras - 'Immigrants!' and 'China!' - the administration seems to be taking a relatively hard line against both, I guess to stave off headlines in right wing media screaming alarm.

I guess the strategy is 'spot the right wing talking points early and counter them', rather than have them become drawn out issues, I guess Trump did do this well with his constant political nicknaming, stick a name, repeat it endlessly until it's taken as established truth.

I feel the Republicans are slightly flailing in finding anything to really stick against the administration at the moment, part because they're having to deal with their own crazies in the party right now.

And there is a lot of craziness in the GOP right now. Some of the prominent figures are coming across as very very unhinged.

[Greater Miami Shores]

Immigration is such a hard issue to really make much sense of, I get that.. at an emotional level.. 'stop all immigrants' seems to work for a large number of the population, and it's an easy mantra to run with.

However it's notable that on two of Trump's key mantras - 'Immigrants!' and 'China!' - the administration seems to be taking a relatively hard line against both, I guess to stave off headlines in right wing media screaming alarm.

I guess the strategy is 'spot the right wing talking points early and counter them', rather than have them become drawn out issues, I guess Trump did do this well with his constant political nicknaming, stick a name, repeat it endlessly until it's taken as established truth.

I feel the Republicans are slightly flailing in finding anything to really stick against the administration at the moment, part because they're having to deal with their own crazies in the party right now.

And there is a lot of craziness in the GOP right now. Some of the prominent figures are coming across as very very unhinged.

As I keep telling them, Republicans say the same things about Democrats.

[Sincluda]

So, I guess that when Trump was thuggish on the border it was bad (and it was, tbf), but now that Kamala is doing the same, she is either considered "admirable" and or "still too weak" depending on which talking heads you listen to. As opposed to, just, y'know, "politically opportunistic."

The admin has done a decent job on the economy, but on shit like immigration, they're faltering exactly like expected.

Immigration is such a hard issue to really make much sense of, I get that.. at an emotional level.. 'stop all immigrants' seems to work for a large number of the population, and it's an easy mantra to run with.

However it's notable that on two of Trump's key mantras - 'Immigrants!' and 'China!' - the administration seems to be taking a relatively hard line against both, I guess to stave off headlines in right wing media screaming alarm.

I guess the strategy is 'spot the right wing talking points early and counter them', rather than have them become drawn out issues, I guess Trump did do this well with his constant political nicknaming, stick a name, repeat it endlessly until it's taken as established truth.

I feel the Republicans are slightly flailing in finding anything to really stick against the administration at the moment, part because they're having to deal with their own crazies in the party right now.

So far the closest thing that has stuck is Fauci. Who was not appointed under this admin. And whose most criticized actions were in the last admin.

[Bombadil]

Immigration is such a hard issue to really make much sense of, I get that.. at an emotional level.. 'stop all immigrants' seems to work for a large number of the population, and it's an easy mantra to run with.

However it's notable that on two of Trump's key mantras - 'Immigrants!' and 'China!' - the administration seems to be taking a relatively hard line against both, I guess to stave off headlines in right wing media screaming alarm.

I guess the strategy is 'spot the right wing talking points early and counter them', rather than have them become drawn out issues, I guess Trump did do this well with his constant political nicknaming, stick a name, repeat it endlessly until it's taken as established truth.

I feel the Republicans are slightly flailing in finding anything to really stick against the administration at the moment, part because they're having to deal with their own crazies in the party right now.

So far the closest thing that has stuck is Fauci. Who was not appointed under this admin. And whose most criticized actions were in the last admin.

I do flick over to FOX every other day, just to see what the mantra might be - at the moment it's not particularly clear, from a news front it appears to be about Democrat in-fighting between the Squad and the Establishment.. I suppose as a counter narrative to the Republican split between opportunistic and genuine crazies..

So then it's an idea to look at commentator narratives as that tends to morph into the news narrative but they're really just banging on about how the Dem's hate America and want to turn it into a communist hellhole..

Fauci won't last as a talking point, not that he's a particularly sticky talking point anyway..

I'll be curious to see what they land on.

[Sincluda]

So far the closest thing that has stuck is Fauci. Who was not appointed under this admin. And whose most criticized actions were in the last admin.

I do flick over to FOX every other day, just to see what the mantra might be - at the moment it's not particularly clear, from a news front it appears to be about Democrat in-fighting between the Squad and the Establishment.. I suppose as a counter narrative to the Republican split between opportunistic and genuine crazies..

So then it's an idea to look at commentator narratives as that tends to morph into the news narrative but they're really just banging on about how the Dem's hate America and want to turn it into a communist hellhole..

Fauci won't last as a talking point, not that he's a particularly sticky talking point anyway..

I'll be curious to see what they land on.

Biden emails will prob leak and they'll analyse a typo as "unfit for office"

[Kilobugya]

Hmm, wasn't aware of this: Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him, specifically calling on its grassroots supporters to push Manchin to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.

Manchin is only interested in keeping his seat. This is why Democrats need to laser focus on expanding their majorities.

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

[Kilobugya]

Warriors of Truth is just posting and stating his views, my views and our views.

His views are fucking ridiculous. I wanna know why trump fans seem to only care about federal overreach when masking is mandated AT A STATE LEVEL and then when the DHS is kidnapping protesters that's alright.

With Warriors of Truth I keep wondering which side of Poe's law we are.

[Greater Miami Shores]

Manchin is only interested in keeping his seat. This is why Democrats need to laser focus on expanding their majorities.

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

[Kowani]

Hmm, wasn't aware of this: Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him, specifically calling on its grassroots supporters to push Manchin to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.

ooooooh, effortpost incoming
thanks, Zurk!

[Kilobugya]

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

[Gravlen]

His views are fucking ridiculous. I wanna know why trump fans seem to only care about federal overreach when masking is mandated AT A STATE LEVEL and then when the DHS is kidnapping protesters that's alright.

Because they didn't kidnap anyone. They arrested them, and they were charged. The tactics they used were warranted by the violence of the "protestors".

The person who got the most attention for being taken in such a manner, Mark Pettibone, was notably not charged. Federal agencies confirm this.

In a court filing, a Federal Protection Service deputy regional director wrote that Pettibone was detained on July 15 for a “possible violation” of the assault on a federal officer statute, “due to suspected aiming of a laser at the eyes of a Federal law enforcement officer.” The U.S. Attorney’s office declined prosecution, “so Pettibone was released,” and the Federal Protective Services did not make any entries about Pettibone in its law enforcement computer system, the regional director Patrick J. Zitny wrote. Pettibone’s name, however, is found on a “master log of detentions” maintained by the Federal Protection Service, Zitny wrote.

Pettibone’s lawyer Rachel C. Lee said her client wants to expunge all the records and information the federal agencies collected as a result of his alleged unlawful detention.

Attorney Michael Patrick Clendenen, for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, argued Wednesday that federal law enforcement doesn’t have any formal arrest record of Pettibone, and any logbooks of him showing he was held in a cell aren’t subject to expungement.

Arresting someone and then releasing them without registering it is... unusual, to say the least. There's good reasons to doubt whether they had any probable cause for arresting him in the first place.

[Senkaku]

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

If I had to choose between a cigarette addiction— that is, minus 6 minutes off my life every time I want to feel a modicum of joy for the next twenty years before an excruciating death by lung disease— and reading another one of your posts, I’d choose the cigarettes, simply because choosing that would let me leave a world full of your posts sooner

[USS Monitor]

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

Stacie Abrams going around Georgia telling black people to vote is not fraud. If you don't like it you can get in your time machine and tell the Confederates to fight harder at Shiloh.

Counting mail-in ballots is also not fraud. It is part of the electoral process.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

Why not just elect a new fucking people per Bertholt Brecht's recommendation lmao.

[Gravlen]

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

Stacie Abrams going around Georgia telling black people to vote is not fraud. If you don't like it you can get in your time machine and tell the Confederates to fight harder at Shiloh.

Counting mail-in ballots is also not fraud. It is part of the electoral process.

I mean, based on the objections of GMS and the GOP, we need to go all the way back to the basics:

People voting is not fraud.

[USS Monitor]

Stacie Abrams going around Georgia telling black people to vote is not fraud. If you don't like it you can get in your time machine and tell the Confederates to fight harder at Shiloh.

Counting mail-in ballots is also not fraud. It is part of the electoral process.

I mean, based on the objections of GMS and the GOP, we need to go all the way back to the basics:

People voting is not fraud.

That might still be too technical for some folks. Existing is not fraud.

[The Black Forrest]

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

Liar.

It doesn’t matter how many times you keep repeating the lies.

Loosing is why the trumpists resorted to voter suppression.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

Liar.

Loosing is why the trumpists resorted to voter suppression.

Should just dissolve the people GOP is clearly so dissatisfied with and elect their own. Would be easier on all of us.

[Vassenor]

But the problem is that Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the election by preventing minorities from voting, and the only way to prevent that is passing HR1 and Manchin opposes it too...

If the Democrats had not committed the massive vote Fraud against Republican President Trump the Republicans like they did, because they hate him and us for over 4 Years anyway, the Republicans would not be making any such laws you guys are interpreting this way.

We do still need to see your proof of massive voter fraud that isn't just that one video of a leaking toilet that even the party that wants you to believe voter fraud happens says does not prove voter fraud happened.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

I mean y'all already knew that these people pay fuck all but BBC thought you needed a reminder.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "any unauthorised disclosure of confidential government information" is illegal.

I like how she thinks the bit to be concerned about is IRS losing control of their docus and not the fact that people are leeching off the blood, sweat and toil of others.

[Blargoblarg]

Hmm, wasn't aware of this: Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him, specifically calling on its grassroots supporters to push Manchin to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.

Manchin is the current scapegoat the Democrats use for why they can't do anything that'll help the people despite having the majority in both the House and the Senate. Neither of the two parties actually cares about helping the people. Both Democrats and Republicans are bought and paid for by the rich and the big corporations.

[Kilobugya]

Manchin is the current scapegoat the Democrats use for why they can't do anything that'll help the people despite having the majority in both the House and the Senate. Neither of the two parties actually cares about helping the people. Both Democrats and Republicans are bought and paid for by the rich and the big corporations.

I don't think we can group all the democrats together. Some like AOC or Sanders really do care and try to help the people. Some like Manchin, Sinema don't. Others like Biden are a bit of a grayer shade, they ultimate will side with corporations against people, but they'll still try to do a few things for people as long as it doesn't harm much the corporate power.

[Spirit of Hope]

Hmm, wasn't aware of this: Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him, specifically calling on its grassroots supporters to push Manchin to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.

Manchin is the current scapegoat the Democrats use for why they can't do anything that'll help the people despite having the majority in both the House and the Senate. Neither of the two parties actually cares about helping the people. Both Democrats and Republicans are bought and paid for by the rich and the big corporations.

Democrats don't have enough votes to overcome a filibuster in the senate, which they are hesitant to get rid of because then when the republicans are back in power the filibuster won't be a tool the democrats can use. Given the disproportionate power of republicans to be elected to the senate, republicans re taking it in the next couple of election cycles is likely.

Plus Joe Machine is one of the votes democrats need to keep a majority in the senate.

I mean y'all already knew that these people pay fuck all but BBC thought you needed a reminder.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "any unauthorised disclosure of confidential government information" is illegal.

I like how she thinks the bit to be concerned about is IRS losing control of their docus and not the fact that people are leeching off the blood, sweat and toil of others.

Love Blomberg saying he is going to take legal action about his info being released. Really shows where his priorities are.

[Gravlen]

I mean y'all already knew that these people pay fuck all but BBC thought you needed a reminder.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "any unauthorised disclosure of confidential government information" is illegal.

I like how she thinks the bit to be concerned about is IRS losing control of their docus and not the fact that people are leeching off the blood, sweat and toil of others.

Of course she wouldn't be concerned about that. That's the American Dream, after all.

[Kowani]

Hmm, wasn't aware of this: Joe Manchin is opposing big parts of Biden’s agenda as the Koch network pressures him, specifically calling on its grassroots supporters to push Manchin to be against some of his party’s legislative priorities.

welcome to the plutocracy

Everyone who's been paying even the slightest bit of attention to current politics knows the Republicans are pushing forward wave after wave of voter suppression bills in practically every state. I don't need to go into the mechanisms of all the bills themselves-that's not really the point here. But what should be understood is that the goal of these bills is-almost uniformly-to lock Democrats out of the electoral process as much as possible without getting caught by the courts-which they've stacked with friendly judges relying on an ideological ruling from justices which had-for the most part-been pushed through the Federalist Society pipeline (with the exception of Anthony Kennedy) to heighten the bar even more.

Now, the most obvious catalyst for this wave is Trump's lie that the the election was stolen by some massive fraud scheme. And the keyword here is lie-not "false statements", not "baseless claims." It is a lie. And the reason it is a lie is that the Trump and his legal team would call it fraud in public-and then, once in court, where inconvenient things like "perjury" has consequences, admit they weren't actually alleging fraud. This happened on multiple occasions. But the lie is politically convenient-so it stays. We're in this problem largely because Trump put us here, and there aren't a lot of ways to legislate your way out of demagoguery. (Outside of a Trump victory in the electoral and popular vote).

But the lie stays-and it's convenient fodder for the voter suppression bills the GOP has bee waiting to churn out. As I've demonstrated elsewhere, the Republican Party has had very little commitment to democracy for a long time-this was a golden opportunity.
But there's one more component we have to talk about-the moneyed engine of the GOP. In this case, I speak of the Heritage Foundation.
Because they wrote the bills.

In a private meeting last month with big-money donors, the head of a top conservative group boasted that her outfit had crafted the new voter suppression law in Georgia and was doing the same with similar bills for Republican state legislators across the country. “In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” she said, “or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.” The Georgia law had “eight key provisions that Heritage recommended,” Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, told the foundation’s donors at an April 22 gathering in Tucson, in a recording obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones. Those included policies severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes, preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters, making it easier for partisan workers to monitor the polls, preventing the collection of mail ballots, and restricting the ability of counties to accept donations from nonprofit groups seeking to aid in election administration.

All of these recommendations came straight from Heritage’s list of “best practices” drafted in February. With Heritage’s help, Anderson said, Georgia became “the example for the rest of the country.”

It's an effort that spans multiple states and millions of dollars

To “create this echo chamber,” as Anderson put it, Heritage is spending $24 million over two years in eight battleground states—Arizona, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Texas, and Wisconsin—to pass and defend restrictive voting legislation. Every Tuesday, the group leads a call with right-wing advocacy groups like the Susan B. Anthony List, Tea Party Patriots, and FreedomWorks to coordinate these efforts at the highest levels of the conservative movement. “We literally give marching orders for the week ahead,” Anderson said. “All so we’re singing from the same song sheet of the goals for that week and where the state bills are across the country.”

They ensnare legislators, governors, and secretaries of state.

“We’re working with these state legislators to make sure they have all of the information they need to draft the bills,” Anderson told the Heritage Foundation donors. In addition to drafting the bills in some cases, “we’ve also hired state lobbyists to make sure that in these targeted states we’re meeting with the right people.” [...] Days before the Georgia legislature would pass its sweeping bill rolling back access to the ballot, Anderson said she met with Gov. Brian Kemp and urged him to quickly sign the bill when it reached his desk. “I had one message for him,” said Anderson, a former Trump administration official in the Office of Management and Budget. “Do not wait to sign that bill. If you wait even an hour, you will look weak. This bill needs to be signed immediately.” Kemp followed Anderson’s advice, signing the bill right after its passage. Heritage called it a “historic voting security bill.”

Anderson said she delivered “the same message” to Republican governors in Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Texas is the next big fight for Heritage. Anderson said Heritage Action wrote “19 provisions” in a Texas House bill that would make it a criminal offense for election officials to give a mail ballot request form to a voter who hadn’t explicitly asked for one and would subject poll workers to criminal penalties for removing partisan poll challengers who are accused of voter intimidation. It’s expected to pass in the coming days. [...] Hans is briefing governors, secretaries of state, state attorney generals, state elected officials,” Anderson said. “Just what three weeks ago, we had a huge call with secretaries of state, right?”

“We’ve now for several years been having a private briefing of the best conservative secretaries of state in the country that has so annoyed the left that they have been doing everything they can to try to find out what happens at that meeting,” von Spakovsky replied.

“So far unsuccessfully,” Anderson said. “No leaks.”

And of course, manufacturing public opinion in order to influence Congress.

In addition to pushing state-based voting restrictions, Heritage Action is leading the effort to block the passage of HR 1, Democrats’ sweeping democracy reform bill that would preempt many of these voter suppression laws by enacting policies like automatic and Election Day registration, two weeks of early voting, and expanded mail-in voting on a nationwide basis. “HR 1 is basically the dream bill of every left-wing advocacy group we’ve been fighting against for years on election issues,” von Spakovsky said at the donor event.

Von Spakovsky said at the beginning of the year that Heritage put out “a short summary of the worst provisions of a 900-page bill. Now, you all know congressional staffers don’t like reading 900-page bills. That fact sheet we put out is being used by congressional staffers, members of Congress, to go up and fight HR 1.” The group dubbed the bill the “Corrupt Politicians Act,” a label that was soon being used by leading Republicans like Ted Cruz.

“We’ve made sure that every single member of Congress knows just how bad the bill is,” Anderson added. “Then we’ve made sure there’s an echo chamber of support around these senators driven by your Heritage Action activists and sentinels across the country where we’ve driven hundreds of thousands of calls, emails, place letters to the editor, hosted events, and run television and digital ads.” In March, the group organized a rally in West Virginia to urge centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to oppose the bill and “stand up for WV values,” according to an invitation obtained by Documented, even as it bused in conservative activists from states hundreds of miles away. Heritage Action announced on Wednesday it would run ads this summer pressuring Democratic senators in West Virginia, Arizona, Montana, and New Hampshire to preserve the filibuster in order to block HR 1.

This is the first prong of the assault.

The Second prong was largely a failure-manufacturing public opinion among everyday people.

A recording obtained by The New Yorker of a private conference call on January 8th, between a policy adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell and the leaders of several prominent conservative groups—including one run by the Koch brothers’ network—reveals the participants’ worry that the proposed election reforms garner wide support not just from liberals but from conservative voters, too. The speakers on the call expressed alarm at the broad popularity of the bill’s provision calling for more public disclosure about secret political donors. The participants conceded that the bill, which would stem the flow of dark money from such political donors as the billionaire oil magnate Charles Koch, was so popular that it wasn’t worth trying to mount a public-advocacy campaign to shift opinion. Instead, a senior Koch operative said that opponents would be better off ignoring the will of American voters and trying to kill the bill in Congress. Kyle McKenzie, the research director for the Koch-run advocacy group Stand Together, told fellow-conservatives and Republican congressional staffers on the call that he had a “spoiler.” “When presented with a very neutral description” of the bill, “people were generally supportive,” McKenzie said, adding that “the most worrisome part . . . is that conservatives were actually as supportive as the general public was when they read the neutral description.” In fact, he warned, “there’s a large, very large, chunk of conservatives who are supportive of these types of efforts.”

As a result, McKenzie conceded, the legislation’s opponents would likely have to rely on Republicans in the Senate, where the bill is now under debate, to use “under-the-dome-type strategies”—meaning legislative maneuvers beneath Congress’s roof, such as the filibuster—to stop the bill, because turning public opinion against it would be “incredibly difficult.” He warned that the worst thing conservatives could do would be to try to “engage with the other side” on the argument that the legislation “stops billionaires from buying elections.” McKenzie admitted, “Unfortunately, we’ve found that that is a winning message, for both the general public and also conservatives.” He said that when his group tested “tons of other” arguments in support of the bill, the one condemning billionaires buying elections was the most persuasive—people “found that to be most convincing, and it riled them up the most.”

McKenzie explained that the Koch-founded group had invested substantial resources “to see if we could find any message that would activate and persuade conservatives on this issue.” He related that “an A.O.C. message we tested”—one claiming that the bill might help Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez achieve her goal of holding “people in the Trump Administration accountable” by identifying big donors—helped somewhat with conservatives. But McKenzie admitted that the link was tenuous, since “what she means by this is unclear.” “Sadly,” he added, not even attaching the phrase “cancel culture” to the bill, by portraying it as silencing conservative voices, had worked. “It really ranked at the bottom,” McKenzie said to the group. “That was definitely a little concerning for us.”

But it's not just the Kochs as part of this corporate charge to write a fake democracy into the law.
It's a concerted effort by many conservative and corporate interest groups.

In fact, this dates back to before the election-ALEC's CEO was caught on video revealing she had been working with GOP attorneys on ways legislators could question the results of the 2020 election-back in February.
But Trump didn't even claim mail-in ballots led to fraud until April.

And mind you, they hide-the GOP is already pushing to make the opaque process by which these groups are funded even more inscrutable.

I do not like to enter conspiracy-mongering. In fact, most of my effortposts have shown how disparate (and often relatively unconnected) interests have aligned to create negative outcomes. But this is a well-funded, well-organized, and effective, concerted attack on the idea of pluralistic democracy-not merely to defend the causes of ideological conservatism or the Republican Party-but as the only realistic method of attacking entrenched corporate power.

The moment is dangerous. And personally, I fear it is lost.
But here we are, in the American Twilight.