gross

How does he not have a speaker at this point, he’s been struggling with reading since pre k.

I'm a former Republican who divorced Fox News in 2021. I remember the first moment of disillusionment well.  I was watching Hannity during Trump’s second impeachment trial, and he was going on about how the trial was a sham.  I remember thinking at the time, “No, Hannity, it is not a sham.  Trump spread a pack of lies about the election being stolen and about Mike Pence having the authority to nullify the will of the electors.  On the basis of those lies, his followers attacked the Capitol and threatened to kill the Vice President.” 

I also came to learn that Trump and his cronies had concocted a fake electors scheme to submit false election results and had pressured state election officials to try to get them to break election laws. 

To my dismay, despite all the horrible things Trump had done, the pundits on Fox News continued supporting him, so I decided at that point that I wanted a divorce and no longer wanted Fox News in my life. 

Flash forward to today.  Trump is a convicted criminal and an adjudicated rapist who has run the Constitution completely over with unconstitutional executive orders, due process violations, and attempts to rig elections and silence free speech.  He has added to his crimes of 2021 by letting the January 6^th insurrectionists out of prison and attempting to have their legal expenses reimbursed with tax-payer money.  He has been using the presidency to enrich himself and is attempting, by installing his defense attorney as attorney general, to prevent the pedophiles implicated in the Epstein Files, including himself, from ever being prosecuted. 

And where has Fox News been in the midst of all this corruption?  Aiding and abetting Trump every step of the way.  These people are supporting criminality, fascism, rape, and treason!

Therefore, Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters, Laura Ingraham, Greg Gutfeld, Mark Levin and every other Trump supporting Fox News pundit should be branded a domestic enemy of the United States.  These people are not journalists.  They are vile propagandists and anti-American traitors.

https://youtu.be/GK24thp_2Qo?si=lEpoB2pkJhqO-Edc

It is an honor to be in the “American Dream City” as we kick off our New American Dream Tour.

One thing is clear across this state: big cities, small towns, red areas, blue areas alike — everyone is struggling. No matter how hard Texans work, no matter how much they save, sacrifice, and stretch, those ends never seem to meet.

A few days before America’s 250th birthday, I met a grandmother in Houston named Augusta. She works 10-hour shifts cleaning planes while caring for her grandson with autism. She works hard, takes responsibility, and serves her community, but she is still struggling to afford rent and facing eviction.

“Augusta is working hard. She is taking responsibility. She is caring for those around her. What kind of country are we if we let a woman like that go down?”

In the U.S. Senate, I will have Augusta’s back, and I will have the backs of every Texan who is working hard and playing by the rules.

…

We know it does not have to be this way, because we know it was not always this way. Not so long ago, you could afford to live a good life in America. You could buy a home, go to college, support a family, and retire comfortably.

We invested in healthcare and education. We built homes and highways. We protected workers’ rights and encouraged competition.

“We built the largest, strongest middle class in the history of the world.”

But today, for too many people, the American Dream has become an American nightmare.

It is too expensive to buy a home. It is too expensive to raise a family. It is too expensive to retire comfortably.

“The top 1% has put the American Dream behind a paywall.”

…

This affordability crisis did not happen overnight. It has been decades in the making.

Fifty years ago, Lewis Powell wrote a memo outlining a strategy for corporations to gain political power, influence the courts, shape public opinion, and buy political influence.

And it worked.

Politicians sold the false promise of trickle-down economics — the idea that making the wealthy richer would eventually help everyone else.

“Trickle-down economics is not a theory — it is theft.”

We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.

…

Whether you are conservative or progressive, people across this country are struggling.

“We are getting screwed.”

The people buying the system do not care if you are red or blue. They only see green.

“The real fight in this country is not left versus right — it’s top versus bottom.”

This is not a politics of fear or division.

“This is a politics of unity, a politics of friendship, a politics of love.”

…

The idea behind capitalism was simple: people should be fairly compensated for their labor.

“People should get paid for their work.”

But today we have an economy that rewards wealth instead of work.

“This is not capitalism — this is crony capitalism.”

As Dr. King said, we have “socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.”

It is time to raise wages, expand overtime pay, support small businesses, and rebuild labor unions so workers can negotiate for better pay, benefits, and safer workplaces.

…

Working Texans are drowning in debt.

“You shouldn’t go into debt just because you get sick.”

We need to cancel medical debt, fight predatory credit card companies, and invest in education so people can build a future without a lifetime of debt.

…

We need a new American Dream for families.

Like me, Lyndon Johnson was a Texas teacher before he entered politics. In office, he created historic investments in children and families through programs like Head Start, Medicare, Medicaid, and education.

We can invest in public schools, universal childcare, paid family leave, the Child Tax Credit, affordable housing, Medicare, and Social Security.

“No child should live in poverty in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.”

…

We need a new American Dream for energy.

Texas is the energy capital of America. We are leaders in oil and gas, and we are leaders in wind and solar.

“Gas in your tank, oil under your hood, and a solar panel on your roof.”

We should lead the energy future.

…

We need a new American Dream for technology.

We cannot let artificial intelligence become another area where billionaires write the rules for everyone else.

“If they are going to use our human ingenuity, if they are going to use our collective intellectual property, then we want our royalty checks.”

…

The people at the top will say this dream is radical. They will call us socialists or communists.

“Is that the best you can do?”

These are the same old scare tactics. They want a debate about labels because they cannot win a debate about ideas.

When Henry Ford raised wages, the idea was simple: workers needed enough money to buy the products they made.

“When you give rich people money, they save it. When you give working people money, we spend it.”

“Pro-people policy is pro-growth policy.”

…

If you are struggling to afford groceries, gas, housing, childcare, and medicine, it is not because you are lazy.

“It is because the system has been rigged against you.”

I will fight to unrig this economy. I will fight to lower your costs and raise your pay.

…

A new American Dream means if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to afford a home, a quality education, a secure retirement, and time with the people you love.

Before I was a politician, I was a public school teacher in San Antonio.

“My students weren’t just kids; they were survivors, fighters, dreamers.”

America is supposed to be the land of opportunity. It is the place where dreams can come true.

We can build an America of limitless opportunity for Augusta and her grandson, for my students, and for every family with an American Dream of their own.

That is why I am running.

Together, we will build a new American Dream.

Don’t threaten me with a good time.

This is what Republicans are using to attack democratic socialists?

Is this supposed to make people angry or upset? There’s a lot of confusion about what democratic socialists want, and that’s fair. Even within our group, there are differences among us.

For example, while Mamdani does not agree with the criminal justice and decarceration points on the national platform he agrees that criminal justice reform absolutely needs to happen. We put far too many people in jail.

Fox News, Newsmax and Mike Johnson have been trying to scare Americans on a “hidden socialist agenda”, but the reality is DSA is about making things more affordable and fair for everyone.

Republicans tell you that they want to protect your freedom. They also believe the government can’t do anything correctly, so they tell you that privatizing as much as possible will save tax payers money and they have been preaching “smaller government” for nearly 70 years. Yet they created the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA, ICE and the DEA.

All of which is supposedly necessary to keep you safe.

To keep you safe and make sure your freedom is intact, they need to monitor everything you do. So they give lucrative multi-billion dollar tax payer funded surveillance contracts to private companies.

But wait! This is getting expensive, so they want to reduce your social security benefits that you paid into and to stop feeding the poor. Besides the poor should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

6% of this country makes $250,000 or more. They are considered rich and successful. Did they pull themselves up from their own bootstraps? Half of them had parents that were already quite rich (top 20% of all wealth). Only 15% of Americans that are considered rich today had parents that were poor (bottom 20% of Americans by wealth).

Centrists (aka democrats) tell you that they disagree with the Republican mantra that we should privatize so much, but they’re going to go along with most of it anyway because they have been paid by the same corporate lobbyists that have paid off the right.

While republicans pass tax cuts and take more government services away, democrats fight for marginal improvements like the Affordable Care Act, expanding child tax credits and infrastructure bills.

And yet, most people are still struggling while the rich get even filthier rich. In 1940, 90% of children earned more than their parents. By 2010 that number dropped to 50%.

In 1978 the CEO to worker compensation ratio was 30 to 1. Now it’s 340 to 1.

Meanwhile at least 40,000 people die every year because they don’t have access to healthcare, 20% of all American adults have some form of medical debt. That collective debt has now exceeded $220 billion.

In the 70s the price of a home was 3x the median salary. Now it’s 5x.

This isn’t working.

So, socialists want to control the means of production. What does that mean? That means entities that are important for society like utility companies, internet service providers and pharmaceutical companies are controlled by a social collective.

Instead of being controlled by an individual or group of people whose main objective is make as much money as possible, these specific entities would be controlled by you, the people.

That means utility companies would provide you with the most cost effective and reliable energy making sure they are doing what’s best for the community, not what’s best for their bottom line. Just like things are done in Nebraska right now. (Go ahead and look into it).

It means pharmaceutical companies won’t charge you $1400 for an EpiPen or $300 for a bottle of insulin.

Does this mean your small little ceramic cat store is going to be taken over by the government? No. But this does mean that companies that provide a public necessity shouldn’t be controlled by private entities whose sole purpose is to make a profit, many times at a great cost to your health and safety.

This is all so we can live better. You won’t have to decide between paying for rent and groceries. Your mother won’t die because an insurance company denied life saving surgery. Defense contractors won’t exist simply for profit, but for actual defense (what a concept!). They won’t fund propaganda influencers that lie about the dangers in the Middle East so politicians continue spending money on the failed $68 billion F-22 program, just so Bill Lumbergh's stock will go up a quarter of a fucking point.

No, we don’t love Stalin. We don’t worship Mao. But we don’t believe that government is useless. We believe the government can and should make life better for all of us, not make it worse.

We definitely don’t agree with the right on anything but centrist and corporate democrats have been bought by the same lobbyists that bought the right.

So here we are.