u/omcomingatormreturns

By that date we will know if I was wrong and currently this is only a strongly he'd option based on the evidence available to mem

Trump is going to do something terrible in the weeks before to the days after the midterms, we just don't know what just yet. But we will find out anywhere between October 20th, 2026 and January 21st, 2027. While there are many routes to do so, most would likely fail miserably. But by invoking the Insurrection Act (which he continues to refuse to rule out) he could succeed.

I present the evidence: Because from the start, Hegseth has been purging officers, especially flag officers and colonels. Now he has committed to a further purge, 20% of all admirals and generals. As the brother of an Army veteran, he made me aware that there are some unnecessary generals (in his words "It's possible to be a brigadier general [a 1 star] and not be important, to the point that even certain senior non-comms could potentially be much more important in the big scheme of things."). But he also said that the number is absolutely nowhere near 20% because "Even the Army bureaucracy isn't that incompetent." These purges are not about anything but the further politicizing the military to mold them into an extension of Trump's will. They've already made our military weaker with previous purges and have nearly depleted our supply of offensive munitions in a pointless war with Iran that Trump has proven too cowardly to actually take the steps necessary to actually win. This too though could be a sign of something bad coming - could he be afraid to send the bulk of the combat arms units into Iran, making them unavailable for his plans?

As someone who believes that the war was entered into solely to take the spotlight off of the Epstein files, I find this eminently believable. Even just a number (relatively) small incursions by Marine Expeditionary Units could seize control of the majority of Iran's ability to cut off access to the strait of Hormuz. Now he refuses the Saudis' explicit request for help stopping the Houthis, despite a recent defense pact with the kingdom. Clearly he isn't that concerned with lowering energy prices because he simply doesn't care how the public feels because he has no intention of letting them actually have a free and fair election.

Putin has truly gotten his money's worth with Trump. America is weaker than ever before, at least since the Depression Era. Soft power? Gone. Economic power? Severely weakened, approaching irrelevance due to partners growing tired of his tantrums and antics. Hard power? Diminished to the point of national humiliation. Trump talks about "America First" but what he really means in "MY America First." He wants absolute control, which he currently exercises outside of some loses in court. He absolutely will use the military between now and January to interfere with the elections and he doesn't care about the repercussions - even ones he's too stupid and arrogant to see coming like soldiers refusing orders (or even fighting each other over it), popular uprisings (up to armed revolt) or even being subjected to a military coup d'etat by loyal patriotic soldiers or Marines.

He doesn't care that such a thing will make us into an international pariah, he's been moving us in that direction for years. He's using the Beria to his Stalin that is Pete Hegseth to purge the best and brightest, while he also blocks promotions for women and minorities. This is also unsettling as this means he wants to keep officers who are statically less likely to be aligned with the MAGA movement out of positions of power.

Don't expect him to do anything less than declare an national emergency and then the Insurrection Act. He won't bother with any methods that could be stalled or stopped by the courts. Does that mean he will succeed? That's up to us. Are we brave enough to fight or will we be steamrolled? But mark my words: he will try.

I couldn't take it anymore. Genocide apologist. Social Fascist. Imperialist. Right wing troll. Bot. These are all insults that have been regularly lobbed at me on r/socialdemocracy by the democratic socialists who've infested the sub. All for refusing to be a hate filled bigot hiding behind a gossamer thin veneer of "anti-Zionism". Thing is I'm neither pro or anti Zionism. Israel exists, that's not going to change, especially when they have a shitload of nukes. And I have been unrelenting in my criticism of Netanyahu, the war in Gaza and all his continued 'emergencies' to avoid elections his coalition will badly lose and land him, his family and now probably quite a few of his allies in prison (which was going to happen long before Hamas went on their orgy of rape and murder). But I reject bigotry in all its forms and I see right through them. When I criticize the DSA, they ignore everything I say unrelated to Israel and brigade me. They don't read anything I write, just jump straight to their hatred of Israel and Jews, often making accusations that would be amusing if not for how sinister I know this phenomenon is from history.

Every single political party in history that embraces anti-semitism and its rhetoric proves to be far more dangerous and destructive to their people than their rivals. With the DSA's 2025 decision to expel any members that don't toe the line on that one single issue out of all others speaks volumes.

It's been eating at me for awhile because while I desperately want economic reform, a) I won't pay that price for it and b) I don't actually think they care about working class people like me at all, not after petulantly handing Trump the election twice because they didn't get what they want. The demographics of the DSA and democratic socialists in general give a lot of credence to this: only 4% blue collar membership and the vast majority being privileged, white or Hispanic with at least a college degree (most have advanced degrees), hold good high paying jobs etc: in short they have no skin in the game so they don't care what kind of hell they unleash by letting people like Trump win because they had a tantrum over Gaza. They're wildly out of touch and it shows. Their platform is an abomination, calling for collective punishment (a war crime) and the expulsion of Jews from Israel (a form of genocide), and that's not even getting into all the batshit insane ideas domestically.

People literally don't know what kind of monsters actually hold the power in the DSA that they are bandwagon hopping. The very name is a misnomer, they are "multi-tendancy", with all but 2 of the internal factions being a deeply troubling mix of Stalinists, Maoists, Marxist-Leninists and followers of other long discredited ideologies. And they control the party internally. They are only democratic in the sense that they're seeking to gain control via democracy, afterwards all bets are off (though I don't believe the more sane and moderate factions like Groundwork are necessarily so sinister). I'm basically politically pseudo homeless for the moment, still a Democrat but unsure where I fit.

These assholes need to be stopped and the Dems need to quit chasing fads, not to mention start having open primaries with ranked choice voting because their primary voters are their (and our) own worst enemies. Economic reform can happen without electing these radicals who make AOC look downright centrist.

Warning: effort, historical facts, ugly truths about human nature and nuance ahead, if you can't take it too bad. What the DSA now advocates is genocide, plain and simple, on a scale that dwarfs even Netanyahu's horrific war crimes in Gaza. Collective punishment is a war crime and forcibly displacing (at best) many millions of Jews is genocide. Yet that's what they have decided you have to support. Or else.

This has been really eating at me. I considered joining the DSA just to help drive out the tankies and other extremists who wield way too much power. Then I found out that I could and likely would be expelled for not embracing their 2025 resolution. Said resolution seriously crosses the line from legitimate criticism of Zionism (which not even all Israelis subscribe to), blows right past the politically principled and straight into full on anti-Semitism. Why? Because someone like myself who is neither a Zionist nor an Anti-Zionist and feels that after about 80 years (and a nuclear arsenal big enough to trigger a nuclear winter) that the question of Israel's right to exist is no longer a legitimate question but a settled reality is now officially persona non grata. Israel exists, nothing is going to change that and any country that tries does so at their existential peril.

Fuck the DSA, I don't trust them and neither should any social democrat or sane democratic socialist. We're supposed to reject this kind of ideological purity bullshit, it's kinda why we exist in the first place! Considering that there are millions of socdems and demsocs out there yet the organization remains tiny should warrant a lot more skepticism than it has, especially about why an organization so tiny has such outsized influence and resources, especially considering that all but two of their internal factions are the exact opposite of or at least strongly opposed to true democratic socialism. The more I learn about them, the more sinister their leadership feels. The very name feels like an oxymoron when you look at the organization more than the elected officials. I can't help but suspect that considerable number of far left extremists desperately want to prevent being driven out and instead grow their power and numbers. After all, antisemitism is an excellent predictor of openness to extreme ideology, whether right wing or left wing. Bigotry is bigotry and has no place on the legitimate, democratic pluralist left.

The goal shouldn't be to make an enemy of a nuclear weapons state with one of the worlds most dangerous intelligence services but to out maximum pressure on to force them to change and *seriously* liberalize their position towards the Palestinians, including extending a right of return to those who want it and their own sovereign nation with serious security guarantees and a lot of US/Western aid to help them develop to the same HDI level as Israel (after all, violent militancy and radicalism thrive on deprivation, poverty and fear). Israel's left is not completely innocent and will have to do a whole fucking lot of reforming in the wake of Gaza but the real problem is Netanyahu.

Everything he's done since the Hamas attacks has been because he and his family are facing almost certain prison time once elections are held, which his party's far right coalition is going to lose badly. They were even before Gaza and his actions there have NOT been popular, especially with the opposition. So he keeps exacerbating Gaza, invading Lebanon or straight up manufacturing crises like tricking the notoriously gullible, strongman worshipping idiot in the White House into going to war unprovoked. He will not stop setting the middle east on fire because in his desperation to avoid prison for his crimes, he, his cabinet and much of his coalition have committed so many more that he (and most likely all of his enablers) will almost certainly die in prison now if there's an election. He has to go and international pressure is the only way.

All the DSA has done is give give him rhetorical ammo. Something to point to when he tries to frame his self serving actions as protecting Israel from an existential threat jusy like countless other psychopathic, fascist butchers before him. The goddamn DSA could do vastly more good for the Palestinians by making their platform about going after him and breaking the Israeli far right.

But no, like true extremists and radicals they couldn't resist giving into hatred and adopting a policy whose veneer is so gossamer thin that anyone even vaguely versed in dog whistles, "it's all because jooooos!" conspiracy bullshit and the history of Jewish persecution can see right through it. It's not subtle. Just as disgusting, they have made a wildly authoritarian, thought police decree to expel members who dare to say Israel has a right to exist or criticize them for the thinly veiled anti-Semitism for what it is. Policy by fiat, no intra-party referendum, just forcing it on the party. There's nothing democratic about that! Legitimate political parties in a democracy don't expel people for disagreeing on a policy stance for fucks sake.

Even most Muslim-majority countries no longer pursue such an idiotically extreme position, many of them are their goddamn allies, if not particularly warm ones, now (both open and shadow alliances against Iran are *de rigeur* in much of the modern Arab world). Even before that came to be, years of the old, violent PLO and their still-extremist allies betraying their benefactors has alienated them from nearly every government in the region and the common Palestinian people suffer *badly* for it. Black September, collaboration with Saddam in Kuwait, turning Lebanon into a warzone and failed state (which it still is thanks to Hezbollah) and other incidents have not been forgotten. Think about the fact that even Jordan, whose government is as benevolent and benign as it gets in that region, still doesn't give a damn beyond criticism, both from genuine concern and to placate the population who mostly don't remember when Arafat and his cronies decided that it was perfectly ok to attempt a coup d'etat and violently seize control of one of their biggest benefactors. In the Arab world very few things are considered worse insults, to ones self and their honor, than to be used and made a fool of, especially by someone you tried to help.

This is the same country that gladly takes in, protects and integrates Arab Christians and even other persecuted minorities in the region; King Abdullah II takes his role as Protector of Christendom, aka the Hashemite Custodianship, extremely seriously. Not only in his mandate (respected and recognized by both the Vatican and the Orthodox Patriarch) to protect holy sites in Jerusalem but by also advocating for all Arab Christians, speaking out regularly about the often dire state of persecution they face outside his lands.

He still hasn't forgotten that they tried to murder his father for trying to help them, however. Despite this he still advocates for the people of Gaza after Israel's far right government's atrocities and backs a two state solution just like every sane world leader (as do nearly all the regional governments). You know who the only major player in the region that doesn't? Fucking Iran, the DSA's position is the exact same as the theocratic, fascist regime that Trump's stupid ass has only made stronger, even more deeply entrenched and *somehow even worse and more extreme* than the former leadership he assassinated unprovoked.

The DSA is NOT the organization we need. While I will still support most of their candidates (DAC and the small handful like her can go to hell but the rest are mostly ok in my book), we need to get real here. The DSA is not reformable into anything that could ever win over the working class like myself. It's platform is electoral poison that's very far out of step with the average American. The working class want real economic reform, not a bunch of smarmy, privileged and overeducated little brats who'll hand over the government to a man like Trump when they don't get what they want. I'm so tired of seeing people valorize their own shittiness in '24 because they had no skin in the game. I've struggled terribly both personally and financially since their little tantrum, lost many friends who were here legally to the Trumpen SS, saw my health insurance skyrocket from 100 a month to 100 a fucking check. Millions across the country and world have had it even worse than me by far. Innocent people are dead at home and abroad due to Trump letting Thiel's little do-boy Musk (who are social darwinists and corporate neo-feudalists in the extreme) eviscerate or destroy life saving programs and agencies under the false guise of saving money.

If the American economic left continues what pulling the shit it has since 2016, I don't know if I even want to be associated with it anymore. I'm growing more and more unsure as it is. I'd rather be a watered down Warren style progressive than be associated with hate.and support for illiberal, violent regimes and groups. Not to mention just how annoying it is how many people on this very sub conflate social democracy with Marxism, call themselves leftists (we aren't, social democracy is a mainstream ideology not a far left one, calling yourself a leftist just plays into the GOPs hands to demonize us). Some even petulantly reject democracy because they haven't gotten their way now, now, now, now! (like little brats, not subtle I know but true).

I'm feeling extremely conflicted because of all these things. Everything about the DSA leadership (and a lot of its membership) reeks of the kind of privileged assholes that claim to want to help people like me but only when they get what they want. Wealthy people have to be involved for them to have so much clout for a party that's smaller than even the joke that is the Greens. I guess 2028 will be the biggest test of whether I give up on my beliefs or soldier on. If the economic left don't get what they want and pull the same bratty shit that fucked over minority and working people in 2016 and 2024 again I'm done. A movement that's heavily comprised of privleged assholes will never achieve real change when they keep fucking us over. They need to get out of their fucking bubble and talk to real working people like myself.

Instead of one of my usual long-ass effortposts, I'll try to stick to just the posts title as a thesis statement of sorts and stay at 3 paragraphs lol. This has been a problem for us for many, many years. We get into power and do fuck all with it. Even with all the momentum for serious change among the people, we could easily blow it just like before. With Trump occupying the Oval Office it's inevitable that a lot of what we try to fix won't get done but realistically we already knew that. He'll petulantly veto everything and we'll likely lack the numbers to overcome that. Vance is, if anything, worse in most ways (not that I believe we'd be able to rid ourselves of the current tyrant anyways, not without making some kind of devil's bargain with Vance). Holding massive investigations and bringing Trump and his lackeys' crimes to light will probably be the best we can hope for. That and seizing back the power of the purse.

My primary concern is 2028 and beyond. Intraparty squabbles have been killing us for a long time now. Just 2 pain in the ass senators gutted Bidens agenda from the start. Luckily they're gone and good riddance but they're a perfect example of how things can easily be derailed. Arguably I believe the cultural left will be the biggest albatross around our necks, the center of the Democratic party currently is nowhere near to the right as Sinema and Manchin, who were all about themselves. But the cultural left has been hurting us for a very long time, pushing bad idpol ideas that are wildly out of sync with public opinion. They're the ones who've been dishing out fodder for the GOP''s propaganda leviathan. Sadly, some on the economic left also embrace this divisive bullshit. That's not even getting into the anti-semites like DAC who, unlike say Mamdani, have some truly problematic views. I'm neither a Zionist nor an Anti-Zionist myself, I'm a realist about the situation. I believe a two state solution is the only viable option, especially when we're talking about a nuclear weapons state, undeclared as it may be. I could care less about problems outside the US that no amount of rhetoric is going to change, especially when that rhetoric is largely out of step with the general population (though I do believe an end to unconditional support and aid [shifting some of that to help instead build a free and democratic Palestine] will force them to become more realistic, less militarily aggressive and open to compromise, reduce the power of their ethnonationalist right and possibly one day lead to the two states unifying as a civic nationalist in future decades).

I really only care about the massive undertaking that reforming the US economy and government is going to be as well as about protecting the sovereignty and freedom of countries under imperialistic pressures or outright invasions (Taiwan and Ukraine respectively) more than helping Israel, a military powerhouse. I care about social justice but feel it's a hollow pursuit when there is no economic justice to give it teeth, especially when the country is rife with ultra rich reactionaries with more power than the rest of the population. We're facing a long and uphill battle too, as the "conservatives" will fight tooth and nail to stop us from stripping away even the smallest unfair advantages they've built into the system for four decades, much less reforming the SCOTUS or illegalizing gerrymandering. We're fighting an existential battle for the United States that we can't afford to lose. A "Trump who's not a functionallu illiterate moron" is inevitable if we don't and dislodging him or her could be impossible if we keep sticking with the culture war horseshit that divides not just the electorate but the party as well .

I like spiders honestly. My house is full of them. Mainly because we live in South Florida so we get frequent infestations of fruit flies, carpet beetles and other pests. I love my spiders but today I came dangerously close to a brown recluse under my bed. I know they aren't native but they do come down here with all the people constantly moving here from colder places thinking this is paradise (at first, it only takes about a month to disabuse them of that notion). I'm willing to admit my brother and I, who share ownership, aren't the cleanest people ever since our central air broke a few years back and we haven't been able to afford to fix it. We're stuck using portables because our condo association are a bunch of classist assholes who don't allow window units. So basically we spend all day (when not at work) huddled close to said units as they valiantly struggle against our hottest summer yet (which seems to be every summer for the last five years).

Neither of us are in great health so trying to keep this place clean in the extreme heat can be downright dangerous for us. We always get the place straightened out in what passes for winter down here but it never lasts. Pesticides just don't seem to cut it, they just kill a few and stink up the house. Worse, the carpet beetles seem to have attracted centipedes which unlike medically insignificant spiders scare the shit out of us. Probably because they're aggressively defensive, vicious little jerks with an often excruciating nip. However, we especially worry about the keys giant centipedes that occasionally show up here since they're a lethal risk to our pets (we live just within walking distance of the bridge to Key Largo). I know the most effective way to rid ones home of pests is to eliminate their food (which we've done pretty well against the flies with this year) but these damn carpet beetles and their larva will eat practically anything.

So I'm wondering what species of active hunters would be best to go round up to hunt the bastards down? I know about the benefits of wolf spiders and jumping spiders but because we have lizards down here like a garbage dump has rats and roaches they can be hard to find. Huntsman are out, they're one of only three species of spider we won't tolerate along with black windows and recluses because their poor eyesight combined with highly defensive temperament and considerable size make them downright daunting and unpleasant to have lurking around. Are there other active hunters I could look for to help wage my war on these little cretins? I know beetles often are avoided as prey due to the fact they tend to taste pretty bad (to spiders and other predatory arthropods at least) so I'm aware this could be a complicating factor but it hasn't stopped the many web builders in the house from snacking on them when they get caught.

Edit: I should add for those unfamiliar with Florida, the climate in SFL, especially the very tip of America's Wang where we live, is a tropical climate. It's the only one in the continental US, possibly the only one period as I think Hawaii may be too cool and too far north of the equator to qualify but I may be wrong on that. So I'll understand if not many people are familiar enough to be helpful

Also don't bother with any "witty" responses like "clean your shit!" because at best you're only gonna get a response that says "read my post dumbass". It's 95 degrees with humidity around 90% constantly for seven months out of the year. Without central air, both our heart conditions get severely agitated doing just about anything, even when we're right next to the portable ACs. It's just that damn hot here and it's even worse indoors. So unless you wanna make some scratch on a one time gig in America's worst state, keep your smartassery to yourself please. I'm looking for genuine advice.

Then again, if you wanna make 500 bucks just that badly, well have I got the opportunity for you...

In a way I guess you could say I'm leaning in both directions. I believe we could win back a good number of them by leaning into policy changes that will improve their lives, but with some caveats. First, I think we're the most likely to get back the ones who just quit voting when they felt both parties were screwing them, that's been going on since Clinton's botched "Third Way" bullshit. Second, I think we can easily win back a large number of minority working class voters who were wooed by the GOP's gargantuan propaganda machine last election, only to find themselves on the wrong end of a glorified ethnic cleansing program and their lives much worse off because of the K-shaped economy and the stagflation that no one (in the media at least) seems to talk about but is definitely happening (and getting worse).

Now keep in mind, from this paragraph on this is largely just this one man's opinion, but I am *technically* a part of this cohort I'm about to pontificate on, at least in the most broad sense of the term: I'm white, 42 and I work my ass off physically and mentally for a living as a cook. Something about me makes bigoted white people way too comfortable being who they really are, maybe it's my thick Virginia accent, my mean case of RBF or both and more. Who TF knows. But I know these people. All too well. Ironically they can't read me too well, since my autism is masked very carefully around people I don't know. They rarely pick up on just how much venomous sarcasm my words are dripping with, or notice how mockingly over the top my responses are. One can't expect much better from people who still can't recognize Sacha Baron Cohen when he's trolling them to their faces and thought the Colbert Report was serious right wing commentary. They can't even use the internet adage of Poe's Law as a defense because of how obvious both Cohen and Colbert are/were in their antics.

Anyway, so here's where the naiveté sets in for me: Finally my third point, I don't think we'll ever win back the oft-discussed "White working class" voters (quotes meant to indicate that they're actually not a very good representative sample of all working class Whites but a bloc within that group. They should really be re-labled as reactionary lower-to-lower-middle income Whites but that's a mouthful. After 40 years of aggressive propagandizing aimed squarely at radicalizing them including demonization campaigns against every minority group imaginable, fearmongering, normalizing hate, Christofascism and bigotry again, laser-focusing on wedge issues and intentionally amplifying the loudest, dumbest voices on the left I think most of this block that votes is either irredeemable or at least not persuadable.

Conservatives have spent frankly more money in four decades cultivating and building them up into a reliable voting bloc than they likely have gained/would have lost if they hadn't. But at the level most of the modern GOP's actual masters are at, money is less important than power. People like Musk, the Ellison's, Thiel, Andreesen, Fuckerberg, Bezo, the Kochs (and so depressingly many more) don't sink the equivalent of the combined fortunes of some states populations into bolstering the GOP's coffers and growing it's already hulking propaganda monstrosity for money, they do it for power, lots and lots of power. Anyone who's politically aware who hasn't had that drilled into their skulls since the '22 and '24 election cycles is either a reactionary themselves or incredibly thick skulled. It's been a pretty serious problem ever since the shameful Citizens United decision but the last several years have seen the oligarchy grow far more brazen and open about the machinations that they're engaged in.

If it weren't for the dramatic crash of the Evangelical population's percentage of the population in the last two decades, driven mainly by their own actions, we would truly be in some very deep shit. Thankfully, growing up around all the hypocrisy and pseudo-Christian bullshit teachings seems to automatically drive a significant chunk of their children to the left and drove away the less ideologically engaged, more thoughtful members they once had. But the fact remains that most of what we call the "white working class" are part of the religious right: not only Evangelicals but also socially conservative Catholics, Jews and others. Many aren't even very active in their faiths, as is especially evident among the non-evangelicals, whose faiths' teachings largely contradict their simple-minded social conservatism. That doesn't stop them from using it as their excuse of course. Reactionaries almost always abuse religion to their advantage.

Tl;dr: while it's a fight worth at least trying to win, we really need to manage our expectations. As patronizing and paternalistic as I know this will sound, oftentimes the thing people need protection from most is themselves, and working class social conservatives are the epitome of this. They are the modern, expanded iteration of the concept of the "lumpenproletariat' (one of the few things I think Marx was completely right about actually, as they are now no different politically than the rabble he originally meant and just as readily serve the same purpose for the ruling elite as the " classic" lumpen). Their minds are (or over time become) hardwired towards closed mindedness and bigotry, ergo they will always side with their oppressors over their own socioeconomic class or even their own interests.

So, you've seen my in depth opinion on the matter, now what do you folks think?

Short and sweet: just here in South Dade, Homestead especially, these developers have destroyed so much of the local ecosystem and the authorities are helping them by intentionally classifying entire lakes, large ponds and other wetlands as if they weren't natural permanent features despite having always been there in my 20 years down here. I've watched them fill in and pave over at least seven of them just within 4 miles of my home, including a pretty damn large one that used to take up a lot of space on the northern side of Palm Drive. Woodlands other habitats are being completely wiped out so now we have coyotes running around eating people's pets, some seriously big4ass monitor lizards hanging out in our parking areas and backyards, foxes running around (which are cute and harmless mostly but it's neither safe nor conducive to their natural lifestyle) and I'm definitely seeing gators way more often than I'd like when I'm out fishing. Which I now have far fewer places to do so in that aren't canals. The loss of green spaces and other natural habitats is making it hotter here than ever with all the concrete and other heat retaining bullshit that's replaced them, not to mention the roads are more packed than ever which also raises the temperature.

The sheer magnitude of the state and local authorities short-sightedness, corruption and greedy bending over backwards to accommodate this massive overdevelopment is shocking even for Miami Dade/Florida. All to accommodate a bunch of wankpanzer driving assholes (god... so many hideous Cybertrucks now) with lots of money but no personality - so they've made their political ideology their entire persona. I fucking hate those sort of people whether they're left, right or center. These idiots flock down here to DeSantis' siren call and then do nothing but bitch about it. It's too hot!! No shit you fucking ignoramus, it's Florida. Being hot is all this state reliably does. Everything is so expensive! Well, moron, if you did any research first, you'd have known that inflation in Florida has been above the national average under your beloved Meatball and Miami Dade county has the highest in the whole fucking country. Nobody speaks English!! A) Fuck you. B) Yes most of them do..On that one that's all I will say: fuck youz you racist pricks You knew where you were moving. The roads are terrible and there is traffic constantly;! Well, it was never great but then all of you came here and now it's terrible practically all day. We don't have the room to expand the roads so deal with it. There's long lines all the time and restaurant wait times are so high!! Well, before you assholes neither of those things was as big of a problem outside iof fucking Walmart, also shut the fuck up and be glad you have the money to waste on going out to eat in the first place. I work in a restaurant and even with my employee discount I cant afford to waste money on such needlessly expensive luxuries. FPL is too busy conspiring to jack up my bills and arbitrarily raise my deposit, I have to spend 100.bucks to buy what 50 would get me(especially on groceries) before your beloved Trump ran the economy into the ground.

It really must be nice to have enough money and privilege to up and move because you can't stand the fact that most of the people back home disagree with you. God knows plenty of us would gladly trade states with you but we didn't have life handed to us by mommy and daddy. Too bad you came to a place where plenty of us don't either, even if we're only a sizable minority. That's still a lot of people whose opinions you don't wanna tolerate and frankly, thanks to ten plus years of y'all going off the deep end, the feeling is mutual. But we don't get belligerent with total strangers for voicing their opinions because we don't want to get shot by some unhinged, authoritarian crazy person. This has happened to me (the former, not the latter, thank God) and several other people I know.

So thanks for wrecking the local environment, killing untold amounts of fish and other animals (including the aforementioned peoples pets ffs) and making it that much easier for storm surge to one day really fuck this place up again. And enjoy your hugely overpriced but cheaply built Lennar homes while you can, won't be long until this place is underwater or flattened by another storm. By that time I'll have gotten my ducks in a row, sold my condo and moved to one of the many much nicer states to live in that you abandoned for the giant mess that is America's wang.

Until then, fuck you, fuck these developers and fuck everyone who's enabling them. I just hope I can clear out before this area suffers another housing bubble popping. And it will, *this county has been rated by economists as being at the highest risk in the entire WORLD of that happening in the near future.* Hopefully I'll be thousands of miles away to enjoy the schadenfreude and not stuck here for God knows how much longer because my home became worthless.

Yes, I know unlike the Greens they operate as something of a subsidiary of the Democratic Party electorally, which has worked for them when it comes to their most mainstream candidates. But they've also made major, avoidable fuck-ups because of their ideology first attitude and a piss poor vetting process. Which seems to be an utter shit, amateur hour operation given just how much and how bad this Plattner fiasco has gone. Thanks to their refusal to see the red flags piling up for what they were, now we're stuck in a spot where we may very well not be able to unseat Collins.

We deserve something better, something that doesn't tolerate misogny, antisemitism, etc. We deserve a real, viable platform with a stable ideological alliance of SemSocs and SocDems not a loose "multi-tendancy" confederation of everyone from the aforementioned most mainstream ideologies mixed in various stains of Marxist illiberals of all sorts who are actively hostile to democracy, the kind of assholes who say the kind of off putting hyperbolic bullshit like "if you scratch a liberal, a fascist bleeds" or call people like me Social Fascists. Those idiots are the darlings of the right wing's propaganda, disinformation and radicalization apparatus, the ones who get those of us on the far end of the center-left painted as dangerously radical, America hating wannabe tyrants.

With the public finally souring on the neoliberal, barely regulated capitalism that's made so many lives miserable and little better than wage slaves we need something a hell of a lot more attractive to non-MAGA working class people.

Why can't we form a United States Labor Party that also operates as an electoral subsidiary of the Democratic Party, one only open to social democrats, democratic socialists and progressive populists (i. e. Warren Democrats and like minded independents). Without the baggage of the DSA, such a group would already be ideologically in sink with the few DSA members who've actually won major office seats. Not to mention being far more palatable to the kind of donors who balk donating to the DSA because of its extreme positions and tolerance toward rampant antisemitism and other unacceptable behaviors.

Doesn't exactly sound like a revolutionary idea to me.

The world's most powerful and dangerous god-complex driven, narcissistic psychopath and solipsist click here (for those unfamiliar), has of course made the 4th all about him. No surprise there. But combined with the weather, a piss poor and undersized security setup (the event predictably will be run by the inexperienced idiots who basically only produce his mostly indoor rallies) and the massive amount of toxic metals that damn near a million fireworks launches and detonations will produce all mean that there will also make it a potential health, safety and security nightmare for not just all involved but the population of DC in general. The elderly, infirm and asthmatics will be the most severely at risk, but the danger is enough that health experts are recommending mask usage by everyone.

That's not even getting into the threat posed by lone wolf attacks (whether by mass murder fantasy-obsessed pieces of shit but also by other more competent and dangerous groups (Iranian IRG and proxies come to mind given they past willingness to go after him directly) with malicious intentions toward both him and the American people in general.

Personally I'm praying for it to just be another embarrassingly low turnout high profile, money wasting humiliation like his nearly 99% MAGAt attended "Fair".

Whilst I'm by nature principled against wishing them any great harm or ill, I also couldn't give less of a shit about the health or wellbeing of those vicious, smooth-brained fascists, bullies and selfish greed driven assholes. God knows they'd happily put an end to ours if they could. This isn't even political hyperbole ffs! One can find copious proof via a mere cursory Google search alone shows their deep malice and countless examples of how they love to celebrate whenever we suffer as well as actively call for our *deaths* and/or demands we be subjected to political mass arrest and even political genocide jus for having the gall to care about the welfare of others and criticize their white "christiam' supremacist dollar store 'messiah'.

Regardless, even if it all goes safely it's going to be a typical underwhelming Trumpian embarrassment mess. A national humiliation that turns the day of our nations birth into yet another of this pathetic, vile man's exercises in masturbatory narcissism they only the most ardent (and affluent enough to waste money on trip to DC in this economy) followers will attend.

Especially since the exploding fireworks are going to be so apocalyptic in volume and scale that locals won't even need to bother leaving their porch for the love of God. Probably best anyway,b considering how most of the attendees are gonna be racist shitheads.

Facts are facts, the average left leaning voter and the average independent voter are more intelligent than the average MAGA/social conservative GOP base voters. Obviously not all Republicans or even conservatives are stupid, plenty are smart but greedy, selfish and low empathy. Trump's base in particular are very low engagement/low information voters and many will likely go back to not voting when he croaks. More of us are likely to be able to figure out how to get proof of citizenship on our own and we're certainly more motivated to help others do the same. Hell I'm starting the process of getting a passport myself just because I don't trust those GOP fucks not to pull something or the holdouts to not be cowards. Not to mention he seems to underestimate just how *fucking pissed* the majority of Americans are right now, mainly about the economy. The People want change and they want it fast. Has anyone in the GOP had the nuts to tell him this to his face? Probably. But he's such a self deluded, imbecilic clown he's never gonna let this dead horse go a day unbeaten.!

While discovering that I was autistic was surprisingly liberating and explained so much, I've also struggled with some elements. With some elements I have been able to "train" myself (with considerable effort and varying success) to control some things like my emotional dysregulation, significantly improved my blunted-to-flat affect as well as my ability to display the considerable empathy I feel (though I sometimes overdo it, it's significantly improved my social interactions and how people perceive me) but I still struggle with many other things both socially and in my ability to manage my life in general ex. my house is a disorganized dump that I'm too ashamed to have over any of the friends that I've made since becoming more self aware. Even if I clean it up, I can't break the habits that lead to it going all to hell). As I stated in the title, I've never had much success at all with CBT. It was essentially just paying someone to listen to me vent and I never progressed in any real way. I know CBT is probably the most common form but I find myself confused and unsure about the alternatives. I really don't want to waste my time and money (both of which I have way less of to go around as I did just a couple years ago as now I have to work more just to maintain the same relative, if fragile, level of stability I've finally achieved).

I welcome any advice and want to say thanks in advance to those who offer it!

Edit: I do have insurance but the copays can be kinda high and I'm not 100 percent sure how to get things like therapy covered as being insured is still relatively new me

While I have to admit I find the idea of a global civilizational collapse, particularly in the developed, industrialized parts of the world,nfrom anything short of the unavoidable such as a cosmic event, a contineant VEI8 supervolcano (not seen on earth in countless millions or large scale strategic nuclear exchange, I've become convinced that it is inevitable in the United States and increasingly so in the global South. Those in the latter I am convinced history will largely view as our largely innocent victims whom we all but murdered due to an indefensible but potent combination of sociocultural vices and flaws like growing anti-intellectualism, the majority's apathy/indifference/FYGM and the monstrous psychopathy of the nations corporate/financial and especially GOP/MAGA (as well as the almost extinct Sinema/Manchin type Dems) governing elites that have aligned so strongly aligned with these interests and have continued to wage a conscience-free rhetorical war for 40 years to teach out era of "Peak Stupidity".

Those same forces will also be the ultimate cause of death for the US as this 30+ years process of decline, eventually claims us as well in the coming decades. if anything, we will pay the price in full before anyone else (almost certainly along with other global predators like Russia, which has become vastly more internally unstable ). It will certainly be easier for the other state powerhouses in Europe and Asia to try to hide from their own, while better, still woefully inadequate steps to to prevent or even mitigate the crisis and scapegoat us (not that we won't deserve a lot of the blame). Whether by conflict, breaking up (with the Red states completely failing in a decade and making everything even worse, an electorate that only cares about "easy answers" pushed by incompetent, populist charlatans, demagogues and autocrats more interested in continuing/accelerating democratic back sliding, historically very high levels of corruption, cronyism and self dealing. We're not exactly innocent as a whole either. Few of us do even the bare minimum and younger generations often far more vocally upset yet toll we content to hear their own constant righteous pontificating and useless slacktivism while actively making things worse by consumption of terribly destructive industries unlike fast fashion, cheap, heavily polluting Chinese businesses like Temu, Shein etc, utilizing ravenous energy vampire, data centers that are infamously heavily polluting and community resource straining for their AI products (which are far-too-generously designated as such.

Combined with all the hyper partisanship, negative partisanship at that, record high levels of voter ignorance and a culture of excess that valorizes our worst and most base behaviors, little real will to enact the sweeping and sometimes radical changes needed across the board to address both the climate crisis and the inequality fueling our own spiral into a civilization in decline (much less a will on scales long enough to mitigate the damage we've already done or to severely punish vindictive "rolling coal" and other intentional acts of environmental destruction by far right scum (who do it precisely to be assholes), I can't see the US citizenry caring enough that we end up surviving the coming challenges, potential violent internal conflicts much less avoiding the eventual national collapse it started when the re-elected Trump despite his first term being a master class in abuse of power, corruption, graft and criminally negligent (and worse) governance in his first term. *Or the fact that inflation began under him as a direct result of his own desperation (to get re-elected) via monetary give ways, wildly, stupidly easy to abuse programs like PPP and other policies).

At this point I even question if we deserve to last much longer given just how skewed and often mutually exclusive our priorities are. Personally I'm rooting for a full own blue state secession that results in a new union, this time with Canada. The sins of the Deep South and Red states in general are just too damned egregious but with Jim Crow II underway thanks to the.manyb recent SCOTUS cases, a now very partisan co-equal branch of government last straw for me and my belief that they even deserve to do anything other than turn into the real life Mad Max failed state they're certain to become in the near future without the rest of the US footing their bills. Not to mention protecting them from the worst of their own and their brutal Theocracy fantasies.

Curious to hear what everyone else thinks of my take.