74 Comments
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JF's avatar

Whoa. That is terrifying. The look on his face is worth 1000 words. We are in a dark place.

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Heidi's avatar

I’m more comfortable with TikTok’s reach and propaganda. Then I am with Elon’s X. I do not understand why it gets a pass while TikTok does not.

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Dottie Stone's avatar

They are both very dangerous. The Chinese own tik tok and are stealing all your personal information along with facial recognition. They just hacked into the Treasury Department last week. Tik tok is a big security risk to our country. X is dangerous as well with the misinformation brainwashing people. I refuse to take part in facebook, X, instagram or tik tok. So mindless. If you have to communicate try Blue Sky!

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Jan 21
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Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

Mastodon, unfortunately, is as cumbersome as its namesake. Has it upgraded its tech since launch?

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Heidi's avatar

I assume Elon is also stealing the equivalent amount of information as TikTok. I gave up TikTok a few years ago and X after it was no longer Twitter.

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Anne Minckley's avatar

Oh. My. God. A Mega-reinforcer has arrived. Be not afraid. Be anxious for nothing. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Do we ever have our work cut out……..

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Warrior4Justice's avatar

Much appreciate your comment Anne...focus on the work to do rather than the fear. I am with you!!

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Edie Patterson's avatar

And the crowd sat with it. It’s being magnified. In my brain I think we can, and have to a point, muster the opposition. But the puppet masters have studied the routes to power, have a lot of emotion riding with them. This feels like a skid into a chasm, and I just hope we can stop the slide.

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David Schwartz's avatar

Is this a drug addict? Is this a calculated "shock and awe" show of dominance to make Dems cower? Is this distraction? Is this a manic display of repressed and now uninhibited Africaaner joy? Who knows. He could be dismissed as an outlier jerk if a normal multimillionaire did this .... it's the nation state level of money & media ownership he's hoarded that makes this really really matter. Simon, this is everything you said we need to get better at directly engaging. Do we have the human power & passion to leverage social media to judo this into true liability without the $200, $300, or $400 billion this one yokel has?

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Rachel Poliner's avatar

Oh my god! In case anybody hasn't read Timothy Snyder or needs a review, he summarized his Twenty Lessons on Tyranny in his Substack column today. Read lesson 4.

How can the grifter-in-chief keep him around after that? Cannot be given an office. Cannot be included in decisions or meetings with foreign leaders or anything else!

https://snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-lessons-on-tyranny?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=310897&post_id=155209838&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6ecl4&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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Allan Evan Greene's avatar

According to his biographer, Trump kept a copy of Mein Kampf on his bedstand. I think a lot of people in this administration probably did. How long do we need to wait before fleeing for our lives? Seriously.

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Rachel Poliner's avatar

OMG. I just shaking my head.

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Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

I don't recall anyone providing evidence that he ever read it, or even a CliffNotes (or equivalent) version. If you want to flee to make yourself feel better, go ahead. The rest of us have work to do.

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Warrior4Justice's avatar

With all respect Susanna...about a third of my family fled Nazi Germany just in time (not all of them made it) and that's why I'm here to respond to you.

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Susanna J. Sturgis's avatar

If you have evidence that Trump has actually read _Mein Kampf_ by all means provide it.

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Warrior4Justice's avatar

I don’t have that evidence. I was responding to the part of your statement about people fleeing.

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Thomas's avatar

My understanding is that it was the lawyer for his first wife, Ivana, who wrote in a 1990 report that she told him Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches near his bed and often read through them. "Poisoning the blood" is rhetoric that can be found in Nazi speeches.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2023/12/18/donald-trump-campaign-rhetoric-cnc-vpx.cnn

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Cynthia Erb's avatar

OMG. I am speechless. We have so much work to do.

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Allan Evan Greene's avatar

I had been guardedly optimistic about our collective ability to withstand the outer limits of this change in power. But now? All the pieces are in place to "cleanse" American society. They intend to ad a glorious chapter to Mein Kampf. I know when I'm unwelcome.

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Joe English's avatar

Thank you for enlightening us on Musk's fanatical background.

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Hical's avatar

“It’s always darkest before it goes completely black.”—-John McCain

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Frank Patitucci's avatar

The Musk pic looks a lot like Dr. Strangelove! With a lot of similar ideas.

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Valborg Fletre Linn's avatar

We must fight back against this! Musk and Trump both come from Nazi background and support Facism. We must speak out!

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Dottie Stone's avatar

It should also be noted that trump is the one that wanted tik tok banned in 2020. That has changed since he became friends with Billionaire Yaz, who is heavily invested in tik tok. trump completely flipped and when the Supreme Court held the ban, Biden left it to trump to deal with. Now trump wants to own 50% of tik tok if he can save. What a grifter.

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Thomas's avatar

Around April 20 of last year, the House passed a bill to ban TikTok 360-58.

The list of those voting No is interesting.

https://www.newsweek.com/list-house-member-who-voted-against-tiktok-ban-1892524

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MaryCFM's avatar

Looked at the list. AOC and others. Common sense to me is this

On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld Congress' right to force TikTok's sale, based on national security concerns.

The court noted that TikTok's "data collection practices extend to age, phone number, precise location, internet address, device used, phone contacts, social network connections, the content of private messages sent through the application and videos watched."

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Jerome Weiss's avatar

We keep talking about resistance and opposition. Enough talk, yes? Now tell me where does the opposition and resistance come from? Enough hand wringing, friends. Time for answers.

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Thomas's avatar

I'm encouraged that your post has received 12 Likes to this point. Here's an example of "resistance" from the other side: My House district in Georgia has been a safe red one, even though my county went for Harris by 14 points. Prior to 2024, we had a Democratic candidate for the House who was making inroads. Since the Republican incumbent didn't face a primary challenger, and since Georgia has open primaries, the "powers that be" put up a stalking horse Democrat, and Republican voters crossed over en masse to vote for her. (There was a write-in candidate who represented bona fide Democrats -- and that's who I voted for in the general election.)

I hope you would agree that resistance and opposition are effective when you've got numbers and coordination. On the political-civic front, I've been told that if you can get 500 signatures (with "Occupation") on a petition, your House Member will come and appear live before your group. The group will have to arrange for the venue, and should set the agenda of issues to be covered, and invite the local press. Seems worth considering.

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Sandy Lusk's avatar

Trump is owned by him. Trump looked like a slumped, hunchback old man at his inauguration. He is weak. Musk is a threat to us all and controls Trump. Hopefully, Bannon and the other MAGA's will duke it out and it won't end well for any of them.

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Dottie Stone's avatar

Did anyone notice that trump didn't put his hand on the bible when he was being sworn in? Melania was standing there holding the bibles looking like the Hamburglar in that hat and trump raised his right hand, but his left hand was at his side. He did not even put the hand on the bible while being sworn into office! Now, they are selling an inauguration bible at a higher price if anyone wants to be scammed!

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Thomas's avatar

Yes, I have seen a number of photos showing Trump's left hand at his side, and never touching the Bible(s). It looked like Melania was holding two of them.

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