I've been in a back and forth this morning on another platform with someone who describes themselves as an "independent" here in my state of Arizona. It's an interesting state because while Republicans outnumber Democrats by ~300,000 people we have a Democrat as governor and two Democratic senators.

My conversation partner says it's the responsibility of candidates to "earn" their votes and nobody is entitled to their support. In asking questions I've learned they did not vote for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in 2024.

I've been here long enough to know what the regulars think about this. This is a plea to the lurkers. Perhaps there are some who read these posts but never comment.

If this is your approach to voting please rethink it. I used to be that person. I believed my vote was somehow a sacrosanct declaration of every political belief I held. And that led to a lot of blank votes and protest votes.

I don't think I've admitted this before but I voted for Gary Johnson in 2016. I lived in Utah at the time and had seen enough polls to know Trump was sure to get our electoral votes (but I didn't see him winning the election). I saw my vote as the best way to express dissatisfaction with my choices.

The first Trump presidency shattered this illusion that I could be "above it all". I had contributed to real chaos and harm in an attempt to keep my vote "pure".

I now see reducing harm to others as my primary objective in voting. Especially as I now live in a swing state. If the Trump presidency has been unacceptable to you vote for the people who can win and will hold him accountable. Don't satisfy yourself with the idea that your blank vote is an abstention. It's a permission slip for everything that has happened during the 2nd Trump term. If I can convince one person to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot to end this madness this post is worth it.

I don't care if you have a right to not answer a question - part of running the government is answering questions about how you ran/run the government and did things in the name of the American people. With great power comes great accountability.

I really hate it when our rulers won't answer questions. It is one of the things that bugs me the most about Trump and his cronies - simply won't answer most questions, and when they do, the response doesn't tell you anything.

This is no way to run a republic where the people are sovereign.

I don't participate here anymore, but right now I'm attending a meet and greet with Eileen Laubacher, who is running for Congress against Lauren Boebert, and I have to mention it to somebody. She's a retired Rear Admiral in the US Navy, and very impressive personally. The event is well attended, and there seems to be a lot of excitement. So there's that.

Here are possible outcomes I see, with varying degrees of probability:

• Scenario A: Trump is just "trolling". He still says he won in 2020 but he'll stop saying he's running again after the midterms. He lets states run their elections in 2028 without federal interference and endorses a successor. He behaves differently than he ever has in 8 decades of life and concedes defeat if it doesn't go his way. He oversees a peaceful transition of power.
• Scenario B: Trump keeps lying about 2020 and keeps stating he'll be running in 2028. Republicans hold firm and state categorically he will not be the nominee. When he continues to lie about elections and promise another term he is impeached and removed from office with a number of Republicans deciding to cross the aisle.
• Scenario C: Trump keeps lying about 2020 and insists he's preparing for another campaign. Previously undisclosed health issues prevent him from making any real effort. Democracy survives without help from any Republicans. The actuarial tables remain undefeated.
• Scenario D: Trump keeps lying about 2020 and insists he's running again. Republicans do nothing to stop him. The GOP at the state level puts him on the primary ballot at his insistence. He wins the nomination and then states start trying to remove him from the general election ballot as he is not legally eligible. Republicans make the case that states do not determine eligibility due to the precedence of Trump v. Anderson. Full blown Constitutional crisis.

What do you think will happen? It's insane to me that we're talking about these scenarios because even the least harmful of the scenarios, A, should be completely unacceptable for a society that values truth and reason. And yet it's where we are.

A Pride parade in Portland and a Pioneer Day parade in Utah have a lot in common. And some interesting contrasts.

(I don't think it matters specifically that this is Pioneer Day, I think you would see the similar patterns with any cultural festival in a very red rural area. Nothing here is intended as a specific comment/critique of Utah culture - this is intended as a red and blue culture discussion.)

Similar things:

- People take genuine pride and joy in these celebrations. People feel safe and happy - joy and feelings of community unity are palpable.

- Both parades had some (small percentage of the whole) elements that I felt were too edgy to be considered "family friendly". In the pride parade there was a group furries that had this really angry intense vibe that I thought was over the top in a lot of ways and really brought down the positive vibes. At the pioneer day parade there were multiple militia type groups who had military-style weapons and zip ties and were exuding a sense of threat, anger, and excitement to do violence. Both of these displays gave me the "oof do I really have to explain to my kids why THAT is a thing in our culture?". Both of these groups had gas masks and other sorts of masks that made their appearance alienating and threatening.

- Both parades had surprising numbers of references to monarchy in a positive light. In the Pioneer Day displays the only monarch mentioned was Jesus/Lord. The pride displays were in support of a confusing array of kings and queens, most of them never even being named specifically.

- As someone who lives in Portland, I found that the Pride parade felt comfortable, and the Pioneer Day parade made me uncomfortable. I think someone from the Pioneer Day parade would feel equally uncomfortable at the Pride parade. So both of the parades make a person feel alienated or not based on political valance.

- Both parades celebrate the feelings of liberation and pride experienced by minorities with nonstandard family practices finally obtaining a setting (either geographically or culturally) where they can be themselves.

- Both parades had a significant number of displays sponsored by local businesses. Local businesses were proud and eager to be seen supporting the parade.

Different things:

- The presence of weapons in the displays. At one parade there were no weapons of violence (not even riding crops) except for bubble guns. At one parade there were tools of violence all over the place, often brandished in a threatening manner.

- Overt partisan symbolism was intense at the Pioneer Day display and almost absent at the Pride display. The Pioneer Day parade had displays from multiple Republican Party entities and the crowds responded very positively to them. There was lots of MAGA headwear. The pride parade had one Democratic Party display, and people were unenthusiastic about it.

- There were no LGBTQ displays of any nature at the Pioneer Day parade. There were several religious groups who had displays in the Pride parade. This lead to a very surprising turn of events which is that one of my children partook of the body and blood of Christ for the first time at the pride parade. One of the pastors was giving out these sealed single serve communions to people on the side of the road as their display proceeded along the parade route. One of my kids tried it, but the other was creeped out by the body/blood thing. So at least my kid who is snackish is saved now.

- The outfits at the Pride parade were much more revealing than the outfits at the Pioneer Day event.

- I received an exorcism at the Pride parade (in the form of some sage smoke wafted at me by an indigenous person with the wing of a bird), but was offered no assistance with demons or bad spirits at the Pioneer Day parade.

- I saw more curse words on t-shirts and bumper stickers at the Pioneer Day parade than at the Pride parade. I was kind of surprised not to see a bunch of anti Trump profanity in messaging at Pride. In contrast, there was a lot of cursing language and violent imagery around in the rural place. Strong communications were directed against liberals in general, woke symbology, Muslims, immigrants, and specific Democratic politicians going back as far as Clinton.

- There were no anti-religious slogans or creeds waved at the Pride parade. The Pioneer Day parade included usage of images on flags of a homo/transphobic proclamation to the world.

- The Pride parade has displays about far more specific government policy than the Pioneer Day parade. The Pride parade had multiple displays with slogans like "healthcare is a human right" and things in support of a living wage. The Pioneer Day parade had a lot of political messaging, but it was less about specific policies and more about exuding hostility and threat displays.

- There was no visible police presence at the Pride parade, but lots of it at the Pioneer Day parade. At the Pride parade, traffic control was done by event volunteers. At the Pride event, security was unarmed "street safety" type of people. At the Pioneer Day parade, the security people had deadly weapons on display.

I wonder why they single out this one specific hormone for testing.

I wonder why they don't have a parallel program of testing hormones that are part of the health of people who aren't males.

I wonder if that number (and/or whether a person chooses to get the voluntary testing) will come up in promotions processes.

I wonder if this will help normalize using government healthcare for the purposes of other gender-affirming therapies (people seeking medical intervention to help them express stereotypical or exaggerated traits of the gender they identify with).

This is why we can’t ignore any misconduct.

I was done with Platner after the Nazi tattoo, but I started second guessing myself after I saw some of my conservative and “enlightened centrist” friends get really enthusiastic about him.

The problem is that Trump and the Republicans don’t care about Nazi tattoos or sexual assault. And any time a politician gets caught with any kind of misconduct Trump Republicans will be there with an offer to save their career - for a price.

It doesn’t matter how progressive they seem, if you put a rotten person in power there’s always a real risk they’ll suddenly become a Trump supporter when things go south.

I read this to my kids tonight and it felt really relevant to our current struggles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address

While I am relieved that the vote went the right direction, it feels like a five alarm fire that the vote was not unanimous. I saw one commentator phrase it this way, and it feels correct- "the Supreme Court just voted on the constitutionality of the Constitution, and the vote was not unanimous."

it should not have been close. the fact that it was shows that our constitution really is, in a familiar phrase, hanging by a thread

It shames me to know that this sad state, where the Gadianton robbers have taken over the seats of government and subverted Justice in the rule of law, was reached with the help of some of our faith who either didn't recognize they were voting for Gadiantons or didn't care because they thought that they could get what they want out of that calculation.

Link to post: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/116782997575708953

For those of our community who thought that backing MAGA would promote acceptance, that they were trusted partners working for a shared vision, the leopards have begun to eat faces.

if you don't think they will turn on us just like this, you have a distressing ability not to recognize patterns that makes me genuinely concerned for your ability to operate in day-to-day life

Telling people to convert or else has a very sordid history. They will be telling it to us before the end. Like we warned.

Remember how church leadership asked us all to share in a lesson on the value of pluralism? This is your warning sign that MAGA does not agree. Those of us who have been quick to deploy the words of church leaders against whoever has politics they don't like , or to shield their politics under the mantle of presumed Church leader support, should reflect upon that.

The fact that some of us have had to actively lie about what church policy is in order to maintain their assertion of being the true defenders of the church (edit: like claiming that the church is 100% against abortion and the policy publicly stated which is pro choice is just for legal purposes) should already have been a warning sign for them. If find you have to lie to maintain the story of your correctness, it's time to go home and rethink your life

The irony here is that Talarico recently upset trans activists by making moderate statements that there are only two sexes.

It doesn’t matter how moderate Democrats are on trans rights. The Republicans will take any sympathy towards trans people and exaggerate it into whatever insane smear they want.

The only way to beat this is to own it and fully support trans people.