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Thursday 2nd of October 2025

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2024 Presidential election Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site.  It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter.  The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth. I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. Taylor Swift, September 10, 2024, minutes after the Trump-Harris debate © 2024 Kwiple.com
2024 Presidential election Trump and his running mate, J. D. Vance, implicitly appeal to a more symbolic notion of representation: however complex and diverse American society might seem to be, its essential form is male, white, and at least culturally Christian. This has always been so in the past, and must always be so in the future. If demography, and therefore democracy, is flowing away from this eternal truth, then democracy must be frozen in time. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, September 19, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
2024 Presidential election What s truly strange is not just Trump's chronological age but the anachronistic vision in which only white men who plant their seed in fertile women are authentic citizens and legitimate rulers. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, September 19, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Abortion A woman who gave her name as Wilson died at Chippewa Falls from a criminal operation performed upon herself. Her parents live near Eau Claire . . . her brother took charge of her remains. The woman was young and pretty and visited every physician in Chippewa Falls to accomplish her object, but without success. Badger State Banner, April 6, 1893, quoted by Michael Lesy in Wisconsin Death Trip © 2024 Kwiple.com
Alt-righters [T]he question of whether or not the moderrn far right's stance is “fascist” has no bearing on the moral accceptability of its proposals. For instance: would the expulsion of non-whites from a country be more accepatble if it was the work of a non-fascist government? Kevin Passmore, Fascism: A Very Short Introduction © 2024 Kwiple.com
Authoritarianism As he [Trump] put it in his speech accepting the Republican nomination in 2016, "I alone can fix it." At the heart of authoritarianism is this notion of indispensability. The leader is unique, unparalled, irreplaceable. God has chose him to rescue and revive the nation. That is why he cannot be constrained by law or even by the ordinary calculations of rationality. Only in his infallible instincts and indominable will does salvation lie. … The valorization of the lone savior suits reactionary politics — it is not a good fit for democracy. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, August 15, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Bad news A study once found that using the Fox News website as a news source made you less informed than watching no news at all. It's the Ozempic of knowing things. And still not as bad as the “news finds me” people.  That's the growing cohort of Americans who believe that if a story's important enough, it will find it's way to their social media feed. Yeah. These are the people who trust their  Facebook friends to watch Hannity for them. Bill Maher,  Real Time with Bill Maher, June 21, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Democracy American democracy cannot be saved if it is not reimagined, deepened, expanded and brought into line with contemporary American realities. Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books, September 19, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Dictatorship No people ever recognize their dictator in advance. He never stands for election on the platform of dictatorship. He always represents himself as the  instrument of the incorporated national will. When Americans think of dictators, they always think of some foreign model. If anyone turned up here in a fur hat, boots, and a grim look, he would be recognized and shunned. … But when our dictator turns up you can depend on it that he will be one of the boys, and will stand for everything traditionally American. Dorothy Thompson, 1935 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Fascism Fascism has an enigmatic countenance because in it appears the most counterpoised contents. It asserts authoritarianism and organises rebellion. It fights against contemporary democracy and, on the other hand, does not believe in the restoration of any past rule. It seems to pose itself as the forge of a strong State, and uses means most conducive to its dissolution, as if it  were a destructive faction or a secret society. Whichever way we approach fascism we find that it is simultaneously one thing and the contrary, it is A and not A. José Ortega y Gasset (1927) © 2024 Kwiple.com
Fascism Fascism is a new name for the kind of terror the Negro has always faced in America. This kind of terrorism is extending more and more to groups of people whose skins are not Black. Langston Hughes, 1936 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Fascism I prefer the adjective “fascistic” because it recognizes similarities without implying a central core. The adjective is a cluster concept: a cluster of ideas and values that are found frequently but not universally. This concept allows us to recognize the  fascistic elements of the Klan's 1920s career  without branding it as a fascist organization. Even the American groups that called themselves fascist typically shared some but not all characteristics and ideas. Linda Gordon, “The Ameican Fascists,” in Fascism in America: Past and Present, edited by Gavriel Rosenfeld and Judith Ward © 2024 Kwiple.com
Fascism The only thing that really distinguishes fascism from other concepts is its enormous negative moral charge. … Politicians and journalists use definitions  as weapons and fascism is a very good one. Kevin Passmore, Fascism: A Very Short Introduction © 2024 Kwiple.com
Fascism Trump can be called a fascist because he differed from any previous American president in having the explicit goal of destroying democracy at home, disengaging America from democratic international networks, and allying with the autocrats he admires, like Putin. As for other autocrats, the presidency was just a means for Trump to achieve his real goals: self-enrichment and self-protection. Ruth Ben-Ghiat © 2024 Kwiple.com
Freedom of the press Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one. H. L. Mencken © 2024 Kwiple.com
Hate In every society, there is a need for a part of the citizens who must be hated. Benito Mussolini © 2024 Kwiple.com
Higher education Only 22 per cent of US adults said it’s worth getting a four-year degree if one has to take a loan to do it,  according to a Pew Research Center survey this year. Patti Waldmeir, Financial Times, September 2, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
History The past is, by definition, a datum which nothing in the future will change. But the knowledge of the past is something progressive which is constantly transforming and perfecting itself. Marc Bloch, The Historian's Craft  © 2024 Kwiple.com
Israel Stealing Palestinian sheep has become a habit of the outpost settlers throughout  the Jordan Valley and the central West Bank, along with nocturnal raids, burning homes and vehicles, destroying solar panels and wind turbines, shooting live ammunition at  villagers and their herds, breaking anything breakable and beating anyone beatable. David Shulman, New York Review of Books, September 19, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Count votes in Congress by: 1. Calculating a Member's Proportional Vote (MPV) for each member, as follows: MPV = SPNP / NLRS where: SPNP = State's Percentage of the National Population NLRS = Number of Legislators Representing the State (in that legislature) 2. Totaling “yes” MPVs and “no” MPVs 3. Passing if total MPV is more than 50 OTHERWISE Abolish the Senate © 2019 Kwiple.com
The military I don't get it. What was in it for them? --> Donald Trump, watching a grieving father at Arlington National Cemetary, on Memorial Day, 2017, to John Kelly © 2024 Kwiple.com
The military That guy is smart. Why did he join the military? --> Donald Trump, speaking about General Joe Dunford, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff © 2024 Kwiple.com
Post-2022 Senate shituation 15 states (Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming) 2020 population: 40,737,128 Senators: 30 Republicans 1 Senator per 1,357,904 people — 1 state (California) 2022 population: 39,995,077 Senators: 2 Democrats 1 Senator per 19,997,539 people 19,997,539 / 1,357,904 = 14.7, therefore: average 15er's vote is worth nearly 15 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth less than 7% of an average 15er's — 1 state (Wyoming) 2022 population = 579,495, therefore: 1 Senator per 289,748 Wyomians, a Wyomian's vote is worth 69 times a Californian's, a Californian's vote is worth 1.4% of a Wyomian's  © 2023 Kwiple.com
Presidential immunity from criminal prosecution It [Trump v. United States] also weighs the executive authority as more important than the public interest; indeed, it equates the public interest with the need to immunize the president from criminal prosecution, so that the president can do whatever he thinks he needs to do. This is the essence of authoritarianism. Sean Wilentz, New York Review of Books, August 15, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Public discourse She destroyed the city of San Francisco, it’s — and I own a big building there — it’s no —I shouldn't talk about this but that’s OK. I don’t give a damn because this is what I’m doing. I should say it's the finest city in the world — sell and get the hell out of there, right? But I can’t do that. I don’t care, you know? I lost billions of dollars, billions of dollars. You know, somebody said, “What do you think you lost?” I said, “Probably two, three billion. That’s OK, I don’t care.” They say, “You think you’d do it again?” And that’s the least of it. Nobody. They always say, I don’t know if you know.  Lincoln was horribly treated. Uh, Jefferson was pretty horribly. Andrew Jackson they say was the worst of  all, that he was treated worse than any other presi-. ident. I said, “Do that study again, because I think there’s nobody close to Trump.” I even got shot!  And who the hell knows where that came from, right? Donald Trump, Potterville MI, August 29, 2024 © 2024 Kwiple.com
Punt returners say News to me. Chuck Schumer, 1:10 PM – Aug 6, 2024, responding to Republican talk show host Erick Erickson's 9:04 AM – Aug 6, 2024 tweet: No Jews allowed at the top of the Democratic Party. © 2024 Kwiple.com
 
Religion Show me a Puritan, and I'll show you a son-of-a-bitch. H. L. Mencken © 2024 Kwiple.com