Senate Gabe
@senategabe.bsky.social
11K followers 2.9K following 8.2K posts
Did stuff in the US Senate for a bunch of years. Fight the fucking fascists. Signal: @SenateGabe.33
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senategabe.bsky.social
I would like to be clear that I do not think they are victims. They can resign.
senategabe.bsky.social
Yeah agree with all that.
senategabe.bsky.social
I purposely posted about it because yes I think class and wealth plays role here but I've been sort of frustrated with the "It is capitalism" argument.

I guess. Most people thought capitalists got mad when people tried to murder them until recently. So it needs more than that.
Reposted by Senate Gabe
rulen613.bsky.social
Abused spouses don't leave their abuser, because they cling to an idea that they can work it out. It'll get better if they just appease better.

Same psychological mechanism, and we're the kids watching and half of us side with the abuser, half want the abused to leave & take us with them.
senategabe.bsky.social
Certainly as good a theory as any. I agree its a constellation of things as opposed to one specific thing.
senategabe.bsky.social
Not sure what happened to him but his behavior has been inexcusable.
senategabe.bsky.social
The decision by Colorado was one of the moments I knew we were in really really deep trouble. I remember assuming that disqualification was absurd and then I read the actual decision and realized how obvious it was.
Reposted by Senate Gabe
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
The recent trajectory, in broad strokes:

- Regime starts militarizing the conflict in early summer
- Regime declares all liberal/leftwing political activity as domestic terrorist or terrorism-adjacent in presidential memo
- Regime ramps up the propaganda against “the Left” across all channels
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
The regime gets more deranged every day. A rightwing conspiracy theorist assassinated a Democratic lawmaker - which the attorney general presents as an example of leftwing political violence in order to justify an authoritarian crackdown on the opposition…

We’re in incredibly dangerous territory.
atrupar.com
Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."
Reposted by Senate Gabe
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
The regime gets more deranged every day. A rightwing conspiracy theorist assassinated a Democratic lawmaker - which the attorney general presents as an example of leftwing political violence in order to justify an authoritarian crackdown on the opposition…

We’re in incredibly dangerous territory.
atrupar.com
Bondi: "We've been living through a horrific cycle of political violence in this country ... night after night antifa wrecks havoc on the streets of our cities. In Minnesota, a gunman murdered a state lawmaker and her husband."
senategabe.bsky.social
Leadership def told them not to do it. And I got into an argument that day with @schatz.bsky.social about it who seemed shocked that I would suggest he not certify.

But they are all adults and they can also tell leadership to fuck off.
senategabe.bsky.social
He very obviously and clearly violated Section 3. It's not even a remotely close call.

And yet every single one of them decided that 2+2=5.
senategabe.bsky.social
I still have not gotten to the bottom of this.

Even the Supreme Court specifically said that the Congress could decide this in their ruling.

Not even one Democrat? Really?
disillusionedfrog.bsky.social
Dems unanimously voted to certify the election in violation of section 3 of the 14th amendment. At that point two different courts had already sustained the ruling that he committed insurrection.
I asked my rep's office why and was told "he won't be answering that"
senategabe.bsky.social
It really bothers me. They seem to pick battles where they think they can win victories on Trump's behalf.
senategabe.bsky.social
Why do they keep making arguments that this will help Trump electorally if he restores the subsidies.
atrupar.com
Jeffries on Fox News Sunday: "My friends on other aisle seem to think believe healthcare is an extraneous issue. We don't believe it's an extraneous issue. It's a central issue...the states most affected are all ones Trump won...so this is not a partisan fight. We're fighting for everyday Americans"
senategabe.bsky.social
And he clearly read Lord of the Rings and thought the ring was awesome.
senategabe.bsky.social
This guy might be one of the worst art critics in the history of the Earth.

Doesn't he think Star Trek vs Star Wars is socialism vs capitalism?
sharonk.bsky.social
thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.
senategabe.bsky.social
They can do this but they can't pay their workers?
senategabe.bsky.social
Honestly the psychological explanations have been what have helped me the most understand it more than any political or economic theory.
Reposted by Senate Gabe
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
Sunday reading:

I wrote about the aggrieved extremist who is currently firing thousands of federal workers and ravaging state capacity based on conspiratorial nonsense - and about mainstream media’s infuriating tendency to sanitize Russell Vought and the regime he serves.

This week’s piece:
We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly
Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy
steady.page
senategabe.bsky.social
Yeah. The functioning brain clearly wasn't there which is even scarier.

Trump or no Trump, we've been ruled by zombies this whole time.
senategabe.bsky.social
It is absolutely a huge contributor but man, no amount of cash would be able to bribe me to give my attempted murderer absolute power.
Reposted by Senate Gabe
jetpack-hulahoop.bsky.social
Yeah but never before had someone had Valentine's Day plans as important as Chris Coons
senategabe.bsky.social
I'm sure there is no one answer. But I really wanted to draw attention to how singularly bizarre, irrational, and wild it is.

I am going to guess 15 years ago, almost none of these people would have ever said they would let someone do treason on national television and then become dictator.