283 Comments

Teach, teach & teach some more. You know what you’re talking about. I am sorry for the truth you keep on sharing. But know it is vital what you are doing, speaking truth to power. Bless your smarts & courage!

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Same story just north of you in Iowa, Jess, as you know! The more outrageous bills allow the less outrageous ones to pass...moving the needle to the right and rich each time.

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Yes, there's one now to give the Kim Reaper a raise (because you know that Botox doesn't pay for itself).

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And here's an article about your Senator who apparently can't keep her knees together or resist a lobbying effort when it happens between the sheets.

https://www.propublica.org/article/joni-ernst-congress-military-relationships?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=river

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This kind of language directed at a woman whose behavior I too disagree with is confusing. Using sexist and demeaning language to attack a Republican woman just doesn’t work well if you are committed to criticism of legislators or other governmental officials for the purpose of holding them accountable for their actions. Even using similarly crude language like “he can’t hold keep his dick in his pants” to criticize a man like Hegseth does not diminish him as a man the way your statement above does for a woman. Even when I disagree with a woman’s actions, I will always stand with her right to not be attacked through the use of sexist language and tropes.

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I agree with Emma, we more often say disdainful things to females than to nen. Especislly women in elected positions.

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Ok how about she is a lying ,nra,grifter,I didn't say anything about her legs or mouth ok? Feel better when you sit in that pew on sunday

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That botox is not covering the wrinkles, have you seen her lately, wow either way a bitch and a grifter

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Not one of our Iowa representatives has a town hall scheduled.

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The RCCC has told its members not to hold town halls because they are getting bad optics.

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Democrats in some states are starting to hold town halls in red areas and putting an empty chair on the stage to represent their missing member of Congress. It was effective during 45/47's 1.0, it's time for a reprise in 2.0.

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Pitiful.

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The sad thing is I have a lot of relatives in rural Missouri, and they are die hard Trumpers. It was bred into them when their Daddy would only listen to Glenn Beck in the early days of Fox, and they won’t let go. The home school, they don’t vaccinate their kids, and they breed like crazy. I don’t know how they survive, but they do, and complain about everything the ‘government’ does, while collecting social security and Medicare…

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And when their Social Security and Medicaid benefits dry up, I do wonder who they will blame. I’m torn apart to hear your story. Of course with substandard schooling, so go critical thinking skills. Tragedy writ large.

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You can be certain they won’t blame the people who victimized them.

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I'm not too sure about that. The town hall meetings in ruby red districts where the Congress critters are getting booed off the stage aren't just attracting Democrats.

And if all the cuts in employees result in Social Security checks (or direct deposits) not going out, there will be a LOT of angry people.

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They sure won’t blame Trump and his co-horts! 🤷‍♀️🤬😖😡😤☹️🤮🙅🤦‍♀️👎

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They will blame themselves.

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Never

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And what will they do when Medicare and Social Security payments are either drastically reduced or gutted altogether?

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Blame it on Biden and die, probably. This is freakin awful.

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We have some of those in one wretched branch of our family tree. Breeders, not readers.

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Agree, and I live in a red throwback area of SoCal where the voters are wannabe rednecks and /or “traditional republican “ whatever that means.

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Yes and they voted in this Monster. It’s absurd but true just the same. Pathetic, an insult. I know, they are needy and confused n their certainty.

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This is fabulous reporting/commentary. I am 71 years old and feel like it’s the beginning of the end for America. The war has been won and not by the good guys.

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I hope you're wrong but your point is well taken.

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Oh Nancy! I am 95 in deep red Texas, a lot like the Missouri Jess describes.. I, too. think the billionaires have already won. I can still hope people with more stamina that I have show up to protest in the public arena. I do the 5 Call thing, but agree visible protest is more effective. I am going to send Jess to my list of friends. I hesitated to do that because people are overwhelmed, but these responses changed my mind.

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They want to “justify” privatization which is euphemism for what Jess is talking about.

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Thanks, as always, for your insightful post, Jess.

I am so sorry I didn't know you were going to be speaking to the Clay County Democrats a few days ago. Since I am an old (86) man now, I don't go to many meetings anymore, but I certainly would have gone to hear/meet you in person if I had known. (I probably got the email from the CCDCC, but I get too much mail to keep up with everything.)

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I’m sorry I missed you!

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It’s no accident that the only people who profit significantly from economic downturns are the already wealthy. They have the financial resources readily at hand to take every advantage that plays out — according to plan — as the economy contracts (tanks). The top 1% (even more so the top 0.1%) gets to rack up even more of the nation’s collective wealth while all the little people (a/k/a losers and suckers) get fleeced. It’s part of the cruel intent. But of course many among the fleeced will be happily distracted by the “wins” associated with the rollbacks in rights from the people who have the wrong skin color, religion, ethnic background, or sexual identity. That’s also part of the plan.

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Outlined so brilliantly in “Origins” a movie out a couple years ago based on the book Caste.

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Amen! I’ve been saying and saying this for months, and people tell me I’m overreacting. If you read, listen, watch, and connect the dots, your critical thinking skills (is that a problem or are they being optimistic?) lead to you these conclusions. Recently, I read the best tack to use with trumpers is “they lied to you,” allowing them to grab onto a more acceptable explanation for their dissonance.

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Judy, I have had no success with that. I either get Faux talking points, a well reasoned and thought out "nuh-uh", or "Biden did it." They have been brainwashed; there is no reasoning with them.

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No, Judy ... it's cognitive dissonance. The truth could smack them in the face and they'd still deny it. Plausible deniability? No, that couldn't be it, but many folks are in deep denial.

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The stripping of SNAP funds and MEDICAID subsidies are a death sentence for rural America and Missouri. Republicans do not care one iota. They need a tax cut. Babies being fed is not material to them. Narcissists only care about themselves. One cannot talk them into empathetic sensibilities. Narcissists are devoid of empathy. The poor can starve, they do not care. You cannot force them to care. Theirs is a lust for big dollars, and they visualize those dollars in their billfold. The scent of the kill is too close at hand to these dogs. They are now in a frenzy. We have only one plausible course of action. That is on the streets in protest. The Government will shoot us there. They have before. That will not stop us.

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What you said to the tenth power. Keep saying it and I promise I will too.

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Carl, you are speaking my language. We are old souls. Watching it, going to protests, writing letters .

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AGAIN, you hit the nail on the head! This curated failure is also happening in Ohio... schools, paying off energy companies, voter suppression. Keep preaching!!

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I hope people listen to you!

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Wishing and hoping again?

‘Many Missourians are now poor and sick and abused and desperate.’ Yet they still support Trump.

Philosophical question: what is the nature of compassion for those that continually abuse themselves because it is easier to believe rather than think?

These people not only abuse themselves but keep doing blood letting on the rest of us. Are we doomed to be blood offerings to the gods of greed?

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It’s darwin. I know that it is painful because it is our country men our brothers, but let it happen. People need to see what the fucking Republicans are doing to us.

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You would have thought that they would have during Covid

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What? To see one must open their eyes.

When one lives in the land of faith and not the land reason, the eyes remain shut.

Maybe if they learn a new prayer: Oh god, I pray, deliver me from myself.

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We are in dire straights now. I am scared at 75

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Why can’t local news stations be used by the public to get this message out?? Why can’t people who know what they’re talking about meet at tv stations and start protesting there??? I WILL SHOW UP TO STAND WITH ANYONE WHO CAN SPEAK INTELLIGENTLY AND FLUENTLY ON THESE ISSUES!!!!! WE HAVE TO RAISE HELL UNTIL PEOPLE START GETTING IT!!!!! Jess, thank you for using your voice. Please don’t stop! I will die fighting this bullshit when/if I can find someone with a voice to SPEAK IT OUT! I’m not equipped to be that voice but by god I’ll stand with even one voice crying in the wilderness who says, “WAKE UP and change your thinking!!!!!” We cannot push the snooze button anymore-the alarm has been shrieking at us for years now.

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Every voice counts.

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These Republicans have no concern for rural America. They are ivory/gold tower people who are probably waiting in the wings to buy all of the farmland for hotels and bitcoin office buildings. Great piece, Jess!

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If I may expand upon what you wrote, Republicans politicians, big donors and corporate execs don’t care about anyone but themselves. Not rural, not city, not normal people that can’t give them something for their dollar. They all follow Trump’s “what’s in it for me” philosophy.

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True enough!

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I’m in Texas. It’s the same here.

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This needs much broader exposure. It is also the plan for Gaza. Destroy it and then occupy and rebuild for the rich. This plan also coincides with Curtis Yarvin’s ideal for a CEO presidency that rules over the serfs. We are well on our way to that dream.

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