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Thank you so much, Dr. Richardson for providing the proper context to the “shocking” poll showing the 53% of Republicans believe Trump is President. The media, even the “liberal” media like MSNBC endlessly publicizes the raw number to scare the audience. I can’t think of another reason. But it’s 53% of 26%. Thanks for confirming what I thought to be the case.

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But we should be scared! Whether we like it or not, the batshit fringe has control of the Senate and the Supreme Court. Those 14% are loud, aggressive, and highly motivated. And well-armed.

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It’s not the batshit fringe that are dangerous. Well, I mean yes they are dangerous situationally. It’s the cowardly legislators that are the danger to our democracy.

I have this weird feeling today, Reid. I think President Biden is going to change course.

He has said so many times that he will not “do” inaction. I think PaJoe is about to flex some muscle.

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Agree with Christine. Hey, blood moon and Mercury in retrograde in the same week. Lookout kiddies the ship may hit the sand here soon.

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Pluto squaring everything in sight is already wrecking havoc with all the worlds existing structures and institutions....the more the merrier!

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Saturn opposing Uranus and the US’s Pluto return, all over the next two years will make for some very rough going. The turmoil is unfortunately not over.

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Interesting. Thank you Stuart and Pamsy and everyone else for the readings.

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1st Moon energy!

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All my crystals will go outside in the moonlight tonight and stay there until moonset on Friday.

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Yeeesssssssss!

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Yes.. a lot going on “in the stars” over the next two months. Hang on.

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More like 2 years than 2 months unfortunately.

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Yes. I was just listening to something about the eclipse and the next two months and then the end of this year being particularly gnarly in the short term.

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Gnarly ok. It does not deter us. Bigger problem for the slick bunch.

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I know Charlie! I know that’s tied into the “feeling”! I have.

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And the May full is also called the “flower” moon. “April showers bring May flowers.”

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At least tomorrow morning's massive full moon will change the awful weather that we have been having here in May. The sunshine is coming back.

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How is Norte Dame coming along, Stuart? I’d love some positive news

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They've finished consolidating and now are just starting the rebuil as before project. A lot of "compagnon" roof workers who are capable of doing the work and of respecting its special spiritual character and a great deal of seasoned quality oak have to be found. Both rather rare unfortunately. It'll take 10-15 years to do it properly.

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I hope you're right. He doesn't have a track record of political courage, but I get the sense he understands himself to be in a position to be a truly transformational President. As I have said before here, I am also very hopeful that he has surrounded himself with very bright political people and he listens to them.

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They've got a fight on their hands. Time to get down to the rough stuff.

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I don't think of Biden's style as non-courageous. He is first a practical across-the-aisle negotiator, which is the natural tussle of a good democracy. Then, if that fails, he has a spine of stee to match the warmth of his heart. Watch.

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I guess we'll see. In his career he has done a lot of gauging which way the wind blows before taking a position (see his tone deaf response to bussing, for instance). A politician doesn't last as long as Joe has without a lot of zigging and zagging. But he is in his last job and can afford to be bold and I believe he will be. Needs to be soon, though.

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TOTALLY AGREE MaryPat! Thank you.

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Steel.

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Interesting. We’ll see about the Bidenator.

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Bidenator!

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Hope you're right Christine. It's time.

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Good point, Reid. Some of those in higher places are more than batshit crazy. They're scary!

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I couldn’t disagree more. It is shocking. It’s shocking because 1 in 7 adult Americans believe a pure and utter fantasy. It’s shocking because I’m sure that number is solidifying as people are being fed hope by widening election reviews - Alabama, Georgia, Wisconsin. ..

It’s shocking because if emboldens the Republican Party to believe that they are on the right track in their continuing obeisance to a lunatic.

It’s shocking because it promotes the disease of lying outrageously without fear of consequence. Morality is decaying at least at the edges in America.

It’s shocking because that small group is perpetrating acts of violence against Asians because Trump vilified them repeatedly. Now that that genie is out of the bottle, American Jews are becoming targets of random, violent attacks. Who can know the motivation. Maybe the recent conflict. Maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ratshit comparison of mask mandates to the Holocaust stirs up an old irrational anger.

It’s shocking because other Republicans who don’t believe the election was stolen, do not appear to be speaking up against it.

This is a moment when those with primally inhuman, nihilistic instincts feel that it’s time to see *how far they can go* (emphasis) in giving vent to evil. So a Lukashenko simply outwaits protesters and then when they have been worn down, pulls off a shocking attack on a commercial plane. A Samoan leader, ousted in an election, simply locks Parliament. Can I get away with this, he thinks.

That beast is loose among you. There have been no consequences for 1/6. Arrests yes, but no significant convictions and penalties. No commission with authority to subpoena witnesses. If this holds the foundations will shudder.

We must endure this time of waiting. The fundamental question of the survival of American democracy at this moment rests on the indictment, trial, conviction and sentencing of Trump. I pray that that they are using this time to make an airtight case against, as opposed to temporizing and trying to make a case that will sell to the other whatever% as to why they just can’t bring him to justice.

Hitler took power with only 36% of the vote in 1932. He was a legitimate (sort of) candidate. Here we have 14% who think on *zero evidence* that Trump was cheated out of victory. What number will that rise to when the Arizona audit “proves” that he was cheated there? When a Georgia audit does? We know that other states will jump into the queue with their own audits, as they have with enacting Draconian and breathtakingly stupid new legislation to restrict the vote.

*This* is the consequential moment. The 2022 election will either confirm the Republican grab for power or they will be routed.

No offense intended, but if you’re reassured that really it’s only 14% and the media shouldn’t be scaring us with numbers like 53%, I think you’re hiding behind the thinnest of fig leaves.

I’m shocked.

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Hello Eric. Your concerns are well founded.

“I pray that that they are using this time to make an airtight case against, as opposed to temporizing and trying to make a case that will sell to the other whatever% as to why they just can’t bring him to justice.”

I’m convinced it’s airtight case.

The Arizona political stunt is being widely panned everywhere, including inside the justice system. The voting machines they’ve touched have already been identified as contaminated and unusable.

In the 2022 election, I believe the Republicans will be routed. I’ve been watching the trend for a year and a half now. The Republican Party is becoming marginalized. They are moving towards the fate of the California Republican Party, permanent minority status. That is the direction of travel. The speed of travel is anybody’s guess, but 2022 does not look good for the Republican Party.

As Annette and others have said, you are speaking for many many people. Here and abroad. I certainly understand the anxiety, the panic, there is some of that within my own family. The most shocking thing of all was January 6. Now post-election and post-1/6 we are witnessing the fallout, the fiasco of the old white racist society’s last wild attempts to cling to power. Their hold on power is disintegrating, as is their political party of choice. Good riddance to bad rubbish, as the English say.

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Well, I will say that as soon as I saw so many of the Republican leadership DENOUNCE the violence and then AMPLIFY the lie, it reinforced to me that only truth will defuse this ticking bomb they have created.

So I believe their duplicity is their downfall. I feel it in the depths of my love for this country that our current president will do what is necessary to assure passage of the voting bills, the infrastructure bills.....basically all the action to guardrail and move our democracy out of the swamp, will happen. I’m actually pretty excited about it all.

Pres Biden strategically will always go bipartisan first, but don’t think for a minute he will get stuck there with a Dem majority to do the work and, as important, the majority of people that voted for him and are firmly behind him. A rather formidable group, if this stream serves as an example of that.

I choose to put my faith behind that. It’s my fuel for all the things we must do. There’s a lot of people to bring into the circle and off the caste ladder. Imagine the shame of it....400+ yrs.

I’ll repeat what I think was and is the original download from the Creator.

“We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.”

I affirm it every day.

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And this is why we love you Christine. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Thank you, Roland. I agree. Hopefully, we're correct.

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Roland, thank you for the link. It proves that there are at least some Republicans in the legislature who have decent intentions. My hopes for any moderation in the Republican party are quite low, but I still predict that the majority of voters will be able to place the blame squarely where it belongs, and that Biden will fulfill our confidence that he'll unequivocally support any and all efforts to eviscerate Trump and his acolytes, including Bill Barr, formerly described as "a lawyer's lawyer," prior to his elevation to AG. Quite the joke, right?

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From your lips Roland, but, I’m not feeling it right now, much as I want to.

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That’s OK. As I said, members of my family don’t feel it either. Maybe that’s why I’m around. I am fortunate to be seeing an optimistic trend.

Do I understand Eric’s feeling of being shocked? Hell yes. Do I understand the anxiety and the concern? Hell yes. We wouldn’t all be here on this channel otherwise.

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Eric, you have aptly described how many of us are feeling. Shocked, yes, but outraged too. I am outraged at all the things you described. I am outraged that my local county's election supervisor and his family received such death threats (after saying that the election was not stolen) that he had to work with the county sheriff and Homeland Security for protection. I am outraged that my newspaper is covering pablum stories about construction in downtown instead of raising the alarm. I am outraged that all of these proposed election laws are designed with one purpose, to keep Republicans in power. I could go on and on.

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Yes thank you for this clarity about the true numbers of the batshit fringe.

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I think of it as the batshit’s bullshit.

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The thing about the bs is that it’s spread all over our country in pods— I think that’s because of the tweeting Cheeto.

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I hope the media stats reporting the polls that way: 14% of America, or nearly x % of the shrinking R party believe...fill in the fantasy

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It would be interesting to know, though, wouldn't it, how many of those "independents" also believe Trump won? And how many of them are never-Trumpers but also oppose a progressive agenda. My sense is that many, many of the 74 million who voted for Trump were actually holding their noses and voting against an even mildly progressive vision generally and Joe Biden specifically. 2022 may well be the most consequential election in our lifetimes.

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Lest you give any unearned credit to Independents, you may want to read this article. Independents are part of the problem. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-05-18/political-party-independents-extremists-democrat-republican-insurgents

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Yes, that's what I was trying to say in my comment. Lots of libertarians there, for one thing. Not exactly a progressive group.

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