Government Shutdown - Sep 2025 Thread

[Anonymous]

Then Alexander goes on about how to message. It's basically psyops, originating from Bellingcat and those early Iraq strategic communications contracts. SCL started by trying to get people to buy more stuff by changing the smell of the store. Anyhoo. The other really important thing he says - that the Dems should think about - is that there are two people in a communication - the communicator and the listener, right?

The communicator usually says what he wants to say and the listener choses to listen or not. That is how the Dems are and people are choosing not to listen. For example, in a theater, you are selling Coca-cola. You put an ad up and hope the listener decides to buy.

Alexander Nix says it must be the other way around. You should say what the listener wants to hear. How do you do that? How can you make the listener want to hear your ad about coca-cola? In a movie theater, you turn up the heat.

Ok, class over ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be the generals. Don’t react to the insanity. Keep your own counsel, talk quietly and seriously, and focus on doing the right thing for those entrusted to your care.

Who amongst us is not entrusted to our collective care?

[Anonymous]

Along those lines, Democrats need to give up on ACA subsidies in ‘25 and turn their HC messaging to “Medicare For ALL” for ‘26 and ‘28. That is a winning issue and easy message.

That plus tax corps and billionaires, and they can win the votes to actually do both in ‘28.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The video Trump just posted on his TS with Vought as the grim reaper-all republicans unwilling to stand up and say he’s unwell and unfit for office-shame on you. This is sick

This is why we lose elections against him. He keeps stroking and distracting us and fall for it every time. In the meantime he is methodically pursuing his agenda quietly.

Stop reacting to his posts, reposts, etc. just ignore them. He is distracting you.

DP: He's not doing it 'quietly' and no one is distracted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Democrats completely played into Trump's hands. He WANTS TO SIDELINE CONGRESS. He is following the EXACT same playbook as Hitler did. It is not hard to see. I don't understand why the Democrats are so flipping dumb.

The problem here is that it's a lose-lose for Democrats AND CONGRESS (including the Republicans who are too scared or selfish to admit it). Accepting the CR and impoundment and accepting that these will henceforth be passed without negotiation is ALSO sidelining Congress, but with their votes to go along with it.

I don't think Dems stood up early or hard enough, but just giving up the tiny bit of power they have left isn't going to stop this in any world either.

The Republicans are going to burn it all down - and the Dems should let them. The sooner it all collapses, the sooner the madness will go away. If health care goes through the roof, people will stop getting health insurance, and the insurance companies will lose power. It's actually cheaper to self pay than to be on an ACA plan now anyways. My husband was in the hospital two years straight - one, before he was a citizen and got health insurance, and this year. Both for the same exact problem, same 7 days. It cost literally the same amount but we didn't have to pay the $1700 a month in health insurance.

The economy is hijacked by monopolies and billionaires. The only way to move forward is to let it all collapse.

I don't think there is any "let them" -- it's not as if they could stop them at this point, right? What they need to do is keep loudly pointing out the systematic removal of the structures of our democracy (can we still even call it that?) and using the courts (what's left of them) to pursue all of the illegal actions this administration takes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then Alexander goes on about how to message. It's basically psyops, originating from Bellingcat and those early Iraq strategic communications contracts. SCL started by trying to get people to buy more stuff by changing the smell of the store. Anyhoo. The other really important thing he says - that the Dems should think about - is that there are two people in a communication - the communicator and the listener, right?

The communicator usually says what he wants to say and the listener choses to listen or not. That is how the Dems are and people are choosing not to listen. For example, in a theater, you are selling Coca-cola. You put an ad up and hope the listener decides to buy.

Alexander Nix says it must be the other way around. You should say what the listener wants to hear. How do you do that? How can you make the listener want to hear your ad about coca-cola? In a movie theater, you turn up the heat.

Ok, class over ...

I mean, you're not wrong from a gamesmanship perspective, but the problem is that real problems have complicated
solutions. People don't want to hear that. So if you're not actually interesting in solving, say, health care in this country, then you can spout whatever nonsense you think people want to hear.

40% of the country doesn't realize they're being played by the Republicans. And the 10% funding their campaigns are happy to screw over everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

What does that have to do with this conversation?

[Anonymous]

We need a coup. That’s the only way out of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

Why are you speaking for me?

I support legal paths to naturalization for hardworking, honest people, if they've been living here for ages and have a record of paying their taxes and not getting into trouble. They have brought more wealth to the US than they've cost the taxpayer. They represent the IMMENSE majority of immigrants who don't have 100% proper documentation.

However I fully support a border wall and strict immigration enforcement at all the borders, because we want to avoid what was happening for decades: allowing desperate people to cross without detection, build happy, productive lives, lulled into security, and then being cruel monsters by pulling the rug from under them and throwing them out in shockingly inhumane circumstances: separating families, leaving dependents in the lurch, forcing people like cattle into cells with no beds, no toilets or medical care, and dropping off human beings like so much garbage into war-torn countries where they don't speak the language. That makes Americans the bad guys.

If Americans are humane, they need to close the border to new illegal crossing attempts; police all the *recent* visa overstays much better than they're currently doing; throw out violent criminals who are not American; but they also need to treat the long-term peaceful improperly documented immigrants they already have, and Dreamers, with the respect they deserve, and offer them American citizenship for their years of living here, contributing to American wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

To a certain extent, that's true. But remember that no one is seriously proposing expanding federally-funded medicaid coverage to people living here illegally.

The question is what kind of legal immigrants and legal residents should it cover?

Or getting at the real point, what countries-of-origin should be eligible? Republicans are perfectly happy to extend coverage to Cubans, but not Venezuelans, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

What does that have to do with this conversation?

Look at the post above the one you responded to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

Why are you speaking for me?

I support legal paths to naturalization for hardworking, honest people, if they've been living here for ages and have a record of paying their taxes and not getting into trouble. They have brought more wealth to the US than they've cost the taxpayer. They represent the IMMENSE majority of immigrants who don't have 100% proper documentation.

However I fully support a border wall and strict immigration enforcement at all the borders, because we want to avoid what was happening for decades: allowing desperate people to cross without detection, build happy, productive lives, lulled into security, and then being cruel monsters by pulling the rug from under them and throwing them out in shockingly inhumane circumstances: separating families, leaving dependents in the lurch, forcing people like cattle into cells with no beds, no toilets or medical care, and dropping off human beings like so much garbage into war-torn countries where they don't speak the language. That makes Americans the bad guys.

If Americans are humane, they need to close the border to new illegal crossing attempts; police all the *recent* visa overstays much better than they're currently doing; throw out violent criminals who are not American; but they also need to treat the long-term peaceful improperly documented immigrants they already have, and Dreamers, with the respect they deserve, and offer them American citizenship for their years of living here, contributing to American wealth.

DP, I also think e-verify needs to be enforced. It’s crazy to me that we blame the poor immigrants risking their lives to cross the border for cheap wages, but don’t hold the companies exploiting them responsible at all. And yes I realize this is a bipartisan issue. Time for the corporations to be held accountable by dems and republicans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many people are on the ACA? 8 percent. A small minority. How many people are Trans? A small minority. How many people are immigrants? A small minority. Need college loan relief? A small minority.

Trump has tricked the Democrats into take hardline positions on issues of concern to very few people.

About a quarter of the US are immigrants or children of immigrants. It's certainly a much bigger population than the millionaires and LGBT-haters that the Republicans target.

But the vast majority of legal immigrants hate the government to let in illegal immigrants. Just like law-abiding people hate criminals.

Why are you speaking for me?

I support legal paths to naturalization for hardworking, honest people, if they've been living here for ages and have a record of paying their taxes and not getting into trouble. They have brought more wealth to the US than they've cost the taxpayer. They represent the IMMENSE majority of immigrants who don't have 100% proper documentation.

However I fully support a border wall and strict immigration enforcement at all the borders, because we want to avoid what was happening for decades: allowing desperate people to cross without detection, build happy, productive lives, lulled into security, and then being cruel monsters by pulling the rug from under them and throwing them out in shockingly inhumane circumstances: separating families, leaving dependents in the lurch, forcing people like cattle into cells with no beds, no toilets or medical care, and dropping off human beings like so much garbage into war-torn countries where they don't speak the language. That makes Americans the bad guys.

If Americans are humane, they need to close the border to new illegal crossing attempts; police all the *recent* visa overstays much better than they're currently doing; throw out violent criminals who are not American; but they also need to treat the long-term peaceful improperly documented immigrants they already have, and Dreamers, with the respect they deserve, and offer them American citizenship for their years of living here, contributing to American wealth.

Then people will continue to try to cross the border illegally because they hope they can become what you labeled “long-term peaceful improperly documented immigrants, and Dreamers”. And then get immigration parole. Of course some of them are criminals. But the most important thing here is: this way, you will never stop illegal immigrants, you are encouraging them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need a coup. That’s the only way out of this.

Trump is trying. He's getting everything in place for his next Jan. 6th to work.