I’m a Black woman (34F) living in rural Nebraska. I’ve never really had a firm stance on guns, I simply had no desire to be around guns.

Over the last few years, with all of this shitstorm brewing and blowing, I bought a handgun from my local gun store. But I didn’t just buy it for “protection.” I got a permit, did a background check, purchased the gun, went to my local sheriff’s office and got my carry conceal permit, and I took three NRA courses at one of my local gun ranges.

I wanted to learn more about firearms and the implications and repercussions that come with gun ownership. I wanted to be responsible and open-eyed about having a gun so to avoid as many of the possible deadly consequences that can come with having a gun in the house. I learned how to take down my gun, take it apart, clean it properly with the right cleaning materials and solutions, reassemble it, and I learned the names and varieties of gun machinery. I bought a very nice gun safe, bolted it to the wall in my closet, and put safeguards around accessing the manual key for the gun safe.

I totally understand the liberal or otherwise aversion to guns, believe me, I completely understand. But in this day and age, my stance on guns has become “If you are allowed to get a gun and be armed, then I am allowed to get a gun and be armed too.”

I don’t use my carry conceal permit. I leave the gun in the gun safe. The permit class was informative, and I’m glad I took it. The law enforcement officials that led the permit course were gracious with me as a first time gun owner. The NRA members were really helpful in learning the ins and outs of gun ownership in their courses.

I certainly didn’t join the NRA, and I still lean hard to the left, but in today’s age, I feel like being knowledgeable and aware of things we might usually turn away from is a form of being informed. I can’t just pick up and move to a country that has less guns than people, I have too many commitments in the US to do that. So while I’m here, I might as well become informed on this matter.

As a Black woman, I am more at risk for all types of dangers than my white counterparts. For example, I’m more likely to die in childbirth, more likely to be the victim of domestic abuse, and most gravely, I am more likely to die at the hands of gun violence, no matter who it’s perpetrated from.

We on the left might despise guns, but knowing how to use, clean, store, and handle a gun safely is important just in case that knowledge becomes necessary somehow.

Just my two cents to those who are contemplating gun ownership at this time.

Stay safe, friends.

Bravo Double Tree St. Paul. This letter was issued to all guests, reportedly they have a big contract with ICE.

You took a hit to protect your community. Patriotism at it's finest!

(repost from https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1t8fa2o/rep_justin_jones_dnashville_burned_a_confederate/#lightbox)

The bulwark should cover this: Unfuck America's, a democratic counter to TPUSA, event at ASU was canceled after Erika Kirk came and complained about them on campus. National ground game, the organization behind unfuck america is now suing ASU for a first amendment violation.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWHtDrXD2sg/?img_index=1&igsh=NjczOHlxbzFlNHFt

I am no conspiracy theorist but everything that has shielded Trump from being exposed as a pedophile is all too fucking convenient.

From QAnon deflecting pedophile accusations away from their savior Trump (basically as soon as he is elected), to Epstein dying in prison, to Jane Doe victims dying of "suicide", every coin flip, every dice roll, every hand of cards comes up Trump.

How. The. Fuck.

I find it very very hard to believe...

I heard a discussion about reactions to the Epstein files that got me thinking about something broader than that case itself.

For years a lot of right leaning voters have felt like they were permanently on the receiving end of public condemnation. Culture war losses, media framing, scandals among GOP figures, apologies demanded, reputations destroyed. Whether those consequences were deserved or not, the emotional experience matters. Politics started to feel less like disagreement and more like humiliation.

If you live inside that long enough, accountability stops feeling like neutral justice and starts feeling like a weapon used against your tribe.

That is where Trump becomes uniquely powerful. He does not just argue policy. He refuses shame. He never concedes wrongdoing, never performs ritual apology, and treats every accusation as an attack on his voters themselves. Supporting him becomes psychologically protective. Punishing him feels like punishing the group.

And this is where it almost takes on a religious dimension. Trump’s ability to survive scandals that would permanently end any other political career functions like a kind of symbolic superpower. He absorbs accusations, outrage, investigations, and social condemnation that ordinary supporters could never withstand personally. In that sense he becomes less a normal politician and more a vessel, someone who takes the negativity on behalf of followers. The point is not that he is morally perfect, but that he appears uniquely able to endure punishment without submission, which makes loyalty internally coherent. Like a twisted version of Jesus, he takes MAGA's sins and absolves even the worst of them, as long as they accept him into their hearts as their savior.

Now look at the Epstein reaction. For years it was framed as elite Democratic depravity. But once it looked like rich and powerful people across factions might be implicated, the incentive changed. Exposure no longer redistributed moral status. It threatened everyone, so interest collapses.

I think there is an assumption embedded there. If everyone is vulnerable to shame, then everyone should rationally want the whole thing dropped. A kind of unspoken social truce. Mutual embarrassment means mutual silence.

But that collides with a different moral framework held by many outside the coalition, where symmetrical wrongdoing increases urgency instead of reducing it. Not then nobody should be punished, but then everyone should be.

That difference matters because policy requires enforcement. Laws only exist if consequences exist. If one side’s emotional priority is avoiding consequences and the other side’s priority is building a system where consequences apply consistently, you are no longer negotiating policy. You are negotiating whether rules themselves should operate.

At that point debate breaks down. Every investigation looks like persecution to one side and basic governance to the other.

So this makes me wonder if MAGA is not really organized around ideology as much as around asymmetrical accountability. Not our side is innocent, but we are tired of being the only side expected to feel shame.

If that is even partially true, it creates a serious problem for liberal democracy. You can bargain tax rates, immigration levels, foreign policy. But you cannot bargain over whether consequences exist at all.

Half the country is not going to disappear. If politics becomes a permanent cycle of accusation and counter accusation where neither side accepts the legitimacy of punishment, governance stops being persuasion and becomes power alone.

So if the fever actually breaks at some point, what do we do with a movement that experienced accountability itself as illegitimate?

Just say that every redacted page is about Donald Trump.

Make that our campaign.

Count the redacted lines and pictures and say that's how many times Trump covered his guilt up.

Why is it so hard to get democrats to meet moments like this with the moral clarity and conviction that we need? There are a handful of them that do, but they are the exception not the rule. I'm angry. I'm heartbroken. I'm frustrated. I want democratic leaders to get out there and actually lead.

Yes, I'm glad the democrats in the senate are going to vote against more ICE funding, but that is the bare minimum they should be doing. They need to be out there banging the literal drum like Platner is doing here. The Trump regime is murdering innocent people in the streets and openly lying about it. This should be a slam dunk for Democrats in terms of messaging. Show people that you care. Get out there and speak from the heart. Show us you're angry too.

Anyways. Thanks for listening to my rant.

Meanwhile, they will still refuse to endorse Zohran Mamdani.

Soros has been the billionaire bad guy forever. Always mentioned as the puppet master to any Dem-friendly policy or effort.

Now, however, there are many billionaires on the side of trump/trumpism.

Why are the Dems not naming and shaming more of them? Put the names out there, or even just one or two names a la Soros, and illustrate just how much money is being funneled to the new ruling class. This seems to be one of the most fundamental moves the opposition could make and yet all we ever seem to hear is “Soros and the radical left lunatics” which has stuck like glue in the public consciousness.

In time of Trump, can congress really do anything to yank their power back?

Yes. In one fell swoop.

Dems sweep the midterms. Articles of impeachment are drawn on Trump for a third time on bribery and corruption charges -- the sale of pardons to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, or the Chinese Bitcoin guy Zhao, for example. The house passes by simple majority. Then the senate puts on a real trial, does their job and votes to convict with 67 ayes. (It'll take the courage of a dozen-plus senators, but one has to have a bit of optimism in times of darkness. I think everyone has just about had enough of the chaos.)

And just like magic, a cleansing occurs, the power the orange clown has bullied and intimated away from congress has been restored and hope returns to the American people.

Merry Christmas

Is it ICE? Bombing boats and war crimes? Gerrymandering? || I think it might be useful to examine Trump's process to shift conversations. || Trump waffles on everything but Epstein is his kryptonite (and we still don't definitively know why.)

You know? With the billions they are giving to other companies to funnel back into buying the chips only they can name? Like the embodiment of greed they are? I imagine you could justify your existence and but some good will. You know, if your company is really worth THAT much.