Chris Morgan

We have to keep making art if only for our own sanity. It's scary right now but there is still significant resistance and the next elections aren't far away. Don't give up yet. Hugs

And it won't work for each person or each group all the time. Give and take, incremental movements, long term relationships, good faith and trust. Cynical me says it won't happen. But the American me hopes that's wrong.

We have stopped listening to each other so convinced we are right and the other side is a lost cause. America will not work for ALL Americans until compromise resumes. All else is a rave to the red button and a totalitarian government. Even "our guy" would be a bad guy. So please work together.

So here we are. Low trust environment. Destruction of key elements of bureaucratic function sundered for not being loyal. Defiance of norms, rules, laws. A fight to the death where nothing is off the table including hurting each other financially, socially, even physically.

But that's not enough. Angry voters left behind start listening to populous voices. Burn it all down they say, force this country to be America as it was meant to be. No one trusts anyone unless they are ideologically pure. Anything that isn't pure is tainted, treacherous, a thing to destroy.

So now the focus is on changing laws on voting, promoting a distrust of vote counts, conspiracies, high pressure and high dollar primaries. But now the marginal ideologies in the party had outsized influence. All that leads to today where nothing gets done and it's the other sides fault.

But the last bastion of resistance, the old filibuster, remained. Now instead of a majority, a SUPER majority was needed for many things. A last ditch brake on the process used so rarely in years past was now regular business. So the race was on for the 60 seats. Each vote, each seat was needed.

The problem with executive action is that when the next guy comes in, he just undies everything the last one did. Even if the courts allowed it to happen to begin with. And in Congress the deep divides meant that whoever has a majority needed ALL their people on board to get something passed.

It worked until each side accused the other of perilous overreach when they lost. Courts were not reliable anymore as interpretations became broader, applications more esoteric or broad. They could not be trusted with ideological purity. Thus the age of the filibuster and the executive order began

For a few more years this deadlock was averted by using the courts to essentially decide current issues by making interpretations of older laws not designed for modern problems. The founders didn't imagine drone warfare, the Internet, or the rights of people who weren't white guys. And it worked.

Politics and the work of the people now depended on people with increasingly intense identities that were diametrically opposed and inflexible. The siloing, the tribal alignment, the need for purity, where principled opposition WAS the people's business became the standard.

This gave birth to the age of aphorisms as mentioned earlier, the more inflammatory and easy to brand the better. That in turn spawned politicians of that age, each with their pet issues. But unlike the past these were issues of identity not of policy. Compromise was betrayal.

Suddenly we went from editorials and soundbytes to tweets and posts. Instant news, compressed and easily misunderstood tidbits. Nuance couldn't fit in the small character allowance. All this led to simple slogans, pithy comments, snark, toxicity and hate. The country was staring at a live wire.

So the only way politicians could differentiate was in social issues. Each party up until the 00s had its pet issues. The environment, lgbtq rights, abortion, gun control. But post 9/11 and especially after the 08 financial crash we had a low trust environment. Then came social media. Twitter.

Democrats sought complex supply chains, global trade, soft power. They were no longer the party of the working class. Republicans sought increased profits, lower taxes for rich investors and the draw of cheap labor. These perspectives were complimentary and none cared much about American worker.

The reason this became so salient in the last 30 years is that the two major parties aren't far apart in financial or trade matters. Both parties supported policies that harmed the working class American. Neoliberalism super charged the global economy. But working class America got left behind.

So we get caught up in these fights over there what it means to be an American and what a TRUE American believes and does. These things are easier to nationalize. They come in aphorisms that reduce difficult issues to bumper stickers you put on a ballot instead of a car. "MAGA" or "Abolish ICE"

The government is designed so that if there is not a consensus no changes get made. But these days it seems American voters think that the problem is that the rest of the country doesn't believe or act like their given state. CA says, "America should behave how we want." And then FL says the same.

The insane rule by a narrow margin of extremists in both parties is itself a symptom of a dysfunctional Congress. It will only end when purity is replaced by an unpleasant compromise where no one gets everything they want. The US government is built around compromise.

The irony of the Trump Bill debate is that what GOP is doing among its own members (dealing, carve outs, etc) is how legislation works. They all gather up and try and get as much for their state as they can without alienating too many votes. When R and D work together party extremists lose power.

Yahoo! Can't wait!

@horrornonna.com I just saw that Chain Reactions is gonna get a sneak peek on Texas Chain Saw Day. Do you know when the doc is coming to streaming? Sounds fascinating!

I liked the last few minutes. But the final kill was kind of hilarious

A Bay of Blood (1971) ⭐ 6.5 | Horror, Mystery, Thriller 1h 24m | R

www.imdb.com/title/tt0067...

@darcythemailgirl.bsky.social first slasher is Bay of Blood 1971. Mario Bava.

I have been hearing from people that they have been having issues accessing their Social Security accounts. INSTEAD of going to a branch which may be hundreds or 1Ks+ of miles away from you, call your members of Congress. They have constituent services that will help you regain access. Please share!

White House rescinds executive order targeting law firm Paul, Weiss after $40 million pledge President Trump rescinded an executive order targeting the law firm after it pledged to review its hiring practices and provide tens of millions of dollars in free legal services.

I just about threw up. www.cbsnews.com/news/paul-we...

What does "never again" mean to you? At what point is it "again?"

Poster for film Zone of Interest via IMDB

Finally saw Zone of Interest. I think the point of humanizing evil people is that we see ourselves in them. Not in order to bring us to love them but rather to understand that we are never very far from becoming like them if we are not careful. And that is a timeless lesson.

You know I think that the government hasn't thought through what would happen if suddenly there were thousands of people they put out of a job who now have nothing but time to think about who did them dirty. And they're connected. And have skills and secrets.