Oh, okay.

From talking to them, many know by the time they are back in the states, but I know some sell out for cushy jobs, similar to university grads that work for the military-industrial complex, big pharma companies, big tech companies, and so on.

I’m more of a long-term converter of them over time.

Educating for a revolution is not easy, but I try, as well as enlightening about our imperialist ways, the duopoly, and the oligarchy.

I do try to follow this mantra, as to unite the poor and working class:

“We should focus our actions, time, and resources on direct action, mutual aid, and community outreach. If you do engage in electoral politics, do not support the duopoly (red or blue team). No War but Class War!”

Thanks for sharing your views on the matter!

Damn!

That is true.

How do you interact with friends, family, or community members that are military and/or mercs as well as police?

With hostility, listening and slowly disagreeing, ignoring subjects, or something else?

True.

Feel free to call them out if they stray from their goals and demands of helping the poor and working class.

I know I will.

We have a Uniparty.

The duopoly is owned by the oligarchy.

There are just two parties so as to use the divide and conquer strategy on the poor and working class.

We waste our time fighting each other while the rich cause more forever wars so they can steal all the important natural resources from us and other countries.

George Carlin: The Owners Of This Country [04:49 | https://youtu.be/fT03vCaL-F0]

“We should focus our actions, time, and resources on Direct Action, Mutual Aid, and Community Outreach. If you do engage in Electoral Politics do not support the Duopoly (Red or Blue Team). No War but Class War!”

which celebrity does it seem I worship?

You are defending a politician instead of forcing them to the left.

I encourage purity testing; it keeps politicians in check.

Why do you think Trump won?

Genocide Joe and Kamala were just status quo politicians and Trump’s pseudo-populist talking points.

We have a broken system; the duopoly is owned and controlled by the oligarchy.

So again, we need to stop being celebrity worshippers and start forcing politicians to our demands.

Whitney Webb has done a great amount of reporting on US gov’t and ties to Big Tech.

You should check her out.

Whitney Webb has been a professional writer, researcher and journalist since 2016. She has written for several websites and, from 2017 to 2020, was a staff writer and senior investigative reporter for Mint Press News. She is contributing editor of Unlimited Hangout and author of the book One Nation Under Blackmail.^[1]

Her articles: https://unlimitedhangout.com/author/whitney-webb/

Awesome.

Discharge petition to force House vote on Epstein files succeeds with Grijalva’s signature

Emily Brooks | 11/12/25 4:22 PM ET | The Hill

A discharge petition for a bill to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein got enough signatures Wednesday to force action on the matter, teeing up a long-sought vote on the House floor relating to the convicted sex offender.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) became the 218th and final signature on the discharge petition shortly after she was sworn in Wednesday. She joined all other Democrats and four Republicans: Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Nancy Mace (S.C.).

Grijalva signed the petition on the House floor immediately after being sworn in as Democrats in the chamber cheered and two Epstein survivors looked on from the gallery.

“Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that [President] Trump knew more about Epstein’s abuses than he previously acknowledged. It’s about time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people,” she said in her first speech.

She added, “Justice cannot wait another day.”

Later on Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that he would bring the Epstein bill for a vote in the House next week — a move that amounts to ripping the band-aid off a vote that neither Johnson nor President Trump wanted.

Without cooperation from GOP leadership, the earliest a vote would have happened under the discharge petition process was early December, due to waiting periods under the process.

The Epstein petition, led by Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), aims to call up a bill directing the attorney general to release unclassified records and documents in the possession of the Department of Justice related to Epstein, his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of trafficking young girls to him, and other individuals named or referenced in connection to Epstein’s criminal activities, among other provisions. It permits records to be withheld that contain personally identifiable information about victims or depicts or contain child sexual abuse materials, among other permitted redactions.

The bill is poised to easily pass. Multiple more Republicans said after the vote that they plan to support the bill when it hits the floor, and Republicans and Democrats alike are predicting mass GOP votes in support of the measure.

But it still faces an uphill climb to become law, as it would have to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate before making it to the desk of the president, who took to Truth Social saying that only “very bad, or stupid” Republicans would fall into an Epstein “trap.”

“There should be no deflections [sic] to Epstein or anything else,” Trump said.

Trump and administration officials reached out to Boebert and Mace in the hours ahead of Grijalva signing the petition Wednesday, as either one of them removing their names would have prevented the effort from succeeding. CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel planned to meet with Boebert on Wednesday. Trump called Mace early Wednesday, but the two had not connected as of early afternoon, a source told The Hill.

Both representatives kept their names on the petition.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) took to the House floor to request unanimous consent to immediately consider the Epstein Files Transparency Act soon after it reached 218 signatures.

The chair, Rep. Steve Womack (R-Calif.), ruled his request out of order, saying that “the chair is constrained not to entertain the request unless it is cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships.”

Burchett followed up by saying that Republicans were requesting unanimous consent and Democrats were objecting, and the chair responded that it was not a proper parliamentary inquiry to ask which side of the aisle had failed to clear a unanimous consent request.

Johnson pointed to that shot-down request later on Wednesday, arguing that Democrats opposed the unanimous consent request.

“It was a staggering level of hypocrisy. I think some of them regretted it, because within about a half hour of that, there was a lot of confusion, and some of them claim that they did not object, but they did, and that’s what happened on the floor,” Johnson said.

“So we’re going to put that on the floor for a full vote next week, soon as we get back,” Johnson said.

Johnson is declining to use other procedural gambits to try to “turn off” the discharge petition mechanism, as he did earlier this year on a measure that would have allowed new parents to vote by proxy for a period after their child’s birth.

Khanna predicted Wednesday that if the underlying bill comes to a vote, dozens more Republicans would vote for it.

“I believe we’re going to get 40, 50 Republicans voting with us on the release. And if we get that kind of overwhelming vote, that’s going to push the Senate, and that’s going to push the release of the files from the Justice Department,” Khanna said.

Republican leaders have long opposed the bill led by Massie and Khanna, despite the duo hosting a stunning press conference with multiple Epstein accusers in September who urged Congress to pass the bill.

Johnson said that the bill is “moot,” since the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is already separately investigating the Epstein matter.

The committee has received and released materials from the Department of Justice and the Epstein estate, and interviewed key figures in the Epstein case — including former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who oversaw Epstein’s much-criticized 2008 plea deal for two prostitution-related offenses and had work-release privileges while serving 13 months in jail.

More Epstein disclosures from the committee inflamed the debate Wednesday.

Democrats on the panel released emails with Epstein alleging that Trump “knew about the girls,” which Republicans accused Democrats of cherry-picking.

“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing. “Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out, because he was a pedophile and he was a creep.”

The committee later on Wednesday released a tranche of 20,000 pages of documents received from the Epstein estate.

Updated at 8:04 p.m.

True.

The duopoly loves their forever wars to distract, mass murder, and rob the important natural resources of other countries.

Don’t be hypocritical.

Yeah, a genocide is no big deal.

Vote blue no matter who!

/s

It is just sad at this point.

Being celebrity worshippers does not help; it hinders progress.

We must always demand and force politicians to do the bidding of the poor and working class.

Politicians already have little lawyers defending their every move; they are called PR teams. You don’t need to do their job for free; just apply to their campaign.

Edit: reworded sad sentence for clarity

We shall never stop calling out any politician.

We are not celebrity worshippers, like you seem to be; it hinders progress.

We must always demand and force politicians to do the bidding of the poor and working class.

Mamdani is already showing signs of a careerist politician, similar to AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Obama.

More like a careerist politician like AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Obama.

They want the clout of being “progressive,” but they make sure not to cross the line and push too far.

They become the next generation’s elite gatekeepers, keeping the status quo.

TIL

Thanks for the link!

Edit: Added a quick Generated Summary of article below and Archived Link.

Archived Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20250907142800/https://www.npr.org/2024/11/17/nx-s1-5191505/a-new-law-in-new-york-will-do-away-with-broker-fees

Generated Summary:

Key Data & Facts

• Legislation: The FARE Act (Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses Act).
• Core Change: Shifts responsibility for paying rental broker fees from the tenant to the party who hires the broker (which, in many cases, will be the landlord).
• Previous Fee: Tenants could be charged broker fees of 15% to 30% of the annual rent, even if they never hired or interacted with the broker.
• Current Status: Passed by the New York City Council and awaiting action from the mayor.
• Timeline: The law will take effect 180 days (approx. 6 months) after it is officially enacted.
• Support Level: The bill passed with a veto-proof majority of 42 votes (only 34 are needed to override a veto).

Key Takeaways

1. Fundamental Shift in Payment Responsibility: The law establishes the principle that “the person who hires the broker pays the broker,” aligning NYC with standard practices in the rest of the country.
2. Major Financial Relief for Renters: This change will significantly lower the upfront, move-in costs for tenants in NYC, which traditionally included first month’s rent, last month’s rent, a security deposit, and a massive broker’s fee.
3. Targets a Specific Abuse: The law specifically addresses the common practice where a landlord hires a broker to list and show their property, but the cost of that service was passed on to the tenant who had no say in the hiring decision.
4. Political Strategy Played a Key Role: Council Member Ossé credits the use of social media, particularly TikTok, for mobilizing young people to build a coalition strong enough to overcome the powerful real estate lobby, which had defeated similar bills in the past.

Detailed Summary

The Problem: The article outlines the extreme difficulty of finding affordable housing in New York City, exacerbated by high upfront broker fees. Tenants were routinely required to pay fees as high as 15% (and sometimes up to 30%) of a year’s rent to a broker, even in situations where the tenant found the apartment themselves or the broker was hired exclusively by the landlord. This fee was in addition to standard move-in costs like first month’s rent, last month’s rent, and a security deposit.

The Solution: The FARE Act The FARE Act, introduced by NYC Council Member Chi Ossé, fundamentally changes who is responsible for paying a broker’s fee. The core principle is that “whoever hires the broker pays the broker.” This means:

• If a landlord hires a broker to market their property, the landlord must pay that fee.
• If a tenant specifically hires a broker to find them an apartment, the tenant would still be responsible for that fee.

Legislative Status and Next Steps: The bill has been passed by the City Council and is now on the mayor’s desk. He can sign it, veto it, or do nothing, after which it becomes law in 30 days. Due to the overwhelming veto-proof majority (42 votes in favor), the bill is expected to become law regardless of the mayor’s action. Once enacted, there will be a 180-day period before it takes effect.

Context and Rationale:

• Broker Necessity: Ossé acknowledges that some brokers provide a necessary service, but the high demand in NYC’s rental market and the power of the real estate industry led to a system where fees became exorbitant and were often charged for little to no service.
• Personal Experience: Ossé shared his own difficult experience as a six-figure-earning council member being charged a high broker fee for an apartment he found himself, highlighting how pervasive the issue is.
• Political Strategy: Ossé, the council’s only Gen Z member, leveraged social media (especially TikTok) to galvanize public support and pressure council members, which he credits as a key factor in overcoming the influential real estate lobby.

Broader Implications: The bill is framed as part of a larger “affordability” crisis in NYC. Ossé states that his focus remains on tackling high rents and the city’s housing shortage, which disproportionately impact young people and long-term residents being priced out of their neighborhoods.

No need.

You do know that we have Kshama Sawant and Butch Ware running against the duopoly and many other grassroots movements.

Workers Strike Back and Chris Smalls are continuing the fight while organizing an independent labor movement, free from the duopoly.

We must continue supporting those that are for the poor and working class.

Get involved however you can and stop waiting for a superhero to save the day.

Kshama Sawant post: https://lemmy.world/post/38621409

“We should focus our actions, time, and resources on Direct Action, Mutual Aid, and Community Outreach. If you do engage in Electoral Politics do not support the Duopoly (Red or Blue Team). No War but Class War!”

Doubt it.

He is more like his good friend Joe Biden, just another duopoly puppet.

They are careerist politicians, sellouts, like AOC, and it seems Mamdani is going that route as well.

We need to stop being celebrity worshippers and continue to force and demand them to do the bidding of the poor and working class.

“We should focus our actions, time, and resources on Direct Action, Mutual Aid, and Community Outreach. If you do engage in Electoral Politics do not support the Duopoly (Red or Blue Team). No War but Class War!”

We must stop the celebrity worshipping.

It is just sad at this point.

We must force politicians to move to the left and to do our bidding.

Being their good little lawyers on the defense will not help us; it does the opposite.

He votes and acts like one.

Always ready to be a shepherd when called upon by the elites.

Don’t forget 2016 and 2020.

Awesome!

Thanks for the comment; it made me rewatch and relisten to this great song!

ITT, we must be reminded of these quotes:

“If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” – Plato

“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.” – Plato

"No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.” Plato

We must stop being celebrity worshippers.

Getting elected is the start, not the end.

We must not fear calling out politicians and holding them to our demands.

We must continue forcing them to the left (helping the poor and working class), instead of the status quo.

The first 90 seconds are on Zionism and Mamdani’s compromising on Zionism…

Pretty important for those against genocide…

The generated summary gives an easy-to-understand breakdown of the video, simple and direct.

It should make it easy for people to know if they are interested in the video or if they will ignore it and move on.

You can’t please everyone’s standards; we do what we can when we can.

All is well.

Peace.