Oh hmm, maybe I had just heard people misuse it in the past? Had only heard it being used as a synonym for possibility in the context of “every eventuality” but other times meaning something definitive. Looking it up I see that it’s supposed to just always refer to possibility

It is not an eventuality, it is a possibility that he tries

Thinking that everything is 100% certain to happen is how we get ourselves too paralyzed to act. We can reduce the odds of many things from happening by showing up and building pressure

Join protests, boycotts, strikes, etc.

EDIT: or maybe I apparently have misunderstood how the word eventuality is supposed to be a synonymy of possibility. My bad on that one

Musk will likely control elections going forward

Elections are run by the states themselves even for federal office. Notable race in particular for Musk was the Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this month. Musk poured millions to try to make it go the other way and tried to bribe voters with $1 million lotteries if they “signed a petition against activist judges”. The Musk backed candidate still lost by 10 points

Don’t do his dirty work for him and suppress the vote before anything happens. The fight ain’t over till it’s over

Lopez-Gomez was reportedly released Thursday evening after protestors gathered outside of the Leon County jail, where he was being held.

In good news, they were released after public backlash and protest. Protesting can work, boycotts can work, and so on. Don’t let anyone think we can’t act because we the people can

They want to take our rights, but we are not powerless to stop them. Fight back!

Don’t give into the doom that Trump & Musk want us to have. They want us thinking we’ve already lost so we don’t try to stop them, but the fight ain’t over till it’s over. We the people have power if we’re willing to use it

Join on the streets, take a part in boycotts, join strikes, etc.

Don’t just hope, join the fight back! April 19th is the next day of nationwide protests

Don’t play into the doom that Trump & Musk want us to all have. The fight ain’t over till it’s over

They aren’t just protesting Trump here? I mean the tour itself is called “Fighting Oligarchy” which is about a system

Strange indeed, but this has been part of a long push. Didn’t happen by magic

Edit: On a closer reading, it looks like it might actually mean “if you use AI/other non-animal methods we’ll let you skip some safety testing” (“”“streamlined review”“”). Less animal murder so still good ofc, but :/

Their 11 page roadmap document does not read that way at all. Looking the FDA press documents look very different than the implementation details documents. I mean part of their roadmap is actually to encourage people - if already doing animal studies - to perform additional non-animal studies at the same time and submit that along side to get better data about accuracy and such

https://www.fda.gov/media/186092/download?attachment

I think it’s unlikely they will do so directly given their other actions. Senate Majority Leader Thune has been pretty adamant about keeping it even stating he wanted to keep it in his very first speech this year as the new senate majority leader. I think the bigger threat to the filibuster at the moment is Republicans abusing reconciliation beyond what is supposed to be in there. Republicans appear likely to test the waters with bending the rules in the near future. This would be one of those piece by piece kinds of things, so more of a medium-term to longer-term issue

Reconciliation is supposed to be strictly for budget related policies and allows a strict majority vote without going through the filibuster and is only allowed to be used a limited number of times among other restrictions. The senate parliamentarian is the one who is supposed to interprets the senate rules and procedures including what’s allowed in reconciliation. One of the requirements the Byrd Rule gives to reconciliation is that the bill passed through the senate it may not add to the deficit overall.

Republicans appear likely to ignore the senate parliamentarian and declare by themselves that extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the rich that will expire are “current policy” and not counted in deficit computations. By itself that doesn’t sound that interesting, but the reason that’s a little concerning is that the senate parliamentarian is also the one who decides if the bills are strictly budget related. For instance, in 2021 the senate parliamentarian was the one who frustratingly ruled that a minimum wage increase to $15/hr couldn’t be included via reconciliation. If ignoring the senate parliamentarian becomes the norm, they could stuff non-budget thing into these massive reconciliation spending packages without anyone to say no

(It’s also possible the Senate parliamentarian rules in their favor and they don’t override what they say)

Before we preemptively doom about it, it also needs to pass the senate filibuster meaning 7 senate dems need to vote in favor. Call your senators and tell them to vote against it

The bill appears to face long odds in the Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome an expected Democratic filibuster.

[…]

“I am leading the fight in the Senate to push back against this effort to disrupt our already safe and secure elections. This bill cannot pass the Senate — and I will fight every step of the way to block it,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a statement.

[…]

Last year, the House passed a similar bill but it stalled in the Senate and then-President Joe Biden vowed to veto it

Passed the house not the senate. The filibuster in the senate is the main hurdle for the bill. That’s what requires 60 votes meaning it’d take at least 7 votes from dems

Dems have shot plenty of things down this term via the filibuster though the CR was a notable horrible exception. For instance, they successfully filibustered an anti-trans legislation earlier in march. There is no threat of a shutdown here if they don’t let this bill get through. It’s a tall order for it to get through. Still call your senator and tell them to vote against cloture for it

Hope does live on - with the people. That’s where the power has always lived if we the people are willing to use it

Right now they’re thinking the 5 million protesting last Saturday was a fluke. Let’s show them it’s not. Sat April 19th is the next day of nationwide protest

Next day of nationwide protests is April 19th. 5 million showed up last Saturday. Let’s make the next one larger

Dems actually did introduce a bill to do essentially that in the Senate for tarrifs on Canada. It passed 51-48 with only 4 republicans breaking rank. Notably in this case, Ted Cruz voted against that bill

I should note it’s unlikely Mike Johnson will ever put it up for a vote in the house. If he did and it passed, it will likely get vetoed. Without more republicans breaking rank it’s not going to be able to get to the 2/3 of congress needed to veto override

Need to see more republicans with spines for this bill to get through

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00160.htm

Schimel already conceded and said that they had to respect election results. (To a booing crowd of supporters)

Kind of something that what used to be 100% standard by all is now suprising

Plenty of states are directly rubuking Trump right now and actively going against what he’s telling them to do. We don’t have to imagine them enforcing things that they don’t want. Many are already doing just as much

Statewide dem parties have been better at standing up than much of the national dems have

NY still has the congestion prices going despite his demand they pull it

Maine’s governor is not bowing to Trump’s demands on trans rights even after direct in person confrontation

And so on

State courts can carry out arrests and penalties themselves without federal government involvement

Primarily in the context of Musk that’s going to matter with his active cases in the WI court

Other states governments can extradite him too even if he never steps foot in Wisconsin. He’d have to basically never go anywhere other than federal territories or deep red state to avoid that. That’s assuming they’d block his extradition in the first place which is quite rare to begin with

Musk spending $25 million and also reduces his grip on congressional Republicans

They have been worried about him funding challangers against them. If he can spend this kind of money and heavier time investment and still lose badly, that reduces a motivation to go along with him

Both appear to be happening in the specials lately

Higher comparative dem turnout and some degree of persuasion is likely

Can’t directly tell because individual votes are anonymous, but you can tell what party a voter is registered with in some states.

Generally seeing higher turnout among registered dems and margins large enough to suggest that many independent and likely some Republicans are shifting their votes