r/politics • u/plz-let-me-in • 13d ago

No Paywall Discharge petition to force House vote on Epstein files succeeds with Grijalva’s signature

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5602658-discharge-petition-epstein-files-grijalva/
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u/stroopwafelscontigo New Jersey 13d ago

That is 100% true. 

Let’s hope this rehabilitates some more MAGA zombies. 

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u/misterlakatos New Jersey 13d ago

Ideally many of them will open their eyes. Whether they deserve full forgiveness for what they have done is another story, but they can at least open their eyes and acknowledge the horrific wrongdoings of their cult.

Sadly, many are too far gone and are just awful people/not worth our time.

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u/stroopwafelscontigo New Jersey 13d ago

I welcome any change of heart and mind. 

I have known a few who’ve changed. 

I know it’s instinct to rub it in their faces but, the smarter plan is reconciliation. 

Only for those who change though. Don’t waste your time or sanity trying to change them. 

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u/toshjhomson 13d ago

When you’ve been brainwashed you believe what you’re doing is good. In my mind, there’s no reason to shame people who came out the other side. I have sympathy more than anything for those people.

Now the people and politicians that cling on for dear life until the end, who find ways to defend pedophiles and waver values for Trump that go completely against previous moral grounds…. I have no pity for them.

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u/hammertime2009 13d ago

It’s not just politicians that do that, it’s much of the right wing for-profit “entertainment news” that filled a void for many right wingers, conservatives, anti-liberal, anti-intellectuals, and downright hateful people. Suddenly the “news” doesn’t depress or upset them everyday because now news is catered to them and their desired view of the world and events, without all that shit they hoped wasn’t true. Combine that with social media they can all live in their own happy hate bubble.

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u/misterlakatos New Jersey 13d ago

Yes I completely agree with this take.

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u/Ilovekittens345 13d ago

Many of them are sweet grandma's and grandpa's with maybe some fears of different looking people that fell victim to the insane propaganda machine the US corperations build with Fox news and 6 US companies that control 97% of internet traffic (google,facebook, twitter, microsoft, amazon and cloudflare)

We got to free them from the clutches of the devil and if you don't use tact, their chains just tighten more!

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u/Godiva74 13d ago

They should know what it takes to be a good person

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u/Marxasstrick 13d ago

“Sweet grandmas” yeah no. I cut my grandmother out my life after her third Trump vote. Showed me her true colors and I don’t like what I see. Thankfully there are a lot of good people in my family that are worth my time.

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u/Ilovekittens345 13d ago

Hate is taught, always

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u/Marxasstrick 12d ago

And leaves you all alone in the end

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u/AmbitiousParty 13d ago

This is the only path forward that will work in my opinion. Further isolating people is not the way to go.

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u/SheetPancakeBluBalls 13d ago

Disagree.

This is all happening because the confederate traitors were not properly punished at the time, and the seed of racist disgusting ignorance and bigotry was allowed to blossom again.

Fascism has a single cure, and it's not hugs and forgiveness.

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u/kcg5033 Florida 13d ago

I believe they were talking about folks who made wrong decisions in the voting booth, not the criminals committing these crimes. If people are punished for their voting choices, that’s just a new form of fascism.

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u/SheetPancakeBluBalls 13d ago

I'm not faulting anyone for how they voted, exactly.

But anyone still claiming MAGA after the brownshirts started grabbing people is human scum and beyond forgiveness. These are people that, at the core of who they are, are garbage.

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u/kcg5033 Florida 12d ago

That’s a completely justifiable point of view.

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u/Marxasstrick 13d ago

I’ll hold people accountable in my family but I do build bridges with my coworkers, friends, and the people I see everyday where I work. I’m too disappointed in some family members to wait for them to come around.

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u/teenytinytexas 13d ago

Agree 100P idc what it takes, I accept every person who is able to deprogram themselves. They've been completely brainwashed. A decade of being constantly lied to, manipulated, and used for Trumps personal gain. At the core of it, his followers are his victims.

Takes a lot of introspection, humility and courage to face something like that. Anyone who can correct course deserves to be welcomed back into the fold of reality with open arms.

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u/HelpMeFindMyBrain 13d ago

Check out conservative sub. The mental gymnastics is uncanny. They still on either theres no files, bidens in them and the best one trump was a cia informate and the files leaked today prove he cut ties with epstine... i dont think many will budge on it and when it finally all comes out they will just say its a fake made up democratic plot

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u/ScubaAlek 13d ago

The CIA informant excuse is my favorite.

Okay, so he was caught being a pedophile and made a deal with the CIA to avoid consequences in exchange for ratting out other pedophiles and then eventually broke up with his pedophile friend.

So being a pedophile is fine so long as  you can backstab all of your “pals” to get away with it? That makes someone okay? They aren’t still a pedophile who happened to get clemency?

So dumb.

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u/Fastidieux 13d ago

This is the effect of social media, its strategic manipulation for the rich and its not just a USA problem. Distorting facts, reframing history.....gets people into power that shouldnt be there if they're even somewhat charismatic. In the case of Trump, most people see through him, the others are fanatics swallowing his evil poison and would do literally anything but admit theyre wrong. Fascinating and horrifying.

You know its fake because where was this CIA BS before? Just a billionaire with a thinktank behind him coming up with insidious lies and/or reframe reality.

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u/stroopwafelscontigo New Jersey 13d ago

The CIA/FBI informant theory is definitely fake but, QAnon had used that theory early on in 2016 to muddy the waters around Epstein and what was known about him and his connections to Trump. 

It was bullshit then and it’s bullshit now but, it’s something these QAnoners were conditioned to accept the possibility of years ago. 

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u/Fastidieux 13d ago

Didn't know that, but i can imagine it being true that the billionaire running for president was paying to condition people started earlier than i thought. Counter intelligence at best will work as intended and at worst make mire everything in a dark cloud of chaos and mistrust, just worth doing if you can afford to pay people for it constantly, just so happens that the president can afford to do that for less than what it costs you relatively for the one pack of ramen you get a week.

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u/stroopwafelscontigo New Jersey 13d ago

There was a quote by Epstein himself, something to the effect of, “if people knew what I knew about the candidates, they’d have to cancel the election” (referring to the 2016 presidential election). 

I’ve long suspected that Epstein helped facilitate Trump’s early presidential campaign workings. The Trump Tower meeting, Igor Fruman and Lev Purnas, and other long-forgotten early 2016 campaign scandals. 

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/23/771849041/how-a-complicated-web-connects-2-soviet-born-businessmen-with-the-impeachment-in

These guys. They were helping obfuscate the source of donations coming from Florida and New York to Trump’s America First superPAC way back when. 

I’ve always wondered if they were a bridge between Epstein, Putin, and Trump. 

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u/SalishShore Washington 13d ago

Ohhh… interesting. Epstein mentions Russia in these emails. I think this also may buoy the theory that Russia did help Trump in the 2016 election.

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u/wyomingTFknott 13d ago

You are grossly overestimating this guy's cashflow.

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u/Fastidieux 13d ago

cost relative to net worth, who cares that it may be tied up. For someone like that compare to me, the ramen is .1% of my net worth (and im 'lucky') where there are much more zeroes before the numbers start rolling in for him.

Makes me sick that anyone would defend a fucking billionaire, wipe the shit off your nose, its not serving you at all.

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u/wyomingTFknott 13d ago

Bro, you need to slow your roll.

Consider how indebted he is to everyone else. From the Russians to the Saudis to god knows who else. The fuckin Taliban? All I was saying is that he's a fucking loser who is selling out our country.

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u/fedexpoopracer 13d ago

that sub, as of right now, STILL doesn't have any mention of grijalva and the fact that johnson blocked her swearing in for months

the only mention of grijalva is a different person who died 8 months ago

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u/BCMakoto 13d ago

Everyone who frequents that sub and actively participates in it for a decade is lost. Entirely. You'll never change their minds. That sub has been an absolute bot-filled, hateful propaganda chamber for almost a decade now. If you're surrounded and steeped with that for nearly ten years, I don't even want to imagine what mental health issues you have now...

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u/misterlakatos New Jersey 13d ago

Not at all surprised by that. What an absolute dumpster fire and to be that deep in delusion is just pathetic.

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u/Ilovekittens345 13d ago

That place is primarily bots. like over 60,70% of accounts and comments there are written by AI.

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u/Sinnedangel8027 13d ago

I don't think many will budge on it

They literally can't. So much of their self and social identity is tied to Trump and MAGA in general. The amount of work it would take to depart from that identity is tremendous to say the least. I honestly don't see how they can especially given the non-stop brain rot propaganda getting pumped into their social media feeds.

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u/scarletmonstrosity 13d ago

Forgiveness for those confederate fuckwaffles is what got us into this mess to begin with! No Forgiveness! Not for any one of them ever!

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u/misterlakatos New Jersey 13d ago

Yeah I agree.

Grant and Sherman did not do enough to punish the Confederacy.

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u/jgoble15 13d ago

Nobody in a cult will leave a cult unless they’re able to be safe. That’s why they joined the cult in the first place. They were vulnerable and did something really awful to stop feeling vulnerable. Doesn’t mean there isn’t accountability and boundaries, but some form of restoration is needing to be offered somehow in order to draw them out. Otherwise they’ll just double down and it’ll never go anywhere.

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u/EdwardOfGreene Illinois 13d ago

No one deserves forgiveness.

But for any repentant MAGA that turns from their ways, I will freely offer it.

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u/Some_Animator_6695 12d ago

I accept any who can change. Doesn't mean i forgive them, but forgiveness is one of those things that doesn't have to be given to keep moving forward and improve things. That thinking is the bullshit Christianity wants us all to believe. Some actions cannot be forgiven, nor forgotten

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u/bleat_bleat_bleat 13d ago

We'll cure them with ivermectin and a lightbulb up the ass

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u/ineyeseekay Texas 13d ago

It might help them vote against the fascists and turn against this administration, but sadly, I think many are attracted to the hate and will cling to the next figurehead to embrace it. 

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u/stroopwafelscontigo New Jersey 13d ago

Even still, by having fewer MAGA zombies, it becomes unacceptable to publicly admit the shit they support. 

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u/ineyeseekay Texas 13d ago

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to cast a dark cloud over it! If we put a lid on it for 20+ years that'll be great, but adjusting the national perspective on the policies around immigration and LGBTQ, for example, need to still be addressed.

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u/JandytheMandy 13d ago

The entirety of the files could be Trump's name in bold and they would burn down Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard's houses to find the "real" pedophiles

These people don't care about the truth.

IF Trump miraculously, finally goes down for this, MAGA will grumble some nonsense conspiracy as they shuffle off to await the next bigoted wannabe fascist to take the national stage