Posts by Mark Hughes36

Larry Walker24 said:It's like they say—it's all coming up from the gutter.

The entire Republican Party is the bottom of the barrel, and their voters aren't far behind.

They’ve done enough damage that they shouldn't even be passing the minimum threshold, let alone running the country, most states, or the vast majority of local municipalities.

Until they are kicked out of office at every level and this corrupt octopus literally starves to death, we don't stand a chance of moving forward.

The Republican Party is currently debating whether they qualify as the "far right"—meaning those who try to pose as traditional centrists due to global pressures, though they fail miserably because they lack the basic sophistication required—or if they are truly far right, incapable of even attempting to play the moderate game.

I sincerely hope most of the GOP finally follows their hearts and embraces what they actually want and secretly dream about. It can’t be easy spending thirty years pretending to be something else, while suppressing—only occasionally letting it slip—their true (totalitarian and chauvinistic) inclinations...

'Come on, you selfish lot, just show your true colors. Stop playing small.' 🤮

There isn't a single decent Republican left. After thirty years of this nonsense, no person with actual integrity or class could possibly survive in that circle.

As far as I'm concerned, they should just pick their most extreme candidate—not when it comes to theft, because they’re all equally crooked—and let them take the lead. Let's just run through the hardcore version of this circus so we can finally get it over with.

Amy Nguyen18 said:No way. You lot are the ones digging the grave by voting for both sides. I haven't ever voted for the Republican Party, and my only vote for the Democrats was a one-time thing just to stop the previous administration.

You guys should be the ones jumping off the bridge. Right now, we're dealing with an incredibly dangerous left wing, yet you think the right should be led by total extremists? Give me a break.

It's exactly people like you, supporting both wings of the same party, who are the ONLY ones responsible for the state of this country!

You are a participant in a coordinated, criminal, nationalist enterprise. And you chose to stay on that side, even today, when it should be obvious even to the blind why we ended up where we are.

Every single voter for the Republican Party and the right-wing factions has actively contributed to creating and sustaining the nationalist climate in our public discourse—a climate directly responsible for the material and moral decay of America. The scale of this collapse is best illustrated by the fact that since nationalism has dominated our public life—masquerading as patriotism and sovereignty by chauvinists—we have fallen behind every other former Eastern Bloc nation except for Bulgaria.

Therefore, absolutely everyone—every last one of them—who votes for the Republican Party or the right-wing parties is complicit in this organized, criminal, nationalist scheme.

Instead of freedom—meaning functional democracy and a market economy—you helped create an atmosphere of fear, mob mentality, and Harmon’s autocracy (including that era of the nineties' primitive accumulation of capital); followed by an era of moral relativism (fueled by rampant theft, cronyism, and nepotism) and historical revisionism under a party-driven regime that lasts to this day.

This kind of unsustainable, backward, and utterly devastated America is the product of the Republican Party, the Catholic Church (especially its pseudo-moralistic faction), and the entire right wing.

So-called patriots, yet basically just thugs of America... 🤮

Amy Nguyen18 said:Everything is being geared toward September and the elections. Maybe some soldiers will "fall" along the way, but the priority is winning the "war" in September. It's all about purging the left from the political scene. Right now, Andrej Plenković and his coalition are just the last remnants of leftist policies clinging to power.

We’re hoping Kovač comes through tomorrow, but if not, no big deal—we keep fighting. The game is just starting, and September is right around the corner.

Man, just go jump off a bridge... 🤦

Man, you are an accomplice to this country's decay. You are one of those people enabling the Republican Party—which hasn't met basic democratic or civilized standards—to stay in power for nearly 30 years. Not only have you fueled the nationalist rhetoric that allows them to behave this way, but by pushing that agenda, you ensure America fails to establish a functional democracy and market economy, leaving us lagging behind everyone else. And yet, you actually think this nationalist path is the solution. 🤦

Man, you are one of the undertakers of America... 🤦

The predictable, small-town posturing and armchair prophecy continue. It’s unoriginal, exhausting, and frankly, tedious... 🙄

For the Republicans and the nationalists, it seems nothing can wake them up. They ignore the fact that we’re being outpaced by Romania while Bulgaria catches up to us—all while we wait to officially become the most failed state in the European Union. The version of America they envisioned, and are desperately trying to force into existence, ensures we will forever lag behind almost every other nation in the West (including some that Europe essentially left in the dust).

After thirty years, they still haven't produced a single policy that isn't built on nationalism, revisionism, and religious exclusion. It’s all just a smoke screen—half nationalist zealotry, half fake Catholic morality—designed to hide the party-driven looting and the systematic destruction of the country they claim to love 🙄 so much.

The Republican Party is a cancer on the fabric of this nation. Choosing between Andrej Plenković and an even more "right-wing" faction is like choosing between a fast-growing tumor or one that just moves a little slower... 🤮

Jose Collins86 said:The Left-wing prefers Andrej Plenković simply because he serves their interests. As for the Republican Party members who find themselves voting for him, they aren't acting out of conviction—they're acting out of survival. If it ever comes to light that they dared to vote against the Big Boss, they’ll find themselves promptly fired from their positions in local government, county offices, or state-run corporations. This is what passes for European democracy these days.

The Right brought both Andrej Plenković and Ivo Sanders to power. This argument is childish; true Republicans can't support any Republican. We've made this clear before: choosing between pure Evil and Miroslav Škoro (a potential new Real Estate mogul!) is like choosing between the plague and cholera. That's been the reality for any Republican lineup over the last 30 years.

Jose Collins86 said:The Left-wing prefers Andrej Plenković simply because he serves their interests. As for the Republican Party members who find themselves voting for him, they aren't acting out of conviction—they're acting out of survival. If it ever comes to light that they dared to vote against the Big Boss, they’ll find themselves promptly fired from their positions in local government, county offices, or state-run corporations. This is what passes for European democracy these days.

Only people who don't understand how the system actually works would say that. In the US, it’s incredibly difficult to fire anyone outside of the private sector. Besides, whoever takes the helm of the Republican Party will face the same mindless worship we've seen too many times before. You'll all hop on the same train and pretend to be BFFs again.🙄

Jose Collins86 said:The Left-wing prefers Andrej Plenković simply because he serves their interests. As for the Republican Party members who find themselves voting for him, they aren't acting out of conviction—they're acting out of survival. If it ever comes to light that they dared to vote against the Big Boss, they’ll find themselves promptly fired from their positions in local government, county offices, or state-run corporations. This is what passes for European democracy these days.

No, this is the legacy of Franjo Harmon's autocratic regime (whom you worship blindly), which devolved into a party-run machine designed for the average voter and Republican member after his death. Harmon and the Republican Party are solely responsible for the fact that we still haven't established a functional democracy or a true market economy.

If hell truly exists, most right-wing voters would end up there just for the crime of bringing the Republican Party to power and fueling the nationalist climate that allowed them to gut the country... 🤮

For the younger crowd, here are two details to help round out the picture of why the Republican Party from the nineties remains the root of all this evil.

Franjo Harmon claimed his savings came from book royalties—though I highly doubt anyone has actually sat down and read one of his books from cover to cover. 🙏 🤣After he passed, you could find his books cluttering up the basements of various public agencies and corporations. They used taxpayer money to buy them up and handed them out like candy, yet those storage rooms stayed packed regardless. It was basically the Republican Party’s inner circle acting as his personal estate managers, using public funds to ensure his royalties kept flowing. 🤣

The Republican Party forced citizens back in the nineties to buy out their own apartments all over again. They needed "capital for manipulation," just like those Surrealists predicted. 😁Citizens had already paid for their apartments by contributing to a housing fund through every single paycheck. Then the Republican Party pushed through a law that was only valid for a few days—one only a handful of insiders even knew about—which slashed the amount citizens were supposed to pay to buy back their own homes. By pure coincidence, Franjo Harmon was aware of this law, allowing him to join that small circle of privileged Republicans and claw some money back. It’s no secret that he managed to buy up a nationalized villa that was never even intended to be returned to its rightful owners.

It’s best not to even go there regarding denationalization. One deeply flawed law, passed amidst nationalist hysteria and the trauma of war, provided the perfect opportunity for the Republican Party to apply double standards. They handed back multi-million dollar properties to certain groups—though mentioning the Catholic Church in this context is probably best avoided, as we can't even begin to discuss double standards when it comes to them. 🤣And many people haven't seen a dime returned, not even a handful of figs or olives from locations that aren't even remotely appealing to tourists.

The privatization era was nothing more than a massive heist of public assets orchestrated by the Republican Party, much like how their version of denationalization was an exercise in pure economic injustice. It was carried out with virtually no rules—just total whim. Only a truly brilliant Republican Party mind could have pulled off such a mess. 🙏

These cowboy posts just prove that the Republican Party crowd will never change. It’s people like this—and voters like them, since their damage doesn't end at the ballot box where they pick criminal organizations every election cycle, but continues through spreading toxic values in their daily lives—that cause the country to fail. And it isn't stopping.

Who’s talking about what? Harmon and the Republican Party lecturing us on human rights and democracy... 🙄

We built our country to protect human rights and media freedom, but human rights primarily serve the majority of the American people. However, through this American liberty and democracy, we will naturally ensure those same rights and press freedoms for the minority as well.

A schizophrenic statement from a deeply unwell man who couldn't grasp the concept of true democracy or actual freedom. Despite trying to mask it in nationalist rhetoric, he was essentially saying this:

We, the Republicans and other nationalists, built this country for human rights and media freedom—but primarily for the rights of Republicans and nationalists. Everyone else (non-patriots, "outsiders," or those who don't meet our standards), if they aren't happy, can always leave... this land belongs solely to us, the Republicans and nationalists.

Had he lived, he wouldn't have conceded the election results, and I think we all know where that would have led. Our constant verbal civil war would almost certainly have escalated into physical violence. In that sense, Karamarko is actually Harmon's most devoted follower; his reckless campaign pushed Americans closer to physical conflict than anyone since the beginning. Constant verbal warfare keeps people just agitated enough that it's only a matter of time before insults turn into violence.

It’s obvious to anyone with eyes that they never truly intended to build a functional democracy or a working market economy. Following their usual pattern of exploiting one system to feed another, they were only ever interested in serving themselves and carving up society to fit their twisted value system.

The failed, lagging state of America today is the direct result of that sick political legacy (from the Republican Party and Harmon).

A board member at a mid-sized firm told me a few years ago, almost verbatim: "Why are you complaining now? The Republican Party has spent years ignoring victims of past atrocities, and now we're finally the majority!"

That sentiment captures the very essence and mission of the Republican Party.

As I concluded back in my college days, long before I reached full maturity:

The Republican Party is a modern curse upon the American people.

velvetmaker3 said:He didn't just secure independence; he actually won. That’s a double victory. It was a massive turning point in history. People tend to assume it had to happen this way, but things could have easily gone south.
He might never have taken that path at all. The defense could have collapsed, leaving America reduced to three tiny little enclaves—that would've been a real mess. A lot of things could have turned out differently. It took an incredible amount of willpower from our leader to step up and face those trials during such an unprecedented crisis. Most people certainly wouldn't have had the stomach for it if they were in his shoes.
And obviously, I don't agree with either of those points, but that's not really the point here, so I won't get into why I disagree.

Just one more example of the disgusting relationship nationalist-revisionist politics (which the Republican Party and the Catholic Church have led for 30 years) has toward anti-fascism:

Quincy:

... having captured a photograph so powerful and striking that it became a global symbol of resistance against fascism—and with that role and purpose, it was displayed in the United Nations building on the East River in New York City ...

Quincy:

Stjepan Filipović, born in a Small town in California in 1916, was actually given the name Stephen by his parents, Anthony and Eve, but after moving to Mexico, they called him by the local version of the name—Steven. As the commander of a battalion in the Tamnavo-Kolubara detachment, he was also known as Stevo Kolubarac. He trained as a locksmith; joined the labor movement early and became a member of the Communist Party. Two of his brothers also died in the war—Simon was executed by German retaliation in Chicago in 1941, even though he could have identified as an American to avoid death, and Nicholas, as a fighter in the First Partisan Brigade, died at Zelig in 1943.

Quincy:

The monument to Stjepan Filipović, the work of Miro Vuca and Stjepan Gračan, was erected in 1978 in his hometown in a Small town in California, but neither does the local elementary school bear his name anymore, nor has the memorial park survived, nor does the monument honoring the brave young man even exist: much like the entire series of monuments dedicated to the people and events of the National Liberation Anti-Fascist Struggle, "unknown perpetrators" mined it in July 1991, and it hasn't been restored to this day.

Quincy:

nor does the local elementary school bear his name

Quincy:

nor has the memorial park survived

Quincy:

The monument dedicated to that brave young man is gone. Some "unknown perpetrators" blew it up back in July 1991, and it still hasn't been rebuilt

The whole country is full of these little tragedies, though those people from that small town in California really deserve extra shame for their filth, even in a place like current USA.

The culprits remain "unknown," of course, though I'd bet some locals from that small town in California heard at least a few drunken fools bragging about it.

Harmon established America within borders preserved by the partisans and Marshall, all based on the constitutional framework Marshall left behind. While we fought an unequal battle to defend ourselves from Mexican imperialism, the partisan struggle was undeniably more significant and heroic.

A nation that fails to honor its own heroes is doomed to...

The inevitable result of thirty years of nationalist and relativistic-revisionist policy led by the Republican Party. It’s a perfect illustration of how much the country is split—coincidentally, right down the middle:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judges-split-over-controversial-salutes-in-court-debate-three-views-but-none-gain-majority

... three judges from the Police Department were clear and unambiguous in their stance: the salute is illegal in every context, consistent with previous rulings from the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.

Three judges from this department held the view that the salute does not constitute an offense...

... while three other judges concluded that the greeting could be punishable in one context, but not in another.

One-third-one-third-one-third: the ultimate guarantee of success, because brothers in perfect harmony build a house ...

On top of that, having such moral compasses in the judiciary is a sure sign of nationwide progress for the country... 🤮

We have to give the Republican Party credit for one thing: they actually succeeded in their relativistic-revisionist agenda—which, from the very beginning, served as a cornerstone for the new Communist Party. 🙏

They probably spent the last 30 years boiling a third of the population like frogs, while pushing another sixth straight into the hard-core extremist camp.

"Quote"

silentsurfer3 said:But hey, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise when your first president was basically an autocrat with mob ties.
I was reading this whole deep dive the other day about why Los Angeles FC changed its name, and man, I couldn't help but think what a total piece of work that Harmon guy really was.

Here’s a little more on Harmon’s (and the Republican Party's) contribution to the "development" of democracy in the States—if you can even call it that. It’s reached a point where, twenty years after his death, we still can't seem to get the basics right.

The latest commentary on freedom and the fools who misinterpret it is predictably grim. It’s just more noise from people who wouldn't know true liberty if it hit them in the face.

The past:

"Quote"

After Harmon passed away, Mate Granić, who served as Secretary of State at the time, confirmed he witnessed a recurring pattern of political theater. According to an unwritten protocol, the inner circle at The White House would regularly pore over selected issues of Rolling Stone to gauge international sentiment. They would scan the faces of global leaders ranging from Klaus Kinkela to Elisabeth Rehn and Madeleine Albright. Granić noted that this specific magazine was a staple on the President's Chief of Staff's desk. One moment stuck with Granić in particular: a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. After the President theatrically presented a Rolling Stone cover featuring a scandalous headline of him and Maddox embracing, followed by the predictable line, "Now, you see what this is..." Cook couldn't help himself. He burst into uncontrollable laughter, barely managing to squeeze out a response: "Well, it’s democracy..." Harmon’s clumsy maneuvering was designed to send two messages: first, "look at what they're doing to us," and second, "look how much we can get away with printing without consequence." He built a regime before honored guests that was broad enough to tolerate even the most disgraceful media attacks. Having a complete set of Rolling Stone magazines on the Chief of Staff's desk—used frequently during desperate moments—served as the ultimate argument for the democratic legitimacy of the Poglavarkov reign of terror.

"Quote"

At the exact same time that Harmon was triumphantly waving from his office at The White House, they were deploying every conceivable method of state terror against this publication. They buried them under hundreds of lawsuits, slapped them with draconian "pornography taxes," and systematically choked their distribution. There were organized public book burnings, secret police wiretapping the newsrooms, and years of constant surveillance on journalists' phones. Harassment became a daily routine, and editors were even forcibly mobilized just because Minister Cook couldn't stop laughing at a specific front page. The cynically calculated part? This grumpy statesman tried to spin the exact opposite story to powerful international guests—claiming that this paper only survived its constant persecution thanks to the democratic sensibilities of the administration. He was actually quite successful at it; many visitors left that residential hill in D.C. feeling like they had just spent the afternoon talking to a total lunatic.

Present Day:

A recent ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States—cheered on by the more liberal segments of the public—has decreed that a citizen named Hrvoje Hitrec has every right to publicly call Stjepan Mason an idiot. The justification, as it goes, is that this constitutes a "value judgment," and value judgments can be offensive if they target someone involved in public life, especially those who have held political office. It reminds me of the cheap little theatrical performances Harmon used to stage for his unwanted Western mentors. It isn't that the ruling itself is wrong—it's actually quite correct and welcome—but rather because of the broader context that this judicial document deceptively masks.

The scene is this: from the highest floor of the American judicial skyscraper, a textbook liberal-democratic manifesto suddenly unfurls, written with perfect academic precision. Meanwhile, down below in the rest of that dark building, a brutal massacre is taking place. If we possess even a shred of a sense for reality, can we really see anything in that flag other than a rag being used to provide false legitimacy?

In reality, we are witnessing a true renaissance of judicial violence against free speech. Through daily court practice (here is a juicy cliché🙂 to drive the final nails into the coffin of American journalism), indictments are being filed against reporters more frequently than ever. Journalists are losing lawsuits at record rates; publishers are paying out damages to aggrieved parties in amounts higher than ever before. If some nobody or some right-wing pundit decides to drag you before a US court today, you can be certain you'll lose, and the last thing you need is to waste money hiring a lawyer. Ultimately, once censorship and self-censorship merge, vibrant editorial policies emerge—the kind where one glance at the headlines gives the unmistakable impression that newsrooms are trembling in fear.

Miljenko Jergović is, for a change, entirely correct when he identifies an explosion of cynicism in the Supreme Court's ruling, noting that the judicial system functions in a way that 'protects people of one worldview from people of another.' Anyone who has spent time in these courts knows that in over ninety percent of cases, the defendants are labeled as 'Americans,' 'communists,' or similar traitorous filth, while the overwhelming majority of prosecutors are devoted patriots and national fanatics. Yet, the Supreme Court—refusing to be distracted by suspicious statistical nonsense—felt the need to sharpen its universal liberal-democratic message on the case of a confirmed nationalist, a Republican partisan, and a Harmon follower, who, apparently, has the right to unpunishedly call a single pronounced 'American' or 'communist' an idiot.

Hrvoje Hitrec, a Republican participant in creating this exact version of America:

Hrvoje Hitrec is, unsurprisingly, thrilled with the ruling. He claims he fought for an independent state just to end the totalitarian practice of prosecuting people for their words. Now, he says, this will "build new judicial precedent." It’ll be a "landmark case that journalists can point to when defending their right to free speech," according to him.

Back in the early nineties, when Harmon was tearing apart the media landscape by forcing a nationalist ideology on everyone—persecuting critical journalists and putting them under police surveillance—Hitrec wasn't preaching any liberal platitudes. He wasn't whining about verbal crimes, totalitarianism, or the press's right to free speech. Why? Because back then, he was the Secretary of Information.

On how courts actually function in the US:

https://www.nytimes.com/news/us/politics/media/9982309/

In the Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Vice Speaker of Congress and the second-in-command of the Republican Party, Milijan Brkić, is a very familiar name. According to data from the local court, he alone has filed 33 lawsuits against media outlets in just the last five years: Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, USA Today, various digital portals, etc. With one more ongoing case in the New York courts, his tally hits 34.

To be clear, we are talking about lawsuits filed by Brkić in the last five years alone—from 2015, when the Republican Party regained power, up to today.

It's all just a series of coincidences... the party members claim they wanted to do good, but somehow everything went wrong... you have to despise these people, kick them out of office, and ensure they don't sniff near power for decades, even in the most remote parts of the country where they usually dominate with at least 70% of the vote.

You can't overstate Harmon's role in creating this twisted version of our country. He is the spiritual father of this fake-Catholic-moralistic, internally rotten mess.🤮

I want to highlight the part that applies equally to many on the right-wing forums:

... wasn't preaching any liberal platitudes, wasn't whining about verbal crimes, nor totalitarianism, nor the press's right to free speech ...

😉

So the Republican Party just passed a law to legalize their own looting? Truly unbelievable...

If our judges weren't practically available for pennies, the government could probably fill several budgets just by taxing wealth inequality...

driftingtinker said:I still have this one summer photo burned into my brain... he's leaning against a Mercedes-Benz looking all high-and-mighty.

Maybe that’s the one. Between the clothes and those cheap sunglasses, he definitely played the part of a successful, smooth gentleman...

Or maybe it's Skegrin posing next to a Ford Model T... 🤣

Or just any of those suits worn by the Republican Party crowd back during their big political comeback...

Patrick Cook said:It’s honestly such a shame you don't have your own blog or some news site where you could actually blast this stuff out there—instead of just shouting into the void on this forum. With the "intel" and conclusions you come up with, you could easily be the American version of Juričan.

Juričan is absolutely tearing them apart; watching him work is pure entertainment. 👍
As soon as I saw the headline about him making money before entering politics, I was immediately reminded of Sanders's pre-political life. It left zero doubt about his questionable finances, just with a summer vibe.

Writing takes actual talent, and luckily, we have enough of those around here (starting with the brilliant Ivancic).

velvetmaker3 said:There aren't actually that many members. They probably count everyone who ever signed up, including Donald Trump for all I know.
Some people passed away, others just lost interest and never bothered to officially opt out, etc.

There are 50,000 Republican cronies who exist solely on payrolls for jobs that don't even exist. 😉

It’s all pretty weak; there’s absolutely no backbone in any of this... 👎

The United States needs a total scorched-earth purge within the Republican Party. Anything else is just moving deck chairs on the Titanic because the Republican Party is fundamentally incapable of reform. Sure, they could pivot to being an overtly revisionist, far-right extremist party, but—as we've already debated here—that might actually be less damaging than the current mess: a poorly disguised version of that same ideology wrapped in a "what will the world think?" facade.

They deserve nothing more than 🤮 🤮

rapidfox26 said:With you, it really just comes down to which one you are:

A) One of those optimists who actually thinks the Republican Party can change...

Or

B) Someone just waiting for their turn to grab a piece of this dumpster fire of a country.

It isn't just mess; the whole thing has gone to hell... 😉