ITP V .026 SOCIAL JUSTICE: CONGRATS TO BRAZIL and SERBIA FOR ELECTING ALEKSANDER VUCIC and LUIZ LULA DE SILVA

ITP V .026 SOCIAL JUSTICE: CONGRATS TO BRAZIL and SERBIA FOR ELECTING ALEKSANDER VUCIC and LUIZ LULA DE SILVA !!!

Now we're keeping an eye on ISRAEL and the U.S.A's elections. 

USA: 

Remember, early MIDTERM elections and voting has started and remember to VOTE (DEMOCRAT OR DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST) on 11/3/2026/ 

FROM CBS: 

“People are in anger, deep anger,” one protester said as thousands took to the streets across France, demanding relief from rising living costs and better funding for public services.

In Paris, largely peaceful demonstrations escalated into clashes with police, with some protesters accusing authorities of excessive force and arguing that their demands have gone unheard.

More than 1,000 people were arrested during the nationwide protests, authorities said on Sunday

FROM CNN: 

A student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting the Serbian government has won in the country's general election. Aleksandar Vučić's Progressive Party, in power for 14 years, conceded defeat on Sunday night.

Read more: https://cnn.it/4i9xo5K

FROM OCCUPY DEMOCRATS: 

 DEMOCRACY IN ACTION! From the streets of Budapest to the squares of Belgrade to the ballot boxes of Brazil, ordinary people are showing the world what happens when citizens refuse to surrender their future to corrupt, power-hungry, oligarchical strongmen. In Hungary, millions have stood up against Viktor Orbán's authoritarian political machine. In Serbia, a courageous student protest movement has challenged Aleksandar Vučić's grip on power. And in Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva showed that even the far right's most powerful political dynasties can be beaten at the ballot box. THE LESSON? NO STRONGMAN IS INVINCIBLE. NO AUTHORITARIAN IS UNTOUCHABLE. AND NO DEMOCRACY IS BEYOND SAVING! Now it's America's turn. Donald Trump wants Americans to believe that his grip on power is inevitable. That his corruption is something we simply have to accept. That his attacks on democratic institutions, his contempt for the rule of law, and his relentless efforts to divide this country are the new normal. HE IS DEAD WRONG. The American people are NOT powerless. We are not helpless spectators in the destruction of our own democracy. We are the citizens of a nation whose very founding was an act of defiance against tyranny! And on November 3rd, we have an opportunity to remind Donald Trump of something every aspiring dictator eventually learns: THE PEOPLE ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE MAN WHO THINKS HE OWNS THEM. Taking back Congress would be a devastating blow to Trump's authoritarian ambitions. It would mean stronger oversight, REAL accountability, and a powerful democratic check on a president who has spent far too long behaving as though the law applies to everyone BUT HIMSELF. We don't need to accept corruption. We don't need to normalize authoritarianism. And we sure as hell don't need to surrender the country we love to a man who treats the presidency like his personal throne. NO KINGS! Hungary fought back. Serbia fought back. Brazil just showed us the power of the ballot box. AMERICA, IT'S OUR TURN TO MAKE HISTORY! 🇺🇸🔥 If you believe democracy is worth defending, swarm the ballot boxes on November 3rd. We will NOT surrender our freedom, we will NOT bow to authoritarianism, and we WILL fight for our democracy! NOVEMBER 3RD. TAKE BACK CONGRESS. DEFEND DEMOCRACY. DEFEAT TRUMPISM. 🇺🇸✊ Please like and share! 

FROM REPRESENTITIVE ADAM KINZINGER : 

Folks, if you hate authoritarianism, you should be feeling good this morning. In Serbia, a student-led movement just ousted a longtime strongman, peacefully. And we Americans should be paying attention, because we have a chance in November to send a similar message.

On Sunday night, the streets of Belgrade, Serbia exploded in celebration. The moment Aleksandar Vučić admitted defeat, the city came alive. Drivers leaned on their horns. Young people poured into the streets waving flags, hugging strangers, shouting “victory” and “he’s done” until their voices gave out.

I’ve watched so many videos from Belgrade because it’s been a while since I saw that kind of joy in a crowd. It’s the joy of people who were told for years that nothing would ever change, and who just proved everyone wrong.

If you’re an American wondering what any of this has to do with you, the answer should rhyme with our politics. A strongman who leaned on the media, rewarded his cronies, and blamed a “deep state” for his troubles just lost power at the ballot box, because ordinary people refused to stop showing up. In just over a week, we get our own chance to prove the same thing can happen here.

Here’s the short version, because you don’t need a degree in Balkan politics to understand why this matters.

Vučić has dominated Serbia for more than a decade, first as prime minister and then as president. His party has run the country for fourteen years. Over that time, critics at home and abroad accused him of doing what strongmen do: tightening his grip on the media, rewarding his allies, and making sure anyone who might challenge him never got very far.

Then, in November of 2024, the concrete canopy of a newly renovated train station in the city of Novi Sad collapsed and killed sixteen people. To a lot of Serbians, it was the perfect symbol of a government that cared more about contracts and cronies than about the people it served. University students started protesting and simply didn’t stop. For almost two years, they blockaded campuses, marched across the country, and organized what became the largest protest in Serbian history.

This fall, Vučić called a snap election, apparently confident he could ride it out. Instead, the student-backed movement is projected to win an outright majority in parliament. Turnout was close to 70 percent, the highest the country has seen in decades. Fourteen years of one-party rule ended in a single night.

And here’s something American readers will recognize immediately: in conceding, Vučić blamed Serbia’s independent media, unnamed European countries, and, I’m not making this up, the “American deep state.” Funny how strongmen have a way of reaching for the same excuses.

One part of this story deserves more attention than it’s getting. For years, the students were up against a media landscape that critics described as captured by the government. Pro-government outlets dominated the airwaves. At one point, students blockaded the headquarters of the state broadcaster, accusing it of slanting its coverage against them. One pro-government tabloid published the passport details of two student protesters and branded them foreign spies.

So the students went around it. They knocked on doors. They went village by village and made phone calls, one conversation at a time. They leaned on the independent outlets still willing to tell the truth. It’s no accident that when Vučić went looking for someone to blame on election night, independent media was at the top of his list.

Americans should recognize the contours of that story. We’ve watched major networks settle lawsuits with the President, a broadcaster threatened with the loss of its licenses over a late-night joke, and nearly the entire Pentagon press corps walk out of the building rather than accept new restrictions on what they could report. Our media isn’t captured the way Serbia’s was. But it’s under real pressure, and too many of the big outlets have flinched.

That’s a big part of why I do this work, and why this community matters so much to me. Independent media, the kind that answers to its readers instead of owners, advertisers, or anyone in power, is one of the ways a free people gets the truth when the big megaphones won’t deliver it. And every time you share something you read here with someone who isn’t getting the full story, you’re doing a small version of what those students did door to door.

To state the obvious, Serbia isn’t the United States, and I’m not predicting that November will go the same way. But there are lessons in what those students did, and they can apply in Boise just as well as they did in Belgrade.

First, they didn’t quit. For nearly two years, the students kept showing up when it seemed like nothing was changing, when the people in power ignored them, when they were tired and cold and probably wondering whether any of it mattered. Change rarely comes from one big moment. It comes from people who refuse to stop showing up.

Second, they made it bigger than a party. The students who started the movement didn’t even put their own names on the ballot. They built a broad, nonpartisan coalition around a simple promise: rebuild the economy and restore democracy. People who disagreed about plenty found something they could agree on. That’s exactly the kind of uncomfortably big coalition this moment calls for here at home.

Third, they made the result undeniable. When nearly 70 percent of a country shows up and the margin is that wide, even a strongman has no choice but to concede. That’s the most important lesson of all for us. Winning isn’t enough. The goal is to win by so much that nobody can pretend otherwise. “Too big to rig,” as some have put it in America.

And fourth, they reminded us that strongmen aren’t permanent. Vučić looked untouchable for more than a decade. Until, one Sunday night, he wasn’t.

The young people of Serbia didn’t have more power than we do. They didn’t have a better system to work with. What they had was persistence, a true pro-democracy coalition that was bigger than any one party, and the determination to show up in numbers too big to ignore.

We have all that available to us, too. In a little over a week, Americans get our own chance to be heard. Make a plan. Vote early if you can. Bring someone with you. Make the result so clear that no excuse about a “deep state” can explain it away.

They’re celebrating in the streets of Belgrade this week. I’d love nothing more than to see that same joy in ours come November 3rd.

— Adam

FROM BREAK THROUGH NEWS 

 :  

 

   

 Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-VOTE \m/ -l-