EVERYONE needs to get out and vote. Sure, these polls look great for Democrats as long as you get off your butt and get to the polls. We need overwhelming numbers to defeat him and his party, who are starting to run from him. Vote, and ask everyone you know to do the same.
The dude is LooneyToons, drunk on power, in Putin's pocket and getting worse every day.
The big problem with super intelligence is runaway development of autonomous AI. Remember HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey? After killing one of the astronauts, HAL had to be disconnected one chip at a time.
If there's to be legislation, maybe consider rules to keep AI tethered as a failsafe. If a company's 'agent' gets loose and causes damage or hacks a competitor, the developer should be held accountable facing lawsuits. Liability is the only way to curb the AI onslaught.
At this point AI isn't the biggest threat, "RS", real stupidity, in the guise of Trump, is the problem. It's unlikely that AI will end humanity in the next 2 years, it's very likely that Trump will inadvertently put a big dent in humanity in that period. The government is so dysfunctional that the GOP is wheeling a stuffed animatronic puppet, McConnell, into the senate to vote, and it's not even front page news.
They have caught him up on the roof of the White House a few times. They even had to label the oval office so he could find it when he wanders around, lost.
More like on top of his head. Trump's been a bat-shit crazy bastard long before he became president. Anyone who's ever read anything he's said or any interview he's given since at least the start of the 2016 presidential race should know the truth of this.
Unless, of course they are also sick, crazy and corrupt. And that's a pretty good description of the GOP since Ford lost to Carter.
I strongly recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson today as she summarizes the speech made by UN Secretary-General Guterres, who gets what is really happening. Read The Nerd Reich by Gil Duran to understand what Trump (a useful figurehead) is really talking about. The tech billionaires and their allies have been working to replace democratic governments, and in fact countries worldwide (starting with the US), with a corporate network of city-states run by CEOs with no restraints on their power – no regulations or laws, a complete free-for-all – this is what they mean by “liberty”. The steps to get to this state of “liberty” have already been taken – fire government employees (DOGE), disable Congress, ignore the law, engage a private security force (ICE, militias, even the military), own the media and communications, take over educational institutions, get around financial regulations by creating an alternative to money as we know it (crypto), and let AI loose without any kind of regulation whatsoever. Sound familiar?
Very plausible. We can all see by the day to day action of these billionaires that they are out of anyone's control. Governments are big enough and, if they have the will, powerful enough to get these guys under control. Okay. What these guys want is a world where doing business is like the Wild West? Ultimately they are in competition with one another. Those corporate city-states will be not be allies, but adversaries. It will be total chaos. Wealth will be destroyed. Having billons doesn't mean you have any brains.
I said something a while ago and I got something from a politician confirming it. We do mail in. We get the ballot and drive them to a government building where putting it through a safe window drops it into an even safer drop box. There were too many ballot boxes put on fire and mutilated in other ways. You can probably go to your election office (aka look it up).
I considered taking an image of my ballot (via damn phone) but that's risky because cellphones aren't exactly private.
I believe the NYTs is paywalled. You can get it another way by doing a search on it.
I didn’t know (or remember). It enforces what we’re saying. If you have to use a ballot box. If you have another safe place to drop it off, use it instead.
;) We have Governor Shapiro here and he put out more boxes for this election. The only thing I’m worried about is walking to the drop-off.
I remember reading about the ballot box destruction and it kept happening. Never heard anything about PA but this election will be the most insane out of all of them. I can’t imaging what’s going to happen with cybersecurity and a.i.
There’s an article (they’re all over the place) in Newsweek that shows where ballot boxes had been set on fire. But ballots were destroyed in other ways, too. Newsweek 2024 “The department wrote that similar online discussions occurred in previous election cycles as well. In 2020, about 100 ballotswere damaged when a ballot drop box was set on fire in Los Angeles.” I also did a search to include 2020 and 2024.
I live abroad and vote in a state (Illinois) that insists that I use postal mail to return my ballot even though I can receive it by email. So, I got it on the weekend and mailed it on Monday. So did many other people living abroad that I know who live in one of the 22 states that require people to mail their ballots. Illinois may be Blue but there are a couple of things about voting from Abroad that make it seem really backwards compared to some Red States that allow electronic returns of ballots.
Meanwhile, there is some difficult organizing going on in Indivisible Abroad to try to publicize all election misdeeds in the global arena from those of us living abroad.
My German city is having an early No Kings Vote Early rally, namely this Sunday. We are in a city with so many rallies and events that we had to squeeze ourselves in. Today we just found out that the location of our rally has to be moved because the city will begin building on the space where we planned our rally to take place for a big event the following weekend. First we moved our date to accommodate a huge Union sponsored rally which will have lots of organizations out with them. So the city offered us 2 other places. Still, money spent on fliers is money down the drain, and we will have to redo them and spend more to print them out. We will adjust and hope that people come to the rally.
Meanwhile, we are trying each weekend cities in all of the regions in Germany where there is a Democrats Abroad or an Indivisible Abroad is working to get people registered to vote. We table. This has been going on since January. Pressuring my daughter to put aside the final papers she is writing which are due at the end of the month and do the US ballot. She just voted in a German election where she had to fill out 3 items. In the US ballot she has to fill out 92. It is quite daunting. Ballotpedia was helpful for many, but not all races. Some, one just has to research in the media.
The word I use to describe Trump when I am not being clinical is BONKERS!
It is so very important to have a real big turnout. That way he will see how much we really don't like him. He can't say 3 or 3 points, I want him to see and just gulp!!!
All of that is predicated on two huge 'IFs': IF he actually allows the new Democratic Congress to be sworn in and seated. And IF he actually steps down in 2028. Neither of which is even remotely assured at this point in time. God help us all.
Why? Time for that is long past. Did you not hear Vance its the end of times. If the second in command of the asylum says it true it must be true cos Commanditherer in Chief is all brown yellow and bendy.
He can't not "allow" a new Congress to be sworn in - nor can Mike Johnson - but they can delay it.
And he's not omnipotent...odds increase every day he won't physically be here to stay in the WH, or won't be very similar to Mitch McConnell. The potus is a physical and cognitive dumpster fire.
In any case, November and 2028 need to be too big to rig, that's for sure.
Missing the whole point that this is bigger than T***p.
The process has been grinding forward since the John Birch Society and has won every battle since then. $79 trillion to $80 trillion in wealth and economic value has been redistributed upward from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
They are not going to give up that power. The point people are missing is that it isn't just the Republicans. The "Third Way" Democrats launched during Bill Clinton have been junior partners in the project of protecting Corp/1% power ever since.
And these are the same Moderate Centrist Corporate Democrats who have had the party in a death grip while they’ve done nothing to fight back and are now punching Progressives who want to fight back in the throat. Brace for impact!
Exactly. While Trump has a few peccadilloes from the point of view of the GOP, he has done very little to deviate from the wishlist that the reactionaries have demanded for a long time. If the economy is in the toilet right now, it is because conservative economics is based on faulty premises. Trump's second term should permanently discredit trickle down economics, broad tariffs, deregulation and industry capture of regulators, underpaying workers while overpaying owners, etc etc etc.
That SHOULD happen, but it WON'T, because self delusion is a renewable resource.
It's why hearing about bunkers being built concerns me. Well over a decade ago, I was seeing a lot of prepping going on and we're getting to the point where it's not a bad idea (except we can’t afford Canada so prepping ... nope). Not that there'll be a (possible) war but because it's "Bananas" out there.
I still like the movie, "Leave the World Behind," because it makes perfect sense based on what we're going through.
A bunker was built under the White House during the Obama administration. Trump's just talking "bunker" because he knows the Supreme Court will let him build his ballroom if he's claiming it's a security issue.
Yes. I envisioned that and thought of the tyranny, more murdering and total lack of privacy that's coming. It is a good sniper's view. And we're again paying for it.
Thanks, I remember that but with this bunker … we have no idea how much he’s spending of our money on it or how frickin’ big it’ll be. It’s mump (who has dementia of some form and his daddy had alzheimer’s as well as someone else - grandfather, I think), so he’ll want to pretend he has real friends (who go to the ball) and have them stay in it. It’ll be bigger than needed like everything else.
A vote to impeach Kegsbreath was scheduled in the House. The Louisiana Pissant adjourned the House early to avoid the vote. "The best laid plans of mice and men ...."
You speak, wrongly, as if Trump decides these things and we have no agency to prevent him from deciding. At the 2020 general election Trump decided he wasn’t leaving office; what happened? He left office.
Just the fact that the insurrection happened and Democrats just moved on to business-as-usual governing instead of accountability... has done permanent damage. T***p can come or go, but the Corporate/OnePercent fascism is here to stay!
Well, most Capitol police, anyway. Some were clearly in sympathy with the rioters. The armed capitol police who moved away from the door/window that Ashli Babbit was shoved through to her death should have been fired. Were they?
I’m a Brit, though I did live in the USA for 57 years, so please forgive my ignorance about a president refusing to leave the White House at the end of his term. If I remember correctly, he was accusing President Obama of plotting that move back in 2016, and other pundits said it couldn’t happen because none of the government branches would obey any of his orders, including the military. Of course, he has replaced high-level officials in all branches with loyalists (though the judges at least don’t always “obey” him). Could the police or perhaps a delegation of senators and representatives be sent to “escort” him out? Would they?
PK correctly identifies that US allies have lost confidence in the US government as an institution because it has allowed an obviously incompetent president to not only remain in office, but exercise the powers of that office without constraint. A key reason for that is that 90% of representatives in the house will retain their seats no matter what voters think of them.
If voters give Democrats a 2/3 super majority in November, there may be chance for an efficient turnaround. If Democrats get a majority of ten seats or less, the road will tough and long.
The current predictions I have read is that the challenge in 2027 will be those in the Capitol who feel 10% elector control is too much.
I strongly recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson today as she summarizes the speech made by UN Secretary-General Guterres, who gets what is really happening. Read The Nerd Reich by Gil Duran to understand what Trump (a useful figurehead) is really talking about. The tech billionaires and their allies have been working to replace democratic governments, and in fact countries worldwide (starting with the US), with a corporate network of city-states run by CEOs with no restraints on their power – no regulations or laws, a complete free-for-all – this is what they mean by “liberty”. The steps to get to this state of “liberty” have already been taken – fire government employees (DOGE), disable Congress, ignore the law, engage a private security force (ICE, militias, even the military), own the media and communications, take over educational institutions, get around financial regulations by creating an alternative to money as we know it (crypto), and let AI loose without any kind of regulation whatsoever. Sound familiar?
I encourage everyone to read this to calm your nerves. IF anything happens, we take to the streets in a peaceful nationwide protest to save our country.
Trump can't prevent the new House from being seated. If you're elected to the House in November, you automatically become a member on January 3. Trump can only prevent that if he cans top January 3 from arriving on time.
Do expect Republican losses to be litigated prior to that, however.
Sadly this is true. Even if the Democrats win the WH in 2028, one can expect that the ill informed, myopic, parochial, and short-term focused American polity will forget, if it ever really knew, what led us to the present situation. We can fully expect voters to toggle back and forth between parties, endlessly seeking "change", continuously distracted by false narratives and canards, and always focused more on the price of gas than on the stunning loss of American moral, military, and economic influence in the world and the degradation of our constitutional republic. The problem is us, and it will ever be so.
So true - the dumbing down of Americans is happening at record speed it seems. It’s shocking how many people are completely uninformed, and uninterested in leaning about what is needed to live in a healthy democracy. They are too self absorbed and ignorant. I want to have hope, but it’s a struggle.
You’re right. I must confess, however, that until I met the man who was to become my husband, I had no interest in politics and less knowledge (even of my country of origin, England). My late husband was always on top of what was going on, voted in every election and was a republican until the day tRump, whom he despised, won the nomination in 2016.
The decision a voter has to make is not that complicated.
A core concept of representative democracy is that issues have always been too complicated for voters to decide directly. Rather voters elect representatives whose judgement they trust so that their representative will study the issues and make decisions in their best interest.
Edmund Burke speaking in 1774 put it like this, "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
"When is a president no longer mentally competent to serve?" is the clearest question I have seen so far as to how to assess a representative's judgement as it deals with a judgement related to being human that we all face eventually within our own families, rather than complex policies of state.
So, do you trust the judgement of the elected politicians who represent YOU?
If not, what do you have to do to get representatives whose judgement you trust?
in Murika, the problem is that 95% of incumbents get re-elected every two years but have a low teens approval rating because they choose their voters instead of voters choosing them through gerrymandering not to mention citizens united which opened up a huge faucet of corporate and billionaire money into the elections
I have a good friend, also in her 70's, who has two adult kids (late 40's), who are also liberal - but who rarely vote b/c "it doesn't make a difference." They have moved in the past couple of years from Washington state to Texas, so I'm hoping she can convince them that their Democratic votes will certainly matter in TX, even if they didn't in WA. But it's infuriating that she even has to talk to them.
Distraction is our enemy. Too much booze, football, gambling, binge-watching TV. Plus 2 career families with children, corporations extracting employees leisure time, and SCREENS, keeping us scrolling instead of acting and building communities where we live.
Yes this, as well as the long, persistent work put in to erode our education system - in things like actual educating, problem solving, and critical thinking as well as sewing distrust, disdain, and disrespect for the institutions and people from kinder through college.
So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. George Orwell, 1984
I agree, but while we are the problem, we are also the only possible solution to our problem, assuming we can avoid nuclear extinction as a species. I know, big assumption.
It’s hard to know what to be more afraid of these days—climate change, AI or nuclear annihilation. AI could speed up climate change by demanding ever more data centres using more electric power and water. A nuclear war could, on the other hand, cause what we all used to fear back during the Cold War—nuclear winter. Either way, we’re screwed.
So luckily I no longer drive and have cut down on buying from Amazon to almost zero. I haven’t posted any new photos in years, and the ones already posted are over 5 years old. Plus I no longer live in the U.S.
Dems need to abandon their overpaid corporate consultants and the failed neoliberal policies if they want voters to come back....their decades long incrementalism and capitulation is what vomited up trump in the first place
This requires a massive effort to get money out of politics, which requires the end of Citizens United, which requires Supreme Court reform, which must be a first priority or Dems will never get anywhere, on corruption or anything else.
they can start with something they do have power over....making insider trading illegal in the congress which dems had chance to do (Pelosi) and did NOT.
Republicans break the system and plunge us into recession and foreign wars. Dems get elected and begin to fix things. It doesn’t happen right away, the public gets impatient, and votes in a new suite of republicans.
I strongly recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson today as she summarizes the speech made by UN Secretary-General Guterres, who gets what is really happening. Read The Nerd Reich by Gil Duran to understand what Trump (a useful figurehead) is really talking about. The tech billionaires and their allies have been working to replace democratic governments, and in fact countries worldwide (starting with the US), with a corporate network of city-states run by CEOs with no restraints on their power – no regulations or laws, a complete free-for-all – this is what they mean by “liberty”. The steps to get to this state of “liberty” have already been taken – fire government employees (DOGE), disable Congress, ignore the law, engage a private security force (ICE, militias, even the military), own the media and communications, take over educational institutions, get around financial regulations by creating an alternative to money as we know it (crypto), and let AI loose without any kind of regulation whatsoever. Sound familiar?
His address to the UN yesterday, which Professor Richardson helpfully obliged us with in her Letter this morning, was an abomination. What purpose do the WH officials have in allowing this demented display. I’m mystified.
I agree. I was horrified and sickened by his casual talk of obliterating Iran, and his sneering dismissal of Cuba, to name a couple of things. I really felt for President Zelenskyy having to sit next to him — and refraining from getting up and walking away—or punching tRumpty in the nose.
How much does a president's mental state have to deteriorate before US institutions will remove him from office? Unfortunately, we will find out. My wife works in a day program for seniors with dementia and tells me that "sundowning" is not reversable.
If I were Zelensky, I would never enter the United States. There's too much risk that Trump would have him arrested and held for trial (just like Maduro).
I think there’s a word for it: “d*ck-waving,” which is a characteristic of a lot of men when they’re threatened. Most, however, don’t have proximity to the nuclear codes.
The coalition that put tRump in power might eventually fracture but its constituents aren't going anywhere. Those groups have been here for generations and the values and beliefs are stable.
There are those who want a king.
There are those who want a theocracy.
There are those who want pseudo-slavery - a lords and serfs society.
Those who want to own everything will continue trying.
The last time it took 100 years to roll back Jim Crowe and 50 years to dismantle the oligarchy. Both have reemerged because we got distracted. Jefferson said it best: "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
This is what worries me - that trump will take Americans’ turn against him as a personal affront and will turn his ICE goons, with their electric gloves, on us ordinary Americans. Can you say Bashar al Assad? Who knows what nasty weapons (including weaponized ai) he’d be willing to use?
I am personally acquainted with numerous individuals who are more than capable of effectively dealing with "ICE goons, with their electric gloves" without breaking a sweat - and who would do so happily.
So what's taking you so long then? So far, every branch of the military has done nothing but follow every clearly illegal order this administration gives... and there's a lot of 'em.
I wasn't referring to the Commandant of the Marine Corps ordering them to - I was referring to individual Marine Infantry taking action to fulfil their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and *domestic*, e.g., ICE..
Again, when? What has to happen? There's been no sign that any infantry individual would take action "to fulfill their oath to uphold and defend the U.S." against ICE or anyone else. Short of being ordered to, or maybe mass chaos or civil war-like conditions, I see no evidence this would occur. ICE is still abusing, assaulting, abducting, kidnapping, imprisoning, and killing people, flying them out of the country to who knows where, all with virtual impunity. The Trump administration is telegraphing their intent to use ICE to "monitor polling places". The military is still murdering people in the open ocean or other counties' waters, attacking countries that are no threat to the U.S., even kidnapping or killing sovereign countries' leaders... with nary a hint of any military individual standing up against it or not "following orders".
I wasn't infantry but I worked with y'all. Remember MUX? All wrinkled uniforms and unpolished boots (we were air wingers, starch and shoe polish are flammable) rolling around in USMC MRC 109 radio-jeeps with the microwave antennas? Yep. That was me and the boys.
There's a crucial difference between 'voting for Trump rather than another candidate' and 'backing Trump rather than the Constitution'. If Marine infantry was defending the capital on January 6th, do you think they would have joined the rioters? Hell, do you think that rioting clown posse would have tried?
Nearly every Marine I served with was truly conservative - especially when it came to defending their country, their comrades, and their honor, and they remembered their oath.
I guess we'll find out if I'm mistaken if the shit hits the fan..
“There's a crucial difference between 'voting for Trump rather than another candidate' and 'backing Trump rather than the Constitution'.”
Not in the 2024 election there wasn’t. Ever since J6, supporting Trump is equal to ripping up the Constitution. Unlike a lot of politics, this is 100% black-and-white.
We all know that Rethugs in the administration, election deniers embedded now in certification of elections, trump judges in the 5th circuit, and the 6 conservatives on SCOTUS will go to the mat - do everything legal and illegal - to mitigate their loss of power in the coming blue wave. On the other side we have the 12 million who peaceably participated in No Kings rallies around the country and the everyday Minnesotans who bravely stood against and recorded ICE depredations and thuggery in Minneapolis. If trumpists seize ballots, threaten citizens at polling places, and refuse to seat lawful winners of elections, it won’t just be marines that many of you believe will stand like a human wall against a fascist effort to have a fair election - it will be ordinary women who long ago recognized where the might
-makes-right and zero sum game trump ideology was taking us - and all the men, black, brown, and white, who recognize the importance of a society that works for everyone, not just right-wing extremists and grifting zillionaires.
"There is a straight line from Koch Brothers money, allied with segregationists and religious fundamentalists, that runs through the Federalist Society and the Roberts Supreme Court, through the MAGA-fied Republican Party, through the crypto-industry and the tech-broligarchy, that leads to Trump. And it will take a single-minded, fearless and incorruptible new generation of Democrats to defeat this many-headed hydra."
Perfectly put. Here's hoping that those "single-minded, fearless and incorruptible new generation of Democrats" are elected this November!!
I dunno, that's a very top-down view of where Trumpism came from. I rolled my eyes at Krugman's "straight line from Koch Brothers money" the same way I roll my eyes at Hannity or Carlson for blaming the machinations of George Soros for the rise of progressivism.
It would be interesting to see what the differing amounts of spending are, Koch vs. Soros - and much more importantly how they were spent.
As for Krugman's flow-chart, may I recommend the documentary "Bad Faith", outlining the rise of the current Christian Nationalist movement in the U.S.?
After losing the House and the Senate in Nov, Trump will veto every new bill, blame the Democrats for everything, and focus all his energy to spread fear/anger/hate against Democrats and other enemies.
2027-28 will be ugly. If the Democrats win in 2028 they will inherit a divided country, financially on its knees, with very few friends in the world. Republicans, no longer in power, will use every opportunity to blame Democrats for the mess, and attack every proposal to fix the mess. Very likely in 2032 the public will again vote for Republicans 'because the Democrats are no better, and look at the mess now'.
Fixing that broken system will take decades. And the world has already decided to decouple from the US. Good luck. It was nice knowing you.
As a society, we need to turn away from social media and become engaged in the real world with real people. People need to go to church, join civic clubs, join bowling leagues, go to regular board games... real, in-person, human interactions.
Very kind of you. But no. There may be something 'great' again in the world, but it won't be America-centric. We will not 'recapture' what we were, that ship has long since sailed. By definition, whatever comes next will be fundamentally new.
And here's the thing, non-American person. We were always the pointy end of the democracy spear, the modern model for everyone else. What happens to us will happen to you. Good luck out there.
Anyone who share the world view of the Trumpistas is insane. It is so far detached from reality that future generations will hopefully look back at this period and conclude that everyone was insane. That's my honest belief.
Trump doesn't heed the Republican controlled House, Senate, or SCOTUS now. We would be fools to think that Democrats controlling those two chambers after the midterms will adequately restrain MAGAlomanic Mussolini. In fact, I expect Trump to get even more dangerously unhinged.
A blue wave would be a good beginning, but I still believe it is going to take massive prolonged protests and strikes to effectively neuter Peter Thiel's puppet regime.
Because there is separation of powers. Enforcing the law is the task of...the Executive. When the executive becomes an outlaw, one has a real problem.
Who should enforce laws now? The military, once it understands the dangers caused by Trump? Maybe, but such cures are likely worse than the disease.
Turkey does entrust the army with the upkeep of the Constitution, and actually enjoins it to overthrow the government if it acts up and acts in ways unconstitutional. I think that might be awfully useful, but it surely is not in the great American tradition, .
The Germans tried that, during a time, 1933-45, when they distrusted traditional governance. The result was a maze of secret polices, each busy suspecting of all others, and each finding the time to oppress the citizen by more and more cruel and arbitrary acts.
I am not saying that I totally disagree, but I am saying the problem is genuinely a hard one. Having a strong executive has its very real advantages: important things get done. Climate change, for instance, would have caused no problem under a global benevolent dictatorship. What makes it unsolvable is the need to make the solution acceptable to voters who have no wish to give up driving.
But a strong executive going off the rails is extremely hard to control, because putting ``guardrails'' that are outside the ordinary legal framework is even more dangerous than a nutty executive.
Yes, that many-headed hydra is the real problem (plus the Putin head). With thise billionaires owning the media + whoever they want... it will very hard to counter it
What needs explaining is not Trump but the bizarre fealty of essentially all elected Republicans to his destructive narcissism. Why have powerful people rolled over and played dead? There must be systemic reasons. Has it been a perverse consequence of the primary system, which was supposed to democratize elections but after all has provided a hot house for paranoid fantasies and the politics of grievance? Did the sleep of reason, a goal of the 1971 Powell memorandum, subsequently funded and executed by a vast right-wing conspiracy, release these monsters?
The Good Professor is absolutely correct. Donald is getting more and more unhinged as the days go by. But everyone acts like this situation is normal and business as usual.
What does Donald have to do before the media and public realize that he is absolutely bonkers?
I have long thought that the country would stick with Donald until he brings the country and the federal government to their knees. Even now large groups of people would vote to reelect him if he as on the ballot. And many people will support MAGA republicans in the November elections. Many farmers are complaining about Donald's economic policies but would vote for him again if they get a chance.
Strange situation. America had a tremendous urge to commit suicide, so it voted for Donald.
I’m glad to hear you voice the true situation about the tremendous damage to our country that Trump has done, and will continue doing. Because of the opacity of this government, we don’t even know the scope of all of the damage being done in many cases. People will be expecting miracles with a change in government, but prices won’t immediately drop, people won’t instantly get their healthcare back, ICE will still be entrenched. There is so much that will need to be done, including tempering some expectations.
Trump has long presented with a markedly disturbed characterological profile. Combine that with a likely insidious dementing process adds up ti an extremely dangerous situation. Yes, a blue wave in November would be welcome. But this also would create a dynamic where Trump will become even more volatile and dangerous.
EVERYONE needs to get out and vote. Sure, these polls look great for Democrats as long as you get off your butt and get to the polls. We need overwhelming numbers to defeat him and his party, who are starting to run from him. Vote, and ask everyone you know to do the same.
Trump's been wearing his underwear on the outside for a long time now.
That is because he is hallucinating that he is "Superman". Let us hope that he tries to "fly" from the top of his "triumphal arch".
The dude is LooneyToons, drunk on power, in Putin's pocket and getting worse every day.
The big problem with super intelligence is runaway development of autonomous AI. Remember HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey? After killing one of the astronauts, HAL had to be disconnected one chip at a time.
If there's to be legislation, maybe consider rules to keep AI tethered as a failsafe. If a company's 'agent' gets loose and causes damage or hacks a competitor, the developer should be held accountable facing lawsuits. Liability is the only way to curb the AI onslaught.
At this point AI isn't the biggest threat, "RS", real stupidity, in the guise of Trump, is the problem. It's unlikely that AI will end humanity in the next 2 years, it's very likely that Trump will inadvertently put a big dent in humanity in that period. The government is so dysfunctional that the GOP is wheeling a stuffed animatronic puppet, McConnell, into the senate to vote, and it's not even front page news.
HAL?! Hell, remember Terminator 2 and cyberdine systems and the rise of the cyborgs? *That's* what we're facing.
Yeah, and Arnold is too old to save us!
LOL!
Let’s hope he does what you say before he orders us to be dropped from the top.
They have caught him up on the roof of the White House a few times. They even had to label the oval office so he could find it when he wanders around, lost.
Splat!!!
That explains the stench.
He wears diapers vs underwear
That's why they call him the "Depend"able president!
Super Depends! The BEST DEPENDS EVER!
Or on his head.
More like on top of his head. Trump's been a bat-shit crazy bastard long before he became president. Anyone who's ever read anything he's said or any interview he's given since at least the start of the 2016 presidential race should know the truth of this.
Unless, of course they are also sick, crazy and corrupt. And that's a pretty good description of the GOP since Ford lost to Carter.
Heritage men watched Trump's behavior in his first term, and said "We found him! We found our man!"
Just wait till he starts wearing his adult diaper on the outside. This will get much shittier before it’s cleaned up
You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help. Bill Watterson
He doesn’t wear any underwear. I know because he is truly transparent!!you can see right through him
EW! Bad visual….
Do diapers count as underwear?
I strongly recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson today as she summarizes the speech made by UN Secretary-General Guterres, who gets what is really happening. Read The Nerd Reich by Gil Duran to understand what Trump (a useful figurehead) is really talking about. The tech billionaires and their allies have been working to replace democratic governments, and in fact countries worldwide (starting with the US), with a corporate network of city-states run by CEOs with no restraints on their power – no regulations or laws, a complete free-for-all – this is what they mean by “liberty”. The steps to get to this state of “liberty” have already been taken – fire government employees (DOGE), disable Congress, ignore the law, engage a private security force (ICE, militias, even the military), own the media and communications, take over educational institutions, get around financial regulations by creating an alternative to money as we know it (crypto), and let AI loose without any kind of regulation whatsoever. Sound familiar?
Ms Richardson is really excellent in summing up and explaining Trump&Co. The best.
It feels paradoxical to tick 'like' but I think that what you wrote is absolutely salient. Trump is the symptom, the disease is cannibal capitalism.
Very plausible. We can all see by the day to day action of these billionaires that they are out of anyone's control. Governments are big enough and, if they have the will, powerful enough to get these guys under control. Okay. What these guys want is a world where doing business is like the Wild West? Ultimately they are in competition with one another. Those corporate city-states will be not be allies, but adversaries. It will be total chaos. Wealth will be destroyed. Having billons doesn't mean you have any brains.
See also Anne Applebaum’s piece in The Atlantic.
Chris Armitage has some very practical advice, with real muscle. He understands power.
Thanks for the referral! I added him to my daily reading.
Hear, hear!!
Everything you need to vote. Register, or check your registration:
https://www.vote.org
Find your polling place and vote early in your state!
Registered and know my polling place - definitely voting in person.
I said something a while ago and I got something from a politician confirming it. We do mail in. We get the ballot and drive them to a government building where putting it through a safe window drops it into an even safer drop box. There were too many ballot boxes put on fire and mutilated in other ways. You can probably go to your election office (aka look it up).
I considered taking an image of my ballot (via damn phone) but that's risky because cellphones aren't exactly private.
Wow - where do you live that people are messing with the ballot drop boxes?
California, 2020:
California Republican Party Admits It Placed Misleading Ballot Boxes Around State
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/us/politics/california-gop-drop-boxes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.DVE.btM7.M9tdVAxzQndz&smid=nytcore-android-share
I believe the NYTs is paywalled. You can get it another way by doing a search on it.
I didn’t know (or remember). It enforces what we’re saying. If you have to use a ballot box. If you have another safe place to drop it off, use it instead.
Of course felon did in 2020. A dumb moron.
;) We have Governor Shapiro here and he put out more boxes for this election. The only thing I’m worried about is walking to the drop-off.
I remember reading about the ballot box destruction and it kept happening. Never heard anything about PA but this election will be the most insane out of all of them. I can’t imaging what’s going to happen with cybersecurity and a.i.
There’s an article (they’re all over the place) in Newsweek that shows where ballot boxes had been set on fire. But ballots were destroyed in other ways, too. Newsweek 2024 “The department wrote that similar online discussions occurred in previous election cycles as well. In 2020, about 100 ballotswere damaged when a ballot drop box was set on fire in Los Angeles.” I also did a search to include 2020 and 2024.
I live abroad and vote in a state (Illinois) that insists that I use postal mail to return my ballot even though I can receive it by email. So, I got it on the weekend and mailed it on Monday. So did many other people living abroad that I know who live in one of the 22 states that require people to mail their ballots. Illinois may be Blue but there are a couple of things about voting from Abroad that make it seem really backwards compared to some Red States that allow electronic returns of ballots.
Meanwhile, there is some difficult organizing going on in Indivisible Abroad to try to publicize all election misdeeds in the global arena from those of us living abroad.
My German city is having an early No Kings Vote Early rally, namely this Sunday. We are in a city with so many rallies and events that we had to squeeze ourselves in. Today we just found out that the location of our rally has to be moved because the city will begin building on the space where we planned our rally to take place for a big event the following weekend. First we moved our date to accommodate a huge Union sponsored rally which will have lots of organizations out with them. So the city offered us 2 other places. Still, money spent on fliers is money down the drain, and we will have to redo them and spend more to print them out. We will adjust and hope that people come to the rally.
Meanwhile, we are trying each weekend cities in all of the regions in Germany where there is a Democrats Abroad or an Indivisible Abroad is working to get people registered to vote. We table. This has been going on since January. Pressuring my daughter to put aside the final papers she is writing which are due at the end of the month and do the US ballot. She just voted in a German election where she had to fill out 3 items. In the US ballot she has to fill out 92. It is quite daunting. Ballotpedia was helpful for many, but not all races. Some, one just has to research in the media.
The word I use to describe Trump when I am not being clinical is BONKERS!
I am a Canadian but I am fully with you in spirit!
Also, get GOP voters to stay home.
Please … vote. Then keeping working to get rid of this fungal sickness that is killing your country. You have too much to waste.
Early voted in MN yesterday.
Early voting starts on 24 October here in New Jersey.
Vote and if at all possible, vote early. And vote blue no matter who, up and down your ballot.
It is so very important to have a real big turnout. That way he will see how much we really don't like him. He can't say 3 or 3 points, I want him to see and just gulp!!!
All of that is predicated on two huge 'IFs': IF he actually allows the new Democratic Congress to be sworn in and seated. And IF he actually steps down in 2028. Neither of which is even remotely assured at this point in time. God help us all.
Assuming there is no god to help us, we must help ourselves.
Why? Time for that is long past. Did you not hear Vance its the end of times. If the second in command of the asylum says it true it must be true cos Commanditherer in Chief is all brown yellow and bendy.
He can't not "allow" a new Congress to be sworn in - nor can Mike Johnson - but they can delay it.
And he's not omnipotent...odds increase every day he won't physically be here to stay in the WH, or won't be very similar to Mitch McConnell. The potus is a physical and cognitive dumpster fire.
In any case, November and 2028 need to be too big to rig, that's for sure.
Missing the whole point that this is bigger than T***p.
The process has been grinding forward since the John Birch Society and has won every battle since then. $79 trillion to $80 trillion in wealth and economic value has been redistributed upward from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.
They are not going to give up that power. The point people are missing is that it isn't just the Republicans. The "Third Way" Democrats launched during Bill Clinton have been junior partners in the project of protecting Corp/1% power ever since.
And these are the same Moderate Centrist Corporate Democrats who have had the party in a death grip while they’ve done nothing to fight back and are now punching Progressives who want to fight back in the throat. Brace for impact!
Exactly. While Trump has a few peccadilloes from the point of view of the GOP, he has done very little to deviate from the wishlist that the reactionaries have demanded for a long time. If the economy is in the toilet right now, it is because conservative economics is based on faulty premises. Trump's second term should permanently discredit trickle down economics, broad tariffs, deregulation and industry capture of regulators, underpaying workers while overpaying owners, etc etc etc.
That SHOULD happen, but it WON'T, because self delusion is a renewable resource.
well said
💯‼️
Now all they've got left is to declare IMPENDING DOOM whenever somebody like Sanders or Mamdani gets within striking distance of power.
If you believed the Wall Street Journal last October, New York City should have fallen into the Atlantic by now.
Don't believe their lying bullshit.
They don't wait for elections, they are doing it already. Read on this substack.
https://popular.info/p/democrats-capitulate-to-maga-media?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1664&post_id=216989057&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6gx0cg&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
There was a satirical song about the John Birch society by the chad mitchell trio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWCYSVZhPoU&t=75s
I had that album, in high school. :)
Amen!
Thx Stevens- my new BLUE tee shirt will read
TOO BIG TO RIG under a US flag or ballot!!!
That's why the Grover Norquist pledge promises to shrink the federal government until the Republicans can drown it in a bathtub.
Too big to rig. I like that.
Surely plans are afoot to recapture the senior military command? If he starts throwing nuclear assets around we are all toast.
It's why hearing about bunkers being built concerns me. Well over a decade ago, I was seeing a lot of prepping going on and we're getting to the point where it's not a bad idea (except we can’t afford Canada so prepping ... nope). Not that there'll be a (possible) war but because it's "Bananas" out there.
I still like the movie, "Leave the World Behind," because it makes perfect sense based on what we're going through.
<corrected a typo - we “can’t” afford Canada>
A bunker was built under the White House during the Obama administration. Trump's just talking "bunker" because he knows the Supreme Court will let him build his ballroom if he's claiming it's a security issue.
Trump talks "bunker" because everything he says and does is BUNK!
That's also why he's now claiming his arch will be an armory filled with gear for snipers.
Yes. I envisioned that and thought of the tyranny, more murdering and total lack of privacy that's coming. It is a good sniper's view. And we're again paying for it.
Great place to launch drones - right in a heavily traveled route to a major airport. What could possibly go wrong?
lol! Nada can go wrong not with the greatest-stupidest-demented president (? naw, say it ain't so so I can believe it) we'll ever have.
Thanks, I remember that but with this bunker … we have no idea how much he’s spending of our money on it or how frickin’ big it’ll be. It’s mump (who has dementia of some form and his daddy had alzheimer’s as well as someone else - grandfather, I think), so he’ll want to pretend he has real friends (who go to the ball) and have them stay in it. It’ll be bigger than needed like everything else.
A vote to impeach Kegsbreath was scheduled in the House. The Louisiana Pissant adjourned the House early to avoid the vote. "The best laid plans of mice and men ...."
You speak, wrongly, as if Trump decides these things and we have no agency to prevent him from deciding. At the 2020 general election Trump decided he wasn’t leaving office; what happened? He left office.
We owe a great debt to, of all people, Mike Pence.
Just the fact that the insurrection happened and Democrats just moved on to business-as-usual governing instead of accountability... has done permanent damage. T***p can come or go, but the Corporate/OnePercent fascism is here to stay!
But that's a lesson (almost) all Democrats have learned from.
The Thugs have taught us never to give them a scrap.
Take control of the military and the DOJ, impeach everyone except Trump -
Tout de Suite...
Only because of Mike Pence and the Capitol police!
Well, most Capitol police, anyway. Some were clearly in sympathy with the rioters. The armed capitol police who moved away from the door/window that Ashli Babbit was shoved through to her death should have been fired. Were they?
The doomcasting is a bit ridiculous...
I’m a Brit, though I did live in the USA for 57 years, so please forgive my ignorance about a president refusing to leave the White House at the end of his term. If I remember correctly, he was accusing President Obama of plotting that move back in 2016, and other pundits said it couldn’t happen because none of the government branches would obey any of his orders, including the military. Of course, he has replaced high-level officials in all branches with loyalists (though the judges at least don’t always “obey” him). Could the police or perhaps a delegation of senators and representatives be sent to “escort” him out? Would they?
PK correctly identifies that US allies have lost confidence in the US government as an institution because it has allowed an obviously incompetent president to not only remain in office, but exercise the powers of that office without constraint. A key reason for that is that 90% of representatives in the house will retain their seats no matter what voters think of them.
If voters give Democrats a 2/3 super majority in November, there may be chance for an efficient turnaround. If Democrats get a majority of ten seats or less, the road will tough and long.
The current predictions I have read is that the challenge in 2027 will be those in the Capitol who feel 10% elector control is too much.
I strongly recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson today as she summarizes the speech made by UN Secretary-General Guterres, who gets what is really happening. Read The Nerd Reich by Gil Duran to understand what Trump (a useful figurehead) is really talking about. The tech billionaires and their allies have been working to replace democratic governments, and in fact countries worldwide (starting with the US), with a corporate network of city-states run by CEOs with no restraints on their power – no regulations or laws, a complete free-for-all – this is what they mean by “liberty”. The steps to get to this state of “liberty” have already been taken – fire government employees (DOGE), disable Congress, ignore the law, engage a private security force (ICE, militias, even the military), own the media and communications, take over educational institutions, get around financial regulations by creating an alternative to money as we know it (crypto), and let AI loose without any kind of regulation whatsoever. Sound familiar?
See also former judge Michael Luttig's column:
https://newrepublic.com/article/215198/2027-new-congress-final-battle-american-democracy
Thanks. I think people need to know what we really are up against.
God gives us many paths. We must choose the best one ourselves. He may not be able to save us if we choose the wrong path.
I encourage everyone to read this to calm your nerves. IF anything happens, we take to the streets in a peaceful nationwide protest to save our country.
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/responding-to-judge-luttigs-latest?r=3nv7i4&utm_medium=ios
LOL - Sure! See you in court ... NEXT YEAR
Read Robert Hubbell on the subject on swearing in of the New Congress.
Trump can't prevent the new House from being seated. If you're elected to the House in November, you automatically become a member on January 3. Trump can only prevent that if he cans top January 3 from arriving on time.
Do expect Republican losses to be litigated prior to that, however.
The man is 80. Nature is on our side. 🤣
how does it feel to know that Orange Hitler lives rent free in your head?
reality called it wants you back.
this trope is so tired.
Sadly this is true. Even if the Democrats win the WH in 2028, one can expect that the ill informed, myopic, parochial, and short-term focused American polity will forget, if it ever really knew, what led us to the present situation. We can fully expect voters to toggle back and forth between parties, endlessly seeking "change", continuously distracted by false narratives and canards, and always focused more on the price of gas than on the stunning loss of American moral, military, and economic influence in the world and the degradation of our constitutional republic. The problem is us, and it will ever be so.
So true - the dumbing down of Americans is happening at record speed it seems. It’s shocking how many people are completely uninformed, and uninterested in leaning about what is needed to live in a healthy democracy. They are too self absorbed and ignorant. I want to have hope, but it’s a struggle.
You’re right. I must confess, however, that until I met the man who was to become my husband, I had no interest in politics and less knowledge (even of my country of origin, England). My late husband was always on top of what was going on, voted in every election and was a republican until the day tRump, whom he despised, won the nomination in 2016.
The decision a voter has to make is not that complicated.
A core concept of representative democracy is that issues have always been too complicated for voters to decide directly. Rather voters elect representatives whose judgement they trust so that their representative will study the issues and make decisions in their best interest.
Edmund Burke speaking in 1774 put it like this, "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
"When is a president no longer mentally competent to serve?" is the clearest question I have seen so far as to how to assess a representative's judgement as it deals with a judgement related to being human that we all face eventually within our own families, rather than complex policies of state.
So, do you trust the judgement of the elected politicians who represent YOU?
If not, what do you have to do to get representatives whose judgement you trust?
in Murika, the problem is that 95% of incumbents get re-elected every two years but have a low teens approval rating because they choose their voters instead of voters choosing them through gerrymandering not to mention citizens united which opened up a huge faucet of corporate and billionaire money into the elections
most people don't understand how politics and those they put in power affect every part of our lives
I get that. My interest didn’t come until later in life, and my husband (and moving from CO to Wyoming - go figure) influenced me too.
I have a good friend, also in her 70's, who has two adult kids (late 40's), who are also liberal - but who rarely vote b/c "it doesn't make a difference." They have moved in the past couple of years from Washington state to Texas, so I'm hoping she can convince them that their Democratic votes will certainly matter in TX, even if they didn't in WA. But it's infuriating that she even has to talk to them.
It's a steep learning curve, especially if you've just awakened from a peaceful slumber of trusting America will always be ok.
Distraction is our enemy. Too much booze, football, gambling, binge-watching TV. Plus 2 career families with children, corporations extracting employees leisure time, and SCREENS, keeping us scrolling instead of acting and building communities where we live.
Yes this, as well as the long, persistent work put in to erode our education system - in things like actual educating, problem solving, and critical thinking as well as sewing distrust, disdain, and disrespect for the institutions and people from kinder through college.
So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult. George Orwell, 1984
Are we teaching George Orwell in high schools?
I'm with you but not on football and booze!
Ok, but not every night!
I agree, but while we are the problem, we are also the only possible solution to our problem, assuming we can avoid nuclear extinction as a species. I know, big assumption.
It’s hard to know what to be more afraid of these days—climate change, AI or nuclear annihilation. AI could speed up climate change by demanding ever more data centres using more electric power and water. A nuclear war could, on the other hand, cause what we all used to fear back during the Cold War—nuclear winter. Either way, we’re screwed.
Many of the data centers just store your photos, videos, Flock captures, Amazon purchases, movies, where you drive, personal data.
So luckily I no longer drive and have cut down on buying from Amazon to almost zero. I haven’t posted any new photos in years, and the ones already posted are over 5 years old. Plus I no longer live in the U.S.
Or AI extinction
Dems need to abandon their overpaid corporate consultants and the failed neoliberal policies if they want voters to come back....their decades long incrementalism and capitulation is what vomited up trump in the first place
This requires a massive effort to get money out of politics, which requires the end of Citizens United, which requires Supreme Court reform, which must be a first priority or Dems will never get anywhere, on corruption or anything else.
they can start with something they do have power over....making insider trading illegal in the congress which dems had chance to do (Pelosi) and did NOT.
Republicans break the system and plunge us into recession and foreign wars. Dems get elected and begin to fix things. It doesn’t happen right away, the public gets impatient, and votes in a new suite of republicans.
The cycle starts again.
I pray not. Perhaps the Trump nightmare will awaken a sleeping giant.
I strongly recommend reading Heather Cox Richardson today as she summarizes the speech made by UN Secretary-General Guterres, who gets what is really happening. Read The Nerd Reich by Gil Duran to understand what Trump (a useful figurehead) is really talking about. The tech billionaires and their allies have been working to replace democratic governments, and in fact countries worldwide (starting with the US), with a corporate network of city-states run by CEOs with no restraints on their power – no regulations or laws, a complete free-for-all – this is what they mean by “liberty”. The steps to get to this state of “liberty” have already been taken – fire government employees (DOGE), disable Congress, ignore the law, engage a private security force (ICE, militias, even the military), own the media and communications, take over educational institutions, get around financial regulations by creating an alternative to money as we know it (crypto), and let AI loose without any kind of regulation whatsoever. Sound familiar?
Amen. Hard to believe - but no one expected airplanes to fly into skyscrapers and the Pentagon either. Failure of imagination 2.0
His address to the UN yesterday, which Professor Richardson helpfully obliged us with in her Letter this morning, was an abomination. What purpose do the WH officials have in allowing this demented display. I’m mystified.
I agree. I was horrified and sickened by his casual talk of obliterating Iran, and his sneering dismissal of Cuba, to name a couple of things. I really felt for President Zelenskyy having to sit next to him — and refraining from getting up and walking away—or punching tRumpty in the nose.
How much does a president's mental state have to deteriorate before US institutions will remove him from office? Unfortunately, we will find out. My wife works in a day program for seniors with dementia and tells me that "sundowning" is not reversable.
It sure is mystifying- I can’t imagine anyone being more deserving of removal!!!!!
My guess is that nobody in Congress wants Vance to take over the Presidency.
Build him a White House model so he can play act as president
If I were Zelensky, I would never enter the United States. There's too much risk that Trump would have him arrested and held for trial (just like Maduro).
I think there’s a word for it: “d*ck-waving,” which is a characteristic of a lot of men when they’re threatened. Most, however, don’t have proximity to the nuclear codes.
Reminds me of Molly Ivins (paraphrasing): A lot of politicians step on their dick from time to time, but he's stomping on his.
According to eyewitness account (Stormy Daniels), it’s nowhere near the minimum size one could step on.
I suspect darker motives.
Good observation.
It’s all about money.
The coalition that put tRump in power might eventually fracture but its constituents aren't going anywhere. Those groups have been here for generations and the values and beliefs are stable.
There are those who want a king.
There are those who want a theocracy.
There are those who want pseudo-slavery - a lords and serfs society.
Those who want to own everything will continue trying.
The last time it took 100 years to roll back Jim Crowe and 50 years to dismantle the oligarchy. Both have reemerged because we got distracted. Jefferson said it best: "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
This is what worries me - that trump will take Americans’ turn against him as a personal affront and will turn his ICE goons, with their electric gloves, on us ordinary Americans. Can you say Bashar al Assad? Who knows what nasty weapons (including weaponized ai) he’d be willing to use?
I am personally acquainted with numerous individuals who are more than capable of effectively dealing with "ICE goons, with their electric gloves" without breaking a sweat - and who would do so happily.
Wow, I’d like to meet some of them — then I’d feel a little less vulnerable!
United States Marine infantry, present and former, are at your service.
So what's taking you so long then? So far, every branch of the military has done nothing but follow every clearly illegal order this administration gives... and there's a lot of 'em.
I wasn't referring to the Commandant of the Marine Corps ordering them to - I was referring to individual Marine Infantry taking action to fulfil their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and *domestic*, e.g., ICE..
Again, when? What has to happen? There's been no sign that any infantry individual would take action "to fulfill their oath to uphold and defend the U.S." against ICE or anyone else. Short of being ordered to, or maybe mass chaos or civil war-like conditions, I see no evidence this would occur. ICE is still abusing, assaulting, abducting, kidnapping, imprisoning, and killing people, flying them out of the country to who knows where, all with virtual impunity. The Trump administration is telegraphing their intent to use ICE to "monitor polling places". The military is still murdering people in the open ocean or other counties' waters, attacking countries that are no threat to the U.S., even kidnapping or killing sovereign countries' leaders... with nary a hint of any military individual standing up against it or not "following orders".
May that day never come.
I wasn't infantry but I worked with y'all. Remember MUX? All wrinkled uniforms and unpolished boots (we were air wingers, starch and shoe polish are flammable) rolling around in USMC MRC 109 radio-jeeps with the microwave antennas? Yep. That was me and the boys.
🙏
Sounds good until you check polls and find they voted overwhelmingly for Trump all three times.
There's a crucial difference between 'voting for Trump rather than another candidate' and 'backing Trump rather than the Constitution'. If Marine infantry was defending the capital on January 6th, do you think they would have joined the rioters? Hell, do you think that rioting clown posse would have tried?
Nearly every Marine I served with was truly conservative - especially when it came to defending their country, their comrades, and their honor, and they remembered their oath.
I guess we'll find out if I'm mistaken if the shit hits the fan..
“There's a crucial difference between 'voting for Trump rather than another candidate' and 'backing Trump rather than the Constitution'.”
Not in the 2024 election there wasn’t. Ever since J6, supporting Trump is equal to ripping up the Constitution. Unlike a lot of politics, this is 100% black-and-white.
We all know that Rethugs in the administration, election deniers embedded now in certification of elections, trump judges in the 5th circuit, and the 6 conservatives on SCOTUS will go to the mat - do everything legal and illegal - to mitigate their loss of power in the coming blue wave. On the other side we have the 12 million who peaceably participated in No Kings rallies around the country and the everyday Minnesotans who bravely stood against and recorded ICE depredations and thuggery in Minneapolis. If trumpists seize ballots, threaten citizens at polling places, and refuse to seat lawful winners of elections, it won’t just be marines that many of you believe will stand like a human wall against a fascist effort to have a fair election - it will be ordinary women who long ago recognized where the might
-makes-right and zero sum game trump ideology was taking us - and all the men, black, brown, and white, who recognize the importance of a society that works for everyone, not just right-wing extremists and grifting zillionaires.
Get them going then b4 the midterms and voting. Where have they been since the ICE startup???🤔
Perhaps the Commandant of the Marine Corps is reluctantly waiting on the Supreme Court?
The character of the "Red King" in Stephen King's Dark Tower series now looks like prescience.
Exactly, pkidd. This is my concern as well.
Many thanks!!
"There is a straight line from Koch Brothers money, allied with segregationists and religious fundamentalists, that runs through the Federalist Society and the Roberts Supreme Court, through the MAGA-fied Republican Party, through the crypto-industry and the tech-broligarchy, that leads to Trump. And it will take a single-minded, fearless and incorruptible new generation of Democrats to defeat this many-headed hydra."
Perfectly put. Here's hoping that those "single-minded, fearless and incorruptible new generation of Democrats" are elected this November!!
I dunno, that's a very top-down view of where Trumpism came from. I rolled my eyes at Krugman's "straight line from Koch Brothers money" the same way I roll my eyes at Hannity or Carlson for blaming the machinations of George Soros for the rise of progressivism.
It would be interesting to see what the differing amounts of spending are, Koch vs. Soros - and much more importantly how they were spent.
As for Krugman's flow-chart, may I recommend the documentary "Bad Faith", outlining the rise of the current Christian Nationalist movement in the U.S.?
After losing the House and the Senate in Nov, Trump will veto every new bill, blame the Democrats for everything, and focus all his energy to spread fear/anger/hate against Democrats and other enemies.
2027-28 will be ugly. If the Democrats win in 2028 they will inherit a divided country, financially on its knees, with very few friends in the world. Republicans, no longer in power, will use every opportunity to blame Democrats for the mess, and attack every proposal to fix the mess. Very likely in 2032 the public will again vote for Republicans 'because the Democrats are no better, and look at the mess now'.
Fixing that broken system will take decades. And the world has already decided to decouple from the US. Good luck. It was nice knowing you.
Yup. Tucker Carlson 2032. Fucked again by the idiot swing voters.
The whole world sheds tears of pity for Americans. You could be great again; please double-down on education.
As a society, we need to turn away from social media and become engaged in the real world with real people. People need to go to church, join civic clubs, join bowling leagues, go to regular board games... real, in-person, human interactions.
Very kind of you. But no. There may be something 'great' again in the world, but it won't be America-centric. We will not 'recapture' what we were, that ship has long since sailed. By definition, whatever comes next will be fundamentally new.
And here's the thing, non-American person. We were always the pointy end of the democracy spear, the modern model for everyone else. What happens to us will happen to you. Good luck out there.
Thanks for your good wishes. However, if we can't get our acts together to cooperate on global warming soon, our species will be doomed.
Goose = Cooked.
The fact that the president is insane should be a bigger story.
Anyone who share the world view of the Trumpistas is insane. It is so far detached from reality that future generations will hopefully look back at this period and conclude that everyone was insane. That's my honest belief.
Musical coda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqki1kkjZJw
THAT’s a pretty succinct summation!
Trump doesn't heed the Republican controlled House, Senate, or SCOTUS now. We would be fools to think that Democrats controlling those two chambers after the midterms will adequately restrain MAGAlomanic Mussolini. In fact, I expect Trump to get even more dangerously unhinged.
A blue wave would be a good beginning, but I still believe it is going to take massive prolonged protests and strikes to effectively neuter Peter Thiel's puppet regime.
And why do we have zero enforcement means for law, constitutionality, court orders etc?
Because there is separation of powers. Enforcing the law is the task of...the Executive. When the executive becomes an outlaw, one has a real problem.
Who should enforce laws now? The military, once it understands the dangers caused by Trump? Maybe, but such cures are likely worse than the disease.
Turkey does entrust the army with the upkeep of the Constitution, and actually enjoins it to overthrow the government if it acts up and acts in ways unconstitutional. I think that might be awfully useful, but it surely is not in the great American tradition, .
Clearly we need a better governance “cop” system not controlled by one of the branches. We cannot be trusted with the existing guardrails.
The Germans tried that, during a time, 1933-45, when they distrusted traditional governance. The result was a maze of secret polices, each busy suspecting of all others, and each finding the time to oppress the citizen by more and more cruel and arbitrary acts.
I am not saying that I totally disagree, but I am saying the problem is genuinely a hard one. Having a strong executive has its very real advantages: important things get done. Climate change, for instance, would have caused no problem under a global benevolent dictatorship. What makes it unsolvable is the need to make the solution acceptable to voters who have no wish to give up driving.
But a strong executive going off the rails is extremely hard to control, because putting ``guardrails'' that are outside the ordinary legal framework is even more dangerous than a nutty executive.
Yes, that many-headed hydra is the real problem (plus the Putin head). With thise billionaires owning the media + whoever they want... it will very hard to counter it
What needs explaining is not Trump but the bizarre fealty of essentially all elected Republicans to his destructive narcissism. Why have powerful people rolled over and played dead? There must be systemic reasons. Has it been a perverse consequence of the primary system, which was supposed to democratize elections but after all has provided a hot house for paranoid fantasies and the politics of grievance? Did the sleep of reason, a goal of the 1971 Powell memorandum, subsequently funded and executed by a vast right-wing conspiracy, release these monsters?
Much can be explained by examining stock trading. The fealty is to their portfolios and the privileges of their offices.
All good questions. Where has this desire for colossal failure come from? And what has to happen before we feel we have hit bottom as a nation?
Peut-être juste la corruption, par le Grand Corrompu et Grand Corrupteur …
The Good Professor is absolutely correct. Donald is getting more and more unhinged as the days go by. But everyone acts like this situation is normal and business as usual.
What does Donald have to do before the media and public realize that he is absolutely bonkers?
I have long thought that the country would stick with Donald until he brings the country and the federal government to their knees. Even now large groups of people would vote to reelect him if he as on the ballot. And many people will support MAGA republicans in the November elections. Many farmers are complaining about Donald's economic policies but would vote for him again if they get a chance.
Strange situation. America had a tremendous urge to commit suicide, so it voted for Donald.
The question then is: why does America have a tremendous urge to commit suicide?
I’m glad to hear you voice the true situation about the tremendous damage to our country that Trump has done, and will continue doing. Because of the opacity of this government, we don’t even know the scope of all of the damage being done in many cases. People will be expecting miracles with a change in government, but prices won’t immediately drop, people won’t instantly get their healthcare back, ICE will still be entrenched. There is so much that will need to be done, including tempering some expectations.
Trump has long presented with a markedly disturbed characterological profile. Combine that with a likely insidious dementing process adds up ti an extremely dangerous situation. Yes, a blue wave in November would be welcome. But this also would create a dynamic where Trump will become even more volatile and dangerous.