The Confederacy was massively outgunned; the anti-slavers held almost all of the industry and most of the military. That is no longer the case.
There is still a chance to get out of this peacefully [1]. But that chance is now.
[1] Peaceful on the anti-fascist side, that is. There is going to be violence from the fascist paramilitaries and police no matter what the other side does.
For people needing a moment of respite.
Thereās a difference between holding an office and being in control. In many respects Trump is more like a boy king or feeble emperorāuseful for the constitutional authority he wields, but not actually calling the shots.
The Republicans in Congress are only loyal to him to the extent that 1.) he can advance their agenda and 2.) they feel threatened by his supportersāand the truth of it is that heās facing far more dissent from his own party ~200 days into his administration than any other president in recent memory. And, for some reason, heās decided to alienate Mitch McConnell, who is not only instrumental to his legislative agenda, but also to his not being impeached.
The military and national security apparatus donāt respect his leadership. Heās being openly investigated and privately undermined. Corporations are all over the map, depending upon the issue and how they define their interests. The Koch Brothers, for example, opposed the ACA repeal.
The āTrumpGOPā isnāt a monolith, nor is the state itself. Itās a myriad of separate actors, pursuing their own interests, and Trump certainly hasnāt unified them to the degree of a successful president, much less a despot. Or, the Confederacy.
And as much as Iād like to see more outspoken resistance, it canāt just be the left bringing the country to a halt. We canāt force him out unilaterally and expect the rest of the country to play nice after that. People need the opportunity to change their minds of their own accord, and the only way thatās going to happen is if it becomes apparent that the GOP canāt do the job, and that we have something better on offer than returning to the Schumer/Pelosi status quo.
Our enemies are numerous and varied. Sometimes itās best to pick them off one by one, and understanding dominionism for what it is, and not what we would like it to be, helps with that.
speaking of which,
Two opening caveats:
The following is, obviously, my own opinion. I donāt believe that Iām wrong, but that doesnāt mean Iām not.
Yāall are having a bad day over there. If you donāt want to read any more distressing shit, stop here.
The executive decision making is a mix of Trump, Bannon and Putin. Exactly where the balance of power lies between those three is hard to read from outside.
Yep.
OTOH, apart from securing himself from impeachment and prosecution, Trump doesnāt particularly care what happens in Congress.
Trumpās goal isnāt legislative or policy based. Itās unlimited executive authority, and de facto is as good as de jure. He doesnāt believe in the rule of law; he doesnāt think that it is important.
He is facing substantial (but not universal, and mostly covert) opposition from the GOP legislature.
He is facing massive support from the GOP base. And is intending to leverage that support into a purge of the disloyal legislators at the first opportunity. The midterm primaries begin in less than a year.
The slap at Mitch is another tricky one to read. It might just be a fit of ill-disciplined Trumpian pique; it may have been a warning shot intended to cow McConnell; it may be a sign that theyāre planning on neutering the turtle somehow.
His seat isnāt on a ballot until 2020, but he could be stripped of the leadership before then if the Trumpists solidify their numbers in the Senate. Or they could influence him behind the scenes to āvoluntarilyā retire.
The field commanders are apparently delighted with their new-found lack of operational restrictions.
The sane portion of the senior military are quietly concerned. Unfortunately, as Flynn/Mattis/Kelly et al demonstrate, the officer corps of the US military are well-supplied with bloodthirsty lunatics.
The coalface intelligence folk are cranky, but their leadership are all Trump loyalists now. Those leaders will be seeing their prime job as ensuring obedience from their agencies.
You only need to suck up to donors if you intend on facing a real democratic election.
Trump isnāt interested in helping his competitors. But, if they offer sufficiently large bribes, he wonāt bankrupt them and seize their companies. Look to Putin to see how itās done.
The Confederacy was wildly disunited from the beginning; itās one of the (many) reasons they lost.
The GOP isnāt a monolith, but the TrumpGOP (by which I mean the Trump aligned faction within the GOP: most of the cabinet, some of the legislature, nearly all of the base, all of the West Wing courtiers) does appear to be strongly united in purpose.
The Trumpeters are not going to change their minds any time in the forseeable future. They are very happy with Trumpās performance so far.
Converting fascists into decent people is an admirable goal. It takes a very long time, it has a very low success and high relapse rate, but it can be rewarding.
It isnāt a political strategy.
Every day that the TrumpGOP remains in place, the more certain the outbreak of globally catastrophic war. Every day that they remain in place, more Americans of colour have their lives destroyed. And every day that they remain in place, the less possible peaceful resistance becomes.
This is not a situation that can be resolved via existing political and legal structures. A revolution is required; it can be a peaceful one now, or a violent one later. The only other option is to surrender and accept an until-they-kill-us-all reich.
You are never going to get things back to the way they were. The genie is out of the bottle.
I made a joke about Wilson. You could have followed up without claiming that I was being āintellectually flabbyā. I explained the joke for you. Lecture someone else.
Disturbing video, but resolve building to witness the hate it takes to ram a car into a crowd of people.
I just want to say āgod bless David Duke.ā
He has the credibility within āconservativeā circles to expose to everyone the unvarnished truth ā the truth that Trumpās ābaseā is nothing but bigots and neo-Nazis. No one can claim he in a left-wing provocateur.
It shows where their loyalties are. The difference between this and ferguson or baltimore is striking. Unsurprising and disgusting.
It was rather striking that McAuliffeās much-praised speech after the attack began with a lengthy bout of ritualised grovelling to the police.
Whatās striking is how little executive decision is actually being made. Much of his agenda has consisted of undoing Obamaās legacy, because he lacks any real vision of his own. He doesnāt understand government and has never been able to formulate workable policy. Obviously heās getting a lot of mileage on charisma, but its becoming increasingly apparent that heās unable to govern, and people who matter do actually care about this.
He was deeply invested in healthcare, while effectively undermining it with personal threats and contradictory messaging. He might not have cared about the substance of the bill, but he cared that something was passed so that it didnāt seem like he was ālosing.ā
I agree with you there, but does he have the finesse to actually achieve that? Previous presidentsāboth Democrats and Republicansāhave gradually expanded executive power. Trumpās clumsy overreach might be the thing that reminds everyone why the separation of powers was important to begin with. Already, weāre seeing Congress reassert itself, for example, by preventing him from firing Mueller. As @jerwin points out, NK is raising awareness of the fact that any president can fire a nuke at his whim.
The fact of an authoritarian president is troubling, but I donāt think you give enough weight to his incompetence. What looked like malice 6 months ago is now looking a lot more like stupidity. Iām all for erring on the side of caution, but Iām also a fan of probing for weakness so that you donāt bring a tank to do a daggerās job.
[quote=āWanderfound, post:47, topic:813ā]
He is facing massive support from the GOP base. And is intending to leverage that support into a purge of the disloyal legislators at the first opportunity. The midterm primaries begin in less than a year.[/quote]
The percent of Republicans expressing strong approval for Trump is declining and, in fact, thereās serious talk that Trump himself might face a primary challenge in 2020.
Again, Hanlonās Razor.
But your opponents suck up to donors, too.
Iām not talking about Redhats, though. Iām talking about the centerāpeople who voted for Trump ābecause Hillary would have been worse,ā or on a single issue like abortion. They need to watch the dumpster fire burn for a while before theyāll come around, and we need to give them that opportunity.
And then what? After we remove the elected president through extra-political and extra-legal means, how does the right respond if not by extra-political and extra-legal means? They can exert those same pressures. Farmers have cut off food to the cities before. Only a constitutional process can defend the constitution.
You seem to be hyper-aware of the threats, but not the weaknesses. Youāre going into battle with too much armor and a war hammer you canāt lift.
http://www.npr.org/2017/08/13/543176250/charlottesville-attack-james-alex-fields-jr
Last night Twitter detectives were accusing some random āantifa guyā they found on Facebook of being the driver, claiming that it was friendly fire or a false flag. And, Iām sure theyāre still trying to rationalize some way in which this guy was connected to BLM or the left. Maybe, he cannily posed for this photo before the attack to make it seem like he was a part of Vanguard, who have already disclaimed him. Wake up sheeple!
It really speaks to how lax Twitter is that David Duke hasnāt already been suspended for hate speech.
That charging car brings back memories, I have had to deal with that personally quite a few times. I wish I was there to help, I could have put my experience to use.
I do think that is straying into tinfoil hat territory.
I think that everything Trump has done so far can be considered to be the result of either a strain of opinion within the Republican Party or lobbying. The focus needs to be on the dysfunctional party that largely controls US politics, and not be deflected onto foreigners or weirdos. That to a degree lets the people on the Hill off the hook for the monster they have created.
You say laxity, I say purposeful in a desperate attempt to keep up advertising revenue, from a company that loses money faster every year.
Already did right after the election, and this came back:
āThat wasnāt Trump. Those people are just crazy.ā
āI supported him for economic reasons.ā
NB: the biggest Trump supporter I know is both a POC and an immigrant (and in Canada, but with family in the US). He defended Trump most recently just two weeks ago. It is seriously not sinking in for some people.
A good question here, read from the top ā
Thread:
This really is a massacre waiting to happen (though I wouldnāt say cops and soldiers are immune, but these militia assholes are terrifying).
With most people the more obvious their mistake, the deeper their heels get dug in. The harder you push them to admit it, the less likely they will.