But I also learned over the last few years that anyone who refuses to crawl must accept the possibility of their own destruction. The choice America faces is to crawl for this man forever or destroy itself. We may have passed the mythical Point of No Return. The solution to all this was in the past.
The time to stop Trump was at the 2016 RNC. Or when he made clear he was willing to collude with Russian criminals. Or by convicting him at the first impeachment. Or convicting him at the second impeachment. Or corporate media covering him with courage, making a November election win impossible.
🎯🎯🎯 But, hey, it's much easier to blame Dems for not appealing to...[whomever]. I've apparently got a really shitty take on voting: It's up to the voter to do as much research as they'll do before buying a refrigerator. Then decide which candidate's policies are likely to improve their lives.
I'm not talking about giving up. I'm saying being an adult means accepting the facts on the ground as being the facts on the ground. America has given itself over to criminals and plutocrats. The courts won't help. Corporate media won't help. And violence solves absolutely nothing. And it never has.
Actually Violence has solved problems many times. Just not advocating violence But saying it does .
Violence does not solve problems, it only negotiates problems from one moment to another. Yet indicating that nothing else resolves the issues of the moment, what other resource do the people have other than violence when the powers that be continue to use violence, more and more against them?
I think the only way for America to survive may be for Donald Trump and Elon Musk and their minions to so unabashedly destroy it—with their actions killing untold innocents, unhousing millions, and collapsing our economy—that they cannot win even a pre-rigged 2028 presidential election. And BTW...
...please do not pretend I am speaking of some election-rigging conspiracy. I am speaking only of what Trump has already said he will find a way to do: eliminate mail-in balloting, absentee balloting, and early voting, while making Election Day a non-holiday that is your only chance to vote—with ID.
I am 83 years old & I always just went to my polling place to vote, until Covid. I started doing mail-in voting & kept it up because it was so easy. But I & many others like me will again go to our polling place & vote if ways that make it easier are done away with. I blame this on my civics teacher
What about Congress upholding his disqualification as an insurrectionist on 1/6/25? Is there no hope there?
I think he will either be too dimented, or some other health issue will kill him before 2028. 🤞🏻
‘Health issue’
Or whatever 😉 I don’t want secret service coming for me 😂
I mean… you chose ‘Q’ as your handle… the most controversial letter of the decade.🤣
But good point. I will change that.
There might be a legit reason for that. It’s part of my name. Nothing to do with the Anon trash.
Algorithmically, you are already on a list though. It’s a ‘buzzword’. Motivation means nothing to code.
One of the only things I trust the Republicans to have done is the research necessary to know their political rivals have no hope of winning elections as they—MAGAs—plan to engineer them. I bet they got that analysis right. America would have to be almost a smoking ruin for Democrats to win in 2028.
I'm sick of folks pretending we're still in a political environment where Democrats can make political moves to right the ship. No—they can't. I'm about to publish an essay I've been working on for a month that shows that we're no longer in an information environment where politics can be practiced.
Id love to hear your thoughts someday soon on if you think Dems can pull off upholding his disqualification on 1/6/25, or negotiating a peaceful disunion between Gilead and blue states. So trump-musk can destroy Gilead and refugees have somewhere in America to flee to
I know people don't want to hear this. But the fact is that we are at the tail end of an information war that is more or less over. It began in 1995 and was won by the MAGAs. What Democrats would need to do rhetorically to return to a stalemate are things they won't do and I don't want them to do.
I really look forward to reading your essay🧚
Democrats need to let Trump voters (red states) feel the full force of his policies while protecting their constituents. Even help them do it where possible. If there are cuts ensure those blue state dollars come home for replacement programs.
California apparently is preparing to do just that with a litigation fund of 250 million. All blue states should do the same. It’s civil war by other means & we better prepare for it. Tens of millions of us still care about the truth & recognize it. We are NOT NIHILISTIC like MAGA
What’s scary is I’m a 🔵 in a red state
Right there with you
Don't send our blue dollars to the federal government...
There's about when I started to really notice it, but it seems to me the roots reach back farther.
Democrats would need to start spreading disinformation systematically—disinformation intended to harm certain vulnerable groups and attract the votes of the worst people alive. They'd need to fund a huge network of unscrupulous propagandists. I want no part of any political party that would do that.
Any solution that requires conventional politics will fail, because the framework no longer exists for such practices. It was destroyed. Any solution that presumes getting more truth to the American people will change things will also fail. The framework no longer exists for that. It was destroyed.
To be very clear, it is equally a wholly unacceptable option to obey in advance. I'm so opposed to the idea of obeying in advance that I'm not even sure Democrats should agree to participate in the government anymore. I think a fascist cult cannot be negotiated with like it is a political party.
Ken Martin for DNC chair has a 10-point plan. /MN Dems www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnPp... He’s 1 of 4 running Feb 1 election, vote by 500 delegates Ben Wikler/WI Dems
The weird thing is, you'd think that telling the truth about MAGA, Christian Nationalists, Project 2525, and their horrible agendas would be more damaging. What kind of lie can we make up when the truth is worse?
No. Absolutely not. Speak ONLY the truth. When the truth dies, so does democracy.
I don't think they need to go that far. They just need to be willing to shout the lies from the rooftops in no uncertain terms, call out the GOP psyops, put the truth (not just facts) in the table. So far, few are post 11/5.
maybe they should. and maybe people like you should be talking more about these things, so that we can work through them. or maybe . . . just maybe . . . we need to seriously reevaluate how we understand the entire world, in order to allow for a better transition to a just and equitable future.
The world already has science+techn+resources to rise to a higher level, one where nobody goes hungry or dies in senseless wars. A more just and equitable future is just around the corner but, addicted to power&fortunes made out of blood, the 0,01% would rather 💀 the 99,9% than allow that to happen.
But they should do
Oh god, I'm so depressed. But I will not obey in advance.
Don’t be depressed Mande, that is what they want. They want you to feel helpless and powerless. You are not. What is happening in America is happening all over the world to some degree. How we interact with the people we deal with everyday will determine our quality of life.
Party lines are shifting. Populist discontent crosses party lines. Trump got plenty of Bernie bros. Trump and Elon are going to exacerbate anger at billionaires and corporations. We can get the money out, but it has to be bigger than party.
How to deal with the nonsense they spout without becoming the mendacious buffoons they are perfectly happy to be. Riches await the person who figures out a legit solution.
My favorite immigrant is sitting with my 92 year old mother in hospice care. He has a family. He is choosing to sit with her. He gently moistens her limps and speaks gentle words to her. If some agency comes for him, I am getting involved.
It feels absolutely glorious to block the vicious troll reply. I'm not putting up with bots, trolls and MAGA.
Lips..shrug..I'm exhausted. My point is that they are out to hurt really good people. This man owns a small business and works a regular job as well . His wife works. His beautiful children go to school.
He is a good man with a dream. I am willing to fight for him.
Greed. Wealth at any cost. American predatory capitalism was built on genocide and slavery. It’s in the DNA. We need to use the power of our dollar. Walmart and Amazon wouldn’t be the largest companies and able to buy the presidency if we stopped buying shit! What if we started a barter economy?
So you’re saying: what if we did go back?
If that is your takeaway from my comment, then perhaps I should make clearer. We could shift from out of control consumerism, spending with businesses that exploit. IQ45-47 being the personification of the brand of “shit you don’t need”. But imagine if we shopped based on our human values…
Completely agree
I completely agree with this point. People have refused to understand that we’ve been in a cold civil war for a decade or more and now the worst people have won and they’re hell bent on an anti-Reconstruction to remake government and society on 19th-century lines.
Totally agree. As a 62 year old woman I have seen politics and this isn’t it. This is a fight for our lives. I am so angry and disappointed in humanity right now. I misread the intelligence of people to see the truth.
So we are in USSR United States of Stupid Reality
I can’t wait to read it. This is exactly what I’ve been saying since before the election.
🙏🏻💔
They keep imagining that the right are communicating truthfully.
THANK YOU 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Democrats are too busy trying to stay dry during the storm instead of repairing the crack in the dam. On January 20, the dam will break.
Isn't making it hard for the people who oppose you to vote election-rigging?
He won't be able to eliminate early voting. That's up to states. But mail voting was already way down in 2024 from 2020. That will drop to almost nothing.
Yes, be sure to absolve yourself of any disdainful charges right-wingers might make toward anyone who has the audacity to question election results.
This is my exact feeling on this. They are going to destroy it. I'm not sure it can ever be fixed
I like you, Seth, but Trump won by 1% during a global anti incumbent wave. There just isn't any actual evidence that Democrats CAN'T win. In fact, they are near certain to win in '26 and likely in '28 even if nothing with either party changes between now and then.
That's just the rhythm of American politics.
There will be no election.
The media, their enablers, will just blame the Democratic for any collapsing and the poorly informed, who seem to be the majority now, will believe them.
So give Steve Bannon what he wants?
There won’t be a 2028 election. Trump said so himself.
Agree. The festering abcess must burst its fetid contents for all to plainly see before it can heal. Sadly many will suffer but let them go make a mess even they can't escape.
it took the destruction of much of Europe in WW II, esp of Berlin, to convince the German people they'd made a terrible mistake. I'm 74, I'm afraid I won't live long enough for us to correct our course.
"The worse, the better," a phrase linked to Lenin, suggests worsening conditions can spark change. This idea could apply to the Trump administration, where political or social decline might fuel resistance. The worse, the better.
I think the Civil War would disagree, Seth.
Anxiously awaiting your next post because we got nothin
I respectfully disagree about the violence solves nothing and never has. The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WWII… all resolved through the use of violence. I fervently hope it does not come to that for us, but if push comes to shove, people need to be prepared to shove back, or lose everything.
If your enemy is violent you are entitled to use violence. IRA, ANC, Sandanistas, Viet-Cong were all legitimate uses of violence in reaction to illegitimate state violence.
Saying violence doesn’t solve anything is a very privileged thing to say and caters to the rich and the ones in power. Violence has solved many problems throughout the ages and freed many people from oppression. Ever heard of the Molly Maguires?
I don't know what you mean by "solves." Violence changes things and it always has. We can't even imagine what history would be without violence. You mean you prefer no violence, as do I. I don't like to hurt people and killing is beyond the pale. And yet. Here we are, in a world made by violence.
Imho the challenge for both sides is a deteriorating economy that has been propped up by massive stimulus which eventually wears off. Trump1 and Harris were both rejected bc of dismal economic performance. Trump2 economy could be worse and the blow back would be epic in that case.
Revolutions proved violence does work, but at great sacrifice, though. French, American....to everything there is a season.
1776 & 1789 want to have a word. I don’t know why people say violence doesn’t work when the USA is literally the product of a violent revolution. At a certain point, it’s the only answer left. Hopefully we don’t get there.
The Founders would disagree.
I will never waver from the opinion that those most at fault are Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy. If they would’ve aggressively pushed for the 2nd impeachment, more Republicans would’ve gotten on board. I blame them much more than Garland. Certainly SCOTUS is not clean either. Pathetic weakness.
Along with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell
Much more recently, violence just ousted Assad from Syria. So please stop saying that violence can’t solve anything.
Here’s where you lost to me. Claiming violence never has solved anything completely ignores history such as the English Civil War, the American revolution, the French revolution, the American Civil War, WW I, WW II. In every one of those cases violence led to an improvement in the human condition.
I beg to differ. Sometimes violence is the only answer.
I crawled for my parents my entire life—until I didn’t. It felt like my own death and I knew I risked being shunned by siblings and extended family, too. All worth it, even if the outcome had been the worst, because freedom starts in the decisions we make in ourselves.
So many chances let go.
June 16, 2015 💔
Or here... Or here... Or here... Oh man, we had a ZILLION chances to stop the angry yam.... And we... did not
Or doing one’s job as AG. Instead of a grovelling shill.
How bout Garland sitting on his hands for two years!! 🤨
It is NEVER too late to oppose everything he tries to implement. That kind of bullshit defeatism is how they win without firing a shot.
Spot on, the answer to what needs to happen is obvious, it’s just a matter of how far everyone is willing to be pushed, how much suffering they’re willing to endure or witness, and when the stress on people’s humanity eventually snaps
So many opportunities gone. It makes me immeasurably sad.
I tend to believe our govt has already fallen. The fact that a Dem administration hasn’t held him accountable & let him run for pres again shows they are complicit. We’ll see if the American people are willing to fight for their democracy & freedom. There are always possibilities we can’t predict
Trump's father was abusive and he is an abusive father to his children and wives. Unfortunately some people think being an asshole = being strong 😕
Or destroy him
Who has ‘he’ destroyed? Besides decency.
Setb, this is very dark logic. Please think some more about what you're saying. The day before Assad fell, it seemed to people in his prisons that they would be there forever. Now they are free. Things can turn on a dime. We have to keep pushing to make things turn around.
Dark, but you may be right.
The solution that didn't involve actual fighting is in the past. I'm not going to crawl, man.
Either way, we're destroyed. Crawling means capitulating to people hell bent on destroying everything we are, and refusing to crawl puts you in Republican crosshairs. At least refusing to crawl means we go out w dignity
If America must crawl to survive, America must die