#JAILTOTHECHIEF- Shit Just Got Real

[Kaimi Kyomoon]

"friends"

She's really a lovely person except Fox News is on her television all day. I wish I could bring her into the light but her reality is just so different to mine.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Quite the reality where kids in cages and mocking disabled is okay.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Jolene Benoir]

A whole government of mobsters. Well, at least no one sane can deny it anymore.

Yes, they will deny it and yes, they will likely get away with it.

It's not that dissimilar from his "No U" response to Clinton during the debates. I can, with a high degree of certainty, predict that he will call the Democratic Party a party of mobsters. When he does they will join in a chorus. I think he already has done that via tweet once before. It's hard for me to remember with all of his completely insane drug-fueled tweets, but I do believe he has already called the Democratic Party the party of mobsters.

He's the king of projection and the Republican Party is the Trump party at this point.

I think back to the Republican primaries and how many of them didn't want him there, but boy they sure have goose-stepped right into line once he gave them their long-fevered dreams of fucking over poor people and giving themselves tax breaks. Well, he didn't give it to them, they took it themselves, but he acquiesced and put his name on it, giving them an out when the shit finally hits the fan. They will, like the Bush voters before them disavow him when the time comes that he becomes a negative for them.

 

[Brenda Archer]

It's a cult. Reality doesn't matter anymore, only loyalty.

 

[Clara D.]

I hate this brand loyalty shit in politics.

I was raised to be cynical and wary *no matter* who was in charge.

Now it's all "MY SIDE DOES NO WRONG ZOMG LOOK YOUR SIDE BAD NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO." Especially from Repugnicans.

 

[Ashiri]

I hate this brand loyalty shit in politics.

I was raised to be cynical and wary *no matter* who was in charge.

Now it's all "MY SIDE DOES NO WRONG ZOMG LOOK YOUR SIDE BAD NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO." Especially from Repugnicans.

I think that's the core of populism.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Populism. It's practitioners promise the world to the people, but when they get in, they follow every arbitrary rule set up by whatever party that sponsored them, or get nothing done because they aren't working to change the system, or worse they feed every bad trait of populism in that it seeks a villain or villains to blame all of their woes upon.

Trump is like the worst possible combination of all of the above. He has followed every arbitrary Republican rule. if he wasn't before, he became the perfect Republican in pushing through their agenda, he has, despite having complete power over the system, not been overly productive (most of the heavy lifting has been done by congress first when he had the benefit of majority and now when they have the Senate), largely due to courts shutting him down, but that may change long-term because of his (or rather Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society) promotions within the judicial branch, and finally he has so many villains. He is at constant war with someone, or many someones by demonizing them on Twitter. He goes after entire groups of people.

I can't believe I am even saying that we have a President that goes to war with people on Twitter, but that is what we have. He has led us into new and uncharted territory, at least as far as our political system is capable of, and what he is bringing to the table is terrifying. He is scary in that he's the penultimate racist and narcissist and that informs all he does. He is aided and abetted by those who seek his favor, alongside their own wet dreams.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I hate this brand loyalty shit in politics.

I was raised to be cynical and wary *no matter* who was in charge.

Now it's all "MY SIDE DOES NO WRONG ZOMG LOOK YOUR SIDE BAD NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO." Especially from Repugnicans.

Same - its like sports. Team loyalty, no matter what.

Granted, I was raised to be a democrat BUT also to question and look closely at things [and my mom wonders why I don't go to church anymore]. I'm ONLY registered as a dem to vote in primaries, because closed primary state.

 

[Clara D.]

Same - its like sports. Team loyalty, no matter what.

Granted, I was raised to be a democrat BUT also to question and look closely at things [and my mom wonders why I don't go to church anymore]. I'm ONLY registered as a dem to vote in primaries, because closed primary state.

Worst is the dickheads: "QUESTIONING TEH PREZIDENT IS UNAMERICAN." It makes me facepalm so hard. One of the most important elements of a free democracy is being able to bitch about the government without being dragged into the street and shot.

 

[Rose Karuna]

See: Coffee Salute

Yeah But Trump's salute wasn't a coffee salute, it was a covfefe salute.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Worst is the dickheads: "QUESTIONING TEH PREZIDENT IS UNAMERICAN." It makes me facepalm so hard. One of the most important elements of a free democracy is being able to bitch about the government without being dragged into the street and shot.

That was particularly dominant in the lead up to and early days of the war in Iraq. I protested and you wouldn't believe the things that were shouted at us by people in their vehicles. They even threw things at us.

 

[Kara Spengler]

I'm afraid not. The damage is done. Worse, even if Trump is successfully impeached tomorrow and Pence goes with him, the problem will continue to worsen for years, depending on how long Trump's appointees live. I don't know of any easy way to fix this.

Actually, I think you can impeach a judge?

 

[Kara Spengler]

The signing of the bible makes me really irate. I'm surprised they didn't burst into flame. He has gall even looking at a bible. To him, he likely thinks that he is making the owners of the bibles money having his signature. Gah.

It reminds me of a couple of pagans I know who had a rather impressive library. In their selection of other mythologies they both had a copy of the christian bible. The joke that related to their personalities was the husband had notes all through his copy. Meanwhile his wife would not even allow the purported author to sign it.

How donnie thinks he can get off writing in them at all (especially his signature) and how the religious reicht lets him get away with it ...

 

[Kara Spengler]

In addition to the way he treated both Melania Trump and Monika Babišová, the Czech Prime Minister's wife, I was rather puzzled about the protocol about the Commander-in-Chief returning salutes.

He ignored the marines saluting him when he and Melania came of the door and then appeared, when returning inside the building, to give a really slap-dash salute in the form a wave that a pedestrian might use to acknowledge a motorist who slows down when she sees him waiting to cross the road.

Can any of the military veterans in this forum shed any light on how the C-i-C is supposed to conduct himself when he's saluted? I'm sure that, whatever the protocol is, it can't be what Individual 1 is doing.

Considering he critized Obama for doing anything less than stopping and rendering full honours ...

 

[Kara Spengler]

I'm surprised Trump's Sharpie pen didn't catch fire.

He can use frixion pens. [erasable ink]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Trump is like the worst possible combination of all of the above. He has followed every arbitrary Republican rule. if he wasn't before, he became the perfect Republican in pushing through their agenda...

This is most of my answer to people who continue to insist that a President Pence would be "worse" than Trump. The argument goes that because Pence isn't an idiot, he would be more motivated and organized in pushing a theocratic-authoritarian agenda. But unfortunately, that's just not practically true. Despite his lack of intelligence and class, Trump has been very dutiful and effective at assisting the GOP Congress in this area, and there's seriously nothing - literally (literally), absolutely nothing - that a President Pence could have/would have passed that Trump would not, or hasn't already. A Pence Administration would be the Trump Administration minus the Twitter rampages and outré embarrassments that Trump specializes in.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

This is most of my answer to people who continue to insist that a President Pence would be "worse" than Trump. The argument goes that because Pence isn't an idiot, he would be more motivated and organized in pushing a theocratic-authoritarian agenda. But unfortunately, that's just not practically true. Despite his lack of intelligence and class, Trump has been very dutiful and effective at assisting the GOP Congress in this area, and there's seriously nothing - literally (literally), absolutely nothing - that a President Pence could have/would have passed that Trump would not, or hasn't already. A Pence Administration would be the Trump Administration minus the Twitter rampages and outré embarrassments that Trump specializes in.

Pence also blinks. Indiana governor vows to 'fix' law assailed for curbing gay rights | Reuters

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Actually, I think you can impeach a judge?

I've heard it was possible. I'm just not sure how doable it is, especially in our current political climate.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Populism. It's practitioners promise the world to the people, but when they get in, they follow every arbitrary rule set up by whatever party that sponsored them, or get nothing done because they aren't working to change the system, or worse they feed every bad trait of populism in that it seeks a villain or villains to blame all of their woes upon.

That's the whole problem with populism, whether of the right or the left. It denies the legitimacy of the liberal political process, the separation of powers, the impartial judiciary and the rule of law as being hopelessly corrupted by the elite (or the few, as some would have it) and seeks to replace it by someone (or some group) who purports to represent the unmediated desires of the people (or the many, or the workers...).

It doesn't just seek a villain; a villain (the elite, the 1%, the few, the "citizens of nowhere," "vested interests," "scroungers" and so on) are an integral part of the populist world-view, since they're ones to blame for what I would say are the inherent contradictions and problems of a global capitalist society, of which you might disapprove just as much as you disapprove of the globally-warmed climate, but from which you can no more opt out than you opt out of the climate.

It's not difficult to see how populism can very easily merge into fascism, or something very like it.