Yeah, “it’s not permanent” has never really been much of a comfort to me. Germany is a pretty nice place now, but that doesn’t mean the majority of the 20th century was pretty rough.
Also, it’s pretty permanent for those people that will die from lack of healthcare. Or the dreamers that are deported. Or the refugees that are beheaded after being refused admittance.
You’re right. See you at the euthanasia center. Or not.
You can claim that. But yet, you keep choosing to bring up the topic …
I feel your pain.
Please, do not feed the TrumpSucking troll.
Easy to say. But for some people it’s hard to keep them away from their favorite topics.
For example, begbert2 has an apparent obsession with “small and disfigured” dicks. He sees an opportunity to somehow work that into a discussion, he can’t resist the urge.
And so on for others, with their own issues.
As I see it, we’re not fucked because of Trump. He was be gone, sooner or later. We’re fucked because there are enough deplorable people in this country to elect him and enough who support him that the assholes in Congress don’t give a shit.
I think we can “take our country back” for a little while, but I don’t see a long term solution to the problem of having a the huge number of Americans who let Trump happen.
I think (OK, maybe right now “hope” is more appropriate) that the group of deplorables will shrink by attrition. White people are slowly becoming a smaller proportion of our society. Young Evangelicals are starting to realize that the core beliefs of Christianity (or what should be the core beliefs) are in conflict with what trumpism stands for. Whatever slight gains the middle class may have seen from the tax cuts are being eroded by higher gasoline costs, leaving people no better off (and for many, worse off) than before.
Serious question: What happens economically to the prototypical trumpist if the stock market experiences a prolonged bear market? This has been prophesized for some time now, and eventually will happen. The rich will be hurt, but of course not as much as if they hadn’t gotten those juicy tax cuts. But what about the folks who are living paycheck to paycheck? Does the trickle down of stock market woes hurt them?
Because, although I’d like to think differently, our best chance to return sanity to our government seems to be to have the economy go sour.
Michael Cohen, master diplomat:
From the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44215656
Hopefully what they have in mind for Cohen up to 250 years in prison knocked down to 10 years of probation in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors against the really big fish.
Just a random worried thought, not sure if it belongs here or in the Pissed Off thread or the Clusterfuck thread…
I often hear that we should take solace in the Constitution; that checks and balances will keep things from getting too out of hand. But I don’t think the Founders considered what would happen if the leadership of the Legislative branch is just as corrupt as the leadership of the Executive branch. Checks and balances falls apart when one is willfully ignoring the other.
I think this is completely right. The problem grew right under our noses, and we didn’t understand the dire implications. Now we surely do. I hope we get the chance to fix it and choose to believe there is a real possibility of that.
I agree with Anny Middon that part of the problem will be solved by attrition.
But there remain two major impediments that will be difficult to solve, and they are two sides of the same coin. First, the obscene amount of oligarch/corporate money in our politics, and second, the propaganda machines bought and paid for by those same oligarchs to spout their false and/or misleading messages. We have divisions in our citizenry, but the anger over them has been inflamed by the grotesque rhetoric. The constant drumbeat of “alternative facts” muddies the common truth – just as it is intended to. This is of course the reason why the Trumpists are working so hard to control local news with Sinclair, to eliminate net neutrality, to coordinate their Capitol Hill propaganda with Fox “News.” Fixing these things will be extremely challenging.
I fully expect the many constitutional norms that have throughout our history been respected by custom and practice to be codified within an inch of their lives, post-Trump. Very sad in some ways, but I think we now see the necessity of doing so. We shouldn’t have to guess whether or not a president is subject to punishment for violating the Emoluments Clause, or whether he can be indicted/prosecuted for committing overt criminal acts while in office. There is peril on both sides of this discussion, so the fixes won’t be easy – but we can never, ever find ourselves in such a situation again.
Personally I think that human nature hasn’t changed and is not going to change, and if one Trump can get elected then any number of other Trumps can get elected. Might not be the exact same flavor of Trump and might be a different political orientation or specific set of issues, but the bottom line is that the people tend to be less than perfectly cognizant of the issues and are sometimes motivated by darker forces. Applies to the general category of “people” and as long as you have democracy this will be an issue.
It’s possible that rising socialism is making it worse, though, because with increasing government intrusion into people’s lives the stakes are that much higher and passions are more inflamed on both sides. But this could be wrong.
The biggest check in the system is the ballot box. The genius of the founders was allowing a peaceful revolution every two years, when all of the House and a third of the Senate would be up to the voters to decide. If the House flips in November, all things are different; the House Intelligence Committee, under new management, renews its investigation. Publicly televised hearings get people talking. Maybe Mueller gets to testify about what he’s learned.
Of course, the founders presumed that by “voters” we were limiting ourselves to a select class of people (instead of the citizenry at large). But I have hope in the “silent majority” that are fed up with this shit.
I think you mean that the establishment Dems might force another crappy Wall Street candidate like Hillary down our throats. Again.
Cite that Trump’s support is growing, despite all polling evidence showing the opposite?
And there’s the Thelma Lou eye-roll we all know and love. How about a :mad: to complete the set? Anytime someone says something that pisses on your nihilistic fantasies, we can’t go without that famous eye-roll!
Can anyone point to all of the Asahi the Nostradamic Prophet of Doom’s spot-on predictions? Or maybe one or two, if the number is too large? He says he’s the smartest guy at the SDMB and that he’s an “astute observer of politics and history,” whatever the fuck that is worth, but why are his chicken-little predictions anything more than THIS-COULD-TOTALLY-HAPPEN fear mongering that simply feeds into some people’s fantasies of rebellion and standing at the precipice of history?
We all get it that this is a crazy time for our nation, but fucked? Just because a guy on the Internet claims he’s smart and then lays out what *could *happen? The only thing I see is that his Words of DOOOOOOOM! fits into a fucked up narrative that appeals to you in the same way Fox News’ and Glenn Beck’s fear-mongering appealed to Tea Baggers nine years ago.
Maybe he’s right, but maybe he’s wrong. But I still don’t think we’re “fucked.” Cuz if that’s what you really truly believe, deep down in your heart, just start shooting now and get the rebellion going, you rebel you. Or move to Denmark or Canada. Cuz if we’re as fucked as asahi and you like to tell us, what else can we do at this point? Work on a Congressional campaign? Why? We’re fucked! Donate to a Senate or gubernatorial campaign? Why? We’re fucked! March? Why? We’re fucked! And it’s only a matter of time before THE TOTALLY WORST AND UNTHINKABLE THING HAPPENS.
Or, as I say, it’s not. And I don’t need to “state my case,” cuz at this point we’re all just farting into the wind and pretending it means something.
Signed,
A bleeding-heart liberal Democrat progressive like you
They will blame the Democrats.
What an incredibly stupid statement. I challenge you to top that. I expect you will, possibly in your next post.
I guess you haven’t noticed that thump’s administration is full of Wall Streeters? I didn’t think so.
Ignorance is growing exponentially. I present herewith the evidence.
I think these threads reinforce feelings of despair for many participants and readers.
Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step towards giving up.
I’m as despaired as the next guy, but I’m also very motivated to vote. If nothing else, I want Trump to be humiliated
YOUR ignorance certainly appears to be growing exponentially, but I see no signs that that is true of the general population.
