That’s right. And its further purpose is to get people to throw up their hands and say ‘I’m tired of all this and I’m not going to give any more of my attention to politics or politicians, and I’m not going to vote, I’m above all this sick shit, leave me alone with my games and TV and beer and Instagram and I’ll be just fine.’
When large numbers of citizens simply check out, that makes things much easier for authoritarian leaders.
I’m above all this sick shit, leave me alone with my games and TV and beer and Instagram and I’ll vote Democratic.
Okay, great! (but I won’t believe you until you show me the sticker).
On a more general note, I see now that I left “porn” off that list.
To septimus’s point, never forget a guy intending to save those poor imaginary kids fired a real gun in that real pizza parlor.
So, does anyone smell smoke yet? Is Soleimani going to be Franz Ferdinand and touch off WWIII?
As I type this, CNN is reporting that Iran is firing missiles at US forces in Iraq. There seem to be Iraqi casualties. Trump will need to respond lest his supporters see him as weak.
I have heard some comments (prior to today) that if a spectacular event happens in the US, Trump will be blamed for it. I suppose that’s a good thing.
I would say No.
The CNN report of casualties was fake news. Maybe the story was planted by the Russians. 
AFAICT the US Capitol is not burning, martial law has not been declared, the elections are proceeding on schedule, and I have seen no indication that we are about to annex the Sudetenland.
There doesn’t seem to have been any spectacular event in the US, at least to date. I am assuming Trump is equally to blame for that.
Regards,
Shodan
still not a literal Reichstag fire. to have a literal Reichstag fire, you’d have to rebuild the old Reichstag and burnt it again.
sometimes to get you to believe the fake news, sometimes to doubt everything, sometimes to fight believers in other fake news, often to confuse news and opinion and nearly always to serve more than one function at the same time.
By the time those things were to happen, it would be too late to resist. One must be able to see the ends and resist the beginnings.
Repiblicans are throwing hundreds of thousands of Dem voters off the rolls in Wisconsin and other states.
That’s how you get to martial law, but martial law is not the first step.
The first step towards martial law is whena judge issues a writ of mandamus telling the state agency that it has to follow the laws as written? NAFAICT.
Regards,
Shodan
Because following the law is such a concern for this administration.
I foresaw an equivalent shock, a real or false-flag attack on the US, or a fierce US attack on Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, or San Francisco, a desperate diversion if this POTUS feared his financials would be released, revealing his treasons. He’s taken the first step.
Immediate WWIII? Not yet, I hope, but it’s wag-the-dog time for sure. This POTUS is very frightened - and so should we be. Do not expect him to calmly take his upcoming unarguable exposure as a foreign asset. Do expect him to spew whatever shit he thinks necessary to avoid dying in prison.
WWIII isn’t what should keep you sleepless. Rather, fear a state of emergency, martial law, and roundups of dissidents. Or fear a coup if he really attempts that.
Any American who actually believes this, has only two rational choices. I mean ONLY TWO rational choices. 1. Start stockpiling weapons, ammunition, and emergency supplies, or 2. Immediately make arrangements to emigrate to another country. Those are your ONLY choices, IF you actually believe what you just said.
If you’re not doing it, you don’t actually believe it.
While I agree with you that fearing a roundup of dissidents is a little premature, I would like to ask you:
If someone had described where we are in January of 2020 to you back in January of 2015, would you have believed it was possible to get from there to here in only five years?
I honestly don’t think Trump is capable of overthrowing the system and running an authoritarian autocracy, but then, I severely underestimated the degree to which people would support and enable him, too.
There is a third alternative, that we’re not totally rational. Oh, we can be right about the nature and severity of the threat but just refuse, at some level, to actually believe it. Me, I’m 67, I ain’t going anywhere. I’m a pretty non-violent type of guy and I’d probably just shoot myself in the foot but if the fit actually does hit the shan, I’ve got some skills that might be useful.
Did you see the word “believe” anywhere above? I said I FEAR this. Based on the history of this POTUS, and his virulently stubborn protection of his financials. I don’t see my FEAR as unreasonable.
But tell us, if he has nothing to hide, what is he hiding, and why? And why dog-wag now?
If that fear is really keeping you from sleeping at night, then I’d say you’re just splitting hairs over semantics. Anyone who is actually afraid of this scenario should be immediately making plans to escape it, or resist it, if it happens. Fear is an emotion. It’s different from speculation and conjecture.
I’m not a defender of Trump, I hate him. But I also don’t think he’s anywhere close to bringing about the fascist dystopia that a lot of people claim we are on the road to. He’s a shitty president, and he’ll eventually be gone and someone else will replace him. I think that Trump’s outlandish hyperbole has ironically rubbed off on a lot of his detractors.
People generally don’t fear consequences unless they are immediate and inevitable. Are we now on the brink of a dictatorship? No, but there’s no question that we’re already losing control of our democracy. Our public confidence in our institutions is perpetually at all-time lows. And half of us aren’t even sure if our upcoming elections are going to be safe from foreign intrusion.
Wanna know how a political crisis? Take a democracy that’s lacking faith in its own ability to elect leadership that promotes the general welfare and then throw in an economic crisis. See what happens, and then see how the elite (which is getting smaller but more powerful) reacts to that crisis.
I think the problem is that most people’s idea of a problematic country is somewhat cartoonish—an authoritarian dictator-for-life. But it doesn’t have to be an Orwellian fascist dystopia to be a crisis.
Personally, I think we’re looking at a slow decline in influence and a slow increase in corruption over the short term. It’s the long term that’s the problem. Trump has shown us some glaring flaws. We keep saying, “yes, but since he’s not Hitler, once we have the 2020 elections, the problems will be fixed.” But they won’t. Gutting the Civil Service and other important agencies is causing problems, and no leader is going to be able to fix them as quickly as they have been broken. So we’re looking at a long period of reconstruction, and I don’t see anybody willing to admit that’s what’s necessary, much less lead it. Look at the last three years: nobody has the courage to call Trump out. Do you really think we have a anyone on the horizon capable of leading a lasting change?
Trump isn’t so much a supervillain as an incompetent, psychologically problematic boob. But handing that much power to such a person only happens in a system that isn’t working, and yes, it has put us on the road to a dystopia. I just think it will be such a gradual slide that we don’t notice, just as we don’t notice the changes since 2001.