June 28 & 30 – In Washington D.C. and across Europe, take part in demos with @womensmarch @FamiliesBelong & @DemsAbroad to protest the ongoing human rights violationscreated by @realdonaldtrump racist policies and staff. RSVP: https://t.co/16LjUXKxWR
— Dems Abroad Austria (@DemsAustria) June 27, 2018
“Donald Trump’s presidency threatens much of what is good about this country.”
Considering the content of this book, the investigation into Trump and his obstruction of justice, and the rumored pardoning of Scooter Libby who was himself convicted for obstruction, perjury and lying to investigators, any supporter or member of the GOP has got to ask themselves just exactly what level of criminality they are comfortable with. You don’t get a pass for merely liking GOP policies, because civic duty now requires collective action to support our system of government and the rule of law. The RNC has made its decision already. They are going to the mats against the Department of Justice.
The Justice Department will win this and you will forever be tainted as siding with autocracy, just as an FYI. You will be outed as not such a fan of democratic processes or even really a fan of civil discourse and civic pride in institutions.
Great quote from How Democracies Die. By Levitsky & Ziblatt
— “Collective abdication – the transfer of power to a leader who threatens Democracy — usually flows from one of two sources. The first is the misguided belief that an authoritarian can be controlled or tamed. The second is what sociologist Ivan Ermakoff calls “ideological collusion,” in which the authoritarian’s agenda overlaps sufficiently with that of mainstream politicians that abdication is desirable or at least preferable to the alternatives.”
Right now there are over 800 demonstrations happening across America and Fox News is running some bullshit “Extra” piece about how Social Security “entitlements” are going to overtake Defense spending.
Then when they do cover the protests they refer to them as “anti-gun rallies”. These are marches against gun violence and for gun legislation reform!
News outlets report, and you decide which are news outlets. It’s never been more obvious what a monstrous scam on America’s elderly population is being run right now.
Trump hires the worst person, yet again.
When it comes to this regime, it can and almost certainly will get much, much worse. Bolton has no business speaking or working in public service and shouldn’t be allowed to spell “nuclear” much less negotiate with foreign states about it. His rudimentary thinking is anachronistic. He belongs to a time when serfs and peasants did not read, check email or vote. Just look at some of his brainier statements:
“The only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons is regime change in Tehran.”
This quote was over a decade ago. He clearly doesn’t think Iran can be a rational actor or that negotiating with a country can be successful. This view ignores past successes such as in Libya. Yes, Libya is what success looks like! It’s not pretty, but it also isn’t a nuclear power now.
And contrary to this view he thinks Russia is a hopeful scenario (surprise!).
“I wouldn’t give up on Russia, and with oil at $90 a barrel, they can refurbish their strategic capabilities and under an authoritarian regime, those nuclear weapons are still there and in the wrong hands we might have a problem again.”
We need to consider whether the 2018 elections are going to allow the American electorate to impeach the President and Vice-President fast enough to prevent an unnecessary war. I mean even Joe Biden’s former national security advisor is pretty certain Bolton forebodes trumped up grounds for conflict.
And now we see an actual conservative like George Will recognizes the ensuing danger Trump has welcomed into his administration.
Trump appears poised to replace Rosenstein and have Mueller fired. So what comes next? How should the resistance respond? Is a national strike the only way forward once the President attempts to stop the investigation?
Yesterday, without even informing the press corps, or the American public, the American President called Vladimir Putin and failed to condemn Putin’s nerve gas assassination attempt in Britain or the Russian hacking of American infrastructure facilities, among a litany of recent aggressions. Instead he congratulated Putin’s sham election victory!
To be fair, the American President appears to have successfully protected his financial exposure to Russian mobsters, uh, I mean creditors.
Speaking of sham election victories: The Guardian is reporting that the board of Cambridge Analytica has failed to oust the CEO even after he was caught on tape admitting to electioneering opting instead to suspend him. Bravo, fortune favors the bold, chums.
We cannot expect other strongmen to do much of anything beyond simple flattery of this American regime’s floundering head of state, before going about their anti-democratic business of self-enrichment. What have they got to lose? America may not be a perfect country, but we have clear interest in preserving democratic processes and encouraging democratic institutions globally. As long as the GOP fails to correct their catastrophic error in party judgement in choosing to support this criminal, they do harm to themselves as Americans, and the well-being of their own families far into the future. They serve themselves alone, for the brief flash of time they maintain in office.
Yes, we are tired of the “winning”… of other despots.
We need a mesh network social media platform where associations of tribes and verifiable media outlets can work together as communities and social organizations with online presences.
The first rule of Roko’s Basilisk is you do not google “Roko’s Basilisk”.
Also, maybe read this BLIT short story if you haven’t got time to read Infinite Jest.
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