I agree almost entirely with your description - how long will it take before the uninformed and misinformed mushrooms that elected Trump realize that what he’s proposing to do has no benefit to them - and so I do agree that this should be the end of the MAGA movement - how long will it take for the dysfunction and in fighting of the Nazis running the government to have enough defections to essentially kneecap the by cruel intentions of the pumpkin head - but the real change that’s necessary is to somehow counter the propaganda machine that is Fox “news “ - and maybe the way to do that is to take them to court make them spend a lot of money, defending their slander and lies. Make them lose a few more decisions like the one that cost them 3/4 of $1 billion
so I agree I am optimistic that things will work out. Just not sure how long that will take
Recount, President Harris, arrests criminals. Democracy upgraded.
Recount,Trump wins, Biden uses powers and invalidates Trump win due to all events leading to vote.
Biden announces his team stays in power for 4 more years, arrests criminals, steps down. President Harris revives our Democracy and inspired them all over the world.
Hold elections in 4 years. President Harris for 8 years.
Let's hope you're right. Meanwhile, the US is moving in the direction of becoming a totalitarian state, with ideology and propaganda instead of free thought and free speech, personal loyalty to a leader instead of adherence to humanitarian values and a common cause, and a gang of bullies suppressing dissenters instead of 'we the people'.
You're my hero, today, David. From your computer to the ear of God, existence, the universe, or whoever the heck else might be out there, scratching their heads at what in the world their beloved creations have done to themselves this time. 😊
Hopium Chronicles - What's Next? How to Cut the Head Off the Snake Worldwide
🔸️FITNESS FOR DUTY EVALUATIONS that are mandatory, like the military for high responsibility positions, would have stopped Trump before he got within a mile of the White House. True for every dictator, authoritarian, and oligarch worldwide.
Bandy X Lee, Steven Hassan, and 100 other psychiatrists agree Trump has five dangerous mental pathologies as listed in the books "The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" and "The Psychology Of Trump Contagion - An Existential Threat to American Democracy and All Humankind".
In one fell swoop, Fitness for Duty Evaluations worldwide, stops every dictator, authoritarian, and oligarch.
"Containing Trump Contagion and Healing from Mental Pathology in Politics"
🔸️Fitness for Duty Evaluations start with everyone who interacts with the individual in question, and when red flags start to appear, 'say something.'
The US Military has procedures to follow that require individuals in question to have a Fitness for Duty Evaluation. Voters must demand the House and Senate do the same.
"Stephen Xenakis- Fitness for Duty Exams: Preventing Autocratic Abuse"
🔸️Outside the military are professionals like Dr. Bandy X. Lee who has several dozen colleagues all of whom are highly qualified to do Fitness for Duty Evaluations.
The U.S. House and Senate have several mechanisms to enforce their rules, including:
* Leadership
* Committees
* Floor Procedures
* Party Discipline
It's important to note that these mechanisms are not always used consistently or effectively. The more voters demand mentally fit leaders the more the House and Senate will comply.
Great piece David. Once the churn gives way to new Dem leadership and a reset with hard and fast goals I think it is possible we can reboot as the pro-democracy Party and lay out a solid future, without MAGA and Trump - any Trumps. The reboot will be difficult, but it is long overdue.
Hear! Hear! I needed that. Even today's Gaetz reversal suggests there are GOP Senators that do actually have their limits and are not willing to abandon all semblance of guardrails, whatever their reasons.
I’m with ya 100%! That won’t make me work less, it motivates me to work harder. I would rather live with gratitude to all those who tried and continue to try than live despondent because there’s no hope, even if I end up being wrong.
"Remember, the vast majority of federal disbursements to the states go to red states. They will therefore lose disproportionately should draconian cuts to programs be implemented as promised by Trump."
This will change. The vast majority of federal disbursements will continue to go to red states, and ONLY red states. Whatever federal help California and other blue states got with wildfires, floods, infrastructure, healthcare, etc. will be cut off completely.
OK, while part of me agrees with most of what you say, the other part has to rush in with a pin and try to pop as many balloons as possible.
Yes, the country has been through much and managed to emerge stronger in some ways, but there's been a strong undertow at work since before the founding. The title of Heather Cox Richardson's book HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR gets the point across (but people should read the book anyway!). Dixie long ago busted its chains and has taken over a broad swath of the Midwest and West. Thanks to "states' rights," voters are denied access to the ballot and women are denied access to our bodies. Most of those states don't have economies to brag about either.
We have survived the Reagan administration and its neoliberal aftermath, but we haven't made much headway in undoing the damage. You have to have been born before around 1965 to have adult memories of life before Reagan.
The Democratic Party may be, and probably is, our only hope, but what I've seen of the party apparatus doesn't inspire confidence. Consider: the Dems have supermajorities in both houses of my state's legislature (I'm in MA), but my state's legislature ranks near the bottom of the 50 states by most criteria (e.g., transparency, accountability, lack of a legislative research bureau). Democratic parties in swing states, like WI and NC, seem to be in better shape, thank heavens.
About the national Dems, I'm waiting for a sign. If they try to throw Kamala Harris under the bus, I'll know that they're the same old same-old Democratic Party and act accordingly. If they resurrect and breathe new life into Howard Dean's 50-state strategy, I might even donate to one or more of the party organizations. (For years I've donated only to candidates and to outside-the-party organizations like Fair Fight.)
Finally, how the hell are we going to revitalize democracy as long as we're stuck with Citizens United and the current Supreme Court? We haven't emerged stronger from the Reagan reaction, and our small steps toward doing so were just hamstrung by "we the people." I won't have a snappy comeback to that one until I hear a semi-plausible plan to deal with it. As the late Audre Lorde so famously wrote, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." What other tools have we got?
I want to believe it. But I think the dumbasses would have voted for him in 2020 if a pandemic hadn't hit and killed more than 1 million. That's what it takes to get their attention. I don't know if any of the rest of this will.
Another excellent post David !
I agree almost entirely with your description - how long will it take before the uninformed and misinformed mushrooms that elected Trump realize that what he’s proposing to do has no benefit to them - and so I do agree that this should be the end of the MAGA movement - how long will it take for the dysfunction and in fighting of the Nazis running the government to have enough defections to essentially kneecap the by cruel intentions of the pumpkin head - but the real change that’s necessary is to somehow counter the propaganda machine that is Fox “news “ - and maybe the way to do that is to take them to court make them spend a lot of money, defending their slander and lies. Make them lose a few more decisions like the one that cost them 3/4 of $1 billion
so I agree I am optimistic that things will work out. Just not sure how long that will take
Recount, President Harris, arrests criminals. Democracy upgraded.
Recount,Trump wins, Biden uses powers and invalidates Trump win due to all events leading to vote.
Biden announces his team stays in power for 4 more years, arrests criminals, steps down. President Harris revives our Democracy and inspired them all over the world.
Hold elections in 4 years. President Harris for 8 years.
Let's hope you're right. Meanwhile, the US is moving in the direction of becoming a totalitarian state, with ideology and propaganda instead of free thought and free speech, personal loyalty to a leader instead of adherence to humanitarian values and a common cause, and a gang of bullies suppressing dissenters instead of 'we the people'.
You're my hero, today, David. From your computer to the ear of God, existence, the universe, or whoever the heck else might be out there, scratching their heads at what in the world their beloved creations have done to themselves this time. 😊
Thank you for this thoughtful dose of reality with optimism!! We are together!
https://substack.com/@ricknoz/note/c-78457072?r=ukln1&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
1) Trump does in fact intend to run again, the implications of that be damned.
2) You are discounting the elephant in the room: the false flag operation on American soil that is coming.
I sent this to
Hopium Chronicles - What's Next? How to Cut the Head Off the Snake Worldwide
🔸️FITNESS FOR DUTY EVALUATIONS that are mandatory, like the military for high responsibility positions, would have stopped Trump before he got within a mile of the White House. True for every dictator, authoritarian, and oligarch worldwide.
Bandy X Lee, Steven Hassan, and 100 other psychiatrists agree Trump has five dangerous mental pathologies as listed in the books "The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" and "The Psychology Of Trump Contagion - An Existential Threat to American Democracy and All Humankind".
In one fell swoop, Fitness for Duty Evaluations worldwide, stops every dictator, authoritarian, and oligarch.
"Containing Trump Contagion and Healing from Mental Pathology in Politics"
https://youtu.be/HTkCqU5LM-k?si=f6g0PolglC21w1nR
🔸️Fitness for Duty Evaluations start with everyone who interacts with the individual in question, and when red flags start to appear, 'say something.'
The US Military has procedures to follow that require individuals in question to have a Fitness for Duty Evaluation. Voters must demand the House and Senate do the same.
"Stephen Xenakis- Fitness for Duty Exams: Preventing Autocratic Abuse"
https://youtu.be/vdtChF07ryU?si=VJ5dauWFoUQg10uH
🔸️Outside the military are professionals like Dr. Bandy X. Lee who has several dozen colleagues all of whom are highly qualified to do Fitness for Duty Evaluations.
The U.S. House and Senate have several mechanisms to enforce their rules, including:
* Leadership
* Committees
* Floor Procedures
* Party Discipline
It's important to note that these mechanisms are not always used consistently or effectively. The more voters demand mentally fit leaders the more the House and Senate will comply.
Great piece David. Once the churn gives way to new Dem leadership and a reset with hard and fast goals I think it is possible we can reboot as the pro-democracy Party and lay out a solid future, without MAGA and Trump - any Trumps. The reboot will be difficult, but it is long overdue.
Agree with you 100%!! Thank you for what you do, it makes a difference.
Hear! Hear! I needed that. Even today's Gaetz reversal suggests there are GOP Senators that do actually have their limits and are not willing to abandon all semblance of guardrails, whatever their reasons.
I’m with ya 100%! That won’t make me work less, it motivates me to work harder. I would rather live with gratitude to all those who tried and continue to try than live despondent because there’s no hope, even if I end up being wrong.
Thank you, David.
"Remember, the vast majority of federal disbursements to the states go to red states. They will therefore lose disproportionately should draconian cuts to programs be implemented as promised by Trump."
This will change. The vast majority of federal disbursements will continue to go to red states, and ONLY red states. Whatever federal help California and other blue states got with wildfires, floods, infrastructure, healthcare, etc. will be cut off completely.
OK, while part of me agrees with most of what you say, the other part has to rush in with a pin and try to pop as many balloons as possible.
Yes, the country has been through much and managed to emerge stronger in some ways, but there's been a strong undertow at work since before the founding. The title of Heather Cox Richardson's book HOW THE SOUTH WON THE CIVIL WAR gets the point across (but people should read the book anyway!). Dixie long ago busted its chains and has taken over a broad swath of the Midwest and West. Thanks to "states' rights," voters are denied access to the ballot and women are denied access to our bodies. Most of those states don't have economies to brag about either.
We have survived the Reagan administration and its neoliberal aftermath, but we haven't made much headway in undoing the damage. You have to have been born before around 1965 to have adult memories of life before Reagan.
The Democratic Party may be, and probably is, our only hope, but what I've seen of the party apparatus doesn't inspire confidence. Consider: the Dems have supermajorities in both houses of my state's legislature (I'm in MA), but my state's legislature ranks near the bottom of the 50 states by most criteria (e.g., transparency, accountability, lack of a legislative research bureau). Democratic parties in swing states, like WI and NC, seem to be in better shape, thank heavens.
About the national Dems, I'm waiting for a sign. If they try to throw Kamala Harris under the bus, I'll know that they're the same old same-old Democratic Party and act accordingly. If they resurrect and breathe new life into Howard Dean's 50-state strategy, I might even donate to one or more of the party organizations. (For years I've donated only to candidates and to outside-the-party organizations like Fair Fight.)
Finally, how the hell are we going to revitalize democracy as long as we're stuck with Citizens United and the current Supreme Court? We haven't emerged stronger from the Reagan reaction, and our small steps toward doing so were just hamstrung by "we the people." I won't have a snappy comeback to that one until I hear a semi-plausible plan to deal with it. As the late Audre Lorde so famously wrote, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." What other tools have we got?
I want to believe it. But I think the dumbasses would have voted for him in 2020 if a pandemic hadn't hit and killed more than 1 million. That's what it takes to get their attention. I don't know if any of the rest of this will.