The future of the US

[kallend 2,112]

I wish more senior Dems would show the same amount of fighting spirit as Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders  and JB Pritzker.

 

So many of them seem to be playing dead.

[JoeWeber 2,840]

2 hours ago, kallend said:

I wish more senior Dems would show the same amount of fighting spirit as Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders  and JB Pritzker.

 

So many of them seem to be playing dead.

They’re as dead as our former democracy. Like them, the rest of us need to start accepting reality and reexamine how and if we’re well positioned to thrive in a nascent autocracy. Trumps reelection cannot be brushed off as a fluke; it’s a fantasy to think the tide is turning; there won’t be a Democratic senate majority in 2026; a majority of Americans who are motivated to vote have a world view antithetical to mine. The sad and simple fact is that we are pitifully confused by the phantom twitch of a missing democracy that, against all desire, is now gone.

[jakee 1,564]

1 hour ago, JoeWeber said:

The sad and simple fact is that we are pitifully confused by the phantom twitch of a missing democracy that, against all desire, is now gone.

The thing that really stands out from Trump 1 to Trump 2 is that they don't even bother to cosplay legitimacy anymore. 

 

Trump 1 was riddled with conflicts of interest and naked profiteering that would have sunk any other President ever, but they still felt the need to present the big table stacked with paper and say "look at all this paper that we promise shows how Trump is no longer in charge of his companies."

In Trump 2, Trump's private business selling Trump Coin for personal profit is openly advertising that the biggest buyers of Trump coin get exclusive access to the President, in the White House, in his official capacity as head of the federal government. 

How do you recover from being that deep into Banana Republic territory?

[JerryBaumchen 1,446]

4 hours ago, kallend said:

I wish more senior Dems would show the same amount of fighting spirit as Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders  and JB Pritzker.

 

So many of them seem to be playing dead.

Hi John,

IMO not 'playing dead' as in they are the walking dead.

A perfect case is Sen. Ron Wyden, [D] Oregon.  He was a young, very energetic US Congressman; but, he would never gamble on a US Senate run.  Until it became a sure opportunity.  I have always supported him & worked on his first run for the US Senate.

However, today all he is, is the same old tired stump speech.  

IMO he knows that the young sharks are after him.  He is now running scared; as he should be.

It is time for him to go; along with Schumer, Murray, etc.

Jerry Baumchen

[nigel99 574]

5 hours ago, jakee said:

The thing that really stands out from Trump 1 to Trump 2 is that they don't even bother to cosplay legitimacy anymore. 

 

Trump 1 was riddled with conflicts of interest and naked profiteering that would have sunk any other President ever, but they still felt the need to present the big table stacked with paper and say "look at all this paper that we promise shows how Trump is no longer in charge of his companies."

In Trump 2, Trump's private business selling Trump Coin for personal profit is openly advertising that the biggest buyers of Trump coin get exclusive access to the President, in the White House, in his official capacity as head of the federal government. 

How do you recover from being that deep into Banana Republic territory?

Having grown up under Mugabe. Even he was more circumspect with his corruption. 

My step dad was very religious and used to say that the acceptance of sin and debauchery was the beginning of an empires collapse. 

Looking at the US, I like he was right to some degree. When you’ve got a president posting AI pictures of himself as the pope, a king and a warrior etc, you’ve hit a comedic level of insanity.