Illuminati-R-Us

MM_Dandy wrote:Oh, and to add to the irony - he later posted a clip of Ben Carson calling the BLM a fundamentally communist movement.

The trendy word from the right seems to be 'marxist' now. Perhaps to avoid McCarthy comparisons or to try to convey literacy.
In any case, when somebody plays the 'marxism' card, discussion of 'Q' and related tripe usually follow.

I dunno - it's hard to imagine a scenario where Trump doesn't have lawsuits flying or him going quietly. It would be too big a blow to his ego to do any less.

I would hope not, but I also think that view is more realistic.

Figure out what the two say in their phone conversation? Good luck finding a translator for that!

The NRA has one rationale about their right to bear arms so as to be ready to rise up against a tyrannical government. It seems they forgot that they were preparing for when the government does EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN OREGON.


meanwhile, my Trump leaving office fear is not about our ability to remove one man physically from the building. it is about scenarios. What if Ginsburg doesn't survive the next couple months? He stuffs another whacko on the SCOTUS with the senate rubber stamp. He already has removed most of the actual department heads with "acting" sycophants. He has had Bill Barr remove anyone in the DOJ who investigates anything not favorable to Trump. He keeps his rabble riled up, and so as a last gesture spurs the red hats to rise up. and we have a civil war.

Gotta love the US. Killing a few hundred thousand ragged arse foreigners is just common sense, because even if they haven't done anything wrong, they might in the future, so it's better to be safe. But having to wear a mask is an unspeakable human rights violation.

And now Trump has installed one of his major donors as the postmaster general, they are slowing down the postal service. They want to close stations and lay off staff. Of course the USPS is constitutionally mandated, so they have to do it this way, reduce hours reduce shifts, etc. All in an effort to so tie up the mail that "Oh my goodness, this mail would NEVER work for mail-in ballot voting."

And from the "they don't even try to hide it" department, Trump just suggested they postpone the election. Even his republican buddies in congress wouldn't go for that.

While they have put aside any moral compass, what they seem to have retained is the knowledge that in a tyranny, you always very well might be next.

I'm not sure the Republicans in congress even want Trump to win.

I mean, sure, there are certain advantages - Supreme Court picks, for example.

But they seem to follow him more out of fear (of his followers) than because they like him that much.

The thought of no more Trump may not be unappealing. Since they're getting Biden, who ought to be a lot more palatable to them than someone like Sanders.

So while the US talks about it, Hong Kong does it.

Legco elections delayed a year.

Or shall we say, Bejing does it for Hong Kong?

I don't know that Beijing needs to.

Carrie Lam is very Beijing-oriented already. It was her attempt to introduce the extradition law that sparked the protests (clearly there must already have been some fuel lying around for the spark to ignite such flames though), and they're currently experiencing a third wave of Covid-19.

In November, opposition groups took control of 17 of the 18 local district councils, a stunning defeat for the government. In February, her approval rating was a stellar 9%. If the legco elections go ahead, she loses. Her chances of winning aren't anywhere near as high as Trump's.

Beijing would no doubt prefer Carrie Lam, or maybe a more popular member of the pro-Beijing cadre, to the opposition, so they probably don't mind the delay. But I don't know that they were behind it.

Trump suggests delaying our election. The next day he criticizes China for doing the same.

Our senior senator is the Majority Whip, and as fast as he could, he emphatically denounced President Trump's request to postpone the November election.

Just kidding. He said “I think we’ve had elections every November since about 1788, and I expect that will be the case again this year.”

Trump even says it in words - he plans to make it impossible to vote by mail. His cronies now run the postal service. They are reducing hours, they are not just turning off and idling mail sorting equipment, they are dismantling it and removing it. Trucks are moving through neighborhoods removing postal mail boxes. Postal workers are being ordered to slow down mail. POlitical mail is no longer to be considered first class post, it is now bulk mail.

I saw this being said about a Tory MP (Douglas Ross), and while it’s true of him, I thought of somebody else it also applies to:

He's so fucking thick, if he couldn't whistle he wouldn't know which end to wipe.

Trump’s electioneering tactic seems mainly to be this.

You aren't implying, ARE YOU, that The Greatest Country in da World T.M. is, like, a shithole country?

Attorney General Bill Barr said a COVID "lockdown" would be the greatest intrusion on civil liberties since slavery.

Yeah, I guess having to avoid crowds and wear masks is right up there with slavery.

Things not making that list apparently would be, say, the WW2 internment camps, where we rounded up Japanese Americans and sent them to Manzanar or similar. Perhaps tearing children away from their parents at the border, then deporting the parents, or do brown people not deserve civil liberties? I remember seeing Joe McCarthy on TV when I was a kid, routing out communists.

But that stuff pales before COVID response.

Sadly, Bill Barr, and the other Trump acolytes, genuinely believe that all three of those examples were acts that protected liberty rather than the opposite. You are talking about people who believe that the election of Muslims to Congress was an insult to the victims of 9/11 - they really do believe that! And because they insist that those who show up uninvited at the border are criminals, they think, no, their kids don't have rights.

The one ray of hope is the Lincoln Project. I don't know how many adherents it actually has, or whether it's simply a social media echo chamber (all too easy to make that mistake), but it does have some chance of persuading some decent Republicans to vote for Biden rather than stay home or worse. ("Damn! When I sent the Feds in to seize ballots, I never thought of Republican areas!") And I see that both sides are rolling out selected speeches of Ronald Reagan - strange times! Let's see what pans out - and hope it's something better.

The Lincoln Project is terrific. They are a group of republicans who see Trump as the greatest threat to our democracy since 1812. People like Steve Schmidt. They number campaign strategists from campaigns like GW Bush or John McCain. They are clever, and when opportunities arise, they have video on the air within the day. SOme consider themselves still republicans, others left the party.

Refreshingly, they are not alone, there are numerous similar groups out there producing anti-Trump material. Even conservatives like George Will have endorsed Biden.

And as none of them are affiliated with candidates, they do not have to pull any punches, they hot at Trump hard.


And I have to disagree on one point, none of them really believe those other offenses were "protecting" liberty, or anything else. They see such arguments as nothing more than rationales for their actions. There is no moral basis from which they operate. It benefits DOnald Trump or it does not, that is as far as it goes with them.


And... Trump is now demanding universities stop teaching racial inequality programs. He wants instead new programs that teach "patriotic" history.

The CDC, bless them, tries to put out reasonable guidelines for dealing with COVID, but the latest is the White House has removed their content and replaced it with WH content.

Trump now has Dr. Scott Atlas as his main COVID advisor guy. With no background in epidemiology (he is a radiologist) he is all about herd immunity. He came from Fox News, and has the president's ear. Trump is backing away from any control measures. I may be wrong, but as I understand it, we need about 65% of us to be infected to get to some sort of herd immunity level. (And that is assuming immunity will even occur, as we already have people who have caught the disease more than once) If my math works:

330 million of us, 65% is 214 million. I believe we are currently suffering a little under 3% mortality? That means 6,000,000 or more people must die for this. The administration finds it acceptable to kill 6 million people in the name of its philosophy.

I do not at all condone this approach, but someone sent a package containing ricin to the president. APparently not everyone is aware that things mailed to the WHite House do not wind up on his desk. Items sent in are investigated elsewhere. Letters he is handed are copies of originals. Meanwhile, sign of the times. I am not surprised this happened, but I AM surprised the White House acknowledges that it occurred.

I’m sure it was acknowledged so the can use this incident for propaganda purposes.

That is entirely possible. But - and I cannot even describe how much it galls me to be coming to the defence of the Trump administration, but . . .

there is another, perfectly non-partisan possibility. Assuming this is genuine, and they don't know who did it, there could be other packages out there. So it may not hurt to make the public aware of this.

I have to go take a shower now . . .

Enzo wrote:I do not at all condone this approach, but someone sent a package containing ricin to the president. APparently not everyone is aware that things mailed to the WHite House do not wind up on his desk. Items sent in are investigated elsewhere. Letters he is handed are copies of originals. Meanwhile, sign of the times. I am not surprised this happened, but I AM surprised the White House acknowledges that it occurred.

Мастер wrote:That is entirely possible. But - and I cannot even describe how much it galls me to be coming to the defence of the Trump administration, but . . .

there is another, perfectly non-partisan possibility. Assuming this is genuine, and they don't know who did it, there could be other packages out there. So it may not hurt to make the public aware of this.

I have to go take a shower now . . .

True, but I would expect that to come from the Secret Service, as it is their job.