Another Day in Infamy!

[dude]

 

[Talo Segura]

 

All empires think they’re special, but all empires eventually come to an end. The United States won’t be an exception.

The popular story version of this particular falling empire might focus on a twice-divorced serial philanderer and bullshit artist and make him the villain, rendering his downfall or ultimate triumph the climax of the narrative. But it’s far more likely that the real meat of the issue will be found in a tax code full of sweetheart deals for the ultra-wealthy, the slashed budgets of county public health offices, the lead-contaminated water supplies.

https://www.motherjones.com/media/2020/03/how-do-you-know-if-youre-living-through-the-death-of-an-empire/

 

[Merkin]

Well worth the read, Talo.  Thanks for drawing it to my attention.  I am by nature a 'glass half-empty' chap, but in the present day I see the glass as lying on its side.
 

[Camy]

It's perilous to underestimate the power of social media. Trump - now permanently banned from Twitter - had in excess of 88 million followers, all of whom have been drip fed false narratives and  lies for the last four years. It's no wonder a few went off the reservation.

Trump is also permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram, and Shopify (who he uses for online merchandise sales) have shut him down, too.

He's lost all his access to the proletariat.

W00T! 

 

 

[Cole Parker]

Thank God!

 

C

[Nigel Gordon]

I hate to pour cold water on everybody's celebrations, but I have this feeling that you have not heard the last of Donald Trump yet. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that we are going to find him over here before long, just so he can avoid being in the USA.

Fortunately, I think it can be argued that Uttering a Malicious Falsehood is an extra territorial offence, like defamation, in English law. The only requirement is that the statement is published in the relevant territory, it does not have to be made there. If that is correct, maybe somebody might arrest Trump if he sets foot over here once his Head of State immunity ceases on the 20th of January.

 

[Camy]

This piece by Jonathan Pie is well worth a listen.

 

[dude]

A lot of thuth here.

 

[Camy]

So... tum-te-tum... how's it going?

Watching from across the pond - CNN, CNBC, Stephen Colbert,  Seth Myers, David Packman - it seems that there's still trouble at mill, and will be until noon on the 20th. But then what?

 

 

[Cole Parker]

Then all the rowdies tuck tail between legs and hide behind their mommies.  Well, we can hope, can't we?

Trump has given a voice to these lunatics.  Hopefully hushing him will have the same effect on them.  As will the FBI's intent to jail as many of them as it can identify.  There are already a significant number behind bars.  I just can't see Trump continuing to raise a ruckus once his power has evaporated.  Too, several states are waiting to indict him on various charges and he somehow has to address that.

I've read in a couple of places he's planning to come to visit you guys, Camy.  Treat him with the respect he's earned, okay?

C

 

[Talo Segura]

You focus everything on Trump, he is only the figurehead, the man who symbolises and expresses the discontent of half the nation. I think it is dangerous to believe that by getting rid of the president, you solve the problem and magically everyone is united. The country is divided, the extremists are at the far end of the spectrum, but the problems in America run much deeper than Trump and the minority of his extremist followers. It is the root causes that need to be addressed. 

I watched a very interesting documentary on Boris Johnson, he like Trump is a self serving opportunist who uses fake news and appeals to the desires of which ever group will give him power. Charismatic characters who know how to win people over, truth is an alien concept to these leaders. They are the pied pipers of today's politics who will lead everyone to destruction.

At least in America one such person looks set to fall, in England, Boris has led the country towards self annihilation, obscurity, and poverty. Did you know he kicked off all the fake Euro news stories taken up by the British press, and which led to blaming everything that was wrong in the country on Europe? Much like Trump, blaming everything wrong with America on the rest of the world. Medice, cura te ipsum, physician, cure thyself!

[Cole Parker]

"You focus everything on Trump, he is only the figurehead, the man who symbolises and expresses the discontent of half the nation. I think it is dangerous to believe that by getting rid of the president, you solve the problem and magically everyone is united. The country is divided, the extremists are at the far end of the spectrum, but the problems in America run much deeper than Trump and the minority of his extremist followers. It is the root causes that need to be addressed.'   -- Talo

 

I doubt anyone believes all America's problems will go away once Trump vanishes.  No, we have many problems, serious problems.  I could list ten off the top of my head, and none will be gone with Trump's departure.  But what he did made everything worse.  He gave strength to the fringe elements and you see the effect of that: an uprising at the seat of our national government and in many of the state capitals as well.  Trump made these terrorists and malcontents feel they had the right, perhaps even the duty, to rise, as the man in charge encouraged them to do.

We're a nation of laws and debate.  We solve our problems if not harmoniously then at least through compromise of intelligent people acting for their constituents.  At least that's how it's supposed to work, how it's worked in the past.  That kind of governance has been missing in the past four years. 

My feelings is that Biden is the best man around to bring it back.  He's a moderate with experience, a problem solver with friends on both sides.  He's not a Warren or Sanders with far left leanings, nor a Jordan or Hawley on the far right.  

Trump loved stirring things up; Biden will work hard to bring rapprochement.

C

 

 

[Camy]

When the results of the 2020 election slowly came in I was flabbergasted that Trump got 75 million votes. I thought that after four years of 'THAT' he might get a few deranged lunes in his corner... but 75 million?  I was astonished, as I was today watching his impeachment.

That 197 Republicans voted against Trump's impeachment seems somewhat insane. After all, they were in the Capitol, under attack, presumably in fear for their lives, directly because of Trump. That 10 Republicans did the right thing and voted to impeach speaks volumes to their integrity.

One wonders what the next 7 days will bring....

 

[Talo Segura]

Do you think that people's perceptions of the rule of order, law and order, is dictated by the history of the country they live in? Until today no one in America imagined a popular uprising to overthrow the government, or take power, was possible. In Britain the closest that country came to something similar were the miners strike, a war with the Conservative government of Thatcher.

In France, in 1968, the people took to the streets the government collapsed, the country was changed forever and a new republic emerged. In Catalonia the "regional" government of a nation under Spanish rule declared unilateral independence. The "sedition" was put down with force and the leaders forced into exile or imprisoned. The same is happening in Hong Kong.

Were the 75 million Trump voters divided from the democrats geographically it would be envisageable the country might split into two nations. We are after all talking about radical differences of point of view.

Whilst it is easy to side with the Democrats as the force for justice and rights for all, sanity and balance, one should not lose sight that a politician is not in power to serve the nation, but rather to serve themselves. If they serve themselves too much, the peasants will revolt, and it is indisputable that the rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer, and the gap between the two, ever greater. Discontentment is held at bay by force and repression, democracy is only a word.

 

[Cole Parker]

Talk about dividing into two countries: we have a mini-vision of that in California.  The state has something over 30 million people and for the past several years has voted solidly Democratic.  But the state is seriously divided in political thought.  The northern part above San Francisco and Sacramento is staunchly Republican, as is much of the agricultural areas south of San Francisco.  So in land area, the state is mostly Republican.

However, the largest cities—LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Riverside, Sacramento—vote for Democrats, and their population overwhelms that of the rest of the state.  As one might expect, there's been talk of secession for years, especially in the north half of the state.  What a mess it would be if it actually occured.  We might have out own civil war!

C