If Trump's coup attempt fails, beware of another attempt by a smarter, slicker fascist

boing
#34

Bush was not the smarts running things during the Bush presidency. Chaney was. Bush was the friendly, bumbling innocent face fronting it.

It’s not the guy with the fake smile on the TV we have to worry about, it’s the people around him who avoid the spotlight and tell him what he should do that we have to worry about. In Trumps case he’s so bad at following advice (or, indeed, understanding it) that all the smarter political allies who knew the limits of how far they could push things and still keep credibility all got thrown under the bus, leaving only the Mnuchens, Millers, and other various reptiles that lack any credibility or any smarts beyond cartoonish villiany surrounding him (you could put almost any of them into a Batman movie and not even need a change of costume). That put a hard limit on what trump could accomplish, leaving him mostly just letting things fall apart on their own though neglect. I’m not sure we can trust that in the future we don’t end up with someone just as bad, but who doesn’t spend all his time on the golf course congratulating himself and who makes an attempt at actually running the government and the has enough smarts to actually listen to and follow the advice of his evil councilors.

2 Likes
#35

What does the fact that they are a data scientist have to do with anything? Suspects are suspects.

#36

Data workers deploy data, not physical weapons. I used to be able to warn that I would not stab a person but I could boost their insurance rates. What, you think your collision or homeowners’ coverage is safe? Hah!!

2 Likes
#37

I’m not sure if sarcasm. Firearms are for defending from being imminently killed of for killing. Neither of those two seem likely or appropriate in this particular home. If their intel said otherwise, then their eyes and ears should have corrected the mistake more quickly.

1 Like
#38

From the headline:

If Trump’s coup attempt fails…
(emphasis mine)

Yeah, so Biden has apparently won the popular vote & the Electoral College, but it’s all nowhere near Official.
The fact that the vast majority of GOP congresscritters (as well as legions of State & Local officials, not to mention his cult) are still disputing the results of the election should give everyone pause; there is still opportunity for ratfuckery to be done by them. Keep in mind how many of them voted for impeachment; now speculate how many of them would object if/when Lord Dampnut declares a National Emergency & imposes Martial Law.

He is a cornered animal, as are the members of his corrupt regime. I don’t put anything past them.

2 Likes
#39

Democratia, quia popularis regiminis, est superesse vigilantia cotidie sicut puer non putabat.

#40

[clears throat]

2 Likes
#41

How people imagine laws work to limit the power of authorities who would break them:

contract

How laws actually work to limit the power of authorities who would break them:

anigif_enhanced-13184-1410539355-18

3 Likes
#42

In 2015, before Trump grabbed the media focus, the Koch Friends and Mercer money and organization was behind people like Ted Cruz.

They wanted a plain dumb evil shit sandwich, nothing fancy.

3 Likes
#43

As soon as other countries once again allow the entrance of citizens of the United Plague States of America, I am getting the fuck out of this dying shitshow of a nation.

2 Likes
#44

This would be my plan if I didn’t have an elderly Alzheimers patient to care for. Which leaves me in the very frustrating position of wanting him to live a very long, happy, healthy life while at the same time having the horrible background thought that if he doesn’t pass away in the next four years, it’s very likely that both of us will die together as the United States finally collapses completely into a fascist hellscape. Biden’s win bought some time, nothing more.

1 Like
#45

Where would you go to escape the plague if you could leave right now?

#46

The interesting thing is, we’re beyond the point where people are saying “I’ll leave the country if [person X] wins the election”. There’s a recognition by many prospective expats of a deeper dysfunction that’s not going to be erased permanently by an election.

Earlier this year, before the pandemic, I decided it was time to spend more time living and travelling outside the U.S. It just become clear that the institutions of civil society in the U.S. are either on the decline or behind the curve compared to other OECD countries. It’s also apparent that the Know-Nothing 27% of the electorate and the “mainstream” Republicans and Libertarians who egg them on aren’t going away after January and will continue pushing the trend toward decline. After the events of the past four years and especially 2020 it’s harder than it ever was for even a privileged person like me to pretend that the U.S. is the “greatest country on the Earth”.

Even without family responsibilities like yours, picking up stakes and moving abroad is very difficult for most people. I recognise that my personal situation, the result of a lot of luck and some deliberate trade-offs, is not the norm (and even so, I have an elderly parent who keeps me in the U.S. for several months of the year). But I am telling young people I know to take advantage of educational and work opportunities abroad and to get a second passport when they can.

He’s going to be fighting a constant rearguard action against conservatives and his primary objective of restoring the pre-2016 “normal” is backward-looking and unsustainable. We’re entering a period of rough transition and have to adjust our expectations accordingly.

4 Likes
#47

9 posts were split to a new topic: The question of defining fascism

#50

I don’t know how I’d get out if I didn’t have this obligation and the pandemic were over. I’m not rich, I don’t have in-demand skills, I’m not even bilingual. But I’d find a way. Getting a job teaching English, marriage, some kind of study abroad program, anything that will get a foot in the door. It’s clear that progress in the USA will not happen within my lifetime, and as you said, Biden, though I’m very glad he won, is not the way forward.

2 Likes
#54

Most Americans aren’t. What I can see happening for them in the coming decades is an internal refugee situation similar to the Dustbowl migrations during the Depression or the Great Migration of African Americans but much worse. I don’t really see the final divide between “Ameristan” and the coastal cities in Neal Stephenson’s Fall as completely satirical. It’s going to get very ugly, and while there’s not really an “away” the sooner you can get to a safer spot inside and/or outside the U.S. the better.

3 Likes
#55

Maybe something like Huxley’s Brave New World, living on a “Savage Reservation” in New Mexico.

1 Like
#56

I have been debating more and more moving abroad, but my problem is that i don’t have any great skills or qualifications that would make it easy for me to do so. Family is also really important to me and having my immediate family stay behind in the US would make the whole endeavor difficult. That said i do dream of moving to an Asian or Nordic country in some years.

4 Likes
#64

or was it pre-2001 “normal,” or maybe pre-1994 “normal,” pre-1980 “normal,” …

4 Likes
#65

I usually say that Uncle Joe’s target in ca. 1992, when the Dems won by going all-in on Third Way ideology. He knows that Americans have short memories, so promising to get back to the pre-Biff normal after four exhausting years made more sense.

1 Like