(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Are we at the End of Politics and Democracy? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-30 The President is a crook, and nothing can conceal this fact for much longer. The President is a crook, and nothing can conceal this fact for much longer. My response: Paul Caplan " he arranged huge bribes fron foreign powers, under the instructions of his father the President." There is no evidence of that. Devon Archer's testimony refutes that. Zlochevsky's letter to Rudy Guiliani refutes it. Lev Parnas' letter to Comer refutes it. Former Ukrainian President Poroshenko has also refuted this, and he did that on Fox News. https://www.dailykos.com/.../-Lev-Parnas-tells-James... Hunter is not a nobody, he's a graduate of Yale Law School who has been on 3 different Boards, including Amtrak. He's run more than one investment firm. He's been a lobbyist, and he was a member of the David Bois lawfirm working as Burima's lawyer advising them on abiding by U.S. Law when he took the job on their board, doing the same thing. Guess what? No response. Normally, politics is a process of debate and persuasion. It’s a give-and-take. Maybe your opponent has a valid point you need to concede, maybe you have a valid point they need to concede. You have to work together to reach a consensus. We’re beyond that now. We’re somewhere in the wilderness. We’re talking past each other — shadowboxing with phantasms. We have Congress trying to shut the government down while also trying to Impeach the President with literally no evidence at all. it makes no sense. It’s all performative. It’s the Ray Epps conspiracy, then the Hunter Biden Laptop conspiracy, then the Democrats “Hate America” conspiracy, then the Joe Biden — who is still just about the poorest man in Congress — took bribes conspiracy. It’s still Pizzagate, Email-gate, Benghazi-gate, Seth Rich-gate, Vince Foster-was-Hillarys-Lover-gate, Whitewater-Gate, Trooper-gate, The Vaccine Has Microchips that Track your location-gate, Obama was a Muslim born in Kenya-gate. Nancy Pelosi’s Husband’s Gay Lover-gate, Who Blocked The National Guard-gate, Qanon-Adrenochrome-gate. One-World-Government, Great Reset, Great Replacement and Great Awakening-gate, We want to Hang Mike Pence and execute Gen Milley-gate, we need to Execute Taylor Swift for worshipping Satan, Trump is still in “control” even though every sucks but it’s somehow not his fault-gate. And On and on. I swear to God a lot of this is probably Chinese and Russian Propaganda laundered through Wing-Nut media, but these people have no idea they’re being used as sock puppets and pawns. They’re not dealing with practical reality. We’re not dealing with people who are functioning normally. There’s some kind of disorder happening here. I don’t know if it’s very severe Confirmation Bias mixed with something else, or what. I have to honestly conclude it’s some kind of derangement. They used to say there was Bush Derangement Syndrome (coined in irony by Charles Krauthammer). Then it was Obama Derangement. And they say there is Trump Derangement. This is… something. I don't know what but it’s not good. This is driving part of our nation further and further off the deep end, and massive widespread violence — even worse than Jan 6 — may eventually ensue. Andy Biggs: We have now reached a War Phase. Kari Lake: If you want to get to President Trump you have to go through me, and 75 Million Americans like me. It just may be that the next generation of Proud Boy Brownshirts is already forming. “The Active Clubs are who the Proud Boys thought they were,” said John Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “They’re who the Proud Boys wanted to be.” Active Club don't sport their racist ideologies out in the open. Instead, they wrap it in a veneer of physical fitness, self-improvement, and “white unity," the report said. "The Active Clubs are flying below the radar of law enforcement," Rolling Stone's report stated. "But as described in a new 50-page report from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), the network is evolving into a dangerous 'stand-by militia' of well-trained, white-nationalist fighters 'who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises.'" A MAGA (now former) friend of mine sent me this video, which is a crazed rant about the Declaration of Independence and how it authorizes the people to fight back against the “Tyranny” of government — which I think in this instance is intended to be vaccine mandates for kids, but I’m not sure. It’s not clear. Either way, it’s an explicit threat against the government. This is what we’ve come to. But, as usual, they failed to comprehend that the Declaration is not the governing document of our nation. It does declare that rights are “inalienable” and belong to “All People” but when it was written in 1776 we did not form our nation and our government based on those principles. 12 years later in 1888, the Constitution was ratified and it was a deep severe compromise on those values and standards. Only male white-monied land owners could vote. Slavery was enshrined and validated in its doctrine. All rights were NOT “inalienable.” All people were NOT “Created Equal.” The Constitution as originally written was deeply flawed, and we’ve tried at least 17 times to fix and amend it — but we aren’t done yet. Not hardly. Also in several sections, the Constitution talks about “Insurrection” and “Treason.” In fact, those are some of the few crimes actually listed in the Constitution. Again, the right likes to shake the saber about “watering the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots” — however the first actual use of the 2nd amendment under the Militia Act was when President George Washington used it to put down the Whiskey rebellion. In January 1791, President George Washington's Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton proposed a seemingly innocuous excise tax "upon spirits distilled within the United States, and for appropriating the same."1 What Congress failed to predict was the vehement rejection of this tax by Americans living on the frontier of Western Pennsylvania. By 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion threatened the stability of the nascent United States and forced President Washington to personally lead the United States militia westward to stop the rebels. Washington used the “well-regulated Militia” to *stop* a violent rebellion. He didn’t use it to attack the current government, he used it against a treasonous attack. The militia and the weapons they bore, fought for the government, not against it. Basic history, basic facts — these people don't know and they don’t care. They just want control, they want power and they’ll stop at nothing to have it. They’ll lie about anything. They cheat at everything. They think they’re the “Good Guys” but they are the Bolsheviks, they are the Nazis. How far does this go? How bad will this get? If Trump is convicted will violence erupt? If he’s jailed will roving bands of MAGAs start randomly attacking and assaulting anyone they think is a “Woke Soy Boy”, a “Feminazi”, Black people, Latinos, Asians, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ and Drag Queens? I mean, attacking them more, because they’re actually already doing all that. We saw it at Charleston, we saw it at the attack on Unitarian Church in Knoxville, we saw it in that attack on the Holocaust Museum, we saw it at Fort Bragg, we saw it in Charlottesville, at the attempted attack on the ACLU and Tides Foundation in Oakland, at the Tree of Life Synagogue, the attack in El Paso, the attack in Buffalo, the attack at Planned Parenthood in Colorado, the attack on the FBI office in Cincinnati, the attack on the Sikh Temple, the attack in Christchurch, the attack in the Netherlands, the attack at Isle Vista, the attack at Parkland, the attack(s) in Las Vegas, the murder of James Byrd, the murder of Armaud Arbery, the pipe bombs left by Cesar Seyoc, the attack on the Atlanta Olympics, the attack in Oklahoma City, and the murder of Dr. George Tiller. The bigger question, as is debated during the MSNBC panel, is what can and should we do about it? Do we arm ourselves and prepare for armageddon? Do we double down on Democracy and try again and again to reason with our opposition? Do we trust law enforcement to stand bravely in the gap and protect us from each other? Do we even know which side law enforcement will be on? Do we hope for the best while preparing for the worst? I don’t think that’s clear. I don't think we’re gonna know the answers to any of those questions until the Fit finally hits the Shan. And it may be too late by then. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/30/2196387/-Are-we-at-the-End-of-Politics-and-Democracy Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/