They are direct and indirect instigators of violence and let it happen.

This is what happens when you have a government that handles white nationalist terrorists with kid gloves. We see a segment of the population rationalized away as "playful scamps". It's not subtle, not subtle at all, I think every other group with ideas for violence can look at this say "Why not us too? Can we get the government to handle US with kid gloves?"

This is what happens you "other" violent people instead of telling people to look in the mirror. When people are "mentally ill" you don't have to change anything about society, it's "just a disaffected individual". When a "terrorist" is some scary Muslim instead of Billy "the 'misunderstood kid' from down the street", you don't have to change anything about your neighborhood or how you see the world, esp. with people who look just like you. The government has created a culture that pretty much says "I'm not violent because I'm not the other, I'm not mentally ill!" and "My actions can't be terrorism, I'm not a Muslim, I'm not some foreigner!"

This is what happens when you take white shooters out to get Burger King.

This is what happens everything is a "war on something"... "war on terror", "war on drugs", "culture wars", "clash of civilizations", hey, if you say "Happy Holidays", then you are waging a "war on Christmas". We have over-militarized our culture and anyone else is the enemy for anyone at any time.

This is what happens when you don't have good education and public mental health. There has been a socially constructed world of frightening binaries and polar opposites created because our culture abhors nuance and deliberation. Someone can't even say "Black Lives Matter" without being told "Well actually, all lives matter". Your Patriot Prayer groups, your Back the Blue groups, they wouldn't exist without protesters. They need an enemy, they got it.

This is what happens you see violence as a force of cleansing, as some sort of "return to innocence". The "coming storm" that will wipe away all the "Satanic Cabal members". Looting as the "transition to freedom" according to Donald Rumsfeld.

This is what happens when you rely on "out of sight, out of mind" and "running out the clock" as ways of dealing with issues. We've got a potus who was elected by people who hope the rapture will be their ticket out of any problems they create. Going on down, we've got the blue wall of silence that blocks discussion of police brutality and corruption. Things aren't subtle, things aren't hidden anymore. We all know that the first thing the government from top to bottom wants is not to "end or reduce police brutality and systemic racism" but to "end or reduce *DISCUSSION OF* police brutality and systemic racism"

Every broken window, every smashed business, it has the government's fingerprints all over them.

Has Trump soft-resigned from the office of President?

He has abandoned responsibilities (Sometimes openly declaring he is not responsible) in regards to:

* Responding to the coronavirus pandemic

* Defending our nation against white nationalist terrorism / Boogaloo Boys / radical right terrorism

* Defending the country from outside election interference

* Riots and violence

He has, through a combination of neglect, insinuations and conspiracy theories, and active attacks caused damage to:

* Confidence in our elections

* The United States Postal Service

* Our public health infrastructure

* And done more damage to these systems than ISIS, MS-13, or any other so-called Republican-deemed "existential threat" could have ever hoped of doing.

One could have a random person as president, nobody as president, and Trump as president... Trump is lower than "nobody as president"

He has abandoned responsibility and done more damage to our country than "existential threats" have, there is no merit and no gain to say he is the legitimate president at this point.

The solution to the immigrants crossing the border? Build a wall! Detain them! Send them back to governments and organizations that want to kill them!

The solution to black people who have the audacity to say their lives matter? Drive your car into them! give them "rough rides"! That'll teach 'em!

The solution to Muslims being different? Torture them! Kill their families!

When people who attend his rallies and wear his gear are the ones shooting Americans and shooting up schools and churches? Uh... don't "antagonize them"? If they're an incel and you're a woman, maybe you should just have sex with them? Take them out to Burger King?

57 percent of Republican respondents said the U.S. death toll for COVID-19 has been “acceptable,”
-https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213957484

I seriously doubt I am the only one here who thinks that every disease is worthy of one thing... eradication.

There is no "acceptable" death toll for disease; I didn't say it under Obama, I'm not saying it under Trump, I'm not going to say it under Biden, I'm not going to say it for any leader anywhere.

I don't care if it's COVID.
I don't care if it's influenza.
I don't care if it's HIV.
I don't care if it's malaria.
I don't care if it's polio.
I don't care if it's measles.
I don't care if it's sleeping sickness.

Any death from any disease in any country should be considered a policy failure.

If an "acceptable death toll" from any disease is considered the "reasonable" position while striving to drive diseases to extinction and considering deaths from disease to be policy failures is "radical", then go ahead and call me radical.

"Sacrifice"... what does that mean?

Give up sex?

Give up pleasurable experiences?

Going on a hunger strike?

Voluntarily go from the upper crust of society and live among the lower classes?

Forsake some sort of high-end "destiny" for yourself that you were promised?

Letting go of something so someone else may benefit?

And then I hear the Trump family talk of sacrifice, what does that even mean?

No Trump has to skip a meal in that family.

No Trump has to put off college so the bills could be paid.

No Trump has to choose between paying utilities or getting their prescriptions.

It's funny, on January 21, 2021; I am sure the past 4 years will have seem like a bad dream that we are waking up from... Right wing evangelicals will be busy quietly deleting all their proclamations declaring that the President is selected by God and that resisting the President is the same as resisting God, QAnon types will be clamming up, Republicans will be saying they "never REALLY supported him", I am thinking this period of time, politically speaking, will be an asterisk or a blur.

But, I do genuinely hope that we keep a skepticism of when the elite and powerful talk of "sacrifice" like they're down here with us. Demolish Trump Tower then you can talk of "sacrifice".