I was just watching little 2 minute info blurb on YouTube from Reuters about what gets shut down and what doesn’t.

And one thing just jumped out at me. It said that federal courts will have enough money to keep running until mid October but civil cases will stop.

What notorious asshole is currently under indictment and is the darling of the right wing freedom assholes?

This is all about trump.

My wife said, “well it will eventually get funded”

I said don’t bank on it, the freedom assholes are hell bent on burning it all down.

This might be nothing or the start of something truly fucking terrifying.

(disclaimer: I in no way advocate violence of any sort. I don't own any weapons, let along any gun. I was playing devils advocate in the conversation below. and if this does cross the line, if asked I will remove this post. please ask before you alert)

it was regarding issues with violence, robberies, etc...

then it devolved into "need to protect ourselves from the gob'ment!!"

this is where i stepped in

I asked how owning a gun will protect you from the government?

and he shot back, "oh are you one of those woke, assholes?"

Me: nope, just asking a question.

him: because they are taking away our rights.

Me: what rights?

him: our gun rights. My gun is mine to protect myself from them.

(I know, no logic)

Me: that's a statement not an answer, what rights do you believe are being infringed upon?

him: all our rights, look it up. (he actually used that)

Me: I have. there has been basically, zero legislation that is of any substance to truly limit a gun owners rights.

him: well they control our lives and we have to fight against that!

(at this point I could have baited him with Jan 6th but I didn't want to go down that hole, I chose another tact)

Me: so the government controls your life. Huh. I find that comment interesting, considering that corporations basically control every aspect of your life: from the things you eat and watch. they brainwash you into what you like and what you don't like. what you believe and don't believe about life and the people around you. Why aren't you angry at them and use your 2nd amendment rights there?

he didn't respond, but did block me. LOL

I'm convinced that the right wing gun nuts, while they aren't the brightest bulbs in the lot, rally against the "gob'ment", because they can put faces to their imaginary problems. with corporations, not so much.

I have been going back and forth on this for weeks

I put up my flag every national holiday. I’m not a vet , but there is still a very basic naïve belief within me that still believes in this nation.

The almost daily horrible rulings from the extreme supreme fucks has, at times, make me break down and weep out of frustration.

Over the last several weeks I have been in this funk of shock and depression that, I believe, many on this site can relate to.

I think of all the great things and terrible things this nation has done over the centuries we’ve been in existence. But I like to think, regardless of the right wing fascist attempts to turn back the clock, we, as a nation, try to continue to push the ball forward.

Yes, we lose ground from time to time, but, we recover and eventually continue forward. Sometimes in the face of overwhelming odds.

While we have in our history times of incredible cruelty, we have, it seems to me, have tried, often in ham-handed ways, to repair those same cruelties.

This is what makes America different (NOT exceptional. Because other nations have used us as an example since and, sadly, have done better jobs at it).

We are a nation of a many voices and, as such, sometimes lose the clarity of rational thinking due to the din of the haters.

We are complex as much as we are simple.

We are loving as much as we are hateful.

We are brilliant as much as we are dumb

We are that example that, not just we can do better but show the world what is possible.

Without the U.S., just think how this world might have been? How many nations adopted our basic freedoms? How many nations united against those who continue to do evil? How many nations still look up on us for help and inspiration? Many many many.

We are going through hard times now, and it’s easy to just throw in the towel. Maybe it’s part of who I am or because I was brought up in this country, but I know, I won’t always feel down, I know that I will; stand straight again and refuse to throw in that towel

I know there are more good people than there are bad.

I know that the majority of the people of this nation want to be safe and free to live as they want.

We are many, they are few

I will not allow the bastards to win.

That is why I’m putting up my flag tomorrow.

First a few rocks.

Your conscious shifts, just trying to take in what you’re seeing

A few large rocks, small boulders really, fall. This extracts a ooh or an ahh from those watching

The ground rumbles. People stretch out there arms to steady themselves. Exchanging nervous glances

There is a a cracking. A snapping. A shift in the wind

People gasp. Fear swells in the collective chests.

The bubbling up of a scream as the world….

I listen to great podcast called American Scandal.

And the particular 5 part series I’m listening to deals with the Valerie Plame affair.

Remember “fitzmas” everyone was all agog about on here so many years ago, when a particular part of the people here were under the delusion that Karl rove and a host of others were going to brought up on charges and go to prison?

But instead scooter libby fell on his sword and took the blame and “fitzmas” vanished.

Listening to these episodes got me a special kind of angry again, not angry over those crooks not going to prison per say but how our judicial system failed the American public in the most spectacular way possible.

That hardened my cynicism into stone.

Then the beat went on and the crockery, thievery and insanity by the right wing only increased.

And here we are today, only just surviving an attempted coup d ’estate by luck and via a few very dedicated people.

Everything now is amplified to 11 as compared to those many years ago and the fake story of yellow cake uranium. It almost seems quaint, like an old movie we once saw in a old fashion theater with a smoking section.

The grinding down of my hope and belief in this nation by a near daily dose of faux and real problems. Mostly faux. But never the less, day in day out it will crush your belief and drive to not care about anything.

Now we have the Jan 6th committee investigation. And we are all, those who still know how to still think rationally, hoping for the same thing; people to go to prison. And I’m not talking about the useful right wing pawns that ran into the capital. While we do cheer watching those gullible halfwits get sent off to jail, we want those who planned this to be held accountable, especially if we want some form of this country to survive and not slide into the toilet of fascism.

But alas, I look back at the Plame affair, the yellow cake bullshit, the wars for profit and hundreds of thousands of people killed and I think, “what the mother fuck happened??”

My answer: not a god damn thing. We only slide further down the scale of what we will accept and what is acceptable.

Orwell described fascism as a boot on your neck forever. Kind of like his 1984 variety. I used to believe that when I was younger, I’m more of the opinion now that Huxley was correct with Brave New World. As long as we are made to feel that all the bullshit from the right wing is normal and just “politics and usual” we will continue to eat at the tough of bullshit while being told it’s chocolate.

And at the end of the day, with everything that has happened since those “good old days”, I expect more of the same. The ones responsible will skate away. They lesser stooges will fall “nobily” on their swords and the rest of us will have bare that much more weight to keep society going. All the while being told that Justice was done.

We have a window of 6 to 9 months if these criminals are to be held accountable, after that everything will be purposely buried in election coverage. If nothing happens, we are effectively a democracy on paper and nothing more.

Given the current landscape, I’m not expecting much

Good night, and good god damn luck. We’re going to need it


-----------------

edits were to fix grammar and spelling. I first posted this from my phone.

Yes we got what we needed recorded into the record, but the average rube paying marginal to no attention, perceives the not calling of witnesses a win by repukes and a loss by Dems.

THAT is the reality of the situation

The Dems know how to use the rule of law to get what they want but the repukes don’t give a shit about that, they will use the media to its fullest extent to “show” they won.

At the end of the day, the orange asshole will not be convicted and will be allowed to run for office again and that will be the new screed yelled from coast to coast by the right wing, not the parliamentary win by the Dems

The Dems have to play the same way but they are so concerned, too concerned sometimes, of being the “adult” in the room. They must use the media to the same effect, pushing truth as the repukes do to push their lies.

Not calling witnesses and not using the media to put that fine point on this, shows to me who will actually controll the narrative down the road

I see now that the door has been left wide open for the nuts in the right wing do drum up further support by saying that this 2nd impeachment was a nothing burger. And they will do it less than a week after the vote.

Moreover the rumors of the repukbs splitting will vanish, they will get back in marching order and much worse is coming down the road.

Because if the repukes are good at one thing it’s: they ignore the past and act as if nothing happened. And like group think they all fall in line.

And when they pull this shit again like on Jan 6th (and you can bet they will), they will act as if it never ever happened before. And when the orange asshole tries to run for office again, they will fall inline and support him, like he was never impeached twice

We are a cartoon of a nation

with the solar wind hack and the video of russians helping the seditious morons at the capital, I fully expect a coordinated effort by the russians with the white right wing terrorist groups here to stage yet another attack of some kind.

The obvious time would be during the inauguration, but while I do believe some morons on the right will do something because they are untrained idiots. I believe something worse is coming down the pike.

with the gross breach of data from solar wind, we the average people of this nation don't have a full comprehension of its extent of it's damage.

It was fucking huge and horribly damaging to us. while the storming of the Capital has been compared to many things and 9/11 or a homegrown pearl harbor. The solar wind hack is all of those things plus many more examples all rolled into one.

over the years, there have been various hacks from foreign entities on American facilities. some successful some only marginally. but with each one, they find a new vulnerability. And these vulnerabilities are patched and we move on. We don't stop watching but the attacker keeps probing. and most if not all of these attacks have come from russia.

russia's military dwarfs compares to ours, but their cyber attack abilities are very well developed and are equal if not better in some area's than ours.

in sort order, we have be at war with russia for many years. but since there are no tanks, planes, ground forces or threat of nukes involved, the American public goes along in a merry fog that we are just a-okay.

now with this latest halfwitted attempt by the right wing terrorist group at the urging of the russian asset trump, it was a new kind of attack. this was, in my belief a faint to see how the US would react.

the thinking part of America is rightly pissed off and what happens from this point and over the next few weeks is being watched very closely by russia and north korea and Iran to a certain extent. (Iran's issues are similar but different from the other two)

if over the next few weeks, these two nations see a limp response from US in regards to how we handle the current situation, I fully expect sometime within the next 6 to 10 months a fairly impressive attack up on our infrastructure via a cyber attack.

putin is ex kgs (is one really an ex of that organization?) and as such, he knows how to play the long game and has patience on his side.

now don't get me wrong, we are currently trying to do the same with him, hacking russias facilities, but what we lack is this: a motivated group of crazy lackeys that will do putin's bidding in the event of a massive cyber attack.

I see a coordinated effort between these right wing terrorists and an cyber attack by russia.

I truly hope that I am completely and utterly wrong, but given the current landscape of insanity that the orange asshole has brought upon this nation, there is no better time for a foreign adversary to stage an attack.

I'm not saying I told you so, but I told you so. read the bold part.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100214723226

I'm firmly convinced that the orange asshole is a psychopath

And as such, he’s at his end game. He has nothing left to try and “overturn” the election.

He is now at his most dangerous.

Let that sink in

In other words, we ain’t seen nothin yet

I said 3 years ago it would take a swat team to get him to leave. We may need more than that now: the fire Dept.

Well now we have him saying he won’t leave the WH.

Having read extensively over the years about psychopaths and anti-social behavior, I’m going to go on record that he will attempt to do something truly extreme to prevent himself from leaving the WH.

And what that is exactly is: he will attempt to burn down the WH or something along those lines.

He’s mentally painted into corner and feels he has no other alternative than to quite literally burn it all down.

Just remember this: you can not rationalize with a psychopath. They aren’t capable of thinking like normal people. Their one and only mission in life is to protect themselves at all costs and that even means burning everything down and then dying in the flames. Because they will have convinced themselves, at that point, that they “won” because they weren’t caught.

We are entering the final stretch before he gets
kicked out of the WH and it’s going to get really fucking weird

And as such, he’s at his end game. He has nothing left to try and “overturn” the election.

He is now at his most dangerous.

Let that sink in

In other words, we ain’t seen nothin yet

I said 3 years ago it would take a swat team to get him to leave. We may need more than that now: the fire Dept.

Well now we have him saying he won’t leave the WH.

Having read extensively over the years about psychopaths and anti-social behavior, I’m going to go on record that he will attempt to do something truly extreme to prevent himself from leaving the WH.

And what that is exactly is: he will attempt to burn down the WH or something along those lines.

He’s mentally painted into corner and feels he has no other alternative than to quite literally burn it all down.

Just remember this: you can not rationalize with a psychopath. They aren’t capable of thinking like normal people. Their one and only mission in life is to protect themselves at all costs and that even means burning everything down and then dying in the flames. Because they will have convinced themselves, at that point, that they “won” because they weren’t caught.

We are entering the final stretch before he gets
kicked out of the WH and it’s going to get really fucking weird

trump, I believe, knows deep down he's in deep shit, but because of his complete mental instability, his reaction only comes out as a form of stupid panic.

Panic in the form of reactionary rhetoric, panic in the form of distraction, panic in the form of never admitting he is wrong and panic in the form of inciting violence.

As more and more details come out about the investigation, as Mueller issues more indictments and witnesses come out with information about trump and as we get closer to the 2020 election, trump will only get worse.

Frankly, I don't think trump handles stress or pressure very well and, it's become obvious, he doesn't like confrontation.

If you look back upon the last couple of years, you can see a very clear pattern to his behavior.

He started out very high on his own self-righteousness by spreading lie after lie that he thought, that he believed, could never be proven incorrect.

Because, like many people in a certain demographic and have the same type of behavior and have been in the media for decades, they only realize the power of the internet after the fact. ghouliani is a perfect example. He says a lie; a lie that once upon a time took weeks to check, but now can be disproved almost instantly. As a result , he immediately looks like the ass that he is.

However, unlike ghouliani, trump uses it to his own advantage. Since he has always been a gaslighter, he just goes on to say, "I never said that" or just ignores it altogether and goes on to say something equally stupid or controversial to cover over the last fuck up.

His mouthbreathing followers eat it up because they hate all things non-white and non-male. And they feed with glee over any insult to either Obama, Hillary or the Dems.

But as time has worn on, and trump has become more desperate and panicked, his rhetoric has amped up.

Just short of calling for open violence, he has basically threatened the nation with violence via the Army, police and bikers comment.

Mark my words, as we near new indictments, perhaps his kids and jared, and as the circle gets closes around him, he will call for open violence. There is no "if" here, he will. His pattern shows this.

I have never owned a gun, and I'm not against people owning them. I believe honest good law abiding citizen's who are instructed in weapon safety, should be allowed to have them. And for the first time in my life, I am now seriously considering getting a shotgun for my personal protection.

I'm not one who generally believes in conspiracy theories, I've had my moments, but by and large choose rational critical thought over crazy ass, explain away whatever problem with stupid reasoning.

I am now honestly frightened. And if anyone knows me, it takes a lot to frighten me. I'm frightened because given trumps ramped up behavior over the last few months, I honestly don't think any of this is going to end well.

I foresee a point where, trump is alone. Everyone has been indicted and he can't trust those around him. (not that he really ever trusted anyone anyway). It will be at that point, he will go for broke. He will have nothing further to lose.

Two outcomes I see:

1) He gets reelected but the Dems take back the Senate and impeachment proceedings begin. He freaks out and calls for violence.

2) (The more likely of the two for me) His kids get indicted and he knows he's going to lose the election big time. He ramps up his rhetoric about fake elections, fake voters, voting suppression, vote rigging, etc and calls for his crazy followers to "protect the polls". At which point, there will be violence of some kind. trump will respond by saying, "they were protecting the polls" and say further, "any person suspected of vote rigging, etc, should have his ass kicked". And from that point, away we go to open fighting at the polls.

And for the first time in my life, I think I will see the National Guard out protecting polling sites.

Something is coming. I don't know what exactly, but it's stirring in my gut and it feels awful.