Trump's Second Term

[esquel]

There is a long legacy, from Ronald Reagan's astrologer on, of spiritual snake oil being used to lubricate certain White House incumbents.

 

[dudalb]

And the single biggest reason Trump is wining is simple: Cowardice on the part of his opponents. Sheer lack of intestinal fortutide.
Way too many Poltroons in the so called resistence. A Poltroon is somebody who talks about how brave he is and what great things he will do, but when comes ot the test chickens out.
Chtuchill once said Courage is a Important virtue because without it, most virtues become useless.I would love for somebody to try to disprove that.

 

[Aridas]

Think Spy vs Spy, and try not to laugh.

There was a case or two where that fit well during the first term. For that picture, though? I get the impression that Melania's doing her best impression of a background hat rack to be ignored.

Jimmy Kimmel removed from ABC.
Looks as if the Second Amendment might well be the last bastion against tyranny, as little as many here woul like to admit that.

The far right's reimagining of it serves as an incredibly terrible last bastion, then. Not least because Americans were just as able and willing to do the things you imply before their reimagining of it. You're wrongly attributing reasonable gun ownership and usage protections to the Second Amendment. More generally, it will not be individual action that saves us from tyranny.

 

[Blue Mountain]

@Tero: Please do not post direct links to Threads without repeating the content in your message text. Because all I saw was this:



I do not have a Threads account and will never have a Threads account. So I cannot read the post you're referring to.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

https://bsky.app/profile/tomjam.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lz2eocwvks25

Took me a couple seconds to find her.

 

[LiteBright]

Took me a couple seconds to find her.

I honestly thought it was a lamp at first

 

[Blue Mountain]

Governor Newsom of California calls out 5 lies in of Trump's social media posts:

Shockingly, I have just learned, that Gavin Newscum, the Governor of California, in the final stages of approval to build Low income Housing in Pacific Palisades.

LIE: There is no state effort targeting new low-income housing in the Pacific Palisades.

How unfair is that to the people that have suffered so much! Newcsum allowed their houses to burn by not accepting Hundreds of Millions of Gallons of Water from the Pacific Northwest,

LIE: The water in the Pacific Northwest DOES NOT reach or connect to water systems in California.

and now, Low Income Housing starts rising long before he gets Permits for California Citizens to rebuild,

LIE: The Governor does not issue housing permits, LA City and LA County do. They've issued 885+.

but long after the Federal Permits were issued. Lee Zeldin, EPA Administrator, and I, as President, have done the jb, and produces all Permits long before long before anybody expected that to happen.

LIE: There is no such thing as a Federal Housing Permit. They have been “approved” because the DO NOT EXIST.

Unfortunately, the Governor of California and and Mayor Karen Bass failed you. Gavin Newscum’s plan to build Low Income Housing (at the Super Luxury Pacific Palisades Fire Site) is what caused the destruction of the Late, Great New York City Mayor John Lindsay’s Political Career — and John Lindsay was a Republican

LIE: See lie #1.

https://bsky.app/profile/steveberry72.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lyyxmx24jc2j

 

[Blue Mountain]

Mississippi declares infant deaths emergency as CDC program that could have helped is halted

The Trump administration’s shake-up of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has forced Mississippi to stop gathering critical data on women’s experiences before, during and after pregnancy – even as the state recently declared a public health emergency over its surging infant mortality rate.

Mississippi has suspended data collection for Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (Prams), a national database that has been integral to policymaking on maternal and infant health for nearly four decades, the Guardian has learned.

Many of the division’s projects, including Prams, have sputtered to a halt, the lawsuit alleges.

The division will likely be unable to obtain accurate nationwide data on maternal and infant health in 2024, 2025 and 2026, an unnamed CDC staffer said in one declaration included in the lawsuit.

Mississippi declares infant deaths emergency as CDC program that could have helped is halted

State forced to stop gathering critical data on pregnancy experiences after Trump administration’s shakeup

www.theguardian.com

 

[dudalb]

There was a case or two where that fit well during the first term. For that picture, though? I get the impression that Melania's doing her best impression of a background hat rack to be ignored.


The far right's reimagining of it serves as an incredibly terrible last bastion, then. Not least because Americans were just as able and willing to do the things you imply before their reimagining of it. You're wrongly attributing reasonable gun ownership and usage protections to the Second Amendment. More generally, it will not be individual action that saves us from tyranny.

I agree, but seems to me organized armed resistence is different then individual acts.
Problem is I just don't see how peaceful resistence is going to work at this point.

 

[dudalb]

Governor Newsom of California calls out 5 lies in of Trump's social media posts:

https://bsky.app/profile/steveberry72.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lyyxmx24jc2j

How can you tell if Trump is Lying/
His Lips move.....

 

[Blue Mountain]

Americans have 400 days to save their democracy

I never thought I’d see fear spread so far and fast. Next year’s midterm elections are now crucial for the Democratic party – and for democrats everywhere

I return to Europe from the US with a clear conclusion: American democrats (lowercase d) have 400 days to start saving US democracy. If next autumn’s midterm elections produce a Congress that begins to constrain Donald Trump there will then be a further 700 days to prepare the peaceful transfer of executive power that alone will secure the future of this republic. Operation Save US Democracy, stages 1 and 2.

Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so. But during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump’s assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault.

Americans have 400 days to save their democracy | Timothy Garton Ash

I never thought I’d see fear spread so far and fast. Next year’s midterm elections are now crucial for the Democratic party – and for democrats everywhere, says Guardian columnist Timothy Garton Ash

www.theguardian.com

 

[Susheel]

And India democracy is stable???????

Nope...of course not. However I don't get my pants in a twist when someone mentions it. In fact I agree.

 

[Aridas]

I agree, but seems to me organized armed resistence is different then individual acts.

Of course organized armed resistance is different from individual acts. That's an important part of why the Second Amendment was about government-run militias - militias with foundations in governments that often included bans on the wrong groups (like blacks and native Americans) being allowed to own guns. The whole reimagined "Individual rights" stuff was pushed by those with very political motivations who happily engaged in fallacy. It was poison to reasonable discussion and debate as a whole. The Second Amendment, as they've popularized it, will do nothing. Not only nothing, it's been used to pave the way to the dismal state that we're in now. As all those right wingers who have hyped up how super manly and strong they are with how they were prepared to prevent tyranny and then turn around and welcome tyranny by fascists have shown, it was never more than a political ploy. Hence, it quite irks me to hear stuff like "Looks as if the Second Amendment might well be the last bastion against tyranny, as little as many here woul like to admit that."

If you want the Second Amendment to even potentially apply here, states would need to be deploying their state defense forces to oppose federal forces/other state defense forces being used offensively. Until very recently, that wasn't even a plausible scenario, of course. Now? ◊◊◊◊ Trump and MAGA for making it more and more plausible.

With all that said, mass armed resistance by non-governmental forces is a separate matter and should never be confused with Second Amendment matters. It's a potential tactic of preferably last resort, but it certainly has its time and place. We're likely not yet to the point where there's meaningfully viable odds of success, though, given the military's power combined with with the amount of the population that voted for Trump being something of a giveaway there.

Problem is I just don't see how peaceful resistence is going to work at this point.

When it comes to peaceful resistance, there's a lot of potential avenues, most of them indirect. If you're advocating for deadly violence, first be reminded that things will escalate rapidly once that starts, especially in today's world, and that defeat will fairly certainly leave all associated with them worse off in pretty much every way. Second, be reminded that the actual ends are shaped by the means.

 

[dudalb]

Of course organized armed resistance is different from individual acts. That's an important part of why the Second Amendment was about government-run militias - militias with foundations in governments that often included bans on the wrong groups (like blacks and native Americans) being allowed to own guns. The whole reimagined "Individual rights" stuff was pushed by those with very political motivations who happily engaged in fallacy. It was poison to reasonable discussion and debate as a whole. The Second Amendment, as they've popularized it, will do nothing. Not only nothing, it's been used to pave the way to the dismal state that we're in now. As all those right wingers who have hyped up how super manly and strong they are with how they were prepared to prevent tyranny and then turn around and welcome tyranny by fascists have shown, it was never more than a political ploy. Hence, it quite irks me to hear stuff like "Looks as if the Second Amendment might well be the last bastion against tyranny, as little as many here woul like to admit that."

If you want the Second Amendment to even potentially apply here, states would need to be deploying their state defense forces to oppose federal forces/other state defense forces being used offensively. Until very recently, that wasn't even a plausible scenario, of course. Now? ◊◊◊◊ Trump and MAGA for making it more and more plausible.

With all that said, mass armed resistance by non-governmental forces is a separate matter and should never be confused with Second Amendment matters. It's a potential tactic of preferably last resort, but it certainly has its time and place. We're likely not yet to the point where there's meaningfully viable odds of success, though, given the military's power combined with with the amount of the population that voted for Trump being something of a giveaway there.



When it comes to peaceful resistance, there's a lot of potential avenues, most of them indirect. If you're advocating for deadly violence, first be reminded that things will escalate rapidly once that starts, especially in today's world, and that defeat will fairly certainly leave all associated with them worse off in pretty much every way. Second, be reminded that the actual ends are shaped by the means.

Peaceful resistence worked against the British in India; it would have failed miserably against Hitler.
I think it will fail miserably against Trump and company.

 

[Susheel]

I want to see how all this armed resistance works when a bunch of non-white guys decide to take the initiative. I expect a lot of wringing of hands about how " This isn't the way", or "Not the time..." or "All that property loss was unnecessary..."

 

[Aridas]

Peaceful resistence worked against the British in India; it would have failed miserably against Hitler.
I think it will fail miserably against Trump and company.

Out of curiousity, what path to victory do you see through violence here? Bear in mind that I'm not stating that you're fundamentally wrong, but rather that I do think that invoking violence without a reasonably feasible path to success is one of the worse potential paths to take, overall.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

And the single biggest reason Trump is wining is simple: Cowardice on the part of his opponents. Sheer lack of intestinal fortutide.
Way too many Poltroons in the so called resistence. A Poltroon is somebody who talks about how brave he is and what great things he will do, but when comes ot the test chickens out.
Chtuchill once said Courage is a Important virtue because without it, most virtues become useless.I would love for somebody to try to disprove that.

So, someone like you?

As for you 2A predictions, have you actually thought about it?
Even if the personal arms in the US are a 50/50 split between MAGA and those in favour of democracy, which I truly doubt, how does a personal firearm work against an APC? A tank? An airstrike?
The situation will be similar to Hamas vs Israel. You could kill some soldiers, sure, but the ones with a state backed army will eventually crush you.
The time a well-armed militia of volunteers could stand up against an army is long long gone. I know Hollywood keeps backing that myth as it's integral to the US illusion, but a fantasy is all it is.

 

[jimbob]

Nope...of course not. However I don't get my pants in a twist when someone mentions it. In fact I agree.

And have even started a thread on it, IIRC

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Peaceful resistence worked against the British in India; it would have failed miserably against Hitler.
I think it will fail miserably against Trump and company.

Yeah, that's the fairy tale being told to de-legitimize armed resistance to oppression.

Indian Nationalists torched many British houses, police stations, properties, goods, and harmed or killed many people in the process.
Ghandi could make them pause as long as he could point to progress in negotiating with the Brits.

Every resistance movement needs a militant and a political arm to be successful: Irland, Basque countries, India, even America one could argue.

And yes, it can fail if the resistance can't bring enough pain to the oppressor, as was the case in Nazi Germany.
Colonialism has to pay for itself, so the way to stop it is by making it un-lucrative - like by destroying property (tea, for example) in acts of violence, and then offer a graceful way out.

 

[arthwollipot]

https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/comments/1njmppm/antitrump_protest_in_london_today