The Left-wing “Shit Sandwich” Dilemma

We have two political parties dedicated to foisting on to us the worst candidate they can find. They always turn the election into a contest between personalities because their goals are pretty much the same: to serve the rich, the elites, in other words themselves, not us.

Whenever we have a major election, Emma Goldman’s take always comes back to me: “If voting changed anything, they would make it illegal.”

You vote for the lesser evil because the things they sign into law can last for many decades after they leave office.

The stakes are always high.

For some odd reason high profile leftists like Noam Chomsky keep telling us that we simply have no other choice but to hold our noses and chomp into the DNC turd hoagie.

Honest, here he is on Democracy Now! Plugging for Biden:

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/10/noam_chomsky_trump_us_coronavirus_response

Just like he plugged Clinton in 2016:

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/16/chomsky_on_supporting_sanders_why_he

This is nothing short of betrayal, it guarantees that the Democratic Party leaders will continue to ignore anyone but their billionaire donors. Because they know that every year a donor shill like Chomsky will tell activists to roll over and do what they are told.

The only way to ensure change is to punish the Democratic party when they sell out, and then take over the DNC.

Noam Chomsky would rather you sit quietly and vote for Biden.

if there were ever a time when the centrist “liberal” left could be made to “work for it” it is surely now!??!

if any of these bastards were truly horrified by Trump and his antics, his corrupt cronies, one would think they would pull out all the stops to offer the country an alternative.

instead they offer a Chevy in place of a Ford.

impeaching Trump for something Biden had done (and bragged about doing) was writing it out in neon capital letters: nothing will change, everything will get worse

I do not see even a leaf of lettuce on this one. I watched a clip of Tulsi Gabbard taking Harris down and was sick to my stomach.

I am not going to vote. Pretty much the first time in my adult life. The decision really was not prompted by Biden’s securing the nomination — I made that choice when I voted in the primary and saw first hand the touchscreen vote fraud machine the authorities had put in place locally. There is no point.

I see commenters who insist Trump is “worse” or see some shimmer of humanity left in the Democratic establishment, and I think, “idiot or fool? Why ask silly questions?”

I am angry that Bernie did not draw a line at Biden. He had a chance to tell the truth and instead he endorsed Biden in a bouquet of lies.

I am angry and in despair for my country.

No way that I’m voting for either of these clowns.

I’ll vote for whomever is the Green Party candidate. Again.

A vote for Biden does have some logic to it if you are a leftist because he’ll have to pretend he cares about civil liberties and he may very well be wary of going after BLM after all the support he got from the African-American community.

Z

Guys,

You are voting for the weakest enemy. It sucks, but the chance to elect a savior was always a long shot.

You are getting to choose which enemy you will have to fight to try to achieve something for the next four years.

Trump doesn’t even respond to normal incentives. I choose senile and amoral ambition.

During Obama’s first eight years running the party it nearly went extinct. Obama is still running the party, and that is cause for optimism, because AOC could not have happened with competent leadership. And insurgents keep getting in. Richard Neal is getting primaried.

I find the ostentatious spitting in the face of the left by the party establishment, comforting. It so over the top and unnecessary.

Obama enforces the will of an establishment that is so disconnected from reality that it cannot accurately calculate where it is vulnerable, and what actions really serve its interests.

A lot of those who have taken to the streets in hundreds of cities and towns in the United States and around the world are anarchists. As a rule anarchists don’t do elections or electoral politics. They look instead for consensus without elections. Because they know “democracy” is a crock. Shit sandwich isn’t the half of it.

Those who have taken to the streets around the world are seeing some progress toward meeting their demands, more perhaps and quicker than you’re likely to see with electoral politics. It’s partly because the rulers are scared that this time the People really have had enough and are more than willing to break out the tumbrils and guillotines. So bones are thrown, promises are made, the rabble is told to desist.

And they do not. Not yet. Not this time.

Portland, you see, is still in revolt for example. “Stay together, stay tight. We do this every night!” And they do. Their objective is to wear down the police, exhaust them, make them withdraw, and to a point, they’ve been successful. The DA now won’t prosecute arrests unless there is ample verified reason. Arrests at protests have almost ceased. Nightly “running of the swine” has so worn out the police that even with their abundant drug use (don’t doubt they’re hopped up) they can’t keep up the pace. They have to take nights off, while the protests continue. And as the police are worn down, so the power structure in Portland and other cities is stymied and stalemated and shudders in fear.

The whole point is the opposite of elections: to make it impossible for the rulers to govern. And once that happens it doesn’t necessarily mean that all hell breaks loose. We’re living “all hell” right now. When the chaos of current governance ceases one way or another, the rebuilding can get under way in earnest.

Having experienced some anarchist communities, though, I’d say don’t try it unless you’re versed and able. Anarchism does not work on a large scale. It’s not paradise, and it’s often not pretty. People are notorious for not getting along. Consensus is nearly impossible most of the time. When it can’t be reached, but something must be done, those who don’t agree have to depart. That can only happen so many times before the whole thing disintegrates. And anarchist communities are vulnerable to loudmouths and bullies.

The Revolution hasn’t come yet. But it will only take a spark…

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/portland-police-seek-former-navy-seal-investigation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vhKy7Yob8Y

I’m surprised Gallagher, another Navy Seal goon, wasn’t there throwing pipe bombs into the crowd. Nice. Very brave. Well-trained. Does he still get a veterans’ discount every where he shops?

So let’s see. Trump completely blew the response to the coronavirus, except for the bailing out the rich part, managed to kill off more than a hundred thousand Americans in the process. He ran the economy into the toilet where it remains. But if you stand on your head and stare into the sun, Trump doesn’t look so bad. If he does, just add more HCQ and look again.

“The Left” is getting CRUSHED… by the DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Not by the Republican Party, but by the DNC that is “cleaning/finishing up” the left right now.

The assumption that the Democrats are less evil needs to be scrutinized.

The Republicans are pretty clear about who they represent and what they want. Ditto that for the the conservative NGOs.

The Democrats claim to represent the working class but several decades of their policy decisions prove that they are liying right through their teeth.

When push comes to shove, the Democrats will have the aptitude to screw people more effectively, in ways that are not immediately clear, while making it look like they are making progressive strides and sidelining genuine change.

The lesser of two evils is still evil. And you don\’t get NOT evil by voting for evil.

Have to vote for other parties or take them over.

> And we see the split in comments.

>The slow road to hell.

That is because each person faces a different question. A person in safe state has a different answer from one whose life is ride the it. But the vast collective of South Carolina says “Biden.” They knew what they wanted: safety for a little while.

There is a reason to study history: it tell you how such bets play out.

Or, guillotines.

Our resident Disinformation Specialists speaks:

“A person in safe state has a different answer from one whose life is rid[ing] [on] it.But the vast collective of South Carolina says “Biden.” They knew what they wanted: safety for a little while.”

One thing Kamala had right in the debates Biden is a long time racist

Joe Biden worried that de-segregation policies would cause his children to grow up “in a racial jungle ” – https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-said-desegregation-would-create-a-racial-jungle-2019-7

It has been a long time since our Disinformation Specialist has said anything that is factually correct.

Off topic:

8 PM – 9 PM (Central) Friday nights: “The Magical Mystery Tour” spends an hour exploring one or another aspect of the Beatles. Tom Wood is the regular host, but I hear he’s sick this week, and so the show is recorded this week.

9 PM – 12 AM (Central) Friday nights: The legendary “Beaker Street” has returned. Iconic host Clyde Clifford is undergoing medical treatment now, but he hopes to return to the show August 28.

Meanwhile, Arkansas radio veteran Mark Wallace will host the show this week.

Both can be found at http://arkansasrocks.com/

If you can’t catch Beaker Street live, past shows are available at
https://beakerstreetsetlists.com/ .

I would expect that tonight’s show would become available some time tomorrow.

Bramlet Abercrombie;

Where’s the evidence for the claim that “98 percent of the non-right wingers voted for Clinton” almost every Clinton voter I know is a “right winger” with no self-awareness.

Brennan,

I’m sure some right wingers voted for Clinton.

borderdenizen was making the argument that Republicans rule because left wingers don’t come together and vote for the Democrat. I was just pointing out that the split between Democrat and Green votes in 2016 was about 98% to 2%, which sounds like most of the left wingers held their noses and voted for Clinton.

Held their noses? Or, flushed their memories and self-awareness?

“no self-awareness” was kind of a key phrase there?

I think the vast majority of voters are ignorant. Narratives flood the corporate Media and social media and somewhat randomly a few memes land in each otherwise empty mind.

They vote for George W Bush because that dry drunk seemed like a great guy to have beer with. They vote for Obama because they heard he was a community organizer and they assume he cares about communities and the poor. Some of them may have heard Romney was mean to the family dog.

And, people discount the information they do have, lots of those supposedly holding their noses while voting for Clinton ignored the open corruption of her $200,000 speeches to banksters and the Clinton Foundation ( “they do good work” I was earnestly told though no could say what that work was, aside from employing key campaign staff in waiting).

There is no left, as someone up thread commented. A real left is obsessed with understanding and overthrowing/replacing the system. The nutrition-free sugar substitute of a “left” does not see an actual system. Sure, they see racism and sexism everywhere, but that obsession just obscures the actual economic system and the actual political history of the country.

Anyone who is actually paying attention knows that Biden today is nearly incapacitated by age. They know he was a fabulist in his prime. They know his family has been implicated in financial corruption. They know he loves billionaires, hates M4all, loves pointless wars, was an advocate for credit card banks on bankruptcy legislation. They know he was always “tough on crime” as long as it was not crime perpetrated by rich folks.

Biden is so far from good, there is no chance he feels any rivalry with the perfect. Point for point, it really is hard for me to see how he differs much from Trump. He even has his own brand of abusive vulgarity.

borderdenizen,

Go ahead and vote straight democrat. Go to the polls and be a demo-zombie dumbass and pound D D D until you titillate yourself. That’s your prerogative. I’m not participating.

If someone put me in a time capsule, brought me back to 2008 with the knowledge that I have now, and placed me personally in charge of picking the president and I was forced to pick between McCain and Obama, I’d pick McCain in a f*ing heartbeat even though he was hideous and I’d imagine we’d probably be in a better place than giving the deplorable Obama eight years to serve up the citizens of the U.S. to Wall Street and have the demo-zombie idiots cheer his sorry ass on the whole time.

Z

I doubt Biden will be around long enough to pretend to care about anything. Kamala Harris does not care about civil liberties, and does not have to pretend, because she’s black. Intersectionally, but still black a WOC.

People voted for Change in 2008 and what they got instead was an out and out fraud who 90% of the dumbass demo-zombies still worship.

And now these idiots want to vote shame people into voting for democrats …

Z

Thursday afternoon in the water cooler section at NC, Strether posted a video from Krystal Ball that aired in mid-April, where she breaks down the situation in Virginia as cautionary message.

Virginia is controlled entirely by Democrats – the governor and both houses of the legislature.

It turns out that people who measure the well-being of working-class people in the states report that Virginia ranks dead last. That’s right. Of all the states in the nation, when it comes to living conditions for working-class people, the state that is run entirely by Democrats ranks last at 51.

Ché Pasa, you say that the Portland Protesters are largely anarchists. Per review of the links I provided, Fernbaugh is responsible for the pipe bombings, if they can be called that. When you investigate his unmasking further, it’s revealed that there is a lot of celebration by the unmaskers that Fernbaugh will be going to prison — that the cops will bust him and throw him in the clink? What? What kind of anarchists would trust justice to the corrupt justice system? No anarchist worth their salt could possibly believe the police would ever bring Fernbaugh to justice. They want him because they want to slap him on the back and reward him for a job well-done. Any anarchist should know that if they want justice, they’ll have to administer it themselves. They should have cornered Fernbaugh and slit his throat and stuffed him in a barrel of HCL so his remains could never be found and identified. Fernbaugh’s right, you don’t want to mess with a guy like him, you eliminate him, immediately, for he is the enemy.

The Laurelhurst Park pipe bomb incident is just one of dozens and dozens of provocations that have taken place during the protests in Portland and around the country. Nobody I know of thinks the police will do jack about it, though they are trying to pretend they care. Many believe that Fernbaugh is working for the police — or would like to. (He’s pretty messed up, as you’ll see if you look into his posts, videos and website.)

Hint: most anarchists that I’m aware of are nonviolent and would not harm another unless there was immediate defensive necessity. The fellow who tracked down Fernbaugh (assuming that’s who it was) appears to be a nonviolence practitioner. He was alone when he encountered Fernbaugh on the street, and he made no threat. Fernbaugh, for his part, appeared to reach for a gun behind his back. A number of protesters have been shot, run over, or otherwise killed or injured by police or military connected individuals to date, so it was probably wise to back off, no?

Here’s a story in Task and Purpose which details some of what happened and what the police are doing… or not.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/portland-police-seek-former-navy-seal-investigation

On the other hand, rightist insurrectionists have shot and killed a number of police since the start of these protests, something those in the streets confronting police racism, brutality and murder have not done and wouldn’t.

Less evil can potentially* (not a guarantee) give you some room to manuver/survive while maximal evil provides very little. You won’t thrive or better your position under either. (Well unless you become increasingly evil that is.)

I won’t weigh in on who is the lesser evil in this election, people can make that call on thier own. But I will say that you are not doing yourself or anyone you care about a favor by abstaining. (Some of you may have the luxury of a principled stand but me, my family, and my community need the best chance we can get in every election cycle.)

Voting for self-protection (ie lesser evil voting) makes sense. It’s just protecting oneself from getting screwed even more. Abstaining from voting out of moral purity may make some sense IF it enables you to fight another day (in the streets for example) and prevents one from losing the will to do so.

But abstaining because you think it will improve the “lesser evil” is pure wishful thinking with no evidence behind it. When has this EVER happened? Look if this was capable of happening, the election of Trump would have done it. How much evidence does anyone need it won’t happen? Believing abstaining from the lesser evil will mean better choices in the future, seems a faith based position that no amount of evidence otherwise will dispel. It’s like it’s based on “Negotiating 101” without taking in account how profoundly little power one has in negotiating and imagining one has significant power there.

I do of course agree that for President most of our votes don’t actually matter. I mean if one isn’t in a swing state, it doesn’t really.

Trump has to prove that big government doesn’t work, while at the same time proving that big government does work, while on his mission from God.

It’s strange how the Lincoln Project Republicans are suddenly saying all the things about Trump which the so called “left” has been saying for years. Satan is indeed powerful.

borderdenizen,

Z, thanks for the Ad hominem attacks, that’s right-wing classy, whee, I’m a zombie.

Hey, no problem. You’re so classy yourself, you know you deserve such.

Unlike “Z”, they know their vote counts because they stick together.

And thanks to you too for vote shaming me for not getting in line to get served up my hot shit sandwich by the DNC.

Good luck and I’m glad that you find shit sandwiches satisfying. Good for you!

Z

borderdenizen,

If you don’t mind, would you share with us some of your best dining experiences eating shit sandwiches? We could all use some inspiration at a time like this. It sounds like you’ve eaten so many of them that there has to be a time or two that you got one with a partially digested pickle in it or something.

Please share …

Z

“Refusal to vote for the lesser evil endorsed by the DNC has resulted in the elections of the “the squad” to Congress.” – nihil obstet

Sorta, “the squad” (like any group of elected officials) is still the result of a great deal of hardwork from staff, supporters, donors, etc…

Shame and failure from the DNC didn’t just cause the squad to manifest from thin air or compel enough people to vote and secure a win. Everything requires work, especially politics.

abstaining because you think it will improve the “lesser evil” is pure wishful thinking with no evidence behind it. When has this EVER happened? Look if this was capable of happening, the election of Trump would have done it.

when you have no power, you have no power.

one interpretation of the “lesser evil” argument — no matter how and why you identify one candidate over the other as “lesser” in the evil department — is that it is wishful thinking, whistling in the dark, as it were, rather than a serious analysis of how to effect change. It is because people of good will are not organized to effect positive change, while evil is organized to maintain a descent into worse and worse, that we are reduced to having a “lesser evil” argument to begin with.

i understood voting for / rooting for Trump in 2016 as a “burn it all down” wrecking ball strategy. Heighten the contradictions as a Marxist might say. Or, maybe, just bring the centrist Democrats to their senses about what is at stake. i did not believe it would work in 2016.

But i understood why a voter feeling desperate to get a response to acute problems in local area or region (not even personal problems particularly, but just feeling a sense that the society around them is deteriorating markedly, without necessarily having any personal vision of what shape a solution might take) might take a flyer on Trump, rather than on the Democrat who was ignoring the problems or had a hand in creating them.

what has been wonderfully clarifying for me about having Trump as President is how obtuse much of the blue state political classes, including the centrist Democratic establishment is.

i keep coming back to gaze at the Democrats running Biden in his dotage, with Biden promising nothing more than better grammar in Presidential speechifying, and probably physically and mentally not capable of delivering on that promise!

the grossly reckless irresponsibility on display from the Democrats and from the corporate Media is astonishing to me. it really is. Ian and others keep saying, a competent authoritarian demagogue is coming. I wish. I think the establishment believes Kamala Harris is that demogogue, the idPol version of Hitler for the 21st century. but it is just absurd.

Trump was not wrecking ball enough apparently, the Democrats are bent on collapse under the guise of returning to an imaginary status quo ante.

the Media and the Democratic establishment saw the deep unhappiness expressed in the election of Trump and they screamed “racist” every ten seconds and spun out the absurd Russiagate narrative. Now they are taking a knee for BLM, which is nothing but brand management.

Re: the Squad

4 Congress critters, one of which is the entirely conventional centrist, Ayanna Pressley.

Meanwhile at least ten newly minted conservative or centrist Democratic Congress critters with military, police or intelligence agency on their resumes also assumed office in 2018. So, score 3 for progressive ideals and 10+ for neoliberal authoritarianism.

There’s a fair chance the Republican Party will spontaneously combust this cycle, as it almost did in 2008, and this time, there will be no rescue (as Obama performed for the Rs in 2009). The less radical and insane Rs will have become Ds and that will be that. The conservative Democratic Party will emerge singed but standing. The Rs, like so many institutions, will come close to ceasing altogether, and will never restore themselves to power.

That leaves a political vacuum. Something will fill it. If the Ds become the acknowledged conservative party, then there would be room for a somewhat leftist party, no? And hasn’t that been the dream of so many who’ve long sought the destruction or take over of the Democratic Party? The Democratic Party is not leftist and never has been. Not even FDR wasn’t a leftist. He was in many ways a classist and conservative. But mostly he was a pragmatist.

It’s time, actually past time, for the handful of semi-leftists in the Democratic Party, the Greens and DSA and the many would-be leftists outside of politics to get together and create a new party to finally provide a mechanism for leftist power.

And we see the split in comments.

It’s by design. Splitting the constituency is part of the plan. Setting people against each other is a feature, not a bug. Having people argue over meaningless events is part of the base code.

Especially when one considers that there is no real choice. The one with the most money (backing them) wins. Trump’s Tulsa speech was nothing but signaling his backers (as were the location, date, etc). Another example: having tech companies testify at a hearing on monopolies. As if! Really just a sham show to determine which ones will pay the most, and determine which ones are most vulnerable (looked like Facebook to me, followed closely by Google).

It’s all just show.

But it’s nice to see people finally agree that there is no real difference between D and R.

There really should be a movement where people don’t vote at all. It would be interesting to see what “our betters” do about that! Or better yet, everyone should write in Boaty McBoatface as their presidential candidate of choice. And then take all that energy and redirect it into their state and local elections.

Abortion is regulated at the state level, and is one of those “issues” they bring up to “help“ us “decide” between candidates. That’s a state level issue, so meaningless, which is why they bring it up. Just like they “bring up” social security, while knowing it’s political suicide to even suggest ending social security. All the “news” about these topics is to get people focused on something other than what people should be focusing on.

Reading Matt Stoller today … he talks about a book that illustrates how people across political ideologies are starting to “wake up” to the reality that “something is wrong in the US”. Better late than never, I guess. One can hope but I’m not holding my breath.

ian. time to ban z. we don’t come to this website to behold himher displaying their tastelessness and disrespect this has nothing to do with political views don’t let the site degenerate

Is nobody awake? Does nobody agree with me? I’m really concerned. I’m really hoping for some support. I don’t know how these things work, but it really looks to me that if people start tripping on how strikingly they can fling excrement at each other, then this -as noble an effort as I have been able to find for people thirsting to know what they can do to rescue the world from a terrifying tailspin seems in real danger. I think it’s time or past time that this be said. People need to be heard on this. PPeople need to speak. please help.

Roe v Wade is a national ruling. Women in all states need its protection, especially women of color and women in poverty or abusive relationships. In some states there’s only one or two abortion clinics left. That’s because conservative courts keep weakening abortion protections. Democrats stand for full choice. Republicans want to limit or ban abortion. I call that stark and I call that a national difference. Four more years of Trump and a Republican Senate, and we could have a 7-2 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. No thanks.

Hey all,

I’m leaving. Bye, see you later.

Hopefully some of what I’ve written rings in your head because most of it is correct, especially with the Jewish Zionist Mafia stuff and the Fed, but if you are unable or unwilling to look at things in a statistical sense and won’t objectively evaluate what is going on, then that’s your issue.

Again, it’s Israel Israel Israel not Russia Russia Russia and I always get a ton of resistance from whom I believe are Jewish people either defending actions of their tribal elites because they fear that they will all be smeared by it or are simply defending what they see as the advantages they are afforded by the economic and political power of their elites. And again I am not talking about all Jewish people, not at all. Most are on the everyday working man’s side IMO and have historically made positive and important contributions to U.S. society.

But I’m not here to do Ian wrong.

So goodbye and good riddance.

Z

Also, keep in mind the rampant amphetamine use in our society particularly among our business and political elites and other upper end professional classes and the negative consequences of that.

That is a very real and a very major hidden problem in U.S. society. It’s unspoken of and largely unseen.

The non-users are paying for it, but most of them don’t know it. I didn’t know it existed until about three or four years ago.

It’s only getting worse, especially among our younger people, and it is difficult to get off of so it will continue to proliferate.

Z

Beware the hasbara-bots too, they are all over the internet tone policing when people start calling out the Jewish Zionist Mafia and their methods.

Z

nihil obstet

What the argument always leave out is time. If the election was for who will govern for the next 50 years, the argument of vote for the lesser evil which will still make things worse might have some merit. But since the election is for 4 years

That is the error in your thinking. That only holds true for a Biden victory. I am confident in 2024 and 2028 there will be another election if Biden wins.

As for Trump:

https://disloyalthebook.com/download-the-disloyal-foreword-written-by-michael-cohen/

Trump, life was a game and all that mattered was winning. In these dangerous days, I see the Republican Party and Trump’s followers threatening the constitution—which is in far greater peril than is commonly understood —and following one of the worst impulses of humankind: the desire for power at all costs.

As the months passed by and I thought about the man I knew so well, I became even more convinced that Trump will never leave office peacefully. The types of scandals that have surfaced in recent months will only continue to emerge with greater and greater levels of treachery and deceit. If Trump wins another four years, these scandals will prove to only be the tip of the iceberg. I’m certain that Trump knows he will face prison time if he leaves office, the inevitable cold Karma to the notorious chants of “Lock Her Up!” But that is the Trump I know in a nutshell. He projects his own sins and crimes onto others, partly to distract and confuse but mostly because he thinks everyone is as corrupt and shameless and ruthless as he is; a poisonous mindset I know all too well. Whoever follows Trump into the White House, if the President doesn’t manage to make himself the leader for life, as he has started to joke about—and Trump never actually jokes – will discover a tangle of frauds and scams and lawlessness. Trump and his minions will do anything to cover up that reality, and I mean anything.

If Trump loses, he will not go willingly. If Trump wins, he will try to make sure there is nothing like a free election after him. He knows he can’t else he’s facing time in an orange jump suit. We’ve come to that already.

And I dare say to the “both sides”-ists here that in this case, you’re plainly wrong. I trust that Micheal Cohen knows Trump better than any of you. Yes Biden is a piece of shit and America’s decline will continue, but his tenure will mean the normal decline; it will be more like floating down in a parachute as opposed to the free-fall under Trump. At least the parachute route gives one a bit more time to prepare. I don’t think America can be save, it’s do you want a crash-landing or do you want just a nose-first crash?

Stewart M —
On the time issue — which is worse, to work for wages that will not sustain you, or to march around the workplace carrying a sign for no pay? The latter is the lesser evil for a day, but a strike is how you’re going to solve the former issue. Withholding your vote is analogous to withholding your labor.

the free-fall decline under Trump as opposed to Biden? Under Obama with Biden as VP, the country rocketed down. The administration used the 1917 espionage act to reinstate anti-whistle-cases and to instate new ones, so that it was prosecuting more people than the entire history of the very bad act. It established secret government. It used torture to attempt to coerce testimony (that’s according the the UN rapporteur on torture). The 4th amendment was simply shredded, as the government got surveillance on citizens from other organizations. The administration a nationwide wrap-up of Occupy protests.

It also claimed the right of extra-judicial executions of American citizens on the sole say of the president.

If you can spy on your citizens, arrest them for unwanted speech, run raids against their gatherings, torture them, and kill them, what in hell is left to Trump to do? Biden never objected to any of this, nor did most of the Democratic Congressional members. And they’ve continued to give Trump all the money and power that he has asked for.

“Jewish Zionist Mafia” is factually incorrect.

@someofparts,

I’m in Europe but would prefer to not share specifically where. In my case, I will not take the “green card/permanent resident” exam until next year so I’m not out of the woods and into a stable situation quite yet. Take this with a grain of salt.

We got out by my husband getting a job that sponsored his visa and mine. I make this distinction because often student visas do not count toward your ten-year timeline (or what have you) in order to apply for citizenship. It’ll get you into your new community, but you’ll have to find employment after graduating and hope they’ll be willing to sponsor your visa.

In our case, my husband brought skills to the table that are useful to the community here and that his employer wanted. He is not undercutting the local labor force; he had something they didn’t. (He’s a big problem solver. Anytime he takes a work call at home, I hear him troubleshooting.) Whenever I go to a staff party, people come up to me and tell me how my husband helped save a project’s deadline or fixed an issue, etc.

As for me, I had attempted to emigrate several years before but ran into visa issues while abroad because I couldn’t get mine renewed. I thus repatriated and was preparing to try again when I met my husband. I work online and help the community here by making money from all over the world, then pulling it out of an ATM and spending it at local businesses. I might end up needing to work part-time locally to secure the national pension (we’ll see what the future holds), but I pride myself in helping the local economy by bringing in money but not taking a job. My husband and I were both looking around for work in order to emigrate; we’d decided that whoever got hired first would take the visa and the other would be the tag-along spouse.

I want to also mention that I had to completely give up the American lifestyle in order to have the cash I needed to emigrate. I did not have a car, mortgage, data plan, subscription service like netflix or prime, none of that (or health insurance for that matter, but that wasn’t by choice). Living without a car in America is horrendously inconvenient, which was motivating for me to get out.

You need startup money in order to emigrate. For example, my country only had consulates on the east or west coast, so when they scheduled an appointment for us, we had to drop everything and lay down serious cash on last minute flights and a hotel room in a major city. We also had to prove that each of us had something like five thousand euros’ worth of cash in our bank accounts, so we had the money to get settled there without needing the first paycheck immediately. The only way I had this cash was because I was stockpiling everything I could and (dangerously) biking everywhere. I want to stress that I was not financially stable at all, nor did I have support from my parents, but I still made this work.

That’s what I’ve got. Let me know if you have any questions. By the way, if you are a single person eager to find someone, in the case of my country, that’ll put you on the same timeline as us (five years to “green card,” ten years to citizenship) but your partner will have the ability to petition to keep you in the country should something go wrong, whereas my husband and I don’t have that protection. Plus, despite everything that’s going on, the people who have chatted with me about wanting to date Americans have expressed the idea that we are very kind and open. American men are understanding and chivalrous and American women are sweet and homely. Stereotypes, sure, but hey, I’ll take it. For what it’s worth.

nihil obstet

I think you’re ignoring my point. I believe very seriously that Trump is trying to set himself up as our permanent President and escape any constitutional restraints on his power. *There is simply no comparison* in that with any of the neoliberal Democrats you guys despise, and I believe you and others here despise them so much that I believe it clouds your judgement. Trump is indeed different, and more dangerous.

The current surveillance state was set up by conservative Republicans, starting with Reagan but really ramped up by Bush (I mean President Cheney, who simply ignored a decree by Congress to set it up). But I fully agree, Obama kept it going and in some ways furthered it. Ian’s summation is correct–the Democrats only at best hit the “pause” button but they don’t undo anything and in some cases they pursue it more. But now, I am happy with anyone the pause button.

(My most frustrating thing is that the Democrats and the Never-Trumpers keep talking about Trump “violating our norms” but a robust constitutional form of government doesn’t rely on friggin’ “norms”—it doesn’t allow programs that would allow a would-be dictator or autocrat to take power in the first place, aand it also puts into place “electric fences” that zap automatically would-be trespassers. (Our constitutional interpretation that exempts the President from potential criminal prosecution while in office is just terrible, for starters). It doesn’t give leaders a broad swath of powers then just expect them to show some modicum of restraint on using them. A robust constitutional system expects at times bad people will win elections and it set up mechanisms to resist them; ours is failing that test).

No, we were not ‘rocketing down’ under Obama. We were going down, I agree with that, but slowly. The fact you see people in the streets now and less so then is the testament to the sharp decline in both our economy and our civil liberties. There were no moms in Portland being tear-gassed by secret police and no one putting people into vans off the street just like in Belarus. There was no flaunting of court decisions to anywhere like the same degree (how many times have the courts told the Trump administration to reunite those immigrant children with their parents? And has the Trump administration complied? They’re thumbing their noses at the courts). And while I know you guys think it’s the Democrats who are the Wall Street whores, notice during CoVID it’s the Republicans who are saying “we don’t need the HEROES Act or anything else, just lookie! the stock market is doing just fine!!). In fact, Trump’s response to CoVID more than anything has been largely governed by his fixation on the financial markets, and little more. You may rightfully complain about our current system of legal corruption of politicians (true) but if you give Trump a pass on the *illegal corruption* he is currently engaged in, what good does it do to pass new laws if you give someone a pass on our current weak laws?

But many of you guys are like the Communists who thought their “real enemy” was the Social Democrats and even willing to work with the Nazis at times because that Hitler guy was, you know, just a clown and buffoon and poorly-educated and thus not really dangerous. Micheal Cohen knows him much well; and yes, he’ IS dangerous. As much as you hate Sleepy Joe, there will be another free election in 2024 and/or 2028, and there is no guarantee with Trump if he gets his way.

Here I am at the workplace before I have to clock in. No time to say much. I will just offer another way to view the Trump vs. Biden choice. One of them is a plate of spaghetti and barbed wire. The other is a big bowl of broken glass soup. I leave it to the political taste-makers here to decide which is which.

But who’s who? When it was spaghetti and barbed wire, I could have gone either way. But changed to meatballs, that’s Trump to me. So, Biden is a big bowl of broken glass soup; Trump is meatballs and barbed wire. Again, for no other reason than “meatballs” for some reason invokes Trump to me.

That’s my productive thought for the day…

I was listening to NPR today . . . as I do EVERY day . . . and I heard a bit about Kamala Harris’s True Black background. I heard it from one of her Sorority Sisters, whom Morning Edition interviewed, about Kamala Harris’s student career at Howard University. That’s HOWard UniVERsity, folks, for the True Black Experience! Oh yah, you darn betcha! Don’cha know . . .

And this Sorority Sister Blacksplained to us all about how any criticism of Kamala Harris would by definition be racist bigotry, couched in all the old familiar racist tropes. And it would be against all of Sorority Sister Harris’s Black Sorority Sisters all over the country, who will make sure to take it racially-personally because it is certainly meant that way, don’cha know. And they will all Have Her Back. Oh yah! You betcha!

Thanks for explaining to me in advance what a White Privilege Racist I really am for condemning the Eric Holder-style immunity and impunity that Attorney General Harris gave to Steve Mnuchin for all his financial fraud crimes against the homeowners and homeowers of California. Thanks to Attorney General Harris’s get-out-of-jail-free card which she went out of her way to freely give to Steve Mnuchin, Steve Mnuchin was free to circulate among the General Citizen Population long enough for Trump to make him our Secretary of Treasury, where he was tasked with designing the Trump Tax Cut. Which is really the Mnuchin Tax Cut. Which would never have happened if Harris hadn’t extended herself on Mnuchin’s special behalf to keep Mnuchin free. So we could really call the tax cut the Harris-Trumpnuchin Tax Cut.

Maybe one of the (Biden)Harris team’s little hasbarists will come on here to point out what a racist pig White Privilege Suprematist I really am to look back at that instead of looking forward to the coming (Biden)Harris Redemption of the Soul of America!

Is Ian Welsh a White Privilege Suprematist for having pointed out some of these things to begin with? Well, he is Canadian, so maybe he gets a Special Foreigner Pass for having pointed these things out.