Wingnutties out of control!

[Boatrocker]

None of the lefty groups I subscribe to have mentioned this, so it may just be flaky wishful thinking.

Join us February 17, 2017 for a national general strike!

This grassroots movement is calling for a national general strike on Feburary 17th, 2017 in defense of our nation’s constitution. Participants pledge to be non-violent. On the day of the strike, we will not go to work (unless absolutely necessary). We will not go to school (unless necessary). We will not spend any money (unless necessary). Instead, we will show dissent with unconstitutional governance through gatherings and activities to be organized at the local/personal level. Some communities are planning a day of service. Instead of work, strikers will dedicate their time to serving neighbors in need. Find your people. Make your plan. Spread the word…

Find us on Facebook @Strike4Democracy
Follow us on twitter @F17Strike

I don't expect too much, certainly not here in the low-IQ, low-info, redneck, inbred South. Too many employers are already protected by At-Will laws, and are now emboldened by the whole atmosphere of newly-acceptable public displays of white man wrath against the commie-pinko-fag left that haunts their small imaginations.

[Vrede too]

The Coretta Scott King letter Elizabeth Warren wasn’t allowed to read

So, the racist, sexist GOP stops a woman from reading the words of a black woman about the racist, sexist nomination made by a racist, sexist POTUS, figures.

[Vrede too]

Congress' oversight of the White House is put on indefinite hold

The GOP detests ethics.

[rstrong]

Congress' oversight of the White House is put on indefinite hold

The solution is to stop saying "Trump" and start saying "Republicans."

In 2008 Republicans erased Bush II from history. Kept him away from the campaign trail and the convention. And constantly repeated that "he wasn't really a Republican", and that it was unfair to link him to the party.

Republicans nominated Trump in the primaries. As a whole they declared him their ideal to run the country. He didn't get elected in isolation; he needed and got the Republican machine and Republican voters to do it. He has the support of the Republican-controlled Congress. His cabinet is all Republicans, being confirmed by Republicans.

Keep reminding people: These are not Trump policies and staff; they're Republican policies and staff. Make sure they never forget it, and make sure they know it won't be forgotten in 2020.

[Vrede too]

2018. I'm sure that people are tallying each one of the pro-Trump votes and statements for use after the inevitable meltdown.

[Vrede too]

The Great Unchecked Legislative F*ckfest of 2017 | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS

This could be overly pessimistic about the right and overly optimistic about the resistance, but it would be pretty hard to argue that it's impossible on either count anymore:
Make America Ungovernable

[rstrong]

Make America Ungovernable

The article's opening paragraph:

Donald Trump’s regime is rapidly reconfiguring the United States into an authoritarian state. All forms of dissent will soon be criminalized. Civil liberties will no longer exist. Corporate exploitation, through the abolition of regulations and laws, will be unimpeded. Global warming will accelerate. A repugnant nationalism, amplified by government propaganda, will promote bigotry and racism. Hate crimes will explode. New wars will be launched or expanded.

Even in the Trump era, this is wingnuttery.

Yes, Trump sure seems to want an authoritarian state when he's criticized. Yes, Trump/Bannon and friends have a long alt-right white supremacist streak.

But less than a month in we can see him clearly failing. The press has learned to deal with his gang. They're no longer afraid to call a lie a lie, or to ban Conway and others from their show for refusing to give honest answers.

The courts aren't afraid to shoot down his executive orders. The intelligence agencies aren't afraid to leak the most damning things about his crowd that they think Americans need to know. Republicans are increasingly willing to criticize and contradict him.

Corporate exploitation through the abolition of regulations and laws is more realistic, but that's being more libertarian than authoritarian.

[Vrede too]

Agreed, it's a very bleak and perhaps unrealistic prognosis, but your evidence of reaction to it is not victory yet.

The press has been down on Trump for a long time. It hasn't mattered.
The courts have only shot down his Muslim Ban executive order. He can sign new slightly less onerous and ambitious ones, and a newly emboldened ICE is already rounding up large numbers of immigrants. Gorsuch may be confirmed and Notorious RBG is old, old, old.

Trump seeks pause in legal fight with revised travel ban

The intelligence agencies leaks are embarrassing him, but haven't stopped him yet and Bannon is on the NSC. I expect a crackdown on them, don't know whether it will be effective.

White House considering outsider to review intelligence agencies

Some Republicans are increasingly willing to criticize and contradict, but so far the only casualty is Puzder. Meanwhile, Trump will be happy to sign off on their obscene agenda.
Corporate oligarchy is authoritarian, libertarian Laissez-faire business policy is not the goal.
Flynn will be replaced by someone equally onerous, if not as overtly nutty and unpatriotic.

As I stated with my introductory caveats, I'm not to the point of agreeing with Chris Hedges but who would have predicted a year ago that things would be as bad as they already are?

[O Really]

...but who would have predicted a year ago that things would be as bad as they already are?

That would be anybody who would have predicted a Trump win. Michael Moore, for example. Or anybody else that was making a "what if" guess about an improbable or unthinkable Trump win. A full year ago, maybe there would have been more expectation that Trump's campaign act would change into something rational after he won on the backs of the great unwashed and the "poorly educated." But once it became apparent he wasn't changing, I think it was quite predictable that he'd be a disaster in a hurry.

The mess, scandals, lies, and sheer incompetence won't matter to his poorly educated because all they want to do is "wreck Washington" and have no clue as to the complexity of the various issues. But he's not gaining any new supporters (or trying), and he's continuing to lose many of the former "better than Hillary" fence-sitters.

On another note, however, his Putz replacement nominee is actually about as good as you could expect from any Republican. Not that he's not a right-winger, but he's got a pretty good record of being competent and knowledgeable in his work with the NLRB. I'm guessing this nomination is a fluke, however, and doesn't signal a turn toward rationality.

[Vrede too]

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Assistant to the President and chief strategist, and National Security Council member Steve Bannon

No one other than "wingnutty" pessimists like a Chris Hedges would have predicted that.

[O Really]

Those aren't surprising nominations. Sessions was in Trump's pocket from early on, and Bannon was a (the) major campaign shaker. You know they're going to be given something big. NSC appointment as spoils, though, was unpresidented. DeVos is worthless fershure, but when you look at her contributions her nomination for a Cabinet post might have been expected. I wouldn't have guessed Tillerson at all, though, at least not until Trump's selection pattern emerged and Tillerson's Russian ties were told.

But I wasn't thinking so much about the quality of nominations. I wouldn't have guessed he'd have picked worse choices than he could have gotten from randomly pulling from any voter list. I was thinking more of the mess as a whole. No organization, scandals up the yingyang, internal strife, firings, conflicts with current law and legal process... yada... yeah, I would have predicted that.

[Vrede too]

His ineptness may save us from some of the other bad things, or not.

[Vrede too]

[Vrede too]

I just learned that my Rep. Mark Meadows is Chairman of the RWNJ Freedom Caucus. I'm so proud I could burst.

billy.pilgrim, are you in Florida's 3rd Congressional District? If so, your Rep. Ted Yoho is also in the Freedom Caucus.

[Vrede too]

From Progress NC Action:

Richard Burr takes part in Trump’s Russia coverup

Last week, the Washington Post revealed that the Trump administration enlisted Sen. Richard Burr in an effort to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia. Burr admitted to the Post that he spoke to reporters and denied that the Trump campaign carried on extensive conversations with Russian intelligence sources during the 2016 election.

Richard Burr is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is getting ready to investigate the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian intelligence. How can he lead a fair and impartial investigation if he is already taking part in Trump’s coverup?

Burr represents the people of North Carolina, not Donald Trump. He should be upholding his oversight duties as a senator instead of carrying water for an administration that is under multiple investigations for its ties to Russia.

On the very day Sen. Burr admitted to anonymously speaking to reporters at Trump’s behest, Trump gave a speech in which he criticized the practice of journalists using anonymous sources. This is a stunning level of hypocrisy from Trump as well as Burr.

Bottom Line: Sen. Burr’s involvement in Trump’s Russia coverup represents an outrageous conflict of interest and a betrayal of Burr’s duties as a senator.

[Vrede too]

Saw a PBS discussion with a 28 year CIA guy and one of the authors of:

The New Yorker
Annals of Diplomacy, March 6, 2017 Issue
Trump, Putin, and the New Cold War
What lay behind Russia’s interference in the 2016 election—and what lies ahead?
By Evan Osnos, David Remnick, and Joshua Yaffa

I was struck by one of the points made, paraphrased - It's what Russia/USSR does and has done for a long time, just with new tools. What's changed is how susceptible we were to it. Two years ago our concern was that a Moldova could be swayed.

[billy.pilgrim]

I just learned that my Rep. Mark Meadows is Chairman of the RWNJ Freedom Caucus. I'm so proud I could burst.

billy.pilgrim, are you in Florida's 3rd Congressional District? If so, your Rep. Ted Yoho is also in the Freedom Caucus.

I'm in the 1st with the man child Matt gaetz the sponsor of the bill to eliminate the EPA

Escambia county not only is the most polluted in florida, it is more polluted than all other countries combined.

That's my wife flailing her arms at him on the cnn footage of his town hall.

[O Really]

Here's our local slimeball in the 19th.
No conflicts in his background. <major rolling eyes>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Rooney

[billy.pilgrim]

Here's our local slimeball in the 19th.
No conflicts in his background. <major rolling eyes>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Rooney

But your guy builds great structures like donald.


Mine just gets to avoid florida law.

In 2008, Gaetz was arrested for a DUI as he was driving back from the Swamp, a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, Florida, in a 2001 BMW SUV registered to his father. While he was arrested and refused to take a breathalyzer test, "he didn't have his license suspended for a year when he refused the breath test — as Florida law dictates. And he didn't have that refusal used against him in a criminal proceeding." At the time of his arrest and consequent criminal proceedings, his father was serving as a local politician and he avoided a DUI conviction, despite the fact that the police reported that "Gaetz fumbled for his license and registration, his eyes were watery and bloodshot, and he swayed and staggered when he got out of the car."[3]

[Vrede too]

We haven't heard from the SC folks, but so far I think I'm "winning".

I just learned that my Rep. Mark Meadows is Chairman of the RWNJ Freedom Caucus. I'm so proud I could burst....

Wneglia has homes in both Columbia and Charleston. So, he could be represented by Jim Clyburn (D), AT "hiker" Mark Sanford or Joe "You lie!" Wilson.