133 Comments

Yep, we will be so fucked with the king and his faithful crew taking over our government, our lives. Again, I would like to just thank the stupid-ignorant-uneducated-educated-selfish-bitches-&-bastards who sat at home playing with themselves on their couches instead of voting AND to those who voted for the Nazis because they felt so deprived! Screaming loudly…can you hear me?

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Sooo…is it too soon to consider secession for New England + NYC in alliance with the sister Republic of Cascadia and Canada? Timothy Snyder has raised the possibility. It would be an economic powerhouse.

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Can we include New Jersey and the Blue state of Maryland?

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Can we include the blue county of Travis in Texas? Including the City of Austin? Help!

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I hear that (as a former long-time resident).

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Dane County, Wisconsin! And Milwaukee!

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Having lived there, it's a great county, however, you better be ready to put up with folks who are big meat eaters, drive big gas guzzling vehicles, and who expect people to work really hard and not whine about their lot in life. Travis County tends to vote Democrat because of the University of Texas influence in the county, however, overall, they are some pretty darn conservative Democrats. Now, you want an area that's all about growing wealth, that's Travis county!

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California, Oregon and Washington too.

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That is called Cascadia, an idea broached several years ago before America bared its true colors

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Michigan?

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Any state that voted for Trump does not get to come along. Sorry.

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Unfortunately, there are millions of people in red states who didn’t vote for him and campaigned against him and his lackeys.

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I just sent this email to my U.S. Rep, a Republican in response to his announcement that he is joining the DOGE:

"With all due respect, when we are on the verge of a hostile takeover of our Democratic government (as was just attempted in South Korea), by an incoming administration intent on following Putin's play book, I am NOT worried about any fraud or efficiency in government right now. I want to know how YOU are going to protect us from lawless tyranny. You were a success in the military. Please be a successful defender of our Democratic rights and principles. Surely you know how close we are to that precipice. Protect us in Northern Michigan. Thank You.

P.S. I worked as a REPUBLICAN lobbyist, earning the respect and friendship of Michigan Senator George McManus and Michigan Representative Jason Allen. Please Protect Us.

MaryPat ...

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Good for you Mary. I think many Republicans are in denial. they play down everything Trump says/

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You do not want Maryland in any sort of coalition to grow wealth. I live near Maryland and the area around the Capital Beltway is one dumpster fire after another. The people in general are nice and kind, but the overall leadership, when compared to leaders in New England, is pretty average. Last, the crime rate in Maryland is 80 per 1,000; compare that to New York State where the crime rate is 38 per 1,000. Maryland has a lot of goodness overall but the leaders just cannot keep the place under control.

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As much as I agree with this thought, that would be considered a trigger ‘insurrection’ by *Rump and his gang of thugs just waiting to put on their armbands and jackboots. Now would be the time to secede before they install obedient generals in the Pentagon, which is certainly going to happen.

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Yes, exactly, Richard. Trump is well aware control of the military is essential to a hostile takeover.

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Actually, if the New England states (incl. Maryland), West Coast states and Midwestern states of Minnesota and Illinois form an alliance with Canada and Mexico, we'd have the MAGA flyover states surrounded!!! Add to this the liberal democratic insurgents located in almost every big city in MAGA country, and well, . . .

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I would love to see secession. Unfortunately, our mayor wants to play nice with the MAGAts, hoping Trump will pardon him. Adams has been a terrible mayor for NYC, and he believes the Constitution doesn't protect "illegals". He would never support secession.

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Check the Supreme Court case of 1869, Texas v. White. Not happening. From the Duquense Klein Law Home Page (Juris Magazine): At the culmination of the Civil War, the United States Supreme Court decided Texas v. White, which started as a dispute over bonds issued in Texas during the war. Texas attempted to leave the United States when it supported the Confederacy, where it supplied troops to fight with the rebel forces. The United States Supreme Court established a new constitutional principle in Texas v. White, holding that states cannot unilaterally secede.

Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase stated: “When Texas became one of the United States, she entered into an indissoluble relation. All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the state. The Act, which consummated her admission into the Union, was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final.”

If it doesn’t seem hard enough to secede, some constitutional scholars say that secession could be considered treason under the Articles of the Constitution. In an article for the Kansas City Star, Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, discussed the Supremacy Clause in Article 6 of the United States Constitution.

“What the Constitution says repeatedly is once you’re in (as a state), you’re in. If people want to secede, they are allowed to leave; they just can’t take the land and the water with them. There is a lawful way to secede – it’s called emigration. They can move to Canada,” Amar wrote.

So, despite how a lot of folks feel, states aren't going anywhere. Time to get back on the horse and elect some different folks in 2 years time starting at the local level up to the House and Senate level.

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And Pennsylvania. The deplorables that live in the Pennsyltucky center of the state got him elected. Philly and Pittsburgh are blue!

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As James Carville said in 2016, Mrs. Clinton did not have enough votes coming out of the cities in order to cover the suburban and rural votes. Same issue with VP Harris in 2024. Whatever that magic number is, VP Harris missed it.

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New England except for New Hampshire, which remains stubbornly MAGAtized.

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Afterthought: I see Biden is considering the preemptive pardons for the MAGA enemies that Lucian suggested should be done the other day. This just shows how serious all this is. No one would even have conceived of the necessity for such a thing 10 years ago. But what if Trump at some point decided to ignore the pardons? Agai, who is going to stop him? The GOP created a Frankenstein monster and the voters turned him loose.

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Let's hear it for the Americans who voted for fascism I suspect they may not like it as much as they thought they would when it finally hits them. Fuck this country.

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For sure Linda. They will get what they wished for but totally not fair to those of us who love true democracy, a fair and just legal system and goodness in all its forms and who abhors hateful angry people like Trump and all his gang of ne'er do wells.

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We'll be harmed first. By the time his mouth breathing yahoo's are affected it will be too late.

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Yes. By the way when you talk to those people they actually believe mainstream media is lying and their far right media is telling the truth. Is that some kind of brainwashing/self hypnosis, or what is it? Isee most journalist both print and live on mainstream media as your common everyday decent Amrican. They abide by firm rules, never offer a judgement without substantiating the facts. Whereas most of their media people are blatantly dishonest and twist the facts to suit their point of view. Tucker Carlson is a prime example, plus they claim to be the real patriots?????

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We are living through a national psychosis just as what happened in 1930s Germany.

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So true Marlene. to me, from the very beginning it is as though Hitler and his henchmen had all reincarnated. I bet the second Trump knew he won he was visualizing all that Lucian has laid out here and can't wait to get started building the concentration camp for the "undesirables"that will start with the Latino's buy t as he becomes emboldened with his king-like power handed him from the Supreme Court and finds there is no one to stop him, who knows who might be next?

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Robert, a farmer in TX has apparently “donated” land for the concentration…uh…detention camp to be built!

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When it comes to camps, let's be accurate. There is a huge difference between concentration camps (Dachau), internment camps (What FDR did to US citizens of Japanese ancestry in WWII), and detention camps (law enforcement based facilities). I recommend you fly to Germany and visit Dachau. You will never again use the phrase 'concentration camp' when writing. I saw it in 1966 (11 years post WWII and it was frightening) and again in 1988 where, despite the continued morphing into a historical site, it was still horrifying. Apologies for the bluntness, but the term 'concentration camp' is inappropriate.

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I can hear you all the way over here in GA Marlene ❤️💥💥🙏

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I thought you might, Dick!

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I am quite serious about this. What few have mentioned in all of this is climate collapse. Its progression is not tied to America’s electoral calendar. Four years and who knows even decades of authoritarian control would be truly calamitous for the world’s future. Musk will go along with tariffs because he doesn’t want the Chinese electric cars in the country because they are better and way more affordable. Do our moral values allow women and gays to be stripped of their rights as fragile white men decide what normal is; while more children will be murdered by their weapons of war? I want a country that looks to a better future and not some imaginary Ozzie snd Harriet past. We can do this if we just use our imagination to free ourselves of patriarchal myths about manifest destiny and American exceptionalism. Nations are stronger if people of shared values are in stronger agreement. It would also acknowledge you can’t change people only possibly influence them. AA figured that one out years ago. Divorce is needed.

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Don't forget to throw in the "progressives" who voted for Jill Stein (Russian asset) because of their naivety over the Middle East.

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Yeah and where oh where is Jill now? She reappears every 4 years! A pox on her.

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Lucian, totally agree. That’s why Biden needs to pull the trigger on the Insurrection Act and shut Trumpy down before he gets a chance. More than enough evidence of interference and malfeasance to justify doing it. Otherwise Biden is surrendering the nation over to a criminal organization without a shot.

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We’re dealing with an entirely different situation than in 2016. Trumpy was a total dim bulb and there was enough left of the Republican Party to at least offer some token resistance. Now you have a whole crew swooping in and instituting a dictatorship on day 1. They have not made any secret of their intentions. Biden has got to understand that he personally is at risk if Trumpy gets back in office. There is no negotiation and influence that can change the arc of this with Trumpy and his TreasonWeasels. Corporate media has totally failed and has flipped to the other side. The legal system has been totally compromised and cannot be trusted. Take Trumpy at his word and believe him. Enough justification with Smith’s work to justify declaring the Insurrection Act and detain the entire lot of them in lockup pending the creation and execution of a Truth Commission to bring all of this stuff to light. Still have money and cards to play , but the clock is running.

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Biden doesn't give a damn. He won't lift a finger. His sole interest was in pardoning his son and the rest us can go scratch. There was some talk in Congress at one point about repealing the Insurrection Act but the old fart Dem "leadership" didn't bother acting when they had the chance. The American public will just yawn and play video games and consume celebrity gossip. The military will hem and haw and fall into line. We have no courage or decency left in this filthy country.

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You’re wrong.

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The professional military takes an oath to defend the Constitution. They won't fire on their own citizens, nor will many in the National Guard.

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prove it

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~Brava~ for your pauciloquent post, courage and decency, Linda.

Am grateful Senate Ds failed at killing the filibuster, something only the short-sighted supported.

Am grateful D House and Senate members failed to outlaw ownership of AR/AK style rifles something only the short-sighted supported.

Ironic those who could only see the next day are now the ones claiming to see into the next year, then the next, and the next. As you mentioned Ds had the power to patch holes exposed by the previous Adm inc the Insurrection Act and all they have to show for it is a t-shirt saying the President of the Senate must count the previously certified ECVs.

Only one thing changed. That change was having Rs in control of the USG rather than Ds. Affirms solely viewing thru a political lens is the path to conflict in thought and contradiction in words and deeds.

As to the pardon, same holds true. Simply substitute Don Jr for Hunter and Trump for Biden and the honest reply would be OMG after saying he would not pardon Don Jr, he went and did it. Alternatively strike Hinter and Biden's name and ask if issuing a pardon days before PersonA was to be sentenced to prison, PersonB pardoned them because perhaps down the road PersonA, a convicted felon might face additional charges.

Some people would ask what is the relationship, if any between PersonA and PersonB that PersonB would shield PersonA's additional crimes from ever being prosecuted. Others would say WTF, who in their right mind shields criminals from further prosecution unless the person has valuable info to trade and has served some of their sentence. Then add the kicker, PersonB said to one and all, am not going to pardon PersonA.

The idea of lashing out at those who think through X in the short, med and longterm keeps getting repeated. Lashing out and venting to blow off steam is one thing and is easily absorbed. Juvenile name-calling and more and more vulgarity a substitute for thinking things through. acceptable. Niithah is spitting out insults while ignoring the facts of the matter. And casting blame everywhere except who, when, where and how it originated. Instead, pretend to know the unknowable-why- by inserting their own. As if things happen w/o who, what, where, when, and how.

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Pardoning hunter is small potatoes compared to what the felon / rapist and his minions have in mind. Personally I'm glad he did it. Time to move on...

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Rich, I agree completely, it might be our last chance

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Biden will never do it - weak and impotent old man that he is, he wants to shake hands with the felon / rapist to show how he wants to make nice with the red haters.

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The insurrection on January 6th failed. Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi and Mark Milley made it fail. Under Trump’s first term there were record breaking marches from the first Women’s March that my younger than me friends went to from the red state of Tennessee. I live in ATL. We elected Joe Biden in 2020 and Ossoff and Warnock in January 2021. Do not give up on the people of the south. Brian Kemp here in GA wants to run for president in 2028. Say what you want to about DeSantis but the citizens of FL keep him in check just like we do in GA. 2020 and STOP THE STEAL failed here. In the south. Brian Kemp and Brad Raffensberger hate Trump’s guts. We in the south have mighty history. My ancestor David Sadler fought in the American Revolution in South Carolina. My relatives are state senators and reps there today. Yes we were on the wrong side of the Civil War obviously but Sherman and Grant burned ATL to the ground and sowed salt in

the fields so cotton could not grow. My father was a decorated combat vet from

the Bartle of Okinawa the last battle in WW2. He was an American hero until he died at age 91. He was from South Carolina and Louisiana. He took shit from no one. My twin brother graduated from West

Point in 1972 after playing football for Army in four Army Navy games which Army won. He is from Louisiana like I am. I went to LSU. I imagine you have seen LSU win national championships a few times. My point is I HOPE Trump tries to run it through the south we beat his cowardly ass down

in GA and Fani Willis got his mugshot. Her father is a Black

Panther. And I am retired flight attendant who flew through

9/11. I learned to trash talk at LSU in the 60’s and I could dispatch Donald Trump with one hand. I do plane crashes for money and I can cook. Send Trump to Georgia because Brian Kemp wants to run for president of the United States. He has what it takes but Ron DeSantis does not, Brad Ragffensberger and Jack

Smith are intimately acquainted. And we have genteel manners in the south and don’t talk if we don’t trust you. Like I said Trump got his ass beat by Nancy Pelosi who

is 83 years old on J6. Trump

and Putin are old men with heart failure. Look at Zelenskyy. We are not scared in the south of any punk. This is a true story one of many. Send him to Georgia. Please

do Fani Willis is waiting at the jail. Trump is afraid of black women. I love you all in this group. John Lewis was my representative for many years and he said get in good trouble. Love to you all. And happy holidays however you celebrate. Do not count us out. 💜 Mary….

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Thank You for this, and your continued service, Mary!!

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Geaux Tigers! It's the SEC where it just means more! Given how mediocre Alabama played this year, what happened in Baton Rouge when the Tide came to town? I was surprised Alabama won and then they turn around and get hammered by Oklahoma. Good Grief! BTW, what's the latest on Brian Kelly?

SEC! SEC! (And I don't mean the Securities & Exchange Commission!) Cheers!

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Lucian: Yes, it can happen here and it may. What we have to do is hit the streets like they did in Seoul, like they did in Israel.

Second, and this is not snark: what do you want Biden to do? Prevent Trump from taking office? How? Hold his own insurrection?

We don't like the results of the election, but Trump won. I'm not going down the Blue-Anon rabbit hole. The way I see it, we can't be looking for any one savior. It has to be us. How? I don't know. Mueller didn't save us. Jack Smith didn't save us. What's left is us.

I value you and your work and my fellow subscribers. Hang in there. Maybe we can help buoy one another while figuring out what's next.

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Amen. Lucian is not about to say “we’re fucked“ and give up, and I’m surprised so many of his readers seem inclined to do so.

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I think we're all feeling grief and shock. Plus holidays, which at their best, can be exhausting and at their worst, difficult and depressing for many people. I have temporarily cut down on my news watching and reading. For me, it is helping drown out the noise. Churchill is said to have said " when you go through hell, keep going." I suspect Lucian and other students of history here will know the proper quote.

But, I think we may have to hit the streets in protest, like South Korea.

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every answer is, we are so fucked... Yes sir we surely are. I am still shell shocked that 77M Americans voted for more orange turd facism. Sorry to say, but the average American seems stupid, short sighted and selfish to me

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That’s what 40-years of dumbing down the electorate gets you. Probably more like 50 years as I think about it. This country doesn’t like decent presidents like Carter and Biden. We elect Nixons (twice), Reagans (twice), Bushes (thrice), and finally *Rump (twice). The stupidity has a long history.

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Sadly, we hope the Bums will turn out to be empathetic leaders...

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I agree about Carter but I am coming around to the idea that Biden has mostly been terrible, especially with foreign policy and not getting out of the way for 2024 like he promised.

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Yeah. I wend down a similar train of thought within 4 hours of the midnight declaration Seoul.

My take? Fuuuuucccckkkk!!!

We really have a shitstorm on the horizon

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Well, we do have a chance….if….the Dems get their gluteus maximi in gear, vote as a block and block everything the Trumpsters do. Right now, all it takes is one defection…sickness, absentee, etc. to completely derail the Trumpsters.

And I keep on thinking that Trump is not running the show here. He’s being aided by others and they are making the decisions for him

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*Rump’s aim is to rule by decree. No voting of any kind.

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Bannon and Miller run this shit show!

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trump watched his own failed coup on TV while throwing ketchup at the wall. He thinks invoking the insurrection act will get him the tough guy cred to strut around with real tyrants like Putin. So yeah, he's trying to put cretins in place to help him make his sick dreams come true.

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Bannon's promise from last go round....The Deconstruction of the Administrative State!

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It literally makes my stomach turn

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Benjamin Franklin: “This Constitution … can only end in despotism … when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other.”

Franklin also proposed, as the motto the nation he had helped create: “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God." Hope we all obey.

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That's quite a quote:

https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a7s3.html

Though one might argue that the election is the result of a rebellion to the rather tyrannical Democrat party.

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I have some fuck head friends and family that voted for this orange monster and one or two who married illegals. The Christmas get together will be interesting.

We are indeed in for a shit storm on the horizon and the markets will come to a screeching halt if this comes to pass, because business hates uncertainty. Hang on and could some stunt like this be his undoing?

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Well, at least the illegals are still here. My niece tried everything to get hers legalized, but finally moved him and their three kids to Canada. She's a nurse practitioner fluent in English, French, and Spanish, and they were glad to have her.

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I truly fear that Trump will proclaim a state of emergency and declare martial law on January 20. What will the military do then? What can anyone do? I am terrified and in despair. Who's going to stop him? Congress? The courts? This is the Fourth Reich looming and he'll be looking for his Reichstag fire, and we will be fucked. And I believe the military will go along with it. And I'm too old and too poor to escape. Never thought I'd end my life under Fascism.

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The dirty bomb will land on Jan 20, 2025 @ 12:01 PM. The fallout will be terrible.

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I read somewhere earlier tonight that the real reason for this pushback against Latinos and other darker skinned persons is because these people work an pay taxes on their incomes.If Donald Trump deports these individuals, he loses their tax base and therefore hampers Social Security.What an abominable situation this cretin is trying to inflict on our country.

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With this gang of cutthroats anything is possible…unfortunately

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All those elected Republicans you mention fail to understand that when Trump runs out of liberals, Democrats, LGBTQ, immigrants, journalists and others to abuse, he will come for them. Just ask any of the former Putin toadies who found themselves falling out of 6th floor windows or sipping poison tea.

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Dems need to correctly "brand" the the whole MAGA GOP as Trump sycophants willing to support whatever the would be King declares. We can rely on the anti-American MAGA agenda to be chaotically defined for us by Trump on a day to day basis. But it would be ineffective to rail separately against Trump or MAGA without packing them together as the total Trump Death Star.

The best anti-MAGA lesson we can learn just happened in South Korea....Everyday Koreans stood in the streets against a military coup attempt by the conservative government and toppled the coup..in 6 hours, not 4 years!

The lesson?

We are a 249 year old democracy who will never go back to an autocratic Kingship form of government. Trump/MAGA/The Heritage Society, may have a lot "ideas" for day one.

We need to stand up together, +74 million strong, to be sure they have a lot of good trouble shoving them down the throats of the governed.

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