Are MAGA supporters just as bad as Trump? Someone asks.

However ill or well-informed they might be, MAGA seems to rely on a base of the despondent crossed with Christian Nationalists, and the rest are betting those votes against the Democrats, who I feel are not connecting with the rational side of their populist and popular policies.

You know how disdain and disgust are hard-wired in to Conservatism, and with his prevarications as well as the vulnerable parts of policy like the border and housing, some of them might not be such bad folk, but they need an opposition champion. With the neo-con alternative in Haley, and Trump-lite in the rest, he remains the default choice, for many people who embrace the Stolen Election argument, and those in stringent opposition to an establishment that has seemed - seemed, mind you- to offer nothing different.

I think there's a factual argument to be made for more progressive improvements which have been advanced. But if your town is shrinking from out-sourcing, it's really hard to establish small businesses, might be impossible to sustain your standard of living. There is genuine pain, felt by all of us working for corporate America.

At least, this is what I tell myself. I realize there are a lot of A**^#^@s out there who really are just-as-bad. And on whole, we started passing the threshold for Shamelessness and Prevarication back to his campaign launch. I really think our adventures in South America, not to mention proliferate gun sales, have destabilized the countries from which migrants are fleeing, and do not see them as 'vermin.' (There's no logic whatsoever in saying there's an organized effort to send the mentally-ill from asylums. If those countries had that sort of infrastructure, they'd have better mental health care. Tickets and transportation to America for the mentally incapictated are not a cheap or viable solution- that's fear-mongering.)

But keep hope.

I really don't know how a force of freedom fighters could duplicate Washington's courageous rally from the winter depths of Valley Forge, with a massive domestic force in place that is OK with the kind of extra-legal activity we saw with U.S. support of South American dictators. It would be a long struggle to build anything from a coalition of non-dicatatorship partisans, reliant largely on the ineptitude and croneyism of a fascist regime, which might be passed down for several terms. I feel this dictatorship suggestion will not alleviate the burdens of the working people, just as it's failed abroad. It's probably favorable to rich right-wingers who would love to lock up the opposition, who, in this GOP-led House that passed just 22 bills, isn't that effective against them, anyway.

I realize these are the times that try the souls of men. Keep the faith that we can emerge from this eclipse of genuine equality for all.

The pen should answer the sword: Responsibility, in the Capitol Riots aftermath

Not for nothing is the pen considered mightier than the sword. For one, it was not strong warrior hands which most threatened the well-being of a nation and its elected officials today, but disproportionately small, weak ones, opposable thumbs, an opposition to the republic you American friends pledged to as children. The sword- with buffoonish desecration, in the aimless majority, but motivated to overturn the counted (sometimes thrice-counted) votes that inform the certified electoral votes-struck the doors of our Capitol. The 'sword' slashed into a chamber whose abuse of power we have customarily despised, whose duty to society, however we judge earnestly what it has yielded, is a place symobolic of our hope that we may talk, a more diverse people, of best plans. May it be a humbler, less selfish place. (Yet, the continued business of scoring points off baseless claims of fraud was a continued business.) The preservation of that hope, calls for the might of the pen, now. May every villain run a'snare of Justice. May an example be written and executed as a resounding reminder that the preservation of the laws, in turn, places not its executors, above them, nor beyond the causal threads of the web of Consequences.


A further examination of the aftermath- there was no apparent plan for a replacement government, just nihilism and securing the unlawful rein of Donald Trump- has revealed a chilling amount of precision amidst the hooliganism. Elaine Godfrey of The Atlantic reports:

A screaming mob had forced its way into the Capitol on the west side, and more people were climbing through the broken windows of the east entrance. A group led by a man in a QAnon T-shirt chased a police officer up to the second floor, chanting and demanding to speak with senators. Some wore tactical gear—helmets, armor, and black masks covering their entire face. It was easy to miss them with all the coverage of the costumes and poop-smearing and poses struck in Statuary Hall, but they were there, these military-styled men, carrying blunt instruments and fistfuls of zip ties, better known as flex cuffs, capable of restraining hostages. At least one was an Air Force combat veteran, The New Yorker reported. They seemed to act with purpose and knew their way around the Capitol. One carried a semiautomatic weapon and 11 Molotov cocktails. Later, police officers found the two pipe bombs. The devices were outside the buildings housing the Democratic and Republican National Committees, just blocks from the Capitol. Federal agents discovered a truck full of rifles, shotguns, and bomb-making supplies parked outside the RNC headquarters.

Will the Party of Law and Order idea actually play in two years? I also wonder if there's going to be a third party. How are they going to appeal to suburbanites after this day? It was just such a huge gesture...so dark, I'm not sure it's sank in, yet. How will enabling Trump gain anyone's further trust now? I'll be honest, it's a wonder this ended without more fighting-to-the-death. It's a wonder we have a space to think of this as over, because it still might be just the eye of the storm, despite its climatic nature. There was a point where the nation couldn't be sure we weren't about to hear about dead Congress people or hostages. T*****'s refusal to concede fueled this by a factor of, say, a hundred. People with no agenda except following a faithless demagogue attempted a coup, today. Everything else he's done: 75 million voters.

Do they dare stymie this legally without fear of reprisal? There will be more if he's not re-instated, and the reaction to that would be the ultimate American nightmare. I think removing him also removes the objective that galvanizes specific actions.

Do they (and what 'they') dare stymie this legally without fear of reprisal? There will be more if he's not re-instated, and the reaction to that would be the ultimate American nightmare. I think removing him also removes the objective that galvanizes specific violent action.

There's got to be a serious surgery. I asked myself so many times: who's going to realize they can be Republicans without being Trumpites? So much of this movement is built on fear of percieved leftist extremism- but can they count on "we're not as bad as them" to offer voters, security? Voting is about security and preservation of rights, moreso than to simply vent anger. Even the wrath against Trump tied directly, not to being personally insulted, but actually endangered. Materially disenfranchised, as natural and fiduciary resources are pirated.

It's so Machiavellian, these end-of-America fear-motivations tossed about. There's got to be enough peace among us to debate the value of our strategies to survive, individually, but as individuals among a people.

Who's going to realize there's no other way to sell the conservative party as rational?

Not for nothing is the pen considered mightier than the sword.