You still think they are going to support the use of the 25th Amendment?
By the way, I don’t expect anyone to actually read the links I provided on these two issues, because Americans can’t be bothered to read, which is why we’re here.
Republicans have systematically destroyed our educational system over decades of voting against funding it, precisely so that we would arrive at this moment. They wanted an uneducated, easily-led population, and they got it. And it’s our fault. Yes, ours, because we don’t read anything unless we have to. Well, guess what—now, we have to.
You think Republicans are going to suddenly change direction and stop supporting the agenda of hatred and authoritarianism and ripping the Constitution into tiny pieces?
Even if they did, what would it matter, if they are still there when the dust settles?
They obviously WANT all of this. They’re not simply being polite or playing politics. They want this madness. They want fascism in America.
You watched as the Supreme Kangaroo Court tried unsuccessfully to put a leash on the monster it created.
The only way you get out of this mess is through violent revolution.
You’ll be tempted to tell yourself that violence is what I’m hoping for. But that’s stupid. I’m going to be 53 years old this year, and I have a long list of things I would rather be doing, and none of them involve a revolution that will undoubtedly sow chaos and destruction in our lives in ways we can’t even imagine.
But I know what the alternative looks like. It looks like North Korea. It looks like Cambodia, or the current events in Iran. It looks like Hungary and Russia and Turkey. It looks like the dozens of other authoritarian regimes around the globe. It’s far uglier than any civil war.
It’s an intolerable day-to-day dystopian nightmare.
Even if the president and the vice president and half the current Republican Congress were suddenly gone, you would still have a huge problem in this country.
Because scenes like the one in this photo don’t just happen. There’s still massive support for this bullshit. The most dramatic polls say that only 68% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the president.
Think about that for a moment.
That’s a problem. That’s a huge problem.
You have huge numbers of Americans who refuse to fact-check anything. They still get their news here:
That should tell you that nobody is getting out of this the easy way.
Despite Jon Oliver’s criticism of right-wingers saying “Civil war is inevitable,” I assert that any reasonable person, a person who’s head is not buried in the dirt, should come to precisely that conclusion.
There’s no reasoning with people this hateful and stupid. There’s no debating, no middle ground to be had.
That’s not my choice. It’s their choice.
You cannot reason with someone who doesn’t understand logic and rejects facts.
Continuing to insist that diplomacy always wins the day isn’t merely naive, it’s outright dangerous.
Nobody is getting a pony.
Authoritarians don’t allow free and fair elections.
If you are still telling yourself the lie that they can’t stop the elections, then you’re delusional and you are missing the point.
They don’t have to stop the elections.
They only have to interfere with them, sway the elections through gerrymandering and other tactics, dissuade people from voting through intimidation, stop the counting of votes, deny the results, and there are other methods that we won’t even discuss.
You’re not voting your way out of this.
And you’re not going to learn to live with the new order; it’s going to be absolutely insufferable.
If you want to watch a really fantastic movie that perfectly illustrates how intolerable fascism is, while also managing to make you laugh and smile, then watch this on Netflix:
The Penguin Lessons
You won’t believe what I’m saying. You’ll continue to watch and wait and complain and do nothing. You’ll be nervous but hopeful when the midterms are closer.
But then, you’ll watch them go sideways. And then you’ll act like no one warned you that this could happen.
You’ve been repeatedly warned.
You’ve heard it before—you want to know what you would have done in 1930s Germany?
You’re doing it right now.
All because you never took the time to study history, the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I and II. You never read the writings of the Founding Fathers. They warned us that we would have to fight the same battles again in the future.
But you were so sure that we’ve evolved, become more educated, empathetic, and that we’ve “outgrown all that.”
I have made myself abundantly clear in this space, many times. I believe there are only two likely outcomes in the near future, and I have been very open about it, despite the criticism I receive from most people.
One outcome is the solidification of an oppressive authoritarian regime in the United States of America. Critics will argue that the US has always been an oppressive regime, and they are not incorrect. However, they are foolish to think that it’s not about to become a hundred times worse if nothing is done to stop it. We will see something akin to a Fourth Reich.
And despite everyone having watched January 6th in real time, the average citizen is hiding their head in the sand, pretending that it could not possibly happen again, much less be worse. But it will be worse, much worse.
The other potential outcome is an uprising, and it’s hard to predict what such a thing would look like. But it’s clear that the citizens would themselves be taking up arms against the government. No one in the Democratic Party has the backbone to stand up to this laying low of the Constitution. Anyone trying to stop it doesn’t have the necessary support.
But rather than try to persuade anyone, yet again, why I believe these are the only likely outcomes, I’m going to give you different perspectives, the opinions of others. I don’t know that I have anything new to add, at least, not right now.
So, in no particular order, I give you some videos and articles that I’ve collected over the last several weeks.
The SAVE America Act
The bill, called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots, which some states already demand. It was approved on a mostly party-line vote, 218-213.
“would require Americans to prove they are citizens when they register to vote, mostly through a valid U.S. passport or birth certificate. It would also require a valid photo identification before voters can cast ballots…”
In addition to your driver’s license or State ID Card (which are fairly standard IDs) you might also be required to present your birth certificate or passport.
And there’s zero guarantee that they will not seize the ballots from any number of polling stations, insisting they (the Republican Party) count the ballots themselves. Who’s going to stop them? The same people who stopped them from seizing ballots in Georgia? (Because that was NOBODY)
Good article about how ICE is exactly what you’re afraid it is, a private army for a dictator.
And the only rational conclusion to arrive at is:
THE WORST POSSIBLE DECISION YOU CAN MAKE IS TO WAIT FOR IT TO GET STRONGER.
Should People on the Left Arm Themselves?
Who’s Silly Enough
to Think That They’ll
Do All of This?
The author of the article below is an incredibly intelligent man, and his work has proven to be disturbingly prophetic in the past. On the one hand, he is saying that it’s not too late to prevent the orange blob from subverting the midterms. On the other hand, he gives a laundry list of things that Democrats would need to do in order to prevent it.
I’m, shall we say, skeptical, at best.
Who’s going to stop them from doing it? The same people who are stopping the new Nazi SA/SS goon squads from terrorizing the country and killing innocent people? Who, exactly, is going to do all of these things that this author says we should do? Again, I agree with his assertions. But I disagree with his optimism.
NewsWeek article about the “nationalization” of elections
Once again, the Black Panthers are standing up, while the rest of us Americans slink around in shame, afraid of taking up arms.
But the Black population of America has NEVER been safe in this country. They already understand the assignment. They know that no one is coming to rescue them.
If the rest of the people who are so busy peacefully protesting would do the same, then you might actually see some positive results, possibly even without violence, although I wouldn’t count on it. But yes, it is possible, because it would be REAL PRESSURE, and not just performance art.
If You’re Still Here…
If you’re still here, and this is the first time you’ve read anything from me about this topic, you might want to know my thoughts.
I don’t know, maybe you’re mentally unstable or something. [A little self-deprecating humor to make the fascism go down easier.]
If you have gone through all that material and you want more, then here are the links to the pieces that I wrote about this situation (just the best ones).
I sent the piece below to every politician in my state (Oregon) that I could find an email address for. Of course, no one replied. They would never consider the ideas presented here in a serious manner, but I expected that.
I mention this because it’s only fair to warn you, don’t ever say to me, “Call your representatives!” If you do, I will likely not respond in a kind fashion.
If you went through all of those pieces and you still want more, then you should know two things. First, you are not well. You should seek help.
Second, you already know everything you could possibly need to know about what we’re facing. The only thing left to do is either get on your knees and practice kissing New Nazi ass, or take the advice given and start preparing yourself to fight.
If we Americans on the Left had any backbone, we’d all start talking to our neighbors today about forming armed “neighborhood watches.”
We would follow the brave and inspiring example of the good people of Lincoln Heights, Ohio.
Lincoln Heights, Ohio
The Black community has been in danger in the United States since before it was technically a nation. When Nazis demonstrated in Lincoln Heights, the people of that neighborhood knew that no one was coming to save them.
Unlike White Liberal Americans, who are clutching their pearls and waiting for the courts and corrupt politicians to save them, the Black community of Lincoln Heights immediately kicked into gear. They knew that if they did not stand up for themselves, then no one would stand for them.
Yeah, So?
But why would you bother to form an armed neighborhood watch in your community, when you (probably) haven’t had Nazi or KKK or Proud Boy demonstrations in your local area?
You should be doing so because actual Nazis have infiltrated your government at the highest levels.
If this doesn’t inspire you to fight, then there’s just no fight in you.
You have RFK suggesting the first stage of a Aktion T4 style eugenics program, a national autism registry.
You have ICE, the new Gestapo snatching people off the streets and sending them to super prisons in El Salvador, without proof of any crimes, or any due process.
Often, they arrest the wrong people, and in some cases, still deport them or put them in a death prison, all without proof of having committed any crimes.
I made this. Nazi lives don’t matter. Those fuckers know where to find me. Nobody is going to tell me that anyone needs a job bad enough to be a Gestapo agent. Fuck those guys. They betrayed their country.
If you’re still laboring under the delusion that you will just “vote them out” in the midterms and in 2028, then you have not been paying attention.
Nothing about the actions of the last hundred days says “respect for democratic principles.” The regime does not believe that you deserve DUE PROCESS. What in God’s name makes you think they intend to allow you fair elections?!
Have you asked yourself why any government officials would take such murderous and cruel actions against their citizens, if they had any intention of ever leaving office and living amongst those same citizens?
A meme I made
Unless we’re willing to live perpetually in an authoritarian dystopia very similar to North Korea, then we will have to fight, sooner or later.
The Supreme Court is never going to strongly rule against the king they so recently crowned.
Even if they did, who would they send?
The Department of Justice sends the US Marshals to enforce its orders. However, the president appoints the head of DoJ, and that brings Pam Bondi into the mix.
The situation is incredibly complicated, but suffice to say, I have not yet seen any compelling evidence that any court has the right to arrest the president, especially after that nightmare ruling by the Supreme Court.
The ultimate authority over the US Marshals belongs to the president, whether it is obvious or not. They’re technically under the authority of the Department of Justice.
But Republicans have been seeking out constitutional weaknesses for decades, and they have finally found enough of them to exploit them for their attempt to finally finish off democracy, once and for all.
As we’ve all seen, despite all the ranting by orange traitor about “weaponizing the DoJ,” it’s truly being weaponized now, going so far as to arrest judges and threaten law firms with criminal prosecution.
If the Supreme Court can’t enforce orders, then what makes us think that ultimately the lower courts will be able to enforce theirs?
Those Who Fought Before
If you would happily abandon the sacrifices of nearly a half-million service members during WWII, it would still stand to reason that self-interest would implore you to act now.
Even if you chose to ignore the millions of lives lost all across the globe because of Nazis, certainly you wouldn’t ignore it in your own backyard, would you?
The D-Day Invasion of Normandy
Why haven’t you rebelled?!
A meme that I made
The Founding Fathers didn’t have one-fourth of the causes for revolution that you do.
Surely, commonly decency impels us to defend our immigrant neighbors, the health and safety of the women who are your mothers, sisters, wives, cousins, coworkers, and friends?
If you will not fight for the LGBTQ community, then you still must recognize that the regime is breaking the economy over its knee, then taking a baseball bat to its skull.
Doesn’t your pocketbook at least compel you? Does NOTHING persuade you to fight?!
I do understand that the US military is the finest killing machine on Earth, and nobody is dumb enough to try to go head-to-head with them.
But the stench of fear coming off of you clouds your mind, and you fail to understand that the Founding Fathers openly discussed the same dangers.
They asked each other, “Gentlemen, do you realize that, by signing this document, we are signing our death warrants?”
This is why John Hancock famously stated that he was signing large enough to ensure King George could read his name.
But you tell yourself that our present situation is somehow different than theirs.
It is not.
The details are different, but the essential situation is very similar.
However, it is not even remotely comparable in one sense. That is to say, the Founding Fathers didn’t have one-tenth of the reasons to revolt that you do.
The Townsend Acts (essentially a series of tariffs)
And perhaps most importantly:
The Boston Port Act
The Massachusetts Government Act
The Administration of Justice Act
The Quartering Act
The Quebec Act
All of these things combined pale in comparison to The Crimes Committed, all of the insufferable horrors thrust upon the American people by the Republican Party within the first hundred days of this fascist regime.
Yup, another meme I made.
Your belly-aching fear prevents you from asking questions of anyone who might understand the real situation.
But How?!
I could tell you that, yes, you could win, if you were willing to fight, if you were willing to take the same risks that the Founders took for liberty.
If you were willing to take the risks that you daily ask your police and military to take, then you could be free of the tyranny.
Any intelligence analyst, who is worth their salt, from the CIA, NSA, DoD, DHS, CSS, DIA, NGA, or the NRO could tell you the same thing:
Even a half-hearted, sustained guerrilla warfare campaign waged by the people would be devastating, even against the US military.
Let’s be honest, they wouldn’t tell you that.
It wouldn’t be in their best interests to reveal such a potentially volatile and dangerous reality. But if you were good friends with one of them, they might let the truth slip out.
Such an admission might perhaps occur after you plied them with a couple of beers and told a couple of particularly funny jokes.
How is that true that you could win a war against the most devastating military force on the planet?
How? When they have a million active duty troops and almost a million reservists? When they have automatic weapons, grenades, Blackhawk helicopters, drones, and tanks?
Another meme I made
Simple.
Consider the following:
If the Blue states seceded, they would isolate the Red states from the oceans on the West Coast, as well as the ports of the North Atlantic
The United States has more guns than people, and far more Liberals own guns than you think
Here are a couple of YouTube videos that illustrate some of the basic concepts of how a new civil war might unfold, and how radically different it would be from the first one.
These videos are far from perfect.
There are plenty of unknowns in such a theoretical scenario.
Second Civil War
The next one was made well before Biden dropped out of the race, but the speculations are still relevant.
Who Will Win?
If you think a guerrilla warfare campaign can’t succeed, you need to talk to some veterans of Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, or any of the “secret wars” like Nicaragua or Ukraine.
Yes, we regularly send “operators,” ex-military intelligence operatives, into battle in non-official war zones. They know.
Of the one million active duty troops, they are:
Scattered across the entire country and the entire world, on foreign bases
Not entirely in support of the regime; even if 75% were rabid MAGA, and they completely ignore their oaths, that’s still a quarter million who would fight alongside YOU; I’m willing to bet that it would be many more than that
They’re not able to secure the terrain of every house, barn, garage, factory, warehouse, office building, or apartment complex in every town, city, or hamlet across a country as large and diverse as the United States
They cannot possibly patrol every national park, forest, lake, or valley; look at the complexities of patrolling just the Southern and Northern borders
The people of Canada and Mexico (and most of the world) are on OUR SIDE. They will happily assist us in smuggling supplies to us, to aid our fight; seeing the fascist regime fall is in their best interests
Insurgency Is a Bitch
Yet another meme that I made
If the military were suddenly forced to deal with the American population rising against them, all across the entire nation, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
If even a tenth of the population decided to fight, the fascist regime wouldn’t have a chance to resist.
While it’s true that the right wing is keen on military service, gun ownership, and being survivalists, they’re not automatically victorious because of these things.
The Left are the ones who have a deeper understanding of history, and therefore strategy, and what actually works in warfare.
While right-wingers are usually the ones on the battlefield, using weapons, left wingers are usually the ones designing those weapons.
The Left has the chemists, engineers, and thinkers.
The Left has many of the computer programmers and hackers. The doge douchebags have shown us that we don’t have all of them, but we still have more.
Pen & Sword
The pure brawn and brute force of a right wing soldier is imposing and impressive. But even Genghis Khan knew that this was only half the battle. Superior strategy regularly prevails over brute force, and sometimes over superior numbers.
And the Right, despite what they would have you believe, does NOT have the superior numbers.
Even with psycho riot cops, hired Blackwater militias, Proud Boys, Neo-Nazi groups, and the KKK, they do NOT have the numbers.
And frankly,
they don’t have
even half
the brain power.
The ambushes they’d walk into.
The internal power schisms within the military and the police forces would keep them in constant damage control mode and paranoia.
They would exhaust untold resources, trying in vain to locate the heads of “terrorist cells” (what the regime would label them).
There might not even be an official army to stand against them. It would not matter. They’d be doomed.
Consider the fallout of situations like the Red Brigades of Italy, the French Revolution, the French Resistance of WWII, the Troubles of Northern Ireland, the Battle of Algiers, or Che Guevara’s guerrilla war in Cuba.
I might have a meme-making problem
The United States military is the most dangerous military machine on Earth. Still, the fact remains that counterinsurgency is a fool’s errand.
And you, my fellow Americans, are the insurgents. Or rather, you could be, if only you were willing to place a higher premium on liberty than you do on your precious stock market.
If only you cherished the freedoms and protections of your sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, friends and neighbors, as you do your freedom from prison or the threat of death.
Occam’s Razor basically posits the idea that we should look for answers that have the smallest set of elements.
In other words, “the simplest answer is usually the correct one.”
If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done…
You can choose to believe that you will vote the bad guys out in the future, but I don’t share your optimism.
You might choose to believe that the traitors in Congress will suddenly grow a conscience and a spine.
If they somehow did both, then perhaps they would impeach. However, most Americans are entirely ignorant of how difficult it is to remove a sitting president from power.
The Supreme Court, Congress, the oligarchs (with their Dark Enlightenment and End Times Fascism) who bankroll the fascists, the Heritage Foundation, and the rabid MAGA base who still support this madness, all of them are to blame.
You might think that peaceful protests are going to change their minds, but I don’t.
You might think that a national strike would make a difference. But I don’t personally believe that the oligarchs, who have more money than God, and who now want to play God with human lives, are unwilling to forfeit some monetary benefits in exchange for the raw power that fascism affords them. I think it’s foolish to expect to starve them out. They have the advantage, to say the least.
Even if you think there’s such a thing as “a bridge too far” for Supreme Court justices like Alito and Thomas, I don’t. Even if they believed that all Americans wanted impeachment or conviction, they are well past the point of return. They can’t afford to change course now.
The lower court rulings are being partially respected, yes. But the Republican regime is still fighting those battles, which tells you who they are.
And they’re allowing you to witness them “obey” the courts on small matters, so you will hopefully forget how they are completely ignoring the much larger, far more important issues, like the Supreme Court’s ruling that they must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
I can’t even say the words, “Call or write your Representatives!” without throwing up in my mouth. They know what you want. They know what you need. The ones who would help you if they could cannot. The ones who could help you will not. Don’t be ridiculous.
What Then?
Back to Occam’s Razor, I have pondered this and pondered it, until I can’t ponder how I might ponder any more. For the life of me, I cannot see any way in which the American people escape this situation without a revolution. Not an economic boycott or strike, not another protest, not anything of the sort. An actual, old school revolution, just like the Founding Fathers.
Maybe you can see something that I don’t see. Let me know what I am missing here. Speak slowly and use small words.
Americans don’t play enough chess It’s the reason we’re in this political mess The Right has carefully studied for years Constitutional weaknesses, racist fears
They’ve put in long hours, learning the game Motivating their base, pointing the blame Spinning problems as the fault of their foes Scuttling each bill that would end those woes
Like Morphy, Alekhine, Karpov, Nimzowitsch Dangling carrots; a cheap bait-and-switch A Fischer sacrifice; playing the long-game The board no longer looks quite the same
Their rooks and bishops, now in key places We watch with horror, mud on our faces We slept through opening, developing play Their knights are posted; it seems they’ll stay
Kiss of Death at the Opera, then it’s too late Anastasia smiles, threatens Legal’s mate A double-bishop pin, a dovetail, strategic Is needed, or our king will be quadriplegic
Having good pawn structure is fundamental And theirs is proving to be quite instrumental Mate is possible with any piece on the board Except the other king, who may be ignored
Unless, that is, he works his way up the file Blocking the enemy king’s movement, while The officers sweep in to deliver last blows A game is often over before the loser knows
We’d better learn the game, or we’ll be through It’s less checkmate, more authoritarian coup A king can be smothered by his own pieces It only takes a few with deceptive caprices
If the game may be saved, our wits must return Or “How to lose everything” is all we will learn We scoffed at haughty, four-dimensional claims But, with distractions, they hit all their true aims
We’re playing an opponent who is happy to win By legal means, if possible; they’ll nod and grin Beaten fairly, he gives no handshake reward But balls up his fists, and knocks over the board
The only way to beat a cheating, spoiled brat Is to win fairly, but be ready to pick up a bat For this one believes they must win at all cost And will not admit or accept that they lost
The one sitting on the other side of this table Is wily, unscrupulous; cheats when he’s able Demanding to rewrite how the game is played Promoting a pawn, says “A new king is made!”
Yes, win… but don’t be surprised if the liar Pulls a gun or a knife, upon losing their desire We all must fight hard to get out of this mess We must become better at political chess
Kevin Trent Boswell 