I think we are in a really, really dangerous place right now.

[NRaleighLiberal]

Just a few minutes thinking about news of the day -

the Tara Reade thing (like Franken on Steroids)
The guns at the rally in Michigan
trump breaking all of the rules and running roughshod over decency
the ignorance being shown with regard to COVID and the stay at home orders - visibly suicidal ignoramuses

It's as if the educated, the liberal, the thinking - US - are all being marginalized. Trump stole the election (or should I say Putin stole it for him) - and he is gloating. 3 1/2 years of gloating. He thinks he can't be touched.

Now we have the Reade thing and it appears as though the meddling and funny business that happened in 2016 could be just the beginning.

I am not going to speculate on possibilities, or veer off into needlessly crazy talk (though some crazy things do enter my mind) - but it gets harder and harder to see a way out of any of this, because no one seems to want to stand up to the asshole in the white house or his party - and the cult is really getting energized even more now.

And that is not to even mention we are well past 60K deaths and it is technically still April.

[mopinko]

1. either we tune up our collective bs detectors, or we all die.

only choices i see.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. hey pal! doing ok?

just starting my plant sales here. we are loving our new house...infinite gardening opportunities!

[mopinko]

4. i'm doing really well these days.

having a great spring, and looking forward to a great year. opened up a lot of new space, and cant wait.

feeling well, too.
you?

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. Sue and I are lucky, being retired, and in a rural area

where social distancing is easier. she sews and quilts, I garden and write, we walk/hike and cook. in this house 3 months...perfect for us!

[mopinko]

27. it's fine w me, too.

i see peeps, but it's easy to distance. did a cold weather plant sale this year, and did well w no contact.
this place seems to be a bit of a sanctuary these days. esp all the kids at home. they come by to watch my chickens, and toss them treats.
lots of good people watching, but no contact if i dont want to. perfect for me.
i like people, but i like my space, too.

[DownriverDem]

34. Biden just needs

to stay in denial mode and ride it out like repubs do.

[Joinfortmill]

2. Yeah. Vote even if you have to crawl to the polls

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. no panic attack here. just utter disgust daily.

[R Merm]

37. Already ordered my absentee ballot,

to make sure I get to vote. You should do the same

https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.ncsbe.gov/Forms/NCAbsenteeBallotRequestForm.pdf

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. Welcome aboard.

Last edited Fri May 1, 2020, 12:41 AM - Edit history (1)

FWIW, the reference to the "wild west" is a bit of a canard, not to mention the rest of that sentence.

None of those situations saw anything like the divide this country is currently experiencing. No one in October of 1962 was crying "Fake News" or anything of the sort.

I don't think the OP was "freaking out" by any stretch.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. I'm inclinded to agree with you, and then some.

Though this part I disagree with;

and he is gloating. 3 1/2 years of gloating. He thinks he can't be touched.

He has always been a paranoid, deluded narcissist. Everything I have read about the man indicates he has a very predictable pathology; He sees every interaction as a win/lose situation. That's why he would say he is going to SUE his campaign manager because that man gave Trumpy bad news (if the recent story is to be taken at face value).

NOTHING is ever anything more than a "I win, you lose" proposition for Trumpy. Nothing. Ever. Not even down to something as stupid as a misstatement on where a hurricane might go, or whether or not he was using sarcasm when it is clear to anyone watching a given exchange that he was clearly serious....

Yes we are most certainly in a dangerous place, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there is an overwhelming number of Americans that have had enough of this fuckhead, and they will come out in droves to be rid of him, come January.

And FWIW, the Democrats should use the pictures and footage of armed men infiltrating a State House to their advantage. You don't have to cry "Gun Reform" to simply see that allowing armed men into a building where calm, reasoned debate is historically carried out is not a good look.

Carry your gun all you want, if you feel you must (or rather, if you feel your being an "American" requires such lunacy) just don't expect to be able to carry it into the halls of government.

[GP6971]

9. Add this.

The governor of Maryland (Hogan, R) purchased 500,000 testing kits (with MD funds) from South Korea. He's had to hide them from from the Feds in an undisclosed location guarded by the MD National Guard. And the South Korean Airlines plane landed at Baltimore vs. Dulles. Highly unusual.

The reason for all this...the governor feared the feds would seize the shipment.

[yellowdogintexas]

15. and #45 made a huge snarky deal about it too.

Except T was talking about labs and the Governor of Maryland was dealing with actual test kits

[Dirty Socialist]

11. The animal is cornered

And will lash out. That is true.

[peacebuzzard]

12. well I don't watch media and I have been just following a few news breaks

and I feel you are correct with your statement. But the other things worry me, in your post. Because I know most people absorb all that media hoopla and it has consequences. But the worst part is, I feel that most people are desensitized to the calamity around us. It doesn't affect most people, and they continue on in their bubble lives thinking of their tiny selves and not registering that there is no going back to what used to be just a short few months ago.

I think you are right; we are in a difficult place to be. Nowhere to run to.

[Pepsidog]

13. Reade will be the new "email" story and yes it is setting up that way. Rs have gone all in

with the Jim Jones president and could give two shits about America. Just look at Chris Hays yesterday and today the Reade story on the national news. Where is an FDR when you need him.

[uponit7771]

26. +1

[BComplex]

28. The dems need to counter with every single one of the rape charges against trump, plus the

two payoffs that Michael Cohen is sitting in jail for, and throw it right back at him. They need to play that "grab 'em by the p****, they like that" tape over & over...engineer it so you can hear his words really clearly, and slow it down a little to make it hit home to the slightly disenchanted evangelicals. Then, Dems need to keep showing the footage of him with Jeffrey Epstein where he says he and Jeffrey are good friends, and he likes girls "on the young side" like Jeffrey.

At the same time, let Biden's campaign sue Reade for defamation and, Biden's problems will go away.

[Pepsidog]

29. He should sue her. Good point.

[not fooled]

14. It depends

partly on how the majority of the country--peaceful, reasonable people--respond to the lunacy.

The sight of a small number of wackos trying to terrorize lawmakers should cause decent people to recoil in horror and add to all the other reasons vow to vote the maggot out no matter what.

[murielm99]

20. The groups of people doing these things

are small in number. In Michigan, I think the authorities acted with restraint so as not to inflame the situation. They did not want bloodshed.

The media makes these incidents look bigger than they are. Trumpets have always been in the minority.

After we see a change in administrations, things will improve. There will be time to deal with these fools.

There may be some bloodshed and lawlessness if trump loses and he sets his followers on us. He will do anything to inflame them.

Just remember that we have the law and morality on our side. It will take time, but we can clean up the mess. We will do this!

[ancianita]

32. +1

[cheezmaka]

35. Amen

I agree. People asked me "What if Trump doesn't leave if he loses?" "What if his followers want to rebel with weapons?" I reply to them, "That's what we have the National Guard for..." Biden is projected (by a poll) to win by a landslide of 300+ electoral if we do our part. In Michigan I live in a co-op and the voting poll is "in the lobby". 45 is full of pride and God hates pride and LYING....

[Initech]

16. This entire thing is a powder keg waiting to explode.

And yeah if things can't be worse now, just wait.

[sarcasmo]

19. November 4th through January 20th, is what keeps me up at night.

[sfstaxprep]

17. Drumpf Is Going To Take High Ground On This One?

The same Drumpf who paid off countless women and porn stars? The one who married a naked model?

[KPN]

18. We've been in a really dangerous place for a long time.

Some have said so dating way back. Well before Nov. 2016. That’s one person’s respective anyway. But yeah, it’s come to a head. There’s no escaping it now. At least I don’t think so. We’re in for a rough patch ahead, even if we take the WH and Senate this fall. Though that would be vastly better than if we didn’t.

[customerserviceguy]

21. People who are smart enough

to stay hunkered down may seem marginalized right now, but in a few months, they'll be survivors.

Take heart, enough people have gotten the message. I'm surprised that the death toll is not over 200K so far, so that means that plenty of people have managed to figure out how to live sensibly with this. If it kills off the RWNJ's, then that's their problem in November.

[stopdiggin]

24. Don't think the "Reade thing" is nearly the big deal some

make out. And .. every indication appears to be that Trump is bleeding support ... Vigilance is always a good practice .. but I can't subscribe to panic mode.
--- ---

[kcr]

25. The Tara Reade thing is not like Al Franken

The Dem party is supporting him, unlike how they did with Franken, and he's not going to drop out. The media will grow bored with the story and move on. Trump's internals are looking pretty bad. I don't think voters will care.

[JudyM]

30. We need to start really powering up. In unified actions as well as potent messaging. ACT UP.

[bucolic_frolic]

31. Put your thoughts here

This needs some consideration. The Reade thing is really just the same as "her emails" and Benghazi - meant to sow a slowly trending doubt about our nominee, a gaslighting of voters' certainty if you will. It's like a cancer, like a spreading virus. They just want to get it out there for now. They'll return to it many many times, and of course with a coup de grace in October. We need to find a way to combat this.

And yes per the OP, we are almost numb to the guns rally, the incompetence of the Feds under Trump, the media's cooperation. We must find spark, patriotism, the will to fight this cancer. COVID will rally Americans against Trump's poor management, but it has a down side also in the tanking economy and by election day that is all most voters may be thinking about. In my view Trump is trying to maximize the pandemic for political purposes. Joe Biden must have a plan for the country, for the crises. It's not enough to simply be the anti-Trump and of good character.

But that's where I think this is headed. Trump will try to shake off all problems, gaslight, blame others, and tell everyone all is well, and the media isn't even coherent on most things. We still face a tall order because we are no longer America, we are divided politically, internally, geographically, and culturally. Democrats need to find their fighting spirit.

[certainot]

33. dems/left just have to end the stupidest political mistake in history and stop ignoring talk radio

[hadEnuf]

36. Reade is clearly screwy, a paid liar, or both.

She needs to be publicly rebuked at every chance and then taken to the woodshed for her lies.

Maybe that will start to get message through to her backers.

Enough of this shit of treating these assholes with kid gloves.

[wiggs]

38. The full power of the presidency will be turned to staying in power. For the first time,

in my lifetime I think. Power of the presidency and as much of the government as he has control over (2.5 of the 3 branches of govt plus installed staff) will be used to create deception, investigations, compliant foreign powers, compliant corporations, voting challenges, legal backflips, etc.. This is for all the marbles, almost literally.

Add to that the power of the world's oligarchs who want one of their own, or at least one who wants to be one, to control the world's only superpower...and you have something terrifying and unprecedented.

I doubt that the world's wealthy and powerful, including many in the WH, will leave the fate of their dominance and hegemony up to mere citizens of the US practicing what they thought was fair democracy.

[backscatter712]

39. On the bright side, it seems that Tara Reade is full of shit.

Her story's coming apart at the seams, so the only person that should be worrying about sexual abuse scandals is Trump. (Though his bleach-drinkers have made it clear they're fine with a rapist president.)