dwayneb
dwayneb's JournalTrump vs DeSantis in 2024 - who is more dangerous?
Now that DeSantis has shown that at least in the Deep South he can be competitive, there is little doubt that he will emerge as an opponent to Trump in the Republican primary for 2024.
Trump and DeSantis are both authoritarians, but as enemies of democracy, they pose unique threats.
Trump is the greatest danger in the near term. There is little doubt that if re-elected that he will provoke a Constitutional crisis within the first year. He will surely move to pardon any January 6th criminals of Federal charges. He will work tirelessly to destroy the DOJ and to damage the rule of law in whatever way he can, since that is in his immediate interest for self preservation.
DeSantis on the other hand is more likely to work quietly and methodically to strangle democracy, just as he did in Florida. He is more cunning than Trump. Unlike Trump he won't be announcing on Twitter his true intent to rip apart the rule of law. Plus, he understands the Deep South and how to communicate to them, Trump simply views them as pawns.
Either of them would be disastrous but in different ways. The effort needs to begin NOW by Democrat leaders to educate the American people about the poison that will be spreading from Florida.
Trump vs DeSantis in 2024 - who is more dangerous?
The recent good news, is that according to a July 5 poll by NYT and Siena college, less than half of Republicans would support Trump if he runs again in 2024.
I think this link goes around the NYT paywall, it's a pdf showing the poll results.
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/us0722-crosstabs-nyt071222/0f9f399b059138f9/full.pdf
While Trumps popularity among the Fascists appears to be on the decline, the alarming fact is that the runner-up to Trump is DeSantis. In some ways, DeSantis worries me more that Trump.
Trump is so narcissistic that he could never keep his feelings and plans secret for long. While he is always erratic, he's also very predictable. We know exactly what he will do or say in any given situation, it's all about manipulating his dim-witted cult members.
To me there are two reasons why DeSantis is more dangerous than Trump.
1) He is shrewder than Trump. He would have no problem corrupting our military and DOJ and Federal police forces on the lowdown, while projecting "nothing to see here" to the American public. In secret, he could go a lot further than Trump to establish the authoritarian Christo-Fascist state that the Radical Right has dreamed about since before WWII.
2) DeSantis has a true ideological/political focus, he is a true Fascist, whereas Trump was simply an opportunist who hijacked the Republican party in order to stroke his own bloated ego.
Curious what others here think about it.
Will the youth of America be willing and able to stop fascism?
I saw a statistic the other day that suggests most on this forum average around 55 or 60, so not sure there are many under 30's that can answer the question or comment.
But my point is that I don't see the outrage or the energy or the willingness of young people to defy authority that we saw back in the 60's. That youth movement was without a doubt a major catalyst that set ht stage for all the great advancements that we saw, from the Civil Rights Act to the ERA, Roe vs Wade, EPA and so many other progressive changes.
Now that we see that the Fascist Right and their henchmen in robes in SCOTUS are rapidly moving toward undoing all of that, where is the outrage, especially among America's youth? Am I simply missing it?
One difference is that in the 60's we were a mere 20 years away from the Nazi catastrophe, and the memories were fresh. Have we forgotten (or never learned) how fragile democracy can be, and what the end result will be once we have gone under the boot?
Will you fly an American flag on July 4th?
I never thought at any point in my life that I would not consider flying my American flag on Memorial and Veteran's Day and on July 4th.
But this year it is becoming clear to me that the country that so many fought and died for, and that I viewed with pride and joy for my entire life, is destined to become just another chapter in the long history of failed attempts at democracy.
I feel especially bitter when I think about all of my relatives that went to Europe in WWII to stop the Nazis, that set the stage for a half century of progress for everyone, and those that fought in all the other armed conflicts along the way. The ChristoFascists and the Radical Right that are essentially opening their arms to neo-Fascism today are violating the memory of those soldiers, and I will never, ever forgive them for that.
So next week I have a decision to make. Will I fly my flag? If I do, will that flag represent freedom or will it represent fascism?
I'm not sure yet.
I can't watch the video of the attack on our Capitol on 1/6/21, anyone else with this problem?
I have to turn off TV or change the station whenever that footage comes on. I guess it's a form of PTSD, but when I watch it, I become physically ill. It's because it confirms every fear I had throughout my life of where the Fascist Right was going to take us, and will take us if they gain power in 2022 and 2024.
Is it just me?
Grand Funk Railroad - Live 1970
Mark Farner in the early days of this group was awesome, and this band was LOUD.
Leaving the USA? - pros and cons
These are purely my opinions and speculations. Hopefully I am wrong this time.
The United States here in 2022 is shifting toward autocracy and away from representative democracy.
It remains to be seen whether Democrats or Progressives can prevail in protecting our Constitutional freedoms and rights for free expression and for free and fair elections. Certainly we will lose the battle to protect abortion rights. Certainly we will lose the fight to prevent the degradation and corruption of our election systems. Most probably we will begin to see the erosion of our free speech and free assembly.
The most likely scenario for the USA 20 years hence will be something that looks like a crossbreed of Apartheid South Africa and modern day Russia. This is reality. Those that will vote to usher in this brave new world won't find out until far too late what they have given up. "You don't know what you've got till it's gone".
Recently, several of my friends and relatives have been making plans to leave the US, and move to other North American countries like Canada and Mexico.
Is anyone else considering this? Generally I think it's a foolish idea - because the trend toward Fascism is a worldwide phenomena, it's not just the USA. Is there some Utopia out there?
Best insight into Putin yet - Fareed Zakharai interview with Russian ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsk
On April 3, Fareed Zakharia interviewed Russian ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky who explains why Putin miscalculated in his invasion of Ukraine and why he is still so dangerous.
He explains his criminality and utter lack of humanity and confirms what I suspected all along - Ukraine is just a stepping stone on Putin's path to rebuilding the Russian empire. He confirms my suspicion that the Baltics will be next.
This has a lot more credibility than most of the "experts" we hear - because Khodorkovsky was an insider who knew Putin well.
He believes that Biden's condemnation of Putin is absolutely the right thing to do, and that Putin will never stop until the West steps up with a military response.
CNN video:
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2022/04/03/exp-gps-0403-ukraianian-resistance-drove-putin-mad.cnn/video/playlists/intl-ukraine/
Relief organizations that are accepting donations for Ukraine
International organizations that are providing highly needed humanitarian relief at this time.
United Nations Refugees Agency: https://donate.unhcr.org/int/en/ukraine-emergency
Doctors Without Borders: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/countries/ukraine
International Committee of the Red Cross: https://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/europe-central-asia/ukraine
DirectRelief: https://www.directrelief.org/emergency/ukraine-crisis/
Aktion Deutschland Hilft (a coalition of German relief organizations): https://www.aktion-deutschland-hilft.de/en/donate/donate
2022 Doomsday Clock - Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
Each year, the doomsday clock is update to predict how close leading nuclear scientists think we are to annihilation. Prediction is expressed as the number of "minutes until midnight". Fewer minutes suggests we are closer to pushing the button.
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/timeline/
Here in 2022 we are 100 seconds from midnight.
Back in 1991 we were at 17 minutes till midnight.
In 1960 the BAS estimated we were at 7 minutes till midnight.
Why is the BAS so alarmed about what is happening today? For every year's prediction, they provide an explanation.
Here in 2022 their primary concerns were the building up of the Iranium nuclear stockpile, China's new ICBM solos, North Korea's continued efforts to develop a hyper-sonic ICBM, and the instability of the US democracy with the potential of nuclear devices falling into the hands of terrorists.
https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
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