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.

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?

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 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?

Mark Farner in the early days of this group was awesome, and this band was LOUD.

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?

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/

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

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/

After January 6th, it becomes clear that Trump supporters fall into two camps:

1) The fools. Those that really, truly continue to believe every bit of populist propaganda from the Right and from the Trump cult. They are the ones that actually believe that America will be "great" once our democracy has been abolished and one-party rule is established once and for all.

2) The liars. These are the smart ones that know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump lost the election of 2020, but are shrewd enough to understand that the path to American Fascism is paved with lies. They will continue to spread the poison that is eroding confidence in our system of elections. Trump isn't stupid, he knows he lost the election. He also knows the power of misinformation and the gullibility of many Americans. He has practiced the art of lying his whole life, and the Big Lie is without a doubt his "masterpiece".

Point is, after January 6th there are very few fence riders supporting Trump. They must double down as either fools or liars. Not sure which is more dangerous in the long run, the puppet masters or the puppets.