Is it me, or are things spiraling out of control?

[orangecrush]

Trump's clash with the military over him acting like a tin pot dictator overruling military discipline and order drove the point home.

How much longer can this POS be allowed to run amok before it is in reality too late?

Or perhaps it already is, in which case we are witnesses to the death of the republic.

[Ohiogal]

1. I just wonder

What the purpose is of him interfering with the result of military justice. What does he think he gains from doing this? Or is this just to distract from the impeachment hearings? (Which is also a hideous excuse).

[scarletwoman]

2. He just wants to show who's Boss. He fancies himself a king. nt

[MontanaMama]

3. He is a king

until he is dethroned.

[tblue37]

16. He also admires brutal men who get away with it--and probably fantasized about doing

what the killers did.

[Ohiogal]

41. I agree with you there.

Probably his fantasy.

[kentuck]

28. He also wants to snuff out any opposition to him being Commander in Chief?

Scary shit!

[orangecrush]

4. His narcissism

And pandering to his moron base which believes our military should be like Hitler's SS.

[Grasswire2]

17. I would like to know that, too.

Is it orders from Putin, meant to simply manufacture more chaos?

Who put this into his head?

Doesn't he desperately need the military and law enforcement on his side?

[Skittles]

20. it's the kind of thing a dictator would do

and Trump is a dictator-wannabe

[orangecrush]

38. Yep.

[pnwmom]

40. It's been a while since he can pardon. This is a reminder. n/t

[Hoyt]

5. Don't think it helps him overall, but Muslim hating white wingers are fine with it.

[jberryhill]

6. Things are never "under control"

There are only varying degrees of influence.

[kairos12]

7. Not out of control. Putin is at the helm.

[orangecrush]

8. Which is my thought exactly.

[Initech]

9. Things have been spiraling out of control since 2012.

Something went horribly wrong in the years between 2012 - 2016, time to find out what and start fixing it. Tomorrow will be too late.

[Hawaii Hiker]

13. I think election night 2014

was when things really started to spiral out of control...

[Initech]

23. Actually I think Gamergate was when things started to spiral out of control.

I think that was when things started to take a turn for the worst. I mean if you could pinpoint any significant event when things started to go south, it was the unrepenting, relentless, and unfiltered harassment of female online personalities that led to the anti-PC backlash that we're experiencing now.

[Dave Starsky]

39. It was Ford pardoning Nixon in 1974.

That was when Republicans first got their first delicious taste of "getting away with it", entirely scot-free. Then we had Arms for Hostages and the Iran-Contra pardons under Reagan and, finally--the coup de gras--Bush v Gore in 2000, in which the US Supreme Court, entirely outside of their Constitutional functions, decided a presidential election.

So this has been going on a LOT longer than Gamergate. The vast majority of people don't even know what Gamergate is.

[Initech]

43. I was thinking of a recent event where things started to go off the rails.

But yeah if we're going to go back that far, that's where the train really derailed and the GOP sealed it with the Southern Strategy and Reagan's election. Now we're at this point.

If I was going to go back and pinpoint a particular event where people started flipping the script and just going flat out batshit insane, I still say Gamergate and the rise of scumbags like Alex Jones is where it happened. But you could also say that Sandy Hook was a huge factor too - when children are murdered at school and not only do people not care, they go out of their way to harass the victims, that is when we really started to go south as a society.

[PJMcK]

27. I take a longer view

In his musical ASSASSINS, Stephen Sondheim wrote a song called "Something Just Broke" about Americans' reaction to President Kennedy's murder.

I concur with the composer's view that JFK's death (and its coverup) is when the United States began to run off the rails. All of the bad things came after that shattering event: Viet Nam, Watergate, Nixon/Reagan/Bush I/Bush II and now Trump.

When President Johnson signed the Civl Rights Act of 1964, he famously said that the Democrats had lost the South for a generation. Well, he was right about the loss but wrong about its duration.

Our national troubles have been festering for a long time.

One thing is certain: Most of our problems are the result of Republicans' malfeasance.

[SlogginThroughIt]

36. I mean why not go back to slavery?

Or at least to the point when people decided to not wake up to its evilness and decided to fight for the right to own people.

Our country has always been deeply flawed. We like to talk about our history of freedom but there could be nothing more absurd than that notion. Every single thing about this country has been built upon killing, stealing, enslaving people in this country and forcing them to build what we call great.

Now here’s the thing is this any different than any place else in the world? Probably not. Humans are deeply flawed beings. While the hierarchy of all living things involves at time violence, I am not sure that the human beings lust for cruelty exists in other species. Certainly not to tje same degree.

[Doodley]

10. Democracy has been lost. We are going the same way as Germany in the 1930s. I can't see

that we will ever recover. I am sorry, but despair is all I have right now. No GOP lawmakers are going to turn against him after impeachment. His base is as strong now as when he took power. He will have even more help from Putin next year than he did in 2016. He will denigrate, lie about and damage the reputation of whoever his opponent is, as he did in 2016. America as we knew it is over. Our nation is being systematically dismantled.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

15. Dismantled and slowly sold off to international high-wealth interests....

especially when we cycle through recessions. Farm land, factories, housing and natural resources are being dribbled away from native ownership and control.

They're also buying more and more into control of our government by funding right-wing causes and political campaigns.

Same is happening in the UK and that will rapidly accelerate after Brexit.

KY...........

[Cosmocat]

33. Same

I have had heartburn my entire adult life, about 1990 to now because I saw how big of assholes Rs were back then (Nwet Gingrich and company) and have NEVER understood how so many in the country are cool with, or even cheer on their attempts to blow up the SS and anything related to the New Deal.

AND, every time republicans have one of these surges they are worse and dig us into a deeper hole and they have less repercussions for them as a party.

Nixon had to flee before being convicted in impeachment hearings, and many associated with prosecuted. Reagen was partitioned off and did not suffer for the shit his admin did, and very few saw justice. Bush never was held to account for Iraq, and while they got four year TO from 2006 to 2010, the country saw fit to give them the greatest mid term landslide in our lives because BHO passed the REPUBLICAN version of health care reform.

I told people Trump was not joke when he came down the elavator, that he embodied everything their party had become and if he got the nomination the country was absolutely stupid enough to make him POTUS.

And we have seen the country follow the Rs lead in completely rolling over to him while he has been in office.

Our soul is lost, we have lost every bit of moral authority our brave troops sacrificed for us in WWI and WWII, and decades of right wing slander of liberalism has most of this country CHEERING on the destruction of anything that benefits the average person.

The republican party blows up ANY attempts to reform health care and the country could give a shit while losing its bloody mind over potential for a transgender to use a public bathroom.

We, the sane and decent people are trying to push mud ...

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. I'll throw this theory out for comment....

by taking the teeth out of our regular military system of justice, Trump may be trying to give license to commit war crimes to military contractors such as those controlled by Eric Prince of Blackwater.

Trump's pardon would lessen war crime liability concerns for those companies both when working for the U.S. military and for other governments AND possibly open more doors for further privatization of our military.

KY........

[Grasswire2]

18. hmmm

I can see Prince advocating for this.

[Cosmocat]

34. It is more personally intersted than that

this is straight out of his MO.

He is doing this to start to (actually continue) to fracture the normative system of our military to embolden those who support him. Puts the people with honor in a position to have to defend the integrity of the system in a way we have never seen, while goading on the countless Trumpist types to push the envelop.

[LuvNewcastle]

35. Yes, he wants a military that is dedicated to him personally.

Anyone not in allegiance to him can leave as far as he cares.

[Progressive Jones]

12. I like to think that there are military people near him

who are ready to quickly "take action" if the need arises.
I hope I'm right.

[Skittles]

21. you just KNOW there are a lot of meetings behind his back

oh yes

[Tumbulu]

14. It seems very clear to me that it is already over

But nobody wants to believe it.

I keep hoping to be proven wrong, but so far, so bad.

[Sewa]

19. Trump's next outrageous move

Is going to be ending alliance with Japan. Because Putin finds it troubling

[empedocles]

29. Hmmm.

[NCLefty]

22. I'm not sure what we're doing to stop meddling in 2020. Trump just keeps doing more.

And there's no one to actually stop him with any kind of speed. The election is less than a year away.

It seems our cyber people just do... stuff... in secret... maybe they fight back, who knows?

I'll keep voting but I don't have a lot of confidence in our country at this point. So many people are checked out. That's when the really bad stuff can happen.

[greyl]

24. It's you.

brought to you by Contrarians Anonymous.

[DFW]

25. Trump's running amok serves the interests of a small diverse group of powerful people

From McConnell to Putin, from polluters to televangelists, today's "me" generation sees Trump's presidency as very convenient, and they are willing to cough up untold millions in contributions to keep us this way--paranoid, divided, self-centered and ignorant.

To them, the world is very much under control, and things are as they should be. They fear the day that the Democrats should, despite the best Republican efforts at voter suppression and vote counting fraud, should again regain the White House and control of the Senate.

[dewsgirl]

26. Things really started to spiral in September, and are only getting worse.

I often worry it may be to late.

[empedocles]

30. May be necessary for things to get worse, to mobilize more sectors. Surprise

to see various Investigation volunteers step up. Some judges setting tight timetables. Military Seal issue resistance. Gold Star families. Middle classes under more pressure.

The Speaker has some knowledge of history, and a lot of political experience, seems to be flexible in using trump - and on top of it all.

There's hope.

[dewsgirl]

31. 🤞🤞🤞

[Joe941]

32. The commander in chief is head of the army, navy, etc.

So he is well within in powers to do this, but what a leader huh? Wouldnt surprise me if the kinds of recruits joining are just like tRump in character. We will pay for the personnel in the armed forces someday - and it will not be pretty I assure you.

[Talitha]

37. IMO Shitler's been obeying Putin's playbook page by page.

Right now he happens to be on the page that gives instructions how to disrupt the military. He's already alienated us to our allies and he's made no effort to hide the way he snuggles up to cruel dictators.

So when he 'suddenly' pulls another stunt, we think he's just going nuts, right? But look at the entire picture and you'll see that Fiona Hill was absolutely right... it's all part of Putin's plan.

These things Shitler has been doing seem insane to us, because they are not part of the America we know and love. But they all fit into Putin's grand plan to destroy democracy. And while it's happening, the crooked Repugs become more wealthy, and Shitler gets closer to getting full membership in the global dictator club.

[Johnny2X2X]

42. Do not underestimate them

This is going to get a lot crazier.

The Dems better have a response plan for when Trump/Barr arrest their candidate weeks before the election.