Please, please, please, please, read this DU post

[Cyrano]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213261539

It's about Paul Krugman's op ed in today's NY Times. And he's "shouting" about America becoming a dictatorship.

Some of us have been writing about this for a couple of years now.

Paul Krugman stating this starkly on the op ed page of the NY Times will hopefully make a difference and wake up those who refuse to "get it."

Please, please, please, take the time to read it. Our freedoms are on the line.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. K & R. I read that earlier and it bears repeating.

[Cyrano]

3. It needs a thousand amp megaphone.

[Miguelito Loveless]

2. As one of those people saying it for years

Good luck. Until recently, I mostly received abuse and scorn for stating this. Now it is mostly silence.

[Cyrano]

5. Amazing how many people will unknowingly give up their freedoms

[Miguelito Loveless]

6. Yep

It is easier to deride people telling a truth you don’t want to hear, then remain silent as that truth becomes reality.

[Nay]

10. Yep, all those gun-toting Amurikans hollering about their 'freedumbs' sure are

strangely silent, aren't they? It's because they never REALLY cared about their freedumbs -- they cared about being on top. There's nothing that an R can do that will bring them out to conduct the revolution they so want to have when a D is in office. So, we know they are fake-ass patriots who just want their male, white-privileged asses to be back in charge of the dictatorship, and that's ALL they want.

[Miguelito Loveless]

36. They think "their side" is winning

[Nay]

38. Why, yes, that was my point.

They don't even know what "freedom" is -- to them, it's something THEY get to have when they run their little authoritarian systems, whether the system is religious, political, military, whatever. If they are on top, that's freedom!

[cilla4progress]

19. Same here.

Me too.

It's called intuition and clarity.



But I get it...for some, too awful and scary to accept!!

[2naSalit]

4. K&R

[Laelth]

7. The Republican Party hasn't believed in democracy for a long time.

This is nothing new.

-Laelth

[Cyrano]

8. Nothing new to us. But countless millions don't "get it."

[Laelth]

9. True that.

Nevertheless, our republic has managed to survive.

233 years and counting ...

-Laelth

[NCjack]

18. The Tory (Repuke) Party did not support the revolution and wanted a Monarchy

since 1776. Especially one set up to divert America's natural bounty to themselves.

[LastDemocratInSC]

24. Plenty of Tories in the northeast moved to Canada in the late 1700s.

To remain in the monarchy.

[Thekaspervote]

32. thank you for the reminder! I highly doubt you are looking the other way when saying it

[uponit7771]

11. K&R, Wisconsin was a trial run

[SamKnause]

12. I have been shouting it from the rooftops and posting about it on here for years.

This country will not recover from the destruction of the Trump administration and his cult.

They have appointed judges throughout the country that will enable them to achieve this goal.

They control the Supreme Court.

Mitch McConnell has full control over the Senate.

Fox "news" are cheerleaders for the president.

Trump's cult will believe anything he says.

They have abandoned science, math, and all facts in general.

They are armed to the teeth and chomping at the bit.

Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly are his policy advisers.

The White House has been infiltrated with Prosperity Gospel advisers.

They are privatizing everything they can get their hands on.

I see no way to repair all the destruction.

[czarjak]

17. "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'." "Cheated fair and square"...

And they think it’s a good thing.

[calimary]

13. K&R

[gab13by13]

14. Buy stock in Terminix,

When Trump loses in November it's going to take months to get rid of all the cockroaches.

Also buy stock in mattress companies, wouldn't want to sleep on any mattresses that trump was around.

[CaptainTruth]

15. Yep. Under GW Bush I was shouting about how the PNAC wanted an "Imperial Presidency"...

...where the executive branch had more power than the other 2 branches so POTUS could do things like ignore subpoenas from Congress.

It seemed important at the time but nobody in our media cared about it enough to report on it ... & here we are.

This Trump clusterfck has been coming for a long time, the Republicans told us what their goal was decades ago ... & damn near nobody paid attention & took it seriously.

[niyad]

16. KNR

[Lulu KC]

20. 209 days

Until the free and fair election if we are very lucky and everyone works their hardest.
We can do it.
209 days.
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/election?p0=263&iso=20201103T00&msg=2020%20US%20Presidential%20Election

[lark]

21. i totally agree with your alarm, friend Cyrano.

What he's trying to do is th scariest thing to happen here in America since the Civil War. He is trying his best to destroy us & implement a rw dictatorship and fascist state and 1/3 of the USA is totally behind this because they are as ignorant and hate filled as he is.

[Cyrano]

26. Exacly. But here's the thing.

Aside from voting in November, what can we do? We already know they will suppress/steal the vote everywhere they can.

My point is that we can't wait until after it's stolen. So what do we do right now?

Let me answer my own question. I don't know. But I believe we are the cusp of a second American Civil War. No geographic boundaries this time. Just neighbor against neighbor. Ugly, horrible, blood. And I hope I'm as wrong as I've ever been in my life.

[lark]

29. Sadly, I am very worried also.

What scares me the most and dovetails exactly with what you are saying? My husband stopped by a huge local gun store because a coworker was telling him it was all sold out and he wanted to see for himself. Guess what, this huge warehouse of guns was EMPTY. Jay asked the proprietor why the shelves were so empty - he said he'd had an explosion of people buying up all the guns and ammo they could get because they think this will turn nasty and they are getting prepared. These right wingers are loading up for the upcoming civil war. We live in NE FL, a very mixed area.

[beastie boy]

22. Many of us, mostly those who've had any contact with autocratic regimes and populist leaders, have

expressed our concerns, and have been promptly and repeatedly dismissed as being overly alarmist, ever since Trump won in '16. Masha Gessen, probably the best known canary in the coal mine, warned us all as early as November 2016, giving us a guide to surviving in an autocratic regime: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/11/10/trump-election-autocracy-rules-for-survival/ Well worth reading and memorizing. Note that she didn't give us any guidelines in preventing the onset of autocracy, realizing even back then that it was too late to do anything about it. She merely gave us an incredibly prescient picture of things to come, and just one course of action: resist the normalization of autocratic rule and don't lose your outrage in the face of its advance.

Gessen's book titled Surviving Autocracy is due to be out in June. I hope it to be a comprehensive instruction manual for all of us.

[ancianita]

23. Read this about what's happening in Brazil. It could happen here.

The full presidential authorization that the admiral head of the FEMA task force can create both an intel overview by the Pentagon, which could then be the basis of the same thing happening here in the US.

So far, only Reuters and Defense Net give this attention, but it could reach mainstream media here. And you know what would happen with public opinion once it does. IF it does.

I suspect there will be suppression of this news.

https://popularresistance.org/bolsonaro-out-of-power-replaced-by-general/?fbclid=IwAR04FmMzYVi264IESnF9MH6Xkl2rJJJnovO5oy8pQ3njov7UF_5r8WMKmVk

[FelineOverlord]

25. Please, please, please, please, read this DU post

We've known this for a long time.

As I stated in the other thread, I have been reading about resistance movements during WWII.

I especially started studying it after William Barr gave his crazy "resistance" speech at the Federalist Society last year.

Just made me even MORE determined to resist everything the Trump regime does.

Everything.

|

You can see the whole speech here:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?466450-1/attorney-general-barr-federalist-society-convention|

Yes, Bill Barr, you and Trump are our ENEMIES. We will NOT bow down. Ever.

[Cyrano]

27. Assuming, (a big assumption), that we "win,"

Trump, Barr, et al must face the American equivalent of the Nuremberg trials.

These people have committed crimes against humanity. Don't believe me? Then give a moment of thought to kids kidnapped at the border and put into cages.

Not to mention the covid 19 deaths that is on them.

[Akakoji]

28. It's a good post

Ut's bee coming for a long time. We never should have let Republicans do what they have done with judges. We just were not all that interested. I hope now that every single person in this country realizes we must be 24/7 concerned about our civic responsibilties.We are all essential and busy.So we can all never use the excuse that we are to busy.

[Blue Owl]

30. K&R

[elleng]

31. 'Thanks.'

Posted it 'elsewhere.'

[onlyadream]

33. If the worst happens, other countries should intervene

Since we spend so much on our defense, we will be (if we aren't already) a huge threat to the rest of the world. If this were another country WE would intervene.

[hay rick]

34. Those who really think our freedoms are on the line should be doing something about it.

Complaining about other people passively accepting fascism is useless. Preaching to like-minded people is useless.

Nobody's coming. We are the ones.

[Cyrano]

35. Couldn't agree more

But that really brings up the crux of today's reality.

Exactly what do we do? Do you have an answer?

[hay rick]

37. Join a phone bank. Donate to a candidate. Show up for public meetings and rallies.

Go canvassing when the need for social distancing recedes. These are not comfortable activities for many people. It's a choice. People need to decide what price they are willing to pay to defend against the threats to our democracy.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

39. I read it.

*shuddering*