So what the heck is going on...?

Unlike my usual essays, which I actually mull over and let slowly form before putting pen to paper (so to speak).....I am really just putting down some observations today regarding the Circus which has been taking place sine Election Day.

You can reference back to my Prior post-election piece for a more thought-out line of thinking. But for this one, suffice it to say I am just really wondering WTF is going on in the invisible rooms of the Establishment ?

First off...IF one were to entertain the idea that Trump was given instruction to form the absolute WORST and most laughable Cabinet in history...a Cabinet so frighteningly Bad that it would demolish the faith of both the 'let's give him a chance' people...AND his most loyal supporters....the current picks would be IT. No ?

I mean...Rick Perry ? ...Tillerson ? Jeff Sessions ?

At first I was gonna just calm myself by saying that, well, the Dems can always filibuster the Cabinet picks. But, silly me, then I remembered:

1) The Dems...are the Dems.

2) The Dems (interestingly, hmmmm) actually did AWAY with that in their waning moments of holding the majority in the Senate (why ? you may ask, given they were in the MIDDLE of a Dem Administration ?)

Next.....What the hell was the call to Taiwan all about ? It was clearly planned, no ?

Like the campaign, the feeling here that the President Elect is intentionally trying to sink himself is all too palpable.

Next...the very strange strangeness of the Jill Stein recounts. I voted for Jill - honestly during the campaign she pretty much nailed every question put to her. Yet, post 11/8 - I am sorta wondering who this person is (?) Indeed while the Green Party did come up with an explanation (albeit incredibly lame) as to why Stein targeted 3 states which Shillary lost...IMHO there is still too much oddness here - enough so to split supporters regarding the intent of the moves.

Add to this the absurdity of the Russia Narrative, and I am left connecting some dots which I am not sure are valid to connect or not.

Are we actually witnessing the Establishment attempting an Electoral College Coup ?

If the 'plan' were to cast doubts on the validity of the election results...and intimate that the results are in fact due to tampering by America's number one Bogeyman....what would be the point of doing this ?

Would it be to make the Electors shaky ? What of these rumours of 'Convening Electors' ?

Is this notion of Electors going Rogue something in the realm of reality ? Or is it just another Social Media dog gone rabid ?

Again, I have no answers....but gotta admit, as this craziness continues to conflagrate....I am concerned.

(FWIW - don't misread this as 'wanting Trump'. Indeed, everything he has been doing is nightmarish - I just feel the best way to exorcise the demon is to let his administration get in there and crash and burn all by itself. Only then can the country move forward...).

Thoughts ?

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boriscleto's picture

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" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "

Trump better not touch it or I'm voting for secession.

/snark

But some crazy millionaires are trying to put it on the California ballot in 2018. There is something going on with the manufactured, crazed atmosphere.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

edg's picture

my fellow Arizonans defeated our marijuana initiative. I'd vote for secession but Mexico won't want us back.

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But I think the idea is, any state would be welcome to join.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Outsourcing Is Treason's picture

I think we are of like minds on this "Russian hackers" fantasy fiction. It does indeed seem to be an attempt to gaslight the Electors.

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"Please clap." -- Jeb Bush

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

is some kind of bizarre concerted effort to enshrine in the public conscious, unconscious, sub-conscious and overall zeitgeist, that HRC shoulda, woulda, coulda have been the First Woman President but she was thwarted by an evil Russian mastermind who planted stories about the Pope likes Trump! and other equally unimportant or bizarre narratives and also promulgated emails that showed the DNC and her campaign to be populated by total poopyheads as demonstrated in their own communications.

HRC wasn't elected because of the real news of how she ran a private server to subvert transparency and FOIA laws and possibly to cloak self-serving interactions with her donors and her family foundation and that she was extremely careless in her handling of classified information. That is the information that soaked through the various strata of the voting public and took hold and it was Real Truth, not fake truth. Much of the public decided long before the first Wikileak that she was not the person they wanted to see in the White House. In addition to the email/server issues, she hid from the press and public and ran a Rose Garden/Martha Coakley campaign in which she could barely suppress her dislike of having to go through the process before proceeding to the coronation. She was aided in this with a deluded campaign staff that suffered oxygen shortages to the brain in their bunker which affected their reasoning abilities as reflected in their overall election strategery of alienating and insulting as many voters as they possibly could, both in the primary and the general.

But, like they say, never let a disaster go underutilized. Hillary's disastrous campaign is being used to ramp up pro-censorship policies and pro-war sensibilities and justify and enable actions to prevent the Little People from sharing information with each other and bypassing the flow of information that is controlled by TPTB. That is what the Russian hysteria is about in a nutshell.

Now, if they proved that Russians hacked the actual ballots or machines, there would be cause for excitement, but it would only underscore what tens of thousands of us know already, that Americans have insecure, hackable and unverifiable voting systems and the fault there does not lie with the Russians, it lies with our politicians and elected officials who, for whatever reason, think that it's okay that we have insecure, hackable and unverifiable voting systems.

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

"...insecure, hackable, and unverifiable voting systems."
And "they" don't give a rat's ass.
Nice post, PL, thanks.

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GeorgeJohn's picture

Good post. And of course if the machines were unhackable, then the Estab wouldn't be able to spin these yarns....

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LeChienHarry's picture

suggestion of fraud, tampering, etc. That and weekend or a national holiday, automatic registration, would be such an improvement.

Thank you for the great comment.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

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riverlover's picture

It should give many voters from last month pause. Send in the firefighters?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

and the more I see of Trumps "administration" I can't help but wonder. I do think he's in way over his head, and the idea of him actually doing the job just doesn't seem realistic to me. The Russia thing sorta "covers" Hillary's butt on the Primary cheating, and deflects nicely from that while ramping up the war fever, so I really do think that's why that smokescreen is being used. And I have trouble thinking Trump is making these picks to pander to the Tea Party, but who knows?

I agree though, I question it too. I feel we're being played but I can't really figure it out. I guess on Monday we see what happens, eh? I would not be shocked at all to see the Electoral college turn to Hillary, after all, I had figured she'd had this thing rigged to win and was surprised when she didn't.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

GeorgeJohn's picture

In your first paragraph.

Some things still don't make much sense. If a fix were on, then wouldn't the Fed Courts have accepted Stein's challenges, instead of slapping 'em down ? That's the one which puzzles me.

It's almost as if the Estab was going for the Recount avenue to give basis for an electoral coup....then when that started looking like it wasn't gonna pan out (or when they realized that, actually, what it would reveal was Dem malfeasance), like clockwork the Russia Narrative popped up.

The bafflement comes in because this is all so messy....halfassed. Not as orchestrated as the Primary Rigging and Narratives. Which makes me think maybe we are connecting unrelated dots.

???

Then again, it could just be the Establishment caught with their pants down (again), and sorta desperately trying all they can, transparently (again), regardless of how slapstick it might be.

Also....another thought. If in fact Electors feel they can be 'released' to vote for whomever...doesn't that cut both ways ? I mean, in a state which Shillary won, would that not allow an elector there to vote Trump with the absolute same reasoning ?

Thanks for reading and replying.

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LeChienHarry's picture

away. We just need to see what happens after Monday. If he is still in we need to start a pool on when he leaves.

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You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce

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edg's picture

I'm enjoying every minute of Trump's pre-inauguration antics. Sticking his finger in the eye of the "one China" assholes, refusing to play along with the Blame Russia crowd, talking to Kanye West and Al Gore. Ya gotta admit -- he's different.

If he crashes and burns, fine. It took 8 years of Bush to prepare the country for Obama. Sadly, Obama threw it all away because Democrats have mind like steel traps: nothing gets in, nothing gets out.

Should be an interesting next few years.

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GeorgeJohn's picture

I agree with your first paragraph, actually. As people freak on an hourly basis about Trumps picks...I am just sorta bemusedly looking on. It can't get much more surreal.

Regarding you second paragraph...I disagree. Obama didn't blow it at all...he did exactly what he was put there to do, by and for the Establishment. He went in there knowing his role and he executed it flawlessy. Like Clinton v.1, the Plutocracy knew it was easier to forward their agenda with a seemingly liberal-moderate in the WH, because like an abusive husband...everytime he hits you (progs, moderates) , you suspend your disbelief that he, in fact, DID just hit you. You accept the rationalization, regardless of how utterly inane it might be.
He played it almost flawlessly....but was ultimately exposed before he could get outta there.

BTW your AZ-MX comment killed me, thanks Smile

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they are casting doubt on the correctness of result. electoral college as vehicle for coup makes objective sense,.,and Trump is acting very much like a guy disqualifying himself.

It is so far out and scary you can't believe it could happen here. But some will say it has happened here already.

As to Mr. Obama, he has been in Citigroup's pocket since 2003. (podesta again! no wonder they hate Assange.)

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ThoughtfulVoter's picture

Trump is self destructing (again) has been a Clinton propaganda item this entire election, and it continues even after November 8.

Why do they go on embarrassing themselves by repeating what is obviously not believed by the masses about Trump?

Are the Democrats, and Clintonland especially, merely saving face?

Are they trying to discredit Trump so he'll be powerless?

Are they trying to shame Trump, to justify their actions when they bring him down?

Are they threatening violence by getting the public all worked up, to get Trump cowering in fear and keep him in line?

I haven't been following any right wing news sites lately to know how they are thinking about this either, but IMHO Trump as a non-establishment billionaire is going to going to upset the status quo in both the class war and the political party war. Is the establishment trying to incite public outcry to make Joe Q Public the patsy against Trump while they keep their lily white hands clean?

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Including Boeing, corporate competitors of Exxon Mobil, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, The Bushes, Ted Cruz, companies heavily involved in trade with China and Mitt corporations-are-people-my-friend Romney.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

the CIA too, which was perhaps not an entirely prudent thing to do. Trump is the proverbial bull in a china shop. There's not a piece of crockery in the entire establishment likely to remain whole, once he gets finished rampaging around. We are all about to be grandly entertained. But it's anyone's guess what the place will look like once the show is over.

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native

Marvin

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GeorgeJohn's picture

...I was waitin' for someone to post this Wink

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Roy Blakeley's picture

Trump is genuinely very, very, very bad.

Jill was trying to uncover evidence of election fraud, not really trying to help Hillary win. She can't say that she believes that the election was fraudulent because that is outside of the Overton window. By the way, although there is a high probability of election fraud in the Democratic primaries, I doubt that Hillary's team was responsible. They are crooks certainly, but all indications are that they are unfathomably incompetent at IT. My guess is that TPTB rigged it for her because they really, really did not want Bernie. The software is proprietary and the companies that produce it and their right-wing allies are the most likely culprits. They have steadfastly resisted making the system secure. They may have rigged it for Trump in the general. As happened in Ohio in 2004, the recount was thwarted. Jill, by the way, is an activist at heart. She has no idea about building a political party.

The Washington establishment is not happy with Trump and they want to reignite the cold war to justify bizarre amounts of spending on weapons systems that are useless against the Islamic state.

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GeorgeJohn's picture

you perhaps neglect to consider that Shillary rigged in 2008 as well. So the Clinton Machine definitely had the 'ins' on rigging.

Also, your theory is based upon a premise that, once again, the 'conservative establishment' and the Clinton/Obama/NeoLib establishment are somehow separate....or enemies....or on opposite sides.

Which I feel strongly has been disproven over the past 25 years.

I WOULD agree that Jill was just trying to uncover or establish fraud...but once again, this fails to answer WHY she only chose 3 states which Shillary CLOSELY lost. Why not throw in 1 state which she narrowly WON ? The Green website has a bullet-point answer to this, but it's very lame ("we didn't have enough money to do 4"). I believe this is where one can reasonably cast a skeptical eye towards Jill's motives.

But good comments, thanks for reading my entry.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

They shouldn't have any problem locating competent election fraud professionals.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Yup, that and Hillary won the pre-election competition between the Repubs and Dems for a lot of more typically Repub seriously-big donors. My personal belief is that it's the corporate/greed-crazed billionaire influence which makes for the (bribe money for the) blatant electoral rigging previously seen on the Repub side but now on both. The corporate media naturally does as ordered from above in producing the propaganda now made 'legal' for government to use against American citizens - only now the general population has a VERY high rate of a VERY huge mistrust of the media for very, very good reason...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Deja's picture

That, alone, is a huge tell for me. And, the convenient open hole in the voter roll software (wasn't that program also proprietary AND owned by a big Shills supporter/donor?), which, imo, gave Shill's team (DNC included) an out for tampering with voter registration - pointing the finger at Bernie's team as devoy, covering their own tampering asses.

Republicans didn't have their registered voters purged or flipped en masse. Dems did, though, in a highly contested race they never saw coming. I have zero faith that the Republicans thought the old Jewish socialist was any threat at all, and him terrifying them would be the only reason they'd rig it.

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About Putin. Here is what I posted on TOP. I really should not do it anymore. It was in response to another charge that Putin personally took charge of the hacking and undermining of Clinton.

I gotta say. If all this is true about Putin, Kos should fire the entire front page staff (do front pages get paid?) as Putin obviously knows more about America’s political culture, popular beliefs, and the American mass media than anybody on the democratic party side. And again no less, the fucker cannot even speak American. Come on it was absolutely amazing that Putin could figure out that WI, MI, Ohio, and PA held the keys to Trump’s victories which the Clinton campaign assumed were safe states. Maybe the DNC can hire him as a consultant for 2018? Lord knows the party needs some competent people to help with elections.

However, what I really think is going on is that the CIA and affiliated neocons in DOD are not trying to overturn the election but to utterly poison the diplomatic waters so Trump cannot make peace or cooperate with Putin. It is an utter brazen act and interference in foreign policy, and the election which I have never seen in my voting life.

Trump's election has caused utter panic for the neocon establishment. Begin earlier this year. That neocon establishment utterly back stabbed and outright revolted and disobeyed Obama after Kerry and Lavrov had settled on the last cease fire. In fact, the Pentagon deliberated bombed and killed about 100 Syrian soldiers to stop the cease fire.

The Pentagon and CIA are basically conducting their own war and foreign policy in direct opposition to Obama's orders. The article below documents how this happened. It should have been shocking that generals came out so publicly and stated they would not follow Obama's orders.

Again the stakes are huge. Billions of dollars have been spent on supply rebels and Al Queda in Syria--that goes away for both the Pentagon and CIA. There are various alliances with the jihadist supporting nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The list goes on.

If Trump is truly serious about detente with Russian, starting with Syria, Trump could redefine and redirect American policy which would effect literally every nation in Europe, NATO, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. And even effecting China by pulling at the Russian/Chinese alliance. This I believe is what is behind this bizarre and surreal shadow play we now see. EU leaders when Trump was elected came out and stated Trump must not make peace with Russia--and dang it they were going to force him to see the errors of his way.

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/25/did-the-pentagon-sabotage-syrian-p...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns5YnHI2N54]

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Bisbonian's picture

Remember when Trump said, "If I killed somebody on the street in New York, people would still vote for me!"? He wasn't bragging...he was baffled that people were still voting for the comic book character he was playing. And now he has put the Joker, Eraserhead, the Penguin, and all the rest on his cabinet...I think he is still trying to get out of the job.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

He is in too deep, can't get out, covered with a s*it load of dirt. Couldn't escape, even if he wanted to. Gots'ta play the game with the gangsta's now. Ha! See who wins..

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mimi's picture

President now. Therefore he behaves in ways that would make any person or foreign country so scared and upset, that very few people or countries would not dream of firing him. There is that feeling that we, the little people, would prefer reliable liars to unreliable ones, as unreliable liars may accidentically say something reasonable and truthful and THAT would reveal too much of the nakedness of our reliable liars.

Who cares who fires him and why. Just get us back our dutifully lying predictable con artists.

I just read in a useless health advisory website, that if you suffer from some traumatic experiences, it helps to get a lot of sleep. My answer to all of it is to go to bed, hibernate and sleep tight til we awake after wwIII and can start to build our new future again.

Huzzah!

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GeorgeJohn's picture

...had Shillary won.

That...plus a lotta sex, booze, and dancing......

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the world is a ball of confusion... soundtrack of our lives

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

we are

"actually witnessing the Establishment attempting an Electoral College Coup."

Nice essay, GJ.

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD

Taro
Taro, SOSD

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

GeorgeJohn's picture

...that's kinda what I am feeling....

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Amanda Matthews's picture

will erupt if anything like that would happen. It's a real long-shot and I don't see it working but if it did happen, then I see bad things happening in the future.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

WindDancer13's picture

Wait until after the inauguration and Trump starts firing everyone he just put in place. These are just the tryouts...like he is going to try them out for a month or so.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

GeorgeJohn's picture

..which is why I say "let the Trump administration implode all by itself" ...and I don't go nutsoid at every rabid right-winger who gets a cabinet nod. With the current cabinet, the Trump admin will not survive 'til the '18 midterms.

But my 'concern', if you wanna use that wording, is that he will never make it to inauguration day.

This may raise eyebrows, but again, as I have stated a multitude of times, a Trump Admin is actually preferable to what a Shillary one would have done to Progressives in America.

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mimi's picture

I see it from another angle and will not even ask, who or the two have done or would do what to Progressives in America. I think about what they do to Europe and the ME. And what I see and imagine is not what I would have wished for. This goes beyond to what it does to the US.

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gulfgal98's picture

before the Dark Ages. It really does appear that instead of draining the swamp, Trump is stocking it with the worst possible picks he could find. He seems to be actually trying to blow the system up and with it any checks and balances to protect the people.

On a personal level, I am in a very dark place about the future of the world and it is not just Trump that has me worried. Right now, it seems as though nothing makes sense. We the people are just helpless and disposable pawns in a big game that will not end well for anyone.

What we are witnessing is the complete destruction of what little was left of any belief in the validity of government systems and both Clinton and Trump along with the deep state are all contributing to it.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

not a day goes by where I don't think about finding some little house out in the middle of nowhere to gather family and friends and hunker down for the coming disaster. I tell myself I'm being hyperbolic and maybe it's because I pay so much attention to this mess now, but I'm not sure at all about that and I swing back and forth daily.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

GeorgeJohn's picture

Truly.

I feel, paraphrasing Ms. Sarandon, that this just brings the Revolution faster.

The ability of the Clinton-Obama-NeoLib regime to manipulate (and often suppress opposition) in all aspects of America's life...be it media, public opinion, nartional and int'l affairs....has alweays been way, way scarier than any of these Cartoons which Prez Trump is trotting out as his team.

Indeed, the latter scenario will be bad...but the amount of opposition it will result in will actually be unprecedented in American History.

The former Regime (or any minorly tweaked version thereof)....would have just been able to continue to divide, dilute, sedate, and rationalize to Americans until there would really be no active opposition at all, nor any available avenues if there remained any.

Yes, it's a dicey time....but we're in the middle of livin' it right now. The quicker it implodes, the quicker it can change. My 2 cents.

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Unless Trump appoints the Koch's favorite people. Hopefully, the better people in the Senate will do their jobs and out Trump's appointees for who they really are during the confirmation hearings.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

That his cabinet picks are the ultimate neutering of the likes of Perry, Pruit, Sessions, Tillerson etc.. By placing these people in charge of these departments, at the top of the chain of responsibility, will they be able to exercise their authority while managing a huge bureaucracy? Or will their ignorance, hatred, mis-management sink them like a bag of rocks around their proverbial necks?

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mhagle's picture

So the establishment is trying to change the electoral college vote to Mrs. Clinton?

Wow. How will that go over in the South?

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Bisbonian's picture

2016-election-vote-by-county.jpeg

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

mhagle's picture

A much bigger area. Your map says it all. Very frightening!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Maybe center and edges. Population density seems to be important. Maybe there's a correlation between how informed the people of an area are and what color their area is. Although, if that were the case we would be seeing a lot more green areas. Unless there are different degrees to which people are informed and we're at the "most informed" degree.

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Beware the bullshit factories.