@Not Henry Kissinger Fuck me gently with a chainsaw. I can't stand Trump, but that's fucking horrific. Wonder what the response would have been had I done that with a Hillary doll. Bet I would have had some besuited government officials show up at my door.

Political effigy as a community organized event.

I don't care who the President is. This is medieval-level weirdness.

Dems need to get a grip.

@Not Henry Kissinger

Terrorist training camp for the kiddies? Why should the US have to arm and support foreign terrorists when they can give these great jobs to eager young Americans yearning to learn how to behead somebody rendered completely helpless?

Political effigy as a community organized event.

I don't care who the President is. This is medieval-level weirdness.

Dems need to get a grip.

@lizzyh7 It is fine with me if the Dem PTB want to organize protests about issues we care about. The participants in these protests are sincere. Once Trump is gone the people who are protesting are not going to shut up just because Nancy Pelosi tell them to. Pence will be much worse than Trump.

The Big Cheeses at TOP may be able to tell Bernie people to STFU, but they do not have any power outside of TOP. Let them fan the flames of organization. Most of the TOP rank and file really did not get just how bad it is for poor whites. That was always the flaw in the DOV discussion-suppression model. The good-hearted, coastal-suburban, dimwitted bleeding-heart Liberals are just now discovering white homelessness and male homelessness. We should encourage this. Once DOV and pals lose their power the discussion can go to the real socioeconomic issues.

Just read about the Tax Day protests being organized over the Rumper's tax returns. Boy, I read somewhere else some are considering not paying their taxes because of what that money is used for. Huh, yeah, and just suddenly Trump is the only one who spends on egregious things. Besides, not wise to mess with Sam, Sam has many ways to make your life very unpleasant should you decide to rebel that way.

@thanatokephaloides I watch, first, the media, and second, the cops, to see whether something is astroturfed or not. There's no way this isn't an astroturfed managed opposition.

Of course, because there are (as you point out) real reasons to oppose Trump, actual genuine people might spontaneously show up to these managed efforts and even organize some of their own under their aegis. That doesn't change the fact that it's astroturf. It's one of the functions of astroturf to absorb and digest sincere spontaneous efforts.

Can we at least agree this is not "spontaneous"?

Not without direct evidence that these events have a common source. As in: exactly who did exactly what, exactly when.

The thing about the blatant megamoney-ocracy which Trump, Pence, and Company represents is that resistance is quite reasonable, and therefore resistance is to be had. Making that resistance appear isn't all that big a deal under our current conditions.

Americans (at least all reasonable ones) want this situation gone. Europeans, Africans, Asians, and Australians don't want the American disease (and yes, that's the proper term for it) to spread to them. We're all scared shitless, and acting accordingly.

No $hillbot conspiracy required.

@shaharazade Very well said.

or the obscenely rich neoliberal philanthropists aren't behind a protest or demonstration how can any mass of humans who get together to resist or demonstrate occur spontaneously? It's not that hard to figure out locally or nationally which 'spontaneous' eruptions of people are fake. It's kind of like the 'fake news' outlets that are owned by the likes of Bezos, Murdock or corporate conglomerations so called alternative sites run by The Third Way.

I guess if you consider Axelrod's 'world as we find it' the only reality possible then these orchestrated events are legitimate and sincere. They do not however have anything to do with resisting the established odious NWO. They are safe symbolic hooray for our side rally's and not resistance. Donning your pink pussy hat, hitting the street and being greeted by cops with flowers in their lapels instead of full metal robobcop suits is not what a protest or demonstration looks like. So many 'events' are erupting in my city it's hard to sort through which ones are real.

OWS was real but it threatened the established order and they brought out the heavies. Lot's of people did not like it as it wasn't aliened with any political party and had no focal point 'dear leader' to pin your identity on. Horizontal movement is too confusing for sheeple who like being in the herd. The insane clown pres. is the perfect foil to get the sheeple to rally behind the only alternative the one that appears to be more PC and rational and yet.....

Nowadays we've got Occupy Demorat's and lot's of Bernie reform the Democrats franchises springing up all over the place. Sad because they are the very definition of sheep dogging or veal penning. I hope this latest ploy of divide and conquer doesn't work as all it does is make people think they are being activists without really resisting or protesting the real villains of this piece.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Having been involved in the real deal several decades ago, I am amused to compare actual protest (such as those against certain pipelines) with these latest Sunday-stroll-in-the-park variety.

Selfies with cops / FBI taking our pictures
Cops helping ladies off the curb / Riot-gear clad thugs swinging for your kneecap
Free municipal parking for your Audi / VW microbusses full of stinking bodies
Front page color photo of funny hats via Hearst / FBI photo of your license plate
Sprained ankle from tripping on Starbucks cup / Head split open from billy club

They might as well have gone on a picnic ... although they'd have to contend with ants or mosquitoes.

Then it's probably not spontaneous.

Are the cops high-fiving protesters as they march down the street?

Then it's probably not spontaneous.

This isn't rocket science.