The Republic on Fire? The Hysterics of a Typical American Administration
The title will already be polarizing depending upon your political affiliation (what color jersey you wear). But, I really have to ask: How is this administration that significantly different from the past decades of administration?
I'm serious.
Throughout the media and the blue-painted echo chambers, it is shouted that the fascists have come. The apocalypse is here. Our republic is no more.
But if you put on your sound-cancelling headphones and stroll through America, is America that significantly different?
Scanning through comments of various articles (not here) for anecdotal uses, I find the most peculiar statements:
"We are in the greatest crisis in U.S. history, greater than the Great Depression and the Civil War."
"Our republic is on fire. We must all unite to stop this."
Let's stop here. Donald Trump, being elected in our system, is a crisis greater than bloodiest war in American history?
I'm sorry, but I can't just accept that blatant, hysterical bullshit.
So far, Trump is a continuation of Obama, who was a continuation of Bush, who was a continuation of Clinton, who was a continuation of Bush, who was a continuation of Reagan.
The current media outcry is the ICE separation of families and children into detention centers. But yet, under Obama, children were locked up in detention centers as well.
As the WSWS stated in the same article:
The new measures introduced by the Trump administration earlier this month, to immediately separate children from their families and even detain them on military bases, marks a new stage in the war on immigrants. However, what the Democratic Party is determined to obscure is that these measures flow seamlessly out of the policies pursued under the Obama administration. In fact, the ease with which Trump is able to carry out its assault on immigrants was made directly possible by the Obama administration and is continually aided by current congressional Democrats.
So far, all I'm seeing is a bunch of virtue-signaling from a bunch of hypocritical people who stayed silent while things just like this happened under administrations they supported. But that is, after all, the American way.
The reality of Trump isn't that this isn't some new phenomenon that suddenly emerged from a spawning pool in Hell. The reality is two-fold: The first is that Trump has an R by his name which means that a certain portion of people will automatically be against him. The second thing is that Trump isn't as smooth of a liar like Obama or Clinton; they lulled the people to feel good about the evils they committed.
The republic on fire? Of course it is, but it has been on fire for over a century. America just has a lot to burn through.
Edit: added clarifying detail on comments.
Comments
The difference between this
one and the previous admins is this one has had the "advantage" of 16 years of two admins since "the world changed on 9/11." Well, that, and this one also enjoys control of all three branches of government. But, it's those 16 years of DHS (Homeland) policies, rules and regs, along with 14, 15 years of Dubya's perpetual War on Terra that are maybe the main difference between this one and previous admins. This admin is locked, loaded and cocked to bring forth their Reign of Terror on America and the world. And they have every intention of bringing it.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
@Wink Well, Obama had 8 years
Well, Obama had 8 years of that time (09-16). He didn't do any significant changes from the previous admins either.
O'bummer had two years
to get stuff done
and spent it ramming his ObamaCare thru congress (where not a single Repub voted for it).
Maybe a signal of things to come, as nary a Repub voted for Any of his "signature legislation." O'bummer wasn't nearly in the spot Trump finds himself in - with support not only of rank & file Repubs, but rank & file Dims too. That just might be his greatest advantage. Support for this futhermucker crosses party lines. (and why he will be hard to beat in 2020). Dims did not support Dubya. "Reagan Dimocrats" supported Reagan, but even he didn't get the support Trump gets from rank & file Dims tired of seeing black and brown people in their daily travels. "Jeebus, another black fuck I have to deal with to buy my coffee. WTF???" Go Trump!!
So, Trump has that going, plus he has all three branches. There's never been an admin in my lifetime so poised to do whatever the fuck they want to do. And they have every intention of doing just that. And so obviously are.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Really?
locked and loaded? More than any other administration?
If HRC had been elected, we would already be at war with Russia.
dfarrah
Maybe. But I'm mostly
talking about bringing
the Wrath of Gawd ~er the Oligarchy on these United States.
Of that he has every intent, his orders, of course, directed from that very Oligarchy.
Which eventually will get around to war with Russia. After all, they meddled in our elections, must be punished. But it's the War On the 99% that Trump concerns himself with, and it's a war he intends to win. And is.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I really don't
see how you managed to load up Trump with all of the evil that had been going on well before Trump even became a blip on the political radar.
dfarrah
It's easy to answer this question
Because people are paying attention to what Trump is doing because of how they feel about him. Just like how people were upset about what the Bush administration was doing, but gave The First Black President a pass for not only doing the exact same things, but even worse things. Like the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen.
This is the picture that went viral on Trump's policy of separating children from their parents only to have been taken during Obama's presidency. Oops, never mind people said after that little fact became known.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
nothing new...
in a country founded on genocide and built by slavery. The notion we're greeeat, is simply naive.
T-rump has taken off the mask with his cabinet of oligarchs and generals determined to dominate the people and planet. However the idea that pelosi and schummer are the answer is equally absurd.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
There was no mask
to be taken off.
People only needed to pay some attention to what was going on.
dfarrah
I don't know...
Corporate media paints a good backdrop that is quite convincing. You have to be educated enough to look at actions rather than listen to words not to be taken in. The big Trump smear conducted by most commercial outlets illuminates the hypocrisy, because they neglected to cover the horrors of the Obomber, et al. presidency. I mean good looking family well spoken black man...that's a pretty good mask.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Got to agree.
Obama had the manner and mannerisms that one was not ashamed when he met with heads of state. He was polished, urbane, and genteel. Trump is none of the above. One thinks maybe he went to the G-7 meeting wearing a bowling shirt and picking his teeth.
But policy-wise they are not that different. Trump is cruder than any President of my lifetime (or, I think, my parents' lifetime). But that is the significant difference.
A Harvard professor vs a Jersey tough.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
naaa
Reading an article in the New Yorker (sorry, I can't find a digital version yet) that talks about Netanyahu's relationship with Obama vs Netanyahoo's relationship with Trump. It was night and day and Trump was night. Netanyahu sabatoged Obama, even after Trump was elected. Now he's happy because he gets to ramp up oppression and settle the West Bank with impunity and Jared gets big profits in the settlements. 2 state solution is gone false equivalancies are the hobgoblin of fascists blah blah blah
Beware the bullshit factories.
A Jersey punk
would be more accurate.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Trump is a weight the structure cannot bear.
The entire structure of America is badly neglected. As Trump applies pressure, the blocks and structural supports that have been propped up to keep the thing erect are cracking and crumbling.
At this point, unless some major fundamental engineering is done to replace the load bearing beams which were long ago sold, the Republic is doomed.
Going to quote Antisthenes, because he's been my recent reading and he's fascinating.
A State is Doomed when it can no longer tell good men from bad.
-Antisthenes
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
A rotten structure has to come down ...
before a new solid modern structure goes up.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I couldn't agree more.
I've come to despise the dems because of the hypocrisy and their refusal to represent their constituents.
All the hysteria is disgusting and demonstrates how hypocritical all of the dems, from top to bottom, are.
dfarrah
Depends on who's talking.
I just wrote an essay criticizing Sessions, Sanders and Trump for invoking the bible and God as their justification for separating children from their parents. I pointed out how they were blaming the democrats for the policy and how that is how this increasingly childish and bizarre duopoly system works. It's one team against another and that's all we get.
In no way am I indicating that the dems are better or that Obama was better. I'm simply criticizing the present, dealing with what's there now.
But the media and the duopoly want the people to view this from the two party perspective.
I don't think there's anything wrong with saying Trump and this administration are worse than previous administrations. He and they are. But for me that certainly doesn't mean I favor the democrats back in power, I won't play that game. Part of it is a natural regression that's occurring in this country, part of it is Trump himself. That asshole is as about as fucked up a human being as I can imagine. Obama is a war criminal who should be in prison, but Trump is even worse.
Re separation:
I just had this argument with my wife and you all probably won't agree with me either but here goes:
The parents are unde4r arrest and being held in jail. When this happens DCFS takes the kids. Maybe it shouldn't be ICE but DCFS that takes the kids, but kids do not go to jail with their parents like Victorian England. I agree that our immigration system is rotten and overly restrictive, but it is still the law. Kids get separated when their parents are arrested for crack, too.
So many things wrong with the immigration system: the lowest quotas ever, a lottery instead of a waiting list, rich people welcome as long as they spend $800K on a house or condo, corporations running indentured servants via H1-B ... But separation of kids is not one of them. That ALWAYS happened when parents were arrested pending deportation.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Ok, but why?
I followed along with your arguments, in think.
Allowing that they are breaking the law by crossing the border without paperwork, is being jailed and separated from their children really the ONLY way the US can respond?
I think not. They could be deported, for example, or treated as refugees and given safe shelter. The decision to treat them as criminals and imprison them first, before deportation after they do the time, is what “forces” these family separations. But, that policy is not the only option.
Speeding is also “against the law” — but we don’t jail people and take their kids away for it.
The rationalization that separating the families is not wrong, and is actually the only option, is based on the premise that incarceration as criminals is the only choice; a required punishment for their “crime” of crossing the border.
But that’s not true. Exactly how the current laws are applied and enforced, is where there is flexibility and the enforcers do have choices.
The current administration has in fact stated they are intentionally using “zero tolerance” and maximum pain in order to deter others from following them here.
So these families are the examples. They “send a message” by their suffering. It is intentional.
Hillary Clinton supported the same, uh, strategy, when she was running for president, of course.
Like Obama, she would have implemented basically the same harsh policy. But also like him, she would have tried to hide it, like “it’s only the real criminals that we do this too, not everyone...” like that makes any sense combined with her “send them a message” thing. But hey, we don’t need logic or consistency from the democrats.
I agree with both sides of the point raised in the OP, I think. It is the same policy, essentially, as obama had and Clinton would have had, and any future democrats will have.
And the media would be quietly going along.
But — the Dems didn’t and wouldn’t make such a big show of their cruelty. They would not brag about it. And they, hopefully, wouldn’t cite the BIBLE as the justification for doing it!
So what I see is, obviously there is significant continuity across both parties, but also a significant increase under trump in the level of openly weird things, like the Bible stuff, and the excessive chest thumping and meanness and open racism that underlies his approach, like the “zero tolerance” policy, that brings up the “hysteria” over it.
And — last but definitely not least in all the noise over this, it’s an election year. Midterms in a few months now. So much of this noise right now is the puppeteers playing politics. Need to get those voters riled up.
The “children in a cage” pic was tossed as a political bomb. Did the bomb-thrower know it was from Obama’s reign? Or did they not care since it wouldn’t matter. It started the drama, mission accomplished.
We can expect an over the top increase in every kind of mud slinging and finger pointing and outright lies from the media for the next 5 months. Then we might get a short break, but here comes 2020.
Probably the immigration situation will go on unchanged and nothing will be done, sadly.
That's why I followed the primary debates.
There won't be any political honesty all summer.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
That's a good point.
I don't like it applied in this case, but it's a reasonable argument. In this case, I think, the situation is different from say, parents arrested for drugs or some other domestic crimes. Basically we're talking about refugees here, people so desperate that they're willing to travel great distances at great risk with their children in seeking a way out of a miserable life for them and their kids.
Morally I believe the situation should be handled differently. Laws are just something some humans made up.
I agree
But the answer is to change the law, not ignore it. Ignoring the law just allows other laws, good laws, to be ignored. Worse, when the laws are applied capriciously they become vehicles for bribery and political punishment. Congress could vote a moratorium on incarceration tomorrow, IF they wanted to. Changing the law would take more time, but a temporary moratorium could be enacted tomorrow if the Speaker was on board. Since he probably isn't, a bill would have to be drafted and a discharge petition voted on. That would take more than 24 hours but certainly could be done this weekIF the political will was there. I can't fault Trump for enforcing the law. He swore to do that in his oath of office. I can fault Congress for letting this fester.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Keep in mind though about Trump,
he's not enforcing the law, he's using the situation as a bargaining tool against the democrats for his wall. I don't think the dude really cares about anything but whatever it takes for him to "win".
Very True!
It only accidentally matches his oath which I'm sure he couldn't care less about.
The Mueller Investigation, which IS a political witch hunt, is producing lots of indictments. Not for political crimes but for ordinary crimes because that's how those cockroaches operate.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Except he is not enforcing the law
As explained in a recent article in the weekly standard, of all places:
Yes it is - either way.
The Law doesn't require release of recognizance but allows it. Former policy was to authorize blanket release, about as bad as blanket non-release, morally. Both are legal.
During a recent budget crisis, Cook County prosecutors were told not to bring non-violent theft cases to court if the amount was under $1,000, so stealing a $900 TV had a get out of jail free card attached.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.