Trump 
is likely to win. Last time, he was constrained by not having willing operatives in place in the various agencies and departments. They aren’t going to make that mistake again. Also last time, after a few big and largely ineffective demonstrations, people generally let him do what he wanted without doing much about it. I hope that this time, we will be willing and able to actually act. There will be people who need protection or to get out of there. I hope we will help.
@hallmarc If he wins, he’s going to sweep out a large portion of the management in the various agencies and put in their own people, unlike last time. I’m not worried about sleepers. It’s the reshaping of the federal executive branch that’s concerning. SCOTUS makes it worse, of course, since they won’t stop anything.
@ZonaPellucida I thought you were only talking about stealing the election...
@hallmarc No, I meant after the election and inauguration.
@ZonaPellucida yes absolutely 💯
Defeatists get the oubliette.
@mcfate Don’t worry, I’m doing my part. You just worry about what you can do.
@ZonaPellucida Going to be an unpopular opinion but I feel you're spot on.The threat of him could've been neutralised a long time ago but someone,somewhere decided to treat him with kid gloves lest they motivated the rabble that follow him.In my opinion they should've hammered him from day one.The trouble they thought they'd avert is coming regardless,should've just ripped the plaster off when they had the chance instead of letting him even near a chance for a second term.
@FrankCannon @ZonaPellucida From my perspective, he has been hammered on every front. His J6 mob has been facing huge legal repercussions. He's been facing lawsuit after lawsuit, with convictions and sentences. We even know about the corruption and election tampering because it is being exposed in the media.
The Republican party has decided that TFG is its moral and ideological centre. There are no tools available in a democratic system to deal with that from within.
@sumpnlikefaith Then you make the tools,you create precedent.I seem to remember many times when he was granted stays on court appearances and other put-offs when they should've been going for the jugular and not treated him as if they were merely chasing up a few parking tickets.He had a lot of leeway given to him that an ordinary citizen just wouldn't have got. @ZonaPellucida
@FrankCannon @ZonaPellucida You're right. He was given advantages, stays and even had things thrown out of court by partisan judges.
Appeals don't work -- the corruption goes all the way up to SCOTUS.
The only way to solve this would have been for Biden to grow and stack SCOTUS, which would have destabilised the country even more.
The blatant corruption on the republican side with election tampering, voter interference, and whatever the hell else Musk is doing will need a reckoning.
@FrankCannon @ZonaPellucida I think everything is on pause until the election results are in.
But in my estimation, the tensions have never been higher. TFG's supporters think they're the aggrieved ones. Indeed, they've turned that into their whole brand.
As a result, they've created a powder-keg I don't even think they're aware of. They're only listening to their own echo chambers.
But who TFG is promising positions of power to are profoundly dangerous. It's a truly horrific scenario.
@sumpnlikefaith I fully believe that a lot of them know full well that they're a powder keg and are gleefully embracing the moment the fuse is lit.They want aggro,they're craving violence,they desire that nod in their direction to go out on the streets and take their anger out on those around them that they feel deserve it. @ZonaPellucida
@sumpnlikefaith Every time they reached a critical juncture,they eased off instead of pressing the attack,they gave him wiggle room.Whatever strategy and reasoning for it has spectacularly backfired.Whether it was because they thought he was the easiest to go up against this year,they were afraid of setting precedents that could then be turned against their own side,whatever the reasoning they've shot themselves in both feet. @ZonaPellucida
@FrankCannon @ZonaPellucida I mean, maybe there was a way to push harder. But what I saw was the rule of law being used to undermine his whole enterprise.
He's a felon now. His network has been weakened. So many grifters surrounding him have faced massive legal consequences. All the checks and balances were put into effect.
But...somehow...everything that should matter to people making a choice about who should lead them no longer does. Democrats cannot be blamed for that.
@sumpnlikefaith You can never underestimate stupid unfortunately.When that's involved you've an uphill battle.In all honesty I feel that they'd vote for him even if he were banged up.I'll be very surprised if we don't begin to see isolated of violence incidents from next Tuesday on and that needs to be nipped in the bud immediately otherwise it's going to spread,and spread quickly. @ZonaPellucida
@FrankCannon @ZonaPellucida The US has been bristling for civil war for a long while now.
I don't think the foreign interference around TFG was to put one chosen leader in. I believe it was to destabilise the system.
From that perepctive, it worked.
The system is destabilised. People are perceiving their neighbours as dangerous.
The next step is violence. Unless republicans and (to a lesser extent) democrats can see that they've been played, violence is inevitable.
@sumpnlikefaith I think appealing to the right for civility and stepping back from the brink will ultimately be a waste of breath.They're gagging for a civil war and I don't see them being dissuaded. @ZonaPellucida
@FrankCannon @ZonaPellucida Sadly, this is what I'm perceiving as well. This is where all the far-right messaging dovetails together.
The NRA's capitalist, populist take on keeping the nation armed. The populist take on 2nd Amendment. The prejudice. The conspiracy theories. The paranoia. All of it.
The way right-wing keyboard warriors talk though, they are going to be profoundly shocked when they discover that violence is a two-way street.
@sumpnlikefaith Something's been waiting to snap for quite some time now and I think next week will prove to be the catalyst. @ZonaPellucida
The Reckoning of the Megalomaniac Billionaire Elites…
Proving every day in every way that obscene wealth causes sociopaths to spiral deeper into ever greater megalomaniacal sociopathy and mental illness.
@sumpnlikefaith @FrankCannon I think we would be looking at fortifying networks to provide assistance to people being targeted like immigrants, LGBTQ, Muslims, Jews, women needing reproductive care, etc. Not politics.
@ZonaPellucida @FrankCannon Well, I mean this *is* politics now.
This is what giving someone like TFG (I hope I can keep using that acronym after Nov 6th) so much power does. It's no longer about policy-making, it's about how much he's allowed to directly interfere in individuals' lives.
He has no philosophical core. He has no restraint, no perspective, no plan. He only has the driving urge to be important. His importance will come at any cost.
He's supported by people who want that, too.
I'll have to respectfully disagree with both of you on him winning this. I don't think he'll even come close.
If he couldn't steal the election with all the resources of POTUS, he won't do it this time.
But I'm sure his shiteheads learned a great deal about exploitable weaknesses in 2020. Many of the sleazy pre-election tactics have been mitigated so far, but I worry about what their plan of action is from election day through inauguration. It needs to be leaked.
When the smoke clears on all this so many safeguards of the country's democratic/civic infrastructure has been exposed as weak, exploitable, unresponsive and slow.
The courts of course and how unfair they are and the endless appeals and BS games a person with limitless funds can play is first and foremost.
The endless lies spewed by entertainment as news propaganda news orgs will hopefully bring the fairness doctrine back
Billionaires control both with impunity.
AND ALSO of course, and this is huge as well, the oppressiveness and uselessness of the electoral college needs to be undone and reformed...
Also, the polling organizations who’re either being paid off too show fake momentum or that are too cowardly todo anything at this point other than herd themselves so they can say at least they all fucked up the same should be called out and their polls downgraded.
Seems to me the fact so many of them are “even” tells me they don’t need to run a poll to tell them, polling as an industry is fuxked.
They give themselves away.
@TheAbbotTrithemius I have zero trust in polls,they're pretty much just sticks to bludgeon the electorate with and keep them in a constant state of worry. @ZonaPellucida
No one should. Yet, they’re used to supplement news media narratives all the fookin time… so they used to manipulate.
@TheAbbotTrithemius The media does it purposely,especially in the US from my experience here so far.They want the population angry,outraged and worried.....that puts eyes on screens. @ZonaPellucida
@TheAbbotTrithemius And they don't give a shiny shite about the impact on people's mental health. @ZonaPellucida
@TheAbbotTrithemius That needs to be abolished asap. @ZonaPellucida
@FrankCannon I'll still never get my head around how you can't get a job as a janitor as a convicted felon but you *can* run to be fucking President 😠
@BillyBones Should try getting into the police when a distant cousin is one of the top IRA chaps in the country.😬 @ZonaPellucida
@BillyBones Took a lot of security checks. @ZonaPellucida
I think Biden and Merrick Garland, honestly just wanted to get back to a place of “normalcy”, meaning a pre-Trump style of government and Biden accomplished ALOT with that style, getting some excellent legislation passed. The irony of the fact he’s one of the best, most successful presidents in decades is thick AF.
But, once Kamala is in office, I hope her AG and the Justice department are given leeway to go after every one of these fuxks hard AF.
@ZonaPellucida the threat is much greater from state actors and probably SCOTUS. I don't think there are too many sleepers left in federal departments and agencies.