53 Comments

Are we in Hell yet, Dorothy?

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This train makes no more stops until we arrive, unless you want to jump at 100mph.

No one would fault you if you did.

Some days I get close.

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Who thought Hell would be a circus?

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But not a fun one.

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More like the circus in "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

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Much more apropos. (I don't know that movie, but the title was taken from one of the spookier lines in Shakespeare, with which you are probably familiar, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." From MacBeth, when one of the witches senses MacBeth's approaching them.)

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The movie is an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's scariest story, of the same title. Came out in the 80s, Bradbury purists were upset, but then came to their senses and realized it's good. Unfortunately it was done by Disney, so there's probably only one source for it.

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Disney..... sigh...

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You had me until the last sentence Tom. Putting Joe Biden in the box with Elmo and felon 34 was a bridge too far for me. Joe has stayed low since the farce of an election. After the way he was treated by the media and younger Democrats who can blame him. History will exonerate Joe and give him the honor he deserves for doing more in 2 years than any president since Lyndon Johnson. And Joe didn't fuck it up by taking us into a dishonorable war. So he pardoned his son for "fake charges" no person in America, except his son would face.

Elmo Muck and trumpscum in the same box, yeah. Both are dimwitted, narcissistic, imbeciles. Joe Biden doesn't belong there.

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staying low isn't what's happening - he's staying uninvolved, when he really could be doing things, like the pardons to protect the people Trump is going to go after.

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I understand that he is nominating judges daily and getting them confirmed. That's not nothing.

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What's your source on that, or is it mostly speculation?

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Other commenters have voiced similar disappointment. I hope he'll prove me wrong and put out the pardons on January 19.

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I'm with you right up to "didnt fuck it up by taking us into a dishonorable war", Fay. I guess technically thats true - but we are up to our ass with the Israeli's war in Gaza! And yeah, I dont align Biden with those two dipwads either.

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I worked for years with high field superconducting magnets. To work safely you need other high field magnets surrounding them to keep them contained. It was very tricky. In the GOP you have a similar case with two leaders, or forces, working one to try to contain the other. With one tool doing the work. Money.

With my magnets if something went wrong they instantly heat up and quench and the forces are gone - not magnets anymore. And so it will be with the GOP when the money power is no longer needed. Not leaders anymore. Poof!

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Your lips to God's ears and

amazing grace. Get busy with

those magnets!

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I wish these repugs would work so predictably like sc magnets.

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This reminds me of when Dick Cheney was prez. Gdubya didn't really understand how to govern, or even appear to be presidential. He showed us his lack of interest in doing the job.

He let Cheney decide policy. We all know how their foreign policy worked out. We still have the military in Iraq and Syria for who knows what. I have thoughts about that, but not for this space.

If it's at all interesting to you, watch the movie Vice about Cheney's final rise to power after many years in DC.

It's not a powerhouse of a movie, but hits the highlights with humor. And a fantastic performance by Bale.

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Thanks, I thought those two were as low as repubs could go, silly me. W did say that you could fool some of the people all of the time and those were the ones you had to concentrate on. Chump did just that to create his cult, and here we are. After 50 years of repubs dirty tricks and machinations that would impress Machiavelli

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It was powerful enough for me, Hannah, if I remember seeing it and who played Cheney.

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Christian Bale (if I got his first name right) was terrific as Cheney.

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It would be funny, except it's going to hurt.

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I know trump is a narcissist and loves attention and power. So it seems inevitable that he will lose his shit over hearing people call Muck the shadow president and that Muck is taking his power and calling the shots. But I’m not so sure because I think trump has declined enough mentally that he doesn’t comprehend or even care if muck gets the attention. The only reason trump ran again was to stay out of prison. And now that he has won for reasons I will never understand, except that Muck bought his presidency, he’s not going to prison and he and his oligarchs can cash in at our expense and I think he will be just fine with muck running the country while he plays shitty golf and cheats everyone.

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A solid analysis.

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I definitely see that eventually Trump will get pissed at Muskrat for getting attention Trump feels he himself should receive. There is no room for another narcissist in Trump’s orbit.

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For a possible explanation of what is presently unfolding, the work of Dave Troy on Russia’s world plans over on substack AMERICA.2 is worth a look. Part of the plans are the creation of supranational autocracies to replace Western democracies: ‘overseen by a Priest King who understands the world.’ I think it is phrased as such. It would seem that within such an ideological paradigm Elon Musk is being perceived as Their Chosen One.

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Thank you

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Actually I just looked again at AMERICA:2 and Troy is on Ghost not substack. My bad. Apologies 🐈‍⬛

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I worked for the Federal government for years and it’s the people in the trenches who keep the machine of government humming along. Now there’s a bunch of toddlers who’ve been handed the keys to the family car and have already run it into a ditch before turning the ignition…great! Then the folks who run the machine won’t be paid to keep it going, so what happens next? Who’s gonna show up for work if everything goes dark and there’s no money to keep things going? What a shitshow…

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Good question. One I have mused over for decades as the tides of political corruption just kept rising unchecked. Survival depends upon human goodwill and co operation. Take away the money machinery and the goodwill and co operation still remain. How society restructures itself without the off/on political controls of late stage capitalism will depend on each and every individual’s choice of actions in the moment of such a crisis.

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If the Rashists do manage to shutdown the government, does that mean Congress can’t install itself in January? Presumably the new Congress can meet and try to pick a Speaker. If they can’t, does that mean they can’t count the electoral votes?

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It appears that way. And what happens if they aren't organized by January 20?

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Yep.

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Let me qualify that and if I'm wrong Tom, please correct me. If the government is shut

down as long as Musk/Trump

want 1/20/25, nothing gets done in either house. The electoral votes have already been sent to the archives and

the electors all cast their votes electing lard butt and

hillbilly. The counting of votes

on 1/6 is ceremonial, so it "might" still happen to an empty chamber(?).

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Congresspeople and their staffs still get paid and can meet. What gets shut down are the working folks because there's no money to pay them and the volunteer army really is one because they don't get paid either. The election will still be validated, and we're still stuck with Trumplethinskin, but it'll be a mess.

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Trumplethinskin. Oh yeah.

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Thanks Dave. But the new

congress and senate have to

be sworn in on 1/3 and

Speaker voted on. If they

shut it down till 1/20 that

won't happen, will it? Or will

it be business as usual until

the 20th?

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It will still be business as usual inside the Capital building, it's the rest of the government that won't be getting paid.

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Thank you, Dave.

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The staff do not get paid. Their bosses do.

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According to the staffers I've spoken with they get paid for 6 weeks.

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Couldn't. Make. This. Up. And I've always considered myself a reasonably imaginative, creative person, being a writer 'n' all. Now I can see that the "reasonable" part has got in the way of the rest of it.

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Welcome to the club, Susanna.

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Buttered or not? This one's worth reading just for your writing, Tom.

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Elevation of Chief Bomb-Thrower Elmo to the position of Speaker of the House wouldn’t put him in line to become President. Yes, the Speaker is in line to become President, but the person holding that office has to be otherwise qualified to be President. The relevant statute, 3 USC §19(b), expressly envisions that the Speaker could “fail[] to qualify as Acting President.” The line of succession created by §19 applies “only to such officers as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution.” 3 USC §19(e).

The Qualifications Clause in Article II, § 1, cl. 5 requires the President to be, among other things, a “natural born Citizen.” Chief Bomb-Thrower Elmo is a naturalized US citizen. So in addition to being unqualified for a plethora of reasons, he is constitutionally unqualified to be President. In the world we now inhabit, anything is possible and the Chief Bomb-Thrower could be putting his feet on the furniture in the Oval Office. But he can't slip in through the back door because he was elected Speaker.

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Good to know - thanks!

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One would need to be Timothy Leary level into hallucinogens to even attempt to write this - as fiction!

HEY! Can I get some popcorn over here?

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And behind a large potted plant in the corner, rubbing his palms together and gazing at the ceiling in an orgastic trance is Steve Bannon, a consummate nihilist who wants to see more and more of this dysfunction so the ordained leaders and keepers of the world, wealthy white men, can swoop in with their mercenary militias and declare us all liberty losing peons. (Anyone know what Erik Prince and Backwater Boys are up to these days?)

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With SCOTUS in his pocket and a favorable congress willing to do what it takes to win favor; I believe we are closer to the edge than people think.

I've read Project 2025. We could wake up on 7 Jan 25 to an entirely new government, one that can be difficult to remove, and restore.

Anyone with a match can burn down a building that takes years to rebuild.

I hope I'm wrong about this, but I don't think I am. And those of us without the financial wherewithal to resist could be quashed under the boot-heels of money and power.

I'm staying in the fight, but I don't want to underestimate my opponents.

Elmo in charge is particularly concerning.

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“Part Of Broken Toys” 🤣 I need all the LOLs I can get!

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“Official Leftie Announcement” has a nice ring to it - sure worth a try.

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