The Republican Endgame

b.c.

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an op-ed from the Kos:

Republicans Keep Pushing the Boundaries Into Lawlessness Because That Is Their Endgame

fascists.jpg


excerpts:

"It is the myth of American Exceptionalism that reassures us that we are fundamentally different than Germany in the 1920’s and 30’s.

But Germany was an advanced nation with a high degree of literacy. It’s citizens were well educated. Hitler didn’t need to win on the battlefield of ideas. He only had to create an opening that he could drive a tank through.

We are no different today. In a way we are more vulnerable because of the outsized role that Fox News and iHeart radio have on millions of Americans.

Science has advanced understanding of crowd control through propaganda to a fine art, something that Goebbels was only inventing at the time. And as we well know, Republicans have become masters of propaganda. Their Think Tanks have been studying it for decades.

Neither are Fox or iHeart central players by happenstance.

This is all part of a long term plan to control public opinion with the endgame of destroying our two party system in favor of an autocratic system of corporate monopolies acting as modern day fiefdoms.

This is what their ideology teaches. It has been their stated goal, to drown our democracy in a bathtub.

It is easy, in the comfort of our sense of American Exceptionalism, to imagine that the Republican storming of the SCIF was simply showboating for their base.

But I see it as part of a larger pattern of pushing the bounds of acceptable behavior, testing how far they can take lawlessness while still retaining control over their base and their jobs.

At the same time it has the effect of normalizing lawlessness, of shifting control from the system over to them.

We saw the stirrings of this when the Bundy’s forced federal agents to back down then stormed the Malheur Reserve, only to be given another reprieve by the courts.

Certainly no one has been given more second chances than Trump.

My concern is will we be prepared when the Night of Long Knives arrives?"
 

b.c.

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Just a few RECENT ways by which lawless Republicans are undermining jurisprudence, the Constitution, civil rights, AND the rule of LAW:

1. Their gradually increasing and UNDERHANDED METHODS in their attack upon reproductive rights:

South Carolina Republicans Move to Extend Their Abortion Ban to Rape and Incest Victims – Mother Jones

Lawmakers in South Carolina amended their extreme anti-abortion legislation this week—to make it even more extreme by removing exemptions for victims of rape and incest.

2. Their strong arm attempts at denying and shutting down any discussion of climate change:

The White House Wants Climate Change Off the G7 Agenda. It Doesn’t Really Work That Way. – Mother Jones
https://www.motherjones.com/environ...the-g7-agenda-it-doesnt-really-work-that-way/
Buried in the flurry of headline-grabbing statements last week by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney about Ukraine, quid pro quo, and a plan to host the next G7 summit at Trump's own golf resort was another announcement that attracted less notice.

Climate change, Mulvaney said, won’t be included
in the G7 summit’s formalized agenda when the leaders of the world’s major economic powers meet in June.
 

b.c.

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3. Trump and the GOP's utter contempt for whistleblowers (i.e. people who dare to speak up when their "boss" is engaged in CRIMINAL ACTIVITY):

Under Trump, Whistleblowers Have Even Less Protection Than Usual – Mother Jones

For the entire Trump administration, the federal government has been operating without a functioning agency to protect whistleblowers. ...for more than two years, the board has been dysfunctional.

... since March, the board has had no members.

All three spots were filled until 2015, when a member’s term expired and the Republican-led Senate refused to vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace her.

In January 2017, another board member’s term ended, leaving one lone member, whose term ended in March.

The Trump administration proposed three nominees to the board: Chad Bungard, deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration; Dennis Kirk, an Army lawyer; and Julia Clark, who has worked at an agency representing government employees.

But their confirmation has been stalled in the Senate because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t scheduled a vote.
 
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b.c.

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4. Criminal coverups, obstruction of JUSTICE, withholding information, contempt of subpoenas and COURT ORDERS:

New York City Bar Association calls for Attorney General Barr to recuse himself from Ukraine investigation
https://www.yahoo.com/news/york-city-bar-association-calls-040514779.html
The NYC Bar Association complaint cites potential conflicts of interest and raised concerns about whether Attorney General William Barr had knowledge of promises made by Trump during his phone call with Ukraine's president;


Judge Rules DOJ Must Turn Over Mueller Grand Jury Evidence To House Democrats | HuffPost


A judge has ordered the Justice Department to give House Democrats secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell made the directive in a brief order on Friday.


Betsy DeVos Held In Contempt For Violating Order On Student Loans | HuffPost


Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was held in contempt of court by a federal judge on Thursday and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine after wrongly trying to collect on student loans taken out to attend a chain of now-shuttered for-profit colleges.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gove...leblower-complaint_n_5db30ea5e4b0b9ba5c4ad623
Government Watchdogs Blast DOJ's Reasoning For Withholding Whistleblower Complaint | HuffPost

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gove...leblower-complaint_n_5db30ea5e4b0b9ba5c4ad623
A group of government watchdogs is taking aim at the Department of Justice for its justification in trying to keep secret a whistleblower complaint that exposed how Trump asked a foreign country for dirt on a political rival.
 

Freddie53

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Just a few RECENT ways by which lawless Republicans are undermining jurisprudence, the Constitution, civil rights, AND the rule of LAW:

1. Their gradually increasing and UNDERHANDED METHODS in their attack upon reproductive rights:

South Carolina Republicans Move to Extend Their Abortion Ban to Rape and Incest Victims – Mother Jones

Lawmakers in South Carolina amended their extreme anti-abortion legislation this week—to make it even more extreme by removing exemptions for victims of rape and incest.

2. Their strong arm attempts at denying and shutting down any discussion of climate change:

The White House Wants Climate Change Off the G7 Agenda. It Doesn’t Really Work That Way. – Mother Jones
Buried in the flurry of headline-grabbing statements last week by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney about Ukraine, quid pro quo, and a plan to host the next G7 summit at Trump's own golf resort was another announcement that attracted less notice.

Climate change, Mulvaney said, won’t be included
in the G7 summit’s formalized agenda when the leaders of the world’s major economic powers meet in June.
B.C. this is the back side of what I just posted from my thread. My thread is about how to unite white, brown, and middle class families to a majority.

Your thread deals with what the Republicans are up to.

The authors of my research show that the Republicans have been able to draw a wedge between white middle class families and brown and black middle class families.

This thread is more about how the Republicans have done this and worse what the end game is. That is the destruction of the two party system.

It is not wrong to want something like someone else has.

It is wrong to want what someone else has and take it from them so they no longer have it.

This what you were referring to in your post. It is not that the Republicans want to make a huge profit on that poor class apartment building. They can even lose money on it as long as they, not the tenants, own it.

I use to play Monopoly. The goal was to bankrupt every other player, own every piece of real estate and finally to own every single dollar in the entire game. The goal of Monopoly is to own 100 % of all real estate and 100 % of all the money.

That is the end game for these one percenters. They want to own every factory, oil well, housing units, and all except for a small amount to keep the workers alive, barely.

Perhaps these Neo Nazi Republicans should take ownership of all of hell and go there to live!
 

b.c.

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5. The silencing of TRUTH and FACTS, supplanting them with the LIE TOLD OFTEN... By placing DOUBT in the minds of their followers - by making the press out to be the "enemy":

Trump wants agencies to ax NYT, Washington Post subscriptions

Donald Trump plans to direct federal agencies to cancel subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post, outlets he regularly derides as "fake news" for writing critical stories about him, the White House confirmed Thursday.

"The New York Times is a fake newspaper. We don’t even want it in the White House anymore. We’re going to probably terminate that and the Washington Post. They’re fake," Trump said.

 

b.c.

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betoimage.jpg


Beto O'Rourke indicts Trump's administration: 'There is so much that is resonant of the Third Reich'
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...nant-of-the-Third-Reich?utm_campaign=trending
Those of us who have been paying attention clearly see the parallels between what Trump and his administration have been saying and doing and what Hitler and the Nazis said and did in the 1930s,

yet members of the mainstream press have been either incapable of connecting the dots or reluctant to do so, for whatever reason.

So this has been yet another week when it has been difficult to tell whether most members of the press are simply incapable of grasping and reporting on the reality of the dangers that Trump, his administration, and his Republican enablers present to the survival of many Americans as well as our country,

or whether reporters and pundits need someone like Beto O’Rourke to move the Overton Window so that they can discuss matters that have been verboten until now.
 
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b.c.

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Dibh3_1U8AA2pPp.jpg


There is something so very wrong in this country that just does not make sense to those who still have some sense left.

... Why are people who appeared to be fair minded, respectful and even so called people of faith remaining silent, unengaged or just plain disrespectful to those who feel they have a duty to the constitution of this country?

... What is going on when every last republican is standing with Trump? Why does overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing get enabled? Why are people of character and good will and dutiful being not only slammed and smeared but appear to be invisible?

... Why are kids in cages and families separated?

... What are we not being told that so few are engaged..( few in comparison to the country as a whole) or upholding corruption by doing nothing?


... What more do we have to lose...?
 

Brodie888

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Dibh3_1U8AA2pPp.jpg


There is something so very wrong in this country that just does not make sense to those who still have some sense left.

... Why are people who appeared to be fair minded, respectful and even so called people of faith remaining silent, unengaged or just plain disrespectful to those who feel they have a duty to the constitution of this country?

... What is going on when every last republican is standing with Trump? Why does overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing get enabled? Why are people of character and good will and dutiful being not only slammed and smeared but appear to be invisible?

... Why are kids in cages and families separated?

... What are we not being told that so few are engaged..( few in comparison to the country as a whole) or upholding corruption by doing nothing?


... What more do we have to lose...?

Well it's pretty obvious isn't it? If anyone is going to faithfully trust in something that can't be seen or heard over what's in front of their face, it would be the far right religious nut bags right?
 
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halcyondays

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ExxonMobil had $63 billion in revenue for the 3rd Q, $3 billion in profit. That is about 4.5%. Is that excessive?

Four percent isn't excessive but 63 billion in revenue is as is its top three shareholders owning 13 million, 19 million and 24 million shares is as of 2018. Their top shareholder used to be Rex Tillerson before he sold out to become Sec of State, called Trump a moron and got sacked. This does not include the $180 million golden parachute he received upon leaving XOM.

You missed my point. Money is power. Excessive money is excessive power. Here in the US it buys government, lobbies government, writes legislation for government, gets it passed, writes much of its own regulation in the revolving door between the private and public sectors, and it influences court appointees. All in its own self interest.

We have to go all the way back to the Gilded Age to the SCOTUS ruling which interpreted the 14th Amendment (which was written to protect former slaves) that corporations are "natural persons." That's what corporate money buys. Personhood. The US is a plutocracy pretending it's a democracy.

What's more the US has always been a plutocracy. It was founded by aristocrats for aristocrats--many of them slave owners--to increase and protect their own wealth at the expense of everyone else. Slave-owning southern aristocrats attempted to break away to maintain profits provided by the cheap labor of slavery and started a rebellion which killed 625,000 people.

That's what excessive wealth and profits do. A little greed is good. Excessive greed is not. A wise man understands the difference. The trick is finding a healthy balance. We haven't found one so the cycle of boom and bust repeats endlessly. Ready for the next bust?:cool:
 

Thikn2velvet1

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Four percent isn't excessive but 63 billion in revenue is as is its top three shareholders owning 13 million, 19 million and 24 million shares is as of 2018. Their top shareholder used to be Rex Tillerson before he sold out to become Sec of State, called Trump a moron and got sacked. This does not include the $180 million golden parachute he received upon leaving XOM.

You missed my point. Money is power. Excessive money is excessive power. Here in the US it buys government, lobbies government, writes legislation for government, gets it passed, writes much of its own regulation in the revolving door between the private and public sectors, and it influences court appointees. All in its own self interest.

We have to go all the way back to the Gilded Age to the SCOTUS ruling which interpreted the 14th Amendment (which was written to protect former slaves) that corporations are "natural persons." That's what corporate money buys. Personhood. The US is a plutocracy pretending it's a democracy.

What's more the US has always been a plutocracy. It was founded by aristocrats for aristocrats--many of them slave owners--to increase and protect their own wealth at the expense of everyone else. Slave-owning southern aristocrats attempted to break away to maintain profits provided by the cheap labor of slavery and started a rebellion which killed 625,000 people.

That's what excessive wealth and profits do. A little greed is good. Excessive greed is not. A wise man understands the difference. The trick is finding a healthy balance. We haven't found one so the cycle of boom and bust repeats endlessly. Ready for the next bust?:cool:

Why is $63 billion in revenue a problem? And what should happen to the shares held by those 3 executives?
 

halcyondays

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Why is $63 billion in revenue a problem? And what should happen to the shares held by those 3 executives?

XOM is too big. Along with a small number of huge energy companies they form what is essentially a monopoly. The number of shares any individual owns should be limited by law and the capital gains earned by selling those shares should be taxed at the same rate as income tax.

But only if you believe in the concept of equality. :cool:
 
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Thikn2velvet1

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XOM is too big. Along with a small number of huge energy companies they form what is essentially a monopoly. The number of shares any individual owns should be limited by law and the capital gains earned by selling those shares should be taxed at the same rate as income tax.

But only if you believe in the concept of equality. :cool:

Why limit the shares? I don’t get that at all. Vanguard Mutual Funds is the largest owner.