From FEMA relief to clean energy funding, government resources are becoming political weapons, creating the kind of regional resentment that has shattered nations before…
Trump treating blue states as occupied territory is unheard of. When the government itself admits grants were killed b/c the state voted the wrong way, the constitutional equal-protection argument isn’t abstract anymore. Regional punishment is how you turn political disagreement into something much uglier.
Hartmann is right to sound the alarm on this one. I'll be doing a deep dive piece on this, later this afternoon.
It won't be a civil war, it is a mixed war, a war of the government on the people, aided and abetted by a percentage of the population that is heavily armed, the 2nd Amendment faction, facing them is a faction that has basically disarmed as they are like Stephanie Miller, allergic to guns. There are exceptions of course. But we progressives are outgunned, we face an enemy that has personal arsenals.
This war, this time, the enemy is your brother, your next door neighbor,your pastor, your priest, your rabbi, the used car salesman, your dentist. For some reason dentists and surgeons are among the most virulent of right wingers, along with car dealers, real estate brokers, contractors, farmers.
There has been some recent suggestion that if/when it becomes possible, Democrats should limit legal pursuit of Repugnican crimes to a few, especially egregious cases. That would be a mistake, as it would effectively signal tacit approval of any un-indicted crimes. Go big or go home, or the rule of law doesn’t hold. (Incidentally, I have been delighted to add the new-to-me word “reichwing” to my vocabulary. It captures volumes in a master stroke of brevity. Thank you).
Maybe the US is too big and too divided to manage. Perhaps everyone would benefit if it split into two separate countries.
It’s not just politics; there is something fundamentally wrong down in the roots. Part of it is that Citizens United case, and probably part of it is the origin in slavery.
Certainly, tax policy is a disaster - not serving the purpose of redistributing wealth, and there is certainly too much money around to have a civilized society.
What are the Democrats doing - just letting Trump and Congress run wild so they can run on that??
When a government starts weaponizing federal resources against political opponents, it's absolute corrosion. It doesn't matter whether it's done with a wink or a memo or a press conference either. The Department of Education admission is ugly, and it deserves to be called out without hesitation.
We keep making the mistake of pretending this disease just appeared out of nowhere. This version may be louder, more brazen, and more shameless.
It certainly is.
Fine.
But both parties have spent DECADES perfecting softer versions of the same game. Whether it's Stimulus money, or disaster relief, or Grants, or earmarks. Whether it's green funding or red funding or blue funding. The names change but the incentives remain exactly the same and they completely diverge from the will of the people.
Calling this a "fast track to civil war" - well... that's rhetorical theater.... Independent Media as well as corporate media needs to do their job better than this and show us that the biggest issues that we Face our bipartisan concerns and do we are fools to believe otherwise. If you've picked up the United States history book or looked at the history of any free country during times like this.. what you see is an unspeakable tragedy occurring that Sparks they inevitable. The citizenry uniting ...and the rolling class forced to stop playing the games because they know they're not going to get away with it anymore. No one fears a country that is divided into two factions because they know that as long as one half is in power, the citizens can't challenge them. The Civil War is a fantasy that requires dividing nukes up and fighting with neighbors and accounting on the military to be sidelined.... The real danger is something quieter and far more permanent. The danger is normalizing this spoils system where government is a reward for our loyalty instead of a servant and employee of the public. The citizen is an owner, not a customer, and once it becomes acceptable to pretend that the opposite is true, every Administration will inherit a bigger weapon than the last created
The most radical act in 2026 and 2028 won't be voting harder for our team... it'll be telling our own party, "You don't get my vote by default...you earn it... and we get to set the narrative of your campaign come and hold you accountable to perform what you pledge."
We watched Trump remake an entire party in his own image. If that doesn't scare Democrats into demanding stronger institutions... instead of stronger personalities... they're learning the wrong lesson.
Stop running puppets, manufacturing inevitability, and asking voters to excuse corruption because the other side is worse.
That's the bargain that got us here in the first place.
Structural change isn't free and democracy is something that we need to work on harder in non-election years then we do on voting day. Sometimes it means risking short-term political pain... to prevent long-term institutional decay... If integrity only matters when your opponents are in power, the hues what? It isn't integrity... It isn't a worldview either... It's an identity rooted in branding.
So if Democrats want to be the party that claims to defend democracy, they need to be the party that welcomes scrutiny and rejects favoritism. Demands accountability from our own leaders first, and make the party prove that principles aren't campaign slogans. If neither party is willing to clean up its own house, then neither party deserves to ask the public to trust them with ours.
In contrast, the Biden/Dems bills (infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act) that Republicans voted AGAINST, has spent more money creating jobs in red states. When asked how that happened, President Biden responded, “because that’s where the need was.” THAT is a President for all Americans. How did Trump respond? By cancelling the projects in blue states and putting up signs falsely taking credit for the projects created by Biden. Trump operates like a mob boss. The Trump administration is a corrupt crime family.
PLEASE GIVE THIS ARTICLE TO THE SUPREME COURT CONSERVATIVES (ANARCHISTS) BEGGING THEM TO RESIGN FOR THE VERY EXISTENCE OF OUR REPUBLIC THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE RUN BY THE PEOPLE, NOT THE OLIGARCHS AND THE TRAITORS!!!!
The defunding war against "blue states" is such a blunt instrument, since there are many progressives in conservative states and vice versa. So it won't be long before they start implementing the voter data to fine-tune their political (and racial) discrimination like they fine-tune their gerrymandering.
Will World War III be the answer to these domestic rifts?
Seems China, Russia, N. Korea, and Pakistan are about to join forces with Iran. Turns out Iran doesn't need a nuke, because all their new allies have some.
Every. Damn. Thing. All of it is going to backfire on TRump and his syndicate. He has screwed the 30% of conservatives in the blue states in the process. Our arms situation is bad. MAGA better save their arsenal for what may be coming, and it won't be a bunch of Democrats. Different story for the Administration and the King with No Clothes, because we are definitely coming for them---in a legal sense. See you in the streets.
Sure, I suppose I could call my senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, or my rep Eric Burlison. I assure you that nothing I can say to them will change them into decent human beings. The thing that I can do is to support my Democrats in the upcoming elections, flaccid or not. They are the only hope we have to turn this around. Erdogan was defeated in an election where 80% of voters turned out and voted him out by a huge majority. Without a majority in House or Senate, Democrats have little power, flaccid or not. Your description, not mine. If flaccid describes imperfection on the part of Democrats please get creative and tell us what describes the GOP that has unleashed a Gestapo complete with concentration camps and an appetite for detaining black and brown people, while salivating when considering that everyone else is on the menu next. Help us turn out the vote. or if you have any better ideas, please share.
“Dark and light are always in balance. There cannot be a shadow without a light, and the strongest light will create the darkest shadow…Everything will accelerate and intensify. People will feel this, they’ll know that the world is moving faster, that time is moving faster…but most won’t understand its nature.”
From The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight:
“Because of human action - and inaction – our planet appears to be on a collision course with disaster…
“Perhaps it’s too late (by at least four decades), according to many experts to avoid all the damage we’re headed toward: the death of billions of humans and further extensive destruction of the planet’s environment through war, natural resource exploitation, and industrial pollution.”
…
“We are losing species at a rate of 17,000 to 100,000 a year (depending on whose numbers you use): a worldwide implosion of plant and animal life that has only been equaled five times in the past five billion years (the last time being the death of the dinosaurs).
“This, says Leakey, qualifies as a mass extinction, and has thrown the entire balance of nature out of kilter.
“And, he points out bluntly, the animal at the top of the pyramid – which caused the extinction of those species which supported and fed it – will itself soon face a mass extinction if things don’t change radically and rapidly.”
**
Human extinction? We better take this seriously…
And yet Thom also adds:
“But the truth also is, we can now plant the seeds of a positive and hopeful world where future generations, our children and theirs, will live…The future is in our hands.”
Sadly it's not as simple as blue or red. It's science vs profit, conservation/environmental protection vs profit, education for all vs profit, affordable healthcare vs profit, and so on. We live in a red state (Missouri), in a blue city (St. Louis) with 2 universities with robust medical schools. On our block alone, 2 homes are for sale. Why? In one lived a neurologist MD who did important brain research on a cure for Alzheimers funded by federal grants. Grant canceled. They moved in with in laws out of state. The other, a PhD with a lab studying pathogens such as, wait for it ... Cyclospora cayetanensis and Ecoli. Federal grant cancelled. They had newborn twins. Moved out of state to teach science at a college next semester. We sigh. Mow our neighbor's lawn so the house will sell. The frustration grows. 4 blue votes lost to greed.
"Trump is now officially allocating federal resources based on whether people voted for or against him: any other president in recent history would’ve been impeached for this."
What my wee mind seems incapable of understanding is why he has not been. Amerikans are constantly hailing the virtues of a "democracy" (to the point of killing others around the globe), yet clearly does not have one itself. If your brilliant "founding fathers" were so enlightened in the formation of the trilogy of government (which was intended to prevent the very thing occurring before our very eyes) why did they not contemplate its vulnerability to hijacking and intimidation? it's called "contingency planning" and every damned one of us better be doing that right now.
Because, you see, if the "US" was what it claims it is, it would not be what it is.
Trump treating blue states as occupied territory is unheard of. When the government itself admits grants were killed b/c the state voted the wrong way, the constitutional equal-protection argument isn’t abstract anymore. Regional punishment is how you turn political disagreement into something much uglier.
Hartmann is right to sound the alarm on this one. I'll be doing a deep dive piece on this, later this afternoon.
It's communism, is what it is.
It won't be a civil war, it is a mixed war, a war of the government on the people, aided and abetted by a percentage of the population that is heavily armed, the 2nd Amendment faction, facing them is a faction that has basically disarmed as they are like Stephanie Miller, allergic to guns. There are exceptions of course. But we progressives are outgunned, we face an enemy that has personal arsenals.
This war, this time, the enemy is your brother, your next door neighbor,your pastor, your priest, your rabbi, the used car salesman, your dentist. For some reason dentists and surgeons are among the most virulent of right wingers, along with car dealers, real estate brokers, contractors, farmers.
Money money money money money .....
Interesting. Thanks for the info
Exactly what the Gazillionaires want! To keep us all fighting among ourselves, while more and more resources and rights are taken away from us ALL!
Bingo, Dian.
There has been some recent suggestion that if/when it becomes possible, Democrats should limit legal pursuit of Repugnican crimes to a few, especially egregious cases. That would be a mistake, as it would effectively signal tacit approval of any un-indicted crimes. Go big or go home, or the rule of law doesn’t hold. (Incidentally, I have been delighted to add the new-to-me word “reichwing” to my vocabulary. It captures volumes in a master stroke of brevity. Thank you).
Maybe the US is too big and too divided to manage. Perhaps everyone would benefit if it split into two separate countries.
It’s not just politics; there is something fundamentally wrong down in the roots. Part of it is that Citizens United case, and probably part of it is the origin in slavery.
Certainly, tax policy is a disaster - not serving the purpose of redistributing wealth, and there is certainly too much money around to have a civilized society.
What are the Democrats doing - just letting Trump and Congress run wild so they can run on that??
I don’t get it.
I have had the same thoughts for quite sometime, even before trump was elected to round two.
When a government starts weaponizing federal resources against political opponents, it's absolute corrosion. It doesn't matter whether it's done with a wink or a memo or a press conference either. The Department of Education admission is ugly, and it deserves to be called out without hesitation.
We keep making the mistake of pretending this disease just appeared out of nowhere. This version may be louder, more brazen, and more shameless.
It certainly is.
Fine.
But both parties have spent DECADES perfecting softer versions of the same game. Whether it's Stimulus money, or disaster relief, or Grants, or earmarks. Whether it's green funding or red funding or blue funding. The names change but the incentives remain exactly the same and they completely diverge from the will of the people.
Calling this a "fast track to civil war" - well... that's rhetorical theater.... Independent Media as well as corporate media needs to do their job better than this and show us that the biggest issues that we Face our bipartisan concerns and do we are fools to believe otherwise. If you've picked up the United States history book or looked at the history of any free country during times like this.. what you see is an unspeakable tragedy occurring that Sparks they inevitable. The citizenry uniting ...and the rolling class forced to stop playing the games because they know they're not going to get away with it anymore. No one fears a country that is divided into two factions because they know that as long as one half is in power, the citizens can't challenge them. The Civil War is a fantasy that requires dividing nukes up and fighting with neighbors and accounting on the military to be sidelined.... The real danger is something quieter and far more permanent. The danger is normalizing this spoils system where government is a reward for our loyalty instead of a servant and employee of the public. The citizen is an owner, not a customer, and once it becomes acceptable to pretend that the opposite is true, every Administration will inherit a bigger weapon than the last created
The most radical act in 2026 and 2028 won't be voting harder for our team... it'll be telling our own party, "You don't get my vote by default...you earn it... and we get to set the narrative of your campaign come and hold you accountable to perform what you pledge."
We watched Trump remake an entire party in his own image. If that doesn't scare Democrats into demanding stronger institutions... instead of stronger personalities... they're learning the wrong lesson.
Stop running puppets, manufacturing inevitability, and asking voters to excuse corruption because the other side is worse.
That's the bargain that got us here in the first place.
Structural change isn't free and democracy is something that we need to work on harder in non-election years then we do on voting day. Sometimes it means risking short-term political pain... to prevent long-term institutional decay... If integrity only matters when your opponents are in power, the hues what? It isn't integrity... It isn't a worldview either... It's an identity rooted in branding.
So if Democrats want to be the party that claims to defend democracy, they need to be the party that welcomes scrutiny and rejects favoritism. Demands accountability from our own leaders first, and make the party prove that principles aren't campaign slogans. If neither party is willing to clean up its own house, then neither party deserves to ask the public to trust them with ours.
I agree!
Isn't this guy Rxan kind of a genius?
I don't know. Doesn't he know how to spell "Ryan"? Kidding.
Damn dude... Everywhere I see you I read brilliance... Did you really just start promoting yourself 2 months ago?
In contrast, the Biden/Dems bills (infrastructure and Inflation Reduction Act) that Republicans voted AGAINST, has spent more money creating jobs in red states. When asked how that happened, President Biden responded, “because that’s where the need was.” THAT is a President for all Americans. How did Trump respond? By cancelling the projects in blue states and putting up signs falsely taking credit for the projects created by Biden. Trump operates like a mob boss. The Trump administration is a corrupt crime family.
PLEASE GIVE THIS ARTICLE TO THE SUPREME COURT CONSERVATIVES (ANARCHISTS) BEGGING THEM TO RESIGN FOR THE VERY EXISTENCE OF OUR REPUBLIC THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE RUN BY THE PEOPLE, NOT THE OLIGARCHS AND THE TRAITORS!!!!
The defunding war against "blue states" is such a blunt instrument, since there are many progressives in conservative states and vice versa. So it won't be long before they start implementing the voter data to fine-tune their political (and racial) discrimination like they fine-tune their gerrymandering.
eg in Atlanta and suburbs - most/many voting places eliminated...where minorities live...
He obviously thinks he is both Robin Hood and a small-time (now big-time) crook.
As ersatz Robin:
- He robs from the rich, i.e., Blue [read sane] states.
- He gives to the poor, i.e., red states.
And, as a two-bit hood:
- He gives to the super-rich, too. Why? Easy: For kickbacks for his family.
The Cost to his moronic voters and, ultimately, to Planet Earth?
The price is literally Quite High to elect a President who's a Hitlerian Eugenicist. "Poisoning the Blood." "Vermin." Ad nauseum.
How high exactly? ... Skipping along the Edge of the WWIII Abyss High.
ICYMI [In Case You Missed It] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWwX_fg8Rs
The GOP and their "Chimp on XANAX" leader are trying to rip America's face off.
Will World War III be the answer to these domestic rifts?
Seems China, Russia, N. Korea, and Pakistan are about to join forces with Iran. Turns out Iran doesn't need a nuke, because all their new allies have some.
Every. Damn. Thing. All of it is going to backfire on TRump and his syndicate. He has screwed the 30% of conservatives in the blue states in the process. Our arms situation is bad. MAGA better save their arsenal for what may be coming, and it won't be a bunch of Democrats. Different story for the Administration and the King with No Clothes, because we are definitely coming for them---in a legal sense. See you in the streets.
Think of Trump and his Cabinet as a "Think Tank"...
Filled with goldfish who just dumbly swim around, or better still as piranha fish out to kill!
Sure, I suppose I could call my senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, or my rep Eric Burlison. I assure you that nothing I can say to them will change them into decent human beings. The thing that I can do is to support my Democrats in the upcoming elections, flaccid or not. They are the only hope we have to turn this around. Erdogan was defeated in an election where 80% of voters turned out and voted him out by a huge majority. Without a majority in House or Senate, Democrats have little power, flaccid or not. Your description, not mine. If flaccid describes imperfection on the part of Democrats please get creative and tell us what describes the GOP that has unleashed a Gestapo complete with concentration camps and an appetite for detaining black and brown people, while salivating when considering that everyone else is on the menu next. Help us turn out the vote. or if you have any better ideas, please share.
Erdogan or Orban?
From Thom's book - The Prophet’s Way:
“Dark and light are always in balance. There cannot be a shadow without a light, and the strongest light will create the darkest shadow…Everything will accelerate and intensify. People will feel this, they’ll know that the world is moving faster, that time is moving faster…but most won’t understand its nature.”
From The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight:
“Because of human action - and inaction – our planet appears to be on a collision course with disaster…
“Perhaps it’s too late (by at least four decades), according to many experts to avoid all the damage we’re headed toward: the death of billions of humans and further extensive destruction of the planet’s environment through war, natural resource exploitation, and industrial pollution.”
…
“We are losing species at a rate of 17,000 to 100,000 a year (depending on whose numbers you use): a worldwide implosion of plant and animal life that has only been equaled five times in the past five billion years (the last time being the death of the dinosaurs).
“This, says Leakey, qualifies as a mass extinction, and has thrown the entire balance of nature out of kilter.
“And, he points out bluntly, the animal at the top of the pyramid – which caused the extinction of those species which supported and fed it – will itself soon face a mass extinction if things don’t change radically and rapidly.”
**
Human extinction? We better take this seriously…
And yet Thom also adds:
“But the truth also is, we can now plant the seeds of a positive and hopeful world where future generations, our children and theirs, will live…The future is in our hands.”
Sadly it's not as simple as blue or red. It's science vs profit, conservation/environmental protection vs profit, education for all vs profit, affordable healthcare vs profit, and so on. We live in a red state (Missouri), in a blue city (St. Louis) with 2 universities with robust medical schools. On our block alone, 2 homes are for sale. Why? In one lived a neurologist MD who did important brain research on a cure for Alzheimers funded by federal grants. Grant canceled. They moved in with in laws out of state. The other, a PhD with a lab studying pathogens such as, wait for it ... Cyclospora cayetanensis and Ecoli. Federal grant cancelled. They had newborn twins. Moved out of state to teach science at a college next semester. We sigh. Mow our neighbor's lawn so the house will sell. The frustration grows. 4 blue votes lost to greed.
"Trump is now officially allocating federal resources based on whether people voted for or against him: any other president in recent history would’ve been impeached for this."
What my wee mind seems incapable of understanding is why he has not been. Amerikans are constantly hailing the virtues of a "democracy" (to the point of killing others around the globe), yet clearly does not have one itself. If your brilliant "founding fathers" were so enlightened in the formation of the trilogy of government (which was intended to prevent the very thing occurring before our very eyes) why did they not contemplate its vulnerability to hijacking and intimidation? it's called "contingency planning" and every damned one of us better be doing that right now.
Because, you see, if the "US" was what it claims it is, it would not be what it is.