My current question is which side will the Military come down on? I have to say at this point I am not feeling real good about the upper echelons of the US Military. They have gone along with everything TRUMP has proposed, and that scares the shit out of me. If Trump decides to send the US military against us what chance do we have. I am sure the planning is already in place to come up with exactly how many 50 caliber machine guns would be needed to turn the entire city of Minneapolis into swiss cheese.
With few exceptions, I have been disheartened (angry) by military leadership who I KNOW see this very really threat to our Democracy and have said nothing.
If they really give a damn about the oath they took, that will end pronto.
Saw this day coming in 2015 when people said he'd never win, and was called angry and alarmist.
Even now, some people in my own family accuse me of being on a soapbox. These are people who agree that this is terrible, but aren't lifting a finger to change things, and it's infuriating to no end.
Honest question - the people who are in the cult are deaf and blind to reason and deep in denial. Printing this out & sending to them doesn't seem like it would make any difference.
And no, it doesn't seem like many of our Dem "leaders" are up to the task, save for a small minority.
I won't stop standing up, using my voice, protesting, calling my elected officials, because that's exactly what the fascists want. But damn, it honestly feels so hard to envision how we are going to get through this with so many people either brainwashed, apathetic or complicit.
I will continue to operate under the assumption that there are more of us with the caveat, it is far worse than I thought it would be 2015.
That said, they want us to believe it is hopeless.
We have been kicking their ass at the polls relentlessly this year. For now, let's make good and damn sure we get the opportunity to do it again in November.
But are we armed, if necessary, if only to protect ourselves? I really feel like all Hell is going to leg loose, very soon. I really hate feeling so utterly powerless. It makes me very angry.😡
I respectfully disagree. Many people have been harmed by ICE if they resisted and did not submit. I've seen it with my own eyes here in Southern California in the Coachella Valley. We've been invaded by these thugs.
Two quotes are competing for space in my brain at present. Both true and relevant:
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.” - Howard Zinn
“One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
So true. A general strike is called for, but who calls for it and over what medium? The disjointed, diffuse media, where we all choose self-curated sources, usually in our pocket, or none at all, means catching fire with a message is problematic. I’m hoping the images out of Minneapolis, prevalent on so many platforms, is getting us down the road to catching that fire.
I plan to write about just this, Robbie, and almost did in this piece, but it was long enough as it is.
The Democratic Party itself needs to get the hell out of its own way, stop thinking and acting corporately, and start treating this situation with the urgency it demands. Anyway, I'll have a helluva lot more to say on that one. Have a good weekend.
Earl, you have a good weekend. It’s comforting to know we are sharing the old North state, even if we’re on opposite ends. Thank you for your moxie. And your energy. Please let me know any active ways I can help beyond being a loyal reader.
I’ve been hoping those leaders would (will) emerge for a year-plus. Still hoping. There are possibilities, but they’ve not yet caught the aforementioned fire. Smoldering: Slotkin, Auchincloss, Murphy, Pritzker, Kelly, Newsom, Frey, the as yet known XXXXXX — but no blaze yet. Dammit anyway.
Schumer and Martin gotta go. NOW. Schumer’s fervent letters are absurd and wimpy. Martin is boring. Both are terrible public speakers. They’re so desperate to retain power that they’re blinded to the fact that those days of politics-as-usual are long gone. Getting Ben Wikler to replace Martin would be an immediate energy shift. Ben knows how to win plus he’s charismatic.
I so agree with you! Wikler would have sent a whole new place. And Schumer is out of touch. I question the loyalty to him and what these people think they’re doing.
When I learned Schumer’s long time advisor is his brother Robert, long time partner at Paul Weiss the first law firm to spinelessly fold to the PedoFelon, Chuck’s waffling made sense. He’s also funded by questionable Republicans.
I kind of thought Newsom was doing pretty good there where they were trying to do that gerrymander thing in Texas and then he turned around and did it in California. He started these post blab and back at Trump. I thought he looked pretty good for a while, but I haven’t heard anything for quite some time
I have been forwarding similar emails to my Maga sister for sometime now. I don’t even know if she is reading them as she never responds and I know she gets my emails because she responds to other ones that are not related to this issue. I desperately want to send this one as well. I really don’t know if there is any chance of breaking her free from this destructive miserable cult.
On a more positive note CBS' new poll shows approval rating for Trump among Gen Z down 42%. Minus 42! And from what I can see our younger generation is motivated. Just look at Mamdani as an example.
I could stand to hear (and see) a lot more from the younger folks, Sharon. Candidly, they are scarce in the scores of rallies I have attended.
I understand their skepticism about politics, but sitting on your ass and grousing accomplishes nothing. They have a helluva lot more power than they think.
And that would be really something to celebrate!!!! If there would actually be elections to actually use that at, but there’s not gonna be midterms. I know y’all want it. I want it more than God, life and my kids and my grandkids and my great grandkids. I want it more than that itself, but it ain’t gonna happen. It just isn’t.
Well, it looks as if ICE has landed in Phoenix and has begun to wreak their special brand of havoc. I’m so disgusted. It is no time for passivity. Thanks for the column. I know we all wanted to be wrong. Yet, here we are.
Unfortunately, I don’t think fascism washed up on our shores on November 4, 2025. It’s always been in the US circulating in the populace like a mutant virus waiting for the right conditions to erupt.
2015 brought us trump and with him the weakening of the body politic until the virus erupted. Now we’re deeply infected.
You’re right, Earl. Fascism is right here, right now in our faces.
And no! Schumer, Jeffries, and the head of the DNC are NOT the leaders we need right now at all. We need leaders like FDR and Churchill. Were they flawed leaders? Yes. But they never backed down. If Chamberlain had stayed in power of the last domino resisting fascism in Europe, we would have a very different world today.
But better leaders inspired and insisted that their people save us all from fascism and tyranny. The only ones really fighting right now are some of the people.
I’ve tried my damndest to get people to vote in every election since 2004. Unfortunately, too many couldn’t be bothered to vote at all or voted 3rd party 🤬.
I hope those folks understand they have blood on their hands now and thanks to them we’re ALL suffering except for the wealthy as always.
Thanks for keeping us pointed in the right direction. Keep up the stellar work!
The "F" word should not be subject to hyperbole or overuse. It is a form of pornography, perhaps like Narcissist Intel (where the importance of Counter Narcissist Intel dba CNI has in the past few years become a subject of some clarifying and well-observed discussion and study especially in Activist circles) the most potent and insistent form. It often if ironically presents as quick remedy via quick and private fetishistic fix.
Hope & pray that methods of subjecting these impulses to counter-balancing harness-able forces become routinized into useful studies for managing such potentially self-destructive and nihilistic impulses. We do not need even more destabilizing forces lurking within the human main-frame providing seductions from the banality of run-of-the-mill Evil and masking deluges of pent-up destructive and de-humanizing impulses....
I think most of the Democratic politicians would agree with your essay, but they don’t have the courage to call a spade a fucking shovel! Call Trump a fascist. Call the Republican Party the American Fascist party. That’s exactly what they are, and we must fight with everything we’ve got.
The ordinary people of the Twin Cities are giving me life and hope. They're the answer to your question. No, we're not ready, there is no getting ready, but the improvisations are pretty damn good. Neighbors are protecting each other in a hundred ways. Trump's fascist takeover with his army of too unfit for the military, too dumb for police work is not going to prevail. There are over 350 million people here. The numbers don't work for ICE. Besides, wait until the Dipshit Brigade finds out they're not ever going to get that 50K signing bonus, due only after 5 years of service.
There's a simple definition of fascism that works: When big business and gov't are fused. Trump would be nowhere without the billionaires, who, not for nothing gained control of mass media.
I think this rallying to the call of justice of their own doing is heroic and admirable. That is one of the many reasons the murder of Renee Nicole Good is so tragic. We just cannot give in or give up - that's what they are counting on. So happy you pointed this out!
It is encouraging to see people caring enough to stand up and protest these "attacks" against human beings. I do hope there are more people who care than it often seems. No need for ICE to handle deportations in this manner. They're all about scare tactics and power and bigotry. I hope you are right and they never see their sign on bonus. They will have sold their souls to the devil for nothing. That will be justice because obviously, their souls are worthless!!!
Mr. Stephens, all those definitions are accurate and good that the US is a fascist country (I abhor saying America now because it lumps in North, Central, and South America together, which are all different to the US). I will share some quotes from Umair Haque, which I hope you’ll read. The article itself lays out we may be beyond fascism, edging towards totalitarianism, and is highly worth reading. According to Mr. Haque, the Nazi policy of Lebensraum is next.
“There is a key difference here. In an authoritarian system, you must obey. But in a totalitarian system, no deviation from what the dictator wants is permitted, and any infraction may be punished at any time by any form of violence, including the lethal kind.”
“America is now—whether Americans like it or not— a violent, expansionist nation, seeking to annex regions and nations around it, overtly, bombastically not just threatening them, but declaring that nothing matters except power, strength, and aggression. Not sovereignty, not law, not treaties, not alliances, nothing.”
Thank you, Earl! I know I’m not alone, but it can really feel like I’m shouting into the void. And NO, I do not think for a minute that Schumer and Jeffries are at all up to the task. But they seem to have the confidence of my Rep. and Senators - what’s up with that??
Well written, Earl. Thank you. You are the canary in the coal mine. Redistricting is key to winning the midterms. The map is a chess board and all pieces are in play. California has countered Texas. The GOP has plans for other red states to follow. Blue states in Maryland, Illinois, New York and Virginia have plans. These states gerrymandering are like swing states in federal elections. They are key to victory in the midterms. Focus should be in Democrat states to encourage it and getting folks to discourage it in Republican states if at all possible by contacting their representatives. Best of luck. Canada is with you, not just because it helps us but because it's just and vital to democracy. Good luck friends.
All true and accurate Mr. Stephens. However, I believe your national crisis is even worse than you perceive and that you are currently being condemned to devolve into a political state predating fascism. The very reason in fact, that your fledgling nation fought a revolutionary war as thirteen colonies. Tyranny.
Donald J Trump is a tyrant, a far worse one than King George III was, and has already made both chambers of your Congress entirely irrelevant.
As then, in that eight years of war, ridding yourselves of this one is going to cost more lives than those of the innocents already lost. Other than those exceptional few the well paid politicians / justices / judges / lawyers can't or won't do anything, or else they already would have. This is not a movie, there is no cavalry to come riding over the hill at the last minute. . The police and/or armed forces *might* get involved, but It won't be pleasant in the middle caught in the crossfre while they decide which side they are on state by state, county by county, city city, unit by unit.
Could be one messy bloody fustercluck of an uncivilized war as people realize that actually they do love their neighbors after all. Enough at least to stand together against tyranny anyway.
Yes, there's blame aplenty to spread around. Mitch McConnell is another individual example of a guilty enabler. But it's the entire cabal's callous lack of empathy and disregard for life that [expletive]s me off when I think about the many thousands around the world dying because USAID was terminated, and Renee Good's orphans growing up without her love in their lives.
Earl, another gem.
My current question is which side will the Military come down on? I have to say at this point I am not feeling real good about the upper echelons of the US Military. They have gone along with everything TRUMP has proposed, and that scares the shit out of me. If Trump decides to send the US military against us what chance do we have. I am sure the planning is already in place to come up with exactly how many 50 caliber machine guns would be needed to turn the entire city of Minneapolis into swiss cheese.
Your question is on point, John.
With few exceptions, I have been disheartened (angry) by military leadership who I KNOW see this very really threat to our Democracy and have said nothing.
If they really give a damn about the oath they took, that will end pronto.
I think too many in the military are more interested in the false power they could gain buying into fascism than any oath they took. Hope I’m wrong.
You’re not.
This may be the one topic Earl pulls some punches on.
This is why Trump and Hegseth made it a point to purge the military of some of its experienced leaders.
100%
MOST of the military's experienced leaders have been removed.😞
Saw this day coming in 2015 when people said he'd never win, and was called angry and alarmist.
Even now, some people in my own family accuse me of being on a soapbox. These are people who agree that this is terrible, but aren't lifting a finger to change things, and it's infuriating to no end.
Honest question - the people who are in the cult are deaf and blind to reason and deep in denial. Printing this out & sending to them doesn't seem like it would make any difference.
And no, it doesn't seem like many of our Dem "leaders" are up to the task, save for a small minority.
I won't stop standing up, using my voice, protesting, calling my elected officials, because that's exactly what the fascists want. But damn, it honestly feels so hard to envision how we are going to get through this with so many people either brainwashed, apathetic or complicit.
I will continue to operate under the assumption that there are more of us with the caveat, it is far worse than I thought it would be 2015.
That said, they want us to believe it is hopeless.
We have been kicking their ass at the polls relentlessly this year. For now, let's make good and damn sure we get the opportunity to do it again in November.
Absolutely - there ARE more of us than there are of them. And we must keep showing up and as you say, make sure we get to keep voting.
With you in this fight, and always appreciate your voice!
Thank you for your support and kind words -- and for all YOU are doing.
There were over 6 million people against the Nazis. How did that “there’s more of us” thing go???
Are you suggesting we just roll over and give up???
This go round the populace will be better armed in so many different ways that it will not be an apple to apple comparison.
But are we armed, if necessary, if only to protect ourselves? I really feel like all Hell is going to leg loose, very soon. I really hate feeling so utterly powerless. It makes me very angry.😡
You're not powerless if you resist and do not submit. When SHTF be prepared for it ahead of time.
I respectfully disagree. Many people have been harmed by ICE if they resisted and did not submit. I've seen it with my own eyes here in Southern California in the Coachella Valley. We've been invaded by these thugs.
I can see your POV Megan and respect it.
Typo: Let loose, not leg.🥴
Two quotes are competing for space in my brain at present. Both true and relevant:
“Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.” - Howard Zinn
“One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
Thanks (as always) for the deep-thinking perspective, Al.
I prefer profanity, but there are fewer quotations to draw from!
Ha!!
💯🎯
So true. A general strike is called for, but who calls for it and over what medium? The disjointed, diffuse media, where we all choose self-curated sources, usually in our pocket, or none at all, means catching fire with a message is problematic. I’m hoping the images out of Minneapolis, prevalent on so many platforms, is getting us down the road to catching that fire.
I plan to write about just this, Robbie, and almost did in this piece, but it was long enough as it is.
The Democratic Party itself needs to get the hell out of its own way, stop thinking and acting corporately, and start treating this situation with the urgency it demands. Anyway, I'll have a helluva lot more to say on that one. Have a good weekend.
Earl, you have a good weekend. It’s comforting to know we are sharing the old North state, even if we’re on opposite ends. Thank you for your moxie. And your energy. Please let me know any active ways I can help beyond being a loyal reader.
You-betcha, man.
It has to be led by a collaboration of leaders from various sectors to gain traction.
I’ve been hoping those leaders would (will) emerge for a year-plus. Still hoping. There are possibilities, but they’ve not yet caught the aforementioned fire. Smoldering: Slotkin, Auchincloss, Murphy, Pritzker, Kelly, Newsom, Frey, the as yet known XXXXXX — but no blaze yet. Dammit anyway.
Schumer and Martin gotta go. NOW. Schumer’s fervent letters are absurd and wimpy. Martin is boring. Both are terrible public speakers. They’re so desperate to retain power that they’re blinded to the fact that those days of politics-as-usual are long gone. Getting Ben Wikler to replace Martin would be an immediate energy shift. Ben knows how to win plus he’s charismatic.
I so agree with you! Wikler would have sent a whole new place. And Schumer is out of touch. I question the loyalty to him and what these people think they’re doing.
When I learned Schumer’s long time advisor is his brother Robert, long time partner at Paul Weiss the first law firm to spinelessly fold to the PedoFelon, Chuck’s waffling made sense. He’s also funded by questionable Republicans.
I kind of thought Newsom was doing pretty good there where they were trying to do that gerrymander thing in Texas and then he turned around and did it in California. He started these post blab and back at Trump. I thought he looked pretty good for a while, but I haven’t heard anything for quite some time
Yeah, it's beyond frustrating.
Less Chuck Schumer, more Mark Kelly, Jason Crow! Another great piece, Earl. Thank you for all you do to keep us informed and fired up!
You bet.
I have been forwarding similar emails to my Maga sister for sometime now. I don’t even know if she is reading them as she never responds and I know she gets my emails because she responds to other ones that are not related to this issue. I desperately want to send this one as well. I really don’t know if there is any chance of breaking her free from this destructive miserable cult.
I am really sorry you are dealing with this.
Just terrible what this grotesque man has unearthed inside people.
He’s destroyed my 60 year marriage. Not because my husband is a MAGA. Absolutely not. But because I SAY things like YOU do.
On a more positive note CBS' new poll shows approval rating for Trump among Gen Z down 42%. Minus 42! And from what I can see our younger generation is motivated. Just look at Mamdani as an example.
I could stand to hear (and see) a lot more from the younger folks, Sharon. Candidly, they are scarce in the scores of rallies I have attended.
I understand their skepticism about politics, but sitting on your ass and grousing accomplishes nothing. They have a helluva lot more power than they think.
Indeed. My view is skewered because I live in NYC.
I love Mamdani!!! He's fantastic!! I love his fire and caring for all people. He's a good man. 💙
And that would be really something to celebrate!!!! If there would actually be elections to actually use that at, but there’s not gonna be midterms. I know y’all want it. I want it more than God, life and my kids and my grandkids and my great grandkids. I want it more than that itself, but it ain’t gonna happen. It just isn’t.
Well, it looks as if ICE has landed in Phoenix and has begun to wreak their special brand of havoc. I’m so disgusted. It is no time for passivity. Thanks for the column. I know we all wanted to be wrong. Yet, here we are.
Damn this immoral regime.
Unfortunately, I don’t think fascism washed up on our shores on November 4, 2025. It’s always been in the US circulating in the populace like a mutant virus waiting for the right conditions to erupt.
2015 brought us trump and with him the weakening of the body politic until the virus erupted. Now we’re deeply infected.
You’re right, Earl. Fascism is right here, right now in our faces.
And no! Schumer, Jeffries, and the head of the DNC are NOT the leaders we need right now at all. We need leaders like FDR and Churchill. Were they flawed leaders? Yes. But they never backed down. If Chamberlain had stayed in power of the last domino resisting fascism in Europe, we would have a very different world today.
But better leaders inspired and insisted that their people save us all from fascism and tyranny. The only ones really fighting right now are some of the people.
I’ve tried my damndest to get people to vote in every election since 2004. Unfortunately, too many couldn’t be bothered to vote at all or voted 3rd party 🤬.
I hope those folks understand they have blood on their hands now and thanks to them we’re ALL suffering except for the wealthy as always.
Thanks for keeping us pointed in the right direction. Keep up the stellar work!
PS. I hate what happened to Stars and Stripes. 😩
The "F" word should not be subject to hyperbole or overuse. It is a form of pornography, perhaps like Narcissist Intel (where the importance of Counter Narcissist Intel dba CNI has in the past few years become a subject of some clarifying and well-observed discussion and study especially in Activist circles) the most potent and insistent form. It often if ironically presents as quick remedy via quick and private fetishistic fix.
Hope & pray that methods of subjecting these impulses to counter-balancing harness-able forces become routinized into useful studies for managing such potentially self-destructive and nihilistic impulses. We do not need even more destabilizing forces lurking within the human main-frame providing seductions from the banality of run-of-the-mill Evil and masking deluges of pent-up destructive and de-humanizing impulses....
Tio Mitchito
Earl,
I fully agree with you and have been writing about it recently. Here is what I wrote last night. All the best and as always watch your six. https://dundas.substack.com/p/final-decisions-are-at-stake-what
Steve Dundas
Thanks, Steven. A meaty write. I will spend some time with it, when I can break free.
Thank you so much. Be safe and have a nice weekend.
I read your substack, restocked and shared. Thanks for the deep dive!
Restacked. Damn autocorrect!
I think most of the Democratic politicians would agree with your essay, but they don’t have the courage to call a spade a fucking shovel! Call Trump a fascist. Call the Republican Party the American Fascist party. That’s exactly what they are, and we must fight with everything we’ve got.
It is absurd we haven't learned how to communicate yet, Linda.
It's also insulting to the voters.
Here's a list that is simpler for unintellectual people to understand:
What is Fascism:
A strong leader is treated like a hero who is never wrong and never says sorry.
Power comes from lying, making people angry, and saying made-up stories are true.
People are told the country is falling apart and that they are being treated badly.
People are scared into believing certain races or groups are “replacing” them, and that fairness is dangerous.
Groups that get along across race, religion, or culture are attacked or shut down.
Human rights do not matter. Only people “inside the group” are protected.
Enemies are picked and blamed for everything so people stay angry and united.
Opponents and minority leaders are jailed, hurt, or killed.
The military and armed groups are praised. Violence is treated as good or necessary.
Women are treated as less important than men.
News and media are controlled so people can’t tell what is true.
People are kept scared by talking nonstop about crime and danger.
Religion is mixed into government to control people.
Big companies are protected. Workers are kept weak.
Teachers, writers, artists, and thinkers are mocked or silenced unless they agree.
Friends of the leader get rich and powerful, even if they are bad at their jobs.
Elections are fake or unfair so only one party stays in power.
The country often tries to take land from others by force.
Thanks, Patty.
The ordinary people of the Twin Cities are giving me life and hope. They're the answer to your question. No, we're not ready, there is no getting ready, but the improvisations are pretty damn good. Neighbors are protecting each other in a hundred ways. Trump's fascist takeover with his army of too unfit for the military, too dumb for police work is not going to prevail. There are over 350 million people here. The numbers don't work for ICE. Besides, wait until the Dipshit Brigade finds out they're not ever going to get that 50K signing bonus, due only after 5 years of service.
There's a simple definition of fascism that works: When big business and gov't are fused. Trump would be nowhere without the billionaires, who, not for nothing gained control of mass media.
The people in Minneapolis have been nothing short of heroic.
We both know Trump will continue to escalate, and so far has been successful in dragging these lowlife billionaires and oligarchs with him.
They'll still have to climb over our dead bodies to get where they are trying go. Good luck with that.
I think this rallying to the call of justice of their own doing is heroic and admirable. That is one of the many reasons the murder of Renee Nicole Good is so tragic. We just cannot give in or give up - that's what they are counting on. So happy you pointed this out!
It is encouraging to see people caring enough to stand up and protest these "attacks" against human beings. I do hope there are more people who care than it often seems. No need for ICE to handle deportations in this manner. They're all about scare tactics and power and bigotry. I hope you are right and they never see their sign on bonus. They will have sold their souls to the devil for nothing. That will be justice because obviously, their souls are worthless!!!
Mr. Stephens, all those definitions are accurate and good that the US is a fascist country (I abhor saying America now because it lumps in North, Central, and South America together, which are all different to the US). I will share some quotes from Umair Haque, which I hope you’ll read. The article itself lays out we may be beyond fascism, edging towards totalitarianism, and is highly worth reading. According to Mr. Haque, the Nazi policy of Lebensraum is next.
“There is a key difference here. In an authoritarian system, you must obey. But in a totalitarian system, no deviation from what the dictator wants is permitted, and any infraction may be punished at any time by any form of violence, including the lethal kind.”
“America is now—whether Americans like it or not— a violent, expansionist nation, seeking to annex regions and nations around it, overtly, bombastically not just threatening them, but declaring that nothing matters except power, strength, and aggression. Not sovereignty, not law, not treaties, not alliances, nothing.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/umairhaque/p/is-america-becoming-a-new-nazi-germany
Thanks, I'll have a look.
What it isn't is Democracy.
My pleasure. 100%. We are a failed democracy and backsliding. ICE is a bunch of wusses. I bet you have more readers than ICE has agents.
Thank you, Earl! I know I’m not alone, but it can really feel like I’m shouting into the void. And NO, I do not think for a minute that Schumer and Jeffries are at all up to the task. But they seem to have the confidence of my Rep. and Senators - what’s up with that??
It's a corporate club that is out of touch with their voters.
Really, it's pathetic, Carol.
Well written, Earl. Thank you. You are the canary in the coal mine. Redistricting is key to winning the midterms. The map is a chess board and all pieces are in play. California has countered Texas. The GOP has plans for other red states to follow. Blue states in Maryland, Illinois, New York and Virginia have plans. These states gerrymandering are like swing states in federal elections. They are key to victory in the midterms. Focus should be in Democrat states to encourage it and getting folks to discourage it in Republican states if at all possible by contacting their representatives. Best of luck. Canada is with you, not just because it helps us but because it's just and vital to democracy. Good luck friends.
Thanks, Elaine.
All true and accurate Mr. Stephens. However, I believe your national crisis is even worse than you perceive and that you are currently being condemned to devolve into a political state predating fascism. The very reason in fact, that your fledgling nation fought a revolutionary war as thirteen colonies. Tyranny.
Donald J Trump is a tyrant, a far worse one than King George III was, and has already made both chambers of your Congress entirely irrelevant.
As then, in that eight years of war, ridding yourselves of this one is going to cost more lives than those of the innocents already lost. Other than those exceptional few the well paid politicians / justices / judges / lawyers can't or won't do anything, or else they already would have. This is not a movie, there is no cavalry to come riding over the hill at the last minute. . The police and/or armed forces *might* get involved, but It won't be pleasant in the middle caught in the crossfre while they decide which side they are on state by state, county by county, city city, unit by unit.
Could be one messy bloody fustercluck of an uncivilized war as people realize that actually they do love their neighbors after all. Enough at least to stand together against tyranny anyway.
All would have been easier if Merrick Garland had done his damn job, and Republicans cared about this country.
We'll get this done, but first people need to understand how bad it is. Apathy worries me most ...
Yes, there's blame aplenty to spread around. Mitch McConnell is another individual example of a guilty enabler. But it's the entire cabal's callous lack of empathy and disregard for life that [expletive]s me off when I think about the many thousands around the world dying because USAID was terminated, and Renee Good's orphans growing up without her love in their lives.