And also an intrusion of the type I mention. We went to a comedy club the other night--ya gotta try to laugh these days, right?--and there was a gaggle of rifle-toting National Guard right outside the club. To be clear, they didn't bother anyone and if anything, seemed not sure what to do with themselves. But I doubt I was the only one feeling like their presence put a damper on the evening (again, not their fault).
It’s not their fault unless they just recently signed up for the Guard knowing this was the kind of thing they were going to be doing. can’t just walk away from military service obligation. That is going AWOL and is subject to serious punishment — unless you are George W Bush.
The Military Code of Conduct does allow disobeying an order that is unjust. Article VI reminds all that they are responsible for their conduct. Following orders won’t justify a soldier ultimately.
The code in general suggests death before dishonor. Enlisting is not just a career choice; signing up requires accepting the possibility of your own death. It is why I never liked the draft. That choice was made for you without your consent when you were drafted. Still, one better know what you’re getting into when you enlist.
We're less than a year into the reign of Trump with a compliant Congress and SCOTUS, the 26 elections are a turning point, first , if they occur, an Executive Order cancelling elections, or troops at polling stations, at what point is the nation, and the billionaire class, ready to take action? invoke the 25th Amendment? Would a stock market crash end Trump or allow him to declare himself tyrant in charge? Scary? You bet!!
Well, maybe. However, if they haven’t figured out yet that Trump is an unutterably vile thing who is inflicting untold damage on the idea that Americans are decent, civilised people then the evidence suggests a lot of Americans are vile and uncivilised. Trump’s treatment of other people from the small to the large scale has been disgusting to see and the examples of it innumerable with nothing whatsoever to offset it. If you have seen anything of him and have a decent bone in your body he would fill you with horror.
I wouldn’t worry too much about there not being an election. Authoritarians and autocrats actually like elections. It gives them the patina of legitimacy. Look at Putin, Orban, or Maduro. They all have elections. What we have to worry about is whether those elections will be free and fair - and will all the votes that are properly cast be tabulated accurately? That’s what we really need to be worried about and vigilant to protect.
I'm one of the California Gerrymandees who loves Prop 50.
Several years ago a log-truck owner-operator heard my discourse on forest-health electric hybrid trucks, with energy delivered from the Loyalton Cogen, fueled by EV+ biomass-trimmings from forests restoration projects. He explained local skepticism about this program: "All the loggers know what you're talking about.Everybody gets it. Nobody thinks anything will come of it but you talking.... Look around, man. Gummint don't work." (He knew I enjoy bantering in our mountain talk).
Today I enjoy pointing at all those prevailing-wage jobs in the woods and the supporting industries, financed first by California's green industrial policy, accelerated by Federal expenditures on the National Forests under Biden, now the center of a burgeoning economy built on growing the avoided-CO2 held in and under the trees of our forests, Trump-proofed following the election, the Federal share now irrelevant in the face of private and public capital seeking a hedge against the exchange rate between our TAC-values carbon economy and the dollar (or other currency) economy.
The problem,, which you pointed out as the key, is that Representatives Dolittle, McClintock, LaMalfa, Kiley in the Northern Sierra logging towns, too many more elsewhere, have built their careers on "Gummint Don't Work. Watch me prove it."
Today I can say, "Yeah, you broke Gummint. Watch us work around your bulls___," Except out here in the far distant sticks we mince beef not words.
Points taken, all of them, but is the hypothetical "I thought I was voting for lower prices, lower interest rates, more affordable housing" maybe missing something? Something about "secure borders," which translates into concern/panic about brown immigrants from Central and South America? Something, dare I say it, about race and racism?
I'm not talking about hardcore MAGAs here. I'm talking about the (mostly) white people who get a whiff from whatever news they hear that "illegals," i.e., brown people, are pouring unobstructed over the U.S.-Mexico border. News stories over the months since ICE went on its rampage have suggested that at least some Trump voters are surprised -- shocked, even -- that people they've known as neighbors and/or co-workers for 10+ years are being rounded up.
OK, many, many USians don't know what affects prices, interest rates, or the cost of housing. In general, we're an economically ignorant people, but we also lived through the first Trump administration and, though we might not have known diddly about Project 2025 or believed it could happen, we sure as hell knew what Trump was about -- and some of us supported it. After January 6, 2021, anyone who claims to have been mainly "voting for lower prices, lower interest rates, more affordable housing" is either blowing smoke or in serious denial. WYSIWYG -- or, "what you saw is what you voted for."
Thing 1 is catastrophic in its consequences. It is not unexpected - Trump has been broadcasting his intentions for years. And yet he was elected for a second term. What exactly did Trump voters want and expect? Which brings us to Thing 2. It is a little naive to elect a man president and then excuse him with faint censure when he keeps his promises.
Work is being done by Trump to set up a suspension or whatever of any elections he doesn’t want held while, on the state level, work is ongoing to minimize the power or efficacy of elections.
Let’s be even more blunt: Trump trying to continue his presidency past his second term term or any “temporary” cancellation of elections means civil war. Anyone still loyal to the Constitution should not hesitate to wage it.
"My predictions stem from my view that the two forces I’m elevating in this note are closely linked." Very interesting. In fact, I would appreciate an even deeper dive into this.
I’m not sure if it’s Thing 1 or Thing 2
but concentrating the military command into a coordinated attack on American cities and purging said military of any dissenting voices ,
sounds ominous to me.
And also an intrusion of the type I mention. We went to a comedy club the other night--ya gotta try to laugh these days, right?--and there was a gaggle of rifle-toting National Guard right outside the club. To be clear, they didn't bother anyone and if anything, seemed not sure what to do with themselves. But I doubt I was the only one feeling like their presence put a damper on the evening (again, not their fault).
Yes, their fault. They (however awkwardly) are participating in it.
It’s not their fault unless they just recently signed up for the Guard knowing this was the kind of thing they were going to be doing. can’t just walk away from military service obligation. That is going AWOL and is subject to serious punishment — unless you are George W Bush.
The Military Code of Conduct does allow disobeying an order that is unjust. Article VI reminds all that they are responsible for their conduct. Following orders won’t justify a soldier ultimately.
The code in general suggests death before dishonor. Enlisting is not just a career choice; signing up requires accepting the possibility of your own death. It is why I never liked the draft. That choice was made for you without your consent when you were drafted. Still, one better know what you’re getting into when you enlist.
We're less than a year into the reign of Trump with a compliant Congress and SCOTUS, the 26 elections are a turning point, first , if they occur, an Executive Order cancelling elections, or troops at polling stations, at what point is the nation, and the billionaire class, ready to take action? invoke the 25th Amendment? Would a stock market crash end Trump or allow him to declare himself tyrant in charge? Scary? You bet!!
Well, maybe. However, if they haven’t figured out yet that Trump is an unutterably vile thing who is inflicting untold damage on the idea that Americans are decent, civilised people then the evidence suggests a lot of Americans are vile and uncivilised. Trump’s treatment of other people from the small to the large scale has been disgusting to see and the examples of it innumerable with nothing whatsoever to offset it. If you have seen anything of him and have a decent bone in your body he would fill you with horror.
I wouldn’t worry too much about there not being an election. Authoritarians and autocrats actually like elections. It gives them the patina of legitimacy. Look at Putin, Orban, or Maduro. They all have elections. What we have to worry about is whether those elections will be free and fair - and will all the votes that are properly cast be tabulated accurately? That’s what we really need to be worried about and vigilant to protect.
I'm one of the California Gerrymandees who loves Prop 50.
Several years ago a log-truck owner-operator heard my discourse on forest-health electric hybrid trucks, with energy delivered from the Loyalton Cogen, fueled by EV+ biomass-trimmings from forests restoration projects. He explained local skepticism about this program: "All the loggers know what you're talking about.Everybody gets it. Nobody thinks anything will come of it but you talking.... Look around, man. Gummint don't work." (He knew I enjoy bantering in our mountain talk).
Today I enjoy pointing at all those prevailing-wage jobs in the woods and the supporting industries, financed first by California's green industrial policy, accelerated by Federal expenditures on the National Forests under Biden, now the center of a burgeoning economy built on growing the avoided-CO2 held in and under the trees of our forests, Trump-proofed following the election, the Federal share now irrelevant in the face of private and public capital seeking a hedge against the exchange rate between our TAC-values carbon economy and the dollar (or other currency) economy.
The problem,, which you pointed out as the key, is that Representatives Dolittle, McClintock, LaMalfa, Kiley in the Northern Sierra logging towns, too many more elsewhere, have built their careers on "Gummint Don't Work. Watch me prove it."
Today I can say, "Yeah, you broke Gummint. Watch us work around your bulls___," Except out here in the far distant sticks we mince beef not words.
Points taken, all of them, but is the hypothetical "I thought I was voting for lower prices, lower interest rates, more affordable housing" maybe missing something? Something about "secure borders," which translates into concern/panic about brown immigrants from Central and South America? Something, dare I say it, about race and racism?
I'm not talking about hardcore MAGAs here. I'm talking about the (mostly) white people who get a whiff from whatever news they hear that "illegals," i.e., brown people, are pouring unobstructed over the U.S.-Mexico border. News stories over the months since ICE went on its rampage have suggested that at least some Trump voters are surprised -- shocked, even -- that people they've known as neighbors and/or co-workers for 10+ years are being rounded up.
OK, many, many USians don't know what affects prices, interest rates, or the cost of housing. In general, we're an economically ignorant people, but we also lived through the first Trump administration and, though we might not have known diddly about Project 2025 or believed it could happen, we sure as hell knew what Trump was about -- and some of us supported it. After January 6, 2021, anyone who claims to have been mainly "voting for lower prices, lower interest rates, more affordable housing" is either blowing smoke or in serious denial. WYSIWYG -- or, "what you saw is what you voted for."
Thing 1 is catastrophic in its consequences. It is not unexpected - Trump has been broadcasting his intentions for years. And yet he was elected for a second term. What exactly did Trump voters want and expect? Which brings us to Thing 2. It is a little naive to elect a man president and then excuse him with faint censure when he keeps his promises.
Work is being done by Trump to set up a suspension or whatever of any elections he doesn’t want held while, on the state level, work is ongoing to minimize the power or efficacy of elections.
Republicans hate democracy and have for decades.
100%
Let’s be even more blunt: Trump trying to continue his presidency past his second term term or any “temporary” cancellation of elections means civil war. Anyone still loyal to the Constitution should not hesitate to wage it.
"My predictions stem from my view that the two forces I’m elevating in this note are closely linked." Very interesting. In fact, I would appreciate an even deeper dive into this.