America is built on balance of power between three branches and relies on human decency, and a general consensus to respect rule of law for enforcement of these powers. But as the past six months have shown, America has no way to actually stop the abuses by today's White House/Executive Branch, cowed judiciary and spineless legislators. Once decency and respect are no longer brakes, we got nada. The USSR basically slid into non-existence after the death of Brezhnev - for a variety of political and economic reasons all rooted in one cause - the inablity to stop the slide. Some sort of democracy will be around for the next generation here in America, but not the genuinely robust one that I experienced for most of my 70 years. In December 1984, still unclear to me how it happened, excerpts of Gorbachev's Dec. 10 speech before the Supreme Soviet was made available to Western viewers - I'm thinking via BBC - which was a first. After I listened, I called my father, who was also listening, immediately and said, "that's it. the beginning of the final end. the soviet union is over. i'm going with ten years (Dec 1991 was seven)." A refugee from soviet occupaiton of eastern europe, an avowed anti-communist, my father nonetheless emitted a dry laugh of disbelief and told me to hold my horses. I write all this only to say that the past six months, actually by May, within first three months of Trump, I had the exact same intuition, the same feeling as I did in December 1984. Except then I reacted with glee, this time with sadness and dread. The arbitrary destruction of the federal infrastructure that served the people, the barely disguised desire to turn over governance almost completely to a wealthy elite - preferably the techno elitie - the willingness by major institutions/organizations/corporations to just cave to just the threat of damage - the petty retribution - the blatant use of the public office for personal gain with barely a "whoa!" - this time the horse has left the gate.
maybe, but maybe not. think of the Jews (not 'Israelis' please) who continued to celebrate the sabbath each Friday, under the nose of the Spanish Inquisition, and hope that enough Americans will hold onto their (rather confused, but better than the current chaos) 'better instincts' for a 'more' just society.
(Sorry I can't be more kind about this, but the 'self-evidence' of 'individualism' is impossible to understand, and is a million miles from 'acceptable.' That Constitution needs re-writing, and now is about as good a time as America is going to get. Just saying ...
Robert Anton Wilson used to call this the Snafu principle. “A man with a gun is told only that which people assume will not provoke him to pull the trigger.”
The threat of prosecution at the hands of the Democrats, when they finally regain power, may only drive MAGA to further extremes in order to prevent that. We will see how far Trump gets with Putin’s playbook. He is already well on his way.
Did Trump fire Erika McEntarfer because she was a Democrat?
Or was she fired Apprentice style, because Trump thinks/thought he could get someone else that was 'smarter' and 'more competitive' than Erika McEntarfer?
As Garry states, this is a dire, perhaps watershed event in an escalating flood of dire events.
Trump understands little and cares even less about job number derivation and other remotely complex concepts. He understands little beyond his self-aggrandizement. His reptilian brain is capable only of hunting, baring its teeth and lashing out at its perceived threat-of-the-moment.
Thank you, Garry, for naming what so many sense but struggle to articulate.
What your piece makes clear is that we’re not just watching authoritarian impulses — we’re watching the hollowing out of actual governance, replaced by image management. Like in Saddam’s Iraq, the metrics look great on paper while the foundation quietly crumbles beneath.
We think that there are checks and balances — inspectors general, ethics offices, norms of conduct — but most of these rely on ethics, not law. And when ethics give way to performance, the only restraint left is whistleblowing — fragile, isolated acts of individual conscience.
Even that “ethical hope” is political now. What counts as ethical depends on who’s in charge, not shared principles. That leaves our institutions exposed not to rule of law, but to the will of whoever controls the narrative.
It’s hard not to see this as a democracy held together by a duct tape!
WE the People are confronted with the reality that we live in a dictatorship 1930’s Germany has arrived This is a one way street It is beyond wait and see This is it
Now detention by Secret Police posed as masked marauders is the game and the US military is now being merged with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigrants were the scapegoat all along and explains why Cheeto was opposed to Biden’s comprehensive immigration bill Corrupt dictator Cheeto was planning this Gestapo takeover using immigrants as a foil
Concentration camps are now bid out to construction companies to put camps on military bases
So what do WE the People do at this point
Protest Protest Protest and form coalitions with neighbors friends relatives family
Join Mobilize.US and make your voice heard in order to organize the resistance movement
Aug13 join One Million Rising put together by Indivisible to help organize
Once coalitions are formed then can begin to boycott companies across the country to demand that oligarchs do not run this country
"autoritarian" doesn't cover it. "totalitarian does." and as the mutt himself says, (ironically, without knowing what he was saying - as usual) - "words matter."
America is built on balance of power between three branches and relies on human decency, and a general consensus to respect rule of law for enforcement of these powers. But as the past six months have shown, America has no way to actually stop the abuses by today's White House/Executive Branch, cowed judiciary and spineless legislators. Once decency and respect are no longer brakes, we got nada. The USSR basically slid into non-existence after the death of Brezhnev - for a variety of political and economic reasons all rooted in one cause - the inablity to stop the slide. Some sort of democracy will be around for the next generation here in America, but not the genuinely robust one that I experienced for most of my 70 years. In December 1984, still unclear to me how it happened, excerpts of Gorbachev's Dec. 10 speech before the Supreme Soviet was made available to Western viewers - I'm thinking via BBC - which was a first. After I listened, I called my father, who was also listening, immediately and said, "that's it. the beginning of the final end. the soviet union is over. i'm going with ten years (Dec 1991 was seven)." A refugee from soviet occupaiton of eastern europe, an avowed anti-communist, my father nonetheless emitted a dry laugh of disbelief and told me to hold my horses. I write all this only to say that the past six months, actually by May, within first three months of Trump, I had the exact same intuition, the same feeling as I did in December 1984. Except then I reacted with glee, this time with sadness and dread. The arbitrary destruction of the federal infrastructure that served the people, the barely disguised desire to turn over governance almost completely to a wealthy elite - preferably the techno elitie - the willingness by major institutions/organizations/corporations to just cave to just the threat of damage - the petty retribution - the blatant use of the public office for personal gain with barely a "whoa!" - this time the horse has left the gate.
maybe, but maybe not. think of the Jews (not 'Israelis' please) who continued to celebrate the sabbath each Friday, under the nose of the Spanish Inquisition, and hope that enough Americans will hold onto their (rather confused, but better than the current chaos) 'better instincts' for a 'more' just society.
(Sorry I can't be more kind about this, but the 'self-evidence' of 'individualism' is impossible to understand, and is a million miles from 'acceptable.' That Constitution needs re-writing, and now is about as good a time as America is going to get. Just saying ...
Robert Anton Wilson used to call this the Snafu principle. “A man with a gun is told only that which people assume will not provoke him to pull the trigger.”
The threat of prosecution at the hands of the Democrats, when they finally regain power, may only drive MAGA to further extremes in order to prevent that. We will see how far Trump gets with Putin’s playbook. He is already well on his way.
Love that first pic of Trump with the hat! 🤣
Did Trump fire Erika McEntarfer because she was a Democrat?
Or was she fired Apprentice style, because Trump thinks/thought he could get someone else that was 'smarter' and 'more competitive' than Erika McEntarfer?
As Garry states, this is a dire, perhaps watershed event in an escalating flood of dire events.
Trump understands little and cares even less about job number derivation and other remotely complex concepts. He understands little beyond his self-aggrandizement. His reptilian brain is capable only of hunting, baring its teeth and lashing out at its perceived threat-of-the-moment.
We need the Sharpe edge with this autocrat.
Thank you, Garry, for naming what so many sense but struggle to articulate.
What your piece makes clear is that we’re not just watching authoritarian impulses — we’re watching the hollowing out of actual governance, replaced by image management. Like in Saddam’s Iraq, the metrics look great on paper while the foundation quietly crumbles beneath.
We think that there are checks and balances — inspectors general, ethics offices, norms of conduct — but most of these rely on ethics, not law. And when ethics give way to performance, the only restraint left is whistleblowing — fragile, isolated acts of individual conscience.
Even that “ethical hope” is political now. What counts as ethical depends on who’s in charge, not shared principles. That leaves our institutions exposed not to rule of law, but to the will of whoever controls the narrative.
It’s hard not to see this as a democracy held together by a duct tape!
Please America WAKE UP
WE the People are confronted with the reality that we live in a dictatorship 1930’s Germany has arrived This is a one way street It is beyond wait and see This is it
Now detention by Secret Police posed as masked marauders is the game and the US military is now being merged with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigrants were the scapegoat all along and explains why Cheeto was opposed to Biden’s comprehensive immigration bill Corrupt dictator Cheeto was planning this Gestapo takeover using immigrants as a foil
Concentration camps are now bid out to construction companies to put camps on military bases
So what do WE the People do at this point
Protest Protest Protest and form coalitions with neighbors friends relatives family
Join Mobilize.US and make your voice heard in order to organize the resistance movement
Aug13 join One Million Rising put together by Indivisible to help organize
Once coalitions are formed then can begin to boycott companies across the country to demand that oligarchs do not run this country
"autoritarian" doesn't cover it. "totalitarian does." and as the mutt himself says, (ironically, without knowing what he was saying - as usual) - "words matter."