36 Comments
Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

"Do you really think, apart from Republicans and Russian agents, that any Americans want to live like this?"

Yes. In fact, I KNOW people who really love living like this, and who would be absolutely thrilled to have Donald Trump as Emperor for Life. Current polling shows that 24% of the populace will not support impeachment no matter what Trump does. Far too many of our countrymen are not just comfortable with fascism, but think it is the ideal way the United States should be run. Because nothing says FREDUMB!!11! like fascism.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Great slab of prose there, Roy. In lesser hands, it would just be a verbose pissy rant.

As for Where We Are in this Age if the Triumph of Bullshit, I blame the establishment press. I fully understand the philosophy as it were that the job is just echo what’s said or done; Trump lies, their obligation is just to echo the lie. That’s reporting. But it has the effect of treating lies like truths and facts and that’s inexcusable and contributes to the harm to the nation resulting from decades of minority rule.

As for reverting to the mean, these times are closer to the means than the post-WWII era which was a complete anomaly sorry.

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As someone 99% atheist (a.k.a. 100% agnostic) I've long associated a personal deity (if one is really out there) with reason itself as it seems to me like most of what separates us from the rest of His/Her/Its creatures. I'm also at an age where I doubt I will see recovery from the catastrophe that is this Administration so feel pretty strongly about lol nothing matters, too, so I really enjoyed this one. Thanks as always.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Hear, Hear. It is a completely pointless exercise to debate/argue with Trump supporters. They are all operating in bad faith because the reasons they state for their support are 1) based on bogus facts, and 2) aren’t even their real reasons.

I wish I could say I thought of this meme, but I’m not that clever: “Arguing with a Trump supporter is like trying to play chess with a pigeon. They knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, then strut around like they won.”

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Thanks Roy. I agree. And though I wonder how much time must pass before reason is reasserted, I sort of think that the lack of buy in by the young cd undercut this shit show in sudden, dramatic fashion. this debacle is a baby boomer operation whose fascist elements (as opposed to small gov conservatism) finds little traction among the younger set. Long term, chaos is not an attractive governing philosophy for those w small children. Or those w decency and avg brains. So how much time will it take? Good question.

Thanks to you and all others who care enough to man the rhetorical ramparts, and lance the orcs as they come over the rail. I was thinking yesterday the important role loud constant opposition criticism plays in times like these. Hang in there.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

The Age Of Reason Versus The Age Of Treason, A Continuing Series

(PS: Roy, thanks for this. These Dispatches Of Daily Sanity are helping.)

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

I'm a card-carrying geezer, and I can attest that people were just as fucked up back during the 60's and 70's. The Vietnam war and civil rights struggle, among other things, divided everyone, but the racists and right-wingers didn't need to be polarized, they were already entrenched in their beliefs, just like today. The main difference to me is that, thanks to decades of lunatic talk-radio and Fox propaganda, racism and right-wing stupidity are just mainstream Republicanism now, and the vicious carnival that is Trump is the logical manifestation of it. Remember, in the 2016 GOP primaries, the most transparently unqualified piece of shit ever to run for president garnered more votes than any Republican candidate ever. They had 17 other candidates to choose from and they picked this asshole, and 85-90 percent of them still look at this abomination and say "I approve!" The biggest problem for the future of the country isn't Trump, it's the Republican party.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Roy, this is another vital column that needs to be made public. Just sayin'.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

Very much agree, but what saddens me is how much of this also applies to arguing with certain flavors of liberals these days, the ones who subscribe to a theory of Deep State that is only cosmetically removed from fascism. The real quandry is how to vote: reelect the bullshit brown shirt, or go with the more attractive folks with better hair and black shirts. I have no doubt whatsoever that our meritocracy would build ovens for either side.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

You are much more optimistic than I am. I am 73 years old and I have been aware for at least 40 years that this country is getting worse, sometimes in increments and sometimes in leaps and bounds. The difference between here and Spain is that the people realized they were living under a fascist dictatorship in Spain, whether or not they approved. Here people are convinced that somehow we are the last best hope..etc, etc, etc.

So let me leave you with my rallying cry: NIHILISTS FOR NOTHING.

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Oct 3, 2019Liked by Roy Edroso

It is not reasoning that will save us from the Trumpenführer, it is the drip, drip, drip of information undermining the bullshit and sand on which the current Republican hegemony stands. It drove Nixon out of office, it will do the same to Trump, one way or another. Look how much opinion has shifted towards impeachment in less than two weeks. By Christmas it might well be 73%, leaving the infamous 27% alone in their family rooms watching Hannity. Things look very bad for the Administration right now, and as Pompeo and Barr get drawn further into the impeachment inquiry, it will get worse. If Pence is implicated, only the Senate Republicans can prevent President Pelosi. (No doubt they will, but who will face Warren or even Biden in the general election who isn't stained with amorality?) Say Barr presents some bullshit about the 2016 election and furthermore lies even more about Biden. How will that help them once the courts allow McGahn et al to testify on all the obstruction evidence in the Mueller report? Even the minor actors are stepping on their dicks, like Ag Sec Perdue telling good Republican small dairy farmers their day is past, all hail the megafarm and to hell with the watershed. They're chasing away all but their most rabid base.

Apparently we're all geezers here - good for us - and therefore we should remember, as the Trump White House does not, that the only good response to a verifiable scandal is to admit it right away, apologize and move on, assured the press will look for some other shiny object, probably involving the other side. Trump's yelling and lying and insulting is not the successful strategy he thinks it is, and apparently there's no one left who can tell him that. (I wouldn't mention it here, if I thought someone would read this to him. Let him strangle himself.)

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Roy, I'm sorry, but you couldn't write a verbose, pissy rant if you tried. Well, you could, but you won't because you're too busy writing good stuff. And I'm grateful for that.

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I really needed this one today. Thanks Roy!

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Hey! Fellow commenters! I have some good news! About my own personal life, but possibly this is bellwether news too. A Parental Unit, who has spent 3 years beginning every opinion with "I don't like Trump, but..." (where the but is always that Trump is 100% right), guy who thinks the crisis at the border is that we are *not cruel enough*, and who seems genuinely to believe Democrats hate America... just emailed me to say "Trump needs to go. What Dem will we support?"

He was defending these fuckers and their fuckery right to the closing bell yesterday, so this was a sudden turn. China did it, maybe? Dunno, he didn't say. And of course in 2020 he will vote Pence because he's against Socialism. BUT, right now, he is THIS goddamn fed up. That is so heartening, for me personally and for the nation he represents in my head. I hope it's a sign the dam's about to break overall.

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OK, I interpret the Constitution to require that if Trump is impeached, not removed, just impeached by the House, he has to be stripped, scourged, and nailed to a cross. There, wingnuts, checkmate!

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> And our persistence as a species tells me that people know it and

> and are attracted to it and, when things get grim, will return to it.

…and may I add, 'Speedily, and in our days.'

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