D’oh. Wrong again.
Biggest loser Trump’s favorability dropped to 25% and is still plummeting. Unfavorability rating is now over 60% and rising fast.

When they arrested Trump it made him less powerful and less popular than ever, showing him as a desperate fascist as he called to defund the police, defund the DOJ, suspend the constitution, arrest political enemies without charges, and insisted he should get to pick his judges, anything that lets him cling to power. FTFY

It’s turning out exactly like I predicted….again….and diametrically opposed to your prediction….like always. You NEVER fucking learn. You are incapable of learning.

Edit: Perhaps better-
If they throw out Jones they will make him more powerful and more popular than ever, showing up the Trump regime as desperate fascists willing to do anything to cling to power. Go ahead dickheads, toss out Jones and see how it turns out.

….turned out as a great long weekend for him that elevated his status from unknown to respected national political figure, gained him unanimous support in his district including from former opponents, and once again exposed Republicans as desperate thin skinned hypocritical anti democratic fascists.

MAGA is incapable of learning or self examination. That’s why you can’t understand that Trump is insanely unpopular and seen as a criminal totalitarian by the vast majority of America. Hilariously, the entire Republican Party is tied to him like a damsel on the train tracks, and when the election train comes it’s going to flatten you all. Never has there been a more deserving victim. I hope Trump was worth the next few election cycles for you.

He’s BACK! Sworn back in hours ago.

The indefensible expulsion was incredibly short lived.

Republicans really shot themselves in the foot this time. Even Republicans mostly want democracy, not totalitarianism. This action will definitely drive the vote for years to come in Tennessee, and will be a rallying call to remind everyone else how important it is to vote against totalitarianism and for democracy.

Some Russian people (specifically Putinists) love Trump…he never says “no” to Putin.

Democrats prefer democracy to foreign tied totalitarian dictatorship by force.

The media being targeted by the government is step one towards totalitarian despotism.
Stand up. This is democracy itself under siege. If you take it sitting down or as just a spectator, you deserve the authoritarian dictatorship you'll wake up in tomorrow. If you live in Philadelphia, you have a duty to stand against tyranny. Get out there.

The president said we should shoot the THUGS in Philadelphia....they're easy to identify, they're wearing all blue with helmets. Aim for the armpits or crotch.

Note, no reason was ever given for the arrests (making this a kidnapping) and the governor had to get involved, they have been released now with his apology.

Totally lost it at "indigenous communities gave generational expertise to help guide the way". Pretty pictures and words in the intro. A lot of emotional balast all over the place. On purpose apparently.

Made it to 35 minutes in.
Probably should read the books first before coming to conclusions.
Wait, is that how that works?

The whole fire metaphor - pretty much how totalitarian regimes come about. Lets NOT get excited and use our brains instead. The problem of politics seems to be that if you do that no one ever notices you.

The problem of this "emotions first" approach is no actual discussion is possible if everyone is hysterical.

This Saudi Arabia shit is totally bonkers. Is it more sucking up to his beloved totalitarian regimes? Is it a step towards war with Iran? They're (the country from which came most of) the fuckers that attacked us on 9/11! They straight-up brutally murdered a critical journalist, who lived in the US and worked for a US newspaper! They're ideologically closer to ISIS than Iraq's former government was! I mean... what the fuck? It's like he's trying his hardest to piss off even the Republicans at this point, just to see what it'll take...

You know, the history of communism is complicated. The idea in principle seems nice enough, a government where everyone owns everything. Or as Marx puts it: "all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs."

But in reality, it's never been implemented. It's invariably the case that a ruling party emerges as the de facto "we'll make sure everyone is following the rules so that everything is fair and as soon as it's clear that everyone is following the rules, we'll relinquish power completely to the people."

Except...that second part NEVER happens. Russia? China? North Korea? Those are communist countries in name only. In reality, those are all totalitarian states by any definition. Any opposition to the ruling class when they are questioned ends in murder or massacre by the state; see https://newrepublic.com/article/117983/tiananmen-square-massacre-how-chinas-millennials-discuss-it-now

Freedom of political thought, religion, matters of economics are simply unavailable under "communist" rule.

There's decidedly very few ideas that are less democratic and less American than communism.

@bobknight33 you claim to be a patriot, I think you're a Russian troll who's assigned to this corner of the internet. Go preach your anti American propaganda in between borscht bites somewhere else please.

The normal voter is "the ignorant people". As a whole, Americans are increasingly uneducated rubes.....all of us, not just one party.

It's only dems vs reps politics that allows you to put the choices as Kang vs Kodos. While dems have offered mostly far from perfect options, the reps have lined up behind the worst choices proffered to date. I think it's closer to a Nixon vs Putin....with the dems being Nixon. Sure, they're dirty, but the alternative is covered is shit and bile. I prefer corruption to sliding towards murderous totalitarian dictatorship.

Still goes to education...because education fosters critical thinking, without which you ARE under the thumbs of the "funders", being incapable of distinguishing lies and hyperbole from fact. The fact that such a majority of those with a proven ability to think choose dems is a clear indicator which is the more intelligent choice.

Granted, neither choice is usually good, but one is definitely less bad....and far more sane and rational. I try to remind people there are more than two choices, I rarely vote for a major party candidate. Don't blame me, I voted for Lrrr. (I do admit, Melania is a more attractive first lady than Ndnd)

Side note: I kept reading your last as "...beholden to the Flanders".....stupid Flanders.

Didn't watch the Ted talk, sorry. Too long to make a point for me.

The reason Switzerland is the safest place in case of a war is not its bunkers and fall out shelters (though, referencing the book "Place de la Concorde Suisse" by McPhee, this video does do a good job explaining Swiss paranoia)

Switzerland is the best place to hide in a war because:

Everyone from oligarchal and totalitarian states hides their assets there. In Swiss banks. And no one has been stupid enough in 200 years to blow up the bank holding their assets.

Oh, but they do. Just start a "discussion" with them about genders or climate change.
But it didnt start with that. I was atheist once too. Then I noticed how totalitarian and extreme atheists often are. Pretty much like any ideology/religion.
So I became agnostic.

And yeah, we have a lot of them on this site too. Just with any other extremists, its useless to argue with them.

Comments show again what a totalitarian topic this is.
If you call this science, you can call scientists scientists who lobbied for tobacco firms, claiming it didnt cause detrimental health effects, claimed the leaded fuel issue wasnt linked to leaded fuel, eugenics proponents or people who used lobotomy and electro shock therapy.

Oh wait, they were.
Keep believing hypocrites. Humans and intelligent, if they cant even learn from history? Dont make me laugh.

Attack the imminent problems, like the hypocrisy in the conflicts in Syria or Libya. Then I am starting to take you seriously. But instead you whine about 0.1 C degrees and let millions of people die to people you elected and which will ultimately backlash to you too.
Just look at this fact: USA supporting ISIS and Al Qaeda through countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, while also fighting it.
Unbelievable...

And dont tell me me "its not their job". Its everyones job to stop something like that, just like you claim on climate change. Even more so actually!

Except in this case the rule was created specifically to protect members of the senate from cries of racism.

When fascism and totalitarianism take over and the rules are written by bad people for bad purposes simply saying "rules are rules" is naive and dangerous.

Still waiting on some specific examples from you on how Obama "ruined" the country (or for you to admit you were wrong). Your words have no weight so long as you run away from the slightest hint of a counter argument. I can see why you like Mitch's move here, it's exactly the sort of thing you'd pull.

You fear words because you are wrong, Bob. If you stopped to pay attention you might actually have to reevaluate your position and you're too much of an intellectual coward to do that, aren't you? Prove me wrong, by the way, let's see an open discussion, rather than your usual drive-by commenting followed up by hiding in the basement from any cogent dissenting argument.

Obama never acted so infantile and rude to Faux news, even though they are much worse about spreading fake news. He answered their questions and gave them many (>11) interviews where they consistently asked loaded bait questions, hounded him about fake scandals, taunted, insulted, and rudely interrupted him over and over, he even sat down with Oreilly again after papa bear was such an insulting disrespectful asshole the first time. He did call them out a few times, but mostly just ignored the insanity they spew.
Trump, on the other hand, can't let any slight go without becoming unhinged, and he retaliates like a 2 year old at any perceived enemy, and fawns over anyone that compliments him. CNN had the audacity to report an unflattering but important story about claims being made about the president elect and so they'll be blacklisted for his administrations term (imagine if the same story was about Obama, any news organization not talking about it would be called apologists and left wing propagandists that should be strung up from the nearest tree) Such transparent hyper narcissism, so easily exploited by others much smarter than he, makes him incredibly dangerous for us all.
Singling out a news organization that's not been friendly to you as liars and treating them as enemies is a clearly recognized Nazi tactic they used in their rise to power. It should be watched carefully lest this behavior evolves into totalitarian fascism.

re: Internet/totalitarianism/control of information, every single government tries to control information, the media, public opinion, and uses the internet as a tool for that goal (just like tv, radio, print, etc). The internet/access to information in and of itself does not guarantee greater accuracy/truth of that information, and unless the population is educated, respectful, and capable of critical thinking it can easily become little bubbles of echo chambers and a playground for griefers. What good did widespread internet availability do for the last US election? has the internet made americans more free, or more easily monitored and controlled? what good is it for cuba for cubans to have access to world of warcraft, so they can neglect their children who starve to death while they grind up to the next level? has the internet prevented mainstream media from fabricating news / pushing their agendas, or has it given more people a platform for fabricating news, anonymously? yeah, im not saying the internet is all bad, of course there are other very useful applications for it, but its not a magic "improve society" wand.

final thing i want to say, I have several friends who studied in cuba as exchange students in the late 90s, early 00s and yes, they had to make treks to specific places for access but they were able to send emails and such, so this piece is not factually accurate. If the cuban govt was so dead set on stopping people from communicating, im pretty sure they would identify network cables hanging in the middle of the street and easily follow them back to your apartment, not to mention detect wifi networks setup all over their tiny island.

@heropsycho

are we related?

well said my friend,and i totally agree with pretty much everything you just laid out.i love your commentary as a whole,but this was exceptional.

i guess i am coming from the dispassionate analysis camp.

i hope i wasn't coming across that i was dismissing the moral argument,because that was not my intention.i actually AGREE with the moral argument.i was just trying to add facets to the argument that a lot of people appeared to not even be considering.

i hold many liberal and progressive attitudes,and maybe i am just an old crotchety coot nowadays,but in my opinion..the left has lost it's way.

binary politics does not work.
dem vs repub does not work.
left vs right does not work.
demonizing people and calling them names....
does not work.

there has been a slow revolution in american politics,and has been over the past four decades.
what sheldon wolin called "inverted totalitarianism " and what john ralston saul deemed a "corporate coup detat'".

that battle is over...and we lost.

and i think that slow realization has finally sunk into the american psyche.

do i agree with their choice?
oh hell no...their choice is horrifying.
was a trump victory akin to a petulant child?
i guess thats as good analogy as any other,but now WE have to deal with the consequences.
all of us.(even including non-americans.so yeah..sorry bout this guys).

so just how do we tackle this new problem we face?

i say we start by not calling people idiots.
just a thought.