@jeanne-mayell Even after Trump falls into obscurity, the supporters are here to stay but will fall into the fringes. How will it be like after COVID is done with?
@enkasongwriter Good point. We will be focusing on the climate, which is what we needed to be focusing on all along but Trump and his party got in the way. We had to deal with them and their paradigm first. We have learned that we can do the impossible -- get good people elected even when the bad players had most of the money. We did it. Mother Earth will help us now clear out the noise of the distractors and we will change this world for the better.
@jeanne-mayell Thanks for the response. I feel that Trumpism is the new Nazism, however, as with any hate groups, they will fall by the wayside. The light has been rising since Biden's inauguration. COVID-19 taught me that much of daily life can be done remotely and I don't need to be around people I disapprove with their political and social standing.
@theungamer
Sorry for the delay, but I have been extremely busy with courts starting back up after Covid-19.
Yes, there is a way to expedite the hearing. However, it is based on whether the asking party can prove "immediate harm" if the appeal is not heard quickly (an example of this would be a young girl at the border who was raped and wants an abortion, but she only has a short amount of time to obtain one before her health is at risk, yet ICE won't allow it). As you can guess, it is very difficult to prove, so I would bet on it.
Personally, I love the fact that Republicans have passed this bill. Go ahead and arrest people for giving out water! I can't wait to see that on the news.
Here's a thought. Why don't Democrats "sell" a bottle of water to voters as they wait? Say....a penny a bottle. That is "free market and capitalism" at its finest. Seriously, what can Republicans do about it?! And if I were in line and decided to buy 100 bottles to share with my new friends in the line, how could they stop me?
I say Democrats need to be sneaky and try that. That way, not only will they get arrested for refusing to bow to such a ridiculous law, but they also have a valid defense in court, so they could technically also sue later for unlawful arrest! They didn't break any laws, after all. ;)
I hate to come across as pessimistic, but please don't underestimate the Republicans and the harm they will continue to cause.
Right now, we are dealing with several groups that pose their own particular threat. 1-Trump and his devotees. These people are the true fanatics who will likely shoot, bomb, and engage in violence and threats to do whatever it takes to save Trump. They are convinced that they are the "true patriots" and everyone else is a traitor. Only a crackdown on these people will stop them (aka-imprisonment and/or the public rising up against them. In the end, this small group are either bullies or insane, and should be treated as the threats they are.
2. Trump-lite Republicans-this is the majority of the Republican party right now. They believe the election was "rigged" and/or adopting Trump-like behavior. Many Republicans candidates are guilty of this, as while they may not like Trump, they refuse to denounce him and even go so far as to kiss his ring in public. The only way to get rid of them is to destroy them utterly by voting them out. If Republicans somehow face a decisive defeat in 2022, then they may realize that Trump is a dead weight and act accordingly. But they will be hated by Democrats and Trump-devotees equally, so they will hopefully lose their power.
3. Establishment Republicans-(McConnell). These Republicans stay silent on Trump, but try to distance themselves just enough to not tick off Trump supporters yet still give appeal to any independent voter that leans conservative. They focus more on the "own the libs" messaging than actual loyalty to Trump. It is more "the democrats are the enemy" than anything else. They hope Trump falls so that they can assume control, but they will never admit it.
Now, I live in a red state, and I am in constant contact with these groups on a daily basis. Know that Republicans are doing all they can to stop the Democrats from succeeding. However, the sad thing is that Republicans never accomplish anything even when they have control of all three branches of government anyway.
These groups will continue to cause havoc in the years ahead, and thus will keep this nation from focusing on measures that could save us. Only a sudden collapse of the Republicans as a viable party will allow this nation to make progress on climate change. But until then, we can't afford to not be on our guard, as they will try to take control and (God forbid!) give Trump control of this nation again.
When I feel pessimistic I remind myself that so many on this forum, with a great track record at reading the future, see the GOP not prevailing in 2022. Also, I occasionally visit other sites, including on YouTube, and no one see the GOP winning. So even though what's happening is really scary, this does give me hope.
The GOP gets crazier and crazier (and crazier and crazier and crazier), but I feel there will be something (or many things) that will stop them between now and 2022.
@allyn Your concerns are definitely valid and believe me, I know what it’s like to live in a red state and be surrounded by the Republican cultists and opportunists. It’s depressing.
However, in the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking about Deetoo’s July 4th experience and the message she received about a change in perspective and watching events unfold. It just resonated deeply with me and here’s the thing: it makes me flash back to the past terrible four years and how oppressive everything felt, like there was no way The Former Guy would be defeated and we were on the verge of losing our democracy. What we sensed during that time was that certain events needed to unfold and that there was a greater purpose than we realized at the time. How can we become a better nation, if we don’t deal with realities of racism, propaganda, and climate change?
For example, the overt racism displayed by The Former Guy and his lackeys has woken the country to the truth about racism in the history of our nation. It has always been here. We are living through the new Jim Crow and it’s ugly to see. Our country is also awakening to the reality of the genocide and oppression of indigenous people. We are also dealing with the effects of climate change and global warming. Some days it just seems overwhelming.
I don’t know how things will unfold exactly, but I do think we need to think about saving our democracy as a series of shifts away from Republican fascism. Even though it’s wonderful to have Biden as president, we absolutely need to control the Senate and the House. Our work is not done and it may take several election cycles to break the awful stalemate caused by McConnell and the forces of (let’s face it) evil. I do believe we’re going to succeed. In spite of some odds against us, I just think we are going to prevail. That’s my intuition talking.
@bluebelle @allyn @deetoo, I so agree with Bluebelle. When we meditated on the future recently, I saw blue prevailing. In my town, the Republicans are going crazy. They make up only a third of the town, but they are shamelessly starting a fight with our schools for supporting BLM and teaching the history of structural racism in this country. Most of the dems here are just rolling their eyes. Few people support them and no progressive person even wants to acknowledge them. People are so done with that racist, T-ranting attitude. I'm going to take a chill pill and plan to send out lots of postcards to help people vote in red states. I will also never be silent.
@jeanne-mayell This is one area where I continually get messages. As l mentioned to you before, I don't get messages on demand but more randomly. The one prevailing message that I receive is don't be complacent. Blue will prevail with one proviso. We must do our part. When we chill out too much, we postpone WHEN we will prevail and how much hell we must go through first.
We all want to believe we can sit back and eventually things will work out. I firmly believe we collectively have drawn out this timeline by being too complacent that it would all be okay. It's like they say about life lessons... They will keep repeating until we finally get the message and change our behavior.
There's not one doubt in my mind that certain races were stolen from Ds in this last election, both in the House and Senate. We need to be vigilant even through we are tired. Not fearful, but vigilant.
Whenever I get pooped out from the stress of this mess, I remind myself that my parents both endured the great depression and WWII. My grandmother had the depression, WWI, Spanish flu, etc. Comparatively speaking, we are still better off than they were during those troubled periods.
Much as @Allyn alluded to, I hope people aren't just expecting Marc Elias to be able to solve things. I do think the Senate will hold and perhaps increase, mainly because of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, although Arizona (Kelly) and Georgia (Warnock) are at risk. The House, though, is at real risk and many state houses are at risk despite the majority of people being on our side. Redistricting does have some saving graces because of the split of many state governments.
I only get messages when given, not on demand. This is one of those messages I get a lot. We can postpone the victory by being complacent. We as a country must learn our lesson that democracy will always be fragile.
It's a very hard balance to not put out negative, fear based energy, but also still be vigilant. For my part, I'm mainly trying to post facts on social media and pray for angelic help/protection. We have to have hope but also have to act.
I look at this like "we can do this if we don't grow weary or afraid".
Only a sudden collapse of the Republicans as a viable party will allow this nation to make progress on climate change.
Then: May it Be So. ?
@mb @allyn. One of the lessons I learned from coaching my kids’ soccer games was never enter a match overconfident. The underdogs try harder and the overconfident teams get lazy. The GOP is on the attack right now. In my town they are attacking the BLM movement and have succeeded in swaying the local newspaper and then a few days ago their points appeared in an ultra Right op-Ed in the Boston Globe. Their timing was perfect. They waited until school vacation to strike and there has been silence from the progressives. Well at first someone responded with a counter-letter signed by 400 people. But the local paper didn’t print it. I wont remain silent but a good plan is in order.
I often talk to myself when I'm alone (and yes, I do answer...how else can I have a good conversation? ? ). Many times, some of the things that come out of my mouth are related to potential coming events, and some of them surprise even me because they are not things I would have actually thought about or said normally. When I hear/say them, I tend to pay attention because that's often how spirit gives me information since I don't meditate much. The night before last as I was getting ready for bed, I suddenly said (yes, out loud!),
"There will not be a 'blue wave'."
I was rather shocked because that's what pundits and many on here (including myself in other posts) expect - assuming the appropriate work has been done to ensure it, of course - so I opened up and let my mind explore that sentence as I laid down. The impression I get now is that the information is correct: there will not be a "blue wave" in the next election. There will be progress, yes, but it will be slow and steady. While the D's will likely get control of the Senate by a few votes in 2022 - enough to break the R hold on that body - there may be more of a stalemate in the House, with D's losing a few seats and making the margins there a bit too thin for comfort.
In the period between 2022 and 2024, the neo-R's will further demonstrate that they are not fit to lead, so there will be more progress/gains in for the D's in 2024 in both bodies as the House recovers some of its losses and the Senate solidifies the D majority. Over the next three elections, ('24, '26, and '28) I feel like the R's will lose even more ground such that by 2028, they will be relegated to a 1/3 minority status (1/3 of both houses).
While all of that is important and needs our focus and effort, the real fights will be - and need to be - local. At the moment, the R's retain a lot of local/state power and are able to circumvent some of the good things that are happening nationally by their recalcitrance. I would strongly encourage everyone to throw your full support behind any efforts to unseat the R's at the local/state level, whether that be running for office, volunteering for campaigns, or supporting those campaigns financially or in any other way you can as much as possible.
Maybe I should have put this under random predictions, but it seemed to fit better here for some reason. ?
Oh no Giulianni had his law license suspended in Washington DC now due to him having it suspended in NY
@tgraf66, I suggest that you put your post in both places. Really solid and insightful.
While the D's will likely get control of the Senate by a few votes in 2022 - enough to break the R hold on that body - there may be more of a stalemate in the House, with D's losing a few seats and making the margins there a bit too thin for comfort.
This is what I've seen; a net gain of a few seats in the Senate. For awhile I had been seeing single digit gains in the House. Last night, coincidentally, while I was drifting in and out of the hypnagogic states of sleep, I envisioned that in 2022, the Dems would lose a few House seats but maintain majority control.
Of course, we're still more than a year out from November 2022, and the timelines are probably a bit in flux.
I'm not sure what forum this post should be categorized under, but this seems like an appropriate place.
One personal manifestation of this collective Herxheimer reaction we're going through is that I've had compromised balance since the beginning of the year. There's no medical mystery behind what's happening to me, and I know the issue will eventually resolve itself. But for now, I'm at an increased risk of falling, and I have fallen quite a few times. Meanwhile, I've been thinking a lot about structural failure and whether the buildings we occupy are also at risk of falling. The New York Time's exposé about issues at the luxury condo/pencil tower 432 Park Avenue seemed to kick all of this off. When I read that article, I saw a long trail of rubble belonging to 432 Park sprawled across Central Park.
So this could come off as cold, but I wasn't surprised when I heard that a high-rise condo in the Miami area collapsed. In fact, I had been thinking about South Florida and the California Bay Area as places that are especially prone to structural failure. Even if architects and engineers are truthful when they say their building designs have been stress tested to withstand extremely high winds or powerful earthquakes, I feel like the real world will start throwing up unforeseen scenarios that undermine even our most cutting-edge creations. This goes back to a recent conversation here in the forum about how climate change effects the planet's geomorphology and can cause the ground to flex in unforeseen ways. The investigation into the Champlain Towers South collapse has barely begun, but I bet one factor in the suite of cascading failures in this tragedy will be the fact that the underlying barrier island is moving landward, thus causing the sediment under Surfside to shift and form caverns.
Architecture reflects the values of a civilization, so a wave of structural failures in the US and abroad would be a strong indicator that our societal values are no longer serving us.
@allyn Good Morning Allyn and hello Jeanne, I made it. Regarding your thought on selling water for a penny. I have a suggestion which may or may not be of use. I am from Australia, when we have an election the polling booths are usually at schools or church halls and it has become a tradition to use Election Day as fund raising by the schools etc. for items they need. So we have sausage sizzles, cake stall, plants, books, drinks etc for sale. There is even a website removed link which lists the polling booths and what they are selling.
I dont know if you would need to register the stalls over there but could something along those lines be set up by different groups along the routes or near the polling stations so they are fund raising for local groups (but at really low prices) nothing to do with helping the long line of voters Officer, its for charity. If they need to be registered you would then have the legal right to do it. It may not be at all feasible but I would assume as a lawyer you might be able to find out? Then you need the groups to set up.
Kind Regards