They want to believe that there is someone else responsible for their lot in life. It is far easier to keep selling them the myth that minorities and immigrants are taking things away from them than for us to convince them of the truth. That the Trumps, DeVos's, Kushners, Wall Street, etc. are responsible.

Our totally fucked up, materialistic society has created this problem. Every single one of them wants to BE Donald J. Trump. They believe the myth that he is a successful business man who made his own fortune. They believe all the movies and Shark Tank and other BS that each and every one of them can become a billionaire. So they cannot hate those people whom they are working so hard to become.

They want to be the ugly American, nouveau riche, asshole who can say or do anything and get away with it because they are rich. 45 is their idol. They are certain that some day, some how they are going to "get theirs" and then they will be on top.

Until then, though, it's all the minorities and the immigrants dragging them down. It's an easy sell. They cannot hate the true culprits because they idolize them. Want to be them.

I don't, for a minute, credit 45 with pushing the two countries together. N Korean dictators don't work that way. Something else is going on in N Korea.

These overtures make me suspicious there is something seriously wrong/bad going on in his nuke program. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the majority of his scientists were in a radiation accident or something similarly bad that makes continuing the program almost impossible. The test facility collapsing must have caused a lot of damage we do not yet fully know about.

We have the religious tied up with our government trying to force this country into a mini-theocracy:

The Other Reason Trump Hasn’t Fired Scott Pruitt: His Evangelical Christian Ties
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pruitt-evangelical_us_5ae362dde4b055fd7fcbb9e8
Rebekah Mercer, the billionaire GOP megadonor and financier of anti-abortion groups, Christian colleges and climate change denial think tanks, bankrolled the confab, according to the brochure.

Brent Bozell, founder of the right-wing Media Research Center, opened the program as the master of ceremonies before Pruitt gave his roughly four-minute speech in acceptance of an award for “human dignity leadership.” The Rev. Thomas Joseph White, a professor at the Catholic Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, followed him with an invocation.

If these people could just stop believing in fairy tales and start just loving their fellow humans things would be so much better. But, no, their religion is just a tribal identifier and causes the "us vs. them" mentality they further by promoting their version of reality over everyone else's.

I'm from a small town near Nashville. DeEbony Groves is the daughter of someone I went to high school with.

The shooting is much more personal now.

The congress must act to repeal the AUMF. This will be the law that Bolton and 45 use to justify the new wars they are about to start.

We seriously have to get our congress critters to repeal or limit this.

Just giggling a little to myself. Thought this might be the only place I could share that laugh.

When I see threads like this one:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210026290

All I can think of is - Is the story this is based on a Russian plant or a GOP plant?

First, let me say I am not trying to call out or shame the OP for starting the thread. I don't fault you one bit for seeing that story, being disgusted and posting about it on DU. You are absolutely right to be disgusted and so is everyone else.

The thing I want us to think about very critically though is this. "Is it worth our distraction away from GOTV efforts and grass roots campaigning to take time and spend it on this thing right now?" I want us to ask that question of every provocative article that gets posted on the web and in every other media. I want us to ask the question "Is this a Russian or GOP planted item to distract us from the real goal - electing Democrats?" We have seen that even left-leaning publications have had stories planted to cause distraction and discord.

I see a lot of back and forth in that sort thread where we fight among ourselves on an issue we can't even do anything about right now. Can we do anything about a real impeachment vote right now? NO. We can't. So why are we squabbling about it and bringing up how Bill Clinton was treated? That does ZERO good and just gets people upset over something we cannot control right now.

I would just ask that we FOCUS on the real goal right now. Get Democrats elected. From local and state to national office. Until we accomplish that everything else is just so much mishmash.

Finding A Legal Loophole, Memphis Takes Down Its Confederate Statues

It was a long time in the making, but when the statues of Confederate figures finally came down in Memphis, Tenn., it was quick work.

On Wednesday, the city sold two of its city parks – one with a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the other featuring a statue of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on horseback — for $1,000 each.

...snip

The move did not sit well with Republicans in the Tennessee House, who called for an investigation on Thursday.

"We are governed by the rule of law here in Tennessee and these actions are a clear infringement of this principle and set a dangerous precedence for our state," House Majority Leader Glen Casada and House Republican caucus chairman Ryan Williams wrote in a statement, according to the Commercial Appeal.

link: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/21/572654031/finding-a-legal-loophole-memphis-takes-down-its-confederate-statues


This is how you deal with Republicans. You use the same sort of tactics that the GOP is using in the US Congress and across the nation in state legislatures. The only rule of law they believe in is one in their favor. They don't much like when others play the way they do.

They all seem to have been in on the Russian meddling and money. That would make perfect sense for why nothing was done about it and they allowed Trump to become the nominee.

I really don't think they (Ryan, McConnell et. al.) thought Trump would win. I believe they thought that a Hillary administration would allow them to do investigations until mid-terms and then pick up a veto-proof majority due to all the bad press. That would have given them the perfect excuse to delay the Obamacare repeal because of a Democratic President. They could proceed with their agenda after mid-terms unimpeded.

45 screwed it all up by winning. I think the Russians put it over on them - so to speak.

It's the Supreme Court nomination that bugs me a little with my theory. McConnell announced right a way that they would block Obama. For my theory to be accurate they would have to want to possibly leave the seat open for years or they thought that they'd take a chance on Trump pulling it out and being able to control him. They are getting a lot of their agenda done in the background behind the diversions. Just not the major parts.

I know, I know that sounds really harsh. Unfortunately, I actually believe it. I firmly believe he is such a sociopath that the "good" he will find in the shootings is that it takes heat off of him.