no one is coming to save us. it's on us.

[Javaman]

if the orange asshole tries this bullshit with Greenland, we the people will have to fix this.

if we are to regain even the smallest amount of respect in the world (so much that has been lost already), it's going to have to be us.

that is the sad and terrifying fact.

we got lazy with our democracy in the most disgusting and stupid way, we are now paying of it.

[gab13by13]

1. Join or donate to Indivisible.

[sop]

2. What happened to all the conscientious members of the military who would bravely refuse to obey illegal orders?

Seems like they've all been pretty quiet in recent days, much like the millions of patriotic NRA members who said they were stockpiling arms and ammunition so they could stand up to government tyranny.

[Javaman]

3. I have a terrifying theory about that.

it's long been know that the military has a quiet white power "cult" (kind of a strong word) with in it.

I think captain keg stand has been shopping around and moving various personnel around to create an army within the army.

I think you can see where I'm going with this.

these are now his "go to guys".

[markie]

4. yes, "we got lazy with our democracy"

that is the 'collective' we.... we have forgotten what it means to be a citizen, to understand our sacred responsibility and to be informed about how our government works....

[Javaman]

6. when the American public started to be referred to as "consumers" instead of citizens...

that's when things started top degrade

[CrispyQ]

9. "Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic," by John De Graaf, Thomas Naylor, & David Wann, released in 2005.

Great book & would be worth it for the David Horsey cartoons alone! Anyway, the authors presented the idea that we traded our citizenship to become consumers & that's exactly how the powers that be view us & want us. More people pay attention to who got voted off the island than our elections.

I don't think there's any one thing that got us where we're at, but when I look back it feels like we used to at least try to hold our leaders & people in higher positions in our communities accountable, but not anymore. In fact, exactly the opposite. If you're rich or hold in an influential position, you get more slack cut for you, which has built up this HUGE resentment in the middle/lower/working classes, that we are held to account but those in charge are not. Sure, we've never been perfect at this accountability thing, but we at least tried. I think Nixon was a turning point. When the highest office in the land walked away from an obviously premeditated crime, those at the top figured why not see how far they could push it? How much more could they get away with? Shipping good American jobs overseas to increase their profits? Getting SCOTUS to steal an election? An illegal war? A well-financed Rush Limbaugh was a big help in directing the anger & blame to the uppity women & minorities taking white men's jobs & a whole bunch of angry white men fell for it cuz they didn't want to admit they'd been played. I think a whole bunch still cannot admit they got played. They were dupes. Marks. It's a common trait among all trumpers, & I think maybe most republicans, too or maybe just conservatives in general.

[flvegan]

5. Not lazy, complicit. 89 million people couldn't be bothered to vote.

Couldn't fucking bother. Fuck them.

77 million voted FOR this, combined with the 89 million that put their seal of approval on the result by not voting at all, knowing better. That's not lazy.

And not one to not fairly put some blame on the democrats, as we have to be honest with ourselves. The party knew how old Biden would be, basically knew they should have been planning for someone else to be the nominee in 2024, yet did nothing though they had years to plan it. Then blamed Biden and Harris for not having their shit together. That's not lazy.

[Javaman]

7. I still think that is lazy.

you might want to redefine it but at the end of the day, the elected fools treat us at best as an inconvenience.

we stopped holding their feet to the fire and got into a laissez-faire type of attitude.

[peacebuzzard]

8. The rest of the South Americas are not happy with this Venezuelan coup either.

The U.S. is losing allies.

[kerouac2]

10. It will just be done, like Venezuela

Apparently, when you're president, nobody can stop you. You can do whatever you want. You can just grab them by the whatever.

Only response will be strongly worded letters until the next distraction or debacle.

And many of the expected responses from other countries are exactly what trump and his hooligans want anyway. They are a ok with burning everything down to the ground here and worldwide.