How much longer?

Scuttlebutt
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You’re correct the penguins still have to pay the 10% tariff but thankfully the rout of the bond market was slowed down when Trump got scared and squealed. His supporters are saying it was all part of the plan. He should write a new book, “The Art of the Squeal” to show his awesomeness.

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Are you worried yet?:

Source: April 9th 2025 ![A sharp round-up of the most important political news
SUBSCRIBER ONLY The US in brief
A sharp round-up of the most important political news

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Apparently too many of us respect the law to defend it against those in power who don’t. That includes those in power who lack courage to stand up against the traitors in their midst. Just to make it clear, that includes most of congress and the senate, the only people on Earth who can stop this madness without violence.

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This is very true of congress. It remains to be seen what the judiciary can actually accomplish. Currently there are 181 suits filed against the administration’s actions since he took office less than 100 days ago.My guess? He will ignore a court orders once all his appeals fail. At that point the non-compliant agency heads should be held in contempt by the judge and US Marshalls ordered to arrest them. But Attorney General Pam Bondi is in charge of the US Marshalls and she was bought and paid for by Trump back in 2013 when the state attorney generals were filing suit against the fraudulent Trump University. Bondi was Fl attorney general and took part in the suit until Trump made a $25000 contribution to her reelection campaign and she dropped the citizens of Florida out of the suit. So Trump picked his attorney general, director of FBI etc., knowing their allegiance is to him, not the constitution. I fully expect Trump at some point to declare martial law via the Insurrection Act. interesting times are ahead and we just got started.

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No mistake: Trump is serious about becoming president in 2028, screw the Constitution. And there are plenty of people who will walk over the Constitution to back him up.

Once the Constitution is torn you can’t fix it again.

Serious times, folks.

Blue states: resurrect your state guards. There will be serious rioting like there was in Cheeto Jesus’s first term. This time he could use it as a pretext to seize state governments with US marshals backed by troops.

I know, it sounds extreme. But we have never been here in the history of the Republic.

In normal times the Senate would share co-equal power with the president and serve as a check on him. Now 53% of them are on their knees to him.

The last real bulwark against tyranny are the state governments.

A strong state guard is good for suppressing rioting. And it’s also good for repelling a coup by CJ.

I tell people: imagine rioting as we had in 2021. Imagine CJ sending in the national guard, over a governor’s objections. Now, imagine the 2022 capitol insurrection in your state capitol. It’s not hard to imagine CJ claiming that the governor has lost control of the situation and then just a few US marshals whisking away your governor and half the legislature to an undisclosed location for ‘safe keeping’, while CJ appoints a ‘provisional governor’ from his party.

At that point who is going to stop him? 53% of the Senate will applaud whatever he does.

Strong state guards. But it’s an uphill battle convincing people who live in peace and prosperity it can all be gone in a few months.

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The art of the delay


ILLUSTRATION: David Simonds

Mr Trump thinks he is untouchable. He notoriously once claimed that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. Lexington argues that in taking the global economy hostage and threatening to throttle it, he has come closer than ever to testing that proposition.

Source: April 10th 2025 ![A sharp round-up of the most important political news
SUBSCRIBER ONLY The US in brief
A sharp round-up of the most important political news

67

At least not in this one. Lest anyone other than the MAGA cult need reminding, Germany was a Republic until Adolph and his cult seized power.

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What made it easier for Hitler and Mussolini to take power was the societal collapse that happened in several countries after WW1. We , who live in amazing prosperity, can’t imagine how bad those times were.

But nowadays the cult has worked themselves up to a delusional state where they actually believe they are living in a condition worse than Weimar Germany. The depths of their delusion are at times astounding. It’s a kind of mental cosplay, made possible, ironically, by a standard of living so high that being delusional confers no immediate disadvantage.

The USA is unique in world history of having strong state governments that can act like watertight bulkheads, preventing a president from overstepping his bounds. But only if the state governments can protect themselves from a coup.

Trouble is, we’ve never had to think that way before. The idea is alien. And it requires money and focus, the two things people are most reluctant to spend.

69

Check with Maine to see how their fight against the federal government is going. All the governor of Maine said is they would follow state law. Seems there was an issue with transgenders. Maine said they couldn’t be discriminated against they did NOT say they could play sports according to the sex they ‘identified’ with. Apparently the word transgender triggers Trump and his followers. There aren’t but about 5900 in the entire state.
https://mainemorningstar.com/2025/04/08/heres-a-running-list-of-all-the-probes-funding-cuts-since-trump-threatened-maine/

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Source:

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If you regularly have to use made up stuff like that to prove your point you should probably reevaluate your point.

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Tell me you don’t know anyone in your state guard without telling me you don’t know anyone in your state guard. Lets go talk to them and see who they voted for.

Your weird fantasy misses that all the soldiers you ignored for years back the supposed menace you’re whinging about. Such is the reality of class ignorance.

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I’m not the one talking about overturning the Constitution. Trump is. He’s saying it loud and clear. I hear from his supporters that he always carry through with his promises.

The question for people like me is , What do we do when he does?

I’m under no illusion that Blue States will resurrect strong state guards. I’ve made clear the difficulties of doing so. I simply argue it is a reasonable precaution against the overturning of the Constitution Trump is loudly promising to do.

By the way, if I were to simply argue that states should have strong state guards to deal with rioting and natural disasters no one would think it bad idea. They would be all for it.

If I simply add to the list of functions the ability to deal with a coup that is not likely to happen then a lot of people are suddenly against it, even though they themselves say it would never happen.

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I know of no state guard that would resist the US military. Only 21 states have state guards. The Washington state guard has 120 members last I heard. Good luck with that.

75

Hence my term ‘resurrection’. :grinning_face:

76

Trump never said that. Fact check before you comment

78

Did you open the source link and looked at the comments?

So, maybe someone tried to play his own game; tell half-truths, claim it is real, then blame others when found out?

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If I had warned people on this forum in 2016 that there would an insurrection in the U.S. Capitol in 2020, and that the Congressional Police would be unable to quell it, with a mob wandering the halls ready to kill the Speaker, I would have been laughed at as a loon.

But it happened.

Why is it so difficult to imagine CJ using rioting as a pretext for a coup in a state capitol? He’s already seen how easy it is to do.

All it would take to stage a coup in a state capitol in a time of rioting is for a few US marshals and maybe 50 Justice Dept. officers to ‘take the governor/legislature’ into protective custody’. No army needed. The legislators from CJ’s party would all clap when it happened.

An entire state guard needs no more than 1k troops total strength to protect the state government from something like that. And yes, the state guard would have to be built up from Man One. A completely new organization. But a 1,000 young men in a state with a population of, say, 8 million is not a big number.

The main impediment is lack of imagination. Decent men always imagine the other side would never go that far. Until they do. Then it’s too late. That’s why I’m not holding my breath for the people in the Blue States to wake up to the danger.

To send the U.S. army into a state to back a coup would mean breaking the Constitution in a different way. Which would entail military officers breaking their oath to defend the Constitution. There will always be officers who will do that. But equally there are officers who will defend the Constitution.

So, the easy way to seize a state government is for CJ to send in Justice Department personnel, avoiding splitting the military until he has them more firmly under control.

The pretext will always be rioting, which MAGA will characterize as a left wing insurrection, which requires the governor/ legislature to be ‘saved’. Of course once they are locked up they’ll suddenly be called ‘traitors’.

Do it in one state and the rest will fall into line.

Listen to MAGA rhetoric. Listen to CJ. The elements and mindset and history are all there.

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Worked for the Clintons..