@davidakin
#USpoli
#TrumpAlert
#OrangeMenace
#CatInTheHat
#SeussMeme

When Trump and his MAGA Republicans tell you up front that they are going to end American democracy in favor of fascism and authoritarianism, believe them.
#fascism #uspoli #uspolitics #poliitcs

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html

The idea of impeachment of Biden is growing in the GOP.

Bit of an understatement. Are you suggesting they haven't been desperate to find something to impeach Biden for since Trump lost the 2020 election?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gop-impeachment-push-analysis-1.6887454

#Politics #USPoli

Meanwhile in Canada: Supreme court justices step aside for getting in bar fights.

Can't imagine what Thomas thinks he's doing south of the border other than further undermining everybody's trust in the justice system.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/russell-brown-supreme-court-justice-resigns-1.6873402

#CdnPoli #USPoli

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Good luck there, buddy. 😂

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pence-president-paperwork-1.6865853

#USPoli

Instead of changing their party and policies to match a majority of the voters, the Republican Party increasingly attempts to use gerrymandering and voter suppression to change the electorate to suit the unpopular policies they want to pursue.
#politics #USpol #USpoli
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-gerrymandering-helped-republicans-win-the-house/

War font on CNN even, LOL.

#Trump #Indictment #USPoli

The US should consider an inquiry into electoral interference as well. Foreign money and influence has been a recurring issue since the Clinton days. If it doesn't devolve into a pandering sh*t-show like so many Congressional hearings it could go a long way to helping restore people's faith in the system.

#CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

What a world we live in when freaking Disney, of all people, ends up being the one you're cheering for.

#USPoli #Florida

Instead of going to sleep as we often do on the left when there's a non-threatening government, it may be a good time to raise the volume on our own concerns. To take care to loudly embrace their grievances but without lending credibility to their underlying movement.

This is how you deprogram a cult member - earn their trust, show them your humanity, show them you care and most importantly - mean it.

Maybe it's time for another Occupy Wall Street?

8/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

Our problem on the left that needs to be solved is how to disassociate their grievances from their articles of faith.

In the way the Commandments are taken to be the inerrant will of God, their faith labels us as Pharisees; that we and our hypocritical "wokeness" are actually the cause of their misery. That social justice is a zero-sum game wherein correcting past wrongs erodes the rights of all others. And that we are allowing their jobs to be "stolen".

7/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

My point is that while I very much believe that these are fascist movements, it can be difficult to pinpoint the well from which this all sprang - at least when looking at the individual parts.

It's in this light were the subversion of a more honourable movement can be seen. Their list of grievances is lengthy, very real and, frankly, very leftist including corporate influence over policy, devaluation of labour, job security, globalization, etc.

6/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

What I also find interesting about this is that, at every step, there is room for a bit of doubt about who the fascists actually are, in terms of a calculated political endgame.

Were individual occupiers in Ottawa or Jan6 ideologically fascist or where they blinded by this faith?

What of the leadership behind those events? Same question.

How about the political figures involved? Fascists, believers or opportunists in search of a niche that can grant them power?

5/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

2/ They cling to unproven facts as dogma and any challenge triggers a defensive response. Even as many claim not to be religious, certain Calvinist notions of objective righteousness and persecution are evident. Their sermons are of a Facebook doctrine granted divine status by thumbs-up emojis.

3/ They empower populist figures who are willing to echo the narratives of their faith, and use that language to sow further fear and mistrust of others.

4/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

The Fringe/Deplorables present an interesting look at how, using faith, grassroots social movements can be subverted by fascist ideology.

Consider:

1/ They operate with a clear sense of identity that sets them apart from others. Yet while that identity is clearly that of White Nationalism they will say race is not a defining trait. I believe they believe this, in the same way some Christians delude themselves into believing they hate the sin and not the sinner.

3/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

faith /fāTH/ noun Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.

Thank you, Google.

Beyond it's definition, faith is a powerful force that becomes a weapon in the wrong hands. Fascism, for example, leans heavily on religious faith to lend divine authority to notions of identity and to the rhetoric of its leaders.

You can see a current and fully-realised example of this dynamic in action in Russia.

2/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

Anybody who belongs to a religion does so only as an act of faith. Lacking any physical evidence, faith becomes a circular argument bound only to it's own doctrine: Why is this true? Because our book says it is. What makes the book true? It is the word of a deity. How do you know that? Read the book.

This isn't an atheist poke so much as I hope that most religious people would agree. Of the 4000 religions claiming divine truth they believe in just one, after all.

1/8 #CdnPoli #USPoli #Politics

Pop Quiz: Did you US readers know that "wealth redistribution" was a core feature of Confederation? Look up "federal transfer payments."

I'm on a tangent.

Anyway, McHenry turns to a socialist country for inspiration and what he offers is the idea of a social program to fund loans and grants to promising entrepreneurs? What's next, an all-out planned economy like China? I was expecting invisible hands and bootstraps!

Good God, who let this commie in the room?

4/4 #Politics #USPoli #Socialism

McHenry then goes on to shares some of his own ideas to foster his beloved capitalist system, inspired by Canada's socialist sports programs.

Canada: The country that fronted MacDonalds' expansion into the embargoed USSR. The country that proudly continues, to this day, to act as a way-point for circumventing US embargoes on Cuba.

The country our previous CPC Prime Minister once described as "a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term."

3/4 #Politics #USPoli #Socialism

41 minutes into the video supposedly-sober McHenry makes it clear that he denounces all socialism and states with authority that "the capitalist system has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system in history."

https://www.youtube.com/live/ufF1PeI6wRs?feature=share&t=2460

Now, you may think that the globalized system would collapse without its ever-expanding base of impoverished labour feeding into its constant growth but you're totally wrong because McHenry cites Bono as his source.

2/4 #Politics #USPoli #Socialism