Also. to make the point.

Vance Boelter is walking free today, out on bail. I expect trump to nominate him for SecDef once Kegbreath finally loses it.

I really want to know. What group of supervising grown ups do you expect to actually be able to do something about this?

Because from where I sit, the Christofascists literally control. 1. The Presidency 2. Every single federal court. 3. Congress 4. The Armed Forces

I don't see anyone taking the handgun away from the tantruming first grader here.

They can get away with it until they can't.

Who gonna stop em? Not the courts. Not the police. Not Congress.

There's a decent body of evidence that suggests that the 2024 election was entirely stolen and fraudulent. Why should our next election not just be a republican landslide again when the system is literally rigged? Why should we even think we will HAVE elections at the rate we are going?

We still can't even convince people like thenewgreen that anything is wrong. To him and the rest of the financier class, this is good business.

I'll read more.

But denaturalizing citizens is on the docket today. No opposition in any meaningful form.

They are building one of these concentration camps here in Michigan too. To be owned and operated by a private corporation to use the slave labor as intended.

We are too close to 'Arbeit Macht Frie' for my tastes.

When peaceful reform is made impossible, violent revolution is inevitable. Or something.

Those posts you linked to come from the before time. There is no rule of law in this country. Not in the civilian courts, not the JAG.

Crime is legal if you're a Republican.

I saw someone say that the open hypocrisy is a feature of fascism, not a bug. It's a demonstration of power, to brazenly flaunt the law.

This is why they are proud of building child concentration camps in the open. They know they can get away with it.

Fucking lol we were hella better off 20 years ago and the Dems still rubber-stamped the invasion of Iraq.

Well that took me aback.

Your point about the relative low 'cost' of a targeted air campaign carries a lot of weight.

Netanyahu doesn't want boots-on-ground in Iran either.

I suppose this illustrates that I don't have a particularly clear idea of what Bibi and his cohort do want in specific material terms beyond 'Set fire to every country that funds or houses Hamas, Hesbollah, etc.'

"Send a bunch of conscripts a thousand miles away for regime change" is a tough sell.

There was a miscommunication of the word 'advantage' that made this convey something I didn't mean.

Specifically in the second instance, I meant 'tangible advantage or benefit' for anyone other than Trump personally or whatever given foreign interest he has most lately acted in the interest of. Obviously he does things that are self serving.

Regarding point 1: Do we expect retaliatory asymmetrical violence? If so, will one of those attacks be used by the media and the nashville industrial country music complex to create another Angry American moment to justify boots on the ground? We seem primed for it.

2: Good point. Less specific material reasons to want to assert that tier of control.

3: Footage of pre/post revolution is being used by right wing media right now on substack, tiktok and probably facebook and twitter, to test the waters on how does right wing america feel about supporting 'Regime change.' This makes me worried that the right wing think tanks know how to get people in the 'send my son to die in the desert' mood.

But what does it have to do with Iran? What does it have to do with end-times evangelical Christians?

Specifically, any conflict with Israel is used to stoke the fires and ramp up the 'We must be faithful instruments of His Will' talk. Iran is easy to use as the next 'Great Enemy' no matter what the book says. The 'Death to America' chanting makes this very easy.

Vance Boelter has a traceable education in Christian Nationalism. Places like Christ for the Nations Institute still exist today, and are where he got his start.

https://slowcivilwar.substack.com/p/on-the-christian-education-of-dr

Not trying to move any goalposts.

I expect to see more Democrat representatives and senators shot in the next few months and years. No need to do it "officially" when the stochastic enforcement arm of Alex Jones Primed terrorists will do it for you.

Also. Was there any advantage to boots on the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq?

Tangible advantage or benefit doesn't enter into the conversation at any point.

But there will be significant resistance to putting soldiers anywhere they are within easy reach of a truck bomb.

Will there be more resistance than there was before we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq?

If there IS quantifiably MORE resistance than pre- Afghanistan and Iraq is it actually enough to stop Gulf War 3? If the coequal branches of government were functioning that way I might be tentatively able to think that would be enough. As it stands I don't think so. Unless the armed forces themselves refuse to go, the whole chain of command as it currently exists has no concern for soldiers within reach of truck bombs. Current evidence suggests those in charge of issuing orders to make Netanyahus wishes into military reality will do so when ordered. That's why Trump and Co gutted the generals and the JAG. that's the purpose behind doing that.

I won't talk the finer points of the theology of the crazies. We agree that it's perfectly malleable to the political demands of Republicans. That's the important part. I keep my finger on their pulse because it's often predictive of the specifics of the latest stochastic terrorism. At the moment the crazies are promoting the morality and hilarity of running over Pride parades with their trucks.

Thanks for the info I guess.

Not sure how relevant or irrelevant any of it will be if we put boots on the ground in the Middle East for another 20 years. There is a disturbing amount of people calling for exactly that. Guys with friends from high school who died in Afghanistan getting all gassed up to enlist their sons. We can't pretend that's not real. That's to say nothing of the apocalypse fetishism of the Christians who run the white house Faith Office. They want nuclear holocaust so Jesus can come back.

Fuck Toby Keith's rotten corpse.

We named our dogs after this fucker and this song literally convinced the guy who babysat me and my brothers as kids to go die in the desert because he felt it was his patriotic duty.

I'm heartbroken to find that substack is worse than tiktok or other brain dead media sites. Instead of easily swipeable conspiracy theory videos and hate speech, I get long 'think pieces' about why disabled people deserve to be left to die without medicare/medicaid.

Unrelated to the discussion except that I am deeply disappointed in substack as a venue, given how much actual malicious content they host.

mk you gotta do something about this bullshit.

Whoever wrote this bot needs to be placed inside boats, force fed milk and honey and left to rot while maggots pick the meat from their still living body.

I have no clue what's supposed to be important right now.

No idea what should have my attention as priority.

I can try to keep to a schedule but just trying to do that seems to cause conflict.

I just go to physical therapy, drink too much caffeine, play world of Warcraft and sleep. Not satisfying.

Started Blood Meridian. Enjoying the prose, mostly. Cormac feels preachy in some weird way. Hard to describe at present. I wonder who else finished it eventually.