This ends one way and one way only - violence. Either violence from ICE and GOP thugs beating the populace into timid submission or violence in opposition to the heavily armed dude-bros and Y'all-Queda operatives. The real problem is the military has shown precious little appetite for declining to execute illegal orders such as illegal bombings or attacks on marooned/damaged boats and passengers, illegal wars of aggression at the behest of their superiors for the benefit of Israeli PM, or worst of all, failure to remove war criminals from the chain of command up to and including the President and Secretary of DEFENSE (for the pompous and illegal proclamations of "no quarter" and "bombing civilian infrastructure" threats.

This ends with us on our collective knees, waiting for the rest of the world to simply cut off the Western Hemisphere and put us into economic oblivion and eternal debts that cannot be repaid, or in a Civil War II where the power of the USA military is retaken from the Mall Cops and COD-Dude Bros currently stomping around like toddlers in need of a spanking and a nap with no bottle.

I vote for the later option, but once we are done, I want FULL war crimes trials and convictions and sentences carried out on the guilty that have led us here, starting with Trump and followed immediately by the entire line of his defenders from Miller to Hegseth to the rest of the cabinet and the media enablers that will be easy to find - they will be the ones trying to blow life into Trump's corpse through their surgically attached mouths on his mushroom cap penis.

Your black & white thinking re: violence or submission lacks connection with reality on the ground as well as imagination for future possibilities.

Sometimes my morning hopescrolling pays off.

Yes, the present sucks, and the future is uncertain (to claim it is certain, that is the ultimate naïveté).

This Saturday is the next No Kings March, and millions will come together to reject defeatist Doomerism, and joyfully embrace hope for the future and express their determination to resist this regime, survive and thrive.

Other than Trump tearing down the WH east wing a few days later?

Solidarity momentum isn't sustainable without perceived results

But it's better than doing nothing.

I just think people should prepare to be disappointed over turnout. And also gird one's loins for Trump gloating over it

Argh

It is best to keep people aware of what's happening?

At the same time, we should realize that nothing is going to get better so long as this regime has control.

It took years of war with millions dead in the fighting and concentration camps to rid the world of Hitler. We have elections in just over 6 months, plus Trump isn't exactly in the peak of health no matter what he claims. He's gone no later than January 20th 2029.

Did the LGBT community give up because they didn't win right away? Did black people give up because the Civil War didn't stop racism? Did women shrug and stop working to get the vote? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

But we have a lot of work to do that isn't Trump. Go volunteer with a cause that matters to you where you can see the results. Animal shelters, Special Olympics, food rescue, homeless shelters. There's a million good causes out there looking for help. See the good because yeah looking at the ugly gets depressing

To the religious Dominionists,

"And by their fruits,ye shall know them."

Being proactive about a problem is usually best

It gives one a sense of self efficacy. Those high in self-efficacy have better, healthier lifestyle habits and therefore healthier lives.

There is plenty of research on it: just search self-efficacy health.

There is also research that shows those with negative outlooks are--how shall I say this--caught up in a negative thinking mode that only served them well back in caveman days. It's unnecessary now, but they still do it.

Each protest brings more people together to network and work on solutions.

Tim Snyder, expert on totalitarian regimes and author of On Tyranny, has endorsed this week's No Kings protests as a means of resistance. I'll take his expertise over your defeatism.

Trump and his fetid enablers never let up, neither should we. We need protests every damn day.

All you have to do is go out on the streets with a sign. People will join you. That's what I did.

eom

We are all in this together. We have a common enemy, Trump and his minions.

I am a retired professor who is well connected in our community and actively recruit voters to our cause.. My husband was a legislative recruiter for the Democratic Party, a former city commissioner and former mayor in our town. We have attended primaries where we both gave speeches in favor of our candidates. We've phone banked and gone door to door. We have organized rallies in our town and have done everything possible to promote our candidates.

Your comments are a bit over the top, to say the least.

I guess MLKjr should have stayed home and watched Jeopardy.

to be overly critical for some reason I can't fully understand. What's up with that?

Especially when they are smug, arrogant, condescending know it alls who are actually utterly clueless about which the speak and with no skin in the game whatsoever.

taken it upon themselves to determine which TV shows fellow DU'ers are allowed to watch, and who gets labeled a “closeted Republican” for the crime of watching a weekly TV show?

That seems like a slightly more ambitious form of gatekeeping.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221075691#post23

...this pestilence"

The OP suggests that we can. Seems hopeful to me

I'm hopefully depressed.

leading to lots of discussion!

...but I do not see anything getting better until Trump is gone. He is toxic. He is poison to the soul of this nation. It's difficult not to be depressed.

but that’s not how others — me included — see it. I’m not an expert and certainly not impartial, but having a little more tolerance for how individuals’ express themselves in dealing with the everyday angst that comes with Trumpism seems in order. That’s how I — and I suspect many others — see the OP; an expression of legitimate angst, not passivity. Geesh.

trump and co can disappear and we will still have amoral corporations, predatory techbros, and a large chunk of the population addicted to self-destructive stupidity

There is no way, "the classical sunshine, lollipop, and rainbow" thinking this time around, is gonna get us out of this one..................

All that has happened, didn't just arrive yesterday folks.......some of us here have been screaming our heads off since Nov 1980 when committing TREASON, HWBush installed Reagan in the White House......or when Cheney/Rumsfeld utilized TREASON to install WBush in the White House, etc etc etc
THAT and countless other times, a line should have been drawn in the sand, and the dems should have stood strong......and fought against this New Republican Party CABAL........elections in 2000, 2004, 2016, 2024 were just a few.

The Repubs just kept inching forward, a step at a time, gaining momentum, and NOW they are at a full gallop.
Sorry to be so pessimistic, but many of us were squashed for DARING to even offer constructive criticism......
.
The majority of Americans were walking down the jungle path, for over 45+ years.////swatting at mosquitoes and oblivious to the herd of charging elephants.......(Pun Intended)

Many here are old, and will be gone by the time this CABAL fully rolls out its entire program of top 1% and Corporate Tyranny on our beloved Citizens, Democracy, Constitution......and I seriously wonder if all those driving this catastrophe have Children or Grand Children who will be the population that suffers the most from their Malice and GREED.

I rolled up behind an extremely expensive car at a stoplight not long ago. I was amazed to see a bumper sticker!!!! on such an outrageously expensive car....... The Bumper sticker read: GOT MINE, FUCK YOU..............................................
I thought that THAT epitomizes all that is our current state of our Country.........very depressing........

From my opinion, our party has offered little resistance, except for a precious few that are always in the news, screaming their heads off. Bernie, AOC, Newsome, and select others. There are over 200 Dem House and Senate members that we NEVER hear from, including the ones here in Colorado.......Namely, Bennett, Hickenlooper, and DeGette who are happy just to cruise along......to say nothing of our term limited Governor who is in many ways a PRO CORPORATE DINO........

Just my observations and opinions folks.........

At some point, he'll be the lamest duck that ever existed. All but his hardest core MAGAts will deny they every supported him.

But that won't change much about his pathologies, and it won't happen until 2027. Late 2027.

What happens if after polls close and counting begins ICE or anybody else enter the polling place and takes all ballots out of the building? Probably in states we are wanting to win.

Their happy talk will not carry the day.

And who knows how long that might take?

They are not in denial at all.
They know exactly what he is doing and approve of it.

Things will have to get very bad for them to change their mind.

He lies, steals, and cheats - that's how he "wins". He loves the sadistic "you're fired" feeling. He LIES and the press reports that as a "new" presidential proclamation, but it's just another lie. NO, It's not going to get any better.

Until the press begins to do their job again we really are screwed

That republicans do not dare to defy him by any means. Sure, there are a few here and there on some issues, but that’s all. Until, and unless, they grow a spine, we are status quo I am afraid.

Republicans have turned themselves into an amoeba festival.

…his bullshit has spawned a strong countermeasure from regular citizens and Dem politicians. Dems are winning races coast-to-coast that might have gone GOP if Trump was not such an egomaniacal imbecile. Trump has awakened lots of Dems and independents from their slumber.

I try to look on the bright side now and then.

https://russblib.blogspot.com/?m=1

Hoping more of our fellow Americans come along

Giving two senators to every state, without regard for population, and the electoral college are the primary flaws. The wealthy, using the evil republican party, have exploited these weaknesses to gain total power. Can the USA fix itself? It will only be a temporary fix until the flaws in our constitution are corrected.

Great observation.

otherwise, I can't go on. My good friends and I are going to the No Kings Rallies in Greenville, SC. They start at the top of Main Street, extend to City Hall, and end at South Main in one of Greenville's stellar city parks, located on the Reedy River. We're all women in our late seventies. We can't lead a revolution. Or even trail along behind one. But we can do this. We can call our representatives. We can support good candidates such as Annie Andrews, who is running against Lindsey Graham for senate. We can show up. We can speak out. We can keep hope alive.

That the wealthy Wanna-be Oligarchs, ultra-Religious fear-mongers, or Libertarian assholes have handed a significant number of low level bullies and otherwise petulant, alienated American citizens to keep digging themselves and everyone/everything else this country down to Hell with them.
Going to be tough Because the only way to do is is to both hit the streets (along with communications sources and voting booths) -
and try to rehabilitate the deluded a few at a time.

And while I might be able to do the former, doing the latter is going to take a lot of painful effort and patience, and swallowing a whole lot of hurting wounds and injustice for a larger cause.

Or, the bumper sticker version, Bombs for Peace .

I'll survive with friends and joining likeminded souls this Sat.

I know Saturday will charge my batteries.

We don't. Right now we must believe in and fight for the future we want to be part of building. That means we hope. Be a tortoise. Persevere. It will take longer than we want it to, but we shall overcome.

Nothing is going to get better with Donald Trump in charge and until we can change that reality, hope is all we have. Just my opinion.

She was a young Syrian who woke to the horrors of the Assad regime as the Arab Spring movement was born. She kept thinking regime change would be a perfectly good thing that would be accomplished in months. She witnesses horrors, defies her family and joins the revolutionaries, discovers the violent and criminal element there, barely escapes to Turkey and becomes an independent journalist at 21. Her father has her mother killed to punish her.

She persists.

I think we need to persist, too.

authoritarians. Many who were fooled are getting wise.

so we are going to concentrate our troops in a relatively small area and we don't expect them to be hit with missiles and drones, first? Before any Iranian troops even appear?
Trump has telegraphed what we are going to try.
Iran doesn't know the best place to stop an invasion is as it first lands?
No one had to go to West Point to see the scenarios.

I usually ask if those enslaved for centuries didn’t also pray to God.

No American blood or treasure for Greater Israel project.