Joe Brown

“Man up” is from Book of Mormon (ok, so my sense of humor is weird) Like most of us here, I’m nobody. But I read that we shouldn’t concede in advance. That’s how dictators get most of their power. That’s in Snyder’s book.
I go to protests, I read a lot, I participate in govt & I don’t give up. You?

Everyone projects: we try to understand others by imagining what we would do in their situation.
That’s why many of us assumed they’d respect democratic norms & laws.
That’s why they often accuse us of doing what they’d do (or did).Their accusations are often confessions.
So, did they hack 2024?

“in the long run, government systems are not held together by the pressure of force, but rather by the belief … they represent and promote the interests of the people”.
-Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf.
They won’t last if we don’t cooperate.
Learn how to not cooperate. Try:
On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder

That’s your choice? You’re just going to watch it happen? There’s more of us than there are of them! DO SOMETHING!

Wonder why Trump hates comedians?
Logical arguments mostly reinforce existing beliefs. Even the strongest ones just trigger emotions, which are faster than analysis in human brains. So it gets blocked without ever getting analyzed.
But comedy IS emotional. “Dangerous” ideas and facts can sneak in.

This really isn’t fair to Tay-Tay!

You should have seen him squirm when Dem committee members pointed out exactly what he was doing that was illegal!

DC shutdown leaves most of the Mall very empty and quiet, but destruction is brisk for the Billionaires’ Ballroom.

At least they’re making it clear which is more important to them….

Homeless person sleeping against statue outside Federal Court; DC Mall in background. A few cars, but almost no people.

DC was nearly empty yesterday. Very few US tourists & almost no foreign visitors. I did see a few National Guard, some homeless people sleeping on steam grates, and extra security around the White House.
It reminded me of the worst days of Covid, when hospitals were overflowing.

Empty street on the DC Mall near the Air & Space Museum. A lone souvenir vending truck has no customers.

DC is almost empty. You can stand in streets that should be busy. Trump’s tariffs, threats, ICE, and unwanted troops are bad for the only thing he really cares about: business. Or profits.

How should a free citizen respond to this?
Two National Guard troops ordered to stand in DC Metro at the Federal Triangle station. I wanted to explain how wrong this was; how they were being used. Instead, I just said “I hope you kids get to go home soon.”

I think he’s a real life “skin suit Edgar” bug, from Men in Black!

MAGA people reject facts that aren’t what they WANT to believe.
Only thing that changes their mind is when something hurts them personally.
I hate letting anyone get hurt. But FAFO.
We could let them FO.
But they’re hurting us all & trashing democracy. If we wait, there’ll be nothing left.

3rd Amendment: "No Soldier shall in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war…".
It’s one reason we went to war against Mad King George.
My history teacher said it wasn’t important anymore.
Is that right LA? DC? Boston? Chicago? Portland? Memphis?

Both oaths say:
I solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic-
The presidential oath says:
-preserve, protect and defend the Constitution-
But Trump posted that he’d terminate the Constitution on day one-
And his executive orders violate it daily.

Trump’s done EVERY impeachable crime, publicly and repeatedly: treason, bribery, high crimes & misdemeanors. The 14th (insurrection) & 25th (mentally unfit) Amendments require he be removed from office.
By ignoring this, half of Congress & the Supreme Court violate their own oaths of office.

It’s completely unacceptable to see a fat-headed Secretary of Defense in the halls of the Pentagon….
The bad look is in your mirror, dude.

My bad, I took you literally. Forgive my rants. Preaching to the choir, because I’m so pissed off.

Last term, he rejected government experts on covid. A few weeks after his term ended, the US had 20% of all covid deaths in the world: over 1 million; even though the US had less than 5% of the world’s population. 750,000 more US citizens died of covid, because Trump rejected government experts.

Did your tap water or breakfast make you sick? Both safe because of US government workers. Don’t drink tap water in Mexico: you’ll get “Montezuma’s Revenge.”

Trump is pushing out 300,000 government workers, because he doesn’t think they do anything useful or necessary. We’re about to find out.

Did you wake up on time? An incredibly accurate US govt clock sends a signal over the internet, that clocks and computers around the world use to keep correct time. Did you use your cell phone to navigate with GPS? The I.C. chips, the code, the internet, & radio signals exist because of US govt.

What I was trying to say, is there’s so much more than that.
Our government does thousands of things that make our lives safer & better, and most people haven’t got a clue. One-eighth of those things will stop in 1-3 months. There will be multiple disasters that would have been prevented.

The US must choose $ or democracy.
Money is not free speech, when $ kill good ideas.
Corporations are not people, when they’ll do any immoral thing to turn a profit.
For-profit media respond to $, not people; and people without $ never get heard.
Unlimited $ turns elections into auctions.

Federal workers are often invisible.
But they do real things:
Guide airplanes in to land.
Predict floods so people don’t drown.
Prevent epidemics. Find cures for cancers. Guard nuclear weapons.
300,000 (1/8) of fed workers will quit or be fired by January 1st.
These things just won’t get done.

And which party makes it so hard to vote?
Republicans stopped more votes than they earned.

One in eight US government workers will have been fired or quit before January. We’re about to find out how many quiet but critical things those 300,000 workers used to do.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” -Mandela
Ask ex-govt workers: the US just stopped doing critical things, like cyber defense, firing air traffic controllers, or guarding our nuclear stockpiles (ok, they partly fixed that one).
We will have many disasters. There will be trials.

If you’re a “good person”, it doesn’t matter if you do horrible things. If others are “bad people”, they deserve the horrible things you do to them.
It’s the false logic of fascists.
The truth is much harder, and less comforting. No person is always good or bad. Each thing you do could be either.

Because he has to fight like hell to read the teleprompter. Or to stay on just one topic. Or to think out a whole sentence in his head.