It has finally happened: Alternative für Deutschland are no longer the second-strongest party in Germany; for the first time ever, they have pulled dead-even with CDU/CSU in a representative poll.
It's bad when people make stupid mistakes. It's a hundred times worse when they make them after having watched someone else make them, and say to themselves, "Well, I'm sure it will work out just fine for *me*!"
American Democrats: *stick hand into a blender, pull back a stump*
CxU: "Hold my beer. With your remaining hand, that is."
Maybe they'll be smart enough to watch and see what happens in France, first. Of course, they may watch what happens there, and even if NF comes out on top, they may ask the French establishment to hold their beer (with the remaining hand) instead of the American Democrats...
It’s getting harder to outright ban the party now. But, I’m thinking this Data Protection Act could be used to try and muffle AfD voices. That said, we are now looking at Brazil, Pakistan, France and they tried with Trump. Globalists aren’t going to go down without a fight. Sort of wondering how the tariffs will affect the German economy and how that might squeeze out even more bizarre responses from the CDU.
The more German politicians insult POTUS the worse it will be for Germany. On every level: tariffs, NATO, defence spending (genuine and contrived) maybe even visas.
They are still trying with Trump, still siccing select judges on him as well as stirring up a Musk Derangement Syndrome hysteria and turning well-prepared activists on him.
I heard they want to ban people from running for public office if they were caught shitposting the wrong people on the internet more than once. That could clear some of the deck without having to ban a party. One thing the cartel parties could all agree on.
I wouldn't put it past the cartel parties to define it broadly and retroactively. I think Höcke, for example, would already be banned if this rule goes through. Not exactly a favorite, but quite prominent.
In an act of supreme irony, the old DDR anthem would count as "right-wing" but would also fit to a Tee. In English, it's called "Risen from the ruins".
And that's what we're doing, little by little. Rising from the ruins of political correctness, neoliberalism, and wokeDEIwhatthefuckery.
I read an interesting quote the other day, which is attributed to John F. Kennedy. I do not know what he was referring to specifically when he said this, but it seems applicable to the situation across Europe. "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
The European elite seem intent on stuffing more and more dynamite into the existing powder keg that is their native populace. From nullifying elections to banning candidates, and now seriously considering banning the most popular party in Germany.
At least with respect to the Macronists in France and the German Union parties, the metaphor of the drowning man seems apt. They will grab onto anything at hand to stay afloat, and in doing so drag the whole show down with them.
Sadly I think it'll be "all lights are off". I think they'd rather send an exceptionally small % of humanity back to the Stone Age as opposed to giving up power. Evil people man...
The one good thing is to imaging the EU27 organising anything. Remember - much as Queen vd Leyen wishes, the Kommission represents an administration for a collection of countries but is not a country in it's own right.
Why on earth the Queen or the other little Princes / Princesses of the Kommission attend G7, G20, G50 or G anything is mad - they do not represent a country. Period.
So the idea of EU27 rushing off to war led by Little Napoleon (Macron) or Bunty (Starmer) is far-fetched - neither the UK nor France would dare to act alone. We'll be living on Mars before that happens (i.e., never).
Condemn, then co-opt will be the probable course of action for the CDU, until they have moved the discourse into a position where having the AfD as an inofficial coalition partner becomes the "only responsible thing to do, out of respect for democracy and the will of the electorate".
The Swedish Socialist Democrat party are experts when it comes to this tactic, and has used it since the 1950s - only coalitions hae managed to temporarily wrest power from them, and they have always been able to sow discord and take back power (and keep their own people in place within the bureaucracy, with all the benefits that comes with that).
The Swedish idiom for the strategy translates to "hug them to death"...
Or, as Eugy implies, back in January when they made the first move that direction. It was a good move at the time, but flinching after getting yelled at just put the scent of blood in the water. The sharks *know* they are dealing with weak and wounded prey now.
Yeah but they can always decide to do what makes sense both politically and morally and listen to the voters and tell the left wing coalition to kick rocks. Never too late. But it would require them to admit they were wrong.
I will grant that as nominally sapient individuals they are theoretically capable of doing such a thing. But I have only actually *witnessed* politicians admitting that they were wrong... well, I would certainly be able to count the number of times I've seen that on the fingers of one hand, and possibly just the thumbs of that one hand.
Western “democracies” are not about counting votes. They are about weighing votes and the ones of AfD weigh little: they will be connected to some Russian financing, bots will create a hate narrative so leaders can be prosecuted, Etc….the template is the one we are seeing in Romania, France, Etc….
Until the Communist European Party is controlling media, universities, social network, cultural events, Etc….no chances for a change. I am hopeful as you are but realistically I doubt. We live in a softer Chinese template
I see. I hope Italy reelects another conservative when the PM term is over she seems to be doing as good a job as possible all things considered. She’s not exactly surrounded by a supporting cast of peers in the eu
Many times. The sort of people who take to the streets are violent activists, who are always left wing. Sometimes farmers or truckers will be pushed to their limits, but they are peaceful, aren't making emotionally manipulative arguments and are thus easily defeated.
If I were king, I'd impose absolute freedom of speech and then ban street protests, because the latter are just ways for the lefty civil servants who license them to manipulate politicians.
True protests are a bedrock of self determination and governance. What you're describing is rioting and is already illegal. We just need our leaders to enforce the laws equally regardless whether they agree with the signs the rioters are holding or not.
Protest has no meaning if it's licensed. You're asking the government for permission to protest against the government. That's clearly fake and so the only kinds of protests that are going to get permission are the ones government employees already agree with, but the wider population don't. It's merely a way to intimidate and manipulate the system, which is how Germany has ended up in this mess to begin with.
Hence: BLM gets to march during lockdowns. Anti-lockdown protests are banned. Antifa get to march and violently protest, AfD supporters do not.
Clearly, formalized protest is useless. It's a theatre production in which people act out a heavily diluted version of past protests that did actually change the government. Maybe you'd call those "true" protests. But those were all bloody and violent uprisings that worked by hanging the leaders, and the outcomes were often worse than before. "True" protest can still happen of course - it's always illegal, but if you're willing to break the law and maybe face the consequences of losing then you can do it.
But really, manipulative theatre has no place in a civilized society.
Lol what? We don't need permission or a license from the government to protest here. The license is the constitution. But once the protest turns violent it ceases to be a protest. We're literally saying the same thing regarding the laws only being enforced or protests being allowed if the leaders happen to agree with the protesters. Pretty sure no leaders got hung during the civil rights movement and that was the most significant social movement of the 20th century in the United States. You're saying the way for it not to be "performative" is to allow the government to outlaw organizing in protest against them? That's kind of absurd.
> At the same time, the City of New York imposes restrictions, and sometimes requires a permit, for some types of marches and the use of amplified sound.
I don't understand how it's even a possibility for them to ban an entire political party that has 40% popular support in the polls. Seems like the civil unrest that would ensue alone would keep that from being an option. This shit right here is why the 2a is non negotiable
.... and it's why the Democrats, at the federal, state and local levels, are intent on banning guns. The Democrats do not stand for freedom in this country, they stand for totalitarianism.
It would take 2/3 majority to ratify that and that's never gonna happen. It would cause a civil war. They know there are substantially more guns in private hands than there are people in this country.
It's the last part that really matters. Mathematically speaking, it wouldn't actually make any difference if they *did* somehow manage to eke out a legal ban against firearms. There is literally no possible way to enforce such a thing.
The third of American citizens who own one or more firearms, collectively own a sufficient number of them to arm every man, woman, and child in the country with at least two and as many as three firearms. I don't think they would risk it, simply because they have enough animal cunning to understand how impotent it would show them to be if they tried, and everyone simply ignored them. They'll keep trying to pick away at it, of course.
They have banned guns from all public property and parks in Albemarle County and Charlotteville, VA (among other jurisdictions). In this year's Virginia State assembly, Gov. Youngkin had to veto over 20 anti-gun bills voted for by the (majority) Democrats. Since they probably cannot nullify the Second Amendment, they constantly chip away at it. For instance, state legislators, along with the federal ATF, have attempted to classify AR-15 rifles as "assault" weapons in order to ban them. This goes on and on. It is a constant fight.
Yeah that's what happens when you live in a blue state unfortunately. The wonderful thing about the United States is we can choose which states laws most closely align with our values and make decisions accordingly. I was born and raised in Texas and our gun laws have moved in the opposite direction over the past decade. My point is what you're describing isn't a nation wide phenomenon. They can "ban" them all they want. There are tens of millions of them out here already. They're here to stay.
Yes, true enough. But there's always the ATF making (unlegislated) regulations and rules restricting gun ownership etc. -- hopefully Trump will put a stop to that -- until the next Dem comes along anyway.
I agree with you about the states. But people who cannot move, are older or just not as mobile, though, are stuck where they are. I am encouraged by the conservative (ie, "right wing") secessionist movements across the country to dissolve state boundaries (Oregon, Washington State) and join other states (ie, Greater Idaho). That shows some promise.
It seems like there is really no effective way to change boundaries of certain states. I live in Northern California and for a long time there has been a movement to separate off a chunk of this area from the rest of deeply blue California and even give it an entirely different name (State of Jefferson was one possible name). Unfortunately, a lot of the water needed by the south part of the state flows down from the north, so there's no way they're ever going to allow that to happen. A portion of Oregon would like to become part of Idaho, but I'd be shocked if that were ever allowed to happen either.
They did it in Romania. They did it in France last week. If they do it in Germany that's 3. My point is eventually they're not even going to be able to pretend they're doing it for any other reason than to hold onto power and the people will hit the streets. My point really was there's no 2a in Europe. If there was this shit wouldn't be happening
My point is that the existence of 2A didn't discourage them from *making* the attempt, even if it was unsuccessful. And yes, given 2A, if they had been more successful, it might not have been for long, but I think we're both predicting that even without 2A, they may not be successful for long in Europe either.
Ultimately what I'm trying to say is that I don't think these are people who grasp that 'unintended consequences' might ensue from their actions.
We're going in circles here. If you really think the existence of the 2a doesn't keep these tyrants from doing things they would do otherwise I guess that's your prerogative. I disagree. ☮️
As I've said before, Romania is playing with fire. The people who hung Ceaucescu are still alive. You are correct that they want power, and they may well attempt to take it by any means necessary, but that's a two way street.
The execution of Ceauçescu (by firing squad) was carried out by the leaders of a palace coup that may well have had backing from Western elites.
The other Moscow-installed regimes of the "Eastern Bloc" had all collapsed before the end of 1989. There was also a genuine popular uprising in Romania in December 1989, and Ceauçescu's response was machine-gun fire from the state security police. He could have weathered the storm in principle (after all, the CCP managed to retain power in China after a longer period of protests around the same time).
The crucial factor that is generally forgotten is that Ceauçescu had beggared Romanian citizens during the 80s in order to pay off all the capital and interest on the Western bank loans it had received in the 70s. The interest rates suddenly jumped in the early 80s due to US actions, so the loans weren't absurd from the beginning.
In 1989, Ceauçescu finally paid off all the debts to the Western banks.
Now what do you think the palace-coup leaders did immediately after killing their former colleague and Party boss?
Yes, they invited the IMF in, and placed Romania under onerous Western debts again.
The leader of the palace coup, and the new leader of Romania was Ion Iliescu. He is 95 this year - wish him many happy returns. Most of his colleagues are dead. At least half of the people who survived after they came out on the streets in protest are still probably alive - they were younger on average than the senior Party members who killed Ceauçescu. But the protestors on the streets were not the people who killed Ceauçescu, and they never came close to that position.
So the answer is "no" - popular protest in Romania during December 1989 did not topple the regime. The regime repackaged itself as "democratic", earning the benefit of the doubt by ridding themselves of their colleague, the unpopular leader. They had originally planned to make their move against Ceauçescu in Feburary 1990, so the popular protests, at most, speeded up the process.
My point wasn't that it was popular protest that killed Ceaucescu, it was that the Romanian people have a recent national mythology regarding killing dictators. I will grant that I phrased it *very* poorly, referring to "the same people". I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it feels like playing with fire to me because there's a reasonable chance of someone who grew up on that mythology going, "Wait a minute! We don't have to put up with this shit!"
Hello, Warmek. Yes, what you say here is in keeping with your earlier comments about the 2nd Amendment not enforcing itself (your interlocutor was too full of bravado to understand your point).
I thought I'd run through the Romanian palace coup of 1989 anyway, because it's popularly seen as a modern example of a successful popular uprising, when it was no such thing. I have some connections with that part of the world, and followed the events closely at the time without having to rely on the excitable reporting of the Western media.
As you say, the belief that thronging the streets and fighting the police (or AntiFa) can somehow succeed if there are enough people and it continues for enough time is dangerous. Democracies are oligarchies. They may be benign oligarchies (largely the case in the West from the 50s to the 90s), but oligarchies nevertheless.
Genuine popular protests can only appear to succeed if they serve the purposes of a powerful oligarchical faction (or an even more powerful foreign power).
More common are astro-turfed protest movements that sometimes gain a (naive) popular following, but those are designed from the start to fulfill the purpose of some elite group - as is probably the case in Serbia at present (with Brussels most likely instigating and funding the protest movement, with a color revolution as the goal.
When a "democratic" oligarchy is confident enough of its power, it just imposes its will by fiat, as in the US in 2020, or Romania in 2024, or, apparently, France in 2025. The minor embarrassment of annulling democratic procedures can then be covered with a judicial fig leaf. While the oligarchies' boundaries are porous, some outsiders either cannot be sufficiently co-opted, or have simply been smeared too much to be allowed membership. That applies equally to Georgescu, Le Pen and the AfD. The brazenness of the Romanian and French cancellations can probably be attributed to the Democrats' fatal complacency in 2024 - the European oligarchies want to ensure that there is no possibility of a "Trump" being elected in their own countries. Although Euro elites would hardly like to admit it, this has been Putin's approach for the past two decades: ensure that any potential rivals are slapped down early enough to prevent them from becoming a serious threat.
I *very* much appreciate the insight. Relying on Western media (as I no doubt have in my understanding of what happened in Romania in '89, or at the very least, a textbook written by someone within that sphere) is... unlikely to result in true understanding. As I have learned more and more over the decades. Which is very, very irritating, as it would be incredibly convenient if there was actually a large, moderately centralized, reliable source of information about the rest of the world.
I think that I am (somehow, still) slightly less cynical about the prospects of a popular movement than you are, or possibly I have not quite understood your full position. I agree that all of these governments are oligarchies, and it certainly seems as though for the very most part nothing ever happens which is not "approved" somewhere, but I still have this (perhaps baseless) hope that if there is *enough* of a groundswell, corrections can be made. I am willing to concede that this is perhaps exceedingly naive, and based on my *own* mythology about the Second Amendment and American History.
But things like what the Democrats in the US did in 2020, and then kept doing to Trump for the next four years make people *angry*. If the person placed in power in 2020 had not been *such* a zombie, and if the person they had run in 2024 had not be *such* a clown, and if they had just *left Trump alone* after they managed to successfully(!!!) roust him from office, I'd bet there would not have been sufficient anger left in 2024 to give Trump the absolutely hammering victory he had over Harris. And he quite possibly wouldn't have won at all.
Romania in particular is *so* egregious, though. Reverting the outcome of an election that had been held and called, and then kicking the guy out of the race in the "do over" and then kicking someone *else* out of the race... that can only make more and more people skeptical of the claims of "democracy". And democracy runs on at least the *illusion* of fairness. At least in the US in 2020 they gave it the fig leaf of faking the vote. What happened in Romania is the equivalent of showing the polls giving the outcome to Trump, and then some court coming in and saying "Yeah, nah."
Oligarchy or not, I suspect something would have *broken* at that point, and it would have been very, very unpleasant.
Still, the fact that it hasn't gone up in flames over there already may indicate that it won't.
And they’re not just alive, they’re in power. Basically the apparatchiks threw the bastard and his Balkans Dr. Jill type under the bus when the regime became untenable, gave the revolution its blood sacrifice, and then became good capitalists by virtue of using their insider knowledge (and western glow-in-the-dark/bankster contacts) to take over all the remaining capital in the country.
All these highly mythologized bloodless or almost bloodless revolutions had their real drawbacks in that they never removed most swines‘ snouts from the trough.
The most consequential example is of course Germany where for reasons that allow a lot of speculation it’s almost like the GDR performed a reverse merger on the FRG, assuming its good name and assets but getting a lot of the GDR management culture. It’s a bit like the MDD/Boeing situation. Now the Germans are left to wonder where all these strangely bad decisions – and crashes! – come from.
The total divorce from reality by the "ruling elites" is simply astonishing. They really are intent on a scorched earth policy. They really do want to destroy everything in front of them.
Is there any scenario whereby German politicians consider the voting public? At what point do the public start seriously protesting? What happens if the politicians ban the AfD? That would signal that the German political class consider themselves above the public and no longer need or care about votes. The public would have to look at that political class and acknowledge that, regardless of whether you are left, right or centrist, the politicans consider you irrelevant. At what point does this all become actually dangerous?
Just the headline makes me think, hahahaha!
The more serious side of me wonders what sort of Le Pen-like persecution is in the works now.
It's bad when people make stupid mistakes. It's a hundred times worse when they make them after having watched someone else make them, and say to themselves, "Well, I'm sure it will work out just fine for *me*!"
American Democrats: *stick hand into a blender, pull back a stump*
CxU: "Hold my beer. With your remaining hand, that is."
Maybe they'll be smart enough to watch and see what happens in France, first. Of course, they may watch what happens there, and even if NF comes out on top, they may ask the French establishment to hold their beer (with the remaining hand) instead of the American Democrats...
'American Democrats: *stick hand into a blender, pull back a stump*
'CxU: "Hold my beer. With your remaining hand, that is."'
This is so perfect.
It’s getting harder to outright ban the party now. But, I’m thinking this Data Protection Act could be used to try and muffle AfD voices. That said, we are now looking at Brazil, Pakistan, France and they tried with Trump. Globalists aren’t going to go down without a fight. Sort of wondering how the tariffs will affect the German economy and how that might squeeze out even more bizarre responses from the CDU.
I think the economic affair will flush out the last of the libtards - all they can do is say useless things or pretend the USA does not exist.
This costs the public money.
Their unimaginative responses cost us all a lot of money.
This can not go on for long.
The more German politicians insult POTUS the worse it will be for Germany. On every level: tariffs, NATO, defence spending (genuine and contrived) maybe even visas.
They are still trying with Trump, still siccing select judges on him as well as stirring up a Musk Derangement Syndrome hysteria and turning well-prepared activists on him.
Don’t forget Romania, Charlotte
I heard they want to ban people from running for public office if they were caught shitposting the wrong people on the internet more than once. That could clear some of the deck without having to ban a party. One thing the cartel parties could all agree on.
I'd wager that the top AfD candidates know better than to expose themselves to that nonsense.
I wouldn't put it past the cartel parties to define it broadly and retroactively. I think Höcke, for example, would already be banned if this rule goes through. Not exactly a favorite, but quite prominent.
The AfD may well be immune from such a move, since its support is not based on a single strong, charismatic personality like a Le Pen or a Trump.
....slowly...then all at once...
LFG!
We will win. They are weak.
And we grow stronger by the day!
But we must keep our foot on their throats.
In an act of supreme irony, the old DDR anthem would count as "right-wing" but would also fit to a Tee. In English, it's called "Risen from the ruins".
And that's what we're doing, little by little. Rising from the ruins of political correctness, neoliberalism, and wokeDEIwhatthefuckery.
It's not always clear whose foot is on whose throat...
Yesterday knee on neck (25.05.20 in Minneapolis), today foot on throat ??? ... 🤔🤔🤔
You've got to be standing upright which is highly dangerous as you make a good target that can be mowed inconspicuously from far away.
Just think again ...
I read an interesting quote the other day, which is attributed to John F. Kennedy. I do not know what he was referring to specifically when he said this, but it seems applicable to the situation across Europe. "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
The European elite seem intent on stuffing more and more dynamite into the existing powder keg that is their native populace. From nullifying elections to banning candidates, and now seriously considering banning the most popular party in Germany.
At least with respect to the Macronists in France and the German Union parties, the metaphor of the drowning man seems apt. They will grab onto anything at hand to stay afloat, and in doing so drag the whole show down with them.
He was chiding dictators and strongmen in the third world to meet their responsibility to listen to their people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HahBXAoya6Q
So, then it is directly applicable to Europe these days.
As it was applicable in the USA from the 2020 election to the 2024 election.
Excellent quote.
All bets are off if/when the EU gets the war they seem to want.
"When all else fails take them to war"
Sadly I think it'll be "all lights are off". I think they'd rather send an exceptionally small % of humanity back to the Stone Age as opposed to giving up power. Evil people man...
The one good thing is to imaging the EU27 organising anything. Remember - much as Queen vd Leyen wishes, the Kommission represents an administration for a collection of countries but is not a country in it's own right.
Why on earth the Queen or the other little Princes / Princesses of the Kommission attend G7, G20, G50 or G anything is mad - they do not represent a country. Period.
So the idea of EU27 rushing off to war led by Little Napoleon (Macron) or Bunty (Starmer) is far-fetched - neither the UK nor France would dare to act alone. We'll be living on Mars before that happens (i.e., never).
Condemn, then co-opt will be the probable course of action for the CDU, until they have moved the discourse into a position where having the AfD as an inofficial coalition partner becomes the "only responsible thing to do, out of respect for democracy and the will of the electorate".
If what this guy is saying is true it sounds like the time to adopt that position would have been like yesterday.
Yes, it would.
The Swedish Socialist Democrat party are experts when it comes to this tactic, and has used it since the 1950s - only coalitions hae managed to temporarily wrest power from them, and they have always been able to sow discord and take back power (and keep their own people in place within the bureaucracy, with all the benefits that comes with that).
The Swedish idiom for the strategy translates to "hug them to death"...
Or, as Eugy implies, back in January when they made the first move that direction. It was a good move at the time, but flinching after getting yelled at just put the scent of blood in the water. The sharks *know* they are dealing with weak and wounded prey now.
Yeah but they can always decide to do what makes sense both politically and morally and listen to the voters and tell the left wing coalition to kick rocks. Never too late. But it would require them to admit they were wrong.
I will grant that as nominally sapient individuals they are theoretically capable of doing such a thing. But I have only actually *witnessed* politicians admitting that they were wrong... well, I would certainly be able to count the number of times I've seen that on the fingers of one hand, and possibly just the thumbs of that one hand.
Touche
The German political establishment sure learned nothing from Trump Agonistes.
What happens if they ban the AfD, Eugy?
Will Ulrike Meinhoff rise from the grave to bring down the Kenyans?
Nothing says democratic and federal parliamentary republic like thinking about banning a quarter of your voters.
^^^This^^^
Western “democracies” are not about counting votes. They are about weighing votes and the ones of AfD weigh little: they will be connected to some Russian financing, bots will create a hate narrative so leaders can be prosecuted, Etc….the template is the one we are seeing in Romania, France, Etc….
I don't disagree but how many times can they pull that off before the people take to the streets?
Until the Communist European Party is controlling media, universities, social network, cultural events, Etc….no chances for a change. I am hopeful as you are but realistically I doubt. We live in a softer Chinese template
Are you in Germany?
No. I have been living outside Europe for some time but I am italian and back there often as well as in the UK
I see. I hope Italy reelects another conservative when the PM term is over she seems to be doing as good a job as possible all things considered. She’s not exactly surrounded by a supporting cast of peers in the eu
Many times. The sort of people who take to the streets are violent activists, who are always left wing. Sometimes farmers or truckers will be pushed to their limits, but they are peaceful, aren't making emotionally manipulative arguments and are thus easily defeated.
If I were king, I'd impose absolute freedom of speech and then ban street protests, because the latter are just ways for the lefty civil servants who license them to manipulate politicians.
True protests are a bedrock of self determination and governance. What you're describing is rioting and is already illegal. We just need our leaders to enforce the laws equally regardless whether they agree with the signs the rioters are holding or not.
Protest has no meaning if it's licensed. You're asking the government for permission to protest against the government. That's clearly fake and so the only kinds of protests that are going to get permission are the ones government employees already agree with, but the wider population don't. It's merely a way to intimidate and manipulate the system, which is how Germany has ended up in this mess to begin with.
Hence: BLM gets to march during lockdowns. Anti-lockdown protests are banned. Antifa get to march and violently protest, AfD supporters do not.
Clearly, formalized protest is useless. It's a theatre production in which people act out a heavily diluted version of past protests that did actually change the government. Maybe you'd call those "true" protests. But those were all bloody and violent uprisings that worked by hanging the leaders, and the outcomes were often worse than before. "True" protest can still happen of course - it's always illegal, but if you're willing to break the law and maybe face the consequences of losing then you can do it.
But really, manipulative theatre has no place in a civilized society.
Lol what? We don't need permission or a license from the government to protest here. The license is the constitution. But once the protest turns violent it ceases to be a protest. We're literally saying the same thing regarding the laws only being enforced or protests being allowed if the leaders happen to agree with the protesters. Pretty sure no leaders got hung during the civil rights movement and that was the most significant social movement of the 20th century in the United States. You're saying the way for it not to be "performative" is to allow the government to outlaw organizing in protest against them? That's kind of absurd.
https://www.nyclu.org/resources/know-your-rights/your-rights-demonstrating-new-york-city
> At the same time, the City of New York imposes restrictions, and sometimes requires a permit, for some types of marches and the use of amplified sound.
It may as well need to be licensed, as any protest that truly displeases the local leftists in charge will be thoroughly punished (Jan 6th style).
I don't understand how it's even a possibility for them to ban an entire political party that has 40% popular support in the polls. Seems like the civil unrest that would ensue alone would keep that from being an option. This shit right here is why the 2a is non negotiable
In the 🇺🇸
.... and it's why the Democrats, at the federal, state and local levels, are intent on banning guns. The Democrats do not stand for freedom in this country, they stand for totalitarianism.
It would take 2/3 majority to ratify that and that's never gonna happen. It would cause a civil war. They know there are substantially more guns in private hands than there are people in this country.
It's the last part that really matters. Mathematically speaking, it wouldn't actually make any difference if they *did* somehow manage to eke out a legal ban against firearms. There is literally no possible way to enforce such a thing.
The third of American citizens who own one or more firearms, collectively own a sufficient number of them to arm every man, woman, and child in the country with at least two and as many as three firearms. I don't think they would risk it, simply because they have enough animal cunning to understand how impotent it would show them to be if they tried, and everyone simply ignored them. They'll keep trying to pick away at it, of course.
100%
They have banned guns from all public property and parks in Albemarle County and Charlotteville, VA (among other jurisdictions). In this year's Virginia State assembly, Gov. Youngkin had to veto over 20 anti-gun bills voted for by the (majority) Democrats. Since they probably cannot nullify the Second Amendment, they constantly chip away at it. For instance, state legislators, along with the federal ATF, have attempted to classify AR-15 rifles as "assault" weapons in order to ban them. This goes on and on. It is a constant fight.
Yeah that's what happens when you live in a blue state unfortunately. The wonderful thing about the United States is we can choose which states laws most closely align with our values and make decisions accordingly. I was born and raised in Texas and our gun laws have moved in the opposite direction over the past decade. My point is what you're describing isn't a nation wide phenomenon. They can "ban" them all they want. There are tens of millions of them out here already. They're here to stay.
Yes, true enough. But there's always the ATF making (unlegislated) regulations and rules restricting gun ownership etc. -- hopefully Trump will put a stop to that -- until the next Dem comes along anyway.
I agree with you about the states. But people who cannot move, are older or just not as mobile, though, are stuck where they are. I am encouraged by the conservative (ie, "right wing") secessionist movements across the country to dissolve state boundaries (Oregon, Washington State) and join other states (ie, Greater Idaho). That shows some promise.
It seems like there is really no effective way to change boundaries of certain states. I live in Northern California and for a long time there has been a movement to separate off a chunk of this area from the rest of deeply blue California and even give it an entirely different name (State of Jefferson was one possible name). Unfortunately, a lot of the water needed by the south part of the state flows down from the north, so there's no way they're ever going to allow that to happen. A portion of Oregon would like to become part of Idaho, but I'd be shocked if that were ever allowed to happen either.
See Romania.
They. Don’t. Care.
They want power, and they’ll take it by any means necessary, the people be damned.
They did it in Romania. They did it in France last week. If they do it in Germany that's 3. My point is eventually they're not even going to be able to pretend they're doing it for any other reason than to hold onto power and the people will hit the streets. My point really was there's no 2a in Europe. If there was this shit wouldn't be happening
We have one here and they still tried.
Trying and doing are two different things.
My point is that the existence of 2A didn't discourage them from *making* the attempt, even if it was unsuccessful. And yes, given 2A, if they had been more successful, it might not have been for long, but I think we're both predicting that even without 2A, they may not be successful for long in Europe either.
Ultimately what I'm trying to say is that I don't think these are people who grasp that 'unintended consequences' might ensue from their actions.
We're going in circles here. If you really think the existence of the 2a doesn't keep these tyrants from doing things they would do otherwise I guess that's your prerogative. I disagree. ☮️
As I've said before, Romania is playing with fire. The people who hung Ceaucescu are still alive. You are correct that they want power, and they may well attempt to take it by any means necessary, but that's a two way street.
The execution of Ceauçescu (by firing squad) was carried out by the leaders of a palace coup that may well have had backing from Western elites.
The other Moscow-installed regimes of the "Eastern Bloc" had all collapsed before the end of 1989. There was also a genuine popular uprising in Romania in December 1989, and Ceauçescu's response was machine-gun fire from the state security police. He could have weathered the storm in principle (after all, the CCP managed to retain power in China after a longer period of protests around the same time).
The crucial factor that is generally forgotten is that Ceauçescu had beggared Romanian citizens during the 80s in order to pay off all the capital and interest on the Western bank loans it had received in the 70s. The interest rates suddenly jumped in the early 80s due to US actions, so the loans weren't absurd from the beginning.
In 1989, Ceauçescu finally paid off all the debts to the Western banks.
Now what do you think the palace-coup leaders did immediately after killing their former colleague and Party boss?
Yes, they invited the IMF in, and placed Romania under onerous Western debts again.
The leader of the palace coup, and the new leader of Romania was Ion Iliescu. He is 95 this year - wish him many happy returns. Most of his colleagues are dead. At least half of the people who survived after they came out on the streets in protest are still probably alive - they were younger on average than the senior Party members who killed Ceauçescu. But the protestors on the streets were not the people who killed Ceauçescu, and they never came close to that position.
So the answer is "no" - popular protest in Romania during December 1989 did not topple the regime. The regime repackaged itself as "democratic", earning the benefit of the doubt by ridding themselves of their colleague, the unpopular leader. They had originally planned to make their move against Ceauçescu in Feburary 1990, so the popular protests, at most, speeded up the process.
My point wasn't that it was popular protest that killed Ceaucescu, it was that the Romanian people have a recent national mythology regarding killing dictators. I will grant that I phrased it *very* poorly, referring to "the same people". I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it feels like playing with fire to me because there's a reasonable chance of someone who grew up on that mythology going, "Wait a minute! We don't have to put up with this shit!"
*shrug*
Other people's viewpoints will vary.
Hello, Warmek. Yes, what you say here is in keeping with your earlier comments about the 2nd Amendment not enforcing itself (your interlocutor was too full of bravado to understand your point).
I thought I'd run through the Romanian palace coup of 1989 anyway, because it's popularly seen as a modern example of a successful popular uprising, when it was no such thing. I have some connections with that part of the world, and followed the events closely at the time without having to rely on the excitable reporting of the Western media.
As you say, the belief that thronging the streets and fighting the police (or AntiFa) can somehow succeed if there are enough people and it continues for enough time is dangerous. Democracies are oligarchies. They may be benign oligarchies (largely the case in the West from the 50s to the 90s), but oligarchies nevertheless.
Genuine popular protests can only appear to succeed if they serve the purposes of a powerful oligarchical faction (or an even more powerful foreign power).
More common are astro-turfed protest movements that sometimes gain a (naive) popular following, but those are designed from the start to fulfill the purpose of some elite group - as is probably the case in Serbia at present (with Brussels most likely instigating and funding the protest movement, with a color revolution as the goal.
When a "democratic" oligarchy is confident enough of its power, it just imposes its will by fiat, as in the US in 2020, or Romania in 2024, or, apparently, France in 2025. The minor embarrassment of annulling democratic procedures can then be covered with a judicial fig leaf. While the oligarchies' boundaries are porous, some outsiders either cannot be sufficiently co-opted, or have simply been smeared too much to be allowed membership. That applies equally to Georgescu, Le Pen and the AfD. The brazenness of the Romanian and French cancellations can probably be attributed to the Democrats' fatal complacency in 2024 - the European oligarchies want to ensure that there is no possibility of a "Trump" being elected in their own countries. Although Euro elites would hardly like to admit it, this has been Putin's approach for the past two decades: ensure that any potential rivals are slapped down early enough to prevent them from becoming a serious threat.
I *very* much appreciate the insight. Relying on Western media (as I no doubt have in my understanding of what happened in Romania in '89, or at the very least, a textbook written by someone within that sphere) is... unlikely to result in true understanding. As I have learned more and more over the decades. Which is very, very irritating, as it would be incredibly convenient if there was actually a large, moderately centralized, reliable source of information about the rest of the world.
I think that I am (somehow, still) slightly less cynical about the prospects of a popular movement than you are, or possibly I have not quite understood your full position. I agree that all of these governments are oligarchies, and it certainly seems as though for the very most part nothing ever happens which is not "approved" somewhere, but I still have this (perhaps baseless) hope that if there is *enough* of a groundswell, corrections can be made. I am willing to concede that this is perhaps exceedingly naive, and based on my *own* mythology about the Second Amendment and American History.
But things like what the Democrats in the US did in 2020, and then kept doing to Trump for the next four years make people *angry*. If the person placed in power in 2020 had not been *such* a zombie, and if the person they had run in 2024 had not be *such* a clown, and if they had just *left Trump alone* after they managed to successfully(!!!) roust him from office, I'd bet there would not have been sufficient anger left in 2024 to give Trump the absolutely hammering victory he had over Harris. And he quite possibly wouldn't have won at all.
Romania in particular is *so* egregious, though. Reverting the outcome of an election that had been held and called, and then kicking the guy out of the race in the "do over" and then kicking someone *else* out of the race... that can only make more and more people skeptical of the claims of "democracy". And democracy runs on at least the *illusion* of fairness. At least in the US in 2020 they gave it the fig leaf of faking the vote. What happened in Romania is the equivalent of showing the polls giving the outcome to Trump, and then some court coming in and saying "Yeah, nah."
Oligarchy or not, I suspect something would have *broken* at that point, and it would have been very, very unpleasant.
Still, the fact that it hasn't gone up in flames over there already may indicate that it won't.
Anyway, thanks again for the details.
*shot
And they’re not just alive, they’re in power. Basically the apparatchiks threw the bastard and his Balkans Dr. Jill type under the bus when the regime became untenable, gave the revolution its blood sacrifice, and then became good capitalists by virtue of using their insider knowledge (and western glow-in-the-dark/bankster contacts) to take over all the remaining capital in the country.
All these highly mythologized bloodless or almost bloodless revolutions had their real drawbacks in that they never removed most swines‘ snouts from the trough.
The most consequential example is of course Germany where for reasons that allow a lot of speculation it’s almost like the GDR performed a reverse merger on the FRG, assuming its good name and assets but getting a lot of the GDR management culture. It’s a bit like the MDD/Boeing situation. Now the Germans are left to wonder where all these strangely bad decisions – and crashes! – come from.
And they did it to themselves.
Really really hope someone in Germany makes a t-shirt
Front of the Shirt- Remember the FDP 1948-2025
Back of shirt- It was self-inflicted
Here we’ll give you another:
Front - #energiewende.
Back: it was self-inflicted.
The total divorce from reality by the "ruling elites" is simply astonishing. They really are intent on a scorched earth policy. They really do want to destroy everything in front of them.
Is there any scenario whereby German politicians consider the voting public? At what point do the public start seriously protesting? What happens if the politicians ban the AfD? That would signal that the German political class consider themselves above the public and no longer need or care about votes. The public would have to look at that political class and acknowledge that, regardless of whether you are left, right or centrist, the politicans consider you irrelevant. At what point does this all become actually dangerous?
"At what point does this all become actually dangerous?
Uh, now?
The more you tighten your grip, Merz, the more voters will slip through your fingers.
+5 for SW ref
"SW"?
Star Wars. Specifically, Princess Leia.
Merz and political so called “elites” brought this on themselves.
Rock und Roll, baby!