GregB, a regular reader and commenter, left the following thoughts about the four years ahead of us:

 

 

“I commented on another site today about Al Franken that “it took a great comedian to show DC what a great senator looks like.” The perverse reality we live in today is amplified by the fact that comedians give us better news and analysis than “journalists.” Think of Jon Stewart and Jon Oliver as great examples. Tonight Samantha Bee had the best expose of hypocrisy of Kellyanne Conway and how “journalists” can’t cut through her bs. But her interview with exiled Russian dissident journalist (no quotes) Masha Gessen was amazing. Here’s a quick checklist of things that Gessen went through that Donald’s regime will likely do which mirrors Putin.

 

First pre-election speculation if Donald were to win:

 

— it feels like we’re staring into an abyss

 

Post election things to expect (most efforts to successfully resist that she knows of have failed and her biggest worry is a nuclear holocaust):

— he’s certain to do irreparable harm to the environment that will make the survival of the human species impossible,
— the impossibility of going on to democracy after Trump

(after Bee does a chart that shows what the path is to rock bottom, what low points do you expect to see in our near future?)

— he’s going to lift the sanctions against Russia
— he’s going to start banning one newspaper after the other from the White House
— he is going to start thinking about wars
— he is going to go to the Putin model of holding one press conference per year
— suppose some cities refuse to cooperate with deportation, so he calls on the American people to start reporting on immigrants, and that’s when we start getting into really disgusting territory
— that will be the beginning of the culture of citizen against citizen
— so there’s a Russian joke: We thought we had reached rock bottom and then someone knocked from below
— (in language) he’s very similar to Putin, he uses language to assert his power over reality
— what he’s saying is “I create the right to say whatever the hell I please and what are you going to do about it?”
— it’s instinctual, it’s like a bully in a playground
— the point is to render you completely powerless
— because everything you know how to do (to point out reality) is useless
— the thing to do to resist is to continue panicking, to keep being the hysteric in the room and say, “This is not normal”
— just remember why you’re panicking, write a note to yourself about what you would never do, and when you come to the line, don’t cross it

 

Thanks Samantha and Masha. It would have been good advice in Germany 1933 and seems apt for the US in 2017.