"strongman president" is one way to describe a militatry dictator and genocidaire with the rare distinction of having achieved pol pot numbers of carnage (a quarter of the population in domestic mass killings and abroad in east timor).

this thing happens when, if you look at what Dems have done recently and the predict an outcome based entirely on their own actions, people call you a doomer and get mad.

don’t hate me bc Dems doing deeply predictable Dem shit gives off doom vibes. hate them!

I guess my take in light of this would be to see how far this strategy can get them, and how you could sabotage it.

It was utterly infuriating to think Senate Help-a-Dictator-Out-Dems are so clueless they don't understand what voters want. It's even worse knowing they do and decided to vote to sell us out anyway.

Things are for sure happening, and I like the direction in which said happening is tending

I also saw Domalewski say that Shapiro would be a good candidate *if* he committed to boycotting Israel. I think between the response to reopening the government and this, one can sense a certain vibe shift in the air.

Were they getting paid, or did they have claim to backpay? In any case, I don't think this would be sustainable in the long-term without the ability to actually appropriate funds. Of course the executive can act illegally, but that's an escalation you can respond to in different ways.

Anything less is the stupid kind of complicity

My opinion is that reopening the government should have been tied down to assurances specifically about conducting free and fair mid-term elections (including rescinding odious executive decrees), in addition to a full concession of all points the minority cares about in the budget.

If they want to govern, they need money. If they want the money, they need an increased majority. To get that, they need to mollify the minority. To do so they can be forced to make very extensive concessions and provide assurances. The minority is able and justified to stop everything to get these.