It was Glenn Beck's "Comrade Updates" and the insane reaction to Obama that I realized just how far down a dangerous path it had gone from "Dittoheads" and talk radio.

I didn't appreciate the danger until the Orwellian opposite-world information spaces had become so mainstream and full of momentum that a result like this seemed almost inevitable.

Of course, I hadn't studied how the far-right propaganda industry had evolved after WWII at that point either.

Those are the kind of conversations we could have back then though. I'm not against capitalism and free markets within some reasonable regulator frameworks and even some mixed economy concepts.

Seems like voter apathy gave wealthy individuals/businesses an even greater outsized role than normal.

Before the party fell to Trumpism and purged all of them, I was an independent that preferred a sane moderate Republican for most federal offices.

I'd really like there to be an opposition party to this fascist movement that is now consolidating power over the government, not just a major party.

"Help us Obi-Wan K'Skynet... you're our only hope!"

They should suspend all intelligence sharing unless it directly enhances their national security goals (and they can live with the very real possibility that it will be *immediately* compromised and disseminated to hostile governments).

The United States should no longer be part of the Five Eyes.

This appears to be one of the earliest implementations of Trump's crackdown on anything deemed anti-fascist with his Executive Order and related memo calling for the JTTF to investigate any organization they lump in with left-wing causes (colleges, fundraising sites for Democrats, the LWV, etc.).

The regime is incoherently pushing that this was "antifa," without evidence, across all far-right information spaces. It appears to have been little different than protests we've seen here when far-right groups had events on campus.

I'm not sure that matters if there isn't any actual opposition party or organized opposition movement.

We'll all just be mad while Trump consolidates authoritarian control. Budzinski safe with her party war chest to collaborate and capitulate as needed.

I'll believe it when I see it. Down here in Champaign County they're still too busy fighting each other to care about consolidating authoritarianism.

The activists and the left are even busier wanting to destroy those liberals and Democrats for standing in the way of their revolution.

I don't need your permission to speak or criticize the Democrats, you absolute lunatic.

Feel free to lick Schumer's boots, you gullible partisan dimwit.

It really begs the question: who's next?

Did it ever have any luster beyond the party elites and access journalists?

Even the Marvel guys:

I understand how modern wannabe autocrats like Trump capture domestic media and effectively turn them into state run media.

But how is Trump doing this to the BBC? That is *insane.*

I'm not going to play dumb for the people who just gave the fascists something to cheer about.

I don't need to "take a breath" and reconsider that.

If Democratic leadership doesn't want to undermine the anti-Trump coalition, they need to stop undermining it. That's not on me.