I still usually call my doctor for OTC stuff, and if my doctor says I need it, insurance gets to pay for it. Going to the doctor usually saves me money. And if I schedule it during a workday, it’s not my time going either but my employer’s, if it even needs more than a phone consult.
Yeah but it would smoosh into such a limp dick, no way to get an accurate grip.
Oh, that’s the point, in an Orbánesque society, some protests are allowed. A very often used playbook is to create an issue that his base can rabidly frothe about, most people don’t give a shit about, but it hurts a small minority of people enough that they will be very loud about being on the opposite side.
For Hungary, it was academic freedom for a university teaching mostly social sciences. Most people never even heard of it and had no opinion when laws were made to make its position untenable and basically destroy it. But the people immediately close to the issue were protesting like hell! They were out in orderly groups, with loudspeakers and signs on the streets of Budapest, week after week.
Orbán was very happy about this. Hungarian state media was frothing about how this university was destroying the fabric of society, so his base was rabidly against it. The people close to the issue were loudly trying to save it, but they were a minority. And you had a situation where there were weekly protests for half a year, representing a clear minority opinion, basically defanging all other protests for any other issue, while people got jaded into an opinion that protests don’t mean anything.
Orbán was not in the country even for most of this, that’s how much he cared.
Now imagine the same with Trump deciding to repeal the ADA. Most people don’t care about people with disabilities enough, but just enough people will be marching around the country to keep it in the news cycle constantly. All the while his supporters will be out in counterprotests dwarfing the others. And all the while if the economy tanks and there was real discontent, and there was space for real protests, you’d be called a Nazi and a Republican if you didn’t join in the existing “movement” headed by the Dems and didn’t abide by the “civil and high road” ways of protesting. Most people won’t even join your protest because they are tired of protests and protesters, and it will never work anyway, see all those other protests?
Sorry for the rant, I am really jaded by all this, and it just seemed so obvious years ago that the US was going down a Hungary path, and it’s just a boring dystopia from now on going forward. It doesn’t look like the people getting shot by the National Guard for protesting, it looks like you can do anything, you will always stay a minority, and decency dies a death of thousand cuts.
They talked about people like Hugh Thompson Jr. and the severe back pain he sustained from lugging around those massive balls.
Did they talk about that absolutely nobody from the My Lai massacre - the example you brought up - saw any real consequences, with only one guy - who killed 22 - serving 3.5 years before Nixon got him out?
Or that the highest ranking surviving Nazi, who had a real say in German leadership during the war, was Hitler’s trusted advisor and unrepentant, unwavering follower, even after the war, got off with 10 years since the US and the UK committed similar war crimes as he did, so they didn’t sentence him for that?
Or the Hague invasion act and US war crimes that precipitated it? Or the US war crimes since?
I think those guys will be just fine saying “I was just following the orders of the magnificent Cheeto”.
Oh, you will get protests, even organized by Democrats! That’s the point, they will never be effective, but they will siphon off the willpower to actually start up meaningful protests to the point when the real shit goes down, protests won’t mean anything any more!
And if you organize a protest yourself? The Dems will come to support you, coopting the whole thing, and making sure it all stays civil and respectful while the police tear gas your ass!
I am not saying give up. There is light at the end of the tunnel. At least that’s how it feels right now in Hungary. But the tunnel is long and fucking dark, and you have just taken the first steps in, and Trump is going to try to make sure you can’t back out. And our way through was sending our corporatists masquerading as leftists to the garbage dump of history, as it should be.
A lame dick size joke
Welcome to Europe Squid!
Rule number one, the French are dicks.
Or he can pull an Orbán and keep the dems on life support, just strong enough that they will be an effective spoiler for anything new, but never strong enough to be an effective challenge.
Thank them and the DNC. They did their best to accomplish this.
Will they be as careful to keep the filibuster as the Dems did I wonder?
Lol no they will just burn it down.
It was all Russia for some of them. The Hungarians did jack shit and it shows to this day.
There is also civil war though, or an USSR style dissolution of the union.
Franco for 36, though he took power by coup not votes.
And Orbán had 18 so far and 2 remaining from this term for a more recent example.
Sooo I see the thread is full of US people here and it’s so strange. I don’t have drug brand preferences. I go to my doctor, my doctor tells me what to take, I go to the pharmacy, they give it to me, and I take it as instructed.
Am I missing out on anything?
Now I’m interested why and how are you measuring tenths of millimeters
I guess they really got upset that unions got some traction and workers got some hope that they are not completely helpless.
There are multiple ways that can happen.
For example, if you look at recent history in China, Jack Ma, the executive chairman of the Alibaba group, gave a speech on October 24, 2020. The IPO of his current venture was then blocked by regulators a few weeks later, he stepped down from the board of Alibaba, and he was not seen again for four months. He denied the state had anything to do with his disappearance, but ever since he lived a quiet life and never criticised the Chinese leadership again.
If you look at Russia, in the October Revolution, the largest Russian bank was occupied by an armed Bolshevik detachment on day one. The bank was nationalized the same day, and it then ceased to exist altogether. No banks existed in the country for five-ish years after that.
Or Cuba, when Castro nationalized all assets of United Fruit when he took power.
Point is, since they own the justice system, they can do sham trials against the CEO and get someone like Jared Kushner elected by the board if they don’t also want to go to jail on trumped-up charges (pun intended). Or since they own the legislative, they can just nationalize the whole thing, wipe out shareholders without compensating them at all.
Almost all of these would result in a lot of economic damage, but the question is whether Trump or the Project 2025 people care. I mean, look at Twitter. Trump can at the very least make the federal government do to Blackrock what Musk did to Twitter.
Oh, they will not wither and die, it will just be bought by Nestlé et al. and you can either import food from abroad and pay the Trump tax, or you can buy the price gouged local produce after all competition is gone.
Fuck US politics in general.
Thanks for typing this up so I didn’t have to.