TrickstaPriest

It doesn't read to me like it's the gun rights activists that are the problem, rather that a militia group or groups plan to use the rally as cover to act out. Now, you could point out that militia groups are very likely for gun rights, but I think we have multiple groups, with Group A being normal protesters and Group B being radicals looking to capitalize on the event.

That is one of the most desirable traits in a salesman.  The ability to convince your prospective customers that you truly believe in what your selling.
 
I haven't heard many people accuse Trump of not being a salesman. 
 
(the type of 'salesman' they might be describing him of being is a different thing entirely...)

Yep.  And I appreciate the perspective of people outside my circle.  It's how you learn more about the problems that your in circle don't know about.
 
Edit:  Not to mention it's hard to be on the opposite side of a crowd's opinion and still stay measured.  I appreciate the hard work you are putting in with that. 

Well, to be fair, I am only reporting what I see out of it.
 
 

Started to type a response, but I believe our respective perceptions are at an impasse. So, moving on.

I was right. The End Times.
 
If anyone thought Tucker Carlson's ego was insufferable before this happened...
 
But this tweet transcript from the linked website, from Matthew Gertz, is most salient to me: "Do you feel safe knowing that the only thing standing between the United States and another major war may be whether the president finds the most recent monologue from Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity more compelling?"

US health system costs four times more to run than Canada's single-payer system

CNN reporting no casualties. Fantastic. 
 
Maybe this can die down now. 

Just heard a sound bite of Trump on the radio saying okay, he won't target cultural sites because it's illegal... but still delivered in a sneering way to make clear he thinks the law is stupid, and following any law is stupid. And still repeating the "They're allowed to..." nonsense.
 
I dare say Trump has no conception of why anyone thinks culture is important. Or the rule of law, for that matter.
 
 
dean Shomshak

"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people," he told reporters on Sunday evening. "And we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way."
 
No, it doesn't work that way. Iran isn't "allowed" to do any of those things. Much of what they -- or to make a finer legal point of it, their proxies -- are doing are war crimes, by international law. But someone breaking the law doesn't excuse your breaking the law to punish them. When no one follows the law, only the law of the jungle applies, and the foundations of civil society crumble. That's the way it works.
 
I am pleased to see that the American military leadership have enough backbone to stand up for the legal articles of war, when so many politicians seem to have become invertebrates.

*insert Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year Competition here*

Can we agree that there are just too many twits?

Are you kidding?  The job sucks if you're doing it right.

Well, we do worship that jewish hippie rabbi who said to pay your taxes and a few coins from a poor person was more than many coins from a loaded rich guy. Shoot, guy went out healing the sick for FREE.....  and encouraged his followers to tend to the ill and poor and prisoners and stuff...  we are talking non secular commie talk here! 
 
Won't somebody please think of the wealthy? It's so HARD to  shove that camel through that needle

It's getting harder and harder to tell real news articles from The Onion:
 
Trump calls Christianity Today 'far left magazine' after editorial called for his removal from office
 
In a way, though, this is the Trump Reign Presidency in a nutshell: Bullying, name-calling, and a complete disregard for easily verifiable facts.
 
And it keeps working.

The degree to which indisputable fact is being disputed purely on the basis of tribal loyalty, is to me the most frightening legacy of this whole debacle. When the Truth becomes subjective, faith in the impartiality of government, of law, of information itself -- the foundations of civil society -- are mortally wounded. Both the benefits and the genuine flaws in institutions are thrown out together in a big partisan trash bin. You can see where that leads, in the chronic instability of much of the rest of the world.

Republican propaganda, pure and simple. They know that their base will take anything they say as Gospel, regardless of whether it's actually true or not.  The base doesn't even care whether it's true. They know this because they've been doing it successfully for years. (See 'Wizard's First Rule'.)

My story is much the same. I changed over to Libertarian primarily because I thought Gary Johnson had most of it right in terms of policy.
 
I never had the RINO pin, but I have used it as my avatar here and on the Book of Face.

I had been a registered Republican* for a number of years, mostly out of inertia, but I've changed my registration to Independent after the 2016 election.
 
 
 
 
 
*I wore a small, silver rhinoceros pin on my lapel when I last attended a presidential caucus (in 2012). A few people got it, but they were mostly moderates like me.

Did you ever see the old issue of What If? that had, "What If Captain America Ran for President?"
 
Best line, from one Secret Service guy to another: "We're supposed to be protecting him?"
 
Dean Shomshak

As far as the economic consequence of Brexit, companies have been fleeing since the referendum. So my expectation is that post-Brexit, the Conservatives will look at the tax roll and announce that austerity is needed, and use that to cut, cut, cut anything that helps average people, such as the NIH.
 

California is a breakeven state with respect to federal tax dollars.  Secession would be economically devastating, however, even if it were permitted, since trade barriers would go up where none existed previously.  Conversely, the Scots now have an economic choice between the EU and Boris' Brexited Britain.  I'm not an economist but that seems like a no brainer in the long run.

The Highest Bidder

What Beau is missing is that any GOP senator who votes to impeach will instantly lose his corporate funding and his Fox News support and will be primaried from the right.  Trump may be unable to help with voter turnout but the megadonors supporting him sure can.
 
Also, the GOP is now the party of Trump.  Since 2016 literally 40% of GOP congressmen have retired or do not intend to run for reelection in 2020.  Those were the "moderates".  The ones who are left are burn-it-all-down Tea Partiers who are fully on board for Trump's destruction and selloff of the federal government.