Order for Freedom for Liam

See attachment.

I don't generally recommend to people that they read orders of district court judges for entertainment or edification, but every American ought to read this one. I will supply the text of the final two citations: 

Matthew 19:14

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

John 11:35

Jesus wept.

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Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Immigration and Customs

I feel it's almost unnecessary to say that I favor the complete abolition of ICE and the reengineering of the whole concepts of immigration and customs and their enforcement. But one principle and consequence I would highlight is that we need to do this as it was always intended: administratively. If you are alleged to be in violation, you get regular notice. An opportunity to respond and to defend yourself, including against false accusations. There must be no changes in legal immigration status without fair notice. Which means your kids are not taken out of school in the middle of the school year without notice or preparation. You are not kidnapped off the street and your car left running, which is apparently common practice right now. And, of course, you and anyone protesting your treatment are not brutalized and killed by masked goons and you are not transported to remote places without notice and time and opportunity to contact family and counsel. These are, every one of them, hallmarks of a minimally civilized society. 

Frankly, anyone who doesn't agree with the essence of the foregoing is not someone I want living in America, although probably not much I can do about that. They're certainly not anyone I care to know or have any social contact with. 

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Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Virus-free.www.avast.com

STOP ICE

Us people to Congressional Democrats:  No funding for ICE. None. Zero. 

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Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Virus-free.www.avast.com

Sarah "Sally" C.M. Paine and the abandonment by America of the Maritime Paradigm

Like many on the Leftish side of American politics in the last couple of decades (which isn't very leftish), I have tended to buy into the paradigm that we are suffering through "late stage capitalism" and that our institutions are failing because the essential logic of capitalism is a failure, etc. etc. But I've come to recognize that this is not so much wrong as an inadequate analysis. Europe has, by and large, ameliorated the inequities of capitalism, at least enough to have functioning societies where the overall standard of living is the best ever in the history of the world, and a system of preventing Continental wars, largely promoted by America, has mostly worked, apart from post-USSR-collapse Russia and its conflicts, since the end of World War II. 

Meanwhile, the US has failed to modify the rapaciousness of unregulated capitalism sufficiently and has maintained a gradually failing standard of living from sheer inertia of having started the current (now ending) era of what Sarah Paine calls the maritime paradigm with outsize wealth and power. 

Anyway, I recommend the aforementioned Sarah Paine's analysis as something every educated person needs to listen to. You may disagree with some of what she has to say, but she is extremely well informed and a literal "global thinker" on a scale that very few people in the world actually match. Pyotr Kurzin has been doing a series of interviews with her, which I highly recommend. This is the second: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpElUf-A4Xc&list=TLPQMjcwMTIwMjYa4I-BDKbubA&index=12&pp=gAQBiAQBsAgC

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Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Correction; Watch.. Gov. and AG in Washington: we will protect our people from ICE

Oops. Sorry. Here is the correct link. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYc_bl_U-Kw&list=TLPQMjcwMTIwMjY07eOQ8oahxg&index=14&pp=gAQBiAQBsAgC

Although the original link, a video about how Protaxites, which was a giant plantlike thing up to 8m tall that grew in various parts of our planet more than 100 million years before the dinosaurs, and which apparently represents a clade of the biosphere that evolved completely independently from eukaryotic single celled organisms into what at the time was by far the largest terrestrial organism, and which was apparently not photosynthetic... is pretty interesting, at least to me. 

On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 9:55 AM Bob Brown <hirschmann.brown@gmail.com> wrote:

Not sure how to respond to the video about prototaxites.

Different link needed?

On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 9:18 AM David Studhalter <oldionus@gmail.com> wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqT8Q8plKJ8&list=TLPQMjcwMTIwMjY07eOQ8oahxg&index=12

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Watch.. Gov. and AG in Washington: we will protect our people from ICE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqT8Q8plKJ8&list=TLPQMjcwMTIwMjY07eOQ8oahxg&index=12

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Say their names

Say their names. 

Renée Good. 

Alex Pretti. 

May their murders not have been in vain. 

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Rick Wilson: righteous anger

The Grapes of Wrath 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E28Cbsh8lzA&list=TLPQMjUwMTIwMjZ9_1YHAzLfcg&index=7

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

HCR on what happened yesterday.... please watch

Please watch Heather Cox Richardson on the Federal Agent murder of Alex Pretti (because that's what it almost certainly was).* This was painful to watch. Unless I'm just no judge of these things, at the end she was on the verge of tears. Which is how I feel. Our country has reached an inflection point. This cannot go on. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r8fI8DhI0o&list=TLPQMjUwMTIwMjZ9_1YHAzLfcg&index=2&pp=gAQBiAQBsAgC

---------------------------------------------

- * In case you haven't seen the footage, there is footage showing one of the agents leaving the "huddle" with the  distinctive looking gun in his hand well before the shots were fired, and the earlier video showing Pretti with something in his hand quite clearly depicts him holding his easily distinguished phone. 

............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Unfuckingbelievable

Sen, Chris Murphy just posted this on Bluesky: 

Pam Bondi just sent a letter to Minnesota officials saying ICE will leave if the state turns over its voter database to Trump.

My comment/repost:

You have got to be fuckimg kidding me. They are out front and admitting that it's extortion: help us cheat and destroy democracy and we won't send the gestapo after your people. Minnesota needs to SUE the Trump administration immediately. If the courts won't stop this, we're doomed. 

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Video of yet another ICE extrajudicial execution... apparently

Horrendous.

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

ICE must be reined in now, and reformed top to bottom

I admit I am unable at this moment to cite chapter and verse, but it is my understanding that the Supreme Court has ruled in the past that the 4th amendment protects persons... not just citizens... in their homes from unreasonable search and seizure, and that what that means is that without a judicial warrant (not an "administrative warrant" created by law enforcement itself) attesting to probable cause  (not 'reasonable suspicion') that a crime has been committed and a person believed on credible evidence to be inside, or evidence of the commission of a crime, same standard, government agents may not enter, and may not damage property or unduly harass and intimidate the householder. ICE, and this regime, has apparently declared that they do not have to abide by these Constitutional rights. 

Although it's complicated and there are other principles involved, they also cannot stop you and demand you provide proof of citizenship, and detain you if you do not have it, simply on the basis that there have been "illegal employees" around an area, or what you look like, or because you've been peacefully protesting their actions. Search of your person is also protected, although a "pat down' for weapons is a recognized exception to ensure the safety of officers. 

This is a red line. We cannot allow the wholesale violation of the Constitution by this regime and its illegal Gestapo. What is happening in Minnesota proves that Americans, in large numbers do get this. 

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

And tell your Senators   not one penny for ICE until they stop illegal searches, seizures, and unlawful detention. 

Must watch

Please watch this. It's pretty scary, but it's true. Here

 

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Pelosi announces Democrats will take back the house "in the midterms"

Taking back the House in the midterms is not enough! We need to find the money, the means, and the guts to pressure Republican switchovers and resignations to take back the House as soon as possible! Before the midterms! And we need to make sure we are taking every opportunity to increase our chances of taking the Senate too. AND, we need to engage on all fronts. Stop cooperating with the regime. Refuse compromises that don't include stopping the tariffs, ending the ICE gestapo occupation of our cities, ending Trump's corruption and bribe taking, stopping illegal wars, restoring Congressional war powers, canceling the threats to Canada, Greenland and Europe, restoring support for Ukraine. Democrats need to insist that since we have the majority on our side, we're going to start acting like it! 

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

State sponsored Child Kidnaping

After taking his father into custody, ICE arrested and took into custody this five year old boy in the cold of Winter in the American heartland. 

My heart is heavy. This is not the America my ancestors came to to make a decent life for themselves and their posterity. 

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............

Enough is enough! 

Demand that Congress impeach and remove Trump now. 

Coherent layperson level discussion of Quantum Theory -- Sean Carroll

I think this lecture by the Physicist/Philosopher Sean Carroll explains what physics teaches us about how the world is constructed on a non-mathematical, layperson-comprehensible level, about as well as it can be done. Literally everyone who wants to think of themselves as intelligent and aware of the world we live in should understand physics on this level. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9YiM7LZ6b0&list=TLPQMjEwMTIwMjZ1Pas-BQEaTQ&index=4

Graffitto

My favorite graffitto, found all around the country in various versions this week: 

We don't want Greenland. 

We want health care. 

Foremost questions

The foremost questions Americans have to ask themselves... and their elected representatives... are 1) are we really going to let the lunacy of one madman and his sycophants and hangers-on destroy our civil order, our prosperity, and our place in the community of nations? And if not, (2) what the hell can we do about it? 

It seems the urgency of these questions increases exponentially by the day, and something's gotta give, and soon. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

America's crisis

It's pretty f-ing terrifying to think that our only real hope is three pronged. 1. Impeach and remove Trump. 2. (At the same time, because there isn't time to do them sequentially) Sane billionaires and politicos offer rewards to enough Republicans to quit or switch allegiance so that control of the House flips. 3. Don't give Vance, who has demonstrated his lack of compliance with the law, a chance to appoint a VP; proceed to impeach him too. Hello, President Jeffries. I give this scheme about a 1% chance of success. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

This must end

This Greenland nonsense must stop. Congress is on notice. The Mad King must be stopped. He has declared the intention to completely destroy our country's legitimacy, its economy, and its interactions with the rest of the world. We simply cannot allow one madman and his lunatic fascist followers to carry on with this. Congress must act. Now. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

Lebensraum

« Dänemark ist ein winziges Land mit einer winzigen Wirtschaft und einem winzigen Militär. Sie können Norwegen nicht verteidigen. Sie können das Gebiet Norwegens nach keiner gängigen Auffassung kontrollieren."
   "Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Norway. They cannot control the territory of Norway under any understanding."

--Hermann Göring, April 1940

OK. Göring didn't actually say that. It was Stephen Miller. This week. Just substituting Greenland for Norway. But you have to admit it could've been Göring. The Nazis invaded a sovereign country on April 6, 1940, Denmark, and went on to invade Norway at the same time, without so much as a declaration of war. Just, we're bigger, you're there, we're taking you. How are they different from Stephen Miller's view of America? 

This fills me with fear and dread I have not known up to now, even under Trump's second reign so far. The fact that the Treaty of Washington is the Law of the United States and committing US military against a NATO ally is a crime doesn't even seem to occur to them. If such an order were given, it would be, by definition, illegal, yet these evil people seem to be prepared to put our military officers and service people in this untenable position, completely at odds with everything the US stood for in fighting World War II, without so much as a by your leave or consideration for the fact that it would make war criminals of them all were they to obey such orders. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

Now Trump wants Iceland too!! WTF.

Now, no joke, Trump's idiotic ambassador to Iceland is threatening to take over Iceland, too, in addition to Greenland. Iceland; a nation which has existed for more than 1000 years. 

As an American citizen, I repudiate the Trump regime. I disavow their territorial aggrandizement aims as unAmerican, undemocratic, and decidedly not supported by the majority of Americans. I consider these actions illegitimate, dangerous, and illegal. 

For years Americans have had the sense that Europeans, while they respect our military power, have resented and feared us more than loved us. And now we see they were apparently right to feel that way. I am deeply ashamed of the regime in Washington and wish fervently for its electoral defeat at the earliest possible opportunity. I certainly hope it is in time to thwart these insane schemes. And that the next administration is capable of undoing this damage to the maximum extent possible, starting with abject apology to all the NATO countries, and especially Denmark and Iceland, (including return of any seized territory, should that come to pass), and continuing with renewed dedication to help Ukraine ward off the aggressive invasion of its territory by the autocratic imperialist regime in Moscow. (Which the Trump regime increasingly resembles). 

Trump will eventually be defeated and at least some of his destructive insanity undone. I have to believe that. But how much easier it would have been had Americans at large had enough sense not to have elected him in the first place, and certainly not to have elected him a second time! But we must not kid ourselves. It is not just Trump. There are thousands of enablers and fellow travelers in his attempt to transform the US into a Fascist state. We are right in the middle of the most fundamental, and gravest political struggle for control of our destiny as a nation since the Civil War in the middle of the 19th century. We are the majority, but they have the advantage of holding the reins. There is no guarantee that democracy will prevail. But if we do not resist, and demand of our elected representatives that they join us in resisting this, we can be assured that we will lose, and American democracy will fail and vanish from the face of the Earth. We simply cannot let that happen. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

Are GLP-1 drugs the next "miracle" drug for older people?

In my lifetime, it seems the percentage of older adults taking first one of several classes of blood pressure drugs, and/or one of the statins, has gone from none in the latter case and very few in the former, to these drugs being very commonly prescribed. Most of the people my age I know are taking one or both. 

Now it really looks like GLP-1 RA drugs (Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists, a mouthful, like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy; NovoNordisk) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound; Lilly) may be next. And not only, or possibly not even primarily, because of weight loss. See this: https://news.cuanschutz.edu/news-stories/the-underappreciated-benefits-of-glp-1-receptor-agonists?utm_source=chatgpt.com

There is also some evidence that it may mitigate, slow, or even help prevent the onset of neurovascular dementia, including Alzheimer's, although that's an area that requires a lot more study. Oral forms of these drugs are about to appear on the market, and it seems likely that other, better versions with better unwanted side effect profiles, are likely to appear in the relatively near future. The usual pattern with these things is that costs also slowly come down; to some extent they already have. And insurability, right now pretty dismal, usually improves as well. 

ICE agent execution murder of an American citizen in Minneapolis

No matter how much they lie, just like January 6, we saw what happened. Please remember that ultimately power resides with the people, but only if we demand it and stand together. El pueblo unido jamás será vencido.




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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

Watch ICE try to intimidate a peaceful observer

This is what we're up against. But you notice it was all threats. Because observers are getting smart. He was probably livestreaming that video so that even if they arrested him and screwed with his phone the video is already out there. In incipient fascism, ordinary people have to have the courage to resist. In full fledged totalitarianism, which is far from impossible, resistance is a matter of life and death and ordinary people usually become cowed out of fear. THAT is what THEY WANT. 

https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social/post/3mbysxko42225

Richard Feynman explains it all for you. (No equations).

Richard Feynman explains it all for you. (No equations). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr0wzv16RnQ&list=TLPQMDgwMTIwMjbSUatNDsXH3g&index=7

I love the way he says you can't explain electomagnetism in terms of familiar things. It's the familiar things that are explained by electromagnetism. It is what's fundamental. 

Seth Moulton on just how fucked up we are

Watch this interesting conversation between Joanna Coles and Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton (Mass.):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKoZDi_oQio&list=TLPQMDgwMTIwMjbSUatNDsXH3g&index=3 

Greenland

The Guardian is reporting that Rubio is going to meet with Danish officials to discuss Greenland. I honestly hope that what they say to him is some version of this:  There is nothing to discuss. We abhor even the suggestion that the USA, a founding member and driving force behind NATO, would even consider forcing a NATO member to give up territory. Greenland is not for sale; we have cooperated with security arrangements for 80 years and will continue to do so, but if you seriously think we're going to cede Greenland, the ties of which to Denmark go back 1000 years, to the US, on any terms whatsoever, you can go home and tell your president we said to fuck off. The whole purpose and ethos of the postwar alliances is to prevent wars of aggression and the seizing of territory by force. We reject the notion outright that the US  is any exception, when it should be the example to the world. 

There is nothing good that can come from giving in to naked bullying by this regime. And I think the Danes know this perfectly well. 

We have simply got to get rid of this regime

I don't think I'm alone in thinking that the Trump regime even talking about attacking a NATO member (Greenland is part of the territory or Greenland, and is represented in the Danish parliament) is fucking outrageous? This guy needs his ass impeached in the worst possible way! 

Pardon my language, but SERIOUSLY!!??

Get this straight morons:  Denmark  = Friend and Ally.  

Russia = duplicitous untrustworthy adversary pursuing interests inimical to our own almost across teh board.  

Of course the Russians "support" an action that would probably kill NATO outright. 

Almost every adult in the US understands this. It's not really that hard. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

Lawlessness rampant without checks or even rationale

Can someone please explain to me how it's supposed to not be a violation of International Law, and just general principles of sovereignty, (not to mention our own laws), to militarily intrude on another country's territory, kidnap its de facto leader and his wife, shanghai them back to our country to charge them with violation of our own laws, not even alleged to have been committed on our territory? (Is US law now in effect everywhere in the world?)

Forget about who's a bad guy and who isn't, if you play fast and loose with these principles aren't you risking that when the shoe is on the other foot, others will do it to our citizens? And have no worse a rationale for it than we do as a nation?

And if that's not enough, to then bigfoot around the place threatening the government of the other country with all kinds of undefined bad consequences if they presume to "interfere" with our objectives? Which explicitly include expropriating the other country's natural resources?

Oh, right. No, of course not. Because there is no law-based rationale for this. It's the regime of the schoolyard bully, pure and simple. Give me your lunch money, or I'll beat you up. 

Maduro is unquestionably a bad guy, and arguably not the legitiate ruler of Venezuela since there's pretty good evidence he stole the most recent election. (Something Trump's buddy Putin does every time, don't forget). But who appointed our president to unilaterally stomp all over another country, without consultation with allies or partners, without the approval of his own people or their elected representatives, and in violation of our Constitution, our laws, and international treaties and recognized international law? 

I am so ashamed of the lawless government of my country I can barely even talk about it. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

David Rothkopf on Venezuela debacle

Somewhat more cynical than Heather Cox Richardson, but David Rothkopf's take on the Venezuela debacle is also must-read. 

https://open.substack.com/pub/davidrothkopf/p/the-fafo-boys-are-about-to-find-out?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

Watch HCR to get a clear view

Please watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JXQhff9aGc 

HCR is moderate in tone and analytical in content, but she makes the key points for why this overthrow of Venezuela is so terrible for our country and the world, and why how bad Maduro was is very much a secondary issue. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783

A dark day for the world

It pains me no end to say it, but in the wake of the forcible toppling of the Venezuelan regime any single tatter of America's moral suasion that remained... including with regard to Russian aggression in Ukraine... is now gone. Our government as a bad actor in the world is in the same league as Putin. Worse, so far at least, than Xi or Modi. No doubt less nakedly evil than World War 2 Japan and Germany, but how is this different from the assault on Czechoslovakia in 1938-39, or in 1968 for that matter, or the Russians' invasions of Georgia or Ukraine in our time? Or countless other wars of aggression by imperialist bully states? We have set forth no moral doctrine greater than "we're the king of the hill and fuck you." The drugs rationale is a law enforcement justification for imperialism: not only wrong but fundamentally dishonest. I hang my head in shame for what my country is doing. 

I not only fear but expect that it will give license to every other would be aggressor to return the world to the kind of power politics that led to both of the great world wars in the 20th century. Exactly the wrong path for us now, in the midst of the greatest environmental crisis in humanity's history, now all but forgotten by most people. 

Let's not overlook that not only under international law but our own laws, this action is blatantly illegal. There is no conceivable good faith interpretation of any Congressional authorization for this act of full scale war, a power reserved in our Constitution for Congress alone. Does anyone doubt that Dictator Trump has no intention of even seeking such authorization, having once again trashed the Constitution and arrogated power unto himself? A dark day indeed for America, and the whole world. 

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Silence is complicity. Americans who believe in democracy MUST RESIST. 

"If the freedom of speech is taken away-- then dumb and silent, we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

                       --George Washington, 1783