Sean Connery explaining to Kevin Costner what is necessary to take down Robert DeNiro's Al Capone...
In a nut shell, maybe we need to stop bringing knives to a gun fight. Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, maybe when they put one of ours in the hospital, they need to notify next of kin where to collect the remains of one of theirs "killed graveyard dead". Maybe we need to answer the question "And THEN what?" As in "everything possible under the law".... AND THEN WHAT? We are fighting against an enemy, not a group of fellow citizens. They glorify violence, praise abusers and thugs and celebrate the marginalization of "the other" as freely as they consume oxygen. They are beyond reason and they do not care to compromise because they are 'winning' on their scorecard, regardless of the lasting damage to the concept of the Republic that they are creating hourly.
Maybe we need to start thinking about how to actually WIN and DEFEAT these sons of bitches and less about concepts like "the law" (which they laughingly flaunt and abuse at every fucking turn while we wear it like a goddamn anvil around our necks).
Maybe asymmetric civil warfare is upon us already and maybe its time to act.
Maybe...
Or, we can keep doing whats currently worked so well, doing the things that led to control of nothing, wielding no power, watching helplessly as our rights are snatched away, as many of us are no longer viewed as independent agents under the law but more akin to property of others or the state; or wosre seeing them sold to the highest bidder.
To all of THAT funhouse shit, we get the bonus of being painted with the international brush that believes all Americans are religious nutbags dedicated to guns, bigotry and hate and who couldn't tell science from science fiction if their lives depended on it.
The Europeans are horrified by us and mystified that we have fallen so far, so fast and are determined to keep going.
The Chinese are amused and believe we are a devolved collection of squabbling chimps again. They are howling with laughter.
The Russians are cowering from Putin, but Putin thinks we are imbeciles solely based on Trump alone.
Our North American neighbors are seeking trade and security partners elsewhere and are prepared to cut us loose as well.
We cannot win this war AND remain above the fray with clean hands and clear consciences.
When the law is no longer above all, when one man is a self-declared or styled "king" and one party is his slavish Iago or Wormtongue, the law serves none but those willing to pick it up and beat others over the head with it like Kubrickian chimps under the gaze of the monolith.
The days of navel gazing and hand wringing over propriety and civility are coming to a very small integer, and the time of choosing sides and doing whatever it takes to survive are nigh.
= new reply since forum marked as read