Ok guys and gals. After watching Rachel I am scared.

[Kajun Gal]

I am just an old retired lady who sometimes felt a need to speak up. Life was great when I was young and oblivious. I paid no attention to politics.

Now, after the journalist story, I can only pray. And my prayers are for all of us who speak their opinions. I am not sure how long we will be able to do this anymore.

And yes, my concerns came only lately, with the Trump administration. Never before have I been scared to speak my mind. Never.

But, this is crazy stuff. I have been a political geek for years and only lately I have felt free to speak on this site. But, I wonder...are we safe here? Are we free to speak our thoughts? I don't know anymore.

I am not of the "rich and entitled", so I really am unsure about speaking out. I have no political connections to help in a time of need if need be.

These are strange and scary times y'all. I know we can't stay silent, but I also know things can turn quickly if one speaks the truth.

Just saying...y'all be cool. Think I may chill out a while.

Peace and love.

[rusty quoin]

1. I was scared during Bush, but never like this.

[dhol82]

2. Come on, you still have freedom of speech. At least for a while.

Keep your chin up!
I am 72. Figure I will be ok. Tell my grandkids to get to somewhere else.
I keep hoping that we can come back. Will see after November.
I live in a bright blue state. Figure that at some point, after the civil war, I should be ok. The grand kids live in California. Figure that if they stay I can go emigrate.
I think we will survive!

[ProudLib72]

3. Then you didn't watch the first ten minutes of Lawrence...

If you had, you'd be hiding under your bed about now.

[llmart]

5. Some of us have no idea what you're talking about.

[winstars]

6. +1,000,000

[ProudLib72]

10. Just the audio of Saudis torturing and killing the WaPo journalist

And how the Rump said it was ok because he was selling weapons to Saudi and making gazillions of dollars.

[customerserviceguy]

13. I figured that out

The only difference is that US embassy (and other governmental) officials would probably not kill a person who Trump wanted to snuff, while Saudi underlings would fight to be the first one to appease their King.

[ProudLib72]

15. But after the video of Rump telling the press how many gazillions of dollars they were going to pay

Lawrence said that everything the Rump told them was a lie. There were no plans to sell weapons.

Lawrence even had a clip from Fox and Friends in which the Fox hosts were asking how this would affect our relationship with Saudi. When Rump told them it wouldn't, they were in disbelief.

Could Kushner have given them the name of the reporter, and now his father in law is trying to downplay the severity of the situation?

[Grasswire2]

16. He also was selling millions of dollars in real estate to them. Or "is". nt

[ProudLib72]

17. But he had to make it seem like any deals he had with them would benefit the US

It was an outright lie that Lawrence denounced as soon as the clip was over.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

4. Better Dead Than Red.

'Courage is being scared to death, and saddling up anyway.' John Wayne.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

7. Hey CC

I haven't seen any of your GREAT music posts in a while. They were like sunshine on a cloudy day . . . I miss them.

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

8. To HfB...

[Haggis for Breakfast]

12. Thank you, CC.

I needed that. You are an angel !!

[AJT]

9. I feel ya......peace and love to you too.

[dweller]

11. I don't have cable

so don't know what you are afraid of, but if you need to sound off somewhere that you can be assured won't be take wrong PM me anytime

I'm not afraid of these fascists ...
✌🏼️

[SharonAnn]

14. I felt the same thing, watching here. Dread and fear. The voter registration thing, too.

[Grasswire2]

18. It is useful to get the book "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth CenturyL"...

...by Yale holocaust historian Timothy Snyder. $7.95. It tells us what our path should be in this troubled moment.

Also, joining the aclu is not a bad idea as the organization fights to protect our liberty.

Last. Protect and defend our watchdog free press. Our defense is largely up to the reporters.

[lunatica]

21. I give the ACLU a monthly donation

We really need them now.

[Grasswire2]

22. yes

and every new member amplifies their message even if the member can only afford the minimum membership. All hands on deck.

[defacto7]

33. Great book.

I gave away 15 copies to family and friends when it first came out.

[Honeycombe8]

19. I'm cajun, too.

Are you in LA? Rest assured the rest of the country (most of it) isn't as bad as Louisiana. The Trumper effect in LA is horrible. I think it's partly due to the large proportion of uneducated in the state, coupled with poverty and a huge drug problem.

I live in a red community. Dark red. I do speak out, but usually on the Senator FB pages. I get a lot of horrendous flack from the reddies. I would not put a "D" sticker on my car; it would be keyed in a flash.

Pickup trucks, guns, overly churchie people, and the occasional Confederate Flag (rah rah).

But still I do speak out. I'm retired, and if I gotta go, I'm going to go while speaking my mind. I am careful and when and where and what I say, though. I use facts & logic. Not rants.

[Kajun Gal]

26. It's the Duck Dynasty people who screwed La. And Jindal. Yep! Bright red now. Was blue.

Not anymore...

[Honeycombe8]

31. LOL. "Duck Dynasty people." I'm going to steal that from you...

it's a perfect description.

[Kajun Gal]

32. Permission is granted! Enjoy!

[gordianot]

20. I am 66 years old have some health issues.

I will not trespass or provoke a disagreement. On my property it would be a mistake for what passes these days for Fascist thugs to cross my line. In public I will speak out as I please there is nothing anyone can do to me more than my body has already done. I have studied situational awareness hope to give back as well as I get. In the words of the old Pete Seager song “die gedanken sind frei”. I will not run even if the best I do is spit in your eye. The best weapon is vote like your life depends on it, there is no doubt this time we are all on the line.

[nolabear]

23. KG, sometimes I take great comfort in my relative unimportance.

I think DU does get a little attention now and then. Alan Greyson used to check in now and then and some members have written outside work and held local offices. But mostly we inform and share with and booster one another. I don’t think we’re a threat in the “kill them all” sense of the word, because there are far too many higher on that ladder than we are. I know a few people here in other realms but not many. I wouldn’t be scared for DU.

The press and journalism, now, that’s another matter. But I’ve never known harder fighters than press, even at the worst of times. I don’t know if we’ll be fine but I would bet we’ll have a working press, above or underground.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

24. Then they have won and you have capitulated.

Or you can exercise your Constitutional right under the First Amendment which protects you if you criticize the government. And join the ACLU... Nothin' personal, it's just me trying to give you a pep talk. By the way I am 68.

[Kajun Gal]

25. I'm listening and I hear you and you are right! Thanks!

[mchill]

27. If Trump doesn't get us, Climate Change will

[True Dough]

29. Well, Trump is likely accelerating climate change

so they sort of go hand in hand.

[dawg day]

28. It was reading about "Helen," the little girl forced to sign away her rights.

My friend the attorney shrugged and said, "Well, it's not enforceable. Children can't sign contracts." Then he stopped and said, "So why would the government do that? If it's unenforceable?"

I couldn't help myself. "Because they're evil. We have an evil government. Or we have an evil president and a lot of people happy to go along with him."

We have read about this sort of thing-- 1936.

And the terrlble suspicion that they are doing this to force the children into adoption by white Americans without their parents' consent.

This is what the Argentinian junta did with the children of dissidents. They killed the dissidents (at least we're not doing that... well, just sending them back to places they might get killed) and took the kids and gave/sold them to government and military officers.

This is ... frightening. This is what we are becoming.

[malaise]

30. I'm another old lady

but guess what- the most they can do is kill me. I will never be silent and I've always been that way.
I'd rather be dead than live without free speech.