I saw the President sitting down and being all frumpy rather than standing on a platform and saluting the troops as they walked by.

This is actually the dark side of the social contract. When enough of the plebians have access to bread and circuses, they're content not to stand against empire.

What happened was too many people stopped getting theirs, and voted for King Heron (the fascist autocrats) instead of King Log (the neoliberals).

If the status quo is a crisis for you, and your options are only to vote for more of the same or put everyone in crisis, it makes sense to vote Heron over Log.

That's how we got here in the US. And many industrialized nations are facing similar paradgms. In fact, the current push towards liberal representatives outside the US is because Trump and MAGA serve a stark reminder how bad it is.

Which isn't how bad it's going to get unless we can, by a sociological miracle, get organized enough to general strike.

Then we'll see regime change and reform...provided we demand it.

There will be blood, just hopefully in the tens of thousands rather than tens of millions.

So did the Brevard County sheriff's department murder anyone today? Or beat them brutally? Or otherwise dispense unjustified violence?

So it means we all get to be Spartacus.

Too quick, though a classic.

Falling into a deep canyon (or from the top of Notre-Dame) would give him a moment to think about what he's done. More so, being stuck in a lamp in the Cave of Wonders.

I am especially particular to the horror of being torn apart and eaten by hyenas (that you've just betrayed), but I've reserved that for people higher up on the Trump hierarchy.

I may be thinking of the July Revolution of 1830, in which case you're right. They're not the same, just related.

GIMP: Take brick wall, make a block of text, and then project it on the same perspective axes. I thought it'd catch attention and look cool.

I was in a hurry. I didn't catch the misspelling until it was too late.

GIMP. I practiced!

Listen, years ago I rode with Juárez against Emperor Maximilian. I lost many chickens but I thought it was worth it to be free. When Porfirio became President, I supported him – but he stole my chickens. Then came Huerta and he stole my chickens. Then it was Carranza’s term, and he stole my chickens too. Now comes Pancho Villa to liberate me and the first thing he does is steal my chickens.(…) What makes one different from the others? My chickens don’t know. All over the world revolutions come and go. Presidents rise and fall. They all stole your chickens. The only thing to change is the name of the man who takes them.

―Old Man in Pueblo, Young Indiana Jones

Or for a more modern version

The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace: They never are.

Um, a lot gets done without violence, including regime change. In fact, nothing swells the numbers of a movement like state brutality on peaceful protests, and that is amplified with the ubiquity of the cell-phone camera and the internet.

This is not to say a movement by violence is bad, just that it can detract sympathizers.

But don't worry, when the regime has to choose between giving up (say in the face of a general strike) and sending out the goons, they'll always choose the latter. No one tosses the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom. It's the same paradigm that leaves us with senile geriatrics unwilling to relinquish the power of office until it is pried from their cold, dead hands.

Usually, by then, the military has realized the regime is illegal and as luney as Aerys II Targaryen (The Mad King, who Jamie slew, SoIaF) and is willing to do the wet-work. By artillery if necessary.

Then again, destruction of property like burning the Waymo cabs, is a common necessity. That wasn't the act of rioters, but saboteurs. Waymos are snitches and have been reporting to ICE the location of targeted civilians.

Yep. Saw it after I posted it.

ETA In full disclosure, it should be bystanders and sympathizers but I was in a hurry.