2/ "Here’s what millions of Americans seem to be getting wrong.
The truth is that whatever you think about the 45th presidency — whether you remember 2017-21 as when lunch at Five Guys wasn’t $24 or whether you recall the Muslim ban or families ripped apart at the border — doesn’t really matter much. That’s bc a Trump 47 presidency would look nothing like the first one, and nothing like anything most Americans have even seen before, unless they’ve been hanging out in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary."
@GottaLaff Remember that in 45’s first term:
-the Democrats controlled the House.
-Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine
-Israel wasn’t obliterating Gaza
-Earth hadn’t yet experienced its hottest year ever
-we didn’t know that 45 was hoarding national secrets in cardboard boxes for unknown purposes
Who knows what he might do to make some of these situations even worse a second time around? Spread enough lies to incite civil unrest to declare martial law, perhaps his unfulfilled goal post Jan 6?
3/ "We know Trump’s third run for the White House centers on plans to rule as an autocratic “Red Caesar” because he has told this to voters in rallies and interviews, again and again. What’s more, the specific blueprint is hardly secret, but spelled out explicitly by the candidate’s advisers in reams upon reams of publicly available documents — especially the nearly 1,000-page Project 2025 plan drafted by the Heritage Foundation and other far-right think tanks."
4/ "What’s striking about Trump’s campaign: un-Trump-like willingness to learn something new: how to be a better authoritarian ruler. His team is studying both what did and didn’t happen during his presidency +gleaning insights from even closer ties w world’s growing network of other rt-wing populist strongmen...
But the paranoid style also fits a presidency that he’s said would be motivated by “retribution” against both his own enemies & the leftist elites despised by his most rabid supporters"
5/ "Critical for both Orbán and for Trump’s second-term blueprint is firing dedicated civil-service employees throughout the government and replacing them with functionaries loyal to the party and its strongman. Trump proved this past week that his plans should be taken not just seriously but literally when he engineered a massive, Orbán-esque purge at the Republican National Committee, firing some 60 employees, many of them veterans."
6/ "Under Project 2025 blueprint for a Trump presidency, the WH wouldn’t just fill current 4,000 political posts in govt w hardcore MAGA loyalists, but change classifications so that as many as 40K employees would become “at-will.” This means they could be fired by the WH— much like the sacked RNC staffers —& replaced by minions similar to Bobb or Lara Trump. It would remove the web of non-political public servants that Trump claims was “Deep State” that thwarted many of his first-term schemes"
7/ "This is at the core of what voters aren’t getting about how different, and how radical, Trump’s second act would be...A new MAGA team might act on a GOP House referral to prosecute President Joe Biden, or not object to a mass Jan. 6 pardon...
Project 2025 scheme would mean that the bad aspects of Trump’s first presidency would be many times worse the second time around. This is especially true for immigration"
Sadly, the Project 2025 stuff ain't going away, even if Trump loses. Reckon the next Republican who makes it into the white house will use the same blueprint.
Perhaps Biden's 2nd term can install safeguards to the system, using Project 2025 as a checklist? Here's hoping.
8/ "Project 2025 calls on its hoped-for next president to issue an executive order to reject any federal science tied to the National Climate Assessment and to gut if not altogether kill key offices like those within the Energy Department tasked with the transition to clean power. Trump’s second election would all but ensure that America will fall short of the carbon-reduction goals meant to stave off the worst climate disasters."
9/ "A lot of Trump supporters seem eager for the apocalypse. One of the most misunderstood aspects of Trump’s blueprint is its deep roots in Orbán-style Christian nationalism. ..Writer Jenny Cohn recently reported that a key player in the Project 2025 team is the Center for Renewing America that openly promotes “Christian nationalism” for Trump’s would-be presidency, working with advocates for ideas like the end of no-fault divorce or curbs on contraception."
10/ "Why aren’t voters rebelling against this with torches and pitchforks? Some of it is surely that “collective amnesia” about the worst of Trump’s time in the Oval Office, coupled with overfond memories of a stable economy in his first three years before it melted down amid COVID-19 in his fourth. And of course, there’s a sizable minority of Americans, especially Christian fundamentalists, who want authoritarianism in a president who would smite their enemies."
11/ "But the biggest reason for the missing alarm about the prospect of Trump 47 might simply be a lack of information. The New Republic’s Greg Sargent recently reported on a poll of 400 voters deemed gettable for Biden in three swing states, including Pennsylvania, and found the vast majority didn’t know about Trump’s “dictator for a day” comments, or that he’d echoed Adolf Hitler in calling enemies “vermin” and claiming migrants are “poisoning the blood” of America."
12/12 "You can call it voter apathy, but a lot of the blame belongs to a mainstream media that’s not banging the pots and pans like it should be and remains much more obsessed about the horse-race odds of who wins the election than the stakes of an undemocratic presidency. One of the great tragedies of an American dictatorship will be when citizens claim they weren’t warned about this. Because the truth is out there."
@GottaLaff@willbunch Meanwhile, only AP news has reported the stupidity of denying Jan 6 never happened or was 'just people visiting'. Really? ONE news outlet?
@GottaLaff@willbunch It’s beyond my understanding how the Democrats didn’t choose anyone better than senile Biden. There are supposed to be the two best candidates, and apparently both parties chose the worst. Unbelievable.
@GottaLaff@jirirbr@willbunch There should be a function in social media that takes a close look at someone who has been blocked as much as this obvious troll deserves to be, and asks whether he should be allowed to stay.
I have made a scholastic study of the Third Reich for the past thirty years. Rest assured, I have a clue how much worse it would be. I'm scared to death of Agent Orange.
@bitcodavid@GottaLaff@willbunch I'm trying to decide whether getting our passports up to date is overreacting. We're too old and decrepit to transplant readily, and our resources are meager. But...history is looping back to nightmare territory, and the nation is refusing to wake up. Contingency planning for the worst while hoping for the best. Never thought I'd live to see this, the GOP welcoming the leadership of Nazis and fascists; worse, under the thumb of a certifiably demented man-child.
We applied for perm residency back in 2018 or so, and it took 3 years. Our age is usually a factor, but we got in somehow, likely because of Mr. Laffy's work.
I wrote 2 blog posts on the How and Why of this, if you want to see them. Just let me know.
@GottaLaff
yeah, we made the decision to have a place to go, ourselves. Costa Rica has a few rather reasonable paths for residency...well worth looking into if folk are looking at options. (Portugal was a thought...but it seems to be slipping as well (sigh) @lin11c@bitcodavid@Cotopaxi
Not particularly? Warmest I have dealt with here is in the 90s. (I am told that the heat has been unusual) In WV, I was dealing with over 100 sometimes.
@lin11c@GottaLaff@bitcodavid@Cotopaxi There are a LOT of microclimates. You can look about for one that works for you, (We chose where we are for family and schools. It is a bit warmer than I would have normally gone for. (60s at night-90s are the range here)
@GottaLaff@willbunch No. Everyone knows how authoritarian and bloodthirsty he is.
They just don't think it will have anything to do w them. And it was only one? Two? generations ago white families were crying "But things like that don't happen here!" about school shootings.
Clearly never heard the genuine Nazi argument that just because someone is a good person is no reason not to kill them.
They should probably know about that.
@GottaLaff@willbunch All I can say is wait until November. Because most of us Democrats will vote in droves when it matters. And there isn't a damn thing that these right wing trumplicans can do about it.
To these so called undecided voters: Things can always get worse. It only seems to get that way under a republican leadership. Kinda like how the national debt grew by about $7 trillion under TFG. So, just "vote, blue no matter who."
@rlstone4dems@willbunch They're already doing something about it. They've gone to court and will continue to, to change election outcomes. So droves or no droves, they'll cheat and sue their asses off.
He's hired much more lethal operatives this time around.
@GottaLaff@rlstone4dems@willbunch I'm deeply concerned too... I don't know how long we can continue like this... It's almost as if this is a never ending cycle...
Obviously, these swing voters (by definition, not MAGA cult members) don't pay ANY attention to the news (excluding Fox) to not understand all this and still support Trump. They must be living under a rock to be so clueless, and I don't know what (legitimate) media can do about that.
@GottaLaff@willbunch recent poll showing Trump up by 2 points has a margin of error of 3.1%. So we can not tell if Trump is ahead or tied or behind slightly from this poll. I wish the media would start reporting margins of error along with poll results.
I understand your concerns about the RNC take over, however organizations with significant layoffs take months or more to recover effectiveness.
I don't think this reorg is going to be handled very well, I could be wrong, but you can expect >20% decline in productivity from the survivors and that means less money raised (for example).
The purge of many experienced employees suggests a substantial loss of institutional knowledge and the person running things, Lara Trump, has no experience running this sort of operation.
Trump himself has a long history of mismanagement and destructive management practices in his own businesses.
They only have weeks to get this fixed. I doubt it will go well.
@GottaLaff I always appreciate your commentary however in this case I am pretty convinced that they are going to loot the RNC and fail completely to reorganize it into an effective organization. There's not much money in the RNC right now and there are literally weeks to go until the election.
Trump does not care about anyone but himself so he will have a lot of heartburn about spending money on other candidates when he does not have to do it.
@dangrsmind I appreciate that and agree. But while that's happening, they're dangerous. The fact that they've hired smarter, more lethal operatives now is nothing to ignore. The fact that they're already going to court to change election outcomes is nothing to ignore.
They're already more dangerous than his last Keystone Kops team.
The GOP is already destroyed. Now MAGA is destroying democracy with more force.
@GottaLaff I'm not convinced there is anyone "smarter" in the RNC now but I am not an expert on these people and their resumes.
As far as the Michigan court case, I definitely share your concern there. However, there's no reason to believe the RNC is the most effective group to be running that. I seriously doubt this is true.
It's a clown show and it is clowns all the way down.
I remain optimistic that there is going to be a serious wipeout of the Trump party in November.
@dangrsmind You must not have watched Maddow on Monday. Or maybe it was another show, can't remember. They ticked off who the hirees are now. One is Chris LaCivitam and yes, he's "smarter."
So are some of the others. I wish I could find the segment for you.
They're not all "clowns" this time around. Be aware.
@GottaLaff I don't watch any television so nope I didn't see it.
The problem Trump has is that his policies are unpopular and he is also unpopular.
2020 election was quite close, with some states being decided with under 5% difference (e.g. Florida and North Carolina)
If even 5% of Republicans can't bring themselves to vote for Trump he loses in a historic wipeout.
That said, it is way too early to say what will happen. If I am forced to make a prediction today I will predict a historic wipeout of Trump and rebuke of his policies.
@dangrsmind Trump has no policies. He's only out for Trump.
I don't doubt that the popular vote will be for Biden. It was for Hillary too. That's not what matters.
And now that his team is more adept, I'm not confident. At all. They're going to be way better at cheating, rigging, legal blocks, etc. They already are, and now we have AI in the mix.
And since you don't watch TV, you missed out on one hell of an explainer of all of this.
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