What I can’t reconcile, is that trump is a moron. Yes he is a bully too. But it has never seemed that he can make long range plans other than watching TV the next day. Makes me wonder if anyone is running this circus.
I believe that Hitler, and Putin had/have long range plans. I don’t think that Trump is capable of such a thing.
Well, I hope she’s paying for some good security (she wouldn’t get Secret Service protection). Because there is unlikely to be a shortage of Trump fans who’d feel they’d be rewarded* for making the attempt.
*Any Trump fan of the mindset to think this is a good idea, probably believes Trump would pardon him (or her). I have no idea whether murdering a member of the US House is a federal crime or a state one (homicide, in whatever state the crime takes place). But the point is, hypothetical crime-planners probably believe Trump would grant a pardon. And adopt them, too.
He’s already promised to pay the legal fees of campaign attendees who beat up hecklers—and he never faced any consequences for it. So his fans are probably primed to go.
It took me a while to get over that. Authoritarians are such for a reason, right? They know what they’re doing, right? Apparently not. Sometimes it’s just ego and the craving for power. Not that it matters: internment camps for children are internment camps for children and racism is racism. Maybe we’ll find out the why of it someday, maybe there is no why other than pettiness and spite, but right now reasons why don’t matter.
Trump is fighting for his survival. His plan is to disrupt and destroy, which is all the planning that is necessary to seriously damage the America that has been built over 2 centuries. What Trump needs is help. He’s getting it from Russia, from American oligarchs, from their puppets in Congress, and their MAGAbots that vote for this nonsense. Trump is not waging this war on democracy and decency alone.
Stealing this…
Yes, this.
But then authoritarians cross lines. They cross the law. They cross people. They make enemies. There comes a point when they realize they can’t just beat their opposition; they have to crush them and annihilate them. The further down the road they go, the longer they are allowed to get away with it, the more enemies they make, and the more they have to crush. That’s what a lot of Trump’s supporters don’t understand. One day, some of them will become his enemy, for not doing enough to demonstrate loyalty, falling victim to his ever-intensifying paranoia.
With regard to planning, I doubt that Hitler planned it all by himself. He didn’t plan the details of the SS. He didn’t initially even understand how to obtain power through legitimate democratic means. He started out as an eccentric man shouting in beer halls. He had help along the way. Even if you don’t like the Hitler analogy - and I agree it is often hyperbolic - there are other authoritarians to use as examples.
People are seriously underestimating Trump’s long-term ability to destroy the country. That’s because they assume that authoritarians are cunning geniuses who start out with some master plan that gets implemented to perfection years in advance. In reality, they are narcissistic egomaniacs with an exaggerated view of self-competence, which frequently leads spectacular examples of incompetence. But they get away with it because the time is right for them, and because they are masters of manipulation. They connect with people’s emotions and understand how to frame a discussion, how to destroy the idea of shared truth, how to make people question reality, how to play groups of people against each other, and how to crush their enemies.
What’s happening right now shouldn’t concern us - it should terrify the living shit out of us. And motivate us to correct this potentially fatal mistake at the ballot box this November.
Putting children in internment camps sends one clear, unambiguous message to his supporters and to anyone who might be inclined to lean in his direction: they are the enemy. Just being born and being in the wrong country makes them the enemy. They are invaders. And those who support them in any way are also his enemy. What we’re witnessing is not just practice, it’s also prelude…for anyone who opposes him.
‘Why Do You Hate Us?’ He Asked. ‘Because You’re Mexicans,’ She Replied.
My bolding.
No, thump did not invent racism or hatred of ethnic groups, but he is LEGITIMIZING and PROMOTING it from the primary leadership position in our country. By example he is encouraging it and inviting it to crawl out from under the rocks where it usually hides.
Maybe in the long run that’s good because it forces us to confront what we are living with. But in the meantime there are victims whose lives will never be the same.
The racism and animosity is horrifying by itself.
In addition to that, this is a dynamic that can be easily exploited by Trumpists and ultra-nationalists. The more that this animosity continues, the more likely it is to provoke counter-reactions. And it is those reactions that Trumpists - who play by absolutely no rules at all - will use to their advantage. They will ignore their own provocation and instead assert that they are the ones who have been victimized. They will shamelessly lie about it, and they will use those lies to justify extreme measures to control the rest of us. That is what is meant by a Reichstag fire event. This is what the Nazis did. This is what Putin did. This is what Erdogan did. This is what Chavez and now Maduro did. The example of Maxine Waters should give us a glimpse into what we can expect. But that’s just a small glimpse.
Trump is threatening to tax Harley Davidson due to the company having the nerve to respond to his tariffs:
“A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country-never! Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end - they surrendered, they quit! The Aura will be gone and they will be taxed like never before!”
That’s right, Republican party, the leader of your party which has for decades been the party of no taxes is talking about taxing like never before. Tell me again how you haven’t sold your soul, GOP?
That’s right. Try to tax a specific company because your stupid fucking policies are hurting them. This is the logic of Trump.
I’ve been going through Nazi Megastructures which is not only covering physical entities like the railroad network or the series of fortifications in Italy, but more nebulous constructs. Last night I watched the episode “Hitler’s Propaganda Machine” and it was frightening to draw the parallels between what was then and what is now. The opening lines:
Substitute Mexicans where appropriate.
It’s not being forced on us from the outside, we are doing it to ourselves.
And it also sounds an awful lot like a Bill of Attainder, which is expressly forbidden by the Constitution. But then, Trump never bothers checking on constitutionality before running his mouth. This would be the second unconstitutional thing he’s asked for this week.
You’d never met a bully before? My 5th grade teacher was moved from 11th to 5th in hopes that he’d have less clashes with the little kids than he did with the teens. He got my class as his first 5th; let’s just say we weren’t very good at accepting “because I say so and I’m the teacher” as a reason for anything. His main reason to become a teacher appeared to be “getting a bunch of captive targets I can (try to) humiliate”.
We couldn’t get rid of him back then, but he was one of the first casualties when my generation started joining the PTA. The US shouldn’t take as long to get rid of Mr. Orange; his presence is already spurring a new generation of politicians on both sides of the alley.
Bill of Attainder? Do you even think Trump knows which branch of government levies taxes?
There was an article sometime last year, that indicated that there was no planning at all and that the administration was on crisis mode 24/7 just lurching from one scandal/fire to the next.
This immigration fiasco is a case in point.
Adviser: “a bunch of asylum seekers are coming to the border, what do we do?”
Trump “Lock 'em up!”
Adviser: “It turns out there is a law that says we can’t lock up children”
Trump:“Ok, take away the children then lock 'em up!”
Sessions: “Great idea! maybe that will teach them not to come to the US”
Adviser: “Where are we going to put the children?”
Trump “I don’t know just put them somewhere.”
Kelly: “I’ll contact HHS secretary Azar and see if they can come up with something.”
a couple of weeks later
Adviser: “It turns out that people are really upset about breaking up families”
Trump: “OK stop, taking the children and return the ones we took”
DHS secretary: OK, Azar, send back the children and lest us know where they go and we’ll reunite the families
HHS secretary: “Um, we were just concentrating on where to put them we thought you were keeping track of whom they belonged to before you sent them to us.”
Trump: Couldn’t we let each one pick up a child on a first come first serve basis. They are all pretty much interchangeable rapists and drug dealers. Even with my great brain I can’t tell the difference between them so I doubt that their parents can either.
Adviser: No, I don’t think that will go over very well.
Trump: “Well Fuck. Do what you can. I’ll tweet something about Harley Davidson maybe that will keep people’s mind elsewhere while we try to sort this out.”
Adviser: “Now that we have stopped taking the children away what are we going to to about the families coming to the border”
Trump “Lock 'em up!”
Kelly: “OK we can legally hold the children for 29 days plus we’ve probably got a few weeks for the resulting lawsuit to work its way to the point that we have to pay attention. Hopefully by then we will have figured something out.”
The government has branches? Everybody works for the President, right? And he just decides who gets taxed how much, depending on who he likes, right?
Civics According to Donald.
Hey! There’s probably a law against bugging the Oval Office. :dubious: Aw, hell. Never mind. BTW, can you stream that dialogue to my Roku?
“The DoD, right? The Department of Dungarees?”
ETA: I like jsc1953’s answer better!
Waitaminnit…didn’t he just say (like 2 days ago) that Congress should give up on immigration legislation until after the mid-terms?
Apparently he thinks there is some sort of patch that can be applied to our current laws, but it can only be applied by Democrats. Or something.