Yep. So I’m inviting folk to offer specific actions that they think will be bad news. So there are a couple of elements here. 1. What specific action do you think will be 2. really bad news. and 3. which will be the first.
I fear he will pull us out of Nato. I’m not going to even bother to find out what the rules are about that because rules and laws do not apply to trump.
Reading this thread makes me so ill that it makes me look forward to Inauguration Day, because at least then we’ll know what he will NOT do on Day 1. At least until day 2.
Very cold comfort, I’ll grant, but the uncertainty is intensely unsettling.
As soon as his tiny hand comes off the bible, he will order all flags to be raised to full staff.
He will never give Ukraine another dime. After all Zalinski can’t be bullied, bribed, extorted or other wise threatened. That’s the standard Trump business practice, and I’m sure it’s very confusing to Trump.
He’ll fuck with CA aid for sure. Just to show how strong he is and punish those that did not vote for him.
A Fed worker loyalty oath is an interesting idea. I bet a lot of people would quit. DOGE would love that. Saves lots of money and destroyes the government.
Oh yeah. The petty shit starts within the first hour, I’ll lay money on that.
Everyone Trump has picked is there for one reason only: to cater to HIS whims and make him look good.
Mike Johnson has already ordered all flags over the US Capitol to be raised to the top for the inauguration and various GOP governors are ordering the same for their states. Supposedly the flags will be lowered back to half-mast on January 21. Or so we’re told.
What an unctuous dick. But then, smearing Carter’s legacy is going to be the least of his offenses in service of this abominable balrog.
Stranger
International trade war appears to be high on the list:
I believe Trump subscribes to the idiotic motto of Mark Zuckerburg: “Move fast and break things.” Chaos is Trump’s calling card.
I think it will be hard to focus on any one thing that constitutes “really bad news.” There will be lots of bad news all at once: Tariffs, Ukraine, January 6th felons pardoned, denial of aid to blue states in need, moves against NATO, deportations he can get away with, undermining health care, etc., etc. We won’t be able to single out any particular abomination.
And that’s the point.
We’re seeing the results of that philosophy now; Facebook has been material in breaking public trust and democratic norms, and now he’s actively genuflecting toward fascism. Trump has never had an original idea in his life but his opportunities are now laid out for him by people looking to advantage themselves from the chaos.
Yeah, it is just going to a constant merry-go-round of terrible decisions, calamitous actions, intentional harm, all punctuated by deliberate trolling just to maintain a constant level of outrage as a curtain to hide the real perfidy of oligarchs enriching themselves from the public purse and natural resources while ignoring the real existential problems we face.
Stranger
I know snark is not really allowed in P&E, but how can trump be a real “whites only” racist in relation to his own weird skin colour treatment?
In more serious language, the idiot in chief will acheive nothing, as before. His underlings may, but for once I welcome “big government” and its inability to move fast and effectively.
I am nominally an anarchist, but if there ever was a super-strong case for “checks and balances” this is it.
ETA, and as I typed those words, the notion of “cheques” and “bank balances” crossed my mind, and I returned to grieving for the USA. And not just because you spell “cheque” wrong.
I think whatever happens will be chosen from a long list of Fascist-leaning, religion-promoting, and democracy-destroying principles.
that indeed would be very distasteful, but not sure I would call it REALLY BAD NEWS. It wouldn’t affect the nation, the economy, or the lives of the vast majority of people in any way.
I think we’ll see a raid of a workplace or apartment complex or cheap motel resulting in a roundup of suspected illegal immigrants, who are then loaded onto a bus and taken away, presumably to the border. This of course will be well-documented, as the media will be previously informed of its occurrence.
This may not rise to the level of REALLY BAD NEWS, except to the poor folks who will be hauled away.
The indention here will be to set a tone of fear in the communities not directly impacted with raids. A notice to local police everywhere that its OK to push minorities around without fear of repurcussions from the federal goverment or protections from the DOJ. Much akin to how Germany started out with the Jews, it affected those people over there and not me so who cares.
Why does the Speaker get to decide about the flags? He’s the leader of one of two equal chambers. Does the Senate have no say?
IMO, it would be really bad b/c it would be a significant step in undermining our legal processes and respect for our governmental institutions. Sure, presidents have always issued questionable pardons. But to pardon hundreds of folk who participated in violent efforts to interfere with the orderly transition of power strikes me as a pretty significant step.
Moreover, I offered it because it is the sort of discrete unilateral action which he could take quickly. As opposed to saying he’ll do something something about the economy or immigration.
I think he already has his troops (yes I know that’s not quite the right word) in position and ready to start the mass deportation on day one.
There will be multiple massive raids and fleets of buses filled across multiple cities within a week at most.
He will use it as display of power.
Ordering mass deportations would take a stroke of a pen. The chaos that would ensue would be everyone else’s fault, not Trump’s, so he won’t care.
I expect this will be the first Big Bad Thing he does. He orders this the first week, and the implementation is a complete shit-show. Everyone who tries to slow-walk it in order to do it competently is fired for not doing enough soon enough, while everyone who tries to do it day one screws everything up. People get lost, abused, abandoned in the desert, left to rot in makeshift cages without food or water, you name it, it’ll be a big mess of almost every possible problem they could have.