Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
I'd heard that the Insurrectionists were Antifa terrorists just trying to make the MAGA crowd look bad. I thought Trump pardoning these enemies showed great magnanimity.
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Well... it's Trump... again. #47, here we go.
- Thread starter Jimmy Higgins
- Start date
I'd heard that the Insurrectionists were Antifa terrorists just trying to make the MAGA crowd look bad. I thought Trump pardoning these enemies showed great magnanimity.
Ford
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Over the course of the last few weeks I was asked repeatedly if I had traveled out of the country recently. Hospitals - especially my trauma team and the acute rehab center - want to know if you might be carrying anything. I was also tested several times for Covid because hospitals have this thing about not spreading a deadly infectious disease amongst staff and patients.
And what the fucking fuck is up with the claim that nobody died under Trump's watch?
Shadowy Man
Contributor
And besides, we have all learned that if the police really feared for their lives they would have shot. So it’s not like the assaults were potentially deadly.
Spacetime Inhabitant
Senior Member
Trump definitely should be blamed. He is the one who covered it up, he claimed there were only a few deaths and that it would be over in a month and nothing needed to be done. Further he shut down the body designed to deal with the situation and junked their protocols. He was Covid's biggest friend and enabler. Fauci tried to deal with it, and had major success despite being opposed in his efforts by Trump.
True, Trump was president when it kicked off early 2020 but then Brandon took over early 2021. And took the credit for the vaccine if iirc
But in any event, I wouldn't blame either Trump or Brandon for Covid. If there is blame to be had it would surely be the folks in Wuhan, Fauci and the rest of the folks that tried to cover it all up.
By any historical evaluation standards this makes Trump a genocider.
Jimmy Higgins
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crazyfingers
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The deplorable doing what the deplorables want. This is pure hate and bigotry.
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And how do they determine who is a DEI hire?
Jimmy Higgins
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I think they are ax'ing offices that look to manage DEI compliance, not minority hires. I wonder if contracts that require using US steel counts as DEI?
Curious whether they'll try to interfere with FBE, MBE, SBE certifications as well at the state level.
Curious whether they'll try to interfere with FBE, MBE, SBE certifications as well at the state level.
Elixir
Made in America
This guy says it well.
“Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.
The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.
There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do – to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world – is incalculable. We are living in the time of Nero.
The first six months will be a time of maximum peril. NATO must from this moment be considered effectively obsolete, without the American security guarantee that has always been its bedrock. We may see new incursions by Russia into Europe – the poor Ukrainians are probably done for, but now it is the Baltics and the Poles who must worry – before the Europeans have time to organize an alternative. China may also accelerate its Taiwanese ambitions.
At home, Mr. Trump will be moving swiftly to consolidate his power. Some of this will be institutional – the replacement of tens of thousands of career civil servants with Trumpian loyalists. But some of it will be … atmospheric.
At some point someone – a company whose chief executive has displeased him, a media critic who has gotten under his skin – will find themselves the subject of unwanted attention from the Trump administration. It might not be so crude as a police arrest. It might just be a little regulatory matter, a tax audit, something like that. They will seek the protection of the courts, and find it is not there.
The judges are also Trump loyalists, perhaps, or too scared to confront him. Or they might issue a ruling, and find it has no effect – that the administration has called the basic bluff of liberal democracy: the idea that, in the crunch, people in power agree to be bound by the law, and by its instruments the courts, the same as everyone else. Then everyone will take their cue. Executives will line up to court him. Media organizations, the large ones anyway, will find reasons to be cheerful.
Of course, in reality things will start to fall apart fairly quickly. The huge across-the-board tariffs he imposes will tank the world economy. The massive deficits, fueled by his ill-judged tax policies – he won’t replace the income tax, as he promised, but will fill it with holes – and monetized, at his direction, by the Federal Reserve, will ignite a new round of inflation.
Most of all, the insane project of deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants – finding them, rounding them up and detaining them in hundreds of internment camps around the country, probably for years, before doing so – will consume his administration. But by then it will be too late.
We should not count upon the majority of Americans coming to their senses in any event. They were not able to see Mr. Trump for what he was before: why should that change? Would they not, rather, be further coarsened by the experience of seeing their neighbours dragged off by the police, or the military, further steeled to the necessity of doing “tough things” to “restore order?”
Some won’t, of course. But they will find in time that the democratic levers they might once have pulled to demand change are no longer attached to anything. There are still elections, but the rules have been altered: there are certain obstacles, certain disadvantages if you are not with the party of power. It will seem easier at first to try to change things from within. Then it will be easier not to change things.
All of this will wash over Canada in various ways – some predictable, like the flood of refugees seeking escape from the camps; some less so, like the coarsening of our own politics, the debasement of morals and norms by politicians who have discovered there is no political price to be paid for it. And who will have the backing of their patron in Washington.
All my life I have been an admirer of the United States and its people. But I am frightened of it now, and I am even more frightened of them.”
“Nothing mattered, in the end. Not the probable dementia, the unfathomable ignorance, the emotional incontinence; not, certainly, the shambling, hate-filled campaign, or the ludicrously unworkable anti-policies.
The candidate out on bail in four jurisdictions, the convicted fraud artist, the adjudicated rapist and serial sexual predator, the habitual bankrupt, the stooge of Vladimir Putin, the man who tried to overturn the last election and all of his creepy retinue of crooks, ideologues and lunatics: Americans took a long look at all this and said, yes please.
There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes. The government of the United States has been delivered into the hands of a gangster, whose sole purpose in running, besides staying out of jail, is to seek revenge on his enemies. The damage Donald Trump and his nihilist cronies can do – to America, but also to its democratic allies, and to the peace and security of the world – is incalculable. We are living in the time of Nero.
The first six months will be a time of maximum peril. NATO must from this moment be considered effectively obsolete, without the American security guarantee that has always been its bedrock. We may see new incursions by Russia into Europe – the poor Ukrainians are probably done for, but now it is the Baltics and the Poles who must worry – before the Europeans have time to organize an alternative. China may also accelerate its Taiwanese ambitions.
At home, Mr. Trump will be moving swiftly to consolidate his power. Some of this will be institutional – the replacement of tens of thousands of career civil servants with Trumpian loyalists. But some of it will be … atmospheric.
At some point someone – a company whose chief executive has displeased him, a media critic who has gotten under his skin – will find themselves the subject of unwanted attention from the Trump administration. It might not be so crude as a police arrest. It might just be a little regulatory matter, a tax audit, something like that. They will seek the protection of the courts, and find it is not there.
The judges are also Trump loyalists, perhaps, or too scared to confront him. Or they might issue a ruling, and find it has no effect – that the administration has called the basic bluff of liberal democracy: the idea that, in the crunch, people in power agree to be bound by the law, and by its instruments the courts, the same as everyone else. Then everyone will take their cue. Executives will line up to court him. Media organizations, the large ones anyway, will find reasons to be cheerful.
Of course, in reality things will start to fall apart fairly quickly. The huge across-the-board tariffs he imposes will tank the world economy. The massive deficits, fueled by his ill-judged tax policies – he won’t replace the income tax, as he promised, but will fill it with holes – and monetized, at his direction, by the Federal Reserve, will ignite a new round of inflation.
Most of all, the insane project of deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants – finding them, rounding them up and detaining them in hundreds of internment camps around the country, probably for years, before doing so – will consume his administration. But by then it will be too late.
We should not count upon the majority of Americans coming to their senses in any event. They were not able to see Mr. Trump for what he was before: why should that change? Would they not, rather, be further coarsened by the experience of seeing their neighbours dragged off by the police, or the military, further steeled to the necessity of doing “tough things” to “restore order?”
Some won’t, of course. But they will find in time that the democratic levers they might once have pulled to demand change are no longer attached to anything. There are still elections, but the rules have been altered: there are certain obstacles, certain disadvantages if you are not with the party of power. It will seem easier at first to try to change things from within. Then it will be easier not to change things.
All of this will wash over Canada in various ways – some predictable, like the flood of refugees seeking escape from the camps; some less so, like the coarsening of our own politics, the debasement of morals and norms by politicians who have discovered there is no political price to be paid for it. And who will have the backing of their patron in Washington.
All my life I have been an admirer of the United States and its people. But I am frightened of it now, and I am even more frightened of them.”
Jarhyn
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Well, if we manage to survive, it will be because the billionaires didn't...
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Jimmy Higgins
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They didn't fire her because "she was DEI", but because she promoted DEI in some manner in the Coast Guard.
I think that could be said about almost every group in the US Government. It is a very dubious reason to nix someone. They also blamed her for the border and mass migration, but she is (was) the Coast Guard head.
Politesse
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Well, that's not exactly how it played out with the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois specifically, but it is true that the US gave away vast tracts of the "Indian Territory" to many and various parties, often awarding the SAME land to multiple entities in an explicit attempt to goad them into inter-Indian war... And treating the "recognition" of any of said treaties as entirely situational and optional, at the sole discretion of Congress to actually enact. A tradition this White House and this Congress transparently intend to uphold.
Shadowy Man
Contributor
Clearly we don’t want women in positions of high authority. Look what happened in LA!!
TomC
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Sorry, my formal studies on the subject were literally in a previous century.
Tom
Jimmy Higgins
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And the DoJ threatens actions if local/state folks don't play along.
And of course, there is the issue of local jurisdictions enforcing federal law, which isn't exactly how our system works.
My understanding is, it isn't that simple. These are city/state jails, city/state prisons, city/state lawyers. Trump is demanding all of these services at no cost. A city can not intervene and prevent someone from being detained, but a city doesn't have to be on the hook for detaining non-violent people either. That comes at a cost. The term "obstruction" might be getting turned on its head with this Administration.article said:
And of course, there is the issue of local jurisdictions enforcing federal law, which isn't exactly how our system works.
Jimmy Higgins
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And Trump announces $500 billion investment deal... which was an exaggeration and not particularly due to Trump. And Musk comes out and says the money isn't there, the deal is effectively fake. Which is true... and bizarre that Musk would break with Trump on the PR.
Musk v Trump would be interesting. Musk is a megalomaniac but he also did at least create stuff with the money he got early on in software development. Trump effectively squandered the fortune he inherited. Getting lucky with a BS stock fraud maneuver for his casinos and now the DJT Truth Social scam as well as the crypto scams. IE Musk helped his money grow, via investment (and a good deal of hype). Trump needed fraud to do it.
Of course, this is complicated by Musk trying to turn an automobile company in to an AI company... as his electrics are being swamped with competition, his robots and driving AI being well behind the curve, so self-interest is definitely a part of this. It seems like Musk is in this for Musk, and not Trump.article said:
Musk v Trump would be interesting. Musk is a megalomaniac but he also did at least create stuff with the money he got early on in software development. Trump effectively squandered the fortune he inherited. Getting lucky with a BS stock fraud maneuver for his casinos and now the DJT Truth Social scam as well as the crypto scams. IE Musk helped his money grow, via investment (and a good deal of hype). Trump needed fraud to do it.
ideologyhunter
Contributor
On the Bible front, the special Inauguration Day Edition of the God Bless the USA Bible is SOLD O-U-T. Sorry, Internet Infidels, if you waited 'til now to order one, they're gone.
Shadowy Man
Contributor
they are the self-proclaimed “law and order party”; don’t you presume to tell them how the system works!!1
southernhybrid
Contributor
I know a poem probably doesn't belong in this thread but I was reading about beat poetry, as I once was a fan of Ginsberg and Kerouac and I found one written in 2007 that applies to what's going on these days. It was written by a poet I wasn't familiar with, who lived to be 101 and died in 2021. Sorry for putting a poem here, but we derail so much lately that I thought it was a good way to express what's happening to the US these days without having to use my own words. Apparently Gibran wrote a poem by the same name, which I haven't read yet. 