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I am glad that Trump and his gang are clearly generating productive political change in this country, just not from the top!

toss1 2y ago
You are definitely using the right word in writing "gang", but not in the way you think But of these changes, from wanting to cut out from the workforce anyone but white men to creating unhinged and unnecessary trade wars with our closest allies and trading partners (even more than our adversary China), if you actually think any of these are "productive", you deserve some choice words about low intelligence that are not printable in this forum. This will NOT end well, even for the wannabe-oligarchs trying to install themselves as our new overlords. Under authoritarianism, everything always gets worse, at varying rates. This new authoritarian regime is no different.
- DiscourseFan 2y ago
  Unlike, say, Weimar Germany, the US has very strong local institutions and a professional military that definitely doesn't support his agenda (recall 2020). All Trump is doing is destroying the federal government; but, its not as if the US needs a federal government for much. As long as there is the military and money keeps getting printed all services can be moved locally. State and local tax instead of federal tax; people will have far more control over their own governance. I'm not saying there won't be violence, but its facile to think it could've ever been avoided.
  - toss1 2y ago
    The institutions are indeed better, but they are under a decapitation attack, and the attackers have a lot more successful historical authoritarian assaults on democracy to hone their attacks. Plus, one party is aprox 100% corrupted and in on the assault, and holds power in both legislative branches and a large portion of the judiciary. For example, the biggest breach of critical US data on EVERY resident and business in the US Treasury has just been executed by unelected Elon Musk, and no one stopped him. He also forced his way into a SCIF (Secure Compartmentalized Info Facility) and other offices without being stopped. Musk has locked out those appointed to protect him, congress is abdicating it's responsibility & power, and law enforcement is not acting against the administration. It is not entirely certain that money will continue being printed, considering Musk's assault on the Treasury. I would not be surprised to find he convinces Trump to route payments through his "Everything App" X, which he desperately needs to support (some serious & credible analysts are considering this may be a motive for those moves). The investment markets are at this moment in free-fall, only two weeks into the administration. This may provoke the people into a sufficiently massive response, or it may not. Yes, the blue states are starting to work together to route around the Federal Govt, which may or may not be a good thing. Avoided? Certainly could have been avoided. Stronger institutions preventing forcible targeted deregistration of 3.2 million+ voters before the election (enabled by a SCOTUS captured by illegitimate Senate confirmation games, which gutted the Voting Rights Act) would have helped when the margin was ~1.6 million votes. An independent press that did not normalize pathological and criminal activities by one candidate would have helped. The list would go on for a very long time, and the point is that the institutions are ALREADY very weakened. They barely held against a criminal administration last time. The size of the cracks appearing in only a fortnight do not bode well for this time. [edit: add updated info in para.2]
    - pas 2y ago
      Can you recommend sources about the deregistration of 3.2M voters, please?
      - toss1 2y ago
        https://www.lwv.org/blog/recent-rise-anti-voter-litigation https://www.lwv.org/blog/recent-rise-anti-voter-litigation https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mass-purges-are-new-voter-suppression https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mass... https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-states-purge-voters-from-the-rolls/ https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-states-purge-vo... https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/elections-verify/yes-georgia-launched-a-voter-registration-cancellation-website-fact-check/536-0fe200b5-93f7-4b23-b8e9-e582de8c605d https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/elections-ver... https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/3/purging-voters-inside-republican-efforts-to-restrict-2024-election-vote https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/3/purging-voters-insi... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eligible-voters-swept-up-conservative-activists-purge-voter-rolls/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eligible-voters-swept-up-conser... not finding the full compilation RN, will post later
        pas 2y ago
        thanks! I clicked through to all of them, but I don't see how the 3.2 million number came to be. half of them talk about litigation, a few thousand records, and the largest number is 750 thousands, but there's no mention of how many people actually moved (or died) in North Carolina, so that number is at best some kind of upper bound. it would be good to see the voter roll changes for each state compared to the margins of victory. https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024:_Congressional_margin_of_victory_analysis https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024:_Congressiona...
        toss1 2y ago
        Yes, getting hard data on voter purges is difficult; it's not like they are centrally reported. And, it happens over years and is distributed unevenly over precincts. And, when it is of questionable legitimacy, they work to hide it. The data on precinct-by-precinct voter roll delta vs margin of victory that you mentioned would indeed be very revealing.

toss1 2y ago

You are definitely using the right word in writing "gang", but not in the way you think But of these changes, from wanting to cut out from the workforce anyone but white men to creating unhinged and unnecessary trade wars with our closest allies and trading partners (even more than our adversary China), if you actually think any of these are "productive", you deserve some choice words about low intelligence that are not printable in this forum. This will NOT end well, even for the wannabe-oligarchs trying to install themselves as our new overlords. Under authoritarianism, everything always gets worse, at varying rates. This new authoritarian regime is no different.

DiscourseFan 2y ago
Unlike, say, Weimar Germany, the US has very strong local institutions and a professional military that definitely doesn't support his agenda (recall 2020). All Trump is doing is destroying the federal government; but, its not as if the US needs a federal government for much. As long as there is the military and money keeps getting printed all services can be moved locally. State and local tax instead of federal tax; people will have far more control over their own governance. I'm not saying there won't be violence, but its facile to think it could've ever been avoided.
- toss1 2y ago
  The institutions are indeed better, but they are under a decapitation attack, and the attackers have a lot more successful historical authoritarian assaults on democracy to hone their attacks. Plus, one party is aprox 100% corrupted and in on the assault, and holds power in both legislative branches and a large portion of the judiciary. For example, the biggest breach of critical US data on EVERY resident and business in the US Treasury has just been executed by unelected Elon Musk, and no one stopped him. He also forced his way into a SCIF (Secure Compartmentalized Info Facility) and other offices without being stopped. Musk has locked out those appointed to protect him, congress is abdicating it's responsibility & power, and law enforcement is not acting against the administration. It is not entirely certain that money will continue being printed, considering Musk's assault on the Treasury. I would not be surprised to find he convinces Trump to route payments through his "Everything App" X, which he desperately needs to support (some serious & credible analysts are considering this may be a motive for those moves). The investment markets are at this moment in free-fall, only two weeks into the administration. This may provoke the people into a sufficiently massive response, or it may not. Yes, the blue states are starting to work together to route around the Federal Govt, which may or may not be a good thing. Avoided? Certainly could have been avoided. Stronger institutions preventing forcible targeted deregistration of 3.2 million+ voters before the election (enabled by a SCOTUS captured by illegitimate Senate confirmation games, which gutted the Voting Rights Act) would have helped when the margin was ~1.6 million votes. An independent press that did not normalize pathological and criminal activities by one candidate would have helped. The list would go on for a very long time, and the point is that the institutions are ALREADY very weakened. They barely held against a criminal administration last time. The size of the cracks appearing in only a fortnight do not bode well for this time. [edit: add updated info in para.2]
  - pas 2y ago
    Can you recommend sources about the deregistration of 3.2M voters, please?
    - toss1 2y ago
      https://www.lwv.org/blog/recent-rise-anti-voter-litigation https://www.lwv.org/blog/recent-rise-anti-voter-litigation https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mass-purges-are-new-voter-suppression https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mass... https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-states-purge-voters-from-the-rolls/ https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/how-states-purge-vo... https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/elections-verify/yes-georgia-launched-a-voter-registration-cancellation-website-fact-check/536-0fe200b5-93f7-4b23-b8e9-e582de8c605d https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/elections-ver... https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/3/purging-voters-inside-republican-efforts-to-restrict-2024-election-vote https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/3/purging-voters-insi... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eligible-voters-swept-up-conservative-activists-purge-voter-rolls/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eligible-voters-swept-up-conser... not finding the full compilation RN, will post later
      - pas 2y ago
        thanks! I clicked through to all of them, but I don't see how the 3.2 million number came to be. half of them talk about litigation, a few thousand records, and the largest number is 750 thousands, but there's no mention of how many people actually moved (or died) in North Carolina, so that number is at best some kind of upper bound. it would be good to see the voter roll changes for each state compared to the margins of victory. https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024:_Congressional_margin_of_victory_analysis https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024:_Congressiona...
        toss1 2y ago
        Yes, getting hard data on voter purges is difficult; it's not like they are centrally reported. And, it happens over years and is distributed unevenly over precincts. And, when it is of questionable legitimacy, they work to hide it. The data on precinct-by-precinct voter roll delta vs margin of victory that you mentioned would indeed be very revealing.