To be fair, it’s strongly suspected that Trump had extensive ties to the New York Mafia.

I mean, Jesus Christ, he was a real estate developer in New York in the '70s and '80s. There’s no possible way he wasn’t in bed with the mob.

Say what you will about Trump, he’s probably closer to gangster than like 99% of us.

One of the freedoms the American military purportedly protects is the freedom to talk shit about the American military.

At least the newly unemployed soldiers will have a nice well-paying paramilitary to join, so they can keep supporting their wives and their wives’ boyfriends.

I think that was also why Qanon got so much play in the right-wing media ecosystem - getting conservatives comfortable with authoritarian big government conservatism.

Trump is going to declare martial law and have liberals killed or sent to camps? Qanon influencers have been telling conservatives that was the plan since 2017. And about 25% of the United States either believed it or thought “yeah, it’s crazy, but wouldn’t it be cool if it was real?”

…it’s a joke.

It’s literally a joke.

No rational person would believe they’re calling themselves terrorists literally.

The message here is “liberals will think the worst of us no matter what we do, so why not just call ourselves terrorists, lol”. And by taking it seriously you prove them right.

And after the barrage of cringe tone deaf “humor” about a fucking political assassination I think my side doesn’t have room to criticize other people’s jokes.

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The Trump administration is going mask off in so many ways that have nothing to do with racism. Though that too.

This is connected to all the formal groveling sessions where Trump’s minions or big tech CEOs take turns thanking Trump for existing and for being the incredible awesome masculine big-handed alpha male America needs. And this is banana republic dictator shit, sure. But it’s also how billionaires act towards their employees and subordinates.

All of them.

What Donald Trump is doing in public is no different from what Zuck and Musk and Bezos and all their ilk do in private with their lower caste servants and sycophants.

Demand flattery, hold court and let their courtiers line up to praise them, because they don’t understand the difference between flattery and respect. Reward obedience and punish disobedience, because they don’t know the difference between obedience and loyalty. And wield your power blatantly and without subtlety, suck up to your superiors and bully your inferiors into obedience, because they don’t know the difference between strength and authority.

Trump does this shit in public because he doesn’t believe Americans care about equality anymore. He thinks Americans want to be led by a powerful alpha male leader who demands public displays of submission and gets them. He thinks America doesn’t want a President, first among equals, but a King, who stands above his subjects. And, unfortunately, I don’t think he’s wrong.

And the King is pleased - pleased - when their subordinates come to literal physical blows over access to the King. Because such men confuse aggression with strength, just as they confuse flattery with respect.

Two of Trump’s courtiers were so desperate for his approval that they almost came to blows over it. These are two men so manly that they are willing to physically fight other men who disrespect them - which makes them two alpha males, as conservative minds see it - and these two alpha males respect Trump so much that they’re willing to physically fight for Trump’s attention.

In the mind of Trump and those like him, this is one of the greatest compliments he can receive.

Newsom isn’t a good choice but he’s the only one whose shown any effective strategy against Trump.

Effective how? Has Gavin kept a single innocent person out of jail, funded a single defunded program, protected a single city from Guard occupation?

What has Gavin created except ChatGPT imitations of Trump tweets and AI image slop? What has Gavin done except promote himself?

Gavin’s not effective opposition. He just paid TikTok enough money to promote his meme shit that he looks viral. And his bullshit is going to last just about as long as “Kamala is brat” or Walz calling people “weird” did.

Mamdani has shown us an effective strategy, too. Stand for the people. Actually run on the fucking left. Don’t just talk shit about Trump - actually oppose his policies. And convince working class Americans you really do stand with them, so they don’t turn to right wing populist scumbags out of sheer desperation to be heard.

But that’s not going to happen. Because the dirty Democrat secret is that the DNC leadership agrees with most of Trump’s positions. They just want to implement them more politely.

This is Trump’s strategy too. Make a brutal enough example of a few universities, or law firms, or immigrants, or other countries’ economies, and the rest will comply in advance. Like Trump said in his West Point commencement speech recently: "As much as you wanna fight, I’d rather do it without having to fight. I just wanna look at them and have them fold.”

Reminder: Ender Wiggin is not a fucking hero.

And when Kamala had the entire DNC establishment behind her, what was stopping her from distancing herself from Biden? What was she afraid of?

My guess? The entire DNC establishment wasn’t behind Harris. They were behind Biden, and supported Harris as Biden’s successor rather than on her own (nonexistent) merits. She hadn’t earned their support, and knew it.

Exactly. And the Democrats made it even worse for themselves by claiming there was no economic crisis - that Biden had beaten inflation, beaten unemployment, and claims of a bad economy were just Republican propaganda. The American people looked at their paychecks and grocery bills and called bullshit. Harris was right that Trump would govern as a fascist dictator with Project 2025 as the roadmap - but the Democrats lied to America’s face about the economy and that made everything else they said sound untrustworthy too.

If the Dems had taken America’s economic struggles seriously, Harris would be President now. But Biden refused to admit his economy was bad and Harris didn’t have the guts to contradict Biden. And here we are.

Unfortunately not. She’s already moving to run for governor of California in 2026, as a platform for another 2028 Presidential run.

Was it really an imaginary rule? I think it was Original Sin that talked about how Biden made his support for Harris contingent on “protecting his legacy” - ie, no criticizing Biden, no claiming she would do things different than Biden.

Edit: the claim comes from “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House”:

But the day of the debate Biden called to give Harris an unusual kind of pep talk — and another reminder about the loyalty he demanded. No longer able to defend his own record, he expected Harris to protect his legacy.

Whether she won or lost the election, he thought, she would only harm him by publicly distancing herself from him — especially during a debate that would be watched by millions of Americans. To the extent that she wanted to forge her own path, Biden had no interest in giving her room to do so. He needed just three words to convey how much all of that mattered to him.

“No daylight, kid,” Biden said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5191087-harris-trump-biden-harris/

Yes. Exactly. Harris lost, and it is her fault, and her responsibility.

The average American is not a political expert. (Duh.) They rely on information, and persuasion, from the actual political experts, to decide whose policies fit their values and who their best choices as political representatives are.

If a political party has the best policies, but fails to make the case for those policies to the American people, the fault is not with the American people, but with the party that failed to make its case.

In this case, Trump waged a vicious propaganda campaign based on blatant fucking lies. And the Harris campaign was too incompetent or cowardly to effectively call out those blatant fucking lies - partially because Trump was so much better at social media than Harris, and partially because Harris was afraid to stand up for the trans people and immigrants and other marginalized groups Trump was attacking.

(Biden shit the bed so badly nobody in his administration could have won by running on his record, of course, but that doesn’t absolve Harris for her own failures.)

Any political party that starts blaming voters for not agreeing with it, instead of accepting its own responsibility to convince voters, is headed to permanent minority party status. And as happy as I’d be to see the Democrats permanently marginalize themselves and make room for an actual progressive party, right now they’re the only roadblock in Congress against Project 2025.

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Wouldn’t a law that exempts a law enforcement agency from constitutional limits be an unconstitutional law - and therefore an illegal law - and therefore not lawful?

• has a podcast where he fawns over conservative guests like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk
• borrowing talking points from Jordan Peterson about “bro culture” and a “crisis of masculinity”
• wants to “solve” California’s housing crisis by jailing unhoused people
• thinks “social issues” like transgender rights and due process for immigrants are distractions from the real issues (like tariffs)

Newsom has generally been pivoting conservative over the last few years, most commenters think in preparation for a 2028 presidential run, and has turned it up since Trump was elected.

The American people aren’t stupid. They’re poorly educated and brainwashed by propaganda.

When a kid without developmental disabilities gets to 12th grade and still can’t read or write his own name, we don’t blame the kid for being stupid - or at least we shouldn’t - we blame the parents and teachers. The kid was failed by the people who had the responsibility to teach him.

Same with politics. Voters don’t have degrees in political science. They make the best decisions they can based on the information they have. Biden presided over the worst economy for the poor and middle class and the biggest wealth transfer to the ultra rich in my lifetime, Harris told voters “I’m not going to do anything different from Biden but Trump will destroy America so vote for me”, Trump told voters “I know you’re hurting, Biden and Harris failed you, and my policies will help you”, and voters made the best decision they knew how to make.

Which was a stupid fucking decision. Granted. But the lion’s share of the blame has to go to Biden, Harris, and their enablers. They were the experts. It was their job to keep America from making that stupid fucking decision. And they failed America.

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