Bungling his way through seems to be working pretty well for him, to be honest. MUCH better than I would have expected. I still have trouble grasping the fact that he essentially bungled his way into the White House. Not sure exactly what that says about us, but it’s nothing good.
Agreed. 70 percent of Republicans, and a good number of so-called Independents are MAGA. Most other Republicans and many Independents, along with a few Democrats, will vote for anything with an "R"'next to it. And for Harris and Clinton, there is always the anti-women vote. Finally, the electoral college, along with the RW's partially successful efforts at voter suppression and intimidation, keeps the election at razor's edge.
Unfortunately the lies about the pet eating migrants have a power beyond their veracity. After hearing the repeated lie no one has any doubt where Donald Trump stands on migrants (and Muslims, and people of color from Africa and South America, the shithole countries). He hates them and would like to round them up and get them out of our lives. People who aren’t overtly racist and who believe in all that America stands for, may also not want many migrants in their neighborhood and may not want people not like them and who don’t assimilate, in their community. In the privacy of the voting booth they may vote for the person who will keep the migrants out of their community, even though they hate his bigotry, rapes, etc. It’s a disgusting lie, but the point is made. The migrants are different and one guy will keep them out.
I believe that by following the Hitler and Stalin playbook Trump is creating the fears that even good people may respond to.
My advice is not to waste time correcting the lie or spend much time on the positive value of immigrants, or on being compassionate because those responses don’t undo the fear created by Trump and Vance. Instead we ought to make clear how dangerous for all of us their solutions will be. The solutions are more frightening than the problem.
Rounding up millions of migrants mixed in with retribution will be full of mistakes. There won’t be anyone to appeal to if you are rounded up by mistake. People will not go willingly. If this is done by the police then there won’t be police to do their regular jobs. If it is done by auxiliary police, as Hitler did it with drunken deputies, it will be full of violence. People will turn on each other. Do you have a neighbor or colleague who might turn you in, if so should you turn them in before they do it to you. Paranoia will be widespread. Where will the rounded up people be stored? It would need to be like prisons to keep them from getting away.
Who will do the work they used to do?
So in the privacy of the voting booth, don’t worry about immigrants but about how Trump will ruin your life if he does what he promises.
Thanks for linking to this. It is an excellent article. What it doesn’t say is how dangerous it will be for everyone, especially when mixed in with retribution and purges (there are always purges).
Is there anyone who covets something you have who might point you out to be rounded up? A neighbor you don’t get along with? Someone at work? Are you going to wait for them to do it to you or will you act first?
Once there are roundups no one is safe. Not you, not your uncle, no one. And in a country with so many guns you can predict violence.
And there won’t be officials to appeal to if you were picked by mistake. It’s the nature of these kinds of things.
And it won’t stop with one or two classes of undesirables. There is plenty of historical references for how this works out. Stalin, Hitler, Mao. And it isn’t just bad for those rounded up. The Germans and Soviets of those days didn’t have it so good.
He will easily lose the popular vote, but the Electoral Collage is still the problem: in 2020 Biden won California and NewYork by a combined 7 million; he lost Texas and Florida by less than 1 million.
He might not be Machiavelli, but he's surrounded himself this time with sycophants more tightly focused on implementing his revenge fantasies (and theirs) than was his last administration.
He might not be Machiavelli, but he's mighty dangerous now that he's surrounded by sycophants more singlemindedly focused on implementing his revenge fantasies (and theirs) than was his previous administration.
It's a shotgun. You don't have to aim it at all hardly. Just point it in the right direction and sooner or later you'll hit something. No strategy, no aim, no skill.
My wiener dog Jewel would do the exact same thing — burrow her way between the seat and my back, and lie there for pretty much as long as I stayed seated.
Bungling his way through seems to be working pretty well for him, to be honest. MUCH better than I would have expected. I still have trouble grasping the fact that he essentially bungled his way into the White House. Not sure exactly what that says about us, but it’s nothing good.
Agreed. 70 percent of Republicans, and a good number of so-called Independents are MAGA. Most other Republicans and many Independents, along with a few Democrats, will vote for anything with an "R"'next to it. And for Harris and Clinton, there is always the anti-women vote. Finally, the electoral college, along with the RW's partially successful efforts at voter suppression and intimidation, keeps the election at razor's edge.
Unfortunately the lies about the pet eating migrants have a power beyond their veracity. After hearing the repeated lie no one has any doubt where Donald Trump stands on migrants (and Muslims, and people of color from Africa and South America, the shithole countries). He hates them and would like to round them up and get them out of our lives. People who aren’t overtly racist and who believe in all that America stands for, may also not want many migrants in their neighborhood and may not want people not like them and who don’t assimilate, in their community. In the privacy of the voting booth they may vote for the person who will keep the migrants out of their community, even though they hate his bigotry, rapes, etc. It’s a disgusting lie, but the point is made. The migrants are different and one guy will keep them out.
I believe that by following the Hitler and Stalin playbook Trump is creating the fears that even good people may respond to.
My advice is not to waste time correcting the lie or spend much time on the positive value of immigrants, or on being compassionate because those responses don’t undo the fear created by Trump and Vance. Instead we ought to make clear how dangerous for all of us their solutions will be. The solutions are more frightening than the problem.
Rounding up millions of migrants mixed in with retribution will be full of mistakes. There won’t be anyone to appeal to if you are rounded up by mistake. People will not go willingly. If this is done by the police then there won’t be police to do their regular jobs. If it is done by auxiliary police, as Hitler did it with drunken deputies, it will be full of violence. People will turn on each other. Do you have a neighbor or colleague who might turn you in, if so should you turn them in before they do it to you. Paranoia will be widespread. Where will the rounded up people be stored? It would need to be like prisons to keep them from getting away.
Who will do the work they used to do?
So in the privacy of the voting booth, don’t worry about immigrants but about how Trump will ruin your life if he does what he promises.
Judd Legum had a whole post about this:
https://popular.info/p/the-stark-reality-of-mass-deportation?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true
Thanks for linking to this. It is an excellent article. What it doesn’t say is how dangerous it will be for everyone, especially when mixed in with retribution and purges (there are always purges).
Is there anyone who covets something you have who might point you out to be rounded up? A neighbor you don’t get along with? Someone at work? Are you going to wait for them to do it to you or will you act first?
Once there are roundups no one is safe. Not you, not your uncle, no one. And in a country with so many guns you can predict violence.
And there won’t be officials to appeal to if you were picked by mistake. It’s the nature of these kinds of things.
And it won’t stop with one or two classes of undesirables. There is plenty of historical references for how this works out. Stalin, Hitler, Mao. And it isn’t just bad for those rounded up. The Germans and Soviets of those days didn’t have it so good.
He does has some scary creeps feeding him such as Parscale and Steven Miller but he can't even keep their stuff straight!
I get a full night’s sleep with a 25-lb poodle leaning into the small of my back. I’m kinda used to it, as I’m sure you are.
He will easily lose the popular vote, but the Electoral Collage is still the problem: in 2020 Biden won California and NewYork by a combined 7 million; he lost Texas and Florida by less than 1 million.
More Larry or Curly.
He might not be Machiavelli, but he's surrounded himself this time with sycophants more tightly focused on implementing his revenge fantasies (and theirs) than was his last administration.
He might not be Machiavelli, but he's mighty dangerous now that he's surrounded by sycophants more singlemindedly focused on implementing his revenge fantasies (and theirs) than was his previous administration.
It's a shotgun. You don't have to aim it at all hardly. Just point it in the right direction and sooner or later you'll hit something. No strategy, no aim, no skill.
Trump is far too stupid to qualify as the clever prince described by Machiavelli. Svengali is more like it.
My wiener dog Jewel would do the exact same thing — burrow her way between the seat and my back, and lie there for pretty much as long as I stayed seated.
"Mental black hole" thank you for that on this early Saturday morning!! Best to Kal!