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As terminally online and morning show obsessed as he is, he’s noticed.
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Congress Catch-All
- Thread starter nycfan
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Live in power, my friend. If anything is consistent about my maga milieu it’s
1a) Grievance.
1b) Irresponsible.
2) Selfish. Often pathologically so.
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Both/and scenario, imo. Antagonizing ttump sows the seeds of chaos in the GQP. That’s good. Have loads of backbench and prominent antagonists take on this role on morning shows and legacy media, while the articulate, thoughtful, future leaders (eg AOC, Jeffries) hammer the oligarchy on the pods, YouTube channels, insta, TikTok, etc.
dukeman92
Iconic Member
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While I agree with you, the people who need to hear it are too stupid to understand it. The looks on the faces of MAGA family members when I utter the word Oligarchy tells me everything.
Your chances of success has nothing to do with the charges for the crimes you attempted to commit. You don't even have to fully understand what you're doing. So quit with the "you're not convinced" bullshit. It's irrelevant to anything whatsoever what the odds were. It's what their actions were. That includes the conspiracies and such.
ChileG
Iconic Member
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So, if Trump thwarted the will of the people somehow and was able to stay in power, you wouldn’t take up arms against what would by definition be a tyrannical government?
In other words, there would be violence as a result of the situation you described. And rightly so.
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"... But even with a shutdown averted, the episode demonstrated a well-established pattern by Mr. Trump. He often purposely blew up congressional negotiations during his first term, often with a tweet, only to be forced to retreat or give up his position in the face of an angry reaction from both allies and adversaries.
In 2018, Mr. Trump told lawmakers in the Oval Office that he would be “proud” to shut the government down if he did not get funding for a wall along the southern border. After a 35-day shutdown that extended through Christmas and New Year’s Day, Mr. Trump relented, agreeing to Democratic demands without getting the funding for his wall.
“There were certainly plenty of times where he went off script, but there were always people around who could rush to the White House get it resolved,” said Brendan Buck, who served as a top aide to House Speaker Paul Ryan during Mr. Trump’s first term. “This feels a little different, like it’s just sort of this voice-of-God Twitter account that is directing things.”
Still, Mr. Trump has benefited politically over the long run by seeking to bend lawmakers to his will. His supporters returned him to the White House in the election this year in part to resume that effort, but with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress and a president who has a better understanding of how Washington works. ..."
www.nytimes.com
In 2018, Mr. Trump told lawmakers in the Oval Office that he would be “proud” to shut the government down if he did not get funding for a wall along the southern border. After a 35-day shutdown that extended through Christmas and New Year’s Day, Mr. Trump relented, agreeing to Democratic demands without getting the funding for his wall.
“There were certainly plenty of times where he went off script, but there were always people around who could rush to the White House get it resolved,” said Brendan Buck, who served as a top aide to House Speaker Paul Ryan during Mr. Trump’s first term. “This feels a little different, like it’s just sort of this voice-of-God Twitter account that is directing things.”
Still, Mr. Trump has benefited politically over the long run by seeking to bend lawmakers to his will. His supporters returned him to the White House in the election this year in part to resume that effort, but with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress and a president who has a better understanding of how Washington works. ..."
Trump Wanted Shutdown to Happen on Biden’s Watch, Not His
The president-elect was eager to evade responsibility for the consequences of a potential shutdown even as he blew up a bipartisan deal that would have kept the government open.
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There is a perfectly good J6 thread to use for this discussion ... Jan 6 thread
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Trump said to see Elon Musk as useful activist after spending deal showdown
Musk’s role in government shutdown drama could be a preview of role he plays for incoming president next year"... Behind the scenes, even though Trump did not get his own demand for Republicans to raise the debt ceiling, the president-elect suggested Musk’s performance showed he could be a useful catalyst of activity once he takes office and leads the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency”.
... But although House Democrats mocked Trump as acting like the vice-president with Musk as the president, in an attempt to get under his skin, the extended honeymoon between the two men has continued – in another notable shift for Trump, whose political alliances often lack for longevity.
In Trump’s first term, Trump parted ways with his chief strategist Steve Bannon after he was depicted in the media as the puppeteer of the Oval Office. (One Saturday Night Live skit featured Bannon as the grim reaper standing behind Trump and calling shots in the White House).
The same has not been true for Musk, the people said, mainly because the dynamics are different: as the world’s richest man, Musk has commanded special status with Trump, who has separately liked the idea of having him as his attack dog, while Bannon was always seen as a staffer.
Still, many House Republicans have been left deeply frustrated by what they see as Musk meddling in congressional affairs. Musk was not elected to any office and also bought his way into Trump’s orbit by spending roughly $250m to boost his presidential campaign.
Multiple members complained bitterly about Musk’s influence over them as they found themselves glued to his X account between spending-deal meetings in an acknowledgement that Musk’s willingness to drop colossal amounts of cash made his threats of primary challenges a legitimate concern. ..."
Trump said to see Elon Musk as useful activist after spending deal showdown
Musk’s role in government shutdown drama could be a preview of role he plays for incoming president next year
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I don’t think you’re persuading maga - it’s not a goal, anymore. The “owned by billionaires” message needs to seep into the Theo Von spaces. There’s even an outside chance of those messages infiltrating Rogan, despite his buddy cop bits with Elon. Rogan has a populist streak, despite his $200 million net worth.
The manosphere (which ain’t just toxic men, btw) and influencer spaces have a populist streak adjacent to the far left (just with a lot more Nazis and trads); that shared ideology must be exploited, IMO, to have any chance at holding this thing [looks around at everything] together.
dukeman92
Iconic Member
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It's coming apart at the seams!
lawtig02
Inconceivable Member
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I just think it’s hilarious that after whining for four years that Biden was not actually calling the shots, Pubs are now over the moon about a presidency in which a foreign-born billionaire Nazi apologist is now calling the shots.
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Mulberry Heel
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Given the fractious nature of House Republicans - they all seem to loathe one another and have for years - and given their tiny majority in the House, there may some opportunities for House Democrats to actually win some votes if they can stick together and their leadership keeps their eyes open. For example, on cutting Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid House Republicans can't afford to lose more than two or three votes at most. I'm not holding my breath, but House Republicans do have virtually no room for error on key votes, and we'll see if Mike Johnson and the House GOP leadership is up to the challenge.
Mulberry Heel
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Projection. The answer is nearly always projection with these people. As long as Dear Leader is POTUS they'd be happy if Putin were visibly calling the shots.
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You can follow this account on Bluesky, if you so choose.
ChileG
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HYPOCRITES!!!!!!!!11111111111
Mulberry Heel
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“… The U.S. farm sector finds itself in another rough patch. Net farm income declined 4% this year to $141 billion after falling about 20% last year, according to the Agriculture Department. Weaker prices for commodities such as soybeans and wheat have weighed on farmers’ earnings after growers in the U.S. and elsewhere reared big crops, swelling supplies. Their costs for essentials such as fertilizer and equipment are also higher.
… President-elect Donald Trump has also pledged tariffs on Mexico and China, key importers of U.S. crops, and Canada, a major fertilizer producer. Government policies that subsidize biofuel production, which can boost crop prices for farmers, could also be in flux under the new administration, analysts and company executives said.
…
Financial pain on the farm comes after one of the ag industry’s strongest runs on record. Grain prices soared during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and again in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, one of the world’s top breadbaskets. The war pushed up prices for wheat and corn, contributing to rising global food prices. It also pushed net farm income to a record in 2022, the USDA said.
Since then, grain exports have resumed via the Black Sea, and better weather in key growing regions in South America helped bolster global crop supplies, pushing prices down.
In Iowa, the top corn-producing state, farmland values decreased by 3% this year, breaking a five-year streak of rising prices, according to an annual survey by Iowa State University. Farmland value often represents the largest portion of a farmer’s assets, making up roughly 80% of their total wealth, according to the USDA. …”
I guess we really are just going back to the future. In his first term Trump's trade war was so disastrous for American farmers that his administration basically gave billions of taxpayer dollars directly to farmers to keep them afloat. In 2017 farmers received $11.5 billion in aid, but by 2020 that total had climbed to a record $32 billion, and much of it came "with no strings attached and little oversight from Congress", according to a 2020 Politico article (in contrast, under that "socialist marxist" big-spending Obama, direct farm aid only ran from $10 billion to $13 billion a year). Not surprisingly, all of this direct, mostly unregulated financial aid helped make most farmers big Trump supporters in 2020. Apparently Trumpers are only opposed to government handouts if they're going to some group they don't like. When Dear Leader is spreading the government largesse to them they'll gladly stand in line to take it.
Link: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/donald-trump-coronavirus-farmer-bailouts-359932
p5mmr9
Distinguished Member
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- 342
I wonder if Bondi really will prosecute Cheney. It seems like a real loser for MAGA to dig Jan 6th back up - and specifically dig the Jan 6th committee back up. A lot of the findings from that committee kind of flew under the radar - as I note earlier in this thread there are still many "well informed" people who have no idea what the actual conspiracy was. The more MAGA picks at that wound the more likely the truth becomes more common knowledge. It would seem threats are the real weapon here and pushing those threats into action is a net negative for Trump and his sycophants. But it must be very hard for MAGA to pull away from the allure of jailing Dick Cheney's daughter.