Crazy Shit Trump Says | “Long live the King”👑

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superrific said:
I've never claimed to have my finger on the pulse of popular opinion. It just seems like it's something that's always reported . . . in normal times. But we're looking at multiple constitutional crises plus the absolute corruption of the DOJ and the rose garden just seems so utterly insignificant.

But it would certainly not be the first time where my intellectual priorities differ from that of the public.
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I think reporting this story is important because paving over the Rose Garden carries symbolic weight much like renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Mt. Denali and suggesting seizing the Panama Canal, the annexation of Canada, and purchase of Greenland.

What if Trump decided to paint the White House in a shade of gold and rename it Trump Castle ? Would that be utterly insignificant ?

Of course he would never do this (or would he ?), but my point is that Trump is subtly attempting to showcase his presumed autocratic power by making these seemingly outlandish actions/suggestions, and media should not only report these stories, but they must put these stories in the proper and larger context.
 

Bluesky

bsky.app bsky.app

www.nytimes.com

Opinion | The Barrage of Trump’s Awful Ideas Is Doing Exactly What It’s Supposed To

Amid an onslaught of bad ideas, Democrats need to muster a better vision for the future.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

“… Flooding the ether with bad ideas isn’t Trump’s unique know-how — it’s standard autocratic fare. Hannah Arendt used the word “preposterous” to describe the ideas that underpinned 20th-century totalitarian regimes. Bad ideas do a lot of the work of building autocracy.

By forcing us to engage with them, they make our conversations, our media and our society dumber. By conjuring the unimaginable — radical changes in the geography of human relationships, the government and the world itself as we have known it — they plunge us into an anxious state in which thinking is difficult. That kind of anxiety is key to totalitarian control.

Life under autocracy can be terrifying, as it already is in the United States for immigrants and trans people.

But those of us with experience can tell you that most of the time, for most people, it’s not frightening. It is stultifying. It’s boring. It feels like trying to see and breathe under water — because you are submerged in bad ideas, being discussed badly, being reflected in bad journalism and, eventually, in bad literature and bad movies. …”
 
nycfan said:

Bluesky

bsky.app bsky.app

“… Flooding the ether with bad ideas isn’t Trump’s unique know-how — it’s standard autocratic fare. Hannah Arendt used the word “preposterous” to describe the ideas that underpinned 20th-century totalitarian regimes. Bad ideas do a lot of the work of building autocracy.

By forcing us to engage with them, they make our conversations, our media and our society dumber. By conjuring the unimaginable — radical changes in the geography of human relationships, the government and the world itself as we have known it — they plunge us into an anxious state in which thinking is difficult. That kind of anxiety is key to totalitarian control.

Life under autocracy can be terrifying, as it already is in the United States for immigrants and trans people.

But those of us with experience can tell you that most of the time, for most people, it’s not frightening. It is stultifying. It’s boring. It feels like trying to see and breathe under water — because you are submerged in bad ideas, being discussed badly, being reflected in bad journalism and, eventually, in bad literature and bad movies. …”
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“…The idea that government is fundamentally suspect has been around for so long, has become so widely held — and has had such a dumbing-down effect on public conversation — that a full-throated defense of the ideals and institutions of American government seems cringe-worthy.

… Trump’s other bad ideas have the same effect.

… the argument Democrats have advanced against all of Trump’s bad ideas boils down to “You can’t do that.”

Actually, it would appear, he can.

…Admonitions to obey the law will not stop Trump and will not dissuade his supporters.

Trump’s bad ideas must be countered with good ones. His attack on the government has to be contrasted with a vision of how the system could work and should work — for the people, not the emperor-in-the-making.

This is an extremely difficult kind of resistance to muster because it calls for clear thought and inspired vision just when the onslaught of bad ideas, and the anxiety they engender, make it so difficult to think clearly and envision a future….”
 
nycfan said:
“…The idea that government is fundamentally suspect has been around for so long, has become so widely held — and has had such a dumbing-down effect on public conversation — that a full-throated defense of the ideals and institutions of American government seems cringe-worthy.

… Trump’s other bad ideas have the same effect.

… the argument Democrats have advanced against all of Trump’s bad ideas boils down to “You can’t do that.”

Actually, it would appear, he can.

…Admonitions to obey the law will not stop Trump and will not dissuade his supporters.

Trump’s bad ideas must be countered with good ones. His attack on the government has to be contrasted with a vision of how the system could work and should work — for the people, not the emperor-in-the-making.

This is an extremely difficult kind of resistance to muster because it calls for clear thought and inspired vision just when the onslaught of bad ideas, and the anxiety they engender, make it so difficult to think clearly and envision a future….”
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That’s a really good opinion piece. We see it on here every day. Smart people who have become so inculcated with years and years of bad information that they truly, sincerely believe it and will not consider the possibility they might be the victims of a massive disinformation campaign. And now they’re so bought in they can’t even speak out against the obvious authoritarianism we’re seeing on a daily basis.
 
H. L. Mencken spoke to this in the early 20th century.


Mencken, the curmudgeonly Sage of Baltimore, turned phrases that I sometimes quote today. 'No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. ' 'American democracy consists of jackals worshiped by jackasses. ' 'For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.

Words to live by in these troubled times.
 
finesse said:
H. L. Mencken spoke to this in the early 20th century.


Mencken, the curmudgeonly Sage of Baltimore, turned phrases that I sometimes quote today. 'No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. ' 'American democracy consists of jackals worshiped by jackasses. ' 'For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.

Words to live by in these troubled times.
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“Both Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public. The remark has worldwide application. But the lack is not in intelligence, which is in plentiful supply; rather, the scarce commodity is systematic training in critical thinking.”

― Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science
 
Duke Mu said:
Trump's EO ends US democracy:

Trump signs order declaring only president and AG can interpret US law for executive branch

Anyone? Bueller?
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No, the reaction to that is overdone. It signals a bad intention but it's not the end of democracy or anything of the sort. And it's just a fucking executive order. It has no binding force at all. And it's impossible for it to do that, because agencies have to construe American law in normal course and they aren't all going to be calling Pam Bondi to get an interpretation.

The most threatening part is:

"consult with independent regulatory agency chairmen and adjust such agencies’ apportionments by activity, function, project, or object, as necessary and appropriate, to advance the President’s policies and priorities. Such adjustments to apportionments may prohibit independent regulatory agencies from expending appropriations on particular activities, functions, projects, or objects, so long as such restrictions are consistent with law. "

And that's just a subset of the impoundment power they are already claiming. If impoundment is allowed to happen, we're fucked anyway. But I have my doubts the Supreme Court will go along with this. As Quinta Jurecic says on a podcast/transcript already posted, Roberts makes decisions about agency and executive power based on how rude the people are. And this is fucking rude.

Do you remember how hard Kav fought to get his coveted Supreme Court seat? I don't that's a guy who is going to just let Trump take all of his power. The one constant theme from the Trump court has been arrogation of power to itself. That's the unifying theme across ALL the bullshit. They love power. I don't think they are just going to hand it over to Trump and call it a good life.
 
WaynetheDrain said:
He’s literally proud that the NFL doesn’t want to “end racism?”
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There's that. OR, he just doesn't want your culture war bullshit to infest the biggest sporting event of the year where hundreds of millions of people around the world can escape it for 3 hours. The irony is that "end racism" is a message in a league that certainly isn't diversified. That being said, the majority of the voters who voted for trump are glad that politics and culture wars weren't a part of the actual game, halftime show not withstanding, and we could just watch football. Shame on trump.
 
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