Rise of Fascism in the United States [SPLIT]

[KaraBulut]

Whatever it is that does go badly wrong, something will go badly wrong and many people will die when nobody in an administration has a single fucking clue how to do their job. How many deaths is it going to take before the voters understand that? Last time your country had a pretend president, there were a over a million covid related deaths and not one apology for any of them. If one million is not enough then how many is enough? Two, three, four, five. Six?

There's a lot of things that the Trump Administration did right but it was because of long-time civil service employees who had been through Ebola and other emergencies. Those are the employees that Project 2025 wants to turn into at-will employees that the President can hire/fire at will.

The public has forgotten the fuck ups, apparently. Remember we had no PPE because the Trump Administration cut the budget for the National Stockpile, so they didn't have supplies on hand and what they did have had expired? Remember hospital employees wearing trash bags because there were no gowns? Remember the ventilator rationing? Remember Trump trying to cover up the Federal shortages by saying that the individual Governors from each state had to find their own rubber gloves and masks?

 

[rareboy]

Again. Trump had then and still has one mandate.

Destroy the federal government agencies and departments.

Turn the United States back into a looser confederation of individual states with a congress that has to do nothing and a Supreme Court that will be primed to send back decisions on all major issues except the 2nd Amendment back to the states.

 

[KaraBulut]

Again. Trump had then and still has one mandate.

Destroy the federal government agencies and departments.

Turn the United States back into a looser confederation of individual states with a congress that has to do nothing and a Supreme Court that will be primed to send back decisions on all major issues except the 2nd Amendment back to the states.

There's a bigger mandate: privatization.

There's a long post somewhere in the forum where talked about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service.

The last time Trump was in office, he tried to appointment the guy who owned AccuWeather to head the agency. AccuWeather gets free data from the NWS and sells it to the tune of $100 million/year. The Trumpists think that privatizing the weather data we get for free would be a nifty idea. Want to know about that tornado down the street? Give us a credit card and we'll tell you about it. You heard there's a hurricane in the Atlantic headed toward you? For just $19.99 per month, we'll give you information that might save your life.

Project 2025 fell short of saying they were going to get rid of NOAA and NWS (60% of the Commerce Dept budget!) but they don't like that NOAA does climate research and believes in climate change.

Now, extend that out to every government agency. Trump Weather! Trump Farm Assistance! Trump Insurance! The possibilities are endless.

Fact-checking what Project 2025 says about the National Weather Service and NOAA

As Florida braced for Hurricane Helene, some weather and politics observers were mad about Project 2025.

www.pbs.org

 

[Alistair]

There's a lot of things that the Trump Administration did right but it was because of long-time civil service employees who had been through Ebola and other emergencies. Those are the employees that Project 2025 wants to turn into at-will employees that the President can hire/fire at will.

The public has forgotten the fuck ups, apparently. Remember we had no PPE because the Trump Administration cut the budget for the National Stockpile, so they didn't have supplies on hand and what they did have had expired? Remember hospital employees wearing trash bags because there were no gowns? Remember the ventilator rationing? Remember Trump trying to cover up the Federal shortages by saying that the individual Governors from each state had to find their own rubber gloves and masks?

Remember closing the disease research center in China only because Obama opened it?

 

[cityboy-stl]

Remember closing the disease research center in China only because Obama opened it?

Along with discarding the entire pandemic playbook that Obama had developed, just because Obama had developed it?

 

[KaraBulut]

Remember closing the disease research center in China only because Obama opened it?

Along with discarding the entire pandemic playbook that Obama had developed, just because Obama had developed it?

In autocratic countries, statues are erected to the autocrat. Every classroom and government office has the picture of the autocrat. On public streets, oversized pictures of the autocrat appear everywhere. When the next autocrat comes to power, they spend a lot of time getting rid of their predecessor's pictures and statues. In some cases, history books were rewritten.

It used to be that there was an orderly transition between Administrations. Nixon originated the EPA. Carter originated FEMA. When we changed Presidents, the next President might have tinkered with the agency leadership but the assumption was that the agency and its mission continued.

During the first Trump Administration, there was a very autocratic attempt to remove anything that Obama did. It started with the transition which was nearly absent for many departments in the government. There was no interest in continuing programs that were started by prior Administrations. There was no interest in learning what each department did. Executive Orders were initiated to undo Executive Orders from the previous Administration. There was a very cavalier and arrogant attitude toward government programs- like pandemic plans- that were originated for good reason in the Obama Administration.

The first two years were like a drunken frat party- "We're going to deconstruct the administrative state. Yipee!". Then March 2020 happened.

I'm not sure there will be a 2 year honeymoon this time around. I wonder what will happen if there is a terrorist attack. I wonder what will happen if there is an outbreak of conflict in the middle east. I wonder what will happen if Russia continues their hostile actions in the Arctic. Will they have to retrieve a drunk SecDef from a hotel room? Will the NSC Advisor be busy doing an OAN interview or giving some speech at a right wing conference? Will the FDA head decide that, no we don't need to worry about anthrax because natural immunity is better for us?

 

[cityboy-stl]

In autocratic countries, statues are erected to the autocrat. Every classroom and government office has the picture of the autocrat. On public streets, oversized pictures of the autocrat appear everywhere. When the next autocrat comes to power, they spend a lot of time getting rid of their predecessor's pictures and statues. In some cases, history books were rewritten.

It used to be that there was an orderly transition between Administrations. Nixon originated the EPA. Carter originated FEMA. When we changed Presidents, the next President might have tinkered with the agency leadership but the assumption was that the agency and its mission continued.

During the first Trump Administration, there was a very autocratic attempt to remove anything that Obama did. It started with the transition which was nearly absent for many departments in the government. There was no interest in continuing programs that were started by prior Administrations. There was no interest in learning what each department did. Executive Orders were initiated to undo Executive Orders from the previous Administration. There was a very cavalier and arrogant attitude toward government programs- like pandemic plans- that were originated for good reason in the Obama Administration.

The first two years were like a drunken frat party- "We're going to deconstruct the administrative state. Yipee!". Then March 2020 happened.

I'm not sure there will be a 2 year honeymoon this time around. I wonder what will happen if there is a terrorist attack. I wonder what will happen if there is an outbreak of conflict in the middle east. I wonder what will happen if Russia continues their hostile actions in the Arctic. Will they have to retrieve a drunk SecDef from a hotel room? Will the NSC Advisor be busy doing an OAN interview or giving some speech at a right wing conference? Will the FDA head decide that, no we don't need to worry about anthrax because natural immunity is better for us?

During the first Trump Administration, there was a very autocratic attempt to remove anything that Obama did.

See, and this where I come from when I keep saying the primary motivation for the republican crusade to repeal Obamacare, is because Obama did it. They failed the first go around, and now they're determined to finish it. They're still obsessed with undoing Obama.

Yeah, I get all the stuff about the insurance industry not liking it. That's true. Or maybe they do want a whole new Trumpcare plan, who knows. But so far, in 15 years, they have not produced a shred of a plan. They could easily have a new plan or amendments to ACA sitting on the table right now. But no. They have nothing.

The realistic thing is, they are screaming about repealing Obamacare right now. Herr Johnson said he wanted it first on the agenda. If they succeed in repealing Obamacare without putting something else in its place at the same time, everything goes back to the way it was before Obama. That's what they want. That's what the insurance companies want. Undo Obama.

If they actually come up with a plan, then I'll think differently about it. But so far, this is where they're going.

 

[KaraBulut]

...The realistic thing is, they are screaming about repealing Obamacare right now.

I assure that the insurance industry doesn't want to lose the Federal Marketplace. It has sent their profits soaring and it has added millions to their insurance rolls. Below is a graph of the number of Americans covered by some form of health insurance. The yellow bar is when the ACA passed. Since the ACA passed, more Americans have signed up for health insurance.



The insurance industry was at the table during the ACA negotiations. They succeeded in killing a public option for the second time (the first time was HillaryCare). They know that if they repeal the ACA, they will lose the subsidies. They will lose millions of subscribers. Repeal will lay the groundwork for a "Medicare for All" type plan.

Since the ACA was passed in 2010, more than $9 trillion of revenue has flowed to the country’s largest health insurance companies, which include UnitedHealth Group; Cigna; Kaiser Permanente; Elevance Health, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; and CVS Health/Aetna.



Back in 2017, they may have been neutral on the ACA because they were getting a lot of new policyholders who had not been insured for years. The costs were high in the first couple of years. But that graphs show a sharp increase in insured Americans and insurance company profits in the past 8 years. Insurers are fat and happy getting those government subsidized premium payments.

 

[rareboy]

So it really does all come down to repealing it, renaming it and carrying on.

Just like NAFTA 2.0 just HAD to be USMCFTA in order to put 'America First'.

 

[rareboy]

And meanwhile....we have more taint sucking noises from Coca Cola. Enough to make be drink Pepsi. They all publicly and very publicly fall into line. The next thing is that Coke is only going to be able to produce FANTA in the US because the NAZIs are gassing the Jews.

 

[cityboy-stl]

Ok...I'll be quiet. I get no one wants to acknowledge or address the actual point I keep trying to make about Obamacare. Either that or I am incapable of explaining it. So I will shut up about it.

 

[rareboy]

 

[KaraBulut]

The word of the day week month year next 4 years is "oligarchy".

Big donors to Trump's inaugural will be able to attend a special reception where they can meet (and lobby) Trump's Cabinet nominees. Ultra-big donors get to attend a private dinner with members of the Trump crime family, including the Mafia Don himself.

Tech CEOs' donations to Donald Trump, Joe Biden inaugurations compared

The CEOs and their companies have donated millions to Trump's upcoming inauguration.

www.newsweek.com

Tech companies and their CEOs are donating millions of dollars to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration after giving less to President Joe Biden's inaugural fund four years earlier.
Why It Matters

Trump, who returns to the White House after January 20's inauguration, has raked in substantially more money from tech companies than Biden did for his 2021 inauguration.

 

[rareboy]

It is as naked now in the US as it is in the Kremlin.

And watch for the resurgence of rrrZZZian billionaires again in the US.

 

[rareboy]

One is reminded of Franklin D Roosevelt’s re-election speech in 1936 when he said: “We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace – business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism … They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that government by organised money is just as dangerous as government by organised mob.”
And of course, it is one thing to embrace corporate fascism within your own borders, but Great Britain is also sensing the threats from Trump and Musk and the damage they could unleash.

First Brexit, now Trump and Musk: ignorance is back with a vengeance | William Keegan

The aggression from the Tesla billionaire is new; but Britain has years of experience in the consequences of falling for misleading promises

www.theguardian.com

 

[Dargelos]

William Keegan is an extremely wise man. If he says something, you bet your life it will be true. We need a lot more of his type but they are becoming hard to find.

 

[rareboy]

Pre-emptive pardons for people who have done nothing wrong to protect them from the vengeance of an autocratic ruler is about one of the loudest signals ever that the US has tipped into fascist thugocracy.

Unfortunately, I don't see it preventing the GQP from holding months or years of hearings in order to put these individuals through pain and anguish a a preformance piece to distract the MAGAt voters.

Biden pardons Fauci, Milley and the Jan. 6 panel. It's a guard against potential 'revenge' by Trump

The heads of the Jan. 6 committee say they're grateful for the decision by President Joe Biden to pardon them “not for breaking the law but for upholding it.”

apnews.com

 

[cityboy-stl]

^^ Biden definitely did the right thing here.

 

[rareboy]

So I am reading all kinds of horrified reactions from people who watched his speech.

Definitely the comments he made about how there will only be 2 genders has basically erased tens of thousands of human beings in the US and is only one stop from declaring that homosexuality will be on the block as well.

The other statement was the declaration that the US will expand its territory starting with the Panama Canal.

This seems to have had a really chilling effect among Europeans, who see the next step being Greenland seized and among Canadians who now see Trump's goals as no different from Putin's.

Probably the darkest day ever. So far.

 

[TX-Beau]

No one is going to seize Panama or Greenland, and this is all just posturing while the Trogs shovel taxpayer money into Elon's gaping maw. Nor can Toad negate the Tok Tok ban without Congress passing a new law and they are balking at his claims to do that.