GI and another friend have been talking about the 25th Amendmemt. But I don't get how that works when he was already impaired at the time we elected him.
The Democrats in Congress absolutely need to oppose any 25th Amendment vote. As long as Trump has a pulse they need to keep him in office, thrashing around and being obviously, embarrassingly unwell. High time to put party before country here. Make the Republicans argue that their hero is mentally unfit, and then shove their arguments in their face at every election. Accuse Vance of wanting to stage a coup and take over.
2 is so right. And Vance is definitely the vector, if not the agent, for Thiel (and Musk and assorted rich racist shitheads). But who knows what happens in the viper pit and who is the last reptile slithering.
agree with 2 & 3.
I think there will be a sort of three-way power struggle in the GOP (apart from the crazy God-King himself).
1) Pragmatic evil fuckheads-- McConnell/Graham/Rubio trad wing
2) Crazy MAGA/tea party fuckheads--Jim Jordan, Stephen Miller, Kash Patel etc.
3) Thiel/Vance/Musk fuckheads
Will probably cooperate at first on some consensus horrors (but potential conflict over immigration and tariffs). But all will be all in on DOJ/Regulation and (shudder) Military takeover/subjugation.
As to the God-King himself whilst he is still functional, DougJballoon has occasionally posted observations based on a narcissistic sociopath co-worker.
Had this today on the difficulty of predicting their behavior.
https://x.com/DougJBalloon/status/1854522754415853976
I wanted to do another quick thing about Trump and narcissistic sociopaths, hitting a couple things I've observed from my co-worker. The first is that you simply cannot predict what they will do....
They are completely without morals and what motivates them is entirely different than what motivates you or me. So there's no way to do any kind of "rational analysis" of what they might choose to do...
Even when you dig into their personality, there are a lot of conflicting things. They are lazy and struggle with follow through, on the one hand, but also incredibly vindictive and good at making other ppl do things..
So will Trump do mass deportations, will he really sic the DOJ on his political enemies en masse? It is hard to say, but he certainly could. He could also opt for a few photo ops. There is no way to do know..
He goes on in a thread if you follow the link.
He will end up being manipulated, but even how that dynamic will work is hard to say. The interaction of his narcissism and megalomania, and the machinations of the three armies of hell mentioned in 4 could go anywhere.
He was already being manipulated by Putin, MBS, and Kim Jong Un last time around.
I wonder if Vance is smart enough to play a long game and eventually shrug off Trump and his handlers.
Related, I will be very interested to see what state Joe Biden will be in by 2028. My money's on "talking a little slower, moving a little slower, but still coherent and alert".
"Listen, Jake, I didn't campaign for Donald Trump, I didn't donate to him, and I sure as hell didn't vote for him. But he was the choice of the American people and he is the President of the United States. And I will not stand by and see the American people deprived of their representation by a conspiracy of an unelected investment banker and his billionaire buddies. If Donald Trump is no longer able to serve, then it is up to him to retire from office. But I will not join in a plot to throw him out of office against the will of the millions of Americans who chose him as commander in chief. Let me be clear - this is nothing short of a coup, and if the only way to stop it is for Americans to take to the streets and make it clear that they back their President, then that is what they must do."
8: That's my guess. I still think his dropping out was the right move politically, the apparent physical weakness was devastating for a campaign, but I think the reports of his deterioration were vastly overstated.
I think various media people deliberately kneecapped Biden because they wanted Trump to win.
Oh, WaPo. But you think it more broadly?
13 Biden's deficiencies were apparent to all but it definitely looked like NYT and others really wanted Trump to win
I think all this 25th Amendment talk is wishful thinking -- if the Republicans have learning anything in the last 8 years it is that Trump is the Cult Leader and any support they have will vanish the moment they turn against him.
I'm not sure about that myself. I think there was a combination of pressure, including a lot of lying, from people who thought he needed to drop out for the good of the party and country because he was too old to win an election; people trying to push him out in bad faith in favor of some other Democrat; and people who wanted Trump to win just badmouthing him as the then-current Democratic candidate.
14: Not just the WP. I think it because they didn't report similar evidence about Trump with nearly the same frequency or intensity.
That, definitely. The non-reporting of Trump's weakness and incoherence was grotesque.
That all makes sense. Yeah, the July reporting on Biden vs the October reporting on Trump is pretty criminally disparate.
This won't get the NYT off the hook for the pro-Trump accusations, but I did find this article on Don Jr.'s role in the power jockeying somewhat informative. (The author did one memorable good piece years ago on party politics in Alabama, I think for a different outlet, and since then has been doing less appetizing profiles of right-wing figures, including credulous chats with bullshit merchant Christopher Rufo.)
OMFG what did I just write? How did those sentences... anyway, some quotes:
Today, Mr. Trump Jr. has come to occupy a perch of unrivaled influence inside the MAGA movement, so much so that of all the figures who surround the former president, his eldest son may offer the best window into the future of that movement.
While the 78-year-old Mr. Trump is running what, win or lose, seems likely to be his final campaign, the 46-year-old Mr. Trump Jr. has ambitious plans that extend well beyond 2024, and well beyond his father.
The Republican Party Mr. Trump Jr. is building is younger, angrier and even more anti-establishment than today's version. It is united less by common values and common ideas than by common contempt for its opponents -- the liberal elites in government, big business, academia and Hollywood, whom he sees as a dangerous enemy that must be forcefully confronted and vanquished.
...
Unlike Mr. Kushner, who worked in the White House and oversaw the Trump campaign in 2020, Mr. Trump Jr. has eschewed an official position. "Jared really fashioned himself as an expert on all things, and wanted to be involved in all things, and had an opinion on all things," says Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. "Don is considerably more focused. He picks his spots. He doesn't want to be an employee in the org chart of the White House."
The result, according to Trump advisers, has been an unusually functional and drama-free Trump campaign, with Mr. Trump Jr. frequently deferring to the campaign's co-managers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, who, in turn, defer to Mr. Trump Jr. on the rare occasions when he weighs in.
Okay wait a minute. That last paragraph is demonstrably completely false, and I'm not sure any of the rest of it has merit? Anyway, Don Jr. is in the mix, and the NYT has straight up sold itself.
Libertarian Trump advisors in their garages with their laptops
I wonder if he can be said to have handlers. In the sense that, there seem to be plenty of people who buzz around him and coax him into into things and would think of themselves as his handlers/guides/manipulators, but their actual efficacy and constancy seems all over the place.
24: right? I read the article and found it slimy at the time, but it put one additional figure on my radar. Then that Atlantic piece about the campaign infighting dropped and... Don Jr. is still on my radar in some way, but I'm unlikely to take anything else Zengerle writes at face value. Thus concludes my very brief foray into reporting about the Trump campaign.
18, 20: The non-reporting of Trump's weakness and incoherence was grotesque.
This sentence from the Times is an all-timer.
After members of the crowd began chanting that they could not hear him properly, Mr. Trump yanked the microphone out of its holder. At one point, he pantomimed adjusting the microphone setup and bobbing down toward it, to the laughter of the crowd. And for now just looking a the splash screen and the url give me a measure of nasty but hoonest joy.
That said, I'm not sure any MSM reporting that was different during the campaigns would have really changed things. But my critique and that of many is that sentences like that are more correctly viewed as a mere symptom of NYT/MSM acquiescence and reinforcement of our massively asymmetrically warped information system. An NYT that would just straightforwardly write what happened is a very different NYT in a very different information ecosystem. Which arguably *might* lead to some different electoral outcomes, but almost certainly to a different discourse.)
And thus Fuck the Fucking New York Times. Not sure if i have the juice to really go with it, but we'll see how my mood/energy develops. Probably better to just walk away entirely but what would be the fun in that.
And for now just looking at the splash screen and the url result in a nasty but heartfelt joy.
I came here for a respite from the hellscape in Israel and I guess I brought the bad juju over. Anyway, I'm in New York for a month. Does Fresh Salt still exist? Anyone want to drown our respective and joint woes?
With the world crashing down around our ears and all, it's nice to be remembered. Hi! I miss you guys.
I can't make it to New York. Next year? In Jerusalem.
Hellscapes in every direction, it feels like. Good to see you again!
32: Do you know, I remember LB once said that as a joke which for some reason flew over my head, and then I asked her about it a couple of months later, all excited, and she had no idea what I was talking about. So I'm not going to fall for that one again.
Don't mind me. I'm trying to work while unobstrusively find out if coworkers think RFK jr will endanger our jobs.
35: Can't you make a quick pivot to studies on the dangers of fluoridation? Or how cryptocurrency cures cancer?
35: I'm wondering about that. Part of my job involves 8mproving kids' vaccination rates. But those are private insurance contracts too.
To me, the Kennedy-Who-Sucks is the least of the risks of Trump 2. Prime candidate for dignity wraithing, strong chance he never gets actual position of authority as opposed to some advisory role, or if he does he can't keep his ego in check and gets fired in months.
But I fear assaults on vaccines & other public health mainstays regardless of who's put there. Including to my job in particlar.
38: We'll, I don't actually think Kennedy is the problem. Alex Azar wasn't that bad, though Seema Verma at CMS was. Certain things Trump did in the realm of value based care probably made a job like mine more secure. But this time around, all bets are off.
I think Kennedy would be a bigger problem if he were actually allowed to implement his ideas. But in practice, the preexisting Trump/GOP health policies will be plenty destructive.
Despite working for a health department, I'm not too concerned about my own job under another Trump administration. I suspect he'll do the same thing with HUD as he did last time: Put a random Black person in charge and then mostly ignore it.
You're with a health department but more dependent on HUD than HHS?
Awl! Yes, we should do Fresh Salt, and I can probably produce Jackmormon and Mr Blandings.
I'm not directly worried about public health, occupationally. I'm worried he'll gum up the works.
44: Tell them I said hello please.
45: In what sense? If something like the American Health Care Act (2017) is passed, that's huge cuts to states' Medicaid programs.
Same email? Firstname.lastname.classics@gmail?
Terrific -- I'll round up the usual suspects, and when we figure out a day I'll put up a post.
Oooh! Add me to the emails, I'll be in town Saturday to Saturday for a work thing. I do already have some evening commitments though.
Sorry for not saying anything earlier, I keep thinking we should do a meetup next time in in NYC and then I keep not thinking about it until after I'm there and fully booked, but it would be great to see you all.
Where's Jamie Lannister when you need him? You know, Jamie? With the Mad King? Oh never mind.
That guy who wears silly hats is going to die without finishing the series. Because we are not in a good time line.
I'm expecting the sixth book, eventually, but not the seventh.
But then, I expected both Hillary and Harris to win, so what do I know?
But who knows what happens in the viper pit and who is the last reptile slithering.
To use different metaphors, I think a lot of people who thought they were leopards are going to find out they're faces.