#MAGA Extremism

[baldwinheights]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Wuerker, Politico

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 30, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 31, 2024

On Friday, October 25, at a town hall held on his social media platform X, Elon Musk told the audience that if Trump wins, he expects to work in a Cabinet-level position to cut the federal government.

He told people to expect “temporary hardship” but that cuts would “ensure long-term prosperity.” At the Trump rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Musk said he plans to cut $2 trillion from the government. Economists point out that current discretionary spending in the budget is $1.7 trillion, meaning his promise would eliminate virtually all discretionary spending, which includes transportation, education, housing, and environmental programs.

Economists agree that Trump’s plans to place a high tariff wall around the U.S., replacing income taxes on high earners with tariffs paid for by middle-class Americans, and to deport as many as 20 million immigrants would crash the booming economy. Now Trump’s financial backer Musk is factoring in the loss of entire sectors of the government to the economy under Trump.  

Trump has promised to appoint Musk to be the government’s “chief efficiency officer.” “Everyone’s going to have to take a haircut.… We can’t be a wastrel.… We need to live honestly,” Musk said on Friday. Rob Wile and Lora Kolodny of CNBC point out that Musk’s SpaceX aerospace venture has received $19 billion from the U.S. government since 2008.

An X user wrote: “I]f Trump succeeds in forcing through mass deportations, combined with Elon hacking away at the government, firing people and reducing the deficit—there will be an initial severe overreaction in the economy…. Markets will tumble. But when the storm passes and everyone realizes we are on sounder footing, there will be a rapid recovery to a healthier, sustainable economy. History could be made in the coming two years.”

Musk commented: “Sounds about right[.]”

This exchange echoes the prescription of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, whose theories had done much to create the Great Crash of 1929, for restoring a healthy economy. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” he told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living

will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” 

Mellon, at least, was reacting to an economic crisis thrust upon an administration. Musk is seeking to create one. 

Today the Commerce Department reported that from July through September, the nation’s economy grew at a solid 2.8%. Consumer spending is up, as is investment in business. The country added 254,000 jobs in September, and inflation has fallen back almost to the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. 

It is extraordinarily rare for a country to be able to reduce inflation without creating a recession, but the Biden administration has managed to do so, producing what economists call a “soft landing,” rather like catching an egg on a plate. As Bryan Mena of CNN wrote today: “The US economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement.” 

Both President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris have called for reducing the deficit not by slashing the government, as Musk proposes, but by restoring taxes on the wealthy and corporations. 

As part of the Republicans’ plan to take the country back to the era before the 1930s ushered in a government that regulated business and provided a basic social safety net, House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) expects to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. 

At a closed-door campaign event on Monday in Pennsylvania for a Republican House candidate, Johnson told supporters that Republicans will propose “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare,” if they take control of both the House and the Senate in November. “Health-care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda,” Johnson said. Their plan is to take a “blowtorch to the regulatory state,” which he says is “crushing the free market.” “Trump’s going to go big,” he said.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” he laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare…. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

Ending a campaign with a promise to crash a booming economy and end the Affordable Care Act, which ended insurance companies’ ability to reject people with preexisting conditions, is an unusual strategy.

A post from Trump last night and another this morning suggest his internal polls are worrying him. Last night he claimed there was cheating in Pennsylvania’s York and Lancaster counties. Today he posted: “Pennsylvania is cheating, and getting caught, at large scale levels rarely seen before. REPORT CHEATING TO AUTHORITIES. Law Enforcement must act, NOW!” 

Trump appears to be setting up the argument he used in 2020, that he can lose only if he has been cheated. But it is increasingly apparent that the get-out-the-vote, or GOTV, efforts of the Trump campaign have been weak. When Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and loyalist Michael Whatley became the co-chairs of the Republican National Committee in March 2024, they stopped the GOTV efforts underway and used the money instead for litigation. They outsourced GOTV efforts to super PACs, including Musk’s America PAC.

In Wired today, Jake Lahut reported that door-knockers for Musk’s PAC were driven around in the back of a U-Haul without seats and threatened with having to pay their own hotel bills if they didn’t meet high canvassing quotas. One of the canvassers told Lahut that they thought they were being hired to ask people who they would be voting for when they flew into Michigan, and was surprised to learn their actual role. The workers spoke to Lahut anonymously because they had signed a nondisclosure agreement (a practice the Biden administration has tried to stop).

Trump’s boast that he is responsible for the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion is one of the reasons his support is soft. In addition to popular dislike of the idea that the state, rather than a woman and her doctor, should make decisions about her healthcare, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision is now over two years old, and state examinations of maternal deaths are showing that women are dying from lack of reproductive healthcare. 

Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana of ProPublica reported today that at least two pregnant women have died in Texas when doctors delayed emergency care after a miscarriage until the fetal heartbeat stopped. The woman they highlighted today, Josseli Barnica, left behind a husband and a toddler. 

At a rally this evening near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump said his team had advised him to stop talking about how he was going to protect women by ending crime and making sure they don’t have to be “thinking about abortion.” But Trump, who has boasted of sexual assault and been found liable for it, did not stop there. He went on to say that he had told his advisors, “I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.” 

The Trump campaign remains concerned about the damage caused by the extraordinarily racist, sexist, and violent Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden. Today the campaign seized on a misstatement President Biden made when condemning the statement from the Madison Square Garden event that referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” They tried to turn the tables to suggest that Biden was calling Trump supporters garbage, although the president has always been very careful to focus his condemnation on Trump alone. 

In Wisconsin today, when he disembarked from his plane, Trump put on an orange reflective vest and had someone drive him around the tarmac in a garbage truck with TRUMP painted on the side. He complained about Biden to reporters from the cab of the truck but still refused to apologize for Sunday’s slur of Puerto Rico, saying he knew nothing about the comedian who appeared at his rally. 

This, too, was an unusual strategy. Like his visit to McDonalds, where he wore an apron, the image of Trump in a sanitation truck was likely intended to show him as a man of the people. But his power has always rested not in his promise to be one of the people, but rather to lead them. The pictures of him in a bright orange vest and unusually dark makeup are quite different from his usual portrayal of himself.

Indeed, media captured a video of Trump’s stunt, and it did not convey strength. MSNBC’s Katie Phang watched him try to get into the truck and noted: “Trump stumbles, drags his right leg, almost falls over, and tries at least three times to open the door…. Some transparency with Trump’s medical records would be nice.” 

The Las Vegas Sun today ran an editorial that detailed Trump’s increasingly obvious mental lapses and concluded that Trump is “crippled cognitively and showing clear signs of mental illness.” It noted that Trump now depends “on enablers who show a disturbing willingness to indulge his delusions, amplify his paranoia or steer his feeble mind toward their own goals.” It noted that if Trump cannot fulfill the duties of the presidency, they would fall to his running mate, J.D. Vance, who has suggested “he would subordinate constitutional principles for personal profit and power.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[tomorrowusa]

Think of your vote as a drop of holy water to be used in a national exorcism of the Evil One.

A defeat for Trump will not just be a victory for democracy, it will create chaos in the Republican Party which has visibly tied itself to MAGA extremism.

I Will Vote

[kree8r0]

Why do MAGA come off as spoiled rotten, whiny and ungrateful babies?

This question as it was originally posted on Quora in its complete form is: Why do so many MAGA elitists come off as spoiled rotten, whiny and ungrateful babies who are in desperate need of a diaper change? Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist, and his success at achieving such a high degree of public awareness and top of mind bolstered by all the corporate media driving him to the Whitehouse…

[filosofablogger]

Food For Thought ...

There’s been a lot of talk lately about democracy on the brink.  We all feel it, and it seems undeniable when one candidate for the presidency talks about being a dictator and parrots Adolf Hitler multiple times, saying that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the nation.  It’s frightening, it’s discouraging, and it’s dividing this nation.  Political analyst Steve Schmidt reminds us that…

[liberalsarecool]

MAGA men would rather blow themselves up than get therapy.

This guy was gravely manipulated and deluded by MAGA disinformation and propaganda.

The call for violence against Democrats from insecure MAGA men and MAGA military is something we need to take more seriously.

Pumping FOX at military bases is just pouring gasoline on the insecure bonfire.

[thashining]

WATCH: Protesters in Raleigh dropped off letters at the state legislature Monday denouncing a post-election Republican power grab that seizes powers held by offices that Democrats won in November. Senate Bill 382 was supposed to be a hurricane relief bill for western North Carolina, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September. But it mostly contains attacks on the powers held by offices like the governor, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction — which were all won by Democrats in November’s election. It also takes oversight of elections away from the governor’s office. Demonstrators during the “Moral Monday” protest in Raleigh likened it to a “coup,” saying that it undermines the will of the voters. Gov.-elect Josh Stein has condemned the bill. So has outgoing Gov. Roy Cooper and former Gov. Pat McCrory — a Republican. Cooper vetoed the bill, but Republican lawmakers in the House are expected to consider overriding the governor’s veto Wednesday in Raleigh. Stay tuned to @cardinalandpine for updates.

[shutinthenutouse]

[afriblaq]

The main reason we dont have Free Universal Healthcare

Anti-Black racism is the reason why we don’t have universal healthcare??? 👀😳🫠

At this point, no one is shocked. Now that we definitely know the root cause, the question is, what do we do to correct this? In a country this “rich” there’s no reason why everyone isn’t take care of… 💯

This 1619 maga mindset still exists today. Ex: Election 2024

@mrcrim3

[canadianabroadvery]

[baldwinheights]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla.

Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024 | 2 a.m.

Donald Trump’s racism, sexism, xenophobia and penchant for corruption have long made him unfit for any public office, let alone the presidency. But as he continues his bid for a second term in the White House, there is an unsettling and undeniable shift that is leading many experts, observers and even some Trump supporters to conclude that the former president’s mental acuity and sharpness are also in decline, that his physical health and stamina are waning and that his frustration and anger are boiling over.

Americans from both sides of the political spectrum should be alarmed by Trump’s words and behavior. The nation must confront the fact that beyond his hateful character, he is crippled cognitively and showing clear signs of mental illness.

There’s no need to resort to armchair psychology to interpret what’s apparent. If victorious, Trump would be the oldest president ever inaugurated. In recent weeks, he has canceled an increasing number of public appearances, with Trump’s own campaign citing the candidate’s exhaustion. When he does appear publicly, Trump struggles to complete sentences or sustain coherent thoughts, and has shown a pronounced difficulty concentrating and a tendency to repeat himself, sometimes within the same sentence.

At a recent rally in New Hampshire, for example, Trump began to discuss infrastructure and wound up segueing into a disjointed monologue about loyalty and perceived injustices against him, ending with a bewildering comment about windmills causing cancer.

This is not an isolated incident. A recent analysis by The New York Times noted that Trump’s rally speeches over the past eight years have become darker, longer, more profane and increasingly unfocused and unhinged — a troubling sign that he is no longer able to articulate ideas or reason in ways we expect of our leaders. This makes him prey to manipulations by his own staff or, worse, the control of foreign adversaries.

He shambles about aimlessly, slurs his words and sometimes speaks gibberish. Always an effortless liar, now that his speeches are nothing more than a series of lies tangled in a mass inside his head, it appears he no longer even knows he’s lying. 

He has called for the imprisonment of journalists, pledged to purge the government of “deep state” operatives he perceives as disloyal and is amplifying his tyrannical rhetoric. He has also increased his public praise for dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping while using increasingly fascist language to describe those he deems political enemies. The former president has even suggested using the military against his domestic critics — an approach reminiscent of repressive regimes in history that has often been the precursor to creeping authoritarianism.

With Trump’s fragility comes an increasing dependence on enablers who show a disturbing willingness to indulge his delusions, amplify his paranoia or steer his feeble mind toward their own goals. Among these enablers is his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. Should Trump be deemed unfit to serve, Vance would step into power.

Once a “Never Trump” conservative who openly criticized Trump as a danger to the republic, Vance has since fully embraced an extremist ideology, morphing into a vocal MAGA supporter who seems eager to emulate Trump’s worst instincts.

Beyond his weird obsession with childless women whom he says are “deranged” and “sociopathic,” and his penchant for spreading conspiracy theories about immigrants and other marginalized communities, Vance poses a different threat to democracy than Trump. He has repeatedly demonstrated that he is little more than a puppet of his billionaire hedge fund benefactors and has openly stated he would have refused to certify the 2020 election, suggesting he would subordinate constitutional principles for personal profit and power.

His willingness to discard any principles shows that he would likely not push back against Trump’s excesses or his deteriorating mental stability. Instead, he might embrace a Trumpian authoritarianism, exacerbating the very dangers we face with Trump’s current mental decline.

If history has taught us anything, it is that democracies are fragile. America’s founders designed the presidency to be a stabilizing force. Trump’s instability, paired with his and Vance’s increasing willingness to trample democratic norms and visible contempt of anyone not like him, has transformed what might have once been seen by conservatives as an uncomfortable leadership style into an existential threat to American democracy.

For those who believe in a country governed by checks, balances and the rule of law, a return to Trumpian leadership is dangerous in its own right. But to do so with an impaired leader who cannot govern competently and a fellow authoritarian waiting in the wings is perilous.

As voters consider Trump’s latest bid for the presidency, it’s essential to recognize that this election is not merely a choice between policy platforms or party loyalties. It’s a test of our willingness to safeguard our nation from leaders whose fitness for office is in serious question. This election is about protecting the integrity of our democracy from those who would let it collapse in the name of power, loyalty or expedience.

Donald Trump has never had the moral compass to lead this country. But even his supporters cannot afford to ignore the signs that he may no longer have the mental faculties to lead it either. The stakes are simply too high.

[tomorrowusa]

Yep, these 500 year storms seem to be happening every few years. And if Trump gets elected and his Project 2025 has its way, NOAA won't be around even to warn us of approaching disasters.

Why was Hurricane Helene so bad? Fossil fuel pollution.

Helene also rapidly intensified twice before it reached Florida, because the water in the Gulf of Mexico is off-the-charts warm — much like the rest of the Atlantic. More than 90% of warming around the globe over the past 50 years has taken place in the oceans, and it’s making storms more likely to undergo these rapid intensification cycles. Sea levels in Florida are as much as 8 inches higher than they were in 1950. The speed of that rise is increasing too. This translates to higher storm surge. Across the board, Helene was a hurricane supercharged by climate change. “For decades now, scientists have been warning us that extreme weather events will be exacerbated by this blanket of carbon pollution we’ve been wrapping around our planet,” said Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “But as a human, it is shocking to see the devastation occurring in front of our eyes, affecting the people and places we know and love.”

Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse

DONALD TRUMP"S RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE...

[filosofablogger]

Words of Wisdom ...

What I am about to share with you is just over two weeks old, so some things, such as the House Speaker fiasco, are a bit dated, but the tone and point of this newsletter from Robert Hubbell dated October 19th, remain as relevant today as they were two weeks ago.  Hubbell is intelligent and insightful, and I found his newsletter encouraging.  No, it didn’t convince me that all will end well, but…

[eugenedebs1920]

In a speech given after winning his fourth term as prime minister of Hungary, Victor Orban would tell a crowd, “We must state that we do not want to be diverse and do not want to be mixed: we do not want our own colour, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others. We do not want this. We do not want that at all. We do not want to be a diverse country."

Orban reassumed power in 2010 after having lost his bid for reelection in 2002. To date Orban has held the prime minister position fourteen consecutive years, eighteen total. Over this time he has consolidated power to himself, with much suspicion regarding the legitimacy of the Hungarian election system, the European Union going so far as to say Hungary could no longer be considered a full democracy.

After losing his run in 2002 Orban and other conservatives in the Fidesz party would baselessly claim the election was rigged, despite lacking any evidence of it’s existence.

The period from 2002-2010 gave Orban time to formulate a plan if he were to return to power. The 2010 results would allow him the chance to implement them.

His rise to the top was fueled with anti-immigrant sentiment, capped with the tone of unbridled nationalism. Hungary would embrace a Eurosceptic style of government, which Orban would call “illiberal Christian Democracy”.

His claim of democracy is disputed though. Upon recapturing prime minister Orban would put into play a series of measures to covertly undermine the pillars of a democratic state.

In 2013 Orban would amend the constitution giving unchecked power to the head of state to the point where he can dissolve parliament. The changes to the constitution also allowed for an extended state of emergency [crisis] to be declared, pausing elections if needed.

By removing investigators and heads of law enforcement, replacing them with loyalists, his corruption would go unchecked. Today Hungary is considered a kleptocracy or mofia state, with Transparency International declaring it the most corrupt country in the EU.

Over the years, with the help of extreme gerrymandering, Orban has all but tightened his grip over government, with 2/3rds of parliament under his right wing Fidesz party. This would allow for the passing of judiciary reform putting the executive branch in charge of appointing, installing, and funding justices of his choosing.

With judiciary and parliament stacked in his favor there would be no opposition. This gave way to the passing of legislation to create a state of emergency unconditionally. In this it provided Orban the right, by decree, to prosecute and jail people spreading “fake news, including the press.

Through litigation, intimidation, buyouts and pressure campaigns nearly 80% of news media is either controlled by the state, or simply right wing propaganda broadcasting conservative Fidesz talking points.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Peter Magyar, leader of a new opposition party in Hungary would say when speaking of available news content and current events “This parallel reality is like the Truman Show. People believe that it’s reality.”

Peter Kreko, an analyst for Budapest think tank would echo these themes saying, “Orbán has created ‘an almost Orwellian environment’ where the government weaponizes control of a majority of news outlets to limit Hungarians’ decisions.” He would go on to say, “Hungary has become a quite successful informational autocracy, or spin dictatorship,”

Right wing personalities, and autocratic leaders use the victim card as a way to distract and manipulate their followers. They find reasons, and make up stories about how oppressed they are, how the opposition is stifling their speech, or not allowing their religion, or that some group of people are threatening their rights and way of life. This leads to villainizing minority sects of the population.

Orban ran on an anti-immigrant hate platform, trashing the EU for their position on immigration. This came as Hungary’s affiliation with Russia was growing ever closer. Putin and Orban’s relationship goes back to around the 2010’s. Much of the controversial legislation Orban passed reflects legislation pushed through in Putin’s Russia. Orban and Putin meet regularly, in fact prior to the U.S. presidential election they met right before Orban would visit Trump at Mar -a-largo.

Despite the majority of the population being agnostic, Orban would claim Hungary was a “Christian Democracy.” He would vehemently pursue the cause to “re-Christianize” Hungary. This would lead to the privatization of public schools, urging that youth education be done by the churches. These school curriculums would teach, "national identity, Christian cultural values, patriotism, attachment to homeland and family”, not providing room for other religious beliefs, or accurate depictions of the past.

Much like what the Christian right does in America this would lead to a string of anti-LGBTQ discrimination and persecution, with Orban saying that homosexuality is “Not compatible with Christian values”. In 2020 Orban had government end the legal recognition of transgender people. He would also put up legislation to censor any “LGBTQ positive content” from movies, books, TV, and other media.

Orbán passed laws, amended the constitution and "patiently debilitated, delegitimatized, hollowed out" civic institutions such as courts, universities, and the apparatus necessary for free elections that are now controlled by Orbán loyalists. Domination of the public media by Orbán prevents the public from hearing critics' point of view.

If any of this sounds familiar it should. Orban is hailed as a hero in American conservatism. He has spoken many times at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the pinnacle of conservative gatherings in the U.S., Steve Bannon. Would call Orban, “Trump, before Trump”, Tucker Carlson, and other right wing media personalities would interview Orban, with Tucker exclaiming that he was the only Eastern European leader "on the face of the earth, ... who publicly identifies as a Western-style conservative".

All of Trump 2.0 is following the path in which Orban destroyed the democratic system in Hungary. It’s uncanny. I urge Americans and American leaders to look into Orban’s takeover of Hungary and the precise similarities in Trumps approach currently. This is the white Christian nationalist agenda in action. It happened in Europe on a smaller scale, it’s on the macro level in the United States now.