#Trump Transition

[deadpresidents]

"Mr. Trump's election demonstrates how American tolerance for the unacceptable is nearly infinite. There are hundreds of absolutely mind-boggling things I could point to from the past decade...But three election in a row, Mr. Trump has been a viable Presidential candidate and our democracy has few guardrails to protect the country from the clear and present danger he and his political appointees will continue to confer upon us. Clearly, Mr. Trump is successful because of his faults, not despite them, because we do not live in a just world...And now Republicans will control the executive branch, the Senate and the House of Representatives. There will be few checks and balances...

...Mr. Trump's voters are granted a level of care and coddling that defies credulity and that is afforded to no other voting bloc. Many of them believe the most ludicrous things: babies being aborted after birth and children going to school as one gender and returning home surgically altered as another gender even though these things simply do not happen. Time and again, we hear the wild lies these voters believe and we act as if they are sharing the same reality as ours, as if they are making informed decisions about legitimate issues. We act as if they get to dictate the terms of political engagement on a foundation of fevered mendacity.

We must refuse to participate in a mass delusion. We must refuse to accept that the ignorance on display is a congenital condition rather than a choice. All of us should refuse to pretend that any of this is normal and that these voters are just woefully misunderstood and that if only the Democrats addressed their economic anxiety, they might vote differently. While they are numerous, that does not make them right.

These are adults, so let us treat them like adults. Let us acknowledge that they want to believe nonsense and conjecture. They want to believe anything that affirms their worldview. They want to celebrate a leader who allows them to nurture their basest beliefs about others. The biggest challenge of our lifetime will be figuring out how to combat the American willingness to embrace flagrant misinformation and bigotry.

As Mr. Trump assembles his cabinet of loyalists and outlines the alarming policies he means to enact, it's hard not to imagine the worst, not out of paranoia but as a means of preparation. The incoming President has clearly articulated that he may dismantle the Department of Education and appears to be giving the wealthiest man in the world unfettered access to the Oval Office. He plans to begin mass deportations immediately and has announced his pick of a Fox News host as the defense secretary -- the list goes on, each promise more appalling than the last.

We would like to believe that many of the ideas on Mr. Trump's demented wish list won't actually come to fruition and that our democracy can once more withstand the new President and the people with whom he surrounds himself. But that is just desperate, wishful thinking. As of yet, there is nothing that will break the iron grip Mr. Trump has on his base, and Vice President-elect JD Vance is young enough to carry the mantle going forward for political cycles to come.

Absolutely anything is possible, and we must acknowledge this, not out of surrender, but as a means of readying ourselves for the impossible fights ahead."

-- Roxane Gay, "Enough", The New York Times, November 17, 2024.

This is one of the best, most spot-on pieces about where we are and what we must prepare ourselves for in the aftermath of Donald Trump's re-election to the Presidency. These gift links will allow you to bypass the NYT paywall and read the entire article, and I urge you to share these links with as many people as you'd like.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Walter Einenkel at Daily Kos:

Donald Trump nominated former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, an apologist for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, to be his director of national intelligence on Wednesday, in yet another example of how horrible his administration will be. The former Democratic-congresswoman-turned-right-wing-hack endorsed Trump in August. Gabbard has been dogged by stories questioning her financial connections to an alleged Russian agent as well as her penchant for parroting Putin’s talking points.

Donald Trump picks former Congresswoman and Putin toady Tulsi Gabbard to be DNI. Gabbard recently became a Republican officially after being a de facto one for several years, and was previously a Democrat, in which she ran for that party’s nomination in 2020.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump To Nominate Tulsi Gabbard As Director Of National Intelligence

The Guardian: Trump chooses Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence

[themfp1]

What the Trump Nominees Have Not Done – And Will Not Do

By: Victor Davis Hanson Deflated by the resounding November defeat, the left now believes it can magically rebound by destroying President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees. Many of Trump’s picks are well outside the usual Washington, D.C./New York political, media, and corporate nexus. But that is precisely the point — to insert reformers into a bloated, incompetent, and weaponized…

[todayworldnews2k21]

Video: What Donald Trump’s Team Picks Say About His Foreign Policy

The world has changed since Donald J. Trump’s last term as president. Mark Landler, the London bureau chief of The New York Times, describes what Mr. Trump’s choices so far say about his foreign policy ambitions.

[uncanny-tranny]

Social transition being seen (by some) as this super easy thing that isn't as hard as real transitioning (medical) is bullshit. Be critical of the idea that there are some trans people who just "have it easy" because they are trans or because they are trans in ways you may not be.

Social transition is just as difficult, hard, and rewarding as medical transition. Maybe it is not as hard for some, sure, but that is not the same as thinking that social transition is inherently easier or lesser. If you're socially transitioning, your voice still matters.

[cvntyboylove-666]

If you believe at all in astrology or psychic abilities, please do not ignore this. Pluto is moving into Aquarius on the 19th of this month, aka the planet associated with innovation, equality, and REVOLUTION, after the shitshow that was the American presidential election. This is the first time in over 200 years this has happened, (the American Revolution started 248 years ago, which is also the last time Pluto was in Aquarius!!!) Aquarius is the sign driving us to consider collective ideals, humanitarian improvement, utopia vs dystopia in our society, I mean, helloooo!!! Pluto's strongest potential is in EMPOWERMENT. I just felt very drawn to look into this and share with ya'll. I know not everyone believes in astrology or witchcraft, but the spiritually tuned in knew when trump was elected, I myself had a dream that he was elected and woke up the next day and he had. Of course this is majorly scary, but many psychics have been feeling and receiving peaceful signs that it will be okay or that now is the time to be bold. This is kind of the biggest astrological deal of our era. For those who practice please do what you can to protect yourselves, spread news of this and manifest all good and positive things for our collective future. Pluto will remain in Aquarius until 2043, almost 20 years, so get ready for some big changes. Love ya'll, stay safe and don't give up <3

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

"She ain't going!" 😭😂👍🏿🇺🇸♥️

“Jill Biden’s husband authorized the FBI snooping through her underwear drawer. The Bidens are disgusting,” the source said.

Melania Trump declined an offer to head to the White House Wednesday and meet with Jill Biden, citing the Biden administration’s raid on Mar-a-Lago as part of the federal government’s investigation into classified documents.

“She ain’t going,” a source familiar with Melania’s decision told The Post. “Jill Biden’s husband authorized the FBI snooping through her underwear drawer. The Bidens are disgusting,” the source said.

“Jill Biden isn’t someone Melania needs to meet,” the source added.

Melania Trump Speaks Out About Jill Biden — ‘She Referred to My Husband as Evil and a Liar’

by Cassandra MacDonald Nov. 13, 2024

“Mrs. Trump will not be attending today’s meeting at the White House. Her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success,” Melania Trump’s team said in a statement about the invite.

Unnamed sources allegedly close to the former and future First Lady told the New York Post that her reason for skipping tea was the raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

Mrs. Trump met with Michelle Obama after the 2016 election but did not have tea with Jill Biden in 2020.

The interview went viral after news broke that she would not meet the current First Lady during her husband’s trip to the White House.

Mrs.Trump revealed that Jill Biden called her after the assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump in October but wonders if her “concern was genuine,” given the inflammatory way she had been speaking of him on the campaign trail.

“I do question, however, whether Jill’s concern was genuine, as a few days prior she referred to my husband as ‘evil’ and a ‘liar,’” she told French outlet Paris Match.

The former model continued, “It was obvious that the onslaught of rhetoric from Democrat leaders and the mainstream media was so deeply embedded in our nation’s consciousness it prompted an attempt to assassinate Donald.”

Mrs. Trump said that after the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally, she was relieved “my husband was safe,” but was upset about the political environment that prompted it.

“They want Donald out. They won’t stop. Has the concept of ‘respect’ become antiquated?” she asked. “The Democrat political engine peddles harsh words, vile names, and labels our nation’s 45th president ‘a threat to democracy.’”

“People today are so desensitized they actually joke about killing a former US president,” Mrs. Trump continued. “It is undeniable that this type of speech created a toxic political environment.”

[teaandinanity]

I would just like to reiterate that Kamala Harris is not and was never a cop.

She was a district attorney.

DAs can and have done a lot of good, occasionally up to and including refusing to enforce laws they think are evil bullshit.

In her case, she used the position to help start a program that literally said 'this nonviolent drug offender should go to school instead of prison, actually.' Which reduced recidivism and is EXACTLY the kind of thing I would like to see more of from our justice system.

She's not a cop.

[deadpresidents]

"Somehow disruption doesn't begin to cover it. Upheaval might be closer. Revolution maybe. In less than two weeks since being elected again, Donald J. Trump has embarked on a new campaign to shatter the institutions of Washington as no incoming President has in his lifetime.

He has rolled a giant grenade into the middle of the nation's capital and watched with mischievous glee to see who runs away and who throws themselves on it. Suffice it to say, so far there have been more of the former than the latter. Mr. Trump has said that 'real power' is the ability to engender fear, and he seems to have achieved that.

Mr. Trump's early transition moves amount to a generational stress test for the system. If Republicans bow to his demand to recess the Senate so that he can install appointees without confirmation, it would rewrite the balance of power established by the Founders more than two centuries ago. And if he gets his way on selections for some of the most important posts in government, he would put in place loyalists intent on blowing up the very departments they would lead.

He has chosen a bomb-throwing backbench congressman who has spent his career attacking fellow Republicans and fending off sex-and-drugs allegations to run the same Justice Department that investigated him, though it did not charge him, on suspicion of trafficking underage girls. He has chosen a conspiracy theorist with no medical training who disparages the foundations of conventional health care to run the Department of Health and Human Services.

He has chosen a weekend morning television host with a history of defending convicted war criminals while sporting a Christian Crusader tattoo that has been adopted as a symbol by the far right to run the most powerful armed forces in the history of the world. He has chosen a former congresswoman who has defended Middle East dictators and echoed positions favored by Russia to oversee the nation's intelligence agencies.

Nine years after Mr. Trump began upsetting political norms, it may be easy to underestimate just how extraordinary all of this is. In the past, none of those selections would have passed muster in Washington, where a failure to pay employment taxes for a nanny used to be enough to disqualify a cabinet nominee. Mr. Trump, by contrast, has bulled past the old red lines, opting for nominees who are so provocative that even fellow Republicans wondered whether he is trolling them.

The message to Washington is simple, according to Roger Stone, the longtime Trump friend who relishes his own reputation as a political dirty trickster. 'Things are going to be different,' he said by text."

-- Peter Baker, "Trump Signals a 'Seismic Shift,' Shocking the Washington Establishment,' The New York Times, November 17, 2024.

Here's another incisive article about President-elect Donald Trump's transition and his frightening Cabinet nominees, who are abnormal even for Trump and the personality cult that has been built around him since 2015. For the past quarter-century, Peter Baker has been one of the very best, most level-headed analysts of the contemporary American Presidency, and he seems be stunned by the direction the incoming Trump Administration is already heading. Once again, all of these links are gift links to bypass the New York Times paywall so that you may read and share these important pieces and remain alert to the very real consequences of the 2024 election which are already taking shape.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Reuters Exclusive: Trump's transition team aims to kill Biden EV tax credit

Jarrett Renshaw and Chris Kirkham at Reuters:

Nov 14 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump's transition team is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling U.S. EV transition. And yet representatives of Tesla - by far the nation's largest EV seller - have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Big Oil puppet Donald Trump is planning to kill the EV tax credit enacted under the IRA.

[exploding-asteroid]

remember that

to exist nonetheless

is the most profound form of spite

our existence is resistance

do not let them take that away

[theatrekidenergy]

The trans FTM experience of not knowing how to feel about your detachment from femininity and growing up a woman

[pannn-cakesss]

Women's + Trans Rights = Human Rights <3

I meant to post this yesterday :(

[midwestemokilledmygrandma]

idk ... it is shocking to me that anyone is surprised by what kamala Harris said about trans ppl.. like in an election where she is so on the verge of losing anyway taking a really pro trans stance rn would be political suicide as... shock horror.. trans people are quite unpopular 😨

in this political climate there is no situation where she would ever be a #bigally bcs she cannot win with that stance ... she didn't even say anything anti trans or throw trans ppl under the bus lol she was just a bit obfuscating and vague about it.

idk why ppl r upset/surprised lol, who was expecting kamala Harris, notorious former cop (not cop but.. yknow), to be the face of wokeness in a political climate and country where that would be GUARANTEED to lose her the election. an election she is alr disadvantaged in due to her association w the Biden administration, her being a WOC and her not having a cult of personality like some ppl lol. I think she said the best thing she could've possibly said and more left wing (further left.. she is not left wing) politicians have said worse, more harmful shit about trans ppl.

I don't think anyone except neoliberal freak weirdos have ever claimed she was perfect but all u fucking performative one issue voter weirdos who won't vote for her bcs she's not perfect and instead will waste ur vote on 3rd party ... trump will win and you'll be more fucked.

I do think ppl r forgetting that no matter what kamala says the alternative is TRUMP and any vote not for kamala harris is a vote for trump and no one is really in a position to be all that picky rn bcs Harris will never be as evil as trump is.