It nearly always works for them, and there is almost never a price to pay. So of course…

My god, this is so good…

I'm sorry, but it's extremely obvious at this point that a depressingly large segment of our fellow citizens want fascism. Getting those people to abandon Trump/fascism is unlikely. We need another approach.

Very sadly, I have to completely agree with you.

Too many pundits keep acting like Fox is driving the car with their "innocent" viewers are trapped in the back seat. In reality the reverse is closer to the truth, and we need to accept that.

"Newly released messages show Fox executives fretting that month over an uncomfortable revelation: that if they told their audience the truth about the election, it could destroy their business model."

--Washington Post, 2/17/23

I often think of this Steve Jobs quote from 1996:

"…you look at television and think there's a
conspiracy…the networks have conspired to dumb us down…but that's not true. Conspiracy is optimistic! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.”

We really need to stop pretending that these people are innocent victims who have been kidnapped by Fox News and other right-wing media. As long as we believe that nonsense we'll never create the solutions we actually need.

Parsnips don't get half the attention they deserve, that's for sure.

These lists are the beating heart of many campaigns because they are huge moneymakers. But the cynical way in which they are sold/used repulses many who are targeted. There has to be a better way. There needs to be a better way.

We accidentally stopped trying to prevent Ebola. Oopsies...

There is an ongoing belief among republicans, held with nearly religious conviction, that people receiving any type of government aid are either lazy or criminal. Two important exceptions, however:

1) This mostly does not apply to white people.
2) It absolutely NEVER applies to rich people.

Very few things are more disturbing to me than the fact that millions of Americans listen to this man's imbecilic nonsense and think, "he tells it like it is!"

As someone whose worldview is based on science and the scientific method, I can understand why it's very difficult to wrap your head around these people. It might help to remember that these dimwits are happy to ignore logic, evidence, and/or reason if it interferes with their agenda.

This has been the template response from these extremist dimwits for a long time: When evidence you don't like is presented, reject the *source* of the evidence. Rejecting the source allows you to reject the evidence without even having to explain yourself. Which is helpful when you can't do that.

Trump apparently thinks that "north" on a map is the same as "up". Once again illustrating that he has the mind of a child and doesn't understand how anything really works. Millions of people voted for this unrelenting idiocy, and I remain in shock every day that they did so.

An accurate assessment. It's wild watching this unfold, and as usual speaks volumes about who these guys actually are.

Would be nice. Would be proper. I'm not holding my breath.

I doubt a single Republican Senator believes there is any scenario in which they would pay a price for this. And given the reality of our current political climate, it's difficult to blame them. But if Hegseth becomes the shit show we expect, Democrats will need to respond accordingly.

Yes this is weird & creepy, but I advise you to take it seriously. It's the mindset of a LOT of right-wing people. How they view Trump. What they think he needs to be. It tells us so much about the people now running the country along with those who voted for all of this.

Pay attention.

A bunch of conservative white politicians complaining that DEI lowers military standards while using a chart that spells "military" wrong. I'm not sure a representation of the Republican party and MAGA could be created that is more on the nose than this.

They live in an alternate reality. The facts and events that we take for granted are either unknown to them or rejected by them.

Anger
There's a reason right-wing media so often goes out of its way to infuriate its viewers/listeners.

We're verging on conspiracy theories now, which I am not a fan of. If Trump actually does all of this in all of these ways then none of these conversations matter anyway. We're cooked.

This is the 9th version of their plan. The first was published in 1981. They have been very open for a long time about what they want to accomplish. Wanting & succeeding are two different things however.

1) We don't know the motivation of SCOTUS
2) Giving Trump personal protection against certain legal actions does mean he gets to rule by fiat. The law is still the law.
3) If Trump is able to end birthright citizenship AND make it retroactive, his entire family would be deported.

Which btw might be just what they want. The abortion issue worked great for the GOP until they won, then it hurt them. If they learned that lesson then they might want this more as a fighting issue than an actual reality - for the same reasons.

Wanting to do something and pulling it off are two different things. Getting past ex post facto is not unheard of, but it's tough. For a reason. This one will be tied up in the courts for years.

Congressional legislation and/or a constitutional amendment would both create the ex post facto problem for them. If they could get SCOTUS to rule their way via the "under the jurisdiction thereof" clause then they *might* be able to this. Even then it's doubtful.

Abolishing "jus soli" would mean a lot. It just wouldn't impact anyone born before the amendment was actually ratified. Anyone who is now a citizen because of jus soli would remain so. The ladder would get pulled up behind them however.