2024 - the MAGA Presidency and Revenge Tour

[Grifman]

More revenge:

[Grifman]

And so it begins:



I’m not sure how this would work. Even if you screw up and make bad decisions, that’s not grounds for court martial. But just making officers defend themselves, may just be the point. He wants a compliant military.

[hepcat]

I’m highly doubtful he’s THAT stupid, to be honest. He says stupid shit to troll people (it’s why he and Musk are getting married) so I suspect this is just Trump being Trump.

[Alefroth]

I'm not sure I trust a source that doesn't know how to spell court martial.

[hepcat]

[waitingtoconnect]

Ladies and gentleman, to evil.

Elon Musk's X Corp. files notice in Alex Jones' Infowars bankruptcy case

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... r-AA1ud1je

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/the-onion-wo ... 34454.html

[LordMortis]

Turned on the TV to prep for football for the first time since apparently last Monday night. It was MSNBC where I had it for election news on the eve of the election. It was still talking about the election when I turned it on this morning. blech. No news for me still.

[Grifman]

I’m highly doubtful he’s THAT stupid, to be honest. He says stupid shit to troll people (it’s why he and Musk are getting married) so I suspect this is just Trump being Trump.

If a list is being drawn up, that's a lot more than just saying stupid stuff. Not likely to draw up a list and then do nothing.

[Grifman]

I'm not sure I trust a source that doesn't know how to spell court martial.

The source is MNBC, not the poster

[Alefroth]

I'll concede that.

[hepcat]

I’m highly doubtful he’s THAT stupid, to be honest. He says stupid shit to troll people (it’s why he and Musk are getting married) so I suspect this is just Trump being Trump.

If a list is being drawn up, that's a lot more than just saying stupid stuff. Not likely to draw up a list and then do nothing.

I wouldn’t put it past him to tell folks he’s drawing up a list. Or even tell others to draw up a list for him. I just think he does this stupid crap sometimes just to get a rise out of people. If something does come from this, I will respectfully admit I was wrong,

[Smoove_B]

Up next - Medicaid and food stamps:

President-elect Donald Trump’s economic advisers and congressional Republicans have begun preliminary discussions about making significant changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other federal safety net programs to offset the enormous cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts next year.

Among the options under discussion by GOP lawmakers and aides are new work requirements and spending caps for the programs, according to seven people familiar with the talks, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Those conversations have included some economic officials on Trump’s transition team, the people said.

Of note:

However, concern is high among some Republicans about the political downsides of such cuts, which would affect programs that provide support for at least 70 million low-income Americans, and some people familiar with the talks stressed that discussions are preliminary.

“I don’t think that passing just an extension of tax cuts that shows on paper an increase in the deficit [is] going to be challenging,” said one GOP tax adviser. “But the other side of the coin is, you start to add things to reduce the deficit, and that gets politically more challenging.”

"Concern is high" about how it looks, more like it. And I'm not even convinced that's true - I think we're beyond optics at this point.

Some additional details:

Republicans warn that Medicaid spending has ballooned in the wake of the Affordable Care Act’s expansion, saying that the program’s structure puts outsize pressure on the federal budget. While states administer the program, the federal government provides matching payments that heavily subsidize it.

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told reporters Wednesday that a “responsible and reasonable work requirement” for Medicaid benefits resembling the one that already exists for food stamps could yield about $100 billion in savings. He also said another $160 billion in reduced costs could come from checking Medicaid eligibility more than once per year.

“I feel like there are some common sense, reasonable things, that almost 90 percent of the American people would say, ‘That’s got to change,’” Arrington said.

And:

Republicans are also discussing stripping presidential authority to recalculate benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the food stamp program known as SNAP, lawmakers say. The 2017 farm bill allowed the White House to increase benefits even if doing so raised the national debt. Republicans argue that if they eliminate that authority and hemmed in SNAP benefits — which increase automatically with inflation — that should count as reducing the deficit by tens of billions of dollars, according to some estimates.

Limiting what food items SNAP recipients can purchase with benefits would also reduce costs. House Republicans have pushed a similar proposal in recent spending bills.

One GOP tax adviser said lawmakers were looking at broadening work requirements for SNAP eligibility, something the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 playbook recommends.

No one should be surprised at what's coming. No one.

[Skinypupy]

I mean, we're all fucked...but the poor especially.

[LawBeefaroni]

I mean, we're all fucked...but the poor especially.

If they poor didn't want to be fucked over so badly, they should have put money into a PAC to represent their interests!

[raydude]

Here's a thought - why not reduce the deficit by not cutting off your income source, i.e. by giving tax breaks to the already rich?

[Holman]

Here's a thought - why not reduce the deficit by not cutting off your income source, i.e. by giving tax breaks to the already rich?

Don't be absurd. The already rich don't even *need* medicaid and food stamps.

[Smoove_B]

Maybe I'm wrong for putting this here, but I can't help but shake the feeling that the case raised by Amazon and Space X is going to be part of the revenge tour:

In the nearly four years that Joe Biden has been president, the National Labor Relations Board has taken an assertive — some say overly aggressive — approach to protecting workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain.

Now, SpaceX and Amazon are at the forefront of a corporate-led effort to monumentally change the labor agency. On Monday, attorneys for the two companies will try to convince a panel of judges at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that the labor agency, created by Congress in 1935, is unconstitutional.

...

A ruling in favor of the companies could make it much harder for workers to form unions and take collective action in pursuit of better wages and working conditions.

That would be an enormous setback for labor groups, who have enjoyed unprecedented support from the Biden administration, and a win for companies that have spent considerable amounts of resources over the past four years trying to keep unions out of their workplaces.

Complicating matters is the fact that President-elect Donald Trump has named SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk to co-lead a new commission focused on dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing spending and jobs. Whether the NLRB is one of the agencies Musk will advise on remains unclear.

Ultimately, these cases could make their way to the Supreme Court.

Why am I posting this here though?

Workers' advocates are bracing for a slowdown in labor law enforcement in a second Trump administration.

For starters, Trump is expected to fire Abruzzo immediately, exercising power he does hold. (Biden fired Trump's appointee to that position on his first day in office.)

...

Trump is expected to replace Abruzzo with someone friendly to employers, who will set a new tone for enforcement. Last time around, Trump's pick for the job was Peter Robb, a management-side labor attorney who served as lead counsel for President Ronald Reagan during the air traffic controllers' strike.

In the SpaceX and Amazon cases, all expectations are that a Trump-appointed general counsel will not fight any ruling favorable to the companies. However, similar lawsuits filed elsewhere in the country could result in conflicting court decisions.

[Blackhawk]

Of note:

However, concern is high among some Republicans about the political downsides of such cuts

It's telling to me that the concern is the political downsides, not the impact on human lives.

[LawBeefaroni]

Maybe I'm wrong for putting this here, but I can't help but shake the feeling that the case raised by Amazon and Space X is going to be part of the revenge tour:

In the nearly four years that Joe Biden has been president, the National Labor Relations Board has taken an assertive — some say overly aggressive — approach to protecting workers' rights to organize and collectively bargain.

Now, SpaceX and Amazon are at the forefront of a corporate-led effort to monumentally change the labor agency. On Monday, attorneys for the two companies will try to convince a panel of judges at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that the labor agency, created by Congress in 1935, is unconstitutional.

...

A ruling in favor of the companies could make it much harder for workers to form unions and take collective action in pursuit of better wages and working conditions.

That would be an enormous setback for labor groups, who have enjoyed unprecedented support from the Biden administration, and a win for companies that have spent considerable amounts of resources over the past four years trying to keep unions out of their workplaces.

Complicating matters is the fact that President-elect Donald Trump has named SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk to co-lead a new commission focused on dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing spending and jobs. Whether the NLRB is one of the agencies Musk will advise on remains unclear.

Ultimately, these cases could make their way to the Supreme Court.

Why am I posting this here though?

Workers' advocates are bracing for a slowdown in labor law enforcement in a second Trump administration.

For starters, Trump is expected to fire Abruzzo immediately, exercising power he does hold. (Biden fired Trump's appointee to that position on his first day in office.)

...

Trump is expected to replace Abruzzo with someone friendly to employers, who will set a new tone for enforcement. Last time around, Trump's pick for the job was Peter Robb, a management-side labor attorney who served as lead counsel for President Ronald Reagan during the air traffic controllers' strike.

In the SpaceX and Amazon cases, all expectations are that a Trump-appointed general counsel will not fight any ruling favorable to the companies. However, similar lawsuits filed elsewhere in the country could result in conflicting court decisions.

Musk used government handouts to build Tesla and while unions disadvantaged his competition. Now that his competition has access to the handouts (vehicle tax credits) he wants to end them. Now that unions are making progress at SpaceX and Tesla, he wants to end them too. When trillions of dollars of market cap (and hundreds of billions of personal wealth) are at stake, this is the kind of "unprecedented" change you get.

[Smoove_B]

It's telling to me that the concern is the political downsides, not the impact on human lives.

Just imagine what they're going to do when they realize there are no political downsides!

[Grifman]

Trump going after universities through accreditation:



Don’t know enough about the process to know if this is doable. Aren’t accrediting organizations private?

[LordMortis]

Now, not only can't I sit through his voice but the swaying/bobbing that normally wouldn't bother me is driving me nuts because of his voice.

[LawBeefaroni]

Trump going after universities through accreditation:



Don’t know enough about the process to know if this is doable. Aren’t accrediting organizations private?

Restitution for "victims" of DEI? (@2:00)

Another day, another "what in the ever living fuck?"

[hepcat]

The size of his dog whistle is just growing exponentially, isn't it....

[LordMortis]

The title of this thread makes this more appropriate here than in in the LBGTQ thread because this is what our nation voted for and this is what our president elect and his incoming Congress and Supreme Court stand for.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/11/two ... s-cheered/

LGBTQ+ advocates say bystanders cheered as two transgender women were viciously attacked in Minneapolis earlier this month.

In a statement, Minneapolis Police told The Independent that the two women confronted a group of people who were making derogatory remarks about them at a downtown Minneapolis light rail station on November 10, leading to a “physical altercation.”

Amber Muhm, one of the organizers of a rally in support of the victims at the station on Sunday, told the outlet that she’s spoken to the women, identified only as Dahlia and Jess. They told her that they were leaving the station when a man yelled anti-trans slurs at them. According to Muhm, when Jess asked the man to stop, he “sucker punched” her. After Dahlia hit the man with her cane, four or five other men began beating the pair.

Both women were reportedly knocked unconscious, with Dahlia sustaining a broken nose and Jess left with multiple contusions to her ribs.

“No one came to help them. In fact, they said people were cheering the attackers on while they were getting beaten,” Muhm told CBS News.

[Blackhawk]

When I was younger, I would learn about McCarthyism and wonder how such lunacy could ever take hold.

Boy, do I wish we could go back to such simple imaginary boogeymen.

[LawBeefaroni]

The title of this thread makes this more appropriate here than in in the LBGTQ thread because this is what our nation voted for and this is what our president elect and his incoming Congress and Supreme Court stand for.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/11/two ... s-cheered/

LGBTQ+ advocates say bystanders cheered as two transgender women were viciously attacked in Minneapolis earlier this month.

In a statement, Minneapolis Police told The Independent that the two women confronted a group of people who were making derogatory remarks about them at a downtown Minneapolis light rail station on November 10, leading to a “physical altercation.”

Amber Muhm, one of the organizers of a rally in support of the victims at the station on Sunday, told the outlet that she’s spoken to the women, identified only as Dahlia and Jess. They told her that they were leaving the station when a man yelled anti-trans slurs at them. According to Muhm, when Jess asked the man to stop, he “sucker punched” her. After Dahlia hit the man with her cane, four or five other men began beating the pair.

Both women were reportedly knocked unconscious, with Dahlia sustaining a broken nose and Jess left with multiple contusions to her ribs.

“No one came to help them. In fact, they said people were cheering the attackers on while they were getting beaten,” Muhm told CBS News.

I don't doubt this happened, sadly, but would need more info on the cheering, etc. The only source of those details is the organizer of a rally held after the fact. I think we need to be especially careful when these inflammatory details are making the rounds. Not saying there wasn't cheering, just that I'm not seeing any confirmation of this.

[Zarathud]

This is the era when you see someone getting beaten by Nazis, you step up to stop them.

[Punisher]

This is the era when you see someone getting beaten by Nazis, you step up to stop them.

Unfortunately it's starting to feel like the opposite.

[waitingtoconnect]

A problem articulared more than 2000 years ago:

Aristotle, Politics books 1 thru 7 

When a democracy has ripened fully Plato argues, that a would-be tyrant will often seize his moment. "He is usually of the elite but has a nature in tune with the time — given over to random pleasures and whims, feasting on plenty of food and sex, and reveling in the nonjudgment that is democracy’s civil religion. He makes his move by “taking over a particularly obedient mob” and attacking his wealthy peers as corrupt. If not stopped quickly, his appetite for attacking the rich on behalf of the people swells further. He is a traitor to his class — and soon, his elite enemies, shorn of popular legitimacy, find a way to appease him or are forced to flee. Eventually, he stands alone, promising to cut through the paralysis of democratic incoherence. It’s as if he were offering the addled, distracted, and self-indulgent citizens a kind of relief from democracy’s endless choices and insecurities. He rides a backlash to excess—“too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much slavery” — and offers himself as the personified answer to the internal conflicts of the democratic mess. He pledges, above all, to take on the increasingly despised elites. And as the people thrill to him as a kind of solution, a democracy willingly, even impetuously, repeals itself

[Kraken]

This is a fun screed: 20 lessons for the post-truth world. I don't agree with all of her points but I like her attitude.

Favorite: "6 Do not kiss the ring. Do not bend to power. Power will come to you, anyway. Don’t make it easy. Not everyone can stand and fight. But nobody needs to bend the knee until there’s an actual memo to that effect. WAIT FOR THE MEMO."

Not-favorite: "18 Plan. Silicon Valley doesn’t think in four-year election cycles. Elon Musk isn’t worrying about the midterms. He’s thinking about flying a SpaceX rocket to Mars and raping and pillaging its rare earth minerals before anyone else can get there. We need a 30-year road map out of this."

Mars isn't about mining minerals to send Earthward, and any 30-year time horizon is going to be laughably off-track anyway. What would you have done differently in 1995 to improve today's world?

[Zarathud]

This is the era when you see someone getting beaten by Nazis, you step up to stop them.

Unfortunately it's starting to feel like the opposite.

That's how you know they're Nazis.

[gbasden]

What would you have done differently in 1995 to improve today's world?

The Heritage foundation, Roger Ailes and Newt Gingrich had big plans around that point and I would argue they pretty much all came to fruition.