Powderkeg has a history of posting Trumpist absurdities and running. I would encourage scrolling past.
Thank you. I watched five minutes of last night's horror show and turned it off when he used one child to bash other kids (aka "men playing women's sports").
Watching Trump's address to Congress tonight, and so far Democrats have refused to applaud or acknowledge:
-- Families of military heroes.
-- Victims of murder.
-- A kid with brain cancer.
It's going to be a long, long time before they win elections again. They hate America. They hate heroes. They hate everything.
It must be a miserable existence.
I haven't seen you post about anything other than how miserable the Democratic Party makes you. Furthermore I haven't seen you respond to any responses to your posts. This is a pattern of behaviour in violation of commandments one and eight. Desist.
I'm gonna go out on a limb, for example, and guess that the mention of murder victims had something to do with promoting anti-immigration or tough-on-crime policies.
It is not as straightforward as it might seem to measure the amount of crime committed by foreigners who are in the US without the proper paperwork, but this https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU01/20250122/117827/HHRG-119-JU01-20250122-SD004.pdf
refers to a 10-year study in Texas which shows a significantly lower rate of committing serious crimes amongst the illegal immigrant population as compared to the general population. Or, in other words, the Trump narrative about illegal immigrants being dangerous criminals is a lie, and no amount of trotting out grieving relatives of people who were murdered by illegal immigrants can change that.
Has anyone else noticed the sudden proliferation of *End Times* films on their YouTube feed? Some of them, at least, are in Spanish...
Are you sure that's not predicated on your past viewing habits? i.e is it just the algorithm at work?
Well, that thought did occur, and I have to admit to having (in recent years) watched a number of rather predictable *Disaster* movies - you know, where some experiment goes out of control, and only a maverick scientist (with a bad record of dealing with authority) can save Los Angeles/America/the World. Many of these seem to be made by Canadians, but (in all fairness) are none the worse for that, and are often enjoyable on a dull evening.
However, the films cropping up today are all about the Rapture (el Rapto), the return of Christ, the Tribulation, the need to repent and believe, etc. etc. - and that is not at all the sort of religiosity I would choose to watch.
IOW, is someone, somewhere, aware that we are indeed in the End Times, as our fathers were before us, as Rev Gerald Ambulance* once said?
Ah yes - but, having done that, he and the Muskrat, and the rest of the bastards, are off to Mars, aren't they?
When Musk talks about his Mars plans, I suspect Trump just thinks it's a cool idea, maybe something to think about one day, but I doubt it's any sort of ultimate telos for his agenda.
A lotta what he's doing is just standard Republican policy, eg. tax breaks for the rich. And the more idiosyncratic stuff, eg. tariff wars with everyone in sight, annexationism all over the place, don't really seem calculated to facilitate interplanetary space travel.
Ah yes - but, having done that, he and the Muskrat, and the rest of the bastards, are off to Mars, aren't they?
When Musk talks about his Mars plans, I suspect Trump just thinks it's a cool idea, maybe something to think about one day, but I doubt it's any sort of ultimate telos for his agenda.
A lotta what he's doing is just standard Republican policy, eg. tax breaks for the rich. And the more idiosyncratic stuff, eg. tariff wars with everyone in sight, annexationism all over the place, don't really seem calculated to facilitate interplanetary space travel.
True enough. It was a whimsical thought - I don't wish the Martians (should they exist) any harm, but it would be good to see the back of Trump, Vance, the Muskrat, and the rest of them...
Watching Trump's address to Congress tonight, and so far Democrats have refused to applaud or acknowledge:
-- Families of military heroes.
-- Victims of murder.
-- A kid with brain cancer.
It's going to be a long, long time before they win elections again. They hate America. They hate heroes. They hate everything.
It must be a miserable existence.
I haven't seen you post about anything other than how miserable the Democratic Party makes you. Furthermore I haven't seen you respond to any responses to your posts. This is a pattern of behaviour in violation of commandments one and eight. Desist.
Dafyd, Hell Host
[/Hosting]
(ETA formatting, DT)
[Admin]
This troll and run posting style is unacceptable and a violation of C1, if it happens again @Powderkeg you will be banned.
As to the Muskrat colonizing Mars, I doubt if it'll ever happen - but the thought of some sort of Muskrat/Martian hybrid is appalling (if he isn't one already IYSWIM).
Well, as other people have noted, it's easier to terraform earth than to terraform Mars.
I doubt if Musk actually leaves for Mars, even while he fantasizes about it.
I doubt it too. Despite the fact that SpaceX now sells rides to space tourists, Musk has never taken advantage of his ownership of a rocket base to visit space himself.
Well, as other people have noted, it's easier to terraform earth than to terraform Mars.
I doubt if Musk actually leaves for Mars, even while he fantasizes about it.
I doubt it too. Despite the fact that SpaceX now sells rides to space tourists, Musk has never taken advantage of his ownership of a rocket base to visit space himself.
I thought he had, or was that perhaps one of his tech bros?
Well, as other people have noted, it's easier to terraform earth than to terraform Mars.
I doubt if Musk actually leaves for Mars, even while he fantasizes about it.
I doubt it too. Despite the fact that SpaceX now sells rides to space tourists, Musk has never taken advantage of his ownership of a rocket base to visit space himself.
I thought he had, or was that perhaps one of his tech bros?
That was Bezos. Who knows enough to leave the day to day management of Blue Origin to the professionals.
Well, as other people have noted, it's easier to terraform earth than to terraform Mars.
I doubt if Musk actually leaves for Mars, even while he fantasizes about it.
I doubt it too. Despite the fact that SpaceX now sells rides to space tourists, Musk has never taken advantage of his ownership of a rocket base to visit space himself.
I thought he had, or was that perhaps one of his tech bros?
That was Bezos. Who knows enough to leave the day to day management of Blue Origin to the professionals.
If the election of the American President is not, ultimately, the decision (and therefore fault) of the American people as a whole (which is not the same as saying it's any specific American's personal fault), then whose is it?
We don't have a "one person, one vote" system in presidential elections. This article is from 2020, but it does a good job of explaining how the importance of one person's vote counts for more or less, depending on what state you live in and how many of your fellow voters turn out.
So I would say the "fault" lies more heavily with people from the less populous states, including mine!
But yes, if you want to go down the “classist” line, then it is clear that [Trump's] broad appeal is to the have-nots who are short on money, skills and education, and who have been fed the lie that the country has been sold down the river by those wicked quasi-communist Democrats and that their jobs are being stolen by immigrants.
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
It is rather depressing, reading reports, for the man to raise up a child with cancer while he's freezing the funding that would go directly to fund research into curing cancer.
Additionally, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which has come under previous scrutiny for self-dealing and advancing the interests of its namesake rather than those of charity, apparently used the Eric Trump Foundation to funnel $100,000 in donations into revenue for the Trump Organization."
I'm not the hating sort, but there is something truly repugnant about this administration. I don't see anything wrong with disapproving of that.
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
And I suspect there is at least some overlap between that latter demographic and the confounding Obama-to-Trump faction of voters.
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
Two Trump people I debate with are definitely middle to upper middle class. One is a retired naval nuclear technician. The other is a retired ophthalmologist.
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
And I suspect there is at least some overlap between that latter demographic and the confounding Obama-to-Trump faction of voters.
I know one. And my somewhat uncharitable take is that some people figured that electing a black guy could be the final nail into the coffin of American racism, which could then be buried in an unmarked grave, to be forgotten forever.
To their escalating irritation, other people figured that electing a black guy was a chance to finally exhume the corpse, bring it to the light of day and get started on the hard work of real reconciliation.
This does not preclude economic factors, it coexists with them.
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
And I suspect there is at least some overlap between that latter demographic and the confounding Obama-to-Trump faction of voters.
I know one. And my somewhat uncharitable take is that some people figured that electing a black guy could be the final nail into the coffin of American racism, which could then be buried in an unmarked grave, to be forgotten forever.
To their escalating irritation, other people figured that electing a black guy was a chance to finally exhume the corpse, bring it to the light of day and get started on the hard work of real reconciliation.
This does not preclude economic factors, it coexists with them.
So IOW...
"Sheesh, we even elected a black guy, and they're STILL talking about how racist we are? Whatever happened to gratitude? I'm sick of this woke BS."
If you have information that could help prevent serious crime but refuse to share that with those who could use it to prevent that crime, does that make you a criminal by aiding crime?
Given that Trump has just denied Ukraine intelligence that has been helping them intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting civil infrastructure (hospitals, power stations, homes), he appears to be aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes.
If you have information that could help prevent serious crime but refuse to share that with those who could use it to prevent that crime, does that make you a criminal by aiding crime?
Given that Trump has just denied Ukraine intelligence that has been helping them intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting civil infrastructure (hospitals, power stations, homes), he appears to be aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes.
So he does, but does he care ? I think we know what the answer is...
Given that Trump has just denied Ukraine intelligence that has been helping them intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting civil infrastructure (hospitals, power stations, homes), he appears to be aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes.
The US has very limited time for application of international law, except when it targets regimes that are opposed to it, you could argue that Trump falls into that category, but don't expect the Democrats to make that argument.
Given that Trump has just denied Ukraine intelligence that has been helping them intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting civil infrastructure (hospitals, power stations, homes), he appears to be aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes.
The US has very limited time for application of international law, except when it targets regimes that are opposed to it, you could argue that Trump falls into that category, but don't expect the Democrats to make that argument.
But does international law obligate a country to help another country in its war against an opponent because that opponent is commiting war crimes?
But does international law obligate a country to help another country in its war against an opponent because that opponent is commiting war crimes?
No, it doesn't. It's clear that Trump's behavior is that of a Putin-supporting asshole, but even if the US gave any credence to this sort of international law, I don't see a case. In general, it's hard to convert the failure to perform some positive action in to "aiding and abetting".
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
And I suspect there is at least some overlap between that latter demographic and the confounding Obama-to-Trump faction of voters.
I know one. And my somewhat uncharitable take is that some people figured that electing a black guy could be the final nail into the coffin of American racism, which could then be buried in an unmarked grave, to be forgotten forever.
To their escalating irritation, other people figured that electing a black guy was a chance to finally exhume the corpse, bring it to the light of day and get started on the hard work of real reconciliation.
This does not preclude economic factors, it coexists with them.
So IOW...
"Sheesh, we even elected a black guy, and they're STILL talking about how racist we are? Whatever happened to gratitude? I'm sick of this woke BS."
It's especially galling when you live in a predominantly white community and you also feel that you're living on the edge of poverty, watching your town continue its steady slide into economic ruin. So it's very easy to get into an "us versus them" mindset about "those other people," especially when they live in big cities with shiny skyscrapers and fancy hospitals that make you think everyone out there must be wealthy.
But you're very invested in thinking that you're a good Christian, so you don't admit that you're racist. You loudly insist that you "don't see race." You'll just leap very enthusiastically at the first opportunity to defame and discredit any race-based political organization. Because you can't possibly be racist.
The rationalizations get buried really deep.
I think I could've turned out like this if my life had gone differently. And I am thinking of someone I know who doesn't communicate with me anymore.
I also hope my caricature isn't too mean spirited. This is a bit of a caricature, and I'm not proud of it.
He did say he could shoot someone in New York and face no consequence. He's clearly having a go at mass murder, and the tragedy is that he could find it doesn't impact his approval ratings.
@Alan Cresswell , his approval ratings have already started to drop: FiveThirtyEight shows they have flipped to negative for the first time since his second term began.
I doubt it. There's a chance falling approval ratings will lead others to check him, but right now many of those with the power to do so are afraid of being primaried from the right or of being attacked by someone from the right-wing fringe. There's a NY Times piece today about powerful people being afraid to speak against Trump, never mind act against him. Republican Senators declined to go on the record for this piece. A Democratic congressman from California who does speak against Trump says he spends hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign and office money on security for his family because of the threats he receives.
It's creeping authoritarianism when people self-censor for fear of reprisals.
I doubt it. There's a chance falling approval ratings will lead others to check him, but right now many of those with the power to do so are afraid of being primaried from the right or of being attacked by someone from the right-wing fringe.
And of course, billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly promised to use his bottomless supply of money to fund PACs attacking Republican Senators and Congressmen who don't follow Trump's lead. I agree with you: I don't think we'll see any sign of a sense of duty from anyone with an R after their name unless Trump's general public support drops dramatically.
If that happens, watch how quickly they start protesting that they are simply shocked, shocked I say, at the flagrant disregard that Trump showed for the Constitution.
Some of you may have seen this online in other places this week, but the phrase "calling a deer a horse" is making its way 'round most aptly since the SOTU Show on Tuesday. As a test of loyalty, Chinese chief minister Zhao Gao brought a deer to the royal court but called it a horse to see who'd dare disagree with him, and who'd fall into line despite making themselves look ridiculous in the process. Throughout a speech full of buffoonery, there was no shortage of public idiocy on display, as Congress member after Congress member identified Trump's "deer" as horses as loudly and as often as they could.
I doubt it. There's a chance falling approval ratings will lead others to check him, but right now many of those with the power to do so are afraid of being primaried from the right or of being attacked by someone from the right-wing fringe.
And of course, billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly promised to use his bottomless supply of money to fund PACs attacking Republican Senators and Congressmen who don't follow Trump's lead. I agree with you: I don't think we'll see any sign of a sense of duty from anyone with an R after their name unless Trump's general public support drops dramatically.
If that happens, watch how quickly they start protesting that they are simply shocked, shocked I say, at the flagrant disregard that Trump showed for the Constitution.
Frankly, that'll be fine with me, as the alternative seems to be authoritarian government.
Trump is not trying to be popular. He's not trying to get his agenda through Congress. He's stifling dissent. I hope we have free and fair Congressional elections in 2026, but I'm not sure I'd put money on it right now.
Some of you may have seen this online in other places this week, but the phrase "calling a deer a horse" is making its way 'round most aptly since the SOTU Show on Tuesday. As a test of loyalty, Chinese chief minister Zhao Gao brought a deer to the royal court but called it a horse to see who'd dare disagree with him, and who'd fall into line despite making themselves look ridiculous in the process.
That's pretty close to The Emperor's New Clothes. Not that that makes it an unworthy narrative, in fact, I think I like it better. But one thing I noticed in Korea was that, more often not, an instructive fable or proverb from English has a close parallel in Korean, eg. "Too many sailors take the boat up a mountain" for our quip about cooks and broth.
Comments
But, whatever, it looks as though there has been a thaw. And maybe a deal under way after all. No doubt the devil will be in the details.
True.
Thank you. I watched five minutes of last night's horror show and turned it off when he used one child to bash other kids (aka "men playing women's sports").
I haven't seen you post about anything other than how miserable the Democratic Party makes you. Furthermore I haven't seen you respond to any responses to your posts. This is a pattern of behaviour in violation of commandments one and eight. Desist.
Dafyd, Hell Host
[/Hosting]
(ETA formatting, DT)
It is not as straightforward as it might seem to measure the amount of crime committed by foreigners who are in the US without the proper paperwork, but this https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU01/20250122/117827/HHRG-119-JU01-20250122-SD004.pdf
refers to a 10-year study in Texas which shows a significantly lower rate of committing serious crimes amongst the illegal immigrant population as compared to the general population. Or, in other words, the Trump narrative about illegal immigrants being dangerous criminals is a lie, and no amount of trotting out grieving relatives of people who were murdered by illegal immigrants can change that.
Are you sure that's not predicated on your past viewing habits? i.e is it just the algorithm at work?
Well, that thought did occur, and I have to admit to having (in recent years) watched a number of rather predictable *Disaster* movies - you know, where some experiment goes out of control, and only a maverick scientist (with a bad record of dealing with authority) can save Los Angeles/America/the World. Many of these seem to be made by Canadians, but (in all fairness) are none the worse for that, and are often enjoyable on a dull evening.
However, the films cropping up today are all about the Rapture (el Rapto), the return of Christ, the Tribulation, the need to repent and believe, etc. etc. - and that is not at all the sort of religiosity I would choose to watch.
IOW, is someone, somewhere, aware that we are indeed in the End Times, as our fathers were before us, as Rev Gerald Ambulance* once said?
(*an old SoF joke)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/05/humans-earth-donald-trump-nihilism-maga
One can only hope that Death and Oblivion get him (Trump) first...
No, his ultimate aim is to line his pockets and the pockets of his friends.
When Musk talks about his Mars plans, I suspect Trump just thinks it's a cool idea, maybe something to think about one day, but I doubt it's any sort of ultimate telos for his agenda.
A lotta what he's doing is just standard Republican policy, eg. tax breaks for the rich. And the more idiosyncratic stuff, eg. tariff wars with everyone in sight, annexationism all over the place, don't really seem calculated to facilitate interplanetary space travel.
True enough. It was a whimsical thought - I don't wish the Martians (should they exist) any harm, but it would be good to see the back of Trump, Vance, the Muskrat, and the rest of them...
[Admin]
This troll and run posting style is unacceptable and a violation of C1, if it happens again @Powderkeg you will be banned.
Doublethink, Admin
[/Admin]
As to the Muskrat colonizing Mars, I doubt if it'll ever happen - but the thought of some sort of Muskrat/Martian hybrid is appalling (if he isn't one already IYSWIM).
Well, as other people have noted, it's easier to terraform earth than to terraform Mars.
I doubt if Musk actually leaves for Mars, even while he fantasizes about it.
I doubt it too. Despite the fact that SpaceX now sells rides to space tourists, Musk has never taken advantage of his ownership of a rocket base to visit space himself.
I thought he had, or was that perhaps one of his tech bros?
That was Bezos. Who knows enough to leave the day to day management of Blue Origin to the professionals.
Thank you.
We don't have a "one person, one vote" system in presidential elections. This article is from 2020, but it does a good job of explaining how the importance of one person's vote counts for more or less, depending on what state you live in and how many of your fellow voters turn out.
So I would say the "fault" lies more heavily with people from the less populous states, including mine!
The notion that "have-nots" were the biggest Trump supporters is a common misconception (spread by the New York Times, among others). Trump supporters are actually richer, on average, than others in their community. As Bullfrog said, they are not the ones who are really hurting. A lot of his supporters are whites without college degrees but who have middle-class income - small business owners, etc.
The biggest factor that predicts support of Trump is "status anxiety", which I would call "hostility to minorities, immigrants, and women."
And the family was caught embezzling money from a children's cancer charity. I'm not the hating sort, but there is something truly repugnant about this administration. I don't see anything wrong with disapproving of that.
That two word phrase “status anxiety” is very helpful. It explains a lot about what is happening in Europe too. Thanks.
Or to put it another way, the median Trump voter is a dentist who has a boat. The electorally significant Trump voter is an office worker who has a sister with a pill problem.
And I suspect there is at least some overlap between that latter demographic and the confounding Obama-to-Trump faction of voters.
Two Trump people I debate with are definitely middle to upper middle class. One is a retired naval nuclear technician. The other is a retired ophthalmologist.
I know one. And my somewhat uncharitable take is that some people figured that electing a black guy could be the final nail into the coffin of American racism, which could then be buried in an unmarked grave, to be forgotten forever.
To their escalating irritation, other people figured that electing a black guy was a chance to finally exhume the corpse, bring it to the light of day and get started on the hard work of real reconciliation.
This does not preclude economic factors, it coexists with them.
So IOW...
"Sheesh, we even elected a black guy, and they're STILL talking about how racist we are? Whatever happened to gratitude? I'm sick of this woke BS."
Given that Trump has just denied Ukraine intelligence that has been helping them intercept Russian missiles and drones targeting civil infrastructure (hospitals, power stations, homes), he appears to be aiding and abetting ongoing war crimes.
So he does, but does he care ? I think we know what the answer is...
The US has very limited time for application of international law, except when it targets regimes that are opposed to it, you could argue that Trump falls into that category, but don't expect the Democrats to make that argument.
But does international law obligate a country to help another country in its war against an opponent because that opponent is commiting war crimes?
No, it doesn't. It's clear that Trump's behavior is that of a Putin-supporting asshole, but even if the US gave any credence to this sort of international law, I don't see a case. In general, it's hard to convert the failure to perform some positive action in to "aiding and abetting".
It's especially galling when you live in a predominantly white community and you also feel that you're living on the edge of poverty, watching your town continue its steady slide into economic ruin. So it's very easy to get into an "us versus them" mindset about "those other people," especially when they live in big cities with shiny skyscrapers and fancy hospitals that make you think everyone out there must be wealthy.
But you're very invested in thinking that you're a good Christian, so you don't admit that you're racist. You loudly insist that you "don't see race." You'll just leap very enthusiastically at the first opportunity to defame and discredit any race-based political organization. Because you can't possibly be racist.
The rationalizations get buried really deep.
I think I could've turned out like this if my life had gone differently. And I am thinking of someone I know who doesn't communicate with me anymore.
I also hope my caricature isn't too mean spirited. This is a bit of a caricature, and I'm not proud of it.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-revoke-legal-status-ukrainians-who-fled-us-sources-say-2025-03-06/
It's creeping authoritarianism when people self-censor for fear of reprisals.
And of course, billionaire Elon Musk has explicitly promised to use his bottomless supply of money to fund PACs attacking Republican Senators and Congressmen who don't follow Trump's lead. I agree with you: I don't think we'll see any sign of a sense of duty from anyone with an R after their name unless Trump's general public support drops dramatically.
If that happens, watch how quickly they start protesting that they are simply shocked, shocked I say, at the flagrant disregard that Trump showed for the Constitution.
Frankly, that'll be fine with me, as the alternative seems to be authoritarian government.
Trump is not trying to be popular. He's not trying to get his agenda through Congress. He's stifling dissent. I hope we have free and fair Congressional elections in 2026, but I'm not sure I'd put money on it right now.
That's pretty close to The Emperor's New Clothes. Not that that makes it an unworthy narrative, in fact, I think I like it better. But one thing I noticed in Korea was that, more often not, an instructive fable or proverb from English has a close parallel in Korean, eg. "Too many sailors take the boat up a mountain" for our quip about cooks and broth.