I have neither the time nor the energy to try and really deal with this at the moment, but it is worth sharing.
Note, among other things, the attack on cities (where, you know, most Americans live), the further politicization of law enforcement, and a panoply of lies. (Bonus points for somehow working in trans people and the sports issue).
At its core, it is hard to miss the clarion call to divide us into “REAL Americans” and not.
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.
Safe from illegal immigrant crime and chaos…says criminal chaos agent Trump lol
He is a convicted felon who incited a terror attack on Congress and ruined lives with DOGE mass layoffs that saved no money. Now, his lawless taco regime is dismantling 5th Amendment due process guarantees — while stripping healthcare from millions with the Big Ugly Bill’s $4 trillion deficits.
At home and abroad, disorder and mayhem are on the rise because Trump and those around him are unqualified, incompetent DUI hire thugs. Who will keep America safe from the corrupt MAGA crime spree?
Vance Boelter and Thomas Crooks were not trans, not migrants, nor Democratic politicians. Just garden variety native-born American males. There’s your danger. (Note that neither is referred to as a terrorist by media or commenters, in contrast to how quickly the label was slapped on the Colorado attacker. Guess what the difference is.)
So many pundits and others bemoan the divides in this country. But they always speak of them as somehow natural, something that follows from our past. To solve a problem, we must understand the problem. This statement from Trump is a perfect example. We are divided because the Republican Party, with nothing else to offer, has worked very hard for decades to divide us.
I’d say this outburst was a response to stories that his Agriculture Secretary had persuaded him to lay off the farms, meatworks, Home Depots etc which Miller had ordered ICE to target. Trump doesn’t like it to seem that someone else can make him do things. Everything must have been his own original idea.
In any event his real goal is to provoke enough civil unrest to justify invoking the Insurrection Act, thus bypassing the courts. He must have realised that raiding building sites in Florida and meatworks in Omaha was not going to get the required riot footage.
@CSK: Yeah, the poltroon decided to give up peacefully rather than going down fighting. Minnesota has no death penalty, so he will get life in prison, unless there is a way to charge him with a Federal capital crime.
I have commented before that everything that comes from Trump is dishonest, delusional or just plain stupid. I neglected to add *divisive*. And gVor is correct – the divisiveness isn’t new. Uber POS Newt Gingrich, aided and abetted by GOP tool Frank Luntz and Rush Limbaugh, planted the divisiveness seed long ago.
It would be remiss to not call out my very favorite part of this rant.
Per the Faux King:
ICE Officers are herewith ordered, by notice of this TRUTH, to do all in their power… blah, blah, blah.
This dense numbskull, who just days ago said “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get things approved,” is back to ordering legal action via social media account. Not even the official WH account, but the clown’s Twitter wannabe.
Millions of the 50.2% of the country hit the streets to say “we don’t want any part of this,” and this guy sends out the state enforcers. Us versus Them turned up to 11. Another hearty thank you to all those US voters who did this to us because they wouldn’t listen when Harris/Walz/Dems said electing a felon and fascist to be POTUS would be bad.
@Scott F.: I was struck later that I should have noted that this a is a proclamation from the throne (perhaps in more ways than one), which is quite a flex after No Kings Day.
New age king speak, “Sanctuary cities are very bad… and, agricultural areas and resorts are now okay (A.K.A. red state sanctuaries). Oh and then there is the unspoken kingly thought bubble of “Thou shalt not arrest and prosecute those who are paying and incentivizing immigrants to be in our superior great nation.”
TL/DR: the voters like his goals but hate his methods. There’s a lesson in that for Dems.
Isn’t David French’s lesson just another flavor of Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party?
For example, Mass Deportation is Trump’s stated goal (we saw the signs at the convention) with the advertised outcome being all criminal, violent immigrants out of our country leaving only the nice immigrants who’ve learned to speak fluent English and who will do the jobs Americans won’t do (but not the Good Paying Jobs – see rant above). But, Mass Deportation Doesn’t. Work. Like. That. The method of Mass Deportation has to be ICE rounding people up. Saying you support Trump’s goal of Mass Deportation without supporting the messy methods is like saying you want to live to 100 without better diet and exercise.
Given the number of people who chronicle all things Trump here, probably not. But I’d never noticed. Then again, I don’t follow Trump apparel or the people who wear it.
ETA: And is Everybody Poops actually a thing? And why?
MMMMm. In my mind the leopards analogy is best applied to operators that should have known better. But for a significant share of normal voters that came into 24 feeling that life was OK during the felons first term and they didn’t blame him for the pandemic, his goals aligned with their desires. Most voters also didn’t see the chaos of the first admin because it was mostly contained by the adults. While on the other hand they believed Dems were simply waving away their concerns about inflation and were ignoring their concerns about immigration. While in truth Dems did both things, particularly in the first couple of years of Biden’s term. While Dems did address their rhetoric and Biden did finally take steps to stanch the flow of migrants, it was too late as the image that the voters had was fixed and all the felon needed to to do was remind them of what they already believed was true.
Partisan people and media love to remove title 42 expulsions from the data because it doesn’t fit their narrative that Biden is weak on immigration. So simply remove one of the data points and suddenly Biden looks a lot weaker…
Trump promised rainbows and ponies for free for everyone so of course people jumped on it. Promising everything they want for free is somehow popular. The Democratic party being the adults in the room ends up hurting them.
…Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. They’re more divided on spending around the military and border security, and most think the government is spending too much on foreign aid.
Americans also believe government spending is generally too high and that deficits are bad, but reality based beings understand removing only foreign aid isn’t going to lead to smaller government with a balanced budget. And, what do you know, eliminating fraud and waste won’t get us there either.
If the lesson to learn from Trump’s political resilience, despite his erratic and corrupt governance, is that Dems need to get more comfortable with selling falsehoods about how much the things voters desire actually cost or how hard their desires are too accomplish, you are likely on to something.
I somehow think the Democrats won’t be able to get away with it the way Republicans have, but Trump has shown the way to get normal voters to feel life is okay when it’s not and to escape blame for malfeasance when you can find a scapegoat, so maybe lying more is the way to go. It’s not what I’m looking for, but what do I know?
@Scott F.: Having a very favorable media environment has done a lot of the heavy lifting for Trump. The Democratic party members won’t get that kind of help.
The felon keeps saying that he’s not going to touch medicare and medicaid, this is what the rubes hear, they’re not paying attention to what happens in congress, they never do. By the time. they realize he’s shafted them, it will be too late.
Safe from illegal immigrant crime and chaos…says criminal chaos agent Trump lol
He is a convicted felon who incited a terror attack on Congress and ruined lives with DOGE mass layoffs that saved no money. Now, his lawless taco regime is dismantling 5th Amendment due process guarantees — while stripping healthcare from millions with the Big Ugly Bill’s $4 trillion deficits.
At home and abroad, disorder and mayhem are on the rise because Trump and those around him are unqualified, incompetent DUI hire thugs. Who will keep America safe from the corrupt MAGA crime spree?
Vance Boelter and Thomas Crooks were not trans, not migrants, nor Democratic politicians. Just garden variety native-born American males. There’s your danger. (Note that neither is referred to as a terrorist by media or commenters, in contrast to how quickly the label was slapped on the Colorado attacker. Guess what the difference is.)
So many pundits and others bemoan the divides in this country. But they always speak of them as somehow natural, something that follows from our past. To solve a problem, we must understand the problem. This statement from Trump is a perfect example. We are divided because the Republican Party, with nothing else to offer, has worked very hard for decades to divide us.
@DK:
Speaking of Boelter, he’s been busted near his farm.
Somebody didn’t have a happy birthday.
I’d say this outburst was a response to stories that his Agriculture Secretary had persuaded him to lay off the farms, meatworks, Home Depots etc which Miller had ordered ICE to target. Trump doesn’t like it to seem that someone else can make him do things. Everything must have been his own original idea.
In any event his real goal is to provoke enough civil unrest to justify invoking the Insurrection Act, thus bypassing the courts. He must have realised that raiding building sites in Florida and meatworks in Omaha was not going to get the required riot footage.
I am so exhausted by the firehose of nonsense and lies from these people.
@CSK: Yeah, the poltroon decided to give up peacefully rather than going down fighting. Minnesota has no death penalty, so he will get life in prison, unless there is a way to charge him with a Federal capital crime.
I have commented before that everything that comes from Trump is dishonest, delusional or just plain stupid. I neglected to add *divisive*. And gVor is correct – the divisiveness isn’t new. Uber POS Newt Gingrich, aided and abetted by GOP tool Frank Luntz and Rush Limbaugh, planted the divisiveness seed long ago.
I feel that the longer the rants get, the weaker and more pressured he looks.
Is it just me?
@Jay L Gischer: Probably not just you. Lots of people will agree because they don’t care for this administration. Fans will disagree, of course.
David French’s column in this AM’s Times does a good job of describing why the felonious TACO has support, while the admin is still unpopular.
TL/DR: the voters like his goals but hate his methods. There’s a lesson in that for Dems.
It would be remiss to not call out my very favorite part of this rant.
Per the Faux King:
This dense numbskull, who just days ago said “I don’t feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get things approved,” is back to ordering legal action via social media account. Not even the official WH account, but the clown’s Twitter wannabe.
Millions of the 50.2% of the country hit the streets to say “we don’t want any part of this,” and this guy sends out the state enforcers. Us versus Them turned up to 11. Another hearty thank you to all those US voters who did this to us because they wouldn’t listen when Harris/Walz/Dems said electing a felon and fascist to be POTUS would be bad.
@Scott F.: I was struck later that I should have noted that this a is a proclamation from the throne (perhaps in more ways than one), which is quite a flex after No Kings Day.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Oh get outta here with that nonsense.
You and I both know that Trump does not poop. If he did, Everybody Poops wouldn’t be the woke commie plot to indoctrinate kids that we all know it is.
Random: lately, I have noticed people wearing various types of pro-Trump apparel emblazoned with sayings that replace the word “God” with “Trump”.
Am I the only one?
Do I need ivermectin for my raging case of TDS?
@SC_Birdflyte:..unless there is a way to charge him with a Federal capital crime.
Let’s not give Kim Jong Trump the opportunity to pardon this bastard.
New age king speak, “Sanctuary cities are very bad… and, agricultural areas and resorts are now okay (A.K.A. red state sanctuaries). Oh and then there is the unspoken kingly thought bubble of “Thou shalt not arrest and prosecute those who are paying and incentivizing immigrants to be in our superior great nation.”
@Sleeping Dog:
Isn’t David French’s lesson just another flavor of Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party?
For example, Mass Deportation is Trump’s stated goal (we saw the signs at the convention) with the advertised outcome being all criminal, violent immigrants out of our country leaving only the nice immigrants who’ve learned to speak fluent English and who will do the jobs Americans won’t do (but not the Good Paying Jobs – see rant above). But, Mass Deportation Doesn’t. Work. Like. That. The method of Mass Deportation has to be ICE rounding people up. Saying you support Trump’s goal of Mass Deportation without supporting the messy methods is like saying you want to live to 100 without better diet and exercise.
@Kurtz:
Given the number of people who chronicle all things Trump here, probably not. But I’d never noticed. Then again, I don’t follow Trump apparel or the people who wear it.
ETA: And is Everybody Poops actually a thing? And why?
@Scott F.:
MMMMm. In my mind the leopards analogy is best applied to operators that should have known better. But for a significant share of normal voters that came into 24 feeling that life was OK during the felons first term and they didn’t blame him for the pandemic, his goals aligned with their desires. Most voters also didn’t see the chaos of the first admin because it was mostly contained by the adults. While on the other hand they believed Dems were simply waving away their concerns about inflation and were ignoring their concerns about immigration. While in truth Dems did both things, particularly in the first couple of years of Biden’s term. While Dems did address their rhetoric and Biden did finally take steps to stanch the flow of migrants, it was too late as the image that the voters had was fixed and all the felon needed to to do was remind them of what they already believed was true.
@Sleeping Dog:
Biden was staunching the flow of immigrants from day one.
https://imgur.com/a/odMpPDQ
Partisan people and media love to remove title 42 expulsions from the data because it doesn’t fit their narrative that Biden is weak on immigration. So simply remove one of the data points and suddenly Biden looks a lot weaker…
Trump promised rainbows and ponies for free for everyone so of course people jumped on it. Promising everything they want for free is somehow popular. The Democratic party being the adults in the room ends up hurting them.
@Sleeping Dog:
Per latest AP-NORC poll:
Americans also believe government spending is generally too high and that deficits are bad, but reality based beings understand removing only foreign aid isn’t going to lead to smaller government with a balanced budget. And, what do you know, eliminating fraud and waste won’t get us there either.
If the lesson to learn from Trump’s political resilience, despite his erratic and corrupt governance, is that Dems need to get more comfortable with selling falsehoods about how much the things voters desire actually cost or how hard their desires are too accomplish, you are likely on to something.
I somehow think the Democrats won’t be able to get away with it the way Republicans have, but Trump has shown the way to get normal voters to feel life is okay when it’s not and to escape blame for malfeasance when you can find a scapegoat, so maybe lying more is the way to go. It’s not what I’m looking for, but what do I know?
@Scott F.: Having a very favorable media environment has done a lot of the heavy lifting for Trump. The Democratic party members won’t get that kind of help.
@Scott F.:
The felon keeps saying that he’s not going to touch medicare and medicaid, this is what the rubes hear, they’re not paying attention to what happens in congress, they never do. By the time. they realize he’s shafted them, it will be too late.