You’re right; that was educational but I really think you guys need better reaction icons… I feel bad “hearting” something like that even if it deserves it.
UK Atheist
I get it but I still think that if something as significant to women’s rights as Roe vs Wade can be reversed then so can something in your constitution. To you that may not be logical but…
UK Atheist
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@UKAtheist, there are a few ways trump could get around the two term limit. For instance, could declare an emergency and “pause” the election. I think his poor health will likely catch up with him in the next three years, though. Peter Thiel will then have to figure out how to keep his lackey Vance in office.
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In principle perhaps, but I’m just saying that a court issuing a ruling is a lot easier (and relatively instantaneous) than getting 2/3 of both houses of Congress to approve a constitutional amendment and then spending years getting 75% (38) of our state legislatures to ratify it. That’s a LOT of cat-herding.
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I think the one truism of American politics that seems sorely overlooked these days are the two main objectives of any American politician…namely re-electability and self-preservation.
We’ve all seen it from Republicans during Trump’s first term. It was there in the beginning of his second term, but as Trump repeatedly snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, fissures are beginning to appear.
I could be completely wrong on this observation, but I have faith in American politicians to act primarily out of their own self-interest. Don’t forget, it was three Republican congressmen that took the cold truth to Nixon that only around a dozen Republican Senators would back him in an impeachment trial. Nixon was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and resigned.
Trump is a malignant narcissist and would never take Nixon’s path. I have some first hand experience with aging narcissists and I can tell you that as they age, only the most manipulative and paranoid traits remain in their personality. Their sense of entitlement expands exponentially as they receive less adulation and attention. It reaches a point where any attention, good or bad, is preferable to no attention.
When they don’t get it they demonstrate outbursts of rage. They become defensive, more rigid in their thinking, prone to bigotry and will never cease to gain and maintain their superiority. Their actions seem counter-intuitive as their behavior has the inverse effect on anyone forced into their circle. Rather then garner legitimate recognition, they drive everyone away that doesn’t become a flying monkey to their cause.
For this reason, to save themselves, the Republicans will have to politically abandon Trump. You can see the signs beginning to emerge. Republicans have pushed back against Trump on tariffs, the economy, ending the filibuster and especially on Epstein. Marjorie Taylor Greene just walked away from congress over that one.
I have a very hard time believing Greene did it for anything resembling principal or altruism. I believe it’s a similar scenario to defendants rushing to a prosecutor to cut a deal…the first one in gets the best deal. In her case, the first one to jump ship retains the most credibility. Wait for the trial balloons to go up on her Presidential bid in 2028.
David Brooks once said of Trump: “He’s like an anti-mentor. He takes everybody around him and he makes them worse.” While the Republicans could turn a blind eye to this for their own self interest during his first term, the adults in the room all see the train coming right at them during his second term. As Trump becomes wounded and isolated politically the more Machiavellian Republicans will make their move.
None of them want to be the next Jeff Sessions…
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I think your analysis is very solid.
Trump has become very erratic and is beginning to baffle even his supporters. The weird oval office love-fest with Mamdani is a stark contrast to the ambush of Zelinsky just a few months ago, for example (and Vance is reported to be jealous over it, lol). One can imagine all the operatives who have been concocting ads and memes demonizing Mamdani fulminating over Trump looking at Mamdani with frank admiration, saying he’s perfectly sane and has surpisingly good policies. Even at one point said it’s okay to say yes, it’s just easier, when a reported cornered Mamdani and asked him if he still thinks Trump is a fascist. I mean, you can’t even make this stuff up.
My guess is a lot of this was predicated on Trump finding a kindred spirit in Mamdani solely because Mamdani wants to build new real estate in NYC. That scarecely makes him a fellow real estate developer, but in Trump’s malfunctioning brain it was close enough. Plus he’s under siege and Mamdani comes in with his 5,000 megawatt smile and treats his needy self like a human for a few minutes. There was a quote I saw of some political sage or other that said, “sometimes with a fascist you just have to smile and say ‘nice doggie’ over and over until it’s time to come in for the kill”.
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Keep your friends closer and your enemies closer. Trump is doing a thing called “love bombing”. This is a psychologically recognized manipulation technique. Once Trump feels he has the senior position in the relationship he will revert back to gaslighting. If Mamdani fails to worship at the Church of Donald down the road Trump will turn on him faster than listeria on a gas station hot dog.
Remember, MAGA is really just an acronym for “Meet A Genuine Asshole”. That’s all Mamdani did. For Mamdani’s sake, I hope RFK didn’t confiscate all the hand sanitizer in the White House…
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I’m awaiting the day when Trump’s power finally slips. and no one is afraid of him any more. He’s made a lot of enemies, maybe especially in his own party.
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I’m having a hard time thinking of any member of the human race, that Trump hasn’t made an enemy of. I exclude the swivel eyed mutants that are begging to be part of his political human centipede, because they tossed their own humanity into the bin long ago.
Is there even one normal human being on this planet, who doesn’t regard the Orange Scrotum as a floater in the toilet bowl of humanity?
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Sadly, there was just north of 77 million that didn’t…that’s why he’s still here…and that’s where the real 800 pound gorilla seems to be.
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Well, the word “normal” is in the question, lol.
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Touche! It’s times like these that make me wish I’d left for Canada before a passport was required…
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Even as an outsider, one can only hope however if, as I suspect, he’s more figurehead than those around him, you have to ask what kind of person might replace him. While it’s hard to think of anyone worse, I’m sure there are.
UK Atheist
The good news is he is incompetent and he has surrounded himself with incompetent people. Anyone displaying any amount of independence is quickly eliminated.
The bad news is that there are enough incompetent, but motivated people that a lot of chaos could result. That’s why the “refuse illegal orders” is so important. There are people who can drag their feet, slow the process, erect barriers to progress, etc. while the clock keeps ticking. Unfortunately we are still very early in the term.
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It’s the high level of vainglorious incompetence that causes me to regard Trump as more like Mussolini than Hitler. But authoritarian governance, demanding as it does unquestioning obedience, tends to devolve to greater levels of incompetence, greed and graft, and eventually implodes under the fundamental unsustainability of all that (and of course all the lies and broken promises, in themselves, are unsustainable).
Some people are hopeful that signs of Trump’s “lame duck” status are already appearing and that his own party is starting at times to ignore or even defy him. And that the opposition of ordinary citizens is coalescing and hardening. But that only makes Trump more dangerous, not less. There are still a lot of ways this could go, and as you say – then what sort of successor appears.
The oligarchs would want Vance, whose rise to power they have financed (mostly via Theil). And he is the most likely person on the surface. But his negative charisma and terrible political instincts are a big liability compared to Trump. He’d be more effective in a post-election world and I think the emphasis will be on taking control of or eliminating free elections. It’s not escaping them that Dems are winning nearly all the special elections and that their razor-thin margins in Congress are eroding. And many of the people winning are Mamdani-style progressives. They will do their best to put a stop to this.
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The scary thing is, I think both sides are guilty of the parallels drawn with Julie’s Streicher.
Trump using social platforms to pump his propaganda and what her perceives as being true.
Equally you have main stream media doing likewise.
Both also dehumanise and create climates where violence becomes acceptable to rid themselves of those they dislike.
Both use strong variants of in group/out group thinking.
It’s really worrying, I think without major change in politics, the US and UK is fucked! Over here, we are heading closer and closer to a Reform party leading the country under the leadership of the human melted wax work that is Nigel Farage.
A man with all the character and grace of a golf ball.
The only saving grace if directly drawing parallels with nazism, is the nazis we’re unopposed once gaining power, trump has lost and been kicked out.
He was also taking through court, which demonstrates at least to me that the courts will punish him if he crosses the line.
Fingers crossed for you guys and hope you, like us get a quality party leader soon.
I think you’re being very unfair to golf balls.
UK Atheist
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