Blatant cover up. Got it.

I get it. It’s rough out there right now. Sorry if my earlier comment came off a little harsh.

For what it’s worth, try to remember that blind cynicism is no more rational or realistic than blind optimism. Both are a presumption that reality conforms to our biases. Cynicism feels more realistic, but that’s a trap (an easy one to fall into). In reality it’s just that for most people it feels better to expect bad things and be surprised by the good than it does to expect good things and be surprised by the bad. But neither expectation is grounded in fact, only in our psychological need to protect ourselves. Whenever an assumption "feels right’, that’s when we most need to question it.

He’s not being pro anything here, other than himself.

Reports citing sources inside the White House are indicating that Trump is absolutely fuming over how badly the events in Minnesota are playing with the general public. He’s keenly aware of how bad the polls are, and what it means for him if the GOP gets wiped out in the midterms. He fantasizes about cancelling the elections, but he’ll already have been told, repeatedly, that he can’t actually do it, and vote fraud will only get them so far if the left actually show up in November.

He wanted a big show of force in Minnesota that would juice up his base and have all the Liberals running scared. Instead he got two dead white people on national TV, Minnesota turning into an epicentre of national resistance, and even people on the right raising questions. Meanwhile Bovino and Noem lied their way into obvious traps by setting up false narratives that were instantly debunked by video footage, and then made it even worse by suggesting they don’t care about 2A rights. The whole thing is a PR disaster, and Trump (or someone in the room with him) has enough functioning braincells to recognize that much.

Bovino is being made to retire, Noem is getting passed over for Homan, and Trump’s plan here is obviously to try to reset. He’s not going to back off the authoritarian tactics or the anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, but he’ll likely try to pause for a bit, recoup, and hope that resistance settles down. Maybe tell ICE to go find some brown people to kill, since the white folks don’t mind when that happens.

You know, it would have cost you literally nothing to post this without the weird defeatist snark based on exactly zero evidence.

While entirely true, it doesn’t mean that the whole thing is a win for Trump.

While his supporters might be inclined to see the best possible version of his Greenland idiocy, it still comes back to “How does this lower my grocery bill?”

Even if Trump can pretend that he’s successfully wasting his time on geopolitical strategic posturing instead of addressing critical domestic concerns, well… Yeah. None of that looks good for him.

People voted for him because they’re struggling. They’re still struggling.

An adage I come back to time and time again with MAGA is that they may be the stupidest people in the world, but they still know how much money is in their bank account.

Sure, they’ll loudly talk about all of Trump’s “accomplishments” but it’s not because those things actually matter to them. It’s because they’re trying to convince everyone, including and especially themselves, that they’re not complete suckers

The medal doesn’t even mean anything. It’s like buying a purple heart at an auction; doesn’t make you a veteran. Of course, Trump would never understand that.

You, uh… You do know how absolutely fucked that is right? That you guys don’t have voting in prisons, that you can prevent convicts from voting?

Like, when you’re asking yourself “How did we get to the point where our president is openly flirting with cancelling elections?”, some of that is that you guys accepted as normal levels of anti-democratic behaviour that most democratic nations consider you absolutely insane for endorsing.

In Canada we literally set up polling stations in the prisons. You can be a serial killer doing multiple life sentences, you still get the right to vote. That is a bedrock, fundamental right that no one, especially not the government, ever gets to take away from you.

Maybe if the US treated voting rights in the same way, you might be a little less fucked up right now.

The rest of NATO need to put troops in Greenland, today, with clear orders to fire on any invading force, even if its the US.

If there’s one clear and obvious pattern with Trump’s use of military power, it’s that he likes quick, easy, low cost military operations. One day of airstrikes, one special forces raid, declare victory, go home. Either he or the people around him understand that America has no stomach for a war right now. The American right have been beating the anti-war drums hard for the last decade. But surgical military operations win public because they’re already over before anyone can react. Look, see, no Iraq style quagmire. Trump gets it done, no problems. Not like those other idiots.

All of which adds up to the conclusion that Trump will not want to spark a war with the entirety of NATO. But he’s extremely confident that if he steals Greenland fast enough, NATO won’t want a war to take it back.

This is why the defence of Greenland has to be pre-emptive. A clear commitment to a fight, before the US can put boots on the ground. Do that, and Trump will back down. The right wing politics of today are not the right wing politics of 2001. He doesn’t want a war, he wants an easy victory. We cannot offer him one.

I know there’s a lot of really scary stuff happening with this administration right now, and I really don’t want to seem dismissive of that (its certainly scaring the shit out of me), but honestly, this just seems like Hegseth wanted to ride in the cool plane cos it makes his peepee feel big. Not sure we should read any more into it. If something big was going to go down, it would be Trump on the “doomsday plane”.

The problem, in this case, isn’t Trump defying the law, it’s that there are far too many legal ways for him to get away with this shit.

Since 1974, when Congress got their shit together enough to pass the War Powers Resolution with a veto proof majority, they’ve basically been constantly ceding war powers back to the president through open ended Authorizations for Use of Military Force, with no expiry and unbelievably vague terms. Biden, for example, cited the 2002 AUMF for his military actions.

Until Congress actually gets together and undoes that mess - which, to my understanding, will once again require a veto proof majority - presidents will basically be free to do as they please with the military.

Hey, hey now, listen, don’t worry your silly head about that. Look, the US just illegally kidnapped a head of state. Isn’t that exciting? Go focus on that hot new story, don’t worry about this old nonsense.

In n particular, MAGA care about the Epstein files. This is a major crack in their coalition. They spent years throwing around conspiracy theories about pedophile cults secretly running the world. They are obsessed with the Epstein files, and the more Trump tries to obfuscate their contents, the more they have to start wondering what his skin in the game is. We’re already seeing it happen with people like MTG publicly turning on him.

It’s still a cult. They don’t want to suspect dear leader of anything. But the more he works to conceal stuff, the more they’re trapped between two things they hold at absolute truths. One of them has to give eventually.

Her only source was the Bible, and she didn’t even cite that properly. The instructor who set the essay concurred with the TA’s assessment, and then the school suspended both of them for doing their jobs properly.

Now why do you think that would that be a thing that he’s worried about?

With Trump, it’s always, always, always about loyalty.

OK, OK… Would you perhaps be willing to elaborate on which specific people maybe?

It’s the exact example given in DOD guidebooks of a clearly and unquestionably unlawful order.

For the record, this might not be a win for the GOP.

The thing about gerrymandering is that you get wins in places you wouldn’t by stealing your safety net from places where your win is assured.

As long as everything goes well, that gives you some extra seats.

But if the math changes - say, because you’re calculating your odds off of a massive swing towards your party from Hispanic voters that has completely evaporated in the year since the election thanks to the president’s horrific immigration enforcement policies - you can end up losing not only the seats you tried to rig in your favour, but also the seats you stole that safety net from.

This is why other states with plans to gerrymander additional seats suddenly suspended those plans after Nov 4th. If things continue the way they are this plan could see the GOP almost wiped out in Texas.

The fact that those words came out of her mouth and she didn’t immediately stop and go “Oh, fuck, I’m the bad guy here” is completely insane. How cooked does your brain have to be for you to even be able to say something like that in the first place?

You seem to have some familiarity with this. Would I be right in surmising that these systems are based on some kind of append only ledger system similar to git?