The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[zebo-the-fat]

Look at this embodiment of health: From the fatness of his chin to his swollen ankles.



His kidneys must be completely dead considering how fat his ankles are.

With luck it will spread to the rest of him!

[Angrboda]

Populism is one of those terms that people throw around very loosely. The most precise definition, to my mind, comes from a prescient 2004 article by the political scientist Cas Mudde called “The Populist Zeitgeist.”

Mudde saw, long before Trump, that the future of Western politics would be shaped by populist politics. By “populism,” he did not just mean generic anti-establishment politics, but something more specific: “an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people.”

The key word here is “ideology.” Populism is not merely a rhetorical style pitting elites against the people, but a genuine belief that this is the true axis of political conflict. In the populist worldview, the people have a unified set of common-sense beliefs (“the general will”) that would fix politics if implemented. The only reason it is not happening, for the populist, is that malign elites are preventing the people and their champions from holding power.

In a populist movement like MAGA, the “people” are defined narrowly as only those “good” or “true” Americans — meaning typically, though not exclusively, white rural Christian Republicans. Trump presents himself as their champion against the malign forces of globalist liberalism, personified by the Washington political establishment and coastal cultural elite (a construction that easily and regularly shades into antisemitism).

This kind of populism is, as Mudde notes, morally binary; they are telling a story not of normal political contestation in a democracy but of epic conflict between the forces of good and evil. And on the right, Jeffrey Epstein became a stand-in for evil. His sexual viciousness and habit of hobnobbing with the rich and powerful — everyone from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates — cultivated a deep belief that everyone in the American elite class was secretly abusing children. These were not reasonable people that you might lose to in a fair election, but crooks who had corrupted the whole system in order to serve their own dark desires.

For many MAGA believers, then, Epstein was not just one story among many. It was the master story of American politics: the skeleton key unlocking everything that they believed Trump was supposed to be fighting against.

https://archive.ph/O2igb#selection-921.0-971.219

[Alan V]

In a populist movement like MAGA, the “people” are defined narrowly as only those “good” or “true” Americans — meaning typically, though not exclusively, white rural Christian Republicans. Trump presents himself as their champion against the malign forces of globalist liberalism, personified by the Washington political establishment and coastal cultural elite (a construction that easily and regularly shades into antisemitism).

https://archive.ph/O2igb#selection-921.0-971.219

Somehow Trump has gotten away with conflating Democrats with the elites in his version of populism.

[The Grand Nudger]

Dood, you've gone off the deep end.

I think he has a point in that the conspiracy mindset they've championed for more than a decade is coming home to roost in the suspicions that his own AG is now part of the "deep state". In other words, the seed they've planted is now bearing some poisonous fruit.

I don't know that it's "demographically existential", nor indeed do I even know what TGN means in writing that, but I think the distaste and growing distrust is exactly to be expected when one sows radical conspiracism as a means to power. Once you're in power, you're either killing the cabals or becoming one, to these conspiracists.

That's how I'm reading his post you've quoted. He'll no doubt correct me forthwith, and that's all to the good.

nah, you pretty much nailed it.

I mean that even with voter suppression and outright corruption they can't lose the demographic this is important to and remain in power through non-novel means.  Now, I think every damned thing they do tells us they don't intend to remain in power through non-novel means..but even in the nightmare authoritarian scenario they're dreaming about the batshit right can't afford challenges to their authority and organizing ideology from the even further batshit right.  

That's how trumpism became a thing in the first place - ask dead john mccain what happened to his party - and if the donald wont deliver they'll find an even trumpier fucker under the next rock.

[Angrboda]

Spurned U.S. Attorney Clings to Job by Being Appointed His Own Assistant

President Trump’s embattled interim U.S. attorney in Albany, N.Y., is back leading the office under an unusual new title, just days after a panel of judges refused to appoint him to lead the office permanently.

According to a letter from the Justice Department’s human resources division, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, John A. Sarcone III has been named “special attorney to the attorney general.” The appointment, the letter says, gives him the powers of a U.S. attorney, and is “indefinite.”

The move means that Mr. Sarcone is the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, according to a spokesman for the office, as well as its first assistant. It is unclear how Mr. Sarcone could occupy two positions at once.

---

The White House does not have sole power to appoint U.S. attorneys, who must be confirmed by senators, or even to keep interim U.S. attorneys in place for more than 120 days. Mr. Sarcone’s appointment as a special attorney appears to be a workaround, one that could potentially allow Mr. Trump to keep his pick in place without approval from Congress or the judiciary.

“I’ve never heard of that being done,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, adding: “It seems like they’re making this up as they go along.”

Though Mr. Trump is still in the first year of his second term, no U.S. attorneys have been confirmed by the Senate. In his first term, all 85 of Mr. Trump’s nominees for U.S. attorney were confirmed by the chamber; so far in his second term, he has formally nominated only about a quarter of that number, leaving far more interim officials in place.

[Rev. Rye]

Trump has said that he had no idea that the term 'Shylock' is considered anti-Semitic. Mark the day that Trump said something I believe.

Boru

[Fireball]

Didn't know who "Birdie Jay" was, made it almost a minute in. Tripe.

[Rev. Rye]

Didn't know who "Birdie Jay" was, made it almost a minute in. Tripe.

Almost a minute in was where the relevant quote was. And, yes, Birdie Jay is supposed to be that stupid and problematic. As in “okay with using notorious sweatshops for her clothing because she legit thinks that’s where sweatpants are made.” Glass Onion is a good film, BTB.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Spurned U.S. Attorney Clings to Job by Being Appointed His Own Assistant

President Trump’s embattled interim U.S. attorney in Albany, N.Y., is back leading the office under an unusual new title, just days after a panel of judges refused to appoint him to lead the office permanently.

According to a letter from the Justice Department’s human resources division, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, John A. Sarcone III has been named “special attorney to the attorney general.” The appointment, the letter says, gives him the powers of a U.S. attorney, and is “indefinite.”

The move means that Mr. Sarcone is the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, according to a spokesman for the office, as well as its first assistant. It is unclear how Mr. Sarcone could occupy two positions at once.

---

The White House does not have sole power to appoint U.S. attorneys, who must be confirmed by senators, or even to keep interim U.S. attorneys in place for more than 120 days. Mr. Sarcone’s appointment as a special attorney appears to be a workaround, one that could potentially allow Mr. Trump to keep his pick in place without approval from Congress or the judiciary.

“I’ve never heard of that being done,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, adding: “It seems like they’re making this up as they go along.”

Though Mr. Trump is still in the first year of his second term, no U.S. attorneys have been confirmed by the Senate. In his first term, all 85 of Mr. Trump’s nominees for U.S. attorney were confirmed by the chamber; so far in his second term, he has formally nominated only about a quarter of that number, leaving far more interim officials in place.

(Bold mine)

Well...yeah.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump has said he was 'surprised' that Jerome Powell was appointed to chair the Federal Reserve, succeeding Janet Yellen.

It was Trump who appointed him.

Boru