As far as I can see, Trump depends as much on the people as we do. He cannot act alone any more than we can. It’s just that it is often easier to appeal to hate and fear than it is to enlightened self-interest. It’s when the latter prevails that democracy is made secure.
If most people start to embrace and stand up for organized labor, then most soldiers and police likely will, too. Our fight is, at its core, a labor rights movement. It is about the workers taking control of the system and making it serve them.
I believe the presidency must be reduced to mostly a figurehead, making the legislature the dominant branch. Strong presidents never seem to be good for democracy, and I no longer believe that the president should have as much power as Congress — Trump or no Trump.
"Donald Trump is proving to be a poor authoritarian."
LOL! He became POTUS 2x, and that's nothing to sneeze at. But, failure is his best skill. He is surrounded by far less competence this time around, so I expect far more failure from his second term. MAGA!
BTW: the TACO acronym sums up why the stock market is up and inflation is lower than would be expected with high tariffs. It's because chickening out is now expected. In a way, expectations of failure have actually been a boon to our 401(k)s. Crazy world.
Mr Stein, you are absolutely right to say that failure is Donnie's best skill. In fact, it is one of his only two skills: failure and illegal and dishonest approaches to anything.
I'm not sure I agree with you that he has less competent lackeys this time. Some are breathtakingly incompetent. But some are expert at demolition (Vought springs to mind, and Miller is in about the same place). Whether all of this, and the TACO problem, will result in "far more failure" remains to be seen. The people shipped off to El Salvadorean prisons without due process, or support from the courts or from Congress, would tell you Donnie's been pretty successful. At what, is another matter.
Seems to me that the definition of success or failure would be whether or not he keeps his promises to the people who elected him? Certainly his crackdown on immigration (I'll use that as blanket term) is a major success by any measure vis a vis what he promised.
Seems like he gets an F for everything else, so far? Plenty of his Presidency left -- the jury is out.
Mr Stein, if Donnie promised to murder all blue-eyed and blond people, or all people taller than he is, and he did it, would you count that as a success?
By the way, Donnie promised to uphold the Constitution. He didn't do it. You could count that as a failure, because he didn't do what he swore to do, or as a success, because he never actually had any intention of upholding it.
I would be so distracted by the outrageousness of the promise that I would give no credit to someone who fulfilled it. Imagine someone who says they're going to rape your preschool daughter, does it, gets arrested, tried, convicted, and executed. How much credit do you give them for fulfilling the promise?
Thank you. Your briefings have filled me with a small sense of hope, which I am carefully keeping stoked but not too high. I have at times read them to my husband, who has a far gloomier outlook on this country at present, in hopes of encouraging him to be a bit less pessimistic (he says he's a realist, but I question that perception).
Again, thank you for providing the light in the current gloom.
I become less worried and more confident that we can prevail every time I attend a rally and see an ever increasing number of people protesting. And we’re not all doom-and-gloom about it. We are greeting our friends, meeting new protesters, sharing ideas, chanting, cracking jokes and creating a joyful community with like-minded, patriotic Americans! We know this is serious business, but we will not let fascists steal our country or our happiness. Ever!
Matt: I teach my students that the “prime directive” of a bureaucrat is “have a job tomorrow”. This directly translates to inertia and resistance to change. It also means that attempts at “reform” are doomed to failure. In good times and bad, bureaucratic institutions are the aircraft carriers of the ship of state. Musk and Trump are used to having effective autonomy in their business ventures. They will never understand why they have failed. Only Vaught had a concept of how to succeed and he made the mistake of telegraphing his strategy too early. Hooray for the “deep state”!!!
As far as I can see, Trump depends as much on the people as we do. He cannot act alone any more than we can. It’s just that it is often easier to appeal to hate and fear than it is to enlightened self-interest. It’s when the latter prevails that democracy is made secure.
If most people start to embrace and stand up for organized labor, then most soldiers and police likely will, too. Our fight is, at its core, a labor rights movement. It is about the workers taking control of the system and making it serve them.
I believe the presidency must be reduced to mostly a figurehead, making the legislature the dominant branch. Strong presidents never seem to be good for democracy, and I no longer believe that the president should have as much power as Congress — Trump or no Trump.
Thank you, Matt.
"Donald Trump is proving to be a poor authoritarian."
LOL! He became POTUS 2x, and that's nothing to sneeze at. But, failure is his best skill. He is surrounded by far less competence this time around, so I expect far more failure from his second term. MAGA!
BTW: the TACO acronym sums up why the stock market is up and inflation is lower than would be expected with high tariffs. It's because chickening out is now expected. In a way, expectations of failure have actually been a boon to our 401(k)s. Crazy world.
Mr Stein, you are absolutely right to say that failure is Donnie's best skill. In fact, it is one of his only two skills: failure and illegal and dishonest approaches to anything.
I'm not sure I agree with you that he has less competent lackeys this time. Some are breathtakingly incompetent. But some are expert at demolition (Vought springs to mind, and Miller is in about the same place). Whether all of this, and the TACO problem, will result in "far more failure" remains to be seen. The people shipped off to El Salvadorean prisons without due process, or support from the courts or from Congress, would tell you Donnie's been pretty successful. At what, is another matter.
"Crazy world," indeed.
Seems to me that the definition of success or failure would be whether or not he keeps his promises to the people who elected him? Certainly his crackdown on immigration (I'll use that as blanket term) is a major success by any measure vis a vis what he promised.
Seems like he gets an F for everything else, so far? Plenty of his Presidency left -- the jury is out.
Mr Stein, if Donnie promised to murder all blue-eyed and blond people, or all people taller than he is, and he did it, would you count that as a success?
As a measure of fulfilled campaign promises? Sure. How could it be counted any other way? 🤔
By the way, Donnie promised to uphold the Constitution. He didn't do it. You could count that as a failure, because he didn't do what he swore to do, or as a success, because he never actually had any intention of upholding it.
Lying to the person swearing you're in <> lying to the people who elected you? You're moving the goalposts.
I would be so distracted by the outrageousness of the promise that I would give no credit to someone who fulfilled it. Imagine someone who says they're going to rape your preschool daughter, does it, gets arrested, tried, convicted, and executed. How much credit do you give them for fulfilling the promise?
Non sequitur. Credit is irrelevant. If Trump campaigns on X and then does X after being elected, he has successfully fulfilled a campaign promise.
Also, online forum tip: if you want people to read your posts in a civilized forum, you should avoid extreme stuff like you just posted.
Unless you're on Truth Social or Twitter, of course. On those forums what you posted is considered tame and you'll be accused of being a lib!
Thank you. Your briefings have filled me with a small sense of hope, which I am carefully keeping stoked but not too high. I have at times read them to my husband, who has a far gloomier outlook on this country at present, in hopes of encouraging him to be a bit less pessimistic (he says he's a realist, but I question that perception).
Again, thank you for providing the light in the current gloom.
I become less worried and more confident that we can prevail every time I attend a rally and see an ever increasing number of people protesting. And we’re not all doom-and-gloom about it. We are greeting our friends, meeting new protesters, sharing ideas, chanting, cracking jokes and creating a joyful community with like-minded, patriotic Americans! We know this is serious business, but we will not let fascists steal our country or our happiness. Ever!
Matt: I teach my students that the “prime directive” of a bureaucrat is “have a job tomorrow”. This directly translates to inertia and resistance to change. It also means that attempts at “reform” are doomed to failure. In good times and bad, bureaucratic institutions are the aircraft carriers of the ship of state. Musk and Trump are used to having effective autonomy in their business ventures. They will never understand why they have failed. Only Vaught had a concept of how to succeed and he made the mistake of telegraphing his strategy too early. Hooray for the “deep state”!!!