trump has won fascism is inevitable, the republic is lost, oligarchy is inevitable. boo hoo.
these guys are dumb and completely disorganized and hate each other. the old man looks like he’s three steps from a date with the grim reaper.
get tough, quit crying in your beer. jesus christ.— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 1:57 AM
oh hey it ya girl explaining why the recent government shutdown extravaganza is just a preview of the next four years of GORILLA CHANNEL GOVERNANCE
foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/20/t…— Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@sjshancoxli.bsky.social) December 20, 2024 at 8:31 PM
In 2018, a joke tweet went viral suggesting that then-President Donald Trump spent 17 hours a day watching “the gorilla channel,” a fake TV channel featuring footage of gorillas fighting created by his staffers. In 2024, President-elect Trump nominated Peter Hegseth, whose primary qualification is appearing on Fox and Friends, for secretary of defense. Trump nominated Mehmet Oz (aka Dr. Oz), whose primary qualification is appearing on Oprah, to be Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator.
Since Trump’s election, some on the left have given in to the impulse of doom. They talk as if Trump is a god-emperor who will sweep away the American republic with a wave of his hand. Some on the right believe this too, though in their case, they approve of that course of action. Certainly Trump and his allies have declared their intention to reshape American society in an authoritarian direction.
But what we should expect is not an organized transformation. What we should expect is gorilla channel governance—chaotic, personalist, and based largely on what the president most recently saw on television…
Personalist systems are less effective at managing a society than impersonal bureaucracies. Moreover, they are heavily reliant on the personal abilities of the leader. Trump is not a young, energetic dictator ready to spend the next 40 years remaking America. He is a tired old man who forgets what state he’s currently standing in.
And, for the most part, he is not appointing energetic young psychopaths to remake the entire system. He’s appointing people he saw on the teevee. This is gorilla channel governance: government based not on long-term plans to reshape society energetically and carefully pursued, but on the whims of an aging leader who surrounds himself with sycophants and lives in a world of television and social media…
This affects how Trump will interact with existing federal bureaucracies. Trump is not constructing his administration de novo after a revolution. Rather, he is confronted with an existing bureaucratic regime of immense size. The American federal government employs 4.5 million people and controls $6.8 trillion in spending. It can be very difficult for political appointees to control the large institutions of the permanent civil service.
This is true even when the political appointees nominally have total authority over the bureaucrats. There are large informational and organizational gaps between the bureaucrats and the appointees. A toy example: The appointee proposes some new policy. The bureaucrat, who does not want to enact this policy, says, “Yes, of course, sir, we’ll get right on it.” But the plan bureacrats enact is guaranteed to take forever, and likely be challenged in court. They will do a study to see if they should do it and a year later conclude they shouldn’t. Overcoming the preferred policies of the permanent civil service requires energy, area knowledge, and attention to detail. To put it bluntly: the ability to recognize when the civil servants are running a snow job on you.
Trump has suggested courts-martial for officers involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal. This will come to nothing, precisely because it offers the military bureaucracy an excuse to spend time “following orders,” preparing for these trials, and finally acquitting the officers (who indeed committed no misconduct). And by the time that’s all done with there will be something new on the gorilla channel…
Theories without predictive power mean little, and so let’s make a forecast here: We should expect Musk to be among the first of Trump’s picks to get shanked by Trump, precisely because he has too much of his own base and is not dependent on Trump for fame or power. A clash of egos, and Musk will be out, replaced by someone you’ve never heard of…
as i argue here, trump is most likely to achieve his worst goals when he's rowing with the tide of the party and the institutions. deportations are probably going to happen. war with mexico? the pentagon very, very, very much does not want war with mexico.
foreignpolicy.com/2024/12/20/t…— Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@sjshancoxli.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 6:39 PM
probably they'll figure a way to do some joint special operations with the mexican military and it will achieve absolutely fuck-all
— Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@sjshancoxli.bsky.social) December 22, 2024 at 6:39 PM
Baud
I think that’s died down since they realized that there was no point criticizing Democrats if democracy was dead.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
What about the Schedule F appointments plan Trump wants to enact, that would remove civil service protections for federal employees, making them easier to fire? The FP piece doesn’t seem to address this
I see that the Biden admin did this earlier this year:
Which is good, but will only delay things for so long
sab
OT I hate to go off topic so soon, but this might be important. Old couples with short trains of thought.
Spouse and I have been bickering for months about stuff (scheduling) that he allegedly told me and I do not remember at all.
Either he is lying or I am braindead.
Then a Eureka moment this afternoon. He asked if I was cooking dinner tonight. I told you this morning we have too many leftovers.
No, you said this morning that we have lots of leftovers and can we do an Arby’s sandwich at home. You said maybe.
So I never told him I am not cooking dinner. He interrupted me. So I didn’t get my basic point out.
And he never told me grand-daughter was coming not on Friday, but next Monday or Tuesday, because I interrupted him. So he never got his basic point out.
No one lied. No one forgot
ETA Failure to be patient and listen.
Baud
@sab:
Nominated!
There go two miscreants
@sab: Heck, I live alone and I do that to myself!
Trivia Man
@sab:
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Interrupting cow.
Interrupt….
MOOOOOOO
sab
@Baud: Ageist asshole!!! Did you say something? I was too busy hitting asterisks to listen.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: i also need to work on patience and focus. We know each other so well it is easy to assume I know what her answer is and stop listening.
sab
Failure to be patient and listen was my point. Even between long and happily married spouses. You youngsters jumped to conclusions and missed that.
ETA Except Trivia Man.
dm
This is probably better due Watergirl thread, but here’s an excerpt from the latest mail from Indivisible:
KatKapCC
@dm:
Forgive me, but I simply cannot start thinking about the midterms yet. My brain is still half pudding from the election.
zhena gogolia
@KatKapCC: No “day countdowns” for me. We just went through that and what did it do for us.
Viva BrisVegas
I’m waiting for Trump to claim droit du seigneur, and for the Supreme Court to grant it.
MobiusKlein
Gorilla Govt reminded me of the Distraction debate below.
Many of us have seen or heard of the demonstration where observers are tasked with watching & counting some activity. And through the scene, a guy in a gorilla suit walks by. Afterwards folks don’t recall seeing the gorilla.
The analogy for today is the bickering we and others get so wrapped up in allows the metaphorical gorilla to walk through unseen. The details of the distraction are no so specific, as long as it gets folks VERY FOCUSED
sab
@Viva BrisVegas: Can he get that crooked little mushroom up anymore? I have my doubts. Our virgins are safe from him but not from his minions.
Scout211
Interesting poll out today from AP-NORC that polled people’s interest in political news. As you might guess, people are feeling a need to reduce their political news consumption due to fatigue and information overload right now.
I know how they feel. When I read this afternoon that Trump plans to re-install the “Diet Coke” button in the Oval Office, my response was, “Oh FFS! This is political news!? This is NEWS!?” Ugh.
trollhattan
@sab:
Funny. :-)
Most days my thoughts cannot form, much less pull a train.
sab
@There go two miscreants: Yes. Why did I come down to the basement? Oh, hi cute cat.
Brucej
We’re headed into an authoritarian kackistocratic oligarchy: a dictatorship of wildly stupid rich people.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Scout211:
That was a real thing?
suzanne
Did y’all see Vivek Ramaswamy’s post on X that is going viral?! LMAO. Dude blames Americans for not being as hardworking and nerdy as immigrants.
The exploding MAGA heads over there are epic and I am enjoying it.
They really have no idea who they elected. LMAO.
Brucej
@Scout211: not so much ‘information overload’ as ‘wildly insane bullshit sanewashing overload’
AM in NC
@sab: He Raped Jean Carrol with his hand. And that’s what he bragged about doing over and over and over again on that Access Hollywood tape. He doesn’t need his tiny mushroom to be a serial sexual predator.
Annie
The gorilla-channel take makes a lot of sense to me. I don’t think Trump has many, if any, coherent plans. I think he has emotional reactions to things he hears in the media. Also he’s got the attention span of a gnat, and gets bored easily. The only thing he has been consistent about is immigration. Some of the Project 2025 crowd do have plans of course but Trump would have to put in some work himself to implement them and I’m dubious that will happen.
I also think at least some of Trump’s supporters view him as a character in a TV show, which of course he was for some years. First, that gives him a weird glamor (not to anyone on this blog, but to low info voters who watch a lot of TV). Second, he comes off as a wealthier version of Archie Bunker in the old All in the Family series. His supporters enjoy his shtick because on some level they don’t think he’s real. When Trump shtick crashes into reality, Trump does not come off too well — see, the 2020 Covid pandemic. The ugly stuff he says, that even some of his followers admit is ugly? That’s the scriptwriters, just like Archie Bunker’s racism.
JMO of course.
Splitting Image
@MobiusKlein:
This is a good observation.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@suzanne:
The examples of the bad pop culture role models he was using were from 30 fucking years ago! Cory from Boy Meets World and snit lmao. Apparently, he still thinks teens hang out in shopping malls, too
Matt McIrvin
@Scout211:
At the Museum of Flight in Seattle, they have a 707 that was used as Air Force One during LBJ’s administration, and you can go inside it. One of the features pointed out in the exhibit is a “temperature control switch” that does nothing, installed to get Johnson to shut up about the cabin temperature. Apparently it worked.
I imagine dealing with Trump involves a lot of that sort of thing.
KatKapCC
@suzanne: Just the headlines when you google his name are hilarious.
“MAGA civil war erupts as Trump backers turn on Vivek Ramaswamy over H-1Bs”
“Vivek Ramaswamy dragged after wild rant on how American workers suck”
“Trump’s DOGE guy sparks MAGA civil war with slam on American culture”
Rooting for injuries.
West of the Rockies
Trump keeps nominating idiots who will have no knowledge about the agencies they “run” and zero respect from the people they’re “leading”… Tulsi, Brain Worm Boy, Hegseth, etc. I think there will be much pointing and laughing for the next few years.
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): HE LEGIT NAMECHECKS STEVE URKEL.
Matt McIrvin
@Viva BrisVegas: When Trump got elected the first time, my Dominican boss mentioned something like that as a “feature” of the Trujillo dictatorship.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Did he do that?
eemom
Why does no one grasp the simple reality that all predictions of what’s to come — worst case, best case, or otherwise — are utterly fucking worthless at this point?
Baud
@eemom:
I’ve been trying to make that point for years. It’s hopeless.
Suzanne
@Baud: Oh yes.
It goes on.
Baud
@Suzanne:
My comment was too subtle.
SpaceUnit
I find all these hot-take predictions about the incoming trump regime pretty useless.
We’re not going to know what this shit show is going to look like until it starts happening. That’s my hot-take.
ETA: I see others have come to the same conclusion.
KatKapCC
@Suzanne: “Venerates” seems to be a rather lofty term for “put them on the cover of Tiger Beat a few times”.
KatKapCC
@Baud: I got it. And heard it properly in my head.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
Yes! Urkel’s “cool” alter ego (think Jekyll and Hyde) “Stefan” was contrasted against Steve Urkel by Vivek, as if Americans have been raised to idolize people like “Stefan”.
I don’t think it made sense even in context, because wasn’t Stefan still smart like Urkel, just “cool”?
Suzanne
@Baud: OKAY LMAO now I hear it.
What can I say? It’s been a while.
West of the Rockies
@dm:
God dammit, is it my imagination or does every fucking House and Senate election cycle involve Democrats defending 15 seats to 4 (or some such)?
Baud
@Suzanne:
Vivek remembers!
UncleEbeneezer
Magdi Jacobs on Xitter:
JaySinWA
@Baud:
Apt considering that the rotating tags are disappearing in the blink of an eye for me. (Windows 11, Chrome)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Suzanne:
These people are such doofuses with punchable faces. How badly is he getting savaged by MAGAts right now?
Suzanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Um, he’s getting absolutely dragged.
Trump remembers to say that he loves the poorly educated! Vivek doesn’t!
My freude is so schadened right now.
HeleninEire
That is a great article. As someone who has, for my entire career, either worked with the government or for the government (all levels, city, state, and federal) I can vouch for what the article says. I’ve used some of those delaying tactics myself when I knew for sure the directive was never going to actually be implemented.
And it is what is helping me cope now. That asshole thinks he can come in and snap his fingers to get things done.
OH HELL NO!
JaySinWA
My train of thought is frequently derailed.
Scout211
We are saved! Marianne Williamson launches bid for DNC chair
Her vision for the future of the Democratic Party is out of this world.
Baud
@Scout211:
Let’s do it. The public obviously doesn’t want “professionals.”
kindness
Sure seems as if Trump is using the MSM just like he did his first Administration. He says crazy stuff like taking Greenland &/or Panama and it effectively stopped the media from talking about how terrible the choices he’s made naming people to stuff. Trump isn’t brilliant. He isn’t even smart. He keeps repeating the same chaos shit that worked for him before.
JaySinWA
That’s one way to say she’s spacy.
Starfish (she/her)
@suzanne: The MAGAs didn’t watch Hamilton, and it shows.
Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)
Matt McIrvin
Trump is a fading king, but J. D. Vance is young, vigorous and possibly even more of an asshole.
But J. D. Vance also isn’t Trump. His popular-admiration juice is really limited. He’s a competent speaker but he’s obviously a dweeb and not a TV celebrity with a flashy gangster image. He came on the scene because liberals wanted a benign Trump Whisperer and he pretended to be that for a while.
Starfish (she/her)
@Suzanne: This is post cold-war nonsense. Once we didn’t have another superpower to compete against, we could value stupid white nonsense again.
There is apparently a poorly received remake of Head of the Class. I never knew.
Splitting Image
@kindness:
I’ll go so far as to say that Trump is smarter than most of his supporters.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@kindness:
He apparently talked about wanting people killed while in his first term in private. I’m not so sure this is some strategy of his (even if it has the effects you mention).
RaflW
Laura Loomer called Musk nothing Trump’s “side piece” today, and she is extremely conversant in that job description. hahahah!
eemom
@Matt McIrvin:
Wow, there’s a blast from the past. Didn’t know he was still a thing.
Betty
As much as we can agree on Trump’s limitations, there is still the concern about appointees who aremore capable and focused on doing nasty things. Guys like Homan with immigration and Russell Vought at OMB.
karen gail
Keep seeing screen shots of Trump from “Turning Point” speech, then caught a video of opening. My dog! it was like opening for WWE or rock concert. Talk about blowing up his ego; they treated him like rock star/god/emperor. Rather than showing that he has no clothes it gave people the idea that here is an intelligent, well educated, well spoken man who is out to do for the masses. Have read some of the opinion pieces; these idiots seem to honestly believe that his second coming is going to right all the wrongs and once again the USA will be ruling and running the world. They have no idea what it takes to actually do the job of being President.
Soprano2
@sab: Hehe, My manager texted me tonight asking if I said a certain customer could have an old sign we took down. I said no I didn’t remember that and since the customer drinks a lot more than I do I’m probably not the one misremembering.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
As someone who supported 3 Senior Exec Service people for the last 5 years of my Club Fed “career”, don’t necessarily put too much faith in the ability of the bureaucracy to slow things down.
Yes, rank and file are great at “waiting it out” in the long term, that does add a little friction but only a little.
The key is to get *your* SESes into the positions. Every administration that involves a change of parties, the current SESes are invariably seen as hostile and within 2 years, most are usually gone (retired). The new admin can now get execs into positions where they can implement stuff *and* dictate which GS-15s are hired to help the process along.
I saw this repeatedly over the years. It’s one reason why regaining the House in 2 years is critical in that it effectively stops the actual implementation of stuff that takes 1-2 years to get setup and ready to roll.
Suzanne
@Starfish (she/her): It’s been quite a thing to watch right-wing Asian people on Xhitter realize that white MAGAs want to deport them, too.
And, as always, I will note that I would love to see Americans invest in public education — especially at graduate school levels. We are facing approaching shortages of doctors and nurses, engineers, architects, social workers, etc. More education is needed for these jobs than in the past, and we have pushed those costs onto individuals when I believe taxpayers need to pay for it.
But that’s not what these MAGA assholes want. They just…. don’t want to learn, and they’re salty that learning is a requirement for success.
trollhattan
The Confirmation Bias News Channel doing quite well, thanks.
Harrison Wesley
@Matt McIrvin: Telling an interviewer that you like to “grab ’em by the upholstery” doesn’t get the faithful very excited.
RaflW
@eemom: @Baud: It’s more a deep and miserably worry than a prediction, but I’d gonna say that bird flu has a good chance to wrap itself around the Trump Admin axle and dangerously feckless freaks like RFKjr & Oz. And unfortunately, all of us.
I just checked the supply drawer and we have quite a few fresh in package KN95s. Y’all Juicers may wan to order some, too.
NotMax
“I’ll retire to Bedlam.”
– E. Scrooge
//
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@trollhattan:
Is this saying that some MSNBC viewers are watching Fox News now?
Another Scott
@dm: Virginia statehouse Special Elections on January 7, 2025 (in person early voting starts Saturday December 28, 2024).
VPM.org:
There’s also a VA House district (26) that is a strong D that is up in the special election.
Only a little rest for the weary. Hang in there, everyone.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Soprano2
@Scout211: I’ve limited mine a lot because so much of it is about TCFG. They can’t wait for him to be POTUS again.
RaflW
@Matt McIrvin: JV Dance cannot deliver the dream of wealth. This is a smart take:
“Their ballot is their prayer” just stuns me.
Baud
@Another Scott:
RaflW
@karen gail: “They have no idea what it takes to actually do the job of being President.” Neither does Trump.
That said, I am concerned that apparatchiks like Stephen Miller do know enough about administrating to get Donald to sign some very ugly and inhumane E.O.s, and Miller is hell bent on making a lot of people miserable, and shipping a lot of them … somehwere (will other countries take them? Miller and even Trump may not be able to force them. Therein grows the risk of atrocities, or at least human rights crimes — not an ‘at least’ that is at all acceptable).
zhena gogolia
@RaflW: When was he ever warm?
Mr. Bemused Senior
I reported this, seems to be a Chrome artifact. I’m on an Android phone with Chrome.
RaflW
@zhena gogolia: Trump used to be very smarmy and would work a room with plenty of schmooze. We may think of him more for his bullshit bravado “You’re fired” but in the past he would butter up as many marks as he’d push around. That became less so as he grew in prominence and esp once he started running more directly for president, but for his fan base I do think he came off as ‘warm’ even if us more cynical folks knew it was an act.
different-church-lady
Three steps too many.
Parfigliano
@KatKapCC: Rooting for deaths.
Timill
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It probably means that those who watched CNN or MSNBC have switched off in droves.
Leto
@Suzanne: that’s interesting that Ramiswammy (whatever) said that, because Apartheid Clyde said the same thing as well. And MAGATs are turning on him as well.
Gvg
@Suzanne: We have been short of nurses and importing them since the 90’s at least. there have been repeated news stories about it even before I paid much attention to news and politics. We haven’t done anything about it, just allowed the immigration. More doctors have been immigrants gradually too.
Leto
@RaflW: if you go to the previous thread, at comment #69 I posted a gift link to the WaPo on how Latino voters embrace of the “prosperity gospel” grift helped sway their vote. Basically they view Trumpov’s wealth as a sign from God, and want to emulate that. Just another data point.
KatKapCC
@zhena gogolia: “Warm” is indeed a very weird word to use to describe Trump.
narya
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): or more likely many folks are taking a break. I watch the MSNBC evening lineup, but I know a TON of people who just aren’t watching news right now.
ETA: I expect they’ll get back to it eventually but see no need to do it now.
TONYG
The extreme stupidity and incompetence of Trump and his supporters might be the only thing that saves us.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Leto:
I genuinely wonder how these people would react if somebody, say a working class union member, angrily confronted them for supporting Trump, and told them that doing so fucked them and millions of others (including themselves over) as workers. And gave specific examples
Cause I’d really like to do that
KatKapCC
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Trump voters do not care about anyone except themselves. Stories of people suffering do absolutely nothing to move them. Think of all the stories of women bleeding out in parking lots from a pregnancy gone wrong and not being able to get an abortion. His voters don’t care. They don’t care if anyone struggles or suffers or dies. Confronting them to their faces would be completely pointless.
Scout211
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): @Timill: @narya:
The poll that I linked to upthread at #16 is being discussed in news stories (like this one on HuffPost) and tying together the poll that found that 72% of Democrats are cutting back on their political news consumption with the drop in viewership on MSNBC and CNN.
ETA: clarity
Gloria DryGarden
MY CIVIL DISCOURSE WITH A REPUBLICAN: A Report___
In a car shop waiting room last week, I got an earful of the republican pov. This older woman who used to work in Washington said she has met and likes trump, that Biden was on the list of the 10 stupidest persons in congress/ senate, that Kamala is dumb as a stump and has never actually been elected for anything,( well, not for long, she said after I pointed out that indeed she’d been elected to positions).
Also she said that 71% of Americans trust Fox News over any other sources, that cnn and msnbc were not trusted. She didn’t quite hear me about wapo and nyt, their biases, but we agreed that wapo used to have a great reputation.
when I brought up the issue of women’s rights, she had no idea what I was talking about, even when I spelled out that women were bleeding to death in parking lots and hospital lobbies, because they couldn’t get care. She seemed to be totally unaware of this, and said, but abortion is legal.
I kept the conversation going, staying in inquiry mode, but rebutting w facts when I could. What an eye opener, to understand what tons of people believe, are aware of, don’t know about. Jeez Louise
After she left, the young lady on my other side told me she thought I’d stood up to her rather well, and remained factual. That’s cool; I knew I’d not persuade anyone, but how fascinating (disheartening, dismaying) to hear how those folks think. And I m certain she knew I wasn’t persuaded either.
Suzanne
@Gvg: For sure. There’s shortages of people in all kinds of jobs. If we actually cared about that…. we’d make educating our citizens a priority.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@KatKapCC:
I would think making it intensely personal (and not something more abstract or theoretical to them) and explicitly blaming them for it to their faces (“You fucked me over! This is all your fault! You did this to me!”) would have some kind of effect
KatKapCC
@Gloria DryGarden: Maybe I’m an awful person, but I sincerely hope that woman or someone close to her experiences terrible struggles over the next four years because of the administration she voted for.
KatKapCC
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No, it won’t. These people do not believe anything but what they want to believe. Think about it — they believe that schools are giving kids gender reassignment surgery, that they were putting litter boxes in bathrooms for kids who identified as cats, that Jews have space lasers we use to start forest fires, that the Covid vaccine would kill you or at least put a microchip in your blood, that Covid itself was just a flu, that Biden was on narcotics his whole presidency, etc etc etc etc etc. Facts and truth mean nothing to them, and neither do anyone’s feelings. I’m not sure how you’ve paid attention over recent years and you still think “You did this to me” would have even an iota of effect on them. THEY DO NOT CARE.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Gloria DryGarden
@KatKapCC: on “warm”
because of trying to understand these weird trump voters- some of whom I know-
I listened to a few minute of his speeches. I found his voice to be honeyed, golden, smooth, hypnotic. I felt myself being lulled by it.
I know too much about his narcissistic lying behaviors and business/ political record, and I find him revolting, so my bullshit meter beeps at me, thank goddess. I know he’s playing the audience, reeling them in. He knows how to play a crowd, and get good tv ratings. He does do it well. He creates a way of saying things with a tone of sane reasonableness. Yes, It’s icky, once one recognizes it
im horrified that I felt myself initially soothed by the way he uses his voice. no, he didn’t persuade me to believe anything good about him. But I understand how his followers might find him “warm”.
I’d like to throw up, now. Understanding is truly just the bobby prize. I hear hitler was great at demagoguing and persuading his crowds, too.
(swear words held in reserve for the next 4years of heavy use)
Gloria DryGarden
@KatKapCC: no, you’re not an awful person. I think it’s pretty natural to have these thoughts. Maybe someone close to her;
she had a new Mercedes’ Benz and lives in edwards, outside of Vail. While she waits for her hip replacement, she probably socking away weekly ski pass fees, to save for when she’s back on the slopes.
I don’t even know how much it is to ski any more, but I hear it’s a lot. What I’m saying is she’s got money, she’ll be fine.
im hoping when FAFO comes to fruition, that Fox News will slip some real information out, or that other factual media will have come more to the fore. So people know what they’ve wrought.
now I want a row of swear words…
dc
@Gloria DryGarden:
I hate his voice, always have, I can’t understand how everyone doesn’t have the same reaction, but here we are.
Gloria DryGarden
@dc: agree. I can’t understand how people don’t see through him, don’t see he’s worse than a used care salesman..
I only lasted a few minutes, listening for my “ research”
it was weird as hell to feel the hynoptic smoothness of it. Ick. Ick.
I guess the most dangerous powerful people know how to look and sound good, to slide out of any accountability. I’m watching it in fiction as I binge watch “the mentalist” but it’s a real life thing.
RaflW
@Gloria DryGarden: The economics of skiing is really weird. I have a pass (heading out that general direction very soon). My pass cost a little over $700 for the season. That’s a lot of money, certainly. But a single in-season ticket purchased to ski Breckenridge costs between $225 and $299. One day! Vail between $245 and $329 (dynamic pricing and depending on wether you buy online more than 7 days ahead or day-of, in person).
I did the math and last year my daily cost to snowboard Breck and the related resorts was $26 per day. One tenth the price of the cheapest Vail ticket. Because I went 29 times! (I’m retired, I have time and we own a condo in the region that I bought before everything went nuts.)
So, there’s a curious mix of Audi & Rivian drivers who wear $1,000 ski suits to do a couple very spendy days a year on the mountain and eat $50 ($100? Who am I kidding) fondue lunches. And people like me who wear an 11 year old, faded but still reliable North Face shell and a 20 year old REI fleece under it, and eat self-catered, kinda smushed PBJ sandwiches and bring our own water.
bbleh
I continue to believe there’s not gonna be NEARLY as much “rounding up” and “deporting” of “immigrants” as people keep saying, because it will compete directly with the interests of the business community, notably including many small businesses, whose owners are the backbone of state and local Republican parties.
This is not to say there won’t be a great deal of misery and wanton cruelty — there certainly will be — but I think what’s most important to the Orange Thing and its followers is the DISPLAY, the TV pictures, and those are achievable with comparatively little effort &/or sustained attention, both of which both the Orange Thing and “personalist” regimes lack.
Matt McIrvin
I have a very gloomy friend who has read many books on the Third Reich and Stalin and shoots down anyone trying to instill hope this way by saying things like “yes, that’s how totalitarianism works. The original Nazis were like that too, and they still sent everyone who dared oppose them to Dachau. Read your Hannah Arendt.”
If he’s right, they’re going to start by arresting every Democratic member of Congress who doesn’t flip and swear allegiance to the Trump Train. I guess we’ll see pretty quickly whether that happens.
Citizen Alan
@Leto: It’s literal Mammon-worshiping. The Mark of the Beast really did come in the form of a Red MAGA hat.
Citizen Alan
@Gloria DryGarden: I refuse to grant them that much dignity. If I have to put up with that shit from anyone but my employer (who, God bless him, has never discussed politics in my presence) I will, at best, tell them to shut the hell up. At worst, I will tell them I don’t want to hear it and they can save their words for Jesus when they’re begging him not to send them to burn in Hell for all eternity.
I swear the only reason I’m not an atheist is that I cling to the belief that God is going to punish the assholes who worship Satan but pretend that he is Christ for all eternity.
Citizen Alan
@KatKapCC: Come and sit next to me then. I hope she suffers in misery.
Citizen Alan
@Matt McIrvin: I seriously worry that that was what Shitgibbon was talking about when he was talking about “I only need to be a dictator on the first day” or whatever the fool said. Because if he arrests enough people to give the GOP a sufficiently commanding control of the House and Senate, then they could pass the American version of the Enabling Act and everything he does afterwards will be legal.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@eemom: too funny
Chris Johnson
@Matt McIrvin: No no. They have to start by arresting every REPUBLICAN who didn’t give him Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. That was a loyalty test.
They have to start by arresting every Republican who voted for Thune as new majority leader. Remember that name?
Matt McIrvin
@Chris Johnson: I do think it’s interesting that they’re so publicly fixated on somehow arresting Liz Cheney for “treason” (by the definition of “treason” as “betraying the will of Maximum Leader” that the US Constitution specifically went of its way to disclaim, I suppose). Going after her is just settling a score; it’s not really strategic, it doesn’t get you power. So maybe they really aren’t good at this.
Miss Bianca
@KatKapCC: Leopards Ate My Face Reddit gonna be *lit* this morning…heh heh heh.
steve g
It’s time for government by palindrome:
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
currawong
The comment about bureaucracy slowing change down is spot on – as any watcher of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister will confirm