Chairslinger

This brings to mind an Amicus filed with SCOTUS during the Immunity case. Over a dozen four star Generals warned the court about ruling in favor of Trump at the time. Amoung their arguments was the point that ruling in favor of Trump would put the military in the absolutely untenable position that Trump could issue a transparently illegal order that he himself would not, and could not, ever be held accountable for while those in the military would either have to... -Break the law by obeying said order. -Break the law by disobeying a direct order by the Commander in Chief. Well here we are. Only a few months later and not a hypothetical anymore. Trump seems to know what he is doing by invoking a national emergency which will give him maximal pretext to ram through whatever he wants in the courts since a president has huge leeway in those types of matters while also undeniably providing him cover in the future. We will likely be grappling with what constitutes as an "official act" for decades, but it's hard to imagine that just about anything Trump would order under such a situation wouldn't pass muster....I mean, like it or not, the Commander in Chief giving the military an order for what has been declared a national emergency is pretty much the definition of an official act. Buckle up, I doubt it will be long into his first term that we start getting the Jacksonian orders to the military(to paraphrase; the court has made thier ruling, now let them force the military to stop).

Don't forget, he's also got Kurematsu 2 in his back pocket from early in his first term. Which, among other things, basically affirmed that any thinly veiled pretext shields a president from court oversight as far as targeting racial or religious groups when it comes to immigration control. Considering that decision was with Kennedy and Ginsberg still on the court, it is hard to even form hypotheticals on what would be too far for this current court. This definitely has to be top contender as far as examples of how he is going to be much, much worse in his second term. Remember that travel ban was sort of a crap show for him by the time it got to the court. After over more than a year it was in its third iteration. Trump and his people have had years to mull over how to do this more effectively, a more malleable court, and seemingly more support than ever from the public. His first term was horribly inhuman but also kind of slapdash and halting on immigration. I fully expect what is coming to keep the inhumanity but be much more efficient.

I will always remember him best as Kurn. And what a voice. He was great as Zoom on Flash.

Some more doom predictions. Man, I don't know if you guys have seen the reaction around the web by Trump fans. You would think it would be happy, but soooo many of them have just shifted to the next hate session. I have always suspected Maga was basically miserable people who wanted to make everyone else as miserable as them, but the reaction I am seeing just makes me more sure. They are absolutely certain that Kamala losing by as much as she did proves once and for all 2020 was stolen. And taking their temperature on things, I think it gives us a picture of how things are going to go Trump is going to task House Republicans with forming a kind of Truth and Reconciliation Committee that will rubber stamp all of Trump's claims. 2020 was stolen. Everything Trump ever claimed about 2020 was true. This will then be used to either pardon the Jan 6th insurrectionists or have their sentences thrown out by pliant judges. Then they will start going after rank and file poll workers and election officials that stood up to Trump. This will also fuel their next round of voter suppression laws. Trump will get his ego stroked, and Congressional Republicans will get to pass more restrictive voter laws. Long story short, if you expected Trump and the right to just let 2020 go now that he won, think again. They are going to use it to double down and I expect the meely mouthed non-committal answers many Republicans would give when asked the question are over as well. This is going to become a loyalty test for them.

This is actually probably the most favorable scenario for Dems. So many things now put them at a disadvantage from go that I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see real power again on our lifetime. -SCOTUS is already embarrassingly lopsided. And that is even without the possibility that Thomas, Alito, or both might willingly step down to give Trump another pick or two. Or hell, knowing our luck, the story of Sotomeyer being in bad health and she croaks. Hell, I went to check her age to say she might die young, and she is older than I thought.... she's 70. -Dems very well may never take the Senate again. How many Blue Dog, red state Dems have went extinct since Obama? Pretty much all of them. They even got Brown. In our polarized world red state Dem senators are probably gone for good, and without them we simply can't control the Senate. Or in other words, miss Joe Machin yet, libs? -Trump introduced the heads I win, tails you lose scenario where now when a Republican wins...they win. And when a Democrat wins they have to worry about things like razor thin margins, SCOTUS intervention, Congressional fuckery, mob violence, and basically all that shit we were pooping our pants about a week ago before Trump did us a favor and just kicked our asses outright. -It may show how fucked we are that all the voter suppression, gerrymandering, and whatever you call the shit guys like Paxton are doing only shows up 4th on my list. A decade ago this was the most potent weapon we had to fight against from the right. Now it's just kind of background noise. And this is all without Trump and Republicans just using outright authoritarian means to lock in their power. Oh, and considering how these factors also play into each other....like the fact that even if we were to get someone elected president, and even if a conservative Justice died in those 4 years, we STILL won't even get to appoint someone because we almost certainly won't control the Senate! We are way more likely to see a 9-0 conservative SCOTUS in our lifetime than ever seeing a split court with a swing vote(and we are more likely to see a fucking leprechaun riding a dragon through Time Square than seeing an actual liberal court). Honestly, the only way we ever appoint a justice again is probably if conservatives just give us a token justice after they have a solid 7-2 court or something. And even if, in some magic fairytale land, the Dems could win the trifecta again....basically anything they do will just be squashed by an ever increasingly conservative SCOTUS. Now you start to realize why I am so despondent here. This really was the last chance we had to pull back from the brink. It's all feedback loop at this point.

Can't believe Gritty turned heel on us.

If Hillary had ran a race half as good as Kamala put together in a few months we might have stopped this nightmare before it started. 2016 really was our best opportunity to take he out.

Trump candidate for Attorney General wants to drag the bodies of Dems through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall(figuratively speaking!) Buckle up, buckaroos!

Trump will drop sanctions against Russia, then stop aid to Ukraine, and we might even get to the point where he threatens Europe with sanctions if they don't also stop aid to Ukraine(if they don't all just pre-emptively pull the plug, apparently!). I suppose there is a hierarchy of a number of different outcomes for Ukraine here....but they are probably lucky if there is even a patch of land labeled Ukraine on maps by 2028.

I think one of the first replies I made in this thread when the defeat was clear was something about how America has betrayed all the good people from both sides as far as poll workers and election officials that stood up to Trump in 2020. The same holds true for the poor "deep state" people that make up the bureaucracy. To think of the position this puts them in when Trump gives them an illegal order is crazy. During his first term I thought these people were brave patriots standing up to Trump for the good of the country. After 4 years of watching the entirety of the American Democratic system from the voters, to law enforcement, to the judiciary failing to hold him to account at all....AT ALL.... let's be brutally honest if you are Ted from accounting you are a fucking delusional sucker if you decide to stand in the way of Trump in any way.

As I said before, during Trump's first term he fired Comey allegedly because maybe he wouldn't quash an investigation into Mike Flynn, one of Trump's underlings. This led to a years long investigation, initiated by Trump's own AG, that Trump initially thought was going to put him in jail. This time, Trump CAMPAIGNED on quashing 2 or 3 federal investigations/prosecutions against himself. He has promised to fire and maybe deport the guy investigating him! And it will barely make headlines because he has a mandate to do it. This comparison should be the baseline expectation of how "institutions" will fair against a second Trump term. The past two years, we have seen how even the judges not in the tank for Trump have run their trials with the tacit understanding that he gets special treatment. It can not be overstated just how much weight that will carry now that he has convincingly won reelection. To put it another way, after seeing all the accountability that Trump just juked, why should anyone do anything but give a huge eyeroll if some entity sues Trump because he supposedly improperly dismissed a federal prosecutor?

We have countless stories of Trump wanting to do this in the first term. It is going to be an absolute bloodbath through early 2025 as Trump clears out the "Deep State" rank and file. Trump is going to stomp hard on anything that even hints at "keeping him in check" like last time.

You know, I think that might even be a bit optimistic. That Trump might just drop all pretense on day 1(because humiliation and audacity = submission is basically his kink) but this also brings up another doom sandwich for anyone having delusions of a silver lining need to choke down. The common example is a terrorist attack, but with this type of thing it's usually something you don't see coming....but yeah, we have mostly been worrying about Fascism on a whim. When we could also get Fascism in response to another assassination attempt, terrorist attack, or miscellaneous crisis!

The only limit is how benevolent Trump is feeling on a given day. Even if they wind up with a majority, this strikes me as outdated thinking. How many times do you think Trump would allow 1 House Democrat to stall their entire agenda before applying some of those "Official Acts"?

Yeah, I know. I have heard the deeply religious part of their culture isn't helping much, either. We have been waiting for the reality to hit the GOP that in a Democracy the party changes to fit the populace, not the other way around. But looks like that is just not gonna happen. I wonder if there has ever been a more successful campaign by an American political party of telling a demographic, "No, fuck you. WE tell YOU what to do, YOU don't tell US what to do!" than the GOP with Latinos the past decade. I mean, am I wrong? In the big picture has the GOP not just treated them worse and worse and all they've gotten in return is more and more Latinos voting for them?