Walters appears to have totally bought into the myth our Constitution was somehow based on his favorite magic book. The U.S. Constitution does not mention the words God, Jesus, Bible or Christianity. Article VI expressly bans religious tests for holding public office in this country. The founders knew their European history and wanted nothing to do with the religious strife that had soaked the soil of the old world in blood for centuries. There was a time when the courts would have struck down his proposal in a heartbeat as our secular government cannot choose one religion over another. Unfortunately, that was before conservatism became the be-all and end-all of the human thought process.
"The founders knew their European history and wanted nothing to do with the religious strife that had soaked the soil of the old world in blood for centuries."
So, Walters orders bibles in schools and insists they must be Trump bibles. After the backlash, he modifies the demand so that it doesn't have to be Trump bibles, but Trump bibles are still the only ones that would work. Then, another company says they can do what he wants cheaper with not Trump bibles so he says forget the whole thing. The only way his ass kissing becomes more obvious would be for him to physically kneel behind Trump with puckered lips.
And daughters getting themselves impregnated by their fathers. It's somewhere in the Old Testament. I think Noah's daughters get him drunk, passed out, and jump him. Or maybe Lot.
We had a rape case in New York that was pretty bizarre…several women got a man unconscious and erect with a combination of alcohol and drugs.
It ultimately became a “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” episode — their “Story Bible” is the front page of the “New York Post” — and Diane Neal made her first appearance in the show as the leader of the rape gang. She was a lawyer.
She must have made a good impression. She returned to the show as a regular, playing an Assistant District Attorney.
As for the Lot miracle…you got me. It must have been a “holy miracle.”
It's the incestuous pervert, Lot, he was banging his daughters and the author sought to excuse him so they blamed the victims. He also tried to pimp them out to an angry crowd by claiming they were "virgins" an age-old pimp spiel suggesting he'd done that often. Not to mention after he no doubt killed their mother, he kept them isolated in a cave, telling them the world had ended.
Years and years of indoctrination of the American right-wing by pseudo-historian David Barton resulted in this moronic exercise. Barton has convinced millions of evangelicals that the buy bull is historic AND that our country was founded on it. All of which is utter, white christian nationalist BS.
Forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for christian nuttiness is precisely what drove James Madison into politics - to fight off an attempt by the Virginia legislature, led by Patrick Henry, to pass a bill requiring taxpayer support for 'teachers of the christian religion', i.e., ministers. Henry lost that battle, Virginia ultimately passed the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, and for Madison, well, the rest is history.
But people like Henry and Walters are like bad pennies - they keep coming back. I'm glad we have so many organizations and individual citizens ready to fight this kind of encroachment on their rights.
So, there’s nothing we can do to stop this crazy train from crashing and destroying everything we hold dear, all we can do is mitigate the damage and protect as much as possible. The ACLU is ready to combat his worst and as long as we have checks and balances, there are those that will try to slow down the train. It won’t be victimless, and I’m not willing to give up on the victims, it will be tragic.
Hubs and I were talking last night about his pick for AG, Matt Gaetz. The man has lost his license, faced investigations over child sex trafficking and is one of the dumbest people in office. He’s already given up his seat in congress. Great! If the last administration is any indication, he will last about a year and then his career is over for good. He will do a great deal of damage while in the position, but it is a self limiting situation. And Gaetz is young, he could be someone who causes destruction for decades if he has a career after this, which he won’t now.
So, I say go for it Trump. Tap all the young up and comers (even as many gen x folks as possible) for positions in your cardboard cabinet so we can walk away from your wrecking ball with new, better people.
I'm not so sure Gaetz WON'T have a career after this. With his record, he should be in jail by now and listed on a sex offender registry. The fact that he isn't indicates a certain amount of cunning and connection. Guy's got some kind of Teflon thing going on, at the very least.
Nevertheless, I hope I'm wrong about that, and I hope he crashes and burns. As you point out, he's young enough to cause damage for decades if he sticks around in politics.
For Florida, yes, it's great to get his evil nasty ass out of Congress, but I'm afraid Florida will simply elect somebody even worse. The stories about people being intimidated by political thugs just for signing goddamn petitions does not leave me with good feelings about this.
His daddy's really rich, by medicare fraud, then money laundering that skim, into real estate. Daddy Don Gaetz, was also head of the Florida State Senate (IIRC) so he knows where the bodies are buried. He even got the cop fired who caught Matt drunk-driving for the second, or was it third time.
Here’s the thing though, folks who have had that kind of influence have already been destroyed by aligning them crossing Trump. Sure, there’s a Fox News or ONN gig here or there, but most of his other administration is now done. Gaetz is kissing ass now, but the second he starts trying to develop his own power, he’s toast.
Oh yeah, we knew that the spot will still go to some dumb republican, but maybe one that isn’t so hell bent on fascism. Sometimes the devil you don’t know will be better than the devil you do.
Gaetz wanted the job to squash all his court cases, just like Trump wanted the Presidency for the same. In that respect, Gaetz has already succeeded at what he wanted most and anything he accomplishes for Trump is simply gravy. If he does absolutely nothing, he will have 'won.'
But, Gaetz will succeed at his job of preventing DOJ from investigating conservative crimes, and binding up Trump's opponents in prosecutions that eventually fail but nevertheless cost them tons of time and money. Moreover, the latter will create a deterrent effect of the mainstream media no longer being willing to be an effective watchdog.
Gaetz (and Trump, and Musk) will likely fail at their attempts to politicize the civil service or push the 'at will' rules in place for senior executives down onto lower ranks.
One of the things that Biden did in his four years was pass a law saying that the Executive Branch political appointees cannot change civil service jobs from competitive (merit-based) to exceptive (at-will) service without the Office of Personnel Management's permission. OPM, which is filled with competitive service employees, and is notorious for being a stickler about following procedural rules. This is by no means any sort of 'not possible' stop. But it does create a time-consuming roadblock.
Anyway, given Musk's boast about saving trillions, this can't be his main target. It's too small a pot of money. The only way to make a budget difference of trillions, he and Trump will have to gut social security and medicare. I think if Trump tries that, it's going to consume most of his time and political capital.
I think you're right. The Republicans have wanted to gut social security and medicare for years now. And the people who rely on those 2 programs the most keep voting red; more proof that I may live in the country with the largest percentage of stupid people in the world.
Obsequious lackeys, trembling suck-ups, fearful kiss-ass flunkies, flattering sycophants, ingratiating toadies... like flies to fresh cow patties, they circle around and try to be noticed as they compete for attention from the higher-ups by for their pious devotion to absolute crap! Such are the 'professional Chrishuns' like this right-wing zealot who use their position or power or money to push their own narrow-minded agenda on the public while benefiting on a personal and likely hidden level. Once a doofus, always a doofus.
OT the Onion, yeah that onion that is a satire news site, purchased InfoWars from Alex Jones. Actually giving the website more credibility than it has ever had. The Sandy Hook families are also part of the purchase.
Why did they need to purchase it? I would have thought it was theirs by right. I hope they didn't pay him anything serious. That guy deserves to die bankrupt in a ditch.
The political stunts and policies are just so childish. Even the word hypocrisy is too neutral. To complain about your kids learning stuff you don't want them to learn, and then try to force other children to learn stuff their parents don't want them to learn...
It's nothing new, obviously, we've been seeing this BS for the past twenty years now. But the recent election has made it abundantly clear that far too many people will just never grow beyond vindictive brattiness.
I was listening to The Thinking Atheist podcast this morning and Seth spoke about Ryan Walters wanting desperately to be close to trump. So I started thinking that I wouldn’t put it past trump & his demented sycophants to create a “dept of religious freedom” (or something like that) & appointing him or even Paula White to start the indoctrination of the non-believers or anyone who doesn’t bend to their Christian Nationalism. Well I am a Latina so I am a naturalized citizen & speak & write Spanish so I thought I can move to Spain or Costa Rica BUT NO I AM AN AMERICAN AND I DESERVE TO LIVE HERE SO I WILL STAY HERE AND FIGHT ALL THE WAY!!! I’M NOT GOING BACK!!
Awwww, Walters little scheme didn’t come to fruition. Hoping at least the investigation into his shady dealings yields a more bountiful result. If he’s not already on Trump’s radar, chances are dwindling that he’ll be getting a job in the admin.
For sure another bidder would have killed his donation idea.
But also, Trump already got elected, doesn't need a legal defense donation, and Walters doesn't seem to be on his radar at all, at least not yet. So Walters could also have canned it because his 'pay-for-play' attempt seems to have failed before it even got off the ground.
While this guy's great plan has failed in Oklahoma for now, he doesn't have to sweat it....
In 2025 or 2026, every classroom in America will have a Donald Trump Bible and required classes on the subject.
And this clown will be Secretary of Education.
I don't think they'll kill out the department...bureaucracies are very survivable. The joke still stands: "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."
Worry more about Congress than the President when it comes to killing departments. They hold the purse strings. To kill Dept of Ed they only need to zero out it's budget; whether Trump can fire anyone or re-org it or change it's mission or legal responsibilities becomes irrelevant at that point.
True, but my feeling is that the new Congress will resemble the legislatures of most dictatorships:
They assemble once or twice a year to hear the Great Leader’s big speech.
At that event, they sing the National Anthem, applaud heartily to every line in the speech, rubber-stamp the decrees, and then — the most important part — accept their paychecks and fill out their expense sheets — and return home.
The Nazi Reichstag, which exemplified this, had to sing two songs, "Deutschland Uber Alles,” the traditional German national anthem, and the “Horst Wessel Lied,” the Nazi Party anthem.
Berlin wags called the Reichstag, “Germany’s highest-paid choral society.”
The Bloated Yam will use six words to achieve his goals:
Insurrection Act
Martial Law
Executive Orders
He’s already told us he will “rip up the Constitution.” The American people seem to want him to.
I don't know how parliamentary systems work in terms of parliament vs. administrative responsibilities, but for the US only creates 1-year budgets and Trump can't spend money until Congress creates that budget. That goes for all discretionary spending - Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, etc. and yes Dept of Ed. So yes, the incoming GOP Congress will meet and decide on the Dept of Ed budget. *What* they decide, we don't know. But they'll either decide on a money number for it or pass a continuing resolution.
Hjalmar Schacht kept Germany afloat despite the Great Depression, foreign nations and companies pulling out investments, and the armaments program, through methods that would have landed him on trial for embezzlement in the UK or the old United States.
The Bloated Yam has presided over numerous bankruptcies, even casinos, which are licenses to print money, and emerged victorious each time.
I will absolutely bet you against that, if you want.
I think the situation is quite the opposite. When he was elected in 2016 he was completely incompetent at working the system, and didn't want to try. Couldn't get anyone permanently appointed. His senior advisory staff was a revolving door. In very stark contrast, 2024 he already has a bunch of appointments lined up, with more on the way. He obviously wants to work the system and he's obviously hired folks to help him do it. So no, IMO we aren't going to see "martial law." We are going to see a perfectly normally operating Congress passing perfectly normal budgets and laws the President wants to pass. Substantively, these laws and budgets will be a right-wing shirtshow. But process-wise, things will be more normal this time around than they were in his first term. We are going to see *more* efficiently and professionally run executive and legislative branch operations. Which is a pity, given the direction those operations will be pointing.
precisely. I see it playing out as starting deportations in a blue state, likely Oregon or Washington using the entire NG of several red states. Massive protests against the military occupation happen. Insurrection act is invoked with a martial law chaser.
As for what the NG for that state will do I would expect to see them federalized and ordered to stand down.
I loved that book...I wish I had read it in high school in 1978. I would have written a senior thesis entitled: "George Orwell's '1984:' Blueprint for a Glorious Future."
I would have argued in favor of that nation-state, and used the school and its modus operandi to justify it. It would have had the desired effect of scaring my teachers witless.
May have already started with H1N1 in cows, pigs, chickens, and a few humans. No one except veterinarians are paying much attention to it and their reports are being ignored.
Walters just needs to get a room already, some berders, and bring the money – Trump will come as surely as water is wet, the sky is up. And then he can please the present elect as much as he wants.
Walter Peck in Ghostbusters, Jerry Hathaway in Real Genius, Richard Thornburg in Die Hard. Wow, William Atherton has made a career out of playing assholes.
"... and announced a new “Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism” in order to promote white-washed history and ensure that the “the right to pray in schools is safeguarded” (even though it already is)."
It is not the right to pray that needs to be safeguarded, but the right NOT to pray in schools.
Walters appears to have totally bought into the myth our Constitution was somehow based on his favorite magic book. The U.S. Constitution does not mention the words God, Jesus, Bible or Christianity. Article VI expressly bans religious tests for holding public office in this country. The founders knew their European history and wanted nothing to do with the religious strife that had soaked the soil of the old world in blood for centuries. There was a time when the courts would have struck down his proposal in a heartbeat as our secular government cannot choose one religion over another. Unfortunately, that was before conservatism became the be-all and end-all of the human thought process.
It seems like a lot of those biblethumpers is lacking a lot of the human thought process.
They view everything through a supernatural lens, heavy with magical thinking.
Surrendering their thought process is a cult requirement, so is it any surprise that Khristianity seem to require it now?
"The founders knew their European history and wanted nothing to do with the religious strife that had soaked the soil of the old world in blood for centuries."
EXCELLENT POINT!
So, Walters orders bibles in schools and insists they must be Trump bibles. After the backlash, he modifies the demand so that it doesn't have to be Trump bibles, but Trump bibles are still the only ones that would work. Then, another company says they can do what he wants cheaper with not Trump bibles so he says forget the whole thing. The only way his ass kissing becomes more obvious would be for him to physically kneel behind Trump with puckered lips.
I am sure he has already done that in his fantasy saga.
While Trump cuts the cheese.
That’s not the only thing he cuts when the sounds emanate from that area.
History teachers should still examine how the bible was used to justify slavery and genocide. You know... just to make sure they are in compliance.
Absolutely. The bible can be used to justify any horrible action.
Yes, IS used to justify any horrible action, they haven't stopped.
Oh yes, it can and they* do use it that way.
*) Religious and fanatics etc.
And daughters getting themselves impregnated by their fathers. It's somewhere in the Old Testament. I think Noah's daughters get him drunk, passed out, and jump him. Or maybe Lot.
It was Lot's daughters. My question is how a man drunk enough to pass out could achieve and sustain an erection. Must have been a holy miracle...
We had a rape case in New York that was pretty bizarre…several women got a man unconscious and erect with a combination of alcohol and drugs.
It ultimately became a “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” episode — their “Story Bible” is the front page of the “New York Post” — and Diane Neal made her first appearance in the show as the leader of the rape gang. She was a lawyer.
She must have made a good impression. She returned to the show as a regular, playing an Assistant District Attorney.
As for the Lot miracle…you got me. It must have been a “holy miracle.”
Can you provide a link to that story? I searched for it but had no luck in finding it.
No time today…up to my neck in work, and fending off Mr. Bender or whatever his name is.
Well, it's not THIS Bender.
It's the incestuous pervert, Lot, he was banging his daughters and the author sought to excuse him so they blamed the victims. He also tried to pimp them out to an angry crowd by claiming they were "virgins" an age-old pimp spiel suggesting he'd done that often. Not to mention after he no doubt killed their mother, he kept them isolated in a cave, telling them the world had ended.
Thank you for clarifying that story for me.
Funny how they don’t talk about that in churches very often….
I do know the 88 Morning Zoo “Rapping Bible” riff on Lot’s Wife
There was a town called Sodom
And another named Gomorrah
There they partied
Like no tomorrah
God looked down
Said “Not my fault!”
He turned the town
Into a Pillar of Salt!
Lot’s Wife turned back
To Take a peek
Took one look
And started to freak!
A cow came up
And licked her cheek.
Take a lick, y’all
Of her cheek, y’all….
I say he killed her and stuck her in a pit of lime. those biblical writers wouldn’t know one white substance from another.
They didn’t have good Crime Scene technicians back then….
🤣😂🤣
“White substance”, you say? You sure it wasn’t a bukake pit?
Who knows?
Hey! This is a family blog. Motherfucker!
"Take a lick, y’all
Of her cheek, y’all…."
That's my fetish!
Glad I could oblige!
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that is a lot more accurate and likely than the story told by some ancient child molester.
Yes, keeping them in a cave for a decade, telling them civilization had ended, sounds more like Kraster in the “Game of Thrones books.
Years and years of indoctrination of the American right-wing by pseudo-historian David Barton resulted in this moronic exercise. Barton has convinced millions of evangelicals that the buy bull is historic AND that our country was founded on it. All of which is utter, white christian nationalist BS.
Forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for christian nuttiness is precisely what drove James Madison into politics - to fight off an attempt by the Virginia legislature, led by Patrick Henry, to pass a bill requiring taxpayer support for 'teachers of the christian religion', i.e., ministers. Henry lost that battle, Virginia ultimately passed the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom, and for Madison, well, the rest is history.
But people like Henry and Walters are like bad pennies - they keep coming back. I'm glad we have so many organizations and individual citizens ready to fight this kind of encroachment on their rights.
So, there’s nothing we can do to stop this crazy train from crashing and destroying everything we hold dear, all we can do is mitigate the damage and protect as much as possible. The ACLU is ready to combat his worst and as long as we have checks and balances, there are those that will try to slow down the train. It won’t be victimless, and I’m not willing to give up on the victims, it will be tragic.
Hubs and I were talking last night about his pick for AG, Matt Gaetz. The man has lost his license, faced investigations over child sex trafficking and is one of the dumbest people in office. He’s already given up his seat in congress. Great! If the last administration is any indication, he will last about a year and then his career is over for good. He will do a great deal of damage while in the position, but it is a self limiting situation. And Gaetz is young, he could be someone who causes destruction for decades if he has a career after this, which he won’t now.
So, I say go for it Trump. Tap all the young up and comers (even as many gen x folks as possible) for positions in your cardboard cabinet so we can walk away from your wrecking ball with new, better people.
I'm not so sure Gaetz WON'T have a career after this. With his record, he should be in jail by now and listed on a sex offender registry. The fact that he isn't indicates a certain amount of cunning and connection. Guy's got some kind of Teflon thing going on, at the very least.
Nevertheless, I hope I'm wrong about that, and I hope he crashes and burns. As you point out, he's young enough to cause damage for decades if he sticks around in politics.
For Florida, yes, it's great to get his evil nasty ass out of Congress, but I'm afraid Florida will simply elect somebody even worse. The stories about people being intimidated by political thugs just for signing goddamn petitions does not leave me with good feelings about this.
His daddy's really rich, by medicare fraud, then money laundering that skim, into real estate. Daddy Don Gaetz, was also head of the Florida State Senate (IIRC) so he knows where the bodies are buried. He even got the cop fired who caught Matt drunk-driving for the second, or was it third time.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/how-matt-gaetz-used-daddys-money-to-become-trumps-favorite-congressman/
Here’s the thing though, folks who have had that kind of influence have already been destroyed by aligning them crossing Trump. Sure, there’s a Fox News or ONN gig here or there, but most of his other administration is now done. Gaetz is kissing ass now, but the second he starts trying to develop his own power, he’s toast.
Oh yeah, we knew that the spot will still go to some dumb republican, but maybe one that isn’t so hell bent on fascism. Sometimes the devil you don’t know will be better than the devil you do.
Indeed it was. But you see, the rules are only for Democrats and “the little people.”
My predictions.
Gaetz wanted the job to squash all his court cases, just like Trump wanted the Presidency for the same. In that respect, Gaetz has already succeeded at what he wanted most and anything he accomplishes for Trump is simply gravy. If he does absolutely nothing, he will have 'won.'
But, Gaetz will succeed at his job of preventing DOJ from investigating conservative crimes, and binding up Trump's opponents in prosecutions that eventually fail but nevertheless cost them tons of time and money. Moreover, the latter will create a deterrent effect of the mainstream media no longer being willing to be an effective watchdog.
Gaetz (and Trump, and Musk) will likely fail at their attempts to politicize the civil service or push the 'at will' rules in place for senior executives down onto lower ranks.
The mainstream media hasn't been an effective watchdog for a couple of decades now, if not longer. And it's gotten steadily worse.
I'm glad you're optimistic about that. I am not. I think the project 2025 ghouls are going to destroy everything they have planned to destroy.
One of the things that Biden did in his four years was pass a law saying that the Executive Branch political appointees cannot change civil service jobs from competitive (merit-based) to exceptive (at-will) service without the Office of Personnel Management's permission. OPM, which is filled with competitive service employees, and is notorious for being a stickler about following procedural rules. This is by no means any sort of 'not possible' stop. But it does create a time-consuming roadblock.
Anyway, given Musk's boast about saving trillions, this can't be his main target. It's too small a pot of money. The only way to make a budget difference of trillions, he and Trump will have to gut social security and medicare. I think if Trump tries that, it's going to consume most of his time and political capital.
I think you're right. The Republicans have wanted to gut social security and medicare for years now. And the people who rely on those 2 programs the most keep voting red; more proof that I may live in the country with the largest percentage of stupid people in the world.
link, please! Are you sure you're not referring to his quitting Congress in order to *take* the AG job?
Check out www.palmerreport.com
Yeah that says he's resigning from the House. He did that in order to accept the AG job. Not news.
https://i.imgflip.com/17u9ft.jpg
He didn't need to resign before the senate confirmation.
Someone on slacktivist says that Trump isn’t building a Cabinet, he’s building a Junk Drawer.
Now you've done it.
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2024/11/11
Click through for the next two.
If SCROTUM goes along with his sht, we are fucked.
We are fucked.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a88749b23809ca6db763a67db05b80376b26dc63cadce9935445cd98b86dcb1.jpg
Once the President-elect worked out how to manufacture 'get out of jail free' cards, he decided to spread the good news.
"Use this one trick the US Justice System hates!"
““I would be disappointed if this was a stunt,” Herkommer said.”
Oh my sweet summer child! It was obvious to all that it was just a stunt. I hope you said this ironically.
Religious people often are very naive about each other, and ripe for conmen as a result.
https://media.tenor.com/2CONTlgm_XwAAAAM/hercules-kevin-sorbo.gif
Obsequious lackeys, trembling suck-ups, fearful kiss-ass flunkies, flattering sycophants, ingratiating toadies... like flies to fresh cow patties, they circle around and try to be noticed as they compete for attention from the higher-ups by for their pious devotion to absolute crap! Such are the 'professional Chrishuns' like this right-wing zealot who use their position or power or money to push their own narrow-minded agenda on the public while benefiting on a personal and likely hidden level. Once a doofus, always a doofus.
Not to mention, bullies!! Emulating their “dear leader”.
Just like the Nazis. There, I said it. They check all the boxes. I suggest folks read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich while they can.
OT the Onion, yeah that onion that is a satire news site, purchased InfoWars from Alex Jones. Actually giving the website more credibility than it has ever had. The Sandy Hook families are also part of the purchase.
Ha Ha!
Why did they need to purchase it? I would have thought it was theirs by right. I hope they didn't pay him anything serious. That guy deserves to die bankrupt in a ditch.
It was a bankruptcy auction of his assets.
Someone just said "Onions can make a grown man cry."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hzav0oSsxc
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd37aabe71962ee3be01605c4d22cf54670f0f32c40eda8bd23907e322dba8f3.jpg
In a moment of delicious irony, the Onion...
Improved the lead for you
🤣
The political stunts and policies are just so childish. Even the word hypocrisy is too neutral. To complain about your kids learning stuff you don't want them to learn, and then try to force other children to learn stuff their parents don't want them to learn...
It's nothing new, obviously, we've been seeing this BS for the past twenty years now. But the recent election has made it abundantly clear that far too many people will just never grow beyond vindictive brattiness.
I was listening to The Thinking Atheist podcast this morning and Seth spoke about Ryan Walters wanting desperately to be close to trump. So I started thinking that I wouldn’t put it past trump & his demented sycophants to create a “dept of religious freedom” (or something like that) & appointing him or even Paula White to start the indoctrination of the non-believers or anyone who doesn’t bend to their Christian Nationalism. Well I am a Latina so I am a naturalized citizen & speak & write Spanish so I thought I can move to Spain or Costa Rica BUT NO I AM AN AMERICAN AND I DESERVE TO LIVE HERE SO I WILL STAY HERE AND FIGHT ALL THE WAY!!! I’M NOT GOING BACK!!
Welcome to the club. I think NONE of us here want to9 go back to some church. As a Gay man, I want NO PART of going back to some closet.
Awwww, Walters little scheme didn’t come to fruition. Hoping at least the investigation into his shady dealings yields a more bountiful result. If he’s not already on Trump’s radar, chances are dwindling that he’ll be getting a job in the admin.
For sure another bidder would have killed his donation idea.
But also, Trump already got elected, doesn't need a legal defense donation, and Walters doesn't seem to be on his radar at all, at least not yet. So Walters could also have canned it because his 'pay-for-play' attempt seems to have failed before it even got off the ground.
While this guy's great plan has failed in Oklahoma for now, he doesn't have to sweat it....
In 2025 or 2026, every classroom in America will have a Donald Trump Bible and required classes on the subject.
And this clown will be Secretary of Education.
I don't think they'll kill out the department...bureaucracies are very survivable. The joke still stands: "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy."
Worry more about Congress than the President when it comes to killing departments. They hold the purse strings. To kill Dept of Ed they only need to zero out it's budget; whether Trump can fire anyone or re-org it or change it's mission or legal responsibilities becomes irrelevant at that point.
True, but my feeling is that the new Congress will resemble the legislatures of most dictatorships:
They assemble once or twice a year to hear the Great Leader’s big speech.
At that event, they sing the National Anthem, applaud heartily to every line in the speech, rubber-stamp the decrees, and then — the most important part — accept their paychecks and fill out their expense sheets — and return home.
The Nazi Reichstag, which exemplified this, had to sing two songs, "Deutschland Uber Alles,” the traditional German national anthem, and the “Horst Wessel Lied,” the Nazi Party anthem.
Berlin wags called the Reichstag, “Germany’s highest-paid choral society.”
The Bloated Yam will use six words to achieve his goals:
Insurrection Act
Martial Law
Executive Orders
He’s already told us he will “rip up the Constitution.” The American people seem to want him to.
The only Amendment they care about is the 2nd.
Ask them what the 3rd says…
I don't know how parliamentary systems work in terms of parliament vs. administrative responsibilities, but for the US only creates 1-year budgets and Trump can't spend money until Congress creates that budget. That goes for all discretionary spending - Defense, Homeland Security, Energy, etc. and yes Dept of Ed. So yes, the incoming GOP Congress will meet and decide on the Dept of Ed budget. *What* they decide, we don't know. But they'll either decide on a money number for it or pass a continuing resolution.
He will take advantage of six words:
Insurrection Act
Martial Law
Executive Orders
Hjalmar Schacht kept Germany afloat despite the Great Depression, foreign nations and companies pulling out investments, and the armaments program, through methods that would have landed him on trial for embezzlement in the UK or the old United States.
The Bloated Yam has presided over numerous bankruptcies, even casinos, which are licenses to print money, and emerged victorious each time.
He never loses at anything. Ever.
I will absolutely bet you against that, if you want.
I think the situation is quite the opposite. When he was elected in 2016 he was completely incompetent at working the system, and didn't want to try. Couldn't get anyone permanently appointed. His senior advisory staff was a revolving door. In very stark contrast, 2024 he already has a bunch of appointments lined up, with more on the way. He obviously wants to work the system and he's obviously hired folks to help him do it. So no, IMO we aren't going to see "martial law." We are going to see a perfectly normally operating Congress passing perfectly normal budgets and laws the President wants to pass. Substantively, these laws and budgets will be a right-wing shirtshow. But process-wise, things will be more normal this time around than they were in his first term. We are going to see *more* efficiently and professionally run executive and legislative branch operations. Which is a pity, given the direction those operations will be pointing.
I see your point, and it has some validity, but his mental cognitive level has declined, while his fury and resentment have risen.
I think that this time, he will be harder. That’s why he’s hired Matt Gaetz, for example.
precisely. I see it playing out as starting deportations in a blue state, likely Oregon or Washington using the entire NG of several red states. Massive protests against the military occupation happen. Insurrection act is invoked with a martial law chaser.
As for what the NG for that state will do I would expect to see them federalized and ordered to stand down.
The Guardsmen will have a tough time hauling off relatives, friends, and neighbors in their home communities, but they will do it.
Kent State, Abu Ghraib, and My Lai are the examples. So is SEAL Team Six urinating on PoWs.
I still shake my head over Katie Couric saying, before the 2003 war in Iraq, “I think Navy SEALS…ROCK!”
No, they'll just turn it into MINITRUE. See 1984.
That sounds doubleplus goodful duckspeak!
I loved that book...I wish I had read it in high school in 1978. I would have written a senior thesis entitled: "George Orwell's '1984:' Blueprint for a Glorious Future."
I would have argued in favor of that nation-state, and used the school and its modus operandi to justify it. It would have had the desired effect of scaring my teachers witless.
😆 🤣 😂
I want Boebert as Secretary of Education and MTG as Secretary of Agricultural.
And RFK Jr. to run Health.
We’ll have a nice Plague….
May have already started with H1N1 in cows, pigs, chickens, and a few humans. No one except veterinarians are paying much attention to it and their reports are being ignored.
Well, that’s where you start.
This will be a good time for conspiracy theorists, as they take over government.
As Larry King says in the movie “Ghostbusters” to Dan Aykroyd:
“There is one question on everyone’s mind: How is Elvis and have you seen him lately?”
The answer was cut: “Well, he’s lost a lot of weight.”
Walters just needs to get a room already, some berders, and bring the money – Trump will come as surely as water is wet, the sky is up. And then he can please the present elect as much as he wants.
This fuckin' guy again. The creepiest ginger since the fictional Walter Dickless Peck.
Walter Peck in Ghostbusters, Jerry Hathaway in Real Genius, Richard Thornburg in Die Hard. Wow, William Atherton has made a career out of playing assholes.
Neal McDonough also seems to be a bit typecast. Still, at least he's not Sean Bean, who seems to die in everything.
Sadly, Neal McDonough is an asshole in real life.
It's interesting that he claims to have been blacklisted because he wouldn't do sex scenes, yet in Justified AFAIK, he fucked a rent boy.
Well, he doesn't want to do sex scenes with women...
And he has been working steadily according to his IMDB page.
"... and announced a new “Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism” in order to promote white-washed history and ensure that the “the right to pray in schools is safeguarded” (even though it already is)."
It is not the right to pray that needs to be safeguarded, but the right NOT to pray in schools.