I keep wondering if Trump didn't put Gaetz out there so as to draw attention away from some of his other controversial nominees (RFK, Jr., Gabbard, etc.) because, by comparison, they seem normal.
“But, Trump is the ultimate pragmatist. He is not going to spend all — or even a lot — of his political capital on trying to confirm someone who is not confirmable.”
Seriously? Trump is a “pragmatist”? That’s the first time I have ever heard Trump as being referred to as a pragmatist: LMAO! I guess another member of the esteemed MSM has bent a knee before a single shot is fired!
That said, I have a different theory! He will force Congress to recess and allow all his picks to seated, or possibly Gaetz does get kicked to the curb; but not for lack of trying. He will just replace him with a Ken Paxton type; who would be demonstrably worse, if any worse actually exists.
Bottom line, there is no shortage of religious fascist and morally bankrupt, cheap snake oil salesman to fill his administration. The point isn’t each individual unqualified pick; it’s to flood these agencies with incompetent buffoons as cabinet picks, and appoint competent loyalists as their deputies, in order to destroy what’s left of the administrative state. People like Gaetz are just the bright, shiny object, or the distraction.
And when the dust is settled, Trump will use a completely defeated and obedient media, to continue to spread the misinformation and disinformation, so no one knows who, or what to trust. And in no time, we’ll be Hungary on crack! IMHO…:)
Chris, I was being a bit hyperbolic, but the point is, he’s gone from fascist and the destroyer of democracy, to “let’s all just get along,”‘and work together to improve this nation. As though, Trump intends to actually solve our nations ills.
And being transactional is not the same as pragmatism; it’s closer to expediency. It’s only pragmatic in the sense that the ends, justify the means, and Trump profits in the end.
Furthermore, his policies during his first term were far from pragmatic! Building a wall accomplishes nothing! Ninety percent drugs are coming in the at legal US checkpoints or the US sea ports. And most immigrants were asking for asylum at legal checkpoints, not coming in through our porous border illegally.
Additionally, Family separations and the Muslim bans are not pragmatic policies to deal with immigrants. Mass deportations will only exacerbate the problem, and it will destroy $2 trillion in GDP in the process, and cause untold inflation. Tariffs are not pragmatic, unless used as a tool for leverage against countries who break trade agreements, or require stiff barriers for entry.
Bottom line: Trump intends to use tariffs as a cudgel, and we all know how this ends: retribution tariffs, in which there are no winners, just vary degrees of losers; again, not pragmatic!
So seriously, take a look at Hungary! It was a bloodless coup, similar to the US, where social engineering had been weaponized to shape public opinion. When all is said and done, regardless of how our economy preforms, we will no longer have a free and fair press, making elections obsolete. And when things get really bad, no one will know who to trust, or what to believe;’which is why Orbán is still running Hungary after 15 years of destruction.
And once Trump has full control of our economy, and all levers of power at his command, he will be invincible. And should the economy falter; he’ll need more scapegoats than the usual cast of characters: immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and liberals.
Although, I will concede that in a sense, scapegoating can be a form of pragmatism for Trump, since he’ll definitely need someone else to blame for his failures!..:)
Americans who are not Trump supporters are actually pissed off. At the Democrats. The media and Trump’s behavior. The surge in Blusky’s popularity is a tell. Trump is going to have a very hard time governing because we are all up for it. No one is going to let him behave like a dictator. Though congressional Republicans might. lol. But so far that guardrail is still in place. The longer it holds, the weaker the Trump Administration becomes. That’s why Trump is fighting. Trump is becoming a joke.
What guardrails? He broke most of them last time around, and has been challenging the guardrails while out of office, and succeeding. I guess you missed the part where he will enter office as a Unitary Executive, granted immunity for all his actions.
That was one of the last guardrail, and the senate is folding faster than a Texas Hold’em player with a 2-7 off-suit as pocket cards. And don’t think the filibuster isn’t on the table either. If democrats fight, they will end it, just like the 60 senate threshold for confirming SCOTUS justices.
I’d wait before believing that by the time he takes office, the senate will still be an independent body. Don’t forget, he controls the MAGA mob, and he also controls the party’s purse strings. Let that sink in!…:)
Trump needs to convince the 80 million Americans that didn’t vote for him to support him or he knows he’s in trouble. The next 4 years will be filled with legal battles, blue state law suits and national civil disobedience. It’s likely that the Mika and Joe love fest with Trump was actually designed by Trump to change hearts and minds with their democratic audience. That’s not going well.
What Congressional Democrats and main stream media are doing is just fueling the anger. Which will get worse.
Agreed, but it’s more than 80 million. He got 75 million votes out of 220 million registered voters. Only 2/3rds voted, so in essence he only received a third of the vote.
My issue is the propaganda, which will only get worse. Social engineering, using malicious algorithms to push pro Trump propaganda, while burying positive democratic stories, while promoting and disseminating false information as well.
And if the MSM folds as they are doing, voters won’t know what to believe. Hence, the fascist need to scapegoat!
Excellent points! Despite the period of mourning everyone on the left went through after election night, I’m actually very hopeful at the anger from Americans I’m seeing which is completely absent from Congressional Democrats who are fighting with themselves instead. Despite winning an election, Trump has no authority. No one is go to let him walk all over them. Mainstream media and congressional Democrats passivity is just pissing people off
Why does he have to convince anyone of anything? He holds all the cards, and civil disobedience? He'll just call out the military. Joe and Mike are just illustrating what Timothy Snyder cautions against: obeying in advance.
This isn’t a hard problem to parse Dutch. Most Americans can see what the problem is with the Trump Administration’s behavior. You don’t have to be left wing to criticize it. All of it. The anti democratic behavior too.
Sure. But I don’t think the Trump Administration will last that long. By subverting Democracy it will end itself. Dirty cops should be fired, right? They generally are not allowed to continue to work for a reason. They have no authority. Americans are angry at Trump’s behavior. That will just grow. You can actually see it growing now and they aren’t even in government yet. lol Trump needs to stop with the theatrics and behave himself.
I'm curious about where you get your information, since you're seeing a dynamic I'm missing. In case you have missed it, dirty cops rarely are fired. If Americans were angry at Trump's behavior I think the election outcome would have been different. A single, unstable person commanding all branches of government, the military and a nauseatingly compliant party is not just misbehaving.
If the Senate confirms Matt Gaetz as AG their usefulness as an institution is negligible..at best. And if Florida elects that wretched creature as their next Governor?. No surprise, there. That state is a microcosm of the embarrassment the US has become.
What happens if Gaetz withdraws as the AG nominee and then... shows up at the Capitol in January to get sworn in with the incoming House? I know he resigned, but he also was just elected to a new term that starts in January. I think we all assume his resignation applies both to his current term and the new one he's just won election to, but hasn't started yet. But if he realizes he's not going to be AG, maybe he decides "just kidding" about leaving the House.
I don't think that's likely and I don't want that to happen. But I'm curious if it's possible.
The Gaetz ethics report is said to be "problematic." Well, yes. Based on what has been leaked, or said out loud by involved attorneys, the ethics report would be deserved doom, where I come from. Chris' narrative just demonstrates how low the nation has sunk when Gaetz' kind of alleged behavior is referred to as, "problematic."
Threatening the Generals with treason like the NAZI Party, hiding Gaetz Congressional Report on his alleged underaged sex trafficking and threatening Republican Senators to install Gaetz anyway, undermining democracy does not give anyone any confidence that the Trump Administration is competent. Or lawful. It’s an incredible hill to die on when they aren’t even in government yet.
Once again Trump has controlled what we bite on. Is Gaetz the chum or the bait on the hook. In either case the real issue is will Senators be willing to vote against Trump knowing the danger of violence that opposing him will cause. Can votes be secret? The situation now is different. A secret ballot is not to hide from the citizens how their senator voted, but to literally protect the senator.
Gaetz needs to go. There are others too. Ultimately even if the others get it, this will be a "you're fired" presidency again. Trump doesn't have the ability to keep anyone around him for long.
I think Gaetz will announce that as much as he is honoured to be chosen for AG, he really wants to run in Florida. That was always his lifelong dream. And Trump has very reluctantly agreed to take him off the list and release him.
And then Trump can point to the rest of the list and expect approval.
Good points Chris. But, I think something is brewing between Trump and some of the senators in trying to get through this process using the so-called recess appontment process. Although, initial appointments appear to not qualify for this, it would not be the first time Trumps goes over the Constitution rules.
Trump is running Gaetz as interference. If Gaetz loses confirmation, Senate Republicans will have the political cover to give the OK to the rest of his parade of horribles.
Luckily for us old man Pres. Biden is literally doing all he can to get us into a nuclear war with Russia. This whole circus may be coming to an abrupt hot ending.
I keep wondering if Trump didn't put Gaetz out there so as to draw attention away from some of his other controversial nominees (RFK, Jr., Gabbard, etc.) because, by comparison, they seem normal.
Chuck was right that Tulsi Gabbard is the whole ballgame, from a national security perspective. Scary prospect.
So sick of the spineless GOP toadies saying one thing in private and then kowtowing in public.
Power corrupts.
"If we lose, will do our good deeds?"
You omitted the recent report of the lawyer for some of the women Gaetz bought. They found a back door to release the House Ethics review.
Gaetz has no ethics.
“But, Trump is the ultimate pragmatist. He is not going to spend all — or even a lot — of his political capital on trying to confirm someone who is not confirmable.”
Seriously? Trump is a “pragmatist”? That’s the first time I have ever heard Trump as being referred to as a pragmatist: LMAO! I guess another member of the esteemed MSM has bent a knee before a single shot is fired!
That said, I have a different theory! He will force Congress to recess and allow all his picks to seated, or possibly Gaetz does get kicked to the curb; but not for lack of trying. He will just replace him with a Ken Paxton type; who would be demonstrably worse, if any worse actually exists.
Bottom line, there is no shortage of religious fascist and morally bankrupt, cheap snake oil salesman to fill his administration. The point isn’t each individual unqualified pick; it’s to flood these agencies with incompetent buffoons as cabinet picks, and appoint competent loyalists as their deputies, in order to destroy what’s left of the administrative state. People like Gaetz are just the bright, shiny object, or the distraction.
And when the dust is settled, Trump will use a completely defeated and obedient media, to continue to spread the misinformation and disinformation, so no one knows who, or what to trust. And in no time, we’ll be Hungary on crack! IMHO…:)
I haven't bent any knees.
He is totally transactional. And utterly pragmatic. All about what's good for him. Which i have been saying and writing for years!
Chris, I was being a bit hyperbolic, but the point is, he’s gone from fascist and the destroyer of democracy, to “let’s all just get along,”‘and work together to improve this nation. As though, Trump intends to actually solve our nations ills.
And being transactional is not the same as pragmatism; it’s closer to expediency. It’s only pragmatic in the sense that the ends, justify the means, and Trump profits in the end.
Furthermore, his policies during his first term were far from pragmatic! Building a wall accomplishes nothing! Ninety percent drugs are coming in the at legal US checkpoints or the US sea ports. And most immigrants were asking for asylum at legal checkpoints, not coming in through our porous border illegally.
Additionally, Family separations and the Muslim bans are not pragmatic policies to deal with immigrants. Mass deportations will only exacerbate the problem, and it will destroy $2 trillion in GDP in the process, and cause untold inflation. Tariffs are not pragmatic, unless used as a tool for leverage against countries who break trade agreements, or require stiff barriers for entry.
Bottom line: Trump intends to use tariffs as a cudgel, and we all know how this ends: retribution tariffs, in which there are no winners, just vary degrees of losers; again, not pragmatic!
So seriously, take a look at Hungary! It was a bloodless coup, similar to the US, where social engineering had been weaponized to shape public opinion. When all is said and done, regardless of how our economy preforms, we will no longer have a free and fair press, making elections obsolete. And when things get really bad, no one will know who to trust, or what to believe;’which is why Orbán is still running Hungary after 15 years of destruction.
And once Trump has full control of our economy, and all levers of power at his command, he will be invincible. And should the economy falter; he’ll need more scapegoats than the usual cast of characters: immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and liberals.
Although, I will concede that in a sense, scapegoating can be a form of pragmatism for Trump, since he’ll definitely need someone else to blame for his failures!..:)
In other words, the "pragmatism" of a petulant 8-year-old.
Americans who are not Trump supporters are actually pissed off. At the Democrats. The media and Trump’s behavior. The surge in Blusky’s popularity is a tell. Trump is going to have a very hard time governing because we are all up for it. No one is going to let him behave like a dictator. Though congressional Republicans might. lol. But so far that guardrail is still in place. The longer it holds, the weaker the Trump Administration becomes. That’s why Trump is fighting. Trump is becoming a joke.
What guardrails? He broke most of them last time around, and has been challenging the guardrails while out of office, and succeeding. I guess you missed the part where he will enter office as a Unitary Executive, granted immunity for all his actions.
That was one of the last guardrail, and the senate is folding faster than a Texas Hold’em player with a 2-7 off-suit as pocket cards. And don’t think the filibuster isn’t on the table either. If democrats fight, they will end it, just like the 60 senate threshold for confirming SCOTUS justices.
I’d wait before believing that by the time he takes office, the senate will still be an independent body. Don’t forget, he controls the MAGA mob, and he also controls the party’s purse strings. Let that sink in!…:)
Respect for the poker metaphor. :)
Trump needs to convince the 80 million Americans that didn’t vote for him to support him or he knows he’s in trouble. The next 4 years will be filled with legal battles, blue state law suits and national civil disobedience. It’s likely that the Mika and Joe love fest with Trump was actually designed by Trump to change hearts and minds with their democratic audience. That’s not going well.
What Congressional Democrats and main stream media are doing is just fueling the anger. Which will get worse.
Agreed, but it’s more than 80 million. He got 75 million votes out of 220 million registered voters. Only 2/3rds voted, so in essence he only received a third of the vote.
My issue is the propaganda, which will only get worse. Social engineering, using malicious algorithms to push pro Trump propaganda, while burying positive democratic stories, while promoting and disseminating false information as well.
And if the MSM folds as they are doing, voters won’t know what to believe. Hence, the fascist need to scapegoat!
Excellent points! Despite the period of mourning everyone on the left went through after election night, I’m actually very hopeful at the anger from Americans I’m seeing which is completely absent from Congressional Democrats who are fighting with themselves instead. Despite winning an election, Trump has no authority. No one is go to let him walk all over them. Mainstream media and congressional Democrats passivity is just pissing people off
Why does he have to convince anyone of anything? He holds all the cards, and civil disobedience? He'll just call out the military. Joe and Mike are just illustrating what Timothy Snyder cautions against: obeying in advance.
Yeah, very difficult time with both the Senate and the House! Gonna be so difficult. 😂
This isn’t a hard problem to parse Dutch. Most Americans can see what the problem is with the Trump Administration’s behavior. You don’t have to be left wing to criticize it. All of it. The anti democratic behavior too.
Yes, get ready to vote again in 4 years
Sure. But I don’t think the Trump Administration will last that long. By subverting Democracy it will end itself. Dirty cops should be fired, right? They generally are not allowed to continue to work for a reason. They have no authority. Americans are angry at Trump’s behavior. That will just grow. You can actually see it growing now and they aren’t even in government yet. lol Trump needs to stop with the theatrics and behave himself.
I'm curious about where you get your information, since you're seeing a dynamic I'm missing. In case you have missed it, dirty cops rarely are fired. If Americans were angry at Trump's behavior I think the election outcome would have been different. A single, unstable person commanding all branches of government, the military and a nauseatingly compliant party is not just misbehaving.
If the Senate confirms Matt Gaetz as AG their usefulness as an institution is negligible..at best. And if Florida elects that wretched creature as their next Governor?. No surprise, there. That state is a microcosm of the embarrassment the US has become.
What happens if Gaetz withdraws as the AG nominee and then... shows up at the Capitol in January to get sworn in with the incoming House? I know he resigned, but he also was just elected to a new term that starts in January. I think we all assume his resignation applies both to his current term and the new one he's just won election to, but hasn't started yet. But if he realizes he's not going to be AG, maybe he decides "just kidding" about leaving the House.
I don't think that's likely and I don't want that to happen. But I'm curious if it's possible.
The Gaetz ethics report is said to be "problematic." Well, yes. Based on what has been leaked, or said out loud by involved attorneys, the ethics report would be deserved doom, where I come from. Chris' narrative just demonstrates how low the nation has sunk when Gaetz' kind of alleged behavior is referred to as, "problematic."
Threatening the Generals with treason like the NAZI Party, hiding Gaetz Congressional Report on his alleged underaged sex trafficking and threatening Republican Senators to install Gaetz anyway, undermining democracy does not give anyone any confidence that the Trump Administration is competent. Or lawful. It’s an incredible hill to die on when they aren’t even in government yet.
Doesn't seem like they're dying to me.
That’s very funny.
this is all a play to get Ken Paxton as AG
Once again Trump has controlled what we bite on. Is Gaetz the chum or the bait on the hook. In either case the real issue is will Senators be willing to vote against Trump knowing the danger of violence that opposing him will cause. Can votes be secret? The situation now is different. A secret ballot is not to hide from the citizens how their senator voted, but to literally protect the senator.
We need secret ballots.
Gaetz needs to go. There are others too. Ultimately even if the others get it, this will be a "you're fired" presidency again. Trump doesn't have the ability to keep anyone around him for long.
I think Gaetz will announce that as much as he is honoured to be chosen for AG, he really wants to run in Florida. That was always his lifelong dream. And Trump has very reluctantly agreed to take him off the list and release him.
And then Trump can point to the rest of the list and expect approval.
RELEASE the KRAKEN!!!! (The Matt Gaetz Ethics report) !!!!
Good points Chris. But, I think something is brewing between Trump and some of the senators in trying to get through this process using the so-called recess appontment process. Although, initial appointments appear to not qualify for this, it would not be the first time Trumps goes over the Constitution rules.
Trump is running Gaetz as interference. If Gaetz loses confirmation, Senate Republicans will have the political cover to give the OK to the rest of his parade of horribles.
Luckily for us old man Pres. Biden is literally doing all he can to get us into a nuclear war with Russia. This whole circus may be coming to an abrupt hot ending.