LogGrad98
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That's what they want. They said it outright. Dictator on day 1.
Trump Dictatorship and All Things Politics
- Thread starter LogGrad98
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That's what they want. They said it outright. Dictator on day 1.
fishonjazz
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Red
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Make conspiracism the default thinking mode, and have the richest man on Earth spread the lies, lies that conspiracies use to provide targets for the angry mob, and amass power for the liars, and here we are. Conspiracy theories and Big Liars at the top of the political food chain, and this will be a huge hit in the new Age of Ignorance. Post Truth means those in power can use any lie that suits their preferred narrative, and call it fact. MAGA apologists love such fictional facts.
It’s been recognized as a common outcome historically, where we humans are concerned, people often fail to recognize what’s happening at the time it’s happening.
www.nbcnews.com
A key voice behind both the Twitter Files and the USAID conspiracy theories is Mike Benz, a former Trump administration official-turned-conservative researcher whom Musk has promoted and interacted with on X more than 40 times in the past week.
Mike Benz, a former alt-right vlogger, has been attacking USAID for years.Obtained by NBC News
Benz, a self-described cybersecurity expert who briefly worked as an assistant deputy for international communications for the State Department under Trump, started tweeting about USAID in 2022. He framed its funding of a handbook on disinformation from a nonprofit democracy consortium as evidence of an agency-run global internet censorship program.
Over the next two years, he posted waves of tweets and dozens of hours of video presentations marked with highlighted texts and red notes, scribbles, circles and arrows, flicking at a sprawling narrative of USAID as a covert operations division of the CIA in which staff members sought to enrich themselves, spread leftist ideology at home and abroad and harm Trump. The theory alleged that USAID was behind the mass censorship of Americans, as well as global efforts to manipulate social media, rig elections and quash dissent.
“Benz runs the same playbook every time,” said Renee DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University and author of a book about how fringe creators, including Benz, increasingly influence public opinion. “He picks a villain, pretends it has ties to the CIA or some 'deep state' and acts as if he has inside knowledge when he’s really just decontextualizing public content. The remarkable thing is that the masters of the universe seem to repeatedly fall for it.”
It’s been recognized as a common outcome historically, where we humans are concerned, people often fail to recognize what’s happening at the time it’s happening.
How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid
Musk drove fringe viewpoints on USAID into the mainstream on X as the Trump administration halted the humanitarian relief agency’s work.
www.nbcnews.com
A key voice behind both the Twitter Files and the USAID conspiracy theories is Mike Benz, a former Trump administration official-turned-conservative researcher whom Musk has promoted and interacted with on X more than 40 times in the past week.
Benz, a self-described cybersecurity expert who briefly worked as an assistant deputy for international communications for the State Department under Trump, started tweeting about USAID in 2022. He framed its funding of a handbook on disinformation from a nonprofit democracy consortium as evidence of an agency-run global internet censorship program.
Over the next two years, he posted waves of tweets and dozens of hours of video presentations marked with highlighted texts and red notes, scribbles, circles and arrows, flicking at a sprawling narrative of USAID as a covert operations division of the CIA in which staff members sought to enrich themselves, spread leftist ideology at home and abroad and harm Trump. The theory alleged that USAID was behind the mass censorship of Americans, as well as global efforts to manipulate social media, rig elections and quash dissent.
“Benz runs the same playbook every time,” said Renee DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University and author of a book about how fringe creators, including Benz, increasingly influence public opinion. “He picks a villain, pretends it has ties to the CIA or some 'deep state' and acts as if he has inside knowledge when he’s really just decontextualizing public content. The remarkable thing is that the masters of the universe seem to repeatedly fall for it.”
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Political Jazz Fan
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Just watching out for you guys
The Thriller
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Yes, and just like what Trump has done with the 2020 election and Jan 6 martyrs, he and his cultists are priming the country for dictatorship. If we remember, it was merely humoring him after election night. That turned into him spewing lies about election fraud. Then the Jan 6 Insurrectionists turned into victims and they sang the national anthem. Then he promised to pardon them. And then he did pardon them and it was a surprise to none of us. You can see it right now with how they’re spinning Musk’s gutting of the federal government. “In order to rid the government of corruption, we must do xyz….”
And we know to a certain extent what that will entail:
1. Rule by executive order
2. Violations of laws and court orders from judges
3. Running roughshod over the media and threatening them and their parent corporations. Abusing social media to shape and mold reality, just as other dictators have controlled media outlets in the past.
4. Packing courts and law enforcement agencies with loyalists under the guise of “rooting out corruption.” Actual investigators, like those who investigated Jan 6, have been fired. Loyalists are replacing them. This is already happening.
5. Finding reasons to de-legitimize opposition and control elections. Just like in Hungary and Russia, they’ll still have elections. But opposition forces always fight an uphill battle with (made up) accusuations of corruption, gerrymandering, and control over election outcomes.
I really fear that we might’ve seen the last free and fair election in America in a long time. Just imagine what the 26 midterms will be like with Musk gaslighting the nation with made up conspiracies against Democrats, corporations eager for tax cuts (and afraid of retribution from Trump), and law enforcement headed by the likes of Patel and Bondi. We don’t think they’ll find reasons to launch investigations into GOP’s political enemies?
The GOP and its propaganda apparatus (that very much includes Musk and dodge) is priming this country for authoritarianism. In fact, it might already be too late to avoid it. Americans probably shouldn’t have put the mastermind behind Jan 6 back into office.
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fishonjazz
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Political Jazz Fan
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Red
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Don’t expect the courts to save us from Donald Trump
Courts are inherently reactive institutions. Trump always gets the first move.
www.vox.com
The Trump administration plans to essentially shutter the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Shutting down USAID is almost certainly illegal — the agency is funded by Congress, and the president cannot lawfully cut off congressional appropriations (including money set aside to run USAID) without legislative approval. Because of these facts, there’s also a lawsuit, known as American Foreign Service Association v. Trump, seeking to block these efforts to shut down USAID. And that lawsuit may ultimately succeed — the most recent development in that suit is a temporary court order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to put USAID employees on leave.
By the time this lawsuit fully plays out, however, many of USAID’s employees may have already found new jobs. If the Supreme Court ultimately rules that the agency must continue to function, that decision could take months or years. And, by that point, the agency may have experienced such severe brain drain that it will be a shadow of its former self. (And that’s all assuming that Trump even complies with a court order reopening the agency.)
The Trump administration, in other words, will always be the first mover in a conflict between it and the courts. The federal judiciary can often stop someone who is already violating the law from continuing that behavior, but it can’t prevent the violation from happening in the first place.
Thus, even if we could trust these courts to apply the law fairly and impartially to a Republican administration — and, in a world with Trump v. United States, the decision that said it’s okay for presidents to commit crimes, we simply cannot — Trump and his people can do extraordinary damage before any judge has a chance to even look at what they have done.
LogGrad98
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Man Idaho tries to pass some ridiculous ****. No way this gets past the supreme Court, right? Or does it, with Trump's lapdogs running the SC?
Do you think they'll allow reading from the Quran? How about the satanic Bible?
www.ktvb.com
Do you think they'll allow reading from the Quran? How about the satanic Bible?
Bill introduced to require Bible reading in all public schools, sparking constitutional questions
School districts would be required to organize the daily selections so that the entire Bible would be read sequentially over 10 years.
www.ktvb.com
Red
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America under Trump is an intolerant America. It is, and will forever denote his presidency.
Al-O-Meter
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Wouldn't pass the Supreme Court, wouldn't pass the Circuit Courts, wouldn't pass the Idaho State courts, won't get passed in the Idaho Legislature. If you actually read the article you posted, the Republican who passed got this bill out of committee did so just to debate it so the legislature could definitively kill it.Man Idaho tries to pass some ridiculous ****. No way this gets past the supreme Court, right? Or does it, with Trump's lapdogs running the SC?
Do you think they'll allow reading from the Quran? How about the satanic Bible?
Bill introduced to require Bible reading in all public schools, sparking constitutional questions
School districts would be required to organize the daily selections so that the entire Bible would be read sequentially over 10 years.
Political Jazz Fan
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TheStormofWar
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Not a chance in hell that stands.Man Idaho tries to pass some ridiculous ****. No way this gets past the supreme Court, right? Or does it, with Trump's lapdogs running the SC?
Do you think they'll allow reading from the Quran? How about the satanic Bible?
Bill introduced to require Bible reading in all public schools, sparking constitutional questions
School districts would be required to organize the daily selections so that the entire Bible would be read sequentially over 10 years.
Man Idaho tries to pass some ridiculous ****. No way this gets past the supreme Court, right? Or does it, with Trump's lapdogs running the SC?
Do you think they'll allow reading from the Quran? How about the satanic Bible?
Bill introduced to require Bible reading in all public schools, sparking constitutional questions
School districts would be required to organize the daily selections so that the entire Bible would be read sequentially over 10 years.
Bit of red meat for Christian nationalists.... The added bonus that its anti Catholic too. Excellent.