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6 votes
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Tracking who US President Donald Trump has named to serve in his cabinet and administration
19 votes -
Who is allowed to practice identity politics?
23 votes -
If our worst fears about Donald Trump play out, how will we know when it's time to leave?
Like I did last time Trump was in office, I've been reading up on authoritarianism and fascism. Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder They Thought They were Free by Milton Mayer...
Like I did last time Trump was in office, I've been reading up on authoritarianism and fascism.
Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
They Thought They were Free by Milton MayerAnd if you want a hot take from someone who argues that Trump himself is not a fascist but rather something worse, here is a great video from Morbid Zoo. Note: the main argument in this video begins at about 11:30. The lead up is responding to criticisms of her first video on the topic and laying some groundwork for her argument. You'll be fine to start at 11:30.
I wonder still if there is enough fight left in this country to resist him. I wonder if Trumpism will fizzle out upon his death or when he leaves office in four years. I wonder if America's institutions are strong enough, its people just smart enough, to not go that route. I suppose I'm feeling anxiety because I would like to, here and now before I become accustomed to another "new normal," set my boundaries on when there is no going back. I don't want to look back and say that I missed the obvious moment and I should have known. I want to be ready and keep my wife and son safe.
My question is this:
Where is your uncrossable line? What would Trump and crew have to do before you decided to leave by any means with no concern for your debts, possessions, etc.? Or, if the frog is boiled more gradually, when would you start seriously making preparations?
45 votes -
John Thune elected as US Senate Republican leader to succeed Mitch McConnell
15 votes -
Donald Trump nominates Fox News host and Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth for US defense secretary
24 votes -
Donald Trump expected to try to halt US TikTok ban, allies say
11 votes -
Can Donald Trump reduce the US trade deficit?
5 votes -
How Donald Trump won, and how Kamala Harris lost
19 votes -
Taylor Swift fans are leaving X for Bluesky after Donald Trump’s US election
53 votes -
How the Trump Whale correctly called the US election
6 votes -
Donald Trump didn't win on the US economy. He won on the perception of it.
37 votes -
Authoritarians like Donald Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want.
70 votes -
Girlfriend and I bought plan B at Costco yesterday, pharmacist said they'd already sold more than 100 since the election
We live in Texas, so abortion is already illegal here. We ordered a plan C pill as soon as Roe v Wade was overturned back in 2022 and just ordered another yesterday, as well. We also went to...
We live in Texas, so abortion is already illegal here. We ordered a plan C pill as soon as Roe v Wade was overturned back in 2022 and just ordered another yesterday, as well. We also went to Costco to get some plan B, just in case, and the pharmacist literally said they'd sold over 100. It's so crazy to me that Trump can win with policies as unpopular as abortion bans, ugh. I worry for my girlfriend and women and LGBTQ+ people across the US, but especially in red states like here.
47 votes -
Donald Trump's team mulls postponing Ukraine's NATO membership for at least twenty years, WSJ reports
30 votes -
Thoughts on Donald Trump, America and what this all means
So this is reality. I warned myself not to take anything for granted with Trump, 2016 happened, but still I was starting to feel hopeful for a minute there. But nope, this is what America looks...
So this is reality. I warned myself not to take anything for granted with Trump, 2016 happened, but still I was starting to feel hopeful for a minute there. But nope, this is what America looks like now. For now.
This sucks for a lot of Americans, some are justifiably devastated. A lot is uncertain and we all have to figure out how to navigate this version of the country for, at least, the next 4 years. That's of course part of the insanity, that there are big questions about what happens when Trump's term is over. We kinda know there's going to be some level of a coup attempt, we just don't know if it will be successful.
But for the moment I want to put aside the myriad fucked up social, economic and geopolitical implications and explore what it means from a more ideology and identity sort of angle.
This means that we don't live in a just world. When my partner was crying last night, I think that's what she was feeling the loss of most of all. The idea that despite the imperfections of the world, somewhere underneath there is some form of justice based in the fundamentally good nature of human beings.
Intellectually it seems obvious that there is no inherent justice. But emotionally it's a different story. Speaking for Americans, it's not the story we're told growing up in the shining beacon of democracy. The concept of what America is, and who Americans are, that we translate to our childen is missing most of the nuance. And many of us keep that with us emotionally as adults, even if we know better.
The grown up version, the story we tell ourselves in American culture, has more nuance but not as much as you'd hope for. As an example, we've been pretending that giant corporations, conglomerates and the ultrawealthy can serve the public interest for an embarrassingly long time. We've made materialism into an art. A little light to medium evil in our foreign policy is just something we need to accept.
Of course the nuance isn't lost on everyone, a lot of us have a clear view of what America is, and western capitalist democracy writ large, but Trump is president, in part, because a lot of people do not. Full stop. We, as a culture, are telling the wrong stories about ourselves.
But Trump is president, in spite of his escalating rhetoric and Jan 6th and the nazis on parade and the election wasn't even close. So we have to come to terms with what that means about what America is, and who Americans are.
That's going to take time and processing and I'm not sure how that might or should look. I just want to add that this isn't new. This is the country we've been living in for some time. The only thing that's really changed is that we can't rationally tell any other story now.
It's heartbreaking but after we grieve I think we'll have an opportunity, collectively, to come to terms with what we are, good and bad. Which is of course a vital early step in the process of change.
One thing I'd like to add to the conversation, that's been said a lot and still not nearly enough, is that the enemies here are not just bigotry, or ignorance, or extremist religion or lack of security. Perhaps the biggest reason, directly and indirectly, for Trump's second term is unchecked capitalism.
I hope that, as a whole, we'll learn from this, and focus our energy on the right demons. The ones we maybe have to deal with before we can handle the others.
And also I want to say: this is sad and it feels bleak at the moment... and this grief is shared by millions. We're not alone in this. We'll get through it.
50 votes -
2024 United States election megathread
Post any/all news and discussion related to the US Election here. If there is something substantially newsworthy, feel free to post it as a separate topic. This will be a noisy topic. Please use...
Post any/all news and discussion related to the US Election here.
If there is something substantially newsworthy, feel free to post it as a separate topic.
This will be a noisy topic. Please use the
ignore
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Election Dashboards:
97 votes -
How California has been ‘Donald Trump-proofing’ itself against federal reprisal
40 votes -
Ezra Klein reminisces with Jon Stewart about right wing US media, social media, the rise of Donald Trump, cancel culture and where to go from here
12 votes -
A pregnant teenager died after trying to get care in three visits to Texas emergency rooms
81 votes -
‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Donald Trump
46 votes -
Project 2025, and Why It’s Bad, a cartoon by Michael Goodwin and Dan Burr
54 votes -
The misogynistic, bigoted and crude US rally remarks Donald Trump hasn’t disavowed
56 votes -
They ran for US President. What did they learn? (original from 2004)
7 votes -
Redding property manager fired after posting on Reddit that he used ex-tenant mail-in ballots to vote for Donald Trump
52 votes -
US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau draws bipartisan support for new rule protecting financial data privacy
15 votes -
Donald Trump US tariffs would increase laptop prices by $350+, other electronics by as much as 40%
51 votes -
Donald Trump wants the US military used against Americans who don't support him
59 votes -
Donald Trump and the Joe Biden White House both say the United States should have a sovereign wealth fund – Norway, home to the world's largest, may offer a few lessons
21 votes -
Donald Trump trials - Megathread - US Federal Jan 6 case with Special Counsel Jack Smith
Court of Appeals disclosed congressmember Scott Perry's texts re Trump, then removed them
31 votes -
Young Donald Trump appointed US judge declares centuries old qui tam case practice unconstitutional
32 votes -
US Republicans’ electoral college edge, once seen as ironclad, looks to be fading
23 votes -
Data finds US Republican areas search more frequently for transgender porn
41 votes -
Teamsters won’t endorse a candidate for US President in 2024
23 votes -
Donald Trump trials - Georgia election interference state court case - Megathread
Texts, documents hint at convicted witness bail bond business owner Scott Hall's wide ties to Coffee County breach, Trump allies ahead of trial Hall played a part in various post-election events,...
Texts, documents hint at convicted witness bail bond business owner Scott Hall's wide ties to Coffee County breach, Trump allies ahead of trial
Hall played a part in various post-election events, and he's taken a plea deal. He will testify in the Georgia 2020 election trials.
Hall's alleged involvement following the 2020 election reaches beyond the small south Georgia county. This includes personal relationships with those close to the former president.
Several media outlets, including CNN, have reported that Hall is related to David Bossie, chairman of the conservative group Citizens United who briefly led the former president's post-election legal challenges. Bossie's name appears in the Fulton indictment.
In late November 2020, David Shafer introduced Hall to a group of individuals including Robert Sinners, a current spokesperson for the Georgia Secretary of State's office who then worked for Trump's campaign. In the email, Shafer said Hall was "looking into the election" on behalf of the former president at Bossie's request.
This is described in Act 4 in the indictment, though Sinners is referred to as "unindicted co-conspirator Individual 4" by Fulton prosecutors. Sinners has since disavowed the post-2020 election activities that took place in Georgia.
Hall may also know about the letter former Justice Department official Jeffery Clark wanted to send that alleged the agency "identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia."
34 votes -
Kamala Harris’ lead dips in national US polls and it’s very close in the key states
28 votes -
Thinking out loud: A US service to help you move to where your vote will count the most
Maybe this topic is silly, but I am up from insomnia, so here it goes. I watched a piece on the news about how the election may come down to teeny tiny little town in Nebraska. I remember a...
Maybe this topic is silly, but I am up from insomnia, so here it goes.
I watched a piece on the news about how the election may come down to teeny tiny little town in Nebraska. I remember a similar situation coming to pass in the 2020 election.
There are many teleworkers now. Many of them are IT people who would be happy anywhere there is a good Internet connection.
I was thinking that a movement to get people to move to where their votes would count the most would be interesting. At least to talk about.
There could be a web site/app that would identify the potential most crucial areas, like that little Nebraska town.
Nomadic and patriotic teleworkers could then move to such places a year in advance of an election, vote, and move on if they aren't happy in those places.
16 votes -
The New York Times is a fluffer for Donald Trump on Arlington Cemetery desecration
19 votes -
Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris: Who is leading in the US presidential election polls?
35 votes -
Megathread - Updates on the Donald Trump trial regarding classified documents
Things are starting to happen in this case also.
23 votes -
Former US President Donald Trump’s post of fake Taylor Swift endorsement is his latest embrace of AI-generated images
36 votes -
Can MAGA be multicultural? Making sense of Donald Trump’s appeal to nonwhite American voters.
12 votes -
Undercover in Project 2025
44 votes -
First guilty plea in Arizona fake elector case comes from Republican activist Lorraine Pellegrino
22 votes -
I spent a week with Black Republicans
24 votes -
Why is Donald Trump so obsessed with Hannibal Lecter?
19 votes -
JD Vance’s wife: My husband only meant to insult people who actively choose not to have kids, not people who are trying but are unsuccessful
60 votes -
Former US President Donald Trump backs out of ABC debate, says he will only debate Kamala Harris on Fox
65 votes -
J.D. Vance gets his techno-authoritarian ideas from Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin
23 votes -
Jack Black ends Tenacious D tour after bandmate’s Donald Trump shooting comment
57 votes