If the worst does not actually come to pass, I don't think I'm going to be sitting here going "oh noooo I can't believe I strengthened my communities, made sure I'm up to date on my healthcare needs, and volunteered for causes I believe in"

3/3

#USpolitics #USpol

I coined the phrase "moral austerity" to refer to the white liberal idea that human rights and social justice issues can be trimmed back -- at no expense to themselves, of course -- during hard times, politically.

Reminder: Masks protect against all types of airborne viruses.

If another pandemic starts, masks will be a key first line of defense, especially as we won't have a vaccine right away.

Speaking as someone living in Hungary, to friends in the #USA:

The greatest weapon the system has is outrage fatigue. Doing so many unimaginable things at the same time that people just sigh and go on. Having so many things to protest that you run out of days and hours. Piling on so you start focusing on surviving with your bare mental health day to day.

Pick your cause and stick to it. Support others who focus on different causes. Don't try to do everything at once.

You see how the fascists will not let their bodies be controlled (masks) while they control others' (abortion, deportations). This is just exercise of power.

Gonna throw this out there.

If you have read project 2025, you know EVERY SINGLE POSITION OF US POWER will now be filled with a Trump sycophant. EVERY ONE. There literally will be NO ONE in a position to do anything about it.

If so, name the position and mechanism. *hint* It doesn’t exist.

And yes… America won a war with Germany (and Japan). We are now though the bad guys. And our military is TEN TIMES the size and capability of ALL others COMBINED. And people don’t seem to realize that Trump can fire anyone in the military, just like that. Give an order… If they won’t comply fire and jail them. Next!!! Repeat… And he already has people (Flynn etc.) that will gladly follow those orders.

When fascism was taking over Europe in the 1930’s America was in denial. Sinclair Lewis wrote a book titled “It can’t happen here” which was all about how it can happen here. It describes Trump almost perfectly. Though dated, it should be required reading.

The people in Germany were no different than us. Hitler was elected, after losing and being convicted, and actually wrote his plan (Mein Kampf) in jail. We didn’t get that far. Hitler learned. Just like Trump has.

Hitler was then elected, and from there consolidated power while removing all guardrails and obstacles that would stop him. It was all about the mechanisms removed and consolidating power. Exactly what Project 2025 is about.

It is almost exactly the same thing now.

Lets take it step by step.
Trump declares all federal employees as “schedule F” appointees.

What is to stop him?

Trump hires only loyalists and dept heads that gut departments and/or fill them with loyalists to do his bidding. All over-site departments (EPA, Education, FCC, etc.) are gutted and remain in name only. “Efficiency” and “Cost cutting” are named as reasoning. Trump exclaims: “Everybody wanted this”.

All security and enforcement agencies (FBI, CIA, NSA, TSA, HLS, ATF, IRS, etc.) are filled with loyalists and reshaped to help Trump and his allies, while harming his foes. The DOJ is remade to punish Trump’s American foes.

What is to stop him?

Trump reinstates Flynn and makes him chairman of the joint Chiefs. He fires any generals (and lower) not willing to be loyal to him, and promotes those that do.

What is to stop him?

People protest. The Proud Boys et al show up on cue, cause violence, and Trump blames the victims. Oligarch owned social media ramps up an influence campaign also blaming victims and spreading disinformation. Traditional media (trying to survive with leas resources) obediently reports what social media creates. Dissent is ridiculed and punished.

Trump uses the social media frenzy to escalate rhetoric, and “crackdowns on thugs” and mysterious fires and bombings (which we never find the perpetrators of) become the final excuse for martial law and (temporary) limitation of constitutional rights. Elections are delayed. Power is consolidated further for “safety”.

That may sound like a spy novel, but in fact we have seen all this before elsewhere, and piece by piece all of this has been telegraphed, trial ballooned, and tested. Here…

And all this simply can’t be plausibly denied. He has said he will do most of these things. Project 2025 lays them out, and it even provides a legal roadmap as to “how” to do them. Congress is not required. Only SCOTUS, and those trial balloons floated happily along.

Trump just announced he will bring on the author of Project 2025 as an advisor.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-says-project-2025-author-coming-onboard-if-elected-1966334

Musk (who has also said these things out loud) will be there also. And he is normalizing his part as well.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-trump-wins-hardship

Trump’s former staff wrote most of the plan and will certainly be brought back in to execute it, as will the criminals he pardoned, including his brownshirts.

Make no mistake. Project 2025 is not a old world set of policy goals. It is a new world order how-to manual to remake America into a permanent autocracy.

We can write letters and complain, but they will fall on deaf ears. And in fact the first steps (normalization using peripheral “agitators”) is already underway.

https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/us/bent-on-revenge-potential-trump-attorney-general-says-he-will-drag-democrats-bodies-through-the-streets-of-america/amp_articleshow/115063438.cms

https://newrepublic.com/post/188100/steve-bannon-agencies-trump-chopping-block

Buckle up. The ride ro fascism will be rough.

Pessimists sound clever.

Optimists change the world.

I love this depiction of the energy transition by RMI.

I saw a post where women were advised to stock up on birth control before the new administration starts and it reminds me of the thing I hated the most about 2017 - 2020.

Instead of a government that helped people, we had a government which randomly would choose some set of people to inflict harm and inconvenience. Travel bans, bans from serving in the military, actions against Planned Parenthood and Title X, changes in asylum policies, etc.

It hurts to realize voters chose a return to this.

Seeing a lot of posts wondering what a white person can do to signal to people that they didn’t vote for Trump. This isn’t my idea, and I’m sorry I didn’t bookmark the original, but the absolute easiest thing is wear a mask 😷

A Trump voter wouldn’t be caught dead in one, and even if the right wing co-opts it (like they did with safety pins) it’s win-win - they’ll still be protecting community

@DrPsyBuffy Thank you for pointing this out, that's a reassuring take!

Fascism is a machine. All machines have moving parts. You don't attack the reinforced bits. And fascism, specifically, is a machine built to kill. When you take up the same arms, you're attacking them where they're strongest.

So, when you plan your resistance, unless you're a very rare sort--probably with preexisting military experience--don't plan for a violence that you can't and won't win.

(4/?)

When an article says "some scientists think" then remember this: I, a scientist, once thought I could fit a whole orange in my mouth. I could, it turns out, get it in there, but I hadn't given sufficient thought to the reverse operation. 🧵

This is the realest advice I have for people who are wondering how they're going take effective action in the upcoming Trump administration: https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/

The Harris campaign and the DNC are not responsible for how the big media outlets chose to not properly cover Trump. So many people mad at Dems because they didn't do x, y, or z, but how does a Democratic candidate compete when coverage is so deliberately lopsided?

#USpol #Election2024

Biden can still, and should, stop all arms to Netanyahu. Do it now. There never was a valid excuse to keep arming him -- not practical and not legal. His own State Dept confirms Netanyahu is violating the law. And now with the election over, there's not even a political excuse to keep arming him.

Stop funding genocide. Uphold Constitutional & Int'l Law.

Slept about 2 hours (interrupted) and am running on fumes and rage. Today is going to be rough.

I am boiling over with rage, and really fucking pissed that my body thinks tears are an appropriate way to express that emotion.

I really didn't want to stop watching, but realistically my attention is not going to change the outcome and it's unlikely there will be an outcome tonight. Plus, I have to pretend to be normal tomorrow morning when I get to present all of my team's stuff to the CEO of the company. Here's hoping I don't break down in tears in the middle of it.

And I’m supposed to just … go to meetings tomorrow?