A thread of statements addressing the closing arguments of the Trump campaign

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Many potential Trump voters are probably unaware of what’s in store and imagine that Trump would just snap his fingers and 'fix' what he insists is a terrible economy. The reality, however, is that America’s economic performance under the Biden-Harris administration has been very good, especially compared with that of other countries."

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/8

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule. Why not a dictator who will get things done? ...

Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. …

Unaccountable to the law and to voters, the dictator has no reason to consider anything beyond his own personal interests."

~ Timothy Snyder

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/9

The Strongman Fantasy (text and audio)

And Dictatorship in Real Life

(snyder.substack.com)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"In the twenty-first century, those are simple: dying in bed as a billionaire. To enrich himself and to stay out of prison, the strongman dismantles the justice system and replaces civil servants with loyalists."

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/10

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"As the fantasy of strongman rule fades into everyday dictatorship, people realize that they need things like water or schools or Social Security checks. Insofar as such goods are available under a dictatorship, they come with a moral as well as a financial price. When you go to a government office, you will be expected to declare your personal loyalty to the strongman."

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/11

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"One reason demagogues are so dangerous is that their moral sickness is contagious."

~ William Kristol

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/12

When You Thought He Couldn’t Sink Lower

Once more, with feeling: When Trump tells you who he is, believe him.

(www.thebulwark.com)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"The U.S. government has far too often undermined democracies abroad, leading to dictatorships or military regimes, from Iran to Guatemala to Congo to Chile."

~ Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/13

Hatred and Racism: Trump’s Ominous Closing Argument

By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan Donald Trump made his “closing argument” at a Madison Square Garden rally in New York. The spectacle was an orchestrated, six-hour orgy of hate.

Democracy Now! (www.democracynow.org)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Now, with a right-wing Supreme Court doing Trump’s bidding and the potential for a compliant, MAGA-controlled Congress, only a galvanized, engaged electorate, supported by resilient, pro-democracy grassroots movements, can prevent autocracy from coming home to roost."

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/14

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

Robert Reich issues a salient reminder of what the previous Trump presidency was ACTUALLY like — as he reminds us that another one would be infinitely worse. Reich has compiled a list of 101 of the worst things about the Trump presidency.

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/15

The 101 worst things about Trump’s shambolic presidency

No one should forget

(robertreich.substack.com)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"He doesn’t just hate Puerto Ricans. He hates all of us. If you don’t flatter Trump and end up needing anything from him, he will throw paper towels at you, then turn on you like a rabid dog. Puerto Ricans, and all Americans, deserve better."

~ Noah Berlatsky

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/16

~ Noah Berlatsky

Trump actually treats Puerto Rico like garbage

The disastrous "joke" was more than that.

(www.publicnotice.co)

[deixis9@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy Are some Americans just bored with freedom?

[lyndamerry484@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy

True and it was worse at it in the late 1960s early 1970s.

I would still not want Trump in the White House though.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@lyndamerry484 I think that Goodman and Moynihan are correct that Trump would continue the legacy of undermining democracies abroad and bolstering dictators.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

@Deixis9 My thinking is that some Americans are woefully undereducated and ill-informed, and producing that situation has been a strategy of the Republican party for a long time now.

[deivudesu@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy The hilariousness of seeing William F Kristol, of all people, taking a high road on anything…
Sorry, but even pissing on Trump cannot redeem Kristol. There are plenty enough articulate critiques of that orange fascist, to not bring back bush-era warmongering neocons.

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Free of the guardrails that kept him in place the first time, affirmed by the Supreme Court and backed by allies and apparatchiks in the conservative movement, Trump will merge the office of the presidency with himself. He will shake it from its moorings in the Constitution and rebuild it as an instrument of his will, wielded for his friends and against his enemies."

~ Jamelle Bouie

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/17

nytimes.com

(www.nytimes.com)

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"In doing so, he will erode the democratic assumptions that undergird our current constitutional order. And he will have the total loyalty of a Republican Party that itself is twisting and abusing the counter-majoritarian features of the American system to undermine and unravel democracy in the states it controls."

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/18

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

"Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, one of Trump’s most gleeful supporters, someone with troubling links to both China and Russia, has set up a one-stop shop: Joining false claims about the election with networks of fascists who’ll take to the streets."

~ Marcy Wheeler

#Trump #ElonMusk #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/19

Elon Musk's Machine for Fascism: A One-Stop Shop for Disinformation and Violence - emptywheel

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, one of Trump's most gleeful supporters, has set up a one-stop shop: Joining false claims about the election with networks of fascists who'll take to the streets.

emptywheel (www.emptywheel.net)

[motherearth@mastodon.social]

@wdlindsy

You can bet that Elon may be carrying the flag, but it will be from the back, not the front.

[glitzersachen@hachyderm.io]

@wdlindsy @Deixis9

Perhaps "strategy" is too ambitious a word. I am wondering if "stupidity" (but see below) is just infectious: Stupidity produces more stupidity and in the end stupidity elect stupidity. I am thinking less biologically, but rather like prion in mem-space, a self-propagating rotting away of the substrate for science, logic and discourse.

Stupidity: Yes, I mean, despite using this word, mostly "undereducated". ...

[wdlindsy@toad.social]

Commenting on Trump's bloody fantasy about placing Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad, Lucian K. Truscott notes that Candidate Bone Spurs dodged the draft and doesn't even know how to fire a rifle himself. Then he adds

"In the closing days of this campaign, Trump is defaulting to threats of violence and arrest."

#Trump #fascism #racism #misogyny #violence #economy #garbage
/20

Candidate Bone Spurs threatens Liz Cheney with a firing squad

In the context of calling Liz Cheney a “war hawk,” Trump says she should be given “a rifle” and face what amounts to a firing squad of “nine barrels.”

(luciantruscott.substack.com)