Yeah, I mean, obviously this is not a 4D-chess move. Trump acts instinctively but he’s had a lifetime of narcissistic manipulation informing that instinct. Gaetz would already have been looking for ways to maximize his visibility while skirting the investigation, Stephen Miller probably could have contributed the “trigger the libs and deep state at first, and make it seems like they get a win once they’ve got it out of their system” part.

Everyone around Trump is self-interested evil in their own way and I could see how it works together pretty well.

The best explanation I’ve seen is that this was a calculated pick to distract and lower the bar for Trump’s eventual real nominee (Paxton?), allowing the Senate and public to swallow someone who will still enable the DOJ as Trump’s own personal vengeance law firm. It is also again Trump nonsense taking up all the oxygen, preventing debate over his other extremely problematic picks like Tulsi Gabbard.

It gave Gaetz cover to resign and prevent his ethics probe from being public, and if this theory is correct, he’ll withdraw from consideration before any of that information is made public. Mission(s) accomplished.

At the end of these appointment press releases, I fully expect to see one last press release that just says, “The Aristocrats!”

Well, we’re going to see plenty of new crimes in the next 4 years, and Trump is going to be motivated to stay out of jail if it’s even still remotely possible. I think he’s going to do everything he can to stay president until he’s actually dead or incapacitated.

Yeah, the generational divisions aren’t clean any longer. Young men voted for Trump, thanks to social media “alpha” male influencers and recommendation algorithms.

So convenient to have detention centers - camps, really - outside places that have major concentrations of political opponents. Better to be prepared, right?

Nothing at all to worry about that Trump’s nearly highest priority is to install loyal leadership at the military. Nope, nothing concerning about that. Everything is fine.

I really hope someone is keeping a list of all of the saboteur hires, not just the cabinet level posts but stuff like this, in case we have the chance to remove them later.

I know in Mexico and other countries higher on the corruption index, where there are still elections that aren’t pre-decided but a lot of additional corruption and arbitrary politicking, this purge-and-replace cycle happens every election. It’s so unfortunate but may just be the new way of doing things, even if somehow we retain democratic elections.

Just to say it out loud: in the days after the election and call, Putin is amassing 50,000 troops for a big push. This is propaganda to make his eventual “negotiate peace by letting Russia keep whatever they have at the date of cease-fire” plan more palatable.

Good job - we picked the candidate favored by the KKK, Nazis, the Taliban and Putin.

Where even am I anymore.

I would have posted this as a post if not violative of Rule 1, but Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show posted a great episode yesterday with a very thoughtful political theorist guest. It focuses on why the disinformation campaigns are responsible for this election.

In short: We have already reached a point where real policy and positions is no match for propaganda. Political power was decisively proven this election to derive from creating and exploiting a false reality, with multiple groups in Trump’s coalition directly and decisively voting against their interests because they simply believed Trump more than reality. In Russia this is called “political technology” and Trump followed that playbook exactly.

Is it even possible to learn that lesson in time? I don’t think so - I think we missed our last chance. Because Trump’s campaign so effectively recognized this, we can also expect them to recognize that media cannot be allowed to be independent and control of the media is how they maintain that false reality. Like Hitler, like Putin, like Xi, expect that Trump’s team - given free rein by his sycophantic House, Senate and Supreme court - will ruthlessly crack down on free press. I’d be shocked if it doesn’t happen in the first few months.

We’re about to enter a very dark time, and by the midterms, it’s likely that even with a “free and fair” election, it will be so tainted by state-sponsored misinformation there is no hope of the public voting out the right.

This is infuriating.

Nothing has changed re: Trump’s status as a regular citizen, and the DOJ’s memo only applies to sitting presidents. The DOJ and Jack Smith were prosecuting criminal conduct. In winding down these cases now, they are voluntarily refusing to prosecute someone they believe is a criminal when their role was to do so on behalf of the people. Likewise, the judge is voluntarily abandoning his duty to expediently seek justice on behalf of the people.

The proper course here would be to continue to treat him as a regular criminal, not delay anything, and on January 20th, decide then if you want to quit.

This preemptive compliance is doing 90% of Trump’s work in creating an authoritarian state where he is above the law. Don’t just roll over, you hacks, do your jobs.

It’s Russia. It was always going to be Russia.

24 hours ago I hoped Trump would be out of my life forever in less than a day. Right now I’m watching the House races in ever-slimmer hopes that Trump won’t have control of the presidency, the Supreme Court, and Congress in January.

The US Enabling Act seems certain to follow if that happens.

I’m physically ill by this result, but this isn’t an option. You can’t save democracy by discarding democracy.

Trump could do it because he’s a fascist - he wants to discard democracy. A healthy system would have checked him not just then, but barred him from running again. We haven’t had a healthy system in a long time.

I can feel the anxiety the entire way from the bottom of my stomach up to my throat.

I guess we should be happy that they didn’t make it, “I made America great again!”

The tragedy we’ve been living through needs a biiiiiiiiig catharsis to make it worthwhile.

I think the miscommunication is that you’re looking for a game-theory explanation for the best way to vote given a desired outcome, and TDD (forgive the shorthand) is doing a higher-level analysis on large-scale electoral trends and demographics that explain a shortcoming in the democratic campaign strategy.

This is a very insightful comment and helps me understand why TDD seems to be responding with intensity while not hitting the points I (at least think I) am making.

And there is an important proviso: I don’t consider the “game theory explanation for the best way to vote given a desired outcome” to be “the point” so-to-speak of my comment, but just a premise. I do consider that “game theory” voting (a) results in a definite single rational course of action for this election for anyone who favors democracy or left-leaning policies. But I also, it (b) is not be the endgame and just a mitigation until we prioritize ranked choice voting and other structural reform.

I guess I’m confused by this response. So you do think that one should vote for a third-party candidate in this election? Or not?