Project 2025: How to Start a Fascist Takeover in 180 Days!

[Raw Shark]

Reminds me of Graham's Number, so large that the observable universe is far too small to contain an ordinary digital representation of the number, assuming that each digit occupies one Planck volume, but even the number of digits in this digital representation of Graham's number would itself be a number so large that its digital representation cannot be represented in the observable universe. Nor even can the number of digits of that number—and so forth, for a number of times far exceeding the total number of Planck volumes in the observable universe.

It's turtles, all the way down.

[Raw Shark]

To be fair, some regions in this great land of ours have tougher gun laws than others. Good luck getting a permit in Hawai'i or my region of origin, Soviet Massholistan, for example. But in Colorado, it's kind of a running joke that it's like, "Welcome to Colorado. Here's your gun. Are you a 9mm guy? You look like a 9mm guy. Let us know if you need a little more oomph in your *poomph!* and we'll work with you on this."

[Tribble]

Can’t be a good fascist without wanting some Lebensraum:

Trump Says US Should Take Ownership Of Greenland And Threatens Panama Canal Takeover

TOPLINE President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. should seek to gain control of Greenland for national security reasons and threatened to take over the Panama Canal by force, marking the latest in a series of controversial foreign policy remarks Trump has made about allied nations.

KEY FACTS

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced he had picked Paypal co-founder Ken Howery to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Denmark and wrote: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

The Danish government has yet to react to Trump’s comments and Howery has simply said he looks forward to working with the teams at the “U.S. Embassy Copenhagen and U.S. Consulate Nuuk in Greenland to deepen the bonds between our countries.”

While speaking at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix on Sunday, Trump reiterated his complaints about “highly unfair” fees being charged by Panama for ships passing through the Panama Canal and said the U.S. was being “ripped off.”

The canal was under U.S. control until 1977, before it was handed over to Panama, but Trump said he would demand the “Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, quickly and without question,” unless the Panamanian government met its “moral and legal” requirements.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino dismissed the suggestion in a video message, saying: “Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to PANAMA, and will continue to be.”

Trump responded on Truth Social: “We’ll see about that,” and posted a photo of the U.S. flag over the canal with the text “Welcome to the United States Canal!”

WHAT HAS TRUMP SAID ABOUT THE PANAMA CANAL RECENTLY?

In a couple of posts over the weekend, Trump lashed out at the “exorbitant prices and rates of passage” placed on U.S. Naval and merchant vessels passing through the Panama Canal. Trump then mocked former President Jimmy Carter for “foolishly” giving away the canal to Panama for “One Dollar” during his term in office before accusing the Panamanian government of allowing China to manage it. Trump said the U.S. has a “vested interest in the secure, efficient, and reliable operation of the Panama Canal” and would “NEVER let it fall into the wrong hands!”

WHAT HAS TRUMP SAID ABOUT GREENLAND IN THE PAST?

During his first term, Trump reportedly pushed the idea of buying Greenland from the Danish government. According to a 2019 report by the Wall Street Journal, Trump brought up the proposal with “varying degrees of seriousness” with his advisers. He would also listen with great interest whenever Greenland’s natural resources and geopolitical importance were brought up. At the time, Trump’s purported interest was dismissed by Danish authorities, with the country’s former prime minister and current foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen tweeting: “It must be an April Fool’s Day joke … but totally out of season.”

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“The Canal has no control, direct or indirect, neither from China, nor from the European Community, nor from the United States or any other power. As a Panamanian, I strongly reject any manifestation that distorts this reality. And it will continue to be in Panamanian hands as the inalienable heritage of our Nation and guaranteeing its use for the peaceful and uninterrupted transit of ships of all nations, as established by our Constitution and the Neutrality Treaty,” Mulino’s statement added.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityar ... ama-canal/

This is on top of the threats made to Canada (annex as 51st state) and Mexico (how much should the US invade it?).

With friends like the USA, who needs enemies? Canadians may come to regret scrapping our military and refusing to build a nuclear deterrent in the vain hopes that everyone would just hold our hands and sing kumbaya.

[Broomstick]

Hold the fucking phone...Speaker of the House of Representatives, which thanks to the Presidential line of succession is first in line if Trump and Vance go kablam-o, doesn't have to be an elected person at all?

At this point I remind you that Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States, was not elected to that office.

1) Spiro Agnew, Nixon's VP, resigned due to tax problems
2) Nixon appointed Ford as VP
3) Nixon resigned, making Ford PotUS.

The hitch here is that, because Elon Musk is a naturalized US citizen and was not born a citizen he is ineligible to be PotUS (baring a constitutional amendment which would almost certainly take years and years to pass). Even if he was Speaker of the House and Something Dire happened the succession would pass over him to the next eligible person in line.

How in the flying fuck does that work? You Yanks seem to have fetishised elections to the point you elect law enforcement officers and the fucking judiciary, but a non-elected person can be Speaker (and, again, 2nd in the line of succession)?

Well... technically he would be elected by Congress I suppose. But yeah, he would not have been elected in a general election where the citizens are voting.

I knew the US had some bonkers elements of it's political system but seriously?

Pretty sure the guys who wrote the US constitution 200+ years ago did not anticipate our current situation...

[Batman]

Your current situation was predictable enough they made a movie about it in 2006 but I agree the Founding Fathers probably didn't expect something this immeasurably stupid.

[Ralin]

Hold the fucking phone...Speaker of the House of Representatives, which thanks to the Presidential line of succession is first in line if Trump and Vance go kablam-o, doesn't have to be an elected person at all?

How in the flying fuck does that work? You Yanks seem to have fetishised elections to the point you elect law enforcement officers and the fucking judiciary, but a non-elected person can be Speaker (and, again, 2nd in the line of succession)?

I mean...yeah? Further down on the list are people like the head of the Department of Agriculture. Past a certain point there isn't way to not have unelected people in the line of succession unless we just decide to hold a lottery and appoint whichever senator wins.

You might say that second in line is earlier than that point should be, but that's only true in one or two really weird edge cases that have never happened. It's not exactly a big deal.

[bilateralrope]

Federal Officials Resorting To In-Person Meetings With Trump Transition Team, Since They Insist On Using Easily Hacked Private Email

from the but-their-emails dept
Mon, Dec 23rd 2024 01:01pm - Tim Cushing

There’s usually only one reason government officials use personal email accounts: to dodge FOIA requests. The excuses offered by those caught doing it are never credible. And those who do opt for personal email — especially at the federal level — are putting themselves in peril. There are also practical security reasons for using government email addresses.

A lot of Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign focused on his opponent’s use of a personal email server to handle official State Department business. The FBI even looked into this before deciding (twice!) Hillary Clinton’s personal email server was careless and stupid, but probably not criminal.

When Trump first took office, he shamelessly did the same thing. Many members of his staff continued to use personal email addresses to conduct government business, both increasing their chances of being compromised by foreign hackers and decreasing the chances that the public could gain access to these communications via FOIA requests.

The trend continues with Trump’s second term. No lessons have been learned during his four years away from the office of president. Or, perhaps, the only lessons Trump and his team desired to learn — that using private email is a pretty good opacity option — have been taken to heart.

Unfortunately for those having to (also unfortunately) welcome him back to office, he and his team’s insistence on using personal email accounts has created security risks that can’t be mitigated without pretty much forgoing electronic communications altogether, as Alice Ollstein reports for Politico:

Federal officials say they’re worried about sharing documents via email with Donald Trump’s transition team because the incoming officials are eschewing government devices, email addresses and cybersecurity support, raising fears that they could potentially expose sensitive government data.

The private emails have agency employees considering insisting on in-person meetings and document exchanges that they otherwise would have conducted electronically, according to two federal officials granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. Their anxiety is particularly high in light of recent hacking attempts from China and Iran that targeted Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and other top officials.

If nothing else, this is going to slow down the transition. But more than that, it shows Trump and his hand-picked team are still unwilling to abide by the normal transfer-of-power flow that had pretty much gone uninterrupted until Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the previous election.

Granted, Trump is not officially president yet and his staffers are not yet official government employees. But for the sake of the nation, it would make sense to operate within the normally accepted confines, if for no other reason than doing so decreases the attack surface that can be exploited by hostile nations and their state-sanctioned hacking attempts.

Proving yet again he only cares about anti-Biden optics and maintaining as much direct control of his sycophants, Trump and his team have decided to handle this transition by utilizing an all-you-can-eat buffet of easily-compromised accounts and devices.

Trump — who attacked his then-opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server for official business during his first presidential run — is overseeing a fully privatized transition that communicates from an array of @transition47.com, @trumpvancetransition.com and @djtfp24.com accounts rather than anything ending in .gov, and uses private servers, laptops and cell phones instead of government-issued devices.

All hail the returning Commander-in-Chief, a man so self-absorbed he’s willing to threaten the security of the nation during his transition back into public office. Not that any of this will matter to him, his team, or his millions of supporters. If nothing else, they’ll present this as another form of “owning the libs” and nail themselves to the nearest cross the moment malicious hackers access anything they’ve deliberately left unprotected. It’s win-win for Trump. But it’s an undeniable loss for the nation and an insult to the long-held expectation that people assuming the office of Leader of the Free World will act respectfully and responsibly when being handed this exorbitant amount of power.

Even Trump's incoming administration is causing delays for itself.

[Zaune]

I mean...yeah? Further down on the list are people like the head of the Department of Agriculture. Past a certain point there isn't way to not have unelected people in the line of succession unless we just decide to hold a lottery and appoint whichever senator wins.

Or do what we do and require the secretary of each government department be an elected member of Congress as well, I suppose. Which has its own disadvantages but at least offers additional pathways for getting shot of particularly stupid, corrupt or otherwise unpleasant ones without changing the entire government.

[Raw Shark]

Your current situation was predictable enough they made a movie about it in 2006 but I agree the Founding Fathers probably didn't expect something this immeasurably stupid.

I'm just speechless right now. How the actual fucking shit did we get here.

[Rogue 9]

I mean...yeah? Further down on the list are people like the head of the Department of Agriculture. Past a certain point there isn't way to not have unelected people in the line of succession unless we just decide to hold a lottery and appoint whichever senator wins.

Or do what we do and require the secretary of each government department be an elected member of Congress as well, I suppose. Which has its own disadvantages but at least offers additional pathways for getting shot of particularly stupid, corrupt or otherwise unpleasant ones without changing the entire government.

I mean, even in the 100% of the time thus far that the Speaker of the House is an elected member of Congress, the Speaker's actual election to Congress is in a single Congressional district. Third in line, the Senate's president pro tem, at least has the electoral backing of a whole state. Fact is that aside from the Vice President there is no other nationally elected official in the American government.

[Ralin]

I mean...yeah? Further down on the list are people like the head of the Department of Agriculture. Past a certain point there isn't way to not have unelected people in the line of succession unless we just decide to hold a lottery and appoint whichever senator wins.

Or do what we do and require the secretary of each government department be an elected member of Congress as well, I suppose. Which has its own disadvantages but at least offers additional pathways for getting shot of particularly stupid, corrupt or otherwise unpleasant ones without changing the entire government.

I mean, even in the 100% of the time thus far that the Speaker of the House is an elected member of Congress, the Speaker's actual election to Congress is in a single Congressional district. Third in line, the Senate's president pro tem, at least has the electoral backing of a whole state. Fact is that aside from the Vice President there is no other nationally elected official in the American government.

And it seems like cheating to call the Vice President elected, really.

[AniThyng]

I mean...yeah? Further down on the list are people like the head of the Department of Agriculture. Past a certain point there isn't way to not have unelected people in the line of succession unless we just decide to hold a lottery and appoint whichever senator wins.

Or do what we do and require the secretary of each government department be an elected member of Congress as well, I suppose. Which has its own disadvantages but at least offers additional pathways for getting shot of particularly stupid, corrupt or otherwise unpleasant ones without changing the entire government.

I mean, even in the 100% of the time thus far that the Speaker of the House is an elected member of Congress, the Speaker's actual election to Congress is in a single Congressional district. Third in line, the Senate's president pro tem, at least has the electoral backing of a whole state. Fact is that aside from the Vice President there is no other nationally elected official in the American government.

I mean, this is true of many governments isn't it? It's certainly true of most parliamentary systems where legislators are elected by either voters of a single district or appointed to the position by virtue of being on the party list where voters voted for their party and not them specifically in a Proportional representation system. Any Prime Minister is only directly elected by voters of their district and "indirectly" by voters putting enough of thier party members into power to give their party or coalition the power to appoint him PM///

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Your current situation was predictable enough they made a movie about it in 2006 but I agree the Founding Fathers probably didn't expect something this immeasurably stupid.

I'm just speechless right now. How the actual fucking shit did we get here.

Fascist Italy lasted 20 years and only ended because of World War 2, how long is Fascist America going to last?

[LadyTevar]

Your current situation was predictable enough they made a movie about it in 2006 but I agree the Founding Fathers probably didn't expect something this immeasurably stupid.

I'm just speechless right now. How the actual fucking shit did we get here.

Fascist Italy lasted 20 years and only ended because of World War 2, how long is Fascist America going to last?

Until we stop it.
Hopefully it won't take a war to happen, either.

I will point out that they also assassinated Italy's leader and strung him and his wife up as trophies. Do we want to go that far?

[Solauren]

Your current situation was predictable enough they made a movie about it in 2006 but I agree the Founding Fathers probably didn't expect something this immeasurably stupid.

I'm just speechless right now. How the actual fucking shit did we get here.

The inevitable backlash from an elected Black man doing an excellent job as POTUS, upsetting a con-man asshole with an ego that far-outstrips his actual leadership and management abilities to effectively con half of the population of the US to voting for him. Follow this by him losing, and having 4 years to revive his base back up, while his opposition decided to focus on backing controversial social trends.

[Gandalf]

The inevitable backlash from an elected Black man doing an excellent job as POTUS, upsetting a con-man asshole with an ego that far-outstrips his actual leadership and management abilities to effectively con half of the population of the US to voting for him. Follow this by him losing, and having 4 years to revive his base back up, while his opposition decided to focus on backing controversial social trends.

Don't forget the Dems being just shit at electoral politics, being too scared to upset right wingers but all too willing to fuck more progressive voters off.

[Solauren]

The inevitable backlash from an elected Black man doing an excellent job as POTUS, upsetting a con-man asshole with an ego that far-outstrips his actual leadership and management abilities to effectively con half of the population of the US to voting for him. Follow this by him losing, and having 4 years to revive his base back up, while his opposition decided to focus on backing controversial social trends.

Don't forget the Dems being just shit at electoral politics, being too scared to upset right wingers but all too willing to fuck more progressive voters off.

That would be: while his opposition decided to focus on backing controversial social trends.

[Broomstick]

Interesting the current kerfluffle between the MAGA base and Musk and Ramaswamy over H1-B visas. Don't know if it's enough to split MAGA, or oust Musk and/or Ramaswamy from the Inner Circle. Looks like Trump & Co want the support of the Great Unwashed White Masses but don't want to hire them. Then again, it's always easier to control workers when you can also control whether or not they get to stay in the country.

[Ralin]

Interesting the current kerfluffle between the MAGA base and Musk and Ramaswamy over H1-B visas. Don't know if it's enough to split MAGA, or oust Musk and/or Ramaswamy from the Inner Circle. Looks like Trump & Co want the support of the Great Unwashed White Masses but don't want to hire them. Then again, it's always easier to control workers when you can also control whether or not they get to stay in the country.

Unsurprisingly, Trump has already come down on the side of the richest man in the world (who is not a woman) over the woman who has been his fanatical supporter for years.

He and Musk are absolutely going to have a spectacular falling out at some point. But we don't know what's being said in private and I personally have come to believe that Trump was not lying to us when he said that Elon begged like a dog when they met in the Oval Office, so who knows.

[Steel]

It is always hard to tell if they are spectacularly stupid and incompetent, or if something is a smokescreen for something more awful being done in the background.

[LadyTevar]

It is always hard to tell if they are spectacularly stupid and incompetent, or if something is a smokescreen for something more awful being done in the background.

Both?
It could be both....

[Eternal_Freedom]

Hi everyone, I'm back again.

To clarify, my incredulousness at the Speaker not being elected was less to do with them being 2nd in line after POTUS (though that's a concern) since I'm aware the assorted Cabinet Secretaries are further down but more being the effective head of the legislative branch. The People's House as I believe some pompous tits have referred to it as. Given America's fetish for electing seemingly everything this seems, frankly, fucking weird.

At least the Speaker of the House of Commons is a) an MP and b) doesn't really do anything.

Having Head of State and Head of Government be the same person and elected independently of the legislature is...odd. I get the impression everyone involved knew it's a weird system and it just limped along hoping that no-one who was an utter moron managed to get into the Oval Office and expose how bizarre the concept is.

Oh, I miss the halcyon, optimistic days of The West Wing where the other side was just the other side and not the mortal enemy.

[bilateralrope]

To clarify, my incredulousness at the Speaker not being elected was less to do with them being 2nd in line after POTUS (though that's a concern) since I'm aware the assorted Cabinet Secretaries are further down but more being the effective head of the legislative branch.

I've heard some speculation that if the US ever needs to make the speaker the president there will be a lawsuit with the claim that the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches make that part of the succession unconstitutional.

[Raw Shark]

Hi everyone, I'm back again.

Guess who's back? Back again. Shady's back. Tell a friend. Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back. BA-NA-NAH!

I've created a monster! Because nobody wants to see Marshall anymore-

Anyway, you're not wrong, EF. Our system is pretty fucked. I live in a system that is pretty fucked, because two 15-year-olds fucked in the backseat of a car one time. It makes me angry sometimes. And we all have guns. Every single one of us. How could this go wrong? SPARTAFREEDOMERICA!

[Raw Shark]

To be fair, we're pretty egalitarian about sharing the fucked-uppedness. Most of my fellow Americans actually find a British accent attractive and would just lend you a firearm because you need one. Even though you're blind. That's how we roll here. You shoot at anything you can hear. It'll be fine. Why the fuck not? Totally good idea.