"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
In the days leading up to the inauguration, a few of us were trying to establish some sort of historical context. One member tendered an observation that perhaps FDR could be thought of as the closest the U.S. has come to being ruled by a dictator. After a brief conversation, it was considered acceptable to acknowledge that FDR was an enormously popular President, which is different than being an enormously popular dictator:
In addition, he was also enormously successful on the legislative front; a truth borne out by the fact that the GOP, historically, and the MAGA base today, continue in their attempts to unwind and eliminate the “New Deal”, even though the constituencies of the MAGA base appear to be clueless as to how that would ruin their lives.
Further, it was conceded that FDR never promoted himself as anything other than an elected President and he never claimed an ambition to be a dictator
In addition, the consensus agreement accepts that only 2 Presidents enjoyed the sort of support which could have morphed into a monarchy – George Washington and Andrew Jackson, both of whom willingly (eagerly?) participated in a peaceful transfer of power.
“To a few of us here today, this is a solemn and most momentous occasion; and yet, in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.”
Ronald Reagan, 1981
Other pre-inaugural conversations noted that the healthcare system is broken and prospects for it improving are somewhere between unlikely and grim. Other pessimisms included addressing climate change in a meaningful way, the risks to a free & fake press, and the immediate monetizing of the presidency.
Much more was discussed in the weeks leading up to the inauguration; it’s likely more of that content will be added to this page the coming weeks… and months… and years.
With this observation: “WOW,WOW… Milking their base on day one… lol!!!”
(Poke Melania in the NOSE for $Melania)
To summarize the observation of several: Day One…
“We are not surprised by trump starting out with the trumpiest of trumpy trumpiness days.”
(Funny… somewhat sexist in a somewhat offensively dumb-ass way… $mell-melania… now you’ll always read Smell Melania.)
“Read ‘em and weep!” Interestingly, everyone sort of agreed; either tears of joy or tears of fears.
An attempt was made to claim Elon was gesturing… “from the heart!”
Opinions on the trump speech ran the gamut; one trump supporter weighed in: “I loved the absolute ass-ripping trump rammed into pissant Biden.”
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It was suggested that “An explosion of fire & brimstone might not sit well with the MAGA-NAUTS.”
“The Age of MAGA” Trump is Sworn In At Inauguration & Biden Issues Pre-emptive Pardons
Piers Morgan and The Talking Heads
A couple of people called the J6 pardons awful while one member commented, “Well, at least Trump is throwing out the Biden garbage!”
Another trump supporter wondered if the executive order ending birthright citizenship would succeed. The snarky reply is that if the Constitution could change with executive orders, there would be no need for amendments. The return response basically claims that it’s dumb to have the 14th amendment in 21st century America.
Another trump supporter emphatically supports pulling out of WHO and claims to neither care nor know much about climate change.
Other comments suggested trump might issue an executive order abolishing term limits and that trump would continue to obliterate the emoluments clause.
Another observation, shared by many on both sides of the political dial, is that trump thrives on chaos.
In that vein, a couple of trump supporters say that trump 1.0 either had no choice or was forced to hire folks like John Bolton because he would be acceptable to both the GOP and the libs; a couple of our members hope that Bolton will now be tried as a war criminal. Their ire wasn’t simply intending to single out Bolton; however, he seems emblemize the compromises Trump 1.0 was forced to make, given that he was surrounded by career politicians and the “deep state”.
Obviously, Day 0ne is still underway; many, many headlines jumped out at us and were shared in our forum thread. The immediate sense of conflict permeated a lot news coverage, and we expect the coming days, weeks and months will bring – to all of us – a constantly emerging series of conflicts wracking the foundations of democratic norms and the very foundations of our democracy.
For example, these happened:
One person here who doesn’t like being compared to Nazis shared this:
Someone else posted this photo-mash to show how silly the libs are.
The Hegseth nomination struck some of us who know him as scary + horrible; some knew nothing about him; some know him from Fox News; a couple of folks here approve of him simply because Trump nominated him.
Pardons were a topic of conversation… especially when trump is quoted as saying,
“Fuckit! Release ’em all!”
When his transition team, after months of handwringing, couldn’t agree on who should remain behind bars.
Some among us found this to be horrifying; others among us were delighted that some among us found it to be horrifying.
Some of us are dismayed to see trump withdraw from international agreements like the Paris Climate Treaty and the World Health Organization… while others rejoice in anti-globalist sentiments… and the flood of “liberal tears”.
The new White House web page is… worth a visit.
The missing Constitution page struck a few of us as odd; maybe it’ll return… some day in the future?
Perhaps with a caption:
Under New Management
Some among us believe the pre-emptive Biden pardons are proof of guilt.
