What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Grey Fox]

That would be great, he's a defund the police activist. 

Altho, he's a business man first. "Republicans buy shoes records too"

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Snoop Dogg to be appointed head of the DEA...

That would be based, so it won't happen. 

[Savonarola]

Trump says he is going to nominate Kennedy for Health.

I suspect in terms of how staffers in the department feel this may be the worst.

I keep thinking of that Simpsons meme - this is the worst cabinet appointment so far

Although saw an interesting comment from a leftish journalist about RFK specifically.

Look at the bright side; if David Halberstam was right and the best and the brightest led us to a foreign policy disaster, then we should be quite safe with this crew. 

[Tamas]

Orban has been nauseatingly gleeful since Trump's victory, visioning a great time for Hungary and the imminent end of the "lost" (from the US perspective) war in Ukraine plus the "review" of anto-Russia sanctions. It does seem success of Russia is now more important for him than anything else.

I can't see what he is expecting. It's not like Trump is going to awash him with cash.

[crazy canuck]

Could simply be he is happy Trump will not be an adversary.

[Syt]

https://www.cjr.org/the_trump_reader/trump-threatens-new-york-times-penguin-random-house-critical-coverage.php

Trump Threatens New York Times, Penguin Random House over Critical Coverage
Legal letter follows complaints aimed at CBS News, the Washington Post, and the Daily Beast.

The letter, addressed to lawyers at the New York Times and Penguin Random House, arrived a week before the election. Attached was a discursive ten-page legal threat from an attorney for Donald Trump that demanded $10 billion in damages over "false and defamatory statements" contained in articles by Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner.

It singles out two stories coauthored by Buettner and Craig that related to their book on Trump and his financial dealings, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, released on September 17. It also highlighted an October 20 story headlined "For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment" by Baker and an October 22 piece by Schmidt, "As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator."

"There was a time, long ago, when the New York Times was considered the 'newspaper of record,'" the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by CJR, reads. "Those halcyon days have passed." It accuses the Times of being "a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic Party" that employs "industrial-scale libel against political opponents."

The letter is signed by the president-elect's lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik, who is—according to one online biography—based in Palm Beach, near Trump's Mar-a-Lago headquarters. But its language often so closely resembles Trump's as to be indistinguishable. It has not been previously reported, but came as part of a wave of other litigation from the former and future president that emerged around the same time.

The Times responded to the letter on October 31, referring Paltzik to Penguin Random House for claims against the book and stating that it stood by its reporting, according to a person familiar with the situation. A spokesperson for the Times declined to comment. A representative for PRH did not respond to a request for comment.

Also on October 31, Paltzik, on behalf of Trump, sued CBS News, alleging that a 60 Minutes interview with his rival for the presidency, Vice President Kamala Harris, had been edited to help her. He seeks $10 billion in damages, curiously in a Texas jurisdiction that only has one judge. CBS says it will vigorously defend the lawsuit and has dismissed it as "completely without merit."

The same day, the Washington Post was the target of a six-page complaint made to the Federal Election Commission alleging that the paper made illegal in-kind contributions to Harris's campaign over promoted stories. The Post maintains the claim is without merit.

On November 5 lawyers representing Trump campaign co-chief Chris LaCivita sent a four-page letter to the Daily Beast demanding a correction and retraction over a series of articles that alleged LaCivita had "raked in" $22 million to help get Trump reelected. The Daily Beast added an editor's note to its reporting.

"Based on a further review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2 million. The Beast regrets the error. The article has also been updated to make clear that payments were to LaCivita's LLC not to LaCivita personally [sic]," the note stated.

That did not satisfy LaCivita and his attorney Mark Geragos, who sent another legal letter to the Daily Beast on November 12 demanding a retraction. "The editor's note in that article clarifying that $22 million went to LaCivita's LLC and not to him personally does not remedy the overall messaging of the story—which depicts Mr. LaCivita as deceptively pocketing campaign money for his own personal gain and that he was and is on the verge of being 'fired' because of it," it states. A spokesman for the Daily Beast declined to comment.

The drumbeat of legal threats signals a potentially ominous trend for journalists during Trump's second term in office. Litigation is costly and time-consuming. Most news organizations will look to settle rather than face months—more likely years—of discovery and depositions, plus significant legal fees.

"It really has a mental chilling effect to be under a microscope like that," Anne Champion, a partner at Gibson Dunn who has represented CNN, Jim Acosta, Mary Trump, and Brian Karem in legal matters involving Donald Trump, said in an interview. 

"It is both conscious and unconscious. Journalists at smaller outlets know very well that the costs for their organization to defend themselves could mean bankruptcy. Even journalists at larger outlets don't want to burden themselves or their employees with lawsuits. It puts another layer of influence into the journalistic process," she said.

The letter to the Times alleges that the newspaper had "every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States."

"Given the long list of well-known and historic business achievements by President Trump and his family," it says, "President Trump's remarkable business, literary, media, and real estate achievements, and the fact that President Trump—and his life story—are the epitome of the American Dream and what it means to be an American patriot, as well as his lifelong support for America's men and women in uniform, these defamatory statements are all the more despicable in their falsity."

The letter lists fifty "businesses, projects, and brands" that Trump has "built, transformed, established, and revitalized," noting that it "can be accurately and fairly stated that President Trump built much of New York City's famed skyline." It also lists twenty-three books he has authored and thirty "history-making media appearances," including WrestleMania V (1989); the romantic comedy Ghosts Can't Do It (1989); Donald Trump Real Estate Tycoon! (video game, 2002); and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1994).

It takes issue with reporting from Buettner and Craig about Trump's time as star of The Apprentice, which had alleged a high degree of stage management around his appearances. Those appearances remain, the letter said, "one of the president's most well-known achievements, in addition to his decades of magnificent real estate achievements and winning the presidency on the first try."

"Thanks solely to President Trump's sui generis charisma and unique business acumen," it continued, the show "represented the cultural magnitude of President Trump's singular brilliance, which captured the zeitgeist of the early twenty-first century."

The letter cites "harm" to the value of Trump Media, the firm listed under the abbreviation DJT. If not for the actions of the Times, it says, "the stock would likely be even higher now than it is."

After Trump sued the journalist Tim O'Brien for libel over his 2005 book TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald, Trump said that he had "spent a couple of bucks on legal fees, and they spent a whole lot more. I did it to make his life miserable, which I'm happy about." The lawsuit was dismissed in 2009 and the decision was affirmed on appeal in 2011.

[The Minsky Moment]

Ooh a LETTER.  Is it now backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

[The Minsky Moment]

The letter lists fifty "businesses, projects, and brands" that Trump has "built, transformed, established, and revitalized," noting that it "can be accurately and fairly stated that President Trump built much of New York City's famed skyline." It also lists twenty-three books he has authored and thirty "history-making media appearances," including WrestleMania V (1989); the romantic comedy Ghosts Can't Do It (1989); Donald Trump Real Estate Tycoon! (video game, 2002); and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1994).

Words fail. The man is truly satire proof.

[celedhring]

No Home Alone 2? That might be his best role!

[Grey Fox]

Kash Patel has FBI Director. Get ready for journalists to get Saudied.

[Barrister]

Kash Patel has FBI Director. Get ready for journalists to get Saudied.

Isn't the current FBI director a Trump appointment?

Googles...

Yes - Chris Wray,  appointed 2017 to a 10 year term.

[Razgovory]

I can just see the headline in 2028:

"Despite Trump's promise to exterminate all Muslim in 3rd term, Dearborn residents reject Josh Shapiro"

[crazy canuck]

Written waaaay back in February.

Washington Post
PostEverything
Here's what demagogues like Trump do to their countries when they take power
The Donald has all the traits of his political forebears, and he'll present all the same dangers.
By Michael Signer
February 29

A few hours after Donald Trump won last week's Nevada caucuses, I woke up in the middle of the night with a bad feeling that, as a country, we were now just a Super Tuesday landslide away from putting Trump on the path to the Republican presidential nomination and, potentially, turning over governance of our republic to a man who fits the textbook four-part definition of a demagogue.

Like others I've discussed in "Demagogue: The Fight to Save Democracy from Its Worst Enemies," Trump's rise has been one of sheer hubris, overblown promises and an almost effortless seduction that can sweep up even the toughest critics. Consider the normally hard-nosed Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who reported "my legs are shaking" after talking Trump with focus group participants last August.

Last month, Trump boasted that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and still not lose votes. Saturday, Trump was apparently tricked into retweeting a Benito Mussolini quote from Twitter account "@ilduce2016"— set up, apparently, by the website Gawker — and brushed it off by saying of his demagogue forbear that "Mussolini was Mussolini" and that it was a "very good quote."

Demagogues know they're getting away with something so shameless that even they sometimes experience it in the third person: Think of Louisiana governor and U.S. senator Huey Long telling an interviewer: "There are all kinds of demagogues. ... Some of them deceive the people in their own interests." Or the ancient Athenian demagogue Cleon, who berated an audience for being "victims of your own pleasure in listening" before telling them, "I am trying to stop you behaving like this."

Indeed. When it comes to Trump, my worry is too many voters won't realize, until it's too late to stop him, the four specific and very real dangers posed when someone like him comes to power.

First, a demagogue imperils his country in the international arena. During the Peloponnesian War, the brutal but charismatic Cleon proposed slaughtering all the male inhabitants of the rebellious island of Mytilene — and it was initially adopted. His plan was reversed at the last minute by a vote of the Athenian assembly, but its consideration meant the end of moderate politics in, and the ultimate decline of, Athens.

In the years after World War I, Mussolini translated his populist nationalism into the belligerent foreign policy of spazio vitale, which claimed that Italy had the right and duty to seize territory across the Mediterranean region and presaged Italy's World War II invasions of France, Greece and Albania.

Compare that to Trump's 2011 call for America to impose regime change in Libya, saying, "we should go in, we should stop this guy, which would be very easy and very quick." He has assured us that "torture works." He has promised to use targeted assassination against Islamic State fighters, saying, "you have to take out their families." He advocated a "total and complete" ban on Muslims entering the United States for an unspecified period of time, doing his best to wipe out years of goodwill built with countries like Jordan and Egypt while painting a bigger terrorist bulls-eye on Americans' backs.

He's even bragged that he'd "get along very well with" Russian President Vladimir Putin, the autocrat who took Crimea by force and continues to prop up Syria's despotic President Bashar al-Assad.

A President Trump seems likely to escalate tensions abroad and to create unnecessary and dangerous hostilities, while hollowing out our values so that we are no longer the beacon of the free world. Earlier this month he endorsed torture "much worse" than waterboarding, prompting former CIA director Michael Hayden last week to suggest that military and intelligence officers might "refuse to act" on Trump's orders. A recipe for chaos.

The second danger is that the demagogue will surround himself with incompetent and dangerous advisers. Huey Long famously recruited political operative Gerald L.K. Smith to help run his populist "Share Our Wealth" campaign. After Long's assassination, Smith became known as one of America's most notorious anti-Semites.

President Richard Nixon, who tried his best to qualify as a demagogue with his Checkers speech and Southern strategy, was aided in his decision-making — en route to resigning in disgrace — with his reliance on incompetent and unscrupulous senior White House aides like H.R. Haldeman and Dwight Chapin, whose primary experience was in advertising rather than policy and government.

Trump has been the GOP frontrunner for months, yet he equivocates on questions about advisers he'd choose. Two weeks ago, on foreign policy, he promised, "I'm going to be announcing a team in about a week that is really a good team." That's a promise he's made, and broken, going back to last fall.

Last year, Trump announced the hiring of Iowa activist Sam Clovis as a "senior policy adviser," promising that he would "tap into [Clovis's] expansive expertise in economics, national security and international relations." And while Clovis was an Air Force colonel and is an economics professor, he's light on proven policy expertise. In an October CNN interview, Clovis balked at questions about Trump's assorted inconsistencies on policy. Meanwhile, Trump's national spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, wore a bullet necklace during CNN appearance, suggesting provocation will be a staple of a Trump administration.

The third danger is that the demagogue, who ascends to power by manipulating the passions of his followers, will fall prey to passions of his own. Take former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a demagogue who built his television empire peddling sexist representations of women and brought those same values into his administration. He became notorious for his "bunga bunga" parties with teenage prostitutes and was convicted on corruption charges.

Trump's Achilles heel is his narcissism. He bristles at any slight, no matter how small, and is determined to make anyone who threatens his self-regard pay. Just imagine how he'd behave with strong-willed congressional opponents who attack him publicly and challenge his administration's policy agenda.

Fourth, demagogues like Trump threaten dissenters in an effort to silence them. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) used the subpoena powers of an obscure U.S. Senate subcommittee to terrorize Americans he deemed enemies of the state. In "The Origins of Totalitarianism," Hannah Arendt described how, in both Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, demagogue-led thug regimes tolerated only state-approved groupthink while suffocating individual voices and ideas.

Trump regularly encourages his six million-plus Twitter followers to harass his critics. And of a protester at one of his recent rallies, Trump said: "I'd like to punch him in the face." He wants to "open up" libel law to make it easier to cow journalists unfriendly to his cause.

It all bodes ill for our representative democracy and deeply-rooted faith in constitutional principles. Alexander Hamilton warned us, in The Federalist No. 85, of his worry about the rise of a "military despotism of a victorious demagogue."

And here we are.

Trump isn't winning based on experience or ideology. Polls show that voters gravitate toward him because he's convinced them he's the candidate who "tells it like is," when, in fact, he's done just the opposite. On the most important questions about he'd govern, he's managed to sidestep voters' and journalists' questions. He's said little that suggests he'd hew to constitutional norms. And he's conducted himself in a manner not befitting a leader of the free world. In a vacuum, we're left to assume that he'd govern much like demagogues who've come before.

Michael Signer is mayor of Charlottesville, Virgina. He is an attorney, a lecturer at the University of Virginia, a principal of the Truman National Security Project and author, most recently, of "Becoming Madison: The Extraordinary Origins of the Least Likely Founding Father."

This article is scarily accurate this time around

[Norgy]

Just going to throw this into the mix.

https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

Eco's essay was basically ridiculed and revered in equal measures.

The rejection of modernism. "The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism."

[Admiral Yi]

Good list.  He doesn't mention revenge.