What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Valmy]

Should have never left.

Should have never occupied it in the first place. We kicked the Taliban out with barely a boot on the ground.

[Tonitrus]

As fun as it is to revisit the past...bringing it back to the here and now...it would be a pretty bad idea.

[grumbler]

So Trump has apparently said on Air Force One returning from the UK that broadcasters cannot expect to keep their licenses if they criticize the administration. No velvet glove anymore.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

This is starting to feel like a certain series of episodes of Babylon 5.  I wonder when he's going to declare criticizing the President is sedition.

[Zoupa]

What do you guys think is the reason for the lack of protests from the general population to the myriad of stuff happening?

Genuinely curious.

[Tonitrus]

So Trump has apparently said on Air Force One returning from the UK that broadcasters cannot expect to keep their licenses if they criticize the administration. No velvet glove anymore.

Not so directly...in his usual ramble, it was more along the lines of "...the networks were 97% against me, and I won by a landslide...I remember they used to have renew their licenses, and it's free, and they don't do that anymore...maybe he (the FCC chairman) will look at that...he's a tough guy, and a patriot...doing a fantastic job...".  (each of those repeated 2-3 times)

[grumbler]

What do you guys think is the reason for the lack of protests from the general population to the myriad of stuff happening?

Genuinely curious.

Lack of opposition leadership.  Indivisible organized the No Kings rallies back in June, but nothing since. I think that they need to try to hold those rallies monthly.

The local one here was organized by the Culpeper Democrats, but they don't want to hold more except as part of a national movement.

[crazy canuck]

So Trump has apparently said on Air Force One returning from the UK that broadcasters cannot expect to keep their licenses if they criticize the administration. No velvet glove anymore.

Not so directly...in his usual ramble, it was more along the lines of "...the networks were 97% against me, and I won by a landslide...I remember they used to have renew their licenses, and it's free, and they don't do that anymore...maybe he (the FCC chairman) will look at that...he's a tough guy, and a patriot...doing a fantastic job...".  (each of those repeated 2-3 times)

Here is how his remarks are being reported in the NYTimes - pretty close to what Grumbler said.

President Trump threatened on Thursday to revoke broadcasting licenses over late-night hosts who speak negatively about him, escalating an assault against the media. "They're giving me all this bad press, and they're getting a license," Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, after ABC suspended the late-night Jimmy Kimmel Live show. "I would think maybe their license should be taken away."

[Grey Fox]

What do you guys think is the reason for the lack of protests from the general population to the myriad of stuff happening?

Genuinely curious.

The USA civilian population is in a kind of regulatory captured position. They cannot act together in defiance because they have no money to create time for it. Also most probably believe that any defiance will harm their chances at being a millionaire.

[Zoupa]

Maybe. I think another factor might be that American youth seems to be much less politicized than elsewhere. The protest movement of the 60s, Hungary 56, Hong Kong, Georgia, Ukraine, Nepal, South Korea, were fueled by students/younger folks.

[Zoupa]

The Balkanization has started.



Northeast US states form health alliance in response to federal vaccine limits

NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Seven northeastern U.S. states, including New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, have banded together to form a new public health coalition that will make its own vaccine recommendations in response to the Trump administration's changes to federal vaccine policy.

The effort, called the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, resembles a similar collective of California and three other western states known as the West Coast Health Alliance, which issued its own vaccine recommendations on Wednesday that went further than the federal government's latest guidelines.

The Northeast group includes Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island, as well as New York City, the largest U.S. city. Both groups are comprised solely of Democratic-led states.

In both cases, the coalitions reflect an attempt to overcome federal limits on vaccine accessibility, including for COVID-19, under the leadership of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic.

In June, Kennedy fired all members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's panel of vaccine experts, which votes on who should receive vaccines and on what schedule, and later replaced them with his own advisers, many of whom share his vaccine skepticism. Insurers typically use the panel's recommendations to determine coverage for inoculations.

The panel was meeting on Thursday and Friday to consider whether to alter the nation's childhood immunization schedule, which medical experts warn could lead to preventable deaths.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Thursday that the Northeast coalition had agreed that updated COVID-19 vaccines should be given to children ages six months to 18 years, older children and adults with certain risk factors and adults older than 64. The group also said that all adults are recommended to be vaccinated.
The governor, along with those in several other states, had previously issued orders granting pharmacists the authority to give COVID-19 vaccines to anyone who wanted them, after the federal government authorized them only for older and at-risk Americans.

"As Washington continues to launch its misguided attacks on science, New York is making it clear that every resident will have access to the COVID vaccine, no exceptions," Hochul said in a statement.

Several medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, are formulating their own vaccine recommendations for the fall respiratory illness season, including for the COVID-19 vaccine.

[HVC]

What do you guys think is the reason for the lack of protests from the general population to the myriad of stuff happening?

Genuinely curious.

The USA civilian population is in a kind of regulatory captured position. They cannot act together in defiance because they have no money to create time for it. Also most probably believe that any defiance will harm their chances at being a millionaire.

Yeah, they've hit the right level of poverty for suppression. Too poor to be able to agitate since can't risk losing your job but not poor enough to starve

[Sheilbh]

Maybe. I think another factor might be that American youth seems to be much less politicized than elsewhere. The protest movement of the 60s, Hungary 56, Hong Kong, Georgia, Ukraine, Nepal, South Korea, were fueled by students/younger folks.

I agree. I think people have been depoliticised, structures and organisations for mobilisation or even some form of collective action have been dismantled (big exception in the US, arguably, being places of worship).

There have been movements like Occupy etc that have flared up. In the US they've not led to politics - but even in places where that energy was channeled into politics (the movement of the squares in Greece and Spain into Syria and Podemos), they failed. And I think we're in an era of anti-politics - and I think there are advantages for the right in that context.

[HVC]

False hope in American institutions helps too. If you think (know) your country is shitty and corrupt you're more likely to revolt to affect change.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah and I think this is particularly key for parts of liberal side of politics. I think there's something to the argument that there was a post-cold war era of "post-politics" which placed huge importance on the "institutions" (as opposed to political movements, political contestation etc). I think this is where you get the lines about "adults in the room" - the solution is still not politics it's content moderation, or anti-disinformation, or the "institutions".

Having said that I'd slightly caution on anti-corruption politics. I think when you look at that - all over Eastern Europe, Brazil, Italy - the track-record of anti-corruption has either been further de-politicisation and more illiberal regimes or the rise of far-right forces. I think they're all corrupt views can basically just remove the legitimacy of all political representation, authority and institutions - I think that's bad if you're on the left and believe in the potential of political change, or a liberal/centre-right and believe in institutions insulated from it, but if you're on the far-right especially you can make hay with that. The biggest anti-corruption drive based on the perception the entire country is shitty and corrupt was mani pulite in Italy which destroyed the entire First Republic - and its biggest beneficiaries were Berlusconi, Lega, now FdI and, briefly, the M5S. But, you know, you look at operation car wash in Brazil and Bolsonaro, the "swamp" and Trump.

This isn't to say you should tolerate corruption and - to an extent I think anti-corruption is a sign of a healthy democratic country - but I think when it slides to "they're all corrupt/the same/there's no difference" it can be quite a dangerous force politically.