"Trump is following a playbook written for him by Christian White Nationalists."

[Elok]

It's six days shy of a month since inauguration. What on earth were you expecting to happen? There hasn't been time for all this to have a real effect on the average American yet. Also I don't know why Republicans would want to push back on any of that since they've wanted most of it for ages. Hell, even I approve of putting a bullet in the DoE. As for killing DEI, I think that has broader public support than just about anything. Anyway, "Trump is following the orders of a completely different group of myopic cockups" still doesn't impress me.

[Aeson]

He's got a lot more done this time already. It's not like last time. I think it was reasonable before he took office to assume his next 4 years would be like his last 4. It no longer is a reasonable outlook, as it clearly is not the case so far.

Last time there were adults in his own cabinet and party to tell him, no. No, you can't just nuke them. No, you can't just shoot protesters. No, you have to follow court orders. No, you can't just fire anyone you want. Now who is going to do that? No one so far.

Yes, eventually the economic blowback will wake some people up. Let's hope it's not too late by then.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

What world are you people living in? The so called 'adults' had the last four years... and screwed it up so bad Trump got voted back in. Maybe you should think about what happened, why that happened and how to go forward. Trump is here. Screaming the sky is falling is not going to help.

With that said, go on and scream. I am not going to be looking up. A lot of voters will not either.

[Aeson]

Trump got elected again because Ds and Rs take turns seeing who can sink to the next level. I don't agree with either party on much of anything. I'm immune to whataboutism.

But there is a very real difference between a yes man who has no ethical spine, and someone who believes in something and is willing to stand up for it. I don't see any of the latter (close enough) around Trump this go. Everyone who has stood up so far was axed. Like this:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn93rnnjw4zo

​

[My Wife Hates CIV]

I could direct you to foxnews and hannity... where the word is the world has been saved.

[Aeson]

Yes, that is a good example of Trump's yes men who lack an ethical spine.

[BeBMan]

I guess we're all better off when we start to learn Chinese. In Russia it's popular already

[Broken_Erika]

I could direct you to foxnews and hannity... where the word is the world has been saved.

Fox News and Hannity?
They're about as factual as the Weekly World News

https://weeklyworldnews.com/

Hilarious site BTW

[BeBMan]

You say that as if White Christian Nationalists were notably competent people. I guess by comparison to Trump, sure, maybe some of them, but that's not saying much.

On a more serious point, none of the dictatorships that made headlines historically were full of especially competent people. The "grand" dictators were (and are) just mediocre - at best, and the history of the time of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, whoever is full of epic fail.

[Elok]

They were very efficient about channeling people into murder camps. Pretty good at running police states in general, too. Most of them managed to die while still in power--Hitler might have done a bit better if he weren't continually and simultaneously wasted on every available psychoactive substance. They just weren't any good at anything necessary to make their countries prosperous (and subsequently most of them were bad at fighting wars). Authoritarianism is intrinsically bad for that, and totalitarianism is worse.

I'd say Trump's personally is a lot like what I've read about Hitler's. That is, it's mostly flaws. In fact, it's pretty much entirely flaws. There's a line in The Screwtape Letters where he says that a great villain needs a certain amount of virtue to be really effective. Hitler, for all his faults, actually did seem to give a **** about something other than himself; he volunteered to serve in WWI because in his sick and demented way he really did love Germany. He was, it seems, actually convinced that a mysterious and nonsensical cabal of Jews, Freemasons, Communists, etc. was out to destroy his adopted country, and was prepared to do fantastic damage to crush this imaginary enemy (and incidentally make himself all-powerful; funny how that happens).

Trump is not Hitler. He doesn't appear to love anything that is not Donald Trump, which is why last time he spent most of his term being a two-bit internet bully, stealing whatever wasn't nailed down, and abusing Mexicans slightly more than Obama did. When his "beer hall putsch" happened, he just sat there watching it on TV while nothing was accomplished, until eventually somebody convinced him that this wasn't helping and had no chance of success. Then he told them to go home. The man himself was so disconnected from the event that, unlike Hitler, he could not be prosecuted. He has since drifted into the orbit of a different group of sycophants, and will give them the stuff they want because he doesn't really want anything himself. This, to be fair, is bad. It does not follow that he will be faithful to them, or continue with whatever their sinister plans are once they impose any kind of cost on him, become difficult or complicated to execute, or conflict with something else he thinks is a good idea. Right now he's just doing his Apprentice shtick, dialed up to eleven--"You're fired! You're all fired!"--only he's so damn lazy he got a billionaire to do it for him. It remains to be seen how many of the firings will stick, or what he will do when/if he discovers he fired people he actually needs to do something important.

[BeBMan]

Well, Stalin hid in fear for a while when Hitler invaded (tho primarily since he was afraid the politbureau would off him for failure, esp. after the Hitler-Stalin pact), and later died in his own piss, if those rumours can be believed. Also managed to kill his countrymen incl. communists in scores, even without ideological qualms. Mao launched the so-called cultural revolution, which threw China back for decades (an did cost a lot of Chinese lives). Hitler was a corporal in WW I. Putin made it at least to a mid-level officer's rank.​

[Dauphin]

For a country that rates military service so highly, their recent Presidents don't really embody the military 'ideal'. Source Wikipedia. Bush Sr is the only one bucking the trend

Carter:
Served during the Korean War, but never sent to Korea​

Reagan:
Was barred from combat because of poor eyesight. Narrated pre-flight training films under the Army Air Forces Motion Picture Unit.​

Bush Sr:
Years of service: 1942–1955 (on active service 1942–1945). Second^[22] youngest pilot in the United States Navy during World War II (Three days before turning 19).^[23] Earned Distinguished Flying
Cross.​

Clinton:
Received a 2-A student draft deferment during the Vietnam War, and later registered for the draft. He received a high draft number, was not drafted and did not serve.​

Bush Jr:
He performed Air National Guard duty as an F-102 pilot through April 1972, logging 336 hours, when he lost his authorization to be a pilot for failing to meet attendance and physical examination requirements

Obama:
Reached age 18 in 1979, six years after the end of the military draft in the U.S.​

Trump:
Received four draft deferments while attending college, then one for medical reasons after he was diagnosed with bone spurs on his heels​

[Dauphin]

Missed Biden:
While in school, received five student draft deferments and afterward was classified as unavailable for military service due to asthma.

[BeBMan]

Bush jr. also fought in the Iraq war, I remember him landing on that aircraft carrier...

[My Wife Hates CIV]

Fox News and Hannity?
They're about as factual as the Weekly World News

https://weeklyworldnews.com/

Hilarious site BTW

You mean MSNBC. Or any of those liberal spin outlets. FOXNEWS.COM is real news. Ratings show that.

[-Jrabbit]

So your reality is determined by ratings lol.