Trump administration 2024-2028

[RangerRay]

Re: Mamdani and how both Republicans and lefty progressives are wrapping themselves around the axle saying how he is the future of the Dems:

It was pointed out by someone I read today that he barely got 50% in heavily Democratic New York City. Bill DeBlasio (remember him?) got 73% and 67% and he was a train wreck. I don’t think people should be reading too much into his victory other than he’s not as popular as some are trying to make him out to be.

Further to this, more centrist Dems demolished the GOP in New Jersey and Virginia. All the smart kids said it was going to be closer in Virginia and a nail-biter in NJ. Will the Dems learn there lesson here, or will they continue to scratch their ideological id?

Trump Thumped

This is the Trump 2.0 Effect

charliesykes.substack.com

It was the blowout Republicans feared, and Democrats desperately needed. A coast-to-coast repudiation of Donald Trump and all his works.

Democrats won in places you’d expect them to win (NY, California), but also in places that were a surprise (Georgia and Mississippi). Democrats romped to double-digit landslides in the night’s most important races (in NJ and Virginia). Even flawed candidates were pulled to victory by the riptide of anti-Trumpism. They won up-ballot and down-ballot. In Virginia they won an additional 10 seats in the House of Delegates. In Pennsylvania, they kept control of the state Supreme Court.1

And with one notable exception, (we’ll get to that in a moment), they won with the kind of aggressive centrist candidates who could be the majority-makers in 2026 and 2028.

Former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger — who has a history of winning close, swing districts — flipped Virginia. Former naval officer and federal prosecutor Mikie Sherill crushed MAGA’s fondest hopes in a state where the GOP had been gaining.

Even more important: They are the kind of candidates who could win elections in almost any of the states that will determine control of Congress and the presidency in 2028.

They should be the face of the Democratic Party; but the Dems may be distracted by other bright objects. So, it’s important to learn the right lessons, and avoid the delusions about last night. because there is still a lot of unfinished business.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Respectfully, you don’t know what you’re talking about here. Everyday, hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers across North America go to work and ruin the days and lives of many dodgy assholes without covering their face, with their names plastered on their vests and their badge numbers memorized for when asked. Few are worried about “doxxing” if they are doing their job properly. One of the hallmarks of a free and open society is that law enforcement don’t hide their identities when doing their work. In most jurisdictions, law enforcement can’t hide their identities for fear of doxxing.

As I wrote in another reply, the "customer" population is unique in that it's composed mainly of approximately law-abiding people who just want to live and work in the US. Pretty much all other LEOs just go about their business and only have to worry about the immediate people they're dealing with.

Given the activist campaigns aimed at publishing identities and ginning up hatred, presumably to incite political action but also probably (passively, deniably, whatever, the excuses are all bullshit to me because I've seen the masks slip too many times) to incite some LEO maimings if not killings, the concerns are rock-solid bona fide.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Further to this, more centrist Dems demolished the GOP in New Jersey and Virginia. All the smart kids said it was going to be closer in Virginia and a nail-biter in NJ. Will the Dems learn there lesson here, or will they continue to scratch their ideological id?

Know your authors and their ideological beefs and filter your inputs accordingly. Of course Charlie Sykes is going to pump Democratic fortunes and denigrate Republicans'.

 

[Czech_pivo]

This is the kind of stuff that makes it easy for people to link factions within the current Republican Party to the Nazi's of old.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/politics/nick-fuentes-tucker-carlson-heritage-foundation-kevin-roberts

Nick Fuentes, the well-known White nationalist and Holocaust denier, has ignited a civil war within the Republican Party — and inside one of Washington’s most prominent conservative think tanks.

A bitter split has erupted on the political right after former Fox News host Tucker Carlson hosted Fuentes on his podcast for an overwhelmingly friendly conversation. Some conservatives, including Dinesh D’Souza and Ben Shapiro, have condemned Carlson for elevating a fringe figure who has expressed an affinity for Adolf Hitler and regularly traffics in racist, sexist and antisemitic tropes.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I’d say the risk is more that organized crime looking to conduct a kidnapping might dress it up as an ICE snatch. That’s a realistic possibility.

That is a real issue, I recall one pot grower here getting cleared of a murder charge for shooting a undercover cop when being raided, arguing he feared it was rival gang that would kill him. The cartels in Mexico wear their own very LEO/Paramilitary uniform in the areas they control.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Meanwhile, in the Bronx...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1986241512951165202

And that's why sometimes you need foam in your firefighting toolbox. Hopefully no serious injuries.

 

[HavokFour]

Becoming forgetful or just really bad taste?

Trump adds gold-script signage outside of Oval Office

 

[MrWhyt]

Becoming forgetful or just really bad taste?

Trump adds gold-script signage outside of Oval Office

View attachment 96638

it's The White House, it's not like you have people wandering around needing to consult a "you are here" map. If you're that close to the oval office that you can read the sign you already know you're going to the oval office.

 

[RangerRay]

As I wrote in another reply, the "customer" population is unique in that it's composed mainly of approximately law-abiding people who just want to live and work in the US. Pretty much all other LEOs just go about their business and only have to worry about the immediate people they're dealing with.

Given the activist campaigns aimed at publishing identities and ginning up hatred, presumably to incite political action but also probably (passively, deniably, whatever, the excuses are all bullshit to me because I've seen the masks slip too many times) to incite some LEO maimings if not killings, the concerns are rock-solid bona fide.

ICE has managed to deport a lot more illegals under the Obama Administration without having to resort to questionable or illegal tactics, hiding their identities or producing war porn. The fears of doxxing are fear porn produced by the Administration and Fox “News” to excuse their goon behaviour, when it’s their behaviour that is making them extremely unpopular. People want ICE to deport illegal aliens using lawful tactics, not violently rounding up brown people regardless of citizenship status in unmarked vehicles in plain clothes and hiding their identities, while throwing tear gas canisters at kids as they drive away. I’m convinced the Administration has told them they will be pardoned for any future tribunals that will happen when another party is in power in the future, hence the real reason they are not identifying themselves.

They are plenty of anti-police activists that try to dox regular police acting within their duties. Guess what? It’s not a huge issue. ICE and the Administration are making it an issue.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Becoming forgetful or just really bad taste?

Trump adds gold-script signage outside of Oval Office

View attachment 96638

When your interior design preferences run to third world dictator chic or New Orleans whorehouse.

 

[RangerRay]

Know your authors and their ideological beefs and filter your inputs accordingly. Of course Charlie Sykes is going to pump Democratic fortunes and denigrate Republicans'.

Yes. Sykes is a former conservative radio host who lost his show when he refused to get on the Trump Train and saw him for the disaster It is. He also wrote a book titled “How the Right Lost its Mind”. Great book, highly recommended. I appreciate hearing from apostates because they are usually trying to warn people of trouble coming from their camp. Since any Republican who has publicly criticized the Orange God-King has been cast into outer darkness and the party has slid into darker places, it’s no surprise that Sykes and people like him are now siding the Dems despite their ideological disagreements.

If you bothered to read the article, he gives the Dems unsolicited advice, which they seldom heed, to not get excited about DSA golden boys in Democratic strongholds who only won by a bare majority and focus the kind of candidates that will dominate in “purple” districts. He’s also the first to acknowledge Dems usually ignore his unsolicited advice.

Sounds reasonable to me.

 

[RangerRay]

When your interior design preferences run to third world dictator chic or New Orleans whorehouse.

I always thought of it as “Versailles meets Liberace”.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Nancy Pelosi announced she will not seek reelection. After 40 years.

I think everyone can agree this was probably 39 years too late.

Nancy Pelosi announces retirement after decades in US Congress

Pelosi made history as the first female Speaker and left an indelible mark on US politics.

www.bbc.com

 

[Brad Sallows]

Becoming forgetful or just really bad taste?

Trump adds gold-script signage outside of Oval Office

Would look good on a hotel bar or restaurant entrance.

 

[Brad Sallows]

ICE has managed to deport a lot more illegals under the Obama Administration without having to resort to questionable or illegal tactics, hiding their identities or producing war porn.

Three things: everyone from activists down to mere enthusiasts temper their oppositional energy and tactics when they find themselves opposing one of their own (and it is difficult to image a greater partisan divide than Obama and Trump); it is easy to have greater output numbers when you allow greater input numbers; Trump's administration is dealing with the insufficiently policed borders of the Biden administration, not the Obama administration.

The fears of doxxing are fear porn produced by the Administration and Fox “News” to excuse their goon behaviour, when it’s their behaviour that is making them extremely unpopular.

Joshua Jahn. The concern is irrefutably legitimate.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Yes. Sykes is a former conservative radio host who lost his show when he refused to get on the Trump Train and saw him for the disaster It is. He also wrote a book titled “How the Right Lost its Mind”. Great book, highly recommended. I appreciate hearing from apostates because they are usually trying to warn people of trouble coming from their camp.

Sykes isn't part of the Republican camp. He's with the community of self-exiled (former) Republican NeverTrumpers, who followed in the footsteps of David Frum by declaring themselves the True American Conservatives and reading everyone else out after Trump's ascent. (Of course the American conservative polity has always been a big tent, but they were accustomed to sitting at the head table during the Bush administration.) Several prominent members of the tribe openly declared that if the Republican party tolerated Trump, it would be better for the Republican party to be destroyed and rebuilt. Their attitude is approximately that they shouldn't have to do the hard work of remaining within the party to influence its course; they can stand outside lobbing molotov cocktails until it burns down and then they will show up to take over the ashes. Their maturity is close cousin to leaving the playground with their ball and going home.

They seek to conserve nothing except to restore their own proximity to power. Many of the prominent writers are people I used to read regularly, mostly at National Review. My views still mostly align with libertarian-inflected classical liberalism and what was conventional during the Mulroney/Reagan/Thatcher era; their minds are distraught and it shows in what they write. They've been 9 years without influence in Republican WH-contending circles, and 16 years out of the WH. Trump's unexpected second win has elevated my earlier prediction that they were pitching a fit because they foresaw a likely 16 to 24 years in the political wilderness (no turn again in the WH) to a time-out of 24 to 32.

Meanwhile they throw their weight behind Democrats, who are objectively becoming much more extreme relative to the NeverTrumpers' professed conservativism. (It is a trivial matter of common sense to observe that US progressives are moving left with a much velocity greater than conservatives, and that US conservatives also have a net leftward velocity.) They claim to be conservatives even as they support progressive political fortunes. They may or may not be conscious that to Democrats they are useful idiots; they will each in turn be discarded when they cease to be useful. A fitting end for people who think they are entitled to reap the profits of voters' support to their own ends and then to discard the interests of those voters when the latter doubt their interests were being served in the first place.

 

[Lumber]

(It is a trivial matter of common sense to observe that US progressives are moving left with a much velocity greater than conservatives, and that US conservatives also have a net leftward velocity.)

Disagree completely.

The Democratic party went Clinton->Obama->Biden->Harris->Newsom/Shaprio?
The Republican party when H.W. Bush->W. Bush->Trump->Trump 2.0

Looking at those two progressions, how can you possibly say that the Democrats have moved with "greater" velocity than the Republicans?

 

[Brad Sallows]

Disagree completely.

The Democratic party went Clinton->Obama->Biden->Harris->Newsom/Shaprio?
The Republican party when H.W. Bush->W. Bush->Trump->Trump 2.0

Looking at those two progressions, how can you possibly say that the Democrats have moved with "greater" velocity than the Republicans?

Political Values 1994-2017 (Pew Research).

That aside, is it your contention that Republicans are closing the ideological gap between them and Democrats, or that Republicans continue to drift rightward? The former seems absurd. To the latter, apply common sense: on matters of sexual expression alone, the median US conservative is more accepting now (eg. general lifestyle choices, acceptability in mainstream society, same-sex marriage) than during the Reagan/Clinton era. On matters of racial politics, the same. Bottom line, there is no evidence of more than a very small minority of extremists wanting to revert to pre-1980 norms let alone pre-1964 ones.

If Republicans are not actually drifting right and are not closing the gap with Democrats moving left, they cannot be moving with greater velocity in either direction. The claim that Republicans are becoming "more extreme" is a rhetorical misrepresentation of the increasing distance between the median ideological attitudes, but as in physics, there are no preferred frames of reference in politics. All we can do is pick a date and measure changes in attitudes since that time.

Definitionally: progressives seek more change than conservatives.

[Add: for the presidential succession comparison - which is not a reflection of the US as a whole - as a matter of policy positions, Trump is held by many US political observers to be approximately a 1990s Democrat].

 

[RangerRay]

Three things: everyone from activists down to mere enthusiasts temper their oppositional energy and tactics when they find themselves opposing one of their own (and it is difficult to image a greater partisan divide than Obama and Trump); it is easy to have greater output numbers when you allow greater input numbers; Trump's administration is dealing with the insufficiently policed borders of the Biden administration, not the Obama administration.

It still doesn’t justify Gestapo tactics and disguising you identity and legitimate law enforcement status.

Joshua Jahn. The concern is irrefutably legitimate.

I don’t see anything about doxxing goons (I refuse to give them the respect of law enforcement officers so long as they act unprofessionally deploying questionable, if not illegal tactics) here. A psycho shoots randomly at a known ICE facility killing detainees. As far as I know, it’s still not clear if he was targeting agents or detainees. Even if he was targeting goons, they were employing these tactics before the incident.

If a psycho shoots up a police station and killed some prisoners, would you argue that beat cops need to wear masks and plainclothes and not identify themselves when making arrests?

 

[RangerRay]

Sykes isn't part of the Republican camp. He's with the community of self-exiled (former) Republican NeverTrumpers, who followed in the footsteps of David Frum by declaring themselves the True American Conservatives and reading everyone else out after Trump's ascent. (Of course the American conservative polity has always been a big tent, but they were accustomed to sitting at the head table during the Bush administration.) Several prominent members of the tribe openly declared that if the Republican party tolerated Trump, it would be better for the Republican party to be destroyed and rebuilt. Their attitude is approximately that they shouldn't have to do the hard work of remaining within the party to influence its course; they can stand outside lobbing molotov cocktails until it burns down and then they will show up to take over the ashes. Their maturity is close cousin to leaving the playground with their ball and going home.

They seek to conserve nothing except to restore their own proximity to power. Many of the prominent writers are people I used to read regularly, mostly at National Review. My views still mostly align with libertarian-inflected classical liberalism and what was conventional during the Mulroney/Reagan/Thatcher era; their minds are distraught and it shows in what they write. They've been 9 years without influence in Republican WH-contending circles, and 16 years out of the WH. Trump's unexpected second win has elevated my earlier prediction that they were pitching a fit because they foresaw a likely 16 to 24 years in the political wilderness (no turn again in the WH) to a time-out of 24 to 32.

Meanwhile they throw their weight behind Democrats, who are objectively becoming much more extreme relative to the NeverTrumpers' professed conservativism. (It is a trivial matter of common sense to observe that US progressives are moving left with a much velocity greater than conservatives, and that US conservatives also have a net leftward velocity.) They claim to be conservatives even as they support progressive political fortunes. They may or may not be conscious that to Democrats they are useful idiots; they will each in turn be discarded when they cease to be useful. A fitting end for people who think they are entitled to reap the profits of voters' support to their own ends and then to discard the interests of those voters when the latter doubt their interests were being served in the first place.

So when your party goes off the deep end and there is no way to right the ship, you should just STFU. Got it.