Sobered by Responsibility? Are You F'ing Kidding Me?
Trump and Musk are drunk on their hubris.
History is laden with fantasies that authoritarians and extremists will be tempered by the weighty responsibilities of power.
Yeah, no.
We’ve already gotten the answer about Regnum Trump 2.0: As we’ve seen over the last few days, neither Donald Trump nor Elon Musk have been sobered in any way by their electoral triumphs.
If anything, they enter the New Year drunk on their own hubris.
Happy Friday.
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Everything is a pretext
By now the pattern is familiar: A tragedy, followed by farce and falsehoods, becomes a pretext for demagoguery, blame, and threats.1 But this time, the lies and the threats are coming directly from the man who is about to assume the awesome powers of the presidency.
In the wake of the tragic attack in New Orleans, another president might have rallied the nation, urged us to unify, or perhaps even appealed to the better angels of our nature.
But Donald Trump is not that other president.
Instead, he (1) amplified a false —and quickly retracted2 — report from Fox News that the terrorist was a migrant3, (2) blamed the Biden Administration and Democrats for the slaughter, and (3) used the incident as a pretext to justify his use of “strength and powerful leadership.”
Since he assumes the presidency in just 17 days, his words deserve some attention, because they provide us an unambiguous signal of what lies ahead.
On the first day of the year, Trump declared that the country he is about to lead is “A disaster, a laughing stock All over the world!”
He lashed out at law enforcement. “The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job.” And he turned from the terror attack to airing his own grievances. “They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our nation itself.” [Emphasis added.]
By referring to the SCUM who had “infiltrated all aspects of our government,” Trump made it quite clear who he thinks the real enemy is.
And he signaled an aggressive and sweeping use of government power to combat the threats. “The CIA must get involved. NOW, before it is too late.”
He ended with a near-apocalyptic vision of the United States as a shithole country that needed to be rescued by a strong leader.
“The USA is breaking down,” he declared. “A violent erosion of Safety, National security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation. Only strength and powerful leadership will stop it.” [Emphasis added.]
“See you on January 20th. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
On Thursday, he against lashed out at his domestic enemies, including Joe Biden, whom he called “the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER.” Specifically, he warned that the damage done by Biden and “his group of Election interfering ‘thugs’ will not soon be forgotten!”
**
Exit take: By now it should be obvious that Trump is prepared to use any incident as a justification not just for his mass deportations, but also for his use of the levers of government — THE FBI, DOJ, CIA — against his enemies, foreign and domestic alike.
It seems prudent to take him both literally and seriously.
Elon embraces Pepe
Even as he sits at the right hand of power, Elon Musk wants us to know that he is also all out of f*cks to give.
Musk has already sparked a MAGA scat fight over migrant visas and embraced Germany’s far-right neo-Nazi party. And lest all of this be too subtle, Trump’s alpha paymaster decided to also change his identity on Xitter.
ICYMI over the holiday, Musk changed his name to “Kekius Maximus” on X — and his avatar to Pepe the Frog. Via BBC:
"Kekius" appears to be a Latinisation of "kek", a word roughly equivalent to "laugh out loud" popularised by gamers but now often associated with the alt right.
"Kek" is also the name of the ancient Egyptian god of darkness, who is sometimes depicted with the head of a frog.
Not just any frog.
Since 2016, at least, Pepe the Frog has been a symbol of the Alt Right movement. Its use was so widespread that the Anti-Defamation League labeled it a “symbol of hate.”
The majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted. However, it was inevitable that, as the meme proliferated in online venues such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit, which have many users who delight in creating racist memes and imagery, a subset of Pepe memes would come into existence that centered on racist, antisemitic or other bigoted themes.
In recent years, with the growth of the "alt right" segment of the white supremacist movement, a segment that draws some of its support from some of the above-mentioned internet sites, the number of "alt right" Pepe memes has grown, a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2016 presidential election.
Musk’s embrace of Pepe led Oliver Darcy to ask this pertinent question:
For those who have had any doubts that Musk has transformed Twitter into a right-wing fever swamp, there should be none now. The question is: Why do so many public figures, government officials, and brands continue to post on there? If they wouldn't maintain an account on Truth Social or Rumble, why remain on X?
New Year’s Dogs
Nota Bene:
The Unpopulist: Trump’s Rhino Epidemic Is Growing - by Shikha Dalmia
I recently re-watched, Rhinoceros, a dark comedy based on an eponymous 1959 play by Eugène Ionesco, and it offers an even better metaphor for our surreal times when the populist authoritarian pandemic is spreading not only in America but across the world and afflicting individuals who should have been most immune to it.
**
The Atlantic: An Astonishing Level of Dehumanization - by Peter Wehner
The list of organizations and individuals who could be targeted because their critics on the left or on the right believe they support policies that lead to suffering or death is endless: gun-rights lobbies; those who want to defund the police; individuals opposing childhood vaccinations, and those who administer them; groups that want to cut funding for the global AIDS initiative; those that want the United States to withdraw from the Paris climate accords; those that oppose a higher minimum wage. So who decides which Americans are guilty of “social murder”? Staff writers at The New Yorker? And what actions will we justify against those deemed to have committed murder by omission rather than commission—in the words of Engels, “disguised, malicious murder, murder against none who can defend himself”?
**
Liberal Patriot: The Democrats’ Culture Denialism - by Ruy Teixeira
The idea has penetrated deeply into the Democrats’ DNA that these issues are not real issues. They are artefacts of the Republican attack machine, preying on bigoted impulses, rather than real concerns of voters. Real issues concern tangible things like the economy, health care, government programs and the like. How else to explain the remarkable quiescence throughout the party as it moved sharply and consistently left for a decade across all cultural/values issues from crime and immigration to race and gender? These issues were treated as a costless playground for social justice commitments.
But of course they were very real issues reflecting very real concerns. Voters overwhelmingly believe illegal immigration is wrong and should be deterred not indulged. They believe crimes should be punished, public safety is sacrosanct and that police and policing are vital necessities. They believe, with Martin Luther King, that people should “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” and therefore oppose discrimination on the basis of race no matter who benefits from that discrimination. They believe biological sex is real, that spaces limited to biological women in areas like sports and prisons should be preserved, and that medical treatments like drugs and surgery are serious interventions that should not be available simply on the basis of declared gender identity, especially for children.
These issues reflect deeply held beliefs and values and are vitally important to ordinary voters, especially working-class voters, not diversions from real issues foisted upon them by crafty Republicans. So far, even the screamingly obvious implications of this last election have not been enough to shock many, if not most, Democrats out of their culture denialist torpor. We shall see if this denialism survives the next few years of the Trump administration and the necessity Democrats clearly face to broaden their coalition among the very voters for whom cultural issues are intensely real and the Democratic brand intensely alienating.
Fox News’ botched coverage of the New Orleans terror attack echoed its botched coverage of a previous incident on the Canadian border back in November 2023: “Anatomy of a Fake Attack.”
A tragic car accident last Wednesday near a bridge on the Canadian-American border became a case study in disinformation, ideologically motivated opportunism, and all manner of demagogic bullsh*t. And, of course, it all started with Fox News.
How Fox Went From Car Crash to Terrorist Attack to Train Wreck in a Matter of Hours - MeidasTouch Network.
Fox baselessly began employing the term 'Islamic terrorism,' describing hypothetical scenarios regarding potential casualties if the vehicle had advanced. They continued to tell their audience that the vehicle contained explosives. Fox Host John Roberts even speculated that the premature detonation of the vehicle might be attributed to the driver's insufficient expertise in handling explosives…
The conversation predictably turned to questions about the identities of the people in the car.
Roberts: We don't know how long the people who perpetrated this attack have been in this country. Did they recently come across? Did they come into the country legally? Did they come across illegally and claim asylum? Were they some of the nearly 1 million got-aways who come into this country? Were they radicalized in this country? Were they radicalized at all? Did they come into the country that way? There are so many questions yet to be answered...
Uh, no. The driver was not an immigrant, an asylum seeker, a radicalized lone-wolf, a jihadi, or one of the “nearly 1 million got-aways who come into this country.”
Instead, the driver was a 56-year-old man from an upscale nearby area. He had intended to attend a KISS concert but, when the event was canceled, opted to visit a casino instead. The individual was driving a Bentley and was accompanied by his wife. CNN added that the incident was beginning to look like a tragic accident.
But the facts did not catch up with the Fox bungle before it was seized upon by the usual suspects, who leapt at the early reports to score points, strike poses, and stoke outrage.
Via NBC: Trump and GOP allies falsely blame New Orleans attack on immigration failures
President-elect Donald Trump and his allies in Congress have blamed the deadly New Orleans truck attack on President Joe Biden's border policies even though the attacker was a U.S. citizen.
“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social as information was still trickling out about the ramming attack on Wednesday morning….
Fox News had reported Wednesday morning that the driver, who was shot and killed by police after he ran over a crowd of people on New Orleans’s famous Bourbon Street, had crossed over the border from Mexico earlier this week. The network walked back its reporting later Wednesday, but not before Trump and some of his allies echoed it.
Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect's eldest son, posted a news article about the erroneous report, saying, "Biden’s parting gift to America — migrant terrorists."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted shortly after the initial segment: “New Orleans terrorist attacker is said to have come across the border in Eagle Pass TWO DAYS AGO!!! Shut the border down!!!”
The attacker was identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, of Texas, a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran.
Voters in Dearborn Michigan trying to teach Kamala and the Dems a lesson because of Israel-Gaza will have their own lesson quickly. Thanks Charlie for keeping up with the daily dumpster fire.
This whole "everything is the Democrats fault" that is pushed by the GOP and their allies at Fox is exactly why I was somewhat relieved that the Dems didn't get some piddly two seat majority in the House this cycle. All that Trump and the GOP know how to do is throw bombs, it's always a disaster when they "govern." Unfortunately pain is going to have to be the teacher for the populace to wake up and realize who has been screwing them over. And who knows if even that will work. The Germans believed the propaganda until bombs were literally falling on their heads.
I'm happy to see Auggies toe is feeling better and he's enjoying the snow. Happy New Year to your family. You and your vocab have inspired me to get off social media and go back to the literary classics. Tell JF that her writing has inspired me to unplug, feed the birds, and sing my song even in dark times. When I saw the "2025" atop the ball drop in Times Square I felt a little queasy. I hope that the worst thing that happens is that I lose my health insurance.
May god help us all.