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The good news is: I no longer have to talk to Trump supporters.
Politics by Navy2711     November 6, 2024 6:11 pm (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: oldedude (18 comments) [180 views]


Election 2024 Political Test (Level: EASY)
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The Dingbat raised over a $billion. She's 20 mill in the whole
Crime by HatetheSwamp     November 7, 2024 11:14 am (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: oldedude (3 comments) [30 views]


RASMUSSEN: We called it EXACTLY
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What Trump's Win Means for
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If the Dems take the House...
Government by HatetheSwamp     November 7, 2024 3:53 am (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: Indy! (7 comments) [55 views]


While millions of Americans are whining about prices, Oregonians turn down free money.
Politics by Curt_Anderson     November 7, 2024 10:48 am (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: Indy! (1 comments) [22 views]


How many proper nouns in this encyclopedic description need to be changed to apply Trump?
Games & Toys by Curt_Anderson     November 6, 2024 12:08 pm (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: Indy! (14 comments) [111 views]


Project 2025
Government by HatetheSwamp     November 7, 2024 9:26 am (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: Indy! (1 comments) [30 views]


Jack Smith to leave special counsel post before Trump takes office: report
Crime by HatetheSwamp     November 6, 2024 10:49 am (Rating: 0.0) Last comment by: oldedude (1 comments) [50 views]


How-to selectors, pages, etc.
Six major ways Trump could weaken American democracy
By Donna
October 30, 2024 9:42 am
Category: How-to

(5.0 from 1 vote)
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From the NY Times:

There are at least six major ways Trump could weaken American democracy:

1. Prosecute critics. Trump has promised to use the Justice Department to punish his political opponents if he is president again, including with “long term prison sentences,” as he wrote online.

Presidents have traditionally not inserted themselves into criminal cases. But that has been a choice; a president has the power to issue orders to the Justice Department. In his first term, Trump demanded investigations of at least 10 people, sometimes damaging their lives, as my colleague Michael Schmidt has documented. Trump could order more investigations in a second term, given his staffing plans. (This graphic lays out how Trump could seek to jail his political opponents.) [visit the article link - Donna]

2. Silence critics in other ways. Trump may also try to use his regulatory powers to shape public discourse. He has suggested that NBC, MSNBC and CBS deserve to lose their broadcast licenses because of their critical coverage of him. He has talked about punishing Amazon because its founder, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.

These comments echo the silencing campaigns that foreign leaders like Viktor Orban in Hungary and Narendra Modi in India have conducted (as this essay by A.G. Sulzberger, The Times’s publisher, explains).

3. Reward allies and campaign donors. Trump, as The Times has reported, “is sometimes making overt promises about what he will do once he’s in office, a level of explicitness toward individual industries and a handful of billionaires that has rarely been seen in modern presidential politics." Both the oil and vaping industries — and perhaps Elon Musk — seem likely to benefit.

4. Replace federal employees with loyalists. Late in his first term, Trump issued an executive order that gave him the power to fire and replace tens of thousands of federal workers, including economists, scientists and national security experts. The order would have vastly increased the number of political appointees, which is now about 4,000. President Biden rescinded the order.

True, there is an argument that such an order promotes democracy by causing the federal work force to reflect the elected president. But the moves may also strip the government of nonpartisan expertise that connects policy with reality. And combined with Trump’s many anti-democratic promises, the wholesale firing of federal employees could allow him to use the government for his personal whims.

5. Undermine previously enacted policies. Rather than trying to repeal laws he opposes, Trump and his allies have suggested that he may simply “impound” funds — effectively ignoring laws that Congress previously passed. One example: He could try to block money for clean energy.

6. Refuse to transfer power peacefully. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, still do not acknowledge that Biden beat Trump in 2020. Trump even vows to pardon some of the rioters who attacked Congress when it was meeting to certify the result on Jan. 6, 2021.

This combination suggests that a transfer of power took place in 2021 only because enough Republicans stood up to Trump. And they may not do so in the future.

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Comments on "Six major ways Trump could weaken American democracy":

  1. by HatetheSwamp on October 30, 2024 9:44 am

    In English?


  2. by Indy! on October 30, 2024 10:29 am

    So now people are helping tRump by spelling out how he could destroy America? 🤨


  3. by Donna on October 30, 2024 10:35 am

    They're all ideas that Trump and his proto-fascist loyalists have already put out there, Indy. Come on - you know that.


  4. by HatetheSwamp on October 30, 2024 10:39 am

    "They're all ideas that Trump and his proto-fascist loyalists have already put out there..."

    Bull$#!t

    How bout some links...

    ...and, not from a hack woke propaganda site like Curt's Holy Trinity New York Times! Bahaha.


  5. by meagain on October 30, 2024 11:35 am
    Except for the strange statement that replacing the federal workforce with 'loyalists,' that is all real. However, the replacement would not be more democratic. The workforce should not reflect the President. The very essence of Parliamentary democracy is that the civil service must be completely non-partisan. It will carry out orders but at the senior levels, its purpose is to advise the President and Cabinet, not reflect it.


  6. by oldedude on October 30, 2024 10:49 pm
    I'll agree with that. The federal workforce should work for the citizens of the nation. I think that's pretty simple. Two years ago, pedojoe (biden) put an "employee survey" into place by a "contractor" that tested the "loyalty to the 'president'" that was okay when the dimocrates put it in, but is a crims for the Republicans. I don't understand that reasoning. These are political parties, not Law. If it's in law, someone needs to go to the system and make it constitutionally illegal. And yet, for now, it's in place under the pedojoe administration.


  7. by Donna on October 31, 2024 8:35 am

    "Two years ago, pedojoe (biden) put an "employee survey" into place by a "contractor" that tested the "loyalty to the 'president'" - olde dude

    That sounds like bullshit.


  8. by Indy! on October 31, 2024 10:57 am

    OD couldn't source that if his penis guns depended on it.


  9. by Indy! on October 31, 2024 10:58 am

    BTW, it's spelled "c-r-i-m-E", OD. Again - call us when you need help with the big words. 😌


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