I used Perchance AI last night to make the above illustrations. As I was lying in bed before getting up I thought of the analogy of the Titantic and how its builders intended to build a luxury liner that was unsinkable. Then I though of the line about what the Founding Fathers had given the nation widely attributed to Ben Franklin: “a republic, if you can keep it.”
Krugman starts off slowly writing about Trump’s tarrifs, deportations, and the economy. Then he builds to what I planned to write about. He writes:
Unfortunately, one possible effect of the bad economic news may be to induce MAGA to put the real Project 2025 — the plot to destroy American democracy — on an accelerated schedule.
Or as I think of it, I don’t think we’re in Hungary anymore.
He goes on to explain how Viktor Orban took a gradualist approach to destroying democracy in Hungary. noting that the ruling party “had the luxury of time because until recently the party remained quite popular with the Hungarian public.”
Then he wrote:
It's now clear, by contrast, that Trump and MAGA don’t have the luxury of time. Trump’s approval has already cratered. He inherited an economy with low unemployment and subdued inflation, but is now presiding over a weakening job market and will soon face a burst of inflation, with nobody but himself to blame. He may manage to bully government statisticians into cooking the books and making the numbers look good, but that’s harder than it looks. And even if the official numbers say everything is great, nobody will believe it.
So if Trump and MAGA want to hold on to power, they’ll have to do so in the face of low public approval and poor economic performance.
What does “quickly and blatantly mean? Krugman concludes as follows:
Indeed, as CNN reported the other day, Republicans are trying in multiple ways to, in effect, rig the midterm elections. Their actions include a plan for an extreme, mid-decade gerrymandering in Texas that could cost Democrats multiple House seats; attempts to interfere in voting procedures, for example by banning states from accepting mail-in ballots after election day and forcing states to require proof of citizenship. Much of this is clearly unconstitutional, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
And what if these actions aren’t enough? Remember, Trump supporters, with his clear encouragement, already tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The important point is that right now Trump has immense power, thanks in large part to the cowardice of many of the institutions that should be holding him in check. But he’s also rapidly bleeding support, in large part because he’s completely failing to deliver on his economic promises.
That combination makes this an extremely dangerous moment.
These are Krugman's concluding sentences:
The oppostite of being soft is being hard. What could this look like less than Trump declaring martial law and using the armed forces to overthrow democracy?
If he tries to do this the only hope for saving democracy that I can see is that patriots in the military say a “hard no.” I will leave it to you to imagine how this woud play out.
It is instructive to compare Trump’s position, not just to Orban’s, but to Hitler’s in the late 1930’s. Orban took the slow route to conquest of just one country. Hitler, who already had an iron grip on Germany, mounted a successful juggernaut to conquer Europe.
Could Trump accomplish what Hitler did by mounting a blitzkrieg to take over not other free nations, but “just” the United States?
Stories about this have been in the news for a few day (News search):
What I find telling is that none of the men shown being deported look like hardened dangerous criminals. None look like they want to sing along with the song.
The only man who does look like a hardened criminal in the ad is Donald Trump.
Even though it was posted on the White House X page on July 29th, Salon didn’t pick up the story until yesterday. This was the first place I saw it referenced. The article is “Jet2 holiday ad audio used in ICE deportation video.”
Here’s an excerpt from Salon:
Zoë Lister, the voice actor in the original commercial, also criticized the White House for co‑opting the ad.
A spokesperson Jet2 and Jet2 Holidays gave a statement to the English press, distancing the airline from the post and expressing disappointment that its brand was tied to political messaging…..
“Our branding has become something of a viral phenomenon this summer and we are pleased to see how many people have used it in good humour. This has put a smile on many people’s faces, just like our holidays do. We are of course aware of a post from the White House social media account. This is not endorsed by us in any way, and we are very disappointed to see our brand being used to promote government policy such as this.”…
The controversy comes as the Trump administration escalates its immigration crackdown, with expanded ICE operations and plans for mass deportations. While the White House has not apologized or removed the video, the uproar highlights the risks of repurposing light‑hearted internet culture to promote hardline policy.
I wonder whether Hegseth will find a catchy tune to play as background music when he has an ad showing how great it is when he orders active duty soldiers to round up immigrants.
I doubt that ICE is actually playing this song while loading the immigrants onto a plane. I don’t doubt that they might take inspiration from this ad and that the sadists among them decide to do this.
In conclusion:
The Nazi’s had prisoners play music when they marched Jews off to their deaths during the Holocaust (reference).
I wonder if Trump’s plan is to eventually be able to move entirely out of Washington and rule the country from Mar-a-Lago. Then he could surround himself with total tackiness and have his own golf course just five miles away. (Facts about Mar-a-Lago)
Trump was pissed off because Charlamagne tha God was interviewed by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump on Fox Newsand said "I think this Epstein thing is going to be a way for traditional conservatives to take their party back, I really do." This was his reaction:
Running the country must really be easy since in between saving the world he has the time to think about matters like this.
On her Facebook page today my friend Sabrina Haake asked for recommendations of companies to do business with which are anti-Trump. I found this website: Shop How You Vote.
I was glad to see Macy’s listed as strongly left since we do shop there. We knew this since the last time we were there they had a PRIDE promotion. I was upset that Costco, where we also shop, was listed as strongly right.
