Australian Atheists Forum

pipbarber wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2024 7:45 amThat's my morning musing.

My morning musing is that Harris has some strategies for victory and I am cheering for her to win, but I also worry about what comes next.

The specific example is when she was asked about Trump's racism, she replied "Same old tired playbook. Next question."

It seems like a good strategy to belittle Trump, who thrives on controversy and division, so it doesn't give him oxygen. But then I ponder that it also ignores the reality that Trump's racism is vile, and instead attacks him for being OLD. This is OK except that it ignores the reality that modern racism is a phenomenon among certain young people, e.g. the nightmare of those (mostly) men at Charlottesville. There's a sort of implicit acceptance of racism if she's unable to directly fight it. What is she going to say if she is confronted by the racism of the young, or if some monstrous post-Trump young neo-Nazi firebrand emerges before 2028 to take on the orange mantle?

Yesterday I watched "God and Country" (available on SBS on Demand), about Christian Nationalism in the USA - very disturbing!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... oject-2024

Next come the roundups. As drafted by the Maga nativist-in-chief Stephen Miller, a broad range of law enforcement, from the national guard to state and local police are deputized for a new deportation army. Sweeps of neighborhoods and businesses take aim at blue states and cities, but general terror is their intended goal. Detention centers are established on military bases and federal facilities with quick access to airfields to execute mass removals. Nearly a million lawfully present immigrants are stripped of their legal protections, subjecting them to immediate deportation. An end to Daca and a return of the Muslim ban follow.

Too alarmist? Nah, that putrid Project 25 document is a blueprint for terror, terrorism and torture. It's Abu Ghraib brought home.

Arun Kundnani in What is Anti-racism (an excellent book that should be widely read), argues that the European colonial experience demonstrated how to terrorise a populace from which the fascisms and totalitarianists of the 20th century drew. America has a long and rich experience of distributing terror to the world of its enemies and now, as its empire fades away, it is turning on itself. That's what Kundnani would argue, i'm guessing.

If the Dems win, they have got to change the business as usual model or project 25 just gets re-titled project 29.

pipbarber wrote: ↑Tue Sep 10, 2024 6:30 pm subjecting them to immediate deportation

Something that's ignored by all these "mass deportation" fans is this, that other countries actually have to agree to take them. I mean it's not like bussing people from Florida to California, you start sending hundreds of busses full of people to the Mexican border and they, Mexico that is, are simply going to close the border. The key to legal and open border crossings is that both sides agree to keep them open. I mean they could try using the US military to force them to stay open, then it's war with Mexico!

And planes are even worse, you have a fairly limited supply of them, if they are even allowed to land they have to be refueled at the destination to be able to leave, and if the Mexican government decides to just not do that you lose planes with every planeload of immigrants you try and ship out. There's no way to force other countries to suddenly take millions of deportees, you need agreements and understanding and....well the problem there is.....Trump!

Maybe the maga movement has two distinctive branches, or maybe three.

Firstly, there is the material conditions branch - poor white traditionally working class people that can't afford to see a doctor and struggle to stay afloat financially despite working long hours, and can't reconcile the reality of their condition with the great American prosperity myths - and they are pissed off. These are the 'right feelings wrong facts' crowd that i don't hide my sympathy for.

The second branch is Christian nationalism, which hardly needs summarizing as its been a point of discussion on our forums for years. Obviously there's a huge crossover with the first group but christian nationalism draws from the comfortable middle classes and even a wealthy demographic, as opposed to the first branch. They're true believers.

Then maybe a third branch might include the grifters, who are really the propagandists of the movement. Not really religious, and not poor, it's just a power and wealth grab. People like Musk, Alex Jones, Dave Rubin, the wrestler with the podcast show etc, and of course Trump himself and News Corp and the billionaire class, playing out their own frog and scorpion saga. But the first two groups are the more interesting because they constitute the rump of the movement, they're the foot soldiers.

I've been pretty convinced that the maga movement would survive Trump, but if that above analysis is roughly accurate (and of course it might not be), replacing him might be trickier than i've assumed. A full-on christian nationalist won't necessarily appeal to the first cohort, that is the white traditionally working class. Do they really care about abortion, LGBTQ+ people, banning porn? So perhaps they have to go for the bigoted politician strong man again, and hope the christian nationalists jump on board as they have with Trump. His successor might not be that easy to find.

Of course, all of this is based on Trump losing the election and then dying of natural causes. If he wins it's all pretty much irrelevant.

Thoughts?

pipbarber wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2024 3:19 pmThoughts?

I have a special interest in/aversion to the 21st century technological nightmare, so I might be biased, but I think the grifters category is not quite right for Musk and co. They are a new branch of fascism often called techno authoritarianism, and I think its proponents in the MAGA camp see a huge opportunity to take the reins when donOld collapses from an overdose of aspartame. The ascendance of JD Vance to the ticket is a big part of it. The junior Trumps are also getting into crypto, and the Orange Clown is going along with it but it's a departure for him, he is being steered in that direction.

The Dems are cheating......riiiight;

Rodriguez, who had been facing a maximum sentence of 20 years, promised to testify against Republican political operative and former state senator Frank Artiles, who's facing similar charges. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office alleges Artiles paid Rodriguez more than $44,000 to run as a no-party affiliation candidate in the Senate District 37 race won by Republican Illeana Garcia by 32 votes over José Javier Rodríguez.

After taking over 6,000 votes from the Dems due to a similar name the Dems still only lost by 32 votes! It's not the the only report of such practices by the Rep's. it's exactly what JFK Junior was trying to do for Trump, only he did it because he is a moron, if you get paid by the Repub's to do it then that's another thing altogether, it's called election fraud, oh dear!.

https://imgur.com/gallery/florida-alexi ... ts-5JQTrpg

Trump has a use by date. Even if he wins in November it will only extend his effectiveness for a finite time, probably less than the four years of his term. Who steps into the void? It looks to me like the fascist branch of SIlicon Valley is best placed. Thiel, Musk, Vance, the Trump sons, the crypt bros etc.. Other players are sympahetic to at least part of the creed, e.g. Zuckerberg, Page and Brin, although google is typically cast as being an enemy of MAGA. Here's a bit more evidence: Musk getting into the nuts and bolts of the election campaign.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... n-musk-pac

stylofone wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2024 7:21 am Trump has a use by date. Even if he wins in November it will only extend his effectiveness for a finite time, probably less than the four years of his term. Who steps into the void? It looks to me like the fascist branch of SIlicon Valley is best placed. Thiel, Musk, Vance, the Trump sons, the crypt bros etc.. Other players are sympahetic to at least part of the creed, e.g. Zuckerberg, Page and Brin, although google is typically cast as being an enemy of MAGA. Here's a bit more evidence: Musk getting into the nuts and bolts of the election campaign.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... n-musk-pac

Musk would 100% run for president if he was allowed to, i reckon. He's truly wealthy, racist, misogynistic, idiotic, narcissistic, a fantasist - actually he's more Trump than Trump.

Oh dear, it's like they are just accusing the Dems of the things they do!

A Republican state senator from West Virginia is being asked to step down by his local GOP party chair after being arrested on a drunk driving charge — his second arrest in as many months.

State Sen. Mike Maroney, who was first elected in 2016, was arrested in August on a charge of indecent exposure.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... rcna173104