Updated and revised predictions

Welp ladies & germs, with DJT's selection of sex pervert Matt Gaetz as attorney general, I hereby officially claim that most of my 11/6/24 predictions of things to come by 11/1/26 will be mostly true. That is despite the wuss squeaks of "concern" from some powerless, gutless Republican politicians in congress and maybe elsewhere. Trump really is going to burn the whole damned thing down. I have seen enough. I was right.

Looking forward

We can reasonably estimate the trade DJT made that led to his Gaetz pick. Actually I argue that we really know. Gaetz gets off the hook in return for Trump being impervious to prosecution for any and all crimes, which Gaetz will say are official acts for which a sitting president is immune. That is now the definitive end of the rule of law and the beginning of the rule of the thug.

Q: I need a citation to Trump saying that he respected Eric Holder for protecting Obama from prosecution.

A: President Donald Trump expressed his respect for former Attorney General Eric Holder's protection of President Barack Obama in an interview with The New York Times published on December 28, 2017. Trump stated, "I don't want to get into loyalty, but I will tell you that, I will say this: Holder protected President Obama. Totally protected him," and added, "When you look at the things that they did, and Holder protected the president. And I have great respect for that, I'll be honest."

This comment was made in the context of Trump's frustration with his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who had recused himself from the Russia investigation. Trump contrasted Sessions' actions with Holder's, suggesting that he admired Holder's loyalty to Obama.

You know, for those who still claim our democracy will stand, I think you are wrong. But on the happy side, I hope you are right. 

When the public backlash comes, it it probably be too little and too late. The next chapter of America is now, more likely than not, predicated on a major social backlash. I just hope the backlash does not take the form of a civil war. 

More predictions

Predictions added to my 11/6/24 batch:

1. Federal data collection functions will be (i) stopped entirely, or (ii) almost completely kept from the public, and spun into lies when the data is inconvenient. (That was a Ronald Reagan tactic -- I think he invented it)

2. The degree of neutering and silencing of the mainstream will be almost complete because the capitalist billionaires and capitalist corporations who own news media will be cowed into towing the line in Trump's deeply corrupt authoritarian sphere.

3. Universities and colleges will be forced by threat of withholding federal funding into silence about teaching real history, global warming science and whatever else rubs radical right authoritarianism the wrong way.

4. The independence of the Federal Reserve will be neutered and weaponized.

5. Consolidation of federal executive, legislative and judicial power with radical right authoritarianism sufficient to establish single-party rule in the US. 

6. MAGA opponents will be attacked, e.g., by forcing the IRS to investigate political opposition, and by DJT's claim he will use his power to shut them down.

7. Whatever else I am unable to conjure right now. (Update 11/14/24: I forgot, the CFPB and NLRB will be mostly neutered so that consumer and worker protections can be eroded without much or any government pushback) 

Shall we chat?

Q: Is Germie off his nut or uncomfortably maybe mostly right?