Does it really matter at this point?

A teenage kid who’s still so immature he still thinks “Big Balls” is funny and who has absolutely no security clearance has already gained full access to the treasury department database of every person in the country, and was allowed to install unknown and unapproved software. He’s also been found to have leaked company data in the past, which means that he absolutely cannot be trusted.

Our data has already been permanently and irreparably compromised. All of it. This is by far the biggest data breach of all time, sanctioned by our own government. And we have absolutely no idea what he installed, what he accessed, what he plans to do with that data, or if it’s already in the hands of a foreign adversary, either because it’s being sold to one, or because one of our adversaries already compromised his own system and just took it. Let’s be honest – do you think someone that thinks “Big Balls” is funny actually has even the first clue about cybersecurity, let alone how to fend off an attack from a horde of foreign adversaries who have more years of experience than he has years on this planet?

This is reliant on an unreasonable amount of optimism, especially when you consider the direction things are going right now.

The country as a whole just took a hard shift to the right. Trump actively promised everything he is currently delivering, and even openly said he was going to make things harder on the poor. And our country as a whole stood up and said “Yes, I’d like more of that please.” Trump very well may make things harder on the Republican party base, but they will not blame Trump or his cronies. They will blame Biden. They will blame DEI. They will blame “Woke”. They will blame Kamala Harris. Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama. They will blame anybody but themselves, and they’re willing to make sure that no filthy Democrat ever gets into office again. Because it’s all their fault with their woke DEI hires like Kamala Harris dontchaknow? And if you don’t know, they’ll be sure to tell you.

The GOP do not look inward. They double down on the stupid. They blame “Them”. They never take responsibility. There is no situation where you’re going to make the GOP look left, and in many cases they’d be primaried if they tried. We have already learned the hard way that for every Republican nutjob already in Congress, there are 10 more ready, willing, and able to take their place who are 10 times as crazy.

And the absolute dead last thing you want right now is a Constitutional Convention. Republicans hold 28 states compared to Democrats’ 18. And many of those state governors and legislatures are firmly on board the Trump train. We can’t manage to ratify an Equal Rights Amendment that was passed by Congress back in 1972. Over 50 years ago. And you want any of these people holding a Constitutional Convention? Since Republicans would essentially be in control of the process since they have far more state governments, that would more likely lead to things like a national abortion ban and Trump being all but constitutionally enshrined as a King before it leads to any kind of reforms or restrictions on Trump’s behavior.

This is not entirely the case.

In theory, Trump’s deportation goals could be met by ensuring that the US is so hostile to illegal immigration that immigrants already here choose to return home willingly rather than be deported by force. Trump would certainly prefer it that way, as he would take credit for all of those numbers as well, without having to worry about actually expending resources deporting them or dealing with the backlash that comes with forced deportations, since they’d be leaving on their own.

Now I don’t know if there’s a realistic way Trump could make the US become so hostile that immigrants start willingly packing up and leaving by the thousands per day, but we all damn well know that he’s going to try.

And if he can’t, he’ll save face by going full WWE and just making up the numbers as he goes along. Not like his rubes actually have a way to check. Or even know how to count that high. Or how to count.

Because people haven’t learned not to play Trump’s games by Trump’s rules. Appeasement not only makes him come back for more, he makes him believe that it’s his by birthright.

Because Trump wields an inordinate amount of power and can have his decrees backed up by use of retaliatory executive action such as firings or pulling funding, retaliatory legislative action, or use of force.

Because Trump wields sizeable support in this country, up to and including militia groups that Trump has already pardoned once and lone-wolf actors willing to commit violence on his behalf, and they do not have support of equal measure willing to defend them.

Because they still have faith in what is left of our legislative and justice system and are still holding on to the hope that everybody will come to their senses and all of this can still be solved legislatively without having to resort to any kind of resistance or violence, no matter how increasingly fleeting that hope is.

Because the people that run these institutions are all just regular people with regular jobs and regular families who just want to go home at the end of the day, and have absolutely no desire to become the John Connor of the resistance movement.

He doesn’t share blame. Blame is for other people, not him. He is above blame by birthright, as far as he’s concerned.

Sharing it means that at one point, he had some or all of it. Trump has already gone on record during his first term directly saying he refuses to accept responsibility for anything. Heck, he just got finished saying that our trade deals with Canada and Mexico were bad and tried to deflect blame away, even though he was the one who negotiated them in the first place.

The moment he has unlimited power,

He already does. What enforcement mechanism does the Supreme Court have? None.

If Trump decides he wants to start ignoring the Supreme Court tomorrow, what the hell are they going to do about it? Especially if Congress is on his side?

If there’s anything “good” to come out of this (and I use that term very loosely), it’s that I’ve actually started seeing coverage of people starting to ask “The Supreme Court doesn’t have an enforcement mechanism. What will happen when Trump decides to ignore one of their rulings?”

Because eventually, that will happen. Either he’s going to feel emboldened or one of his morons is going to convince him to have a staredown with the Supreme Court. Then what?

And nobody really has an answer for that. Will Congress and our other branches of government at various levels side with Trump, essentially rendering the Supreme Court little more than an advisory branch without real power? What would that say for other rulings? Would state governments and agencies start siding with the Court and abiding by its ruling? What if Trump says he’ll pull funding from those agencies and go full “Saturday Night Massacre” on staff until someone agrees to withhold funding? Or if he just allows funding to go through and just fires the entire staff, leaving zero employees? I could keep going and going, but I’m sure you get the idea. Just so many questions, and all of them are scary.

And there are only three ways this could end:

1. The Republican party finally has enough of Trump and votes to remove him from office. But there’s also the fact that many in the party are actively in fear of their lives and won’t so much as publicly criticize Trump for fear of their safety, never mind vote to remove him. I would think everybody knows that I have a better chance of getting a blowie from every member of the cheerleading squad of every NFL football team in alphabetical order before that happens.

2. Those who are tasked with resisting are removed from their posts. Those who refuse to go willingly are escorted away by force. No legal or military action takes place to stop it as those who are in charge fear that ordering any police or military intervention would be perceived as a gross over-reaction to any individual firing, or not wanting to be the first to request military action, leading to violence and perhaps even full civil war. This fear would lead to a paralysis where other members of leadership are waiting for somebody else to make the call, ultimately leading to nobody doing anything. Opposing leadership continues to attempt to diffuse the situation with appeasement and essentially just starts handing power over to Trump piece by piece.

3. Civil War. Opposition leadership being removed from their posts would be unwilling to go voluntarily, and the DOJ would send in federal agents to escort them away in cuffs if necessary. If state leadership is lucky, either the state police, state’s national guard, or both recognize Trump’s multiple violations of the Constitution. With both sides having polar opposite goals and nobody with authority to be able to mediate over them, it can only end one way. Both sides aren’t going to stand there with their weapons drawn just staring each other down forever. From there, God only knows.

This requires skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and long-term planning.

Republicans can’t think beyond what they believe “ownz teh libz” right now. Nor do they want to. If it doesn’t “pwn th3 l1bs” right this second, they’re not even remotely interested.

Remember, the party is actively anti DEI, anti science, anti-intellectual now. They wear it as a badge of honor. They consider things like critical thinking and long-term planning “woke” and grounds for banishment from the party. Ask them to think critically and they will literally tell you “we don’t want to.”

Ever watch Pinnochio? The scene where the kids are all playing around without any supervision and slowly turning into mindless jackasses, not realizing what’s happening until it’s too late and they’re reduced to mindlessly thrashing around in terror? That. That’s what’s happening right now. They just think that it’s “everybody else” that will turn into the jackasses, not realizing they’ve already started growing a tail.

They’re dumb as fuck and they want it this way.

And this will be the last time we hear of this.

Was working just fine, actually. We had constitutional protections at home, and Palestinians still at least had a homeland. Now we’ve got neither.

I mean he can sign it, it’s going literally nowhere.

This is incorrect. He can sign it, and Bondi will start bringing these cases to court. One would think that it would immediately stop there as the first judge she argues in front of dismisses the case for being blatantly unconstitutional and having her brought up on sanctions for multiple blatant violations of the defendant’s constitutional rights.

But in this court system? I wouldn’t be so sure. At the very least, I expect at least some people to get caught up in this dragnet and have their lives upended for years until the Supreme Court finally stops dragging their feet. But given this administration, this Supreme Court, and the number of MAGA judges that Trump can forum shop through, there is a non-zero chance this actually succeeds.

It wouldn’t be the first time this administration and SCOTUS hand-waves away constitutional protections.

Hey, how’s that “stay home and protest Genocide Joe” campaign working out for you guys?

I don’t care who ultimately gets credit for it. This would be an absolute game changer for millions of families.

Freedom of the Press has been irreparably tainted already. Trump has already got the 3 major networks (CBS, ABC, and NBC) to all bend the knee, along with major publications like the Washington Post. Companies have already altered their coverage of Trump to avoid retaliation either in the form of lawsuits, government action, or both. Independent media and reporters have toned down their coverage considerably out of fear of lawsuits they cannot afford to defend themselves against or executive retaliation.

This is damage that cannot be undone, as every media outlet going forward will have the fear of “What if this president decides to retaliate?” in the back of their heads, which has a chilling effect on reporting.

I’m not saying its right, but all of these people should not be the least bit surprised and should have seen this coming. Not only is it typical for an incoming POTUS to replace at least some top officials with their own nominees, but Trump explicitly stated he’d be purging anyone not sufficiently MAGA enough for his liking. It’s not like this came out of nowhere. And anyone who has been paying any attention should have known that Immigration was going to be one of the first departments purged.