558 Comments

What I'd love to see is for draft-dodger Trump to institute the draft. No, not to send soldiers to Russia to fight against Ukraine, but to enforce the mass deportation plan. That's quite a labour intensive project so it'd be wonderful to see those that voted for MAGA actually doing the grunt work required. The white women who voted for him, the latinos & black voters, the union workers and all the rest - have them be the ones kicking in doors and ripping families apart.

Yeah I know, wishful thinking but it would be a nice reality check for them - looking into the eyes of the people whose lives they voted to destroy.

Expand full comment

I say eff it. Let's see how a public that couldn't even handle funding to Ukraine handles burning money to deport people. Plus, all these legal immigrants voted for autocracy. You get the county you deserve. "Oh but he won't deport me, I'm not a criminal". Well, I guess we'll find out won't we....

Expand full comment
founding
Nov 13·edited Nov 13

Another day, another round of Trump enshittification. Who's excited to hear about today's cabinet picks?

I, for one, am looking forward to Trump grabbing the last black person's name that he heard for HUD. So, welcome former NC gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, probably.

Expand full comment

There are those oligarchs and there are our oligarchs. Anyone who has been looking elsewhere for rule by a cadre of extremely wealthy people need look no further. The robber barons never left, and make no mistake about it, that’s all tfg ever was and he never denied it. I knew it, most of you knew it. But our oligarchs have just been given the keys to the kingdom by our fellow citizens. There is a deep wound here. I feel it in my bones.

Expand full comment

Chuckled when I read this at 11 PST. It’s probably worse than expected & faster than expected.

Expand full comment

I wish y'all Bulwark folk would articulate the significance of the richest man in the world being an active participant in a Presidential administration?

I mean this guy is rich beyond my comprehension, as my comprehension was shaped growing up approximately in Bill's generation. If money is power then this guy is already more powerful than Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Fisk, and Carnegie combined and he is directly advising and influencing the most powerful office in the world.

I can't find the words to explain why i feel this is the most awful development so far, but i do feel this. Like, he got this wealthy by pulling levers handed him by Reagan and now supply side economics owns the govt and the right to trickle down on everyone who is not fabulously wealthy.

I'm tempted to describe it as late stage capitalist decadence. Am i a commie for thinking this way? This is the guy who decimated Twitter, turned it into a sewer and lost nearly 30 BILLION dollars in the doing? The guy who fired all the people who made the place work right? The guy who nevertheless maintains the technological resources to single out and silence critics on his platform? Is this his vision for the whole nation?

Help me out here, i do not understand what is happening to my country.

Expand full comment

You forget to mention that his new job description along with Vivek is running DOGE. As an Aussie I laugh at the hubris of it, but apparently America knew what they were voting for considering we knew about it here in Australia. Now you have a guy in charge of where your tax dollars get spent, who has contracts with your government worth billions of tax dollars already - what could possibly go wrong lol.

Expand full comment

You are correct, sir.

Expand full comment
founding

And then there's this… Wonderfully said. https://www.facebook.com/reel/591678193280424?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v

Expand full comment

That's very good. The triumph of psychopathic moral impunity and ugliness - under the guise of "conservative, Christian values" - is the most deeply dispiriting aspect of this saga.

Expand full comment
founding

I agree, Carol. We shouldn't question our commitment to the beliefs we've been taught about how to lead a loving, respectful, honorable life in a democracy.

Expand full comment

NYT: "Trump Picks Pete Hegseth, a Veteran and Fox News Host, for Defense Secretary President-elect Donald Trump chose Pete Hegseth, a Fox News host and veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to be his next defense secretary, elevating a television ally to run the Pentagon and lead 1.3 million active-duty troops." And that makes him an expert to run the Pentagon?

Expand full comment

Stephen Miller is against Immigration. Here is an article by his uncle.

Stephen Miller Is an Immigration Hypocrite. I Know Because I’m His Uncle.

If my nephew’s ideas on immigration had been in force a century ago, our family would have been wiped out.k

Expand full comment

I'm furious. I was at Dana Point Harbor in CA. A woman was talking to a young man with his baby and talking about her grand kids. She said she lives in Laguna Niguel and likes it but then complained about the horrible economy and taxes about how hard it is. I'm sorry, I wanted to slap her. She's sitting in a beautiful harbor, she lives in gorgeous Laguna Niguel where the avg home price is...wait for it...$1.4 MILLION. And she supports Trump because of the economy. WTF!!!!!

Expand full comment

It is going to get ugly quick, on many fronts, including deportation. On the Schedule F stuff - I am a federal retiree who might have been targeted. I would bet a couple bucks that new hires might not even have to swear the oath, and if the do, it will be with a wink and a nod. . I mean, trump did and he broke it - why should anyone under him feel they have to honor it?

Expand full comment

Mr. Kristol, could you help me understand your assessment of the appointments of Mike Waltz and Sen. Rubio. You say, "could be worse." As a strong supporter of Israel, I was happy when I heard of these appointments. Please help me understand your "could be worse" assessment. When I heard about the Rubio appointment, I remembered this clip from about a year ago:

https://x.com/jpodhoretz/status/1856156401401233549

Expand full comment

Rubio? Noem??? The others …. Just there to flatter trump for all his greatness, intelligence, etc. … fartcatchers all.

Expand full comment

So let's look at this. The Army rounds up all the [brown] illegal immigrants (and their families). They send them to the border. They can't just push them through so they build barracks. Some of them may not be Mexican and the Mexican government won't take them. So they will be stuck there for awhile. They'll need food, water and toilets. So it will be a pretty big camp. They will have to surround it with electrified wire so they don't escape. Meanwhile more and more are arriving--millions. So more camps are added. Eventually Mexico is persuaded to take some. Meanwhile this is starting to cost real money to feed and guard these "illegals". Tempers flare. Some are killed by frustrated guards. No punishment for this lapse. So some more get shot. Some escape and die. Why not just pull out the sick and weak and hold them apart. Maybe not feed them so much. Maybe just poison the water and oops lots of them die. By then there are no repercussions and it's solves a big problem. I could see the plan going this way.

Expand full comment

It's unlikely that the Army will be involved at the start. It's already been stated that there will be a slow rollout involving ICE concentrating on known criminals.

Expand full comment

I had read that he wanted to use the army. I don't know if that absolutely true, but that's I've read.

Expand full comment

When Rick Scott was CEO of Humana, the Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions and a 1.7B fine against the company for defrauding customers. Scott moved to FL, proving shit really does roll downhill.

He and Trump are made for each other.

Expand full comment

Please don’t defame my state. I voted straight blue down here in FL, tried my best to get rid of Scott. This rightward turn to the country is way more complicated than Florida man. I think this train has been on the track for decades, certainly since Reagan. I came down here from Massachusetts and we were the only state to vote for McGovern. I worked hard to put the reproductive rights amendment on the ballot, but DeSantis put his thumb on the scales for that one. We got might close to the 60% requirement, even so. My voice and my friends’ voices are needed down here more than ever. And in other states! That’s why I stay.

Expand full comment

Not defaming FL, fully defaming Scott.

Expand full comment

"He looks like Hitler so I voted for him" - all you need to know about the notoriously fickle American Electorate. They bought it and now they will have to own it.

Expand full comment
Nov 13·edited Nov 13

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

Attributed to Winston Churchill

Expand full comment

"He looks like Hitler so I voted for him"

That person had vision problems on top of stupidity.

Expand full comment

True. But it does cause one to pause and consider the uproar over Uncle Joe's using the term "garbage." I mean, what other label really suits somebody who would say that? Really. I'm asking seriously. A person who would say that is garbage.

Expand full comment