The reason Trump won is largely the same reason nearly all incumbent governments in the developed world lost. They happened to be in power when inflation was high, even if the inflation had nothing to do with them and there wasn't much they could do to reverse it.

The US actually had the best results in combating inflation out of all developed economies. But it didn't matter. Prices were high and that was enough to swing the election.

That's exactly it.

Let's all make ourselves as little guys! Everyone is welcome to join!

Here's mine:

Tagging: @silentwillowwhisperer @hecateisalesbian @mushr00mswirl @mischievousmary

@hyperfixationbullshit

Thanks for the tag ^^

:O

Is me!!

Np + open tags

@0dividedby0haha @ava3vav @four-corners-dude @gatheringofaccounts @larz-barz @matthew-knyshait @mun-urufu @noobadorkisser3 @prometheus2007 @pennyroyald @personwholikespmtok @that-weird-bee @whatisnureotypical @z3r0th3h3r0 + anyone else I can't find :{

Irl me 😭🙏 tysm for the tag pookster 😘🙏

@larz-barz @kokushibosbestie @kanaokanzaki-op @lunar-aquatic @pulim-v @qequalsmcat @nothingtoseehere1-2-3 @stellapuffs @obanais-koibito and anyone else! :3

Thank you for the tag Matthew! ❤️ 🖤 ❤️

If it wasn’t obvious enough, I love wearing black-

Tagging: @slayfics @unofficialsapphire @mintsbubbletea @larz-barz @kimetsu-chan @shycroissanti @circus-gone-wrong @stellapuffs

Thanks for that tag! This one was fun, here I am 💚✨.

tags: @unofficialsapphire @mintsbubbletea @ramuunene @kurumi-igarashi

picrews are so fun(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

@wvoonie @larz-barz @boiling-potato heh

I love you Kura WAHHH

@kaq3yma @cherieonow @kanaokanzaki-op @seneon

thank you for the tag ⭐ hunny!

mine is so green and i love it hihi 🙊🙊🙊

(no pressure) tags: @skullvgirl, @reapkusho, @hanaeriin, @luv-lies +++ everyone <!

THIS IS ADORABLEEE AAAA, thank you for the tag qeena!!

couldn't find a shade of black for me and my dog but she's adorable :3

tags! @thegolden-tigeress @fishii28 @shrii-kk @beneathsakurashade @starsh1ne-va1ly

@honeyedpearcrushh @still-fatemeh @raskoln1kovsaxe @the-lazyyy-artist <- i feel like you'd like this hehe @anglefish3008 + anyone who'd like to join :)

thank youuu :33

@carcin0-88 @cadaverousconsumer @giggle-shitter @lyrebirb @still-fatemeh @despairdoodlesreal @kaiserkisser @uzi-x33 @thegolden-tigeress @fishii28

skjdhjkja thank uuuuu <333

@cadaverousconsumer @despairdoodlesreal @giggle-shitter @keettennuggets @luc3lov3ly @/anyone else :3

@rowaltiora @sashathegirliepop @felixrulezz

@red-velvet-0w0 @nerdywren @kyathedino @trezoblossoming @moldy-guacamole @mygay-is-non-binary @zeros-dumpsterfire @haowenyang @myfirstvideooninstagram

not all that much like what i actualy look like but who actualy cares about me

open tag

this can’t be real

He put them together at the kids table that doesn’t exist I’m fucking crying

its easy to make fun of this (and i think we should) but its also important to note the description of this new department that trump has given

[transcript: "together, these two wonderful americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies - essential to the 'save america' movement," trump wrote. "i look forward to elon and vivek making changes to the federal bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all americans."]

to be clear: trump is planning to create a new department whose purpose is literally to deregulate and defund government oversight. this will lead to corporations having greater freedom to fuck over consumers while making more money, and he is putting two billionaires in charge of it.

sure, maybe this is just a ploy to keep them quiet. giving them the illusion of power in exchange for backing him. but lets not forget all the regulations trump cut during his last term

which has directly led to the constant recalls of consumer goods and foodstuffs over the past several years. the recent e coli outbreak at mcdonalds? the boars head listeria recall? these are the products of deregulation. getting rid of laws and standards that protect consumers by making sure money hungry corporations dont cut corners.

the funny name is a smokescreen. keep your eye on these fuckers.

Plot twist: the two boys you're choosing between are polyamorous, but they also hate eachother's guts so you still have to pick one

Sorry but watching them fight gets me off, I'm keeping them both in a jar and shaking it up and down every hour.

kitten, stop fucking around and tell daddy where you hid his prozac or daddy's gonna add another 'hey there delilah' to the sex playlist

why do you guys only like my bad posts

hi prev i read all my tags anyway my wife watches house and she says you’re right

gen z becoming radicalized is giving “yuppies with hippie parents” vibes like i can see so many parallels with the cultural shift that occurred between the 70s 80s and the one occurring now

ie thinking they’re “rebelling” by embracing traditional gender roles and values 💀💀💀

There’s a reason we call Qanon followers Qultists.

The subreddit r/QanonCasualties is also a good resource, or at least a place to find people who have experienced having their loved ones radicalized by the alt-right and having discussions on the topic.

This version of the progress flag legitimately looks so nice

Gilbert baker rainbow, huge intersex circle, the design is cluttered but in a good way 10/10

[ID: A version of the progress pride flag with a large purple intersex ring outlined in gold, looping through pink, blue, brown, and black chevrons on the side, which have a base of white. The horizontal stripes are: pink, red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, and purple. End ID.]

It's happening the morphing into Ohio

Girls. That's the original image. We've come full circle. It's always just been the state of Ohio

Overkill. http://Newsday.com/matt :: Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 13, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 14, 2024

Republican senators today elected John Thune of South Dakota to be the next Senate majority leader. Trump and MAGA Republicans had put a great deal of pressure on the senators to back Florida senator Rick Scott, but he marshaled fewer votes than either Thune or John Cornyn of Texas, both of whom were seen as establishment figures in the mold of the Republican senators’ current leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Scott lost on the first vote. The fact that the vote was secret likely helped Thune’s candidacy. Senators could vote without fear of retaliation. 

The rift between the pre-2016 leaders of the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans is still obvious, and Trump’s reliance on Elon Musk and his stated goal of deconstructing the American government could make it wider. 

Republican establishment leaders have always wanted to dismantle the New Deal state that began under Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and continued under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower and presidents of both parties until 1981. But they have never wanted to dismantle the rule of law on which the United States is founded or the international rules-based order on which foreign trade depends. Aside from moral and intellectual principles, the rule of law is the foundation on which the security of property rests: there is a reason that foreign oligarchs park their money in democracies. And it is the international rules-based order that protects the freedom of the seas on which the movement of container ships, for example, depends.

Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin. 

He has begun moving to  put into power individuals whose qualifications are their willingness to do as Trump demands, like New York representative Elise Stefanik, whom he has tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, or Florida senator Marco Rubio, who Trump said today would be his nominee for secretary of state. 

Alongside his choice of loyalists who will do as he says, Trump has also tapped people who will push his war on his cultural enemies forward, like anti-immigrant ideologue Stephen Miller, who will become his deputy chief of staff and a homeland security advisor. Today, Trump added to that list by saying he plans to nominate Florida representative Matt Gaetz, who has been an attack dog for Trump, to become attorney general.

Trump’s statement tapping Gaetz for attorney general came after Senate Republicans rejected Scott, and appears to be a deliberate challenge to Republican senators that they get in line. In his announcement, Trump highlighted that Gaetz had played “a key role in defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax.” 

But establishment Republican leaders understand that some of our core institutions cannot survive MAGA’s desire to turn the government into a vehicle for culture war vengeance. 

Gaetz is a deeply problematic pick for AG. A report from the House Ethics Committee investigating allegations of drug use and sex with a minor was due to be released in days. Although he was reelected just last week, Gaetz resigned immediately after Trump said he would nominate him, thus short-circuiting the release of the report. Last year, Republican senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told CNN that “we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor, that all of us had walked away, of the girls that he had slept with. He would brag about how he would crush [erectile dysfunction] medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night." 

While South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham said he would be willing to agree to the appointment, other Republican senators drew a line. “I was shocked by the announcement —that shows why the advise and consent process is so important,” Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) said. “I’m sure that there will be a lot of questions raised at his hearing.” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) was blunt: “I don’t think he’s a serious candidate.”

If the idea of putting Gaetz in charge of the country’s laws alarmed Republicans concerned about domestic affairs, Trump’s pick of the inexperienced and extremist Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth to take over the Department of Defense was a clarion call for anyone concerned about perpetuating the global strength of the U.S. The secretary of defense oversees a budget of more than $800 billion and about 1.3 million active-duty troops, with another 1.4 million in the National Guard and employed in Reserves and civilian positions.

The secretary of defense also has access to the nuclear command-and-control procedure. Over his nomination, too, Republican senators expressed concern.

While Trump is claiming a mandate to do as he wishes with the government, Republicans interested in their own political future are likely noting that he actually won the election by a smaller margin than President Joe Biden won in 2020, despite a global rejection of incumbents this year. And he won not by picking up large numbers of new voters—it appears he lost voters—but because Democratic voters of color dropped out, perhaps reflecting the new voter suppression laws put into place since 2021.

Then, too, Trump remains old and mentally slipping, and he is increasingly isolated as people fight over the power he has brought within their grasp. Today his wife, Melania, declined the traditional invitation from First Lady Jill Biden for tea at the White House and suggested she will not be returning to the presidential mansion with her husband. It is not clear either that Trump will be able to control the scrabbling for power over the party by those he has brought into the executive branch, or that he has much to offer elected Republicans who no longer need his voters, suggesting that Congress could reassert its power.  

Falling into line behind Trump at this point is not necessarily a good move for a Republican interested in a future political career. 

Today the Republicans are projected to take control of the House of Representatives, giving the party control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency, as well as the Supreme Court. But as the downballot races last week show, MAGA policies remain unpopular, and the Republican margin in the House will be small. In the last Congress, MAGA loyalists were unable to get the votes they needed from other Republicans to impose Trump’s culture war policies, creating gridlock and a deeply divided Republican conference. 

The gulf between Trump’s promises to slash the government and voters’ actual support for government programs is not going to make the Republicans’ job easier. Conservative pundit George Will wrote today that “the world’s richest person is about to receive a free public education,” suggesting Elon Musk, who has emerged as the shadow president, will find his plans to cut the government difficult to enact as elected officials reject cuts to programs their constituents like. 

Musk’s vow to cut “at least” $2 trillion from federal spending, Will notes, will run up against reality in a hurry. Of the $6.75 trillion fiscal 2024 spending, debt service makes up 13.1%; defense—which Trump wants to increase—is 12.9%. Entitlements, primarily Social Security and Medicare, account for 34.6%, and while the Republican Study Group has called for cuts to them, Trump said during the campaign, at least, that they would not be cut. 

So Musk has said he would cut about 30% of the total budget from about 40% of it. Will points out that Trump is hardly the first president to vow dramatic cuts. Notably, Ronald Reagan appointed J. Peter Grace, an entrepreneur, to make government “more responsive to the wishes of the people” after voters had elected Reagan on a platform of cutting government. Grace’s commission made 2,478 recommendations but quickly found that every lawmaker liked cuts to someone else’s district but not their own.  

Will notes that a possible outcome of the Trump chaos might be to check the modern movement toward executive power, inducing Congress to recapture some of the power it has ceded to the president in order to restore the stability businessmen prefer.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was himself a wealthy man, and in the 1930s he tried to explain to angry critics on the right that his efforts to address the nation’s inequalities were not an attack on American capitalism, but rather an attempt to save it from the communism or fascism that would destroy the rule of law. 

“I want to save our system, the capitalistic system,” FDR wrote to a friend in 1935. “[T]o save it is to give some heed to world thought of today.” 

The protections of the system FDR ushered in—the banking and equities regulation that killed crony finance, for example—are now under attack by the very sort of movement he warned against. Whether today’s lawmakers are as willing as their predecessors were to stand against that movement remains unclear, especially as Trump tries to bring lawmakers to heel, but Thune’s victory in the Senate today and the widespread Republican outrage over Trump’s appointment of Gaetz and Hegseth are hopeful signs. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

This is worth the read. Heather Cox Richardson has a savvy take on the Trump team's shenanigans.

There’s too many valleys in California and they’re all referred to as “the valley” as shorthand so you never know which one somebody is talking about. Is it the Central Valley? Sonoma valley? San Fernando Valley? Yosemite Valley? Nobody knows!

This is why we need to bring the mountains down into the valleys. Level the playing field. Bring the mountain dwellers down to us. Have a completely flat land and some extremely strange cliffs on the Nevada, Arizona, and Oregon boarders. Screw the water problem we drain the Pacific Ocean and keep it all in a big bucket water problem solved and you can drive to Hawaii now