Mastodawn

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

"Blood bath at #RNC" 1/...

"Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the RNC began the process of pushing out dozens of officials.

All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut" #Trump https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/bloodbath-at-rnc-trump-team-slashes-staff-at-committee-00146368

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

2/ He wants power and $$.

Just as he did in the WH.

Blather, wince, repeat.

3/ I'm not gleeful about this, although I get why some of you are.

Fascism isn't funny, at least, not to me. But since the RNC is broke, I think they have about $8 million now? this will indeed hurt down ballot races for the GOP.

Whatever money there is will go to Trump's legal fees and campaign, or whatever else he needs (more ketchup?).

But I'm not laughing. I'm alarmed. Power/$ = the goal. He's aggressively pursuing those.

Democracy suffers again.

🚫👑Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff no, you're right. They should be nowhere near the apparatus of power, and yet, here we are.

They deserve to be utterly eradicated in the election.

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

@tirrimas Scary as hell

Lawrence Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff This is gross and alarming. The silver lining is of course that if Trump loses, there is some serious permanent damage done to the RNC. On the other hand, that's a mighty big "IF".

Annietime Mar 12, 2024

@tersenurse @GottaLaff Trump doesn’t plan to lose. Election or not he and his Project 25 people are going to attempt to wrest the election into a win no matter what that looks like.

Stu Duerson, machina exo deus Mar 11, 2024

The unfortunate part of it is, I don't think there's any quick way to separate Trump from any foreign underwriting. I think he'll have access to as much as he can spend as long as there's any significant chance he can win.

The down-ticket candidates on the Republican ballot will take the brunt. Trump's burning it all down, before he's dragged away.

At the end of all this, I half expect the biggest joke of all. If Trump can ever wrap his mind around the damage he's caused the Republican Party, you know he'll claim he did it for the Democrats.

James Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff He is weakening down ballot efforts.

Darwin Woodka Mar 11, 2024

@James @GottaLaff

that's the part I think will be interesting. McConnell's PAC is responsible for so much of the GOP's funding and RNC is pretty much the rest, so with McConnell stepping down and RNC becoming Trump money, what happens downballot? Gonna be interesting to watch.

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

@James I said that in the thread, yes.

SteveBologna Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff I think it’s hilarious that trump put a skunk weasel in charge of the money so that they will assuredly violate campaign laws by paying his fines. Oh, they’ll get away with it because our laws concerning politicians are feckless Vote Blue

Pusher Of Pixels (old account)Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff yeah. It's eerily similar to Putin buying Trump into office only to find NATO expanding to his doorstep.

"Careful what you wish for" as the line from action to consequences is never straight.

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

@pixelpusher220 True, but there's no guarantee that this will end badly for them. I don't understand people celebrating this. It's dangerous stuff.

Pusher Of Pixels (old account)Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff definitely agree. I was meaning it could end badly for us sane people even if they destroy themselves.

We're designed as a 2 party system, the in between period isn't likely to be smooth

John Maxwell Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff Yeah. Because the real game is making GOP candidates his property. This is from the classic single party authoritarian playbook.

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

@jmax Bingo

JonChevreau 🇨🇦Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff 45 has always had just 4 goals: money, power, fame & sex; in that he has been consistent and is therefore predictable; the wild card is a more recent 5th goal: staying out of prison, which makes him desperate and even more ruthless. Now the SC has greenlit him, the next 9 months will be crazier than ever. And the media will lap it up.

Laffy Mar 11, 2024

@JonChevreau Bingo

JohnW Mar 11, 2024

@JonChevreau @GottaLaff

It does look chaotic. Most of his supporters await his next piece of bad press with anticipation. So any press he gets is doing more harm than good for the country.

Michael Wyman Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff fascists like to purge their own ranks as they accumulate power. But those remaining afterwards feel even more tightly bound to the fates of the higher-ups.

Nazani Mar 11, 2024

@mwyman @GottaLaff
The fired RNC employees must be debriefed. Offer them 1 week's rent to spill everything they know about Trump & his cronies. 😉

Michael Wyman Mar 11, 2024

@Nazani @GottaLaff they wouldn’t. They were already loyalists, just no longer loyalist ENOUGH, or maybe even just inconvenient to the new leadership.

Nazani Mar 12, 2024

@mwyman @GottaLaff
Not so sure. Being suddenly jobless enhances focus & clarity.

Coach Pāṇini ®Mar 12, 2024

@Nazani @mwyman @GottaLaff

Some rich Democrat can offer 11 months of COBRA for compensation to the first half-dozen takers and only the idiots won’t raise their hands.

Nazani Mar 12, 2024

@paninid @mwyman @GottaLaff
Sounds like a plan.
"CERTAIN STAFF ARE BEING ASKED TO RESIGN AND REAPPLY FOR A POSITION"
So they may not be able to get unemployment benefits. Oh, well, like COBRA, that's bleeding-heart liberal stuff, anyway.

Coach Pāṇini ®Mar 12, 2024

@Nazani @mwyman @GottaLaff

Fair point, not wrong

Nicole Parsons Mar 12, 2024

@mwyman @GottaLaff

All fascist movements have purges.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm

https://www.nytimes.com/1931/04/04/archives/hitler-will-purge-party-of-radicals-german-fascist-chief-gives.html

https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Volksgemeinschaft#ref742197

Ernst Röhm - Wikipedia

Danette 🐬Mar 11, 2024

@GottaLaff not only is this move by Trump scary but the number of people who once again assume that Trump will lose and therefore they can vote 3rd party or not vote is terrifying.
Thanks for everything you do!! You’re a bright light ❤️❤️

Laffy Mar 12, 2024

@Danetteb ❤️

Pamela Barroway – Biz Editor Mar 12, 2024

@GottaLaff Oh, I get it. So does Will Bunch:

Doreen32128 ready to rumble!Mar 12, 2024

@PamelaBarroway @GottaLaff Does this not strike fear into the hearts of Republicans? If not, why not?

Randy CC is Real Mar 12, 2024

@GottaLaff I read that only the very rich can run for office as a GOP, as Frump is going to bleed the RNC $ dry.

John Timaeus Mar 12, 2024

So 60-ish layed off plus some resign and reapply? Do we know what the total headcount is?
Trying to get a rough percentage.

Pamela Mar 12, 2024

@GottaLaff He's ALWAYS bankrupted whatever he touched!

RowinSpeez Mar 12, 2024

@GottaLaff They already said out loud they aren’t trying to win elections with voters, they’re going all-in on attacking election administration. That’s why Trump is seizing this particular institution, it was the first thing his crony-in-law said, attacking election integrity.

Nicole Parsons Mar 12, 2024

On The Rachel Maddow Show tonight, she discussed what happened with Bud Light & TikTok.

In both cases Trump & the GOP went nuts on their own megadonors.

Anhauser-Busch & Jeffrey Yass are both major donors, yet Trump waged a year long attack on them until they forked over a fundraiser or cash.

Then Trump's assault on their investment suddenly stopped.

For the GOP, campaign finance is both bribery & extortion.

American democracy is in a "Everything Must Go" GOP fire sale.

Democracy Dies in Dumbass Mar 12, 2024

Not surprising...no-one with taste drinks bud-light anyway. It tastes like mediocre beer that's been pre-filtered through an American's kidneys.

Nicole Parsons Mar 12, 2024

This isn't the first time Republicans have used their bully pulpits to extort "donations" from corporations & individuals.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/10/paul-singer-elliott-republican-fundraiser/

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-cash-strapped-trump-campaign-is-trying-to-get-away-with-a-new-donor-loophole

Jim Jordan's Google hearings got him huge financial windfalls.
https://newrepublic.com/article/176148/jim-jordan-attack-big-tech-accept-donations

https://www.fastcompany.com/90535573/that-guy-yelling-during-the-antitrust-hearing-this-week-google-funds-him

The threat of congressional hearings or legislation is used to squeeze corporations for partisan financial gain.

This vulture-fund billionaire is the GOP's go-to guy on Wall Street

Meet the hard-charging, warship-seizing hedge fund mogul who has become congressional Republicans' most powerful fundraiser.

Mother Jones

Nicole Parsons Mar 12, 2024

Here is another example of a "pay-to-play" Republican protection racket.
During the height of the covid pandemic, the meatpacking industry won an exemption that let them stay open & become super-spreaders.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-trump-is-helping-tycoons-exploit-the-pandemic

https://www.propublica.org/article/documents-covid-meatpacking-tyson-smithfield-trump

https://www.propublica.org/article/emails-show-the-meatpacking-industry-drafted-an-executive-order-to-keep-plants-open

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/us/politics/meatpackers-trump-covid.html

Edelruth, PBS Passport Holder Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 @GottaLaff

I do remember this.

Laffy Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 Yep, that segment laid it all out

Misuse Case Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 @GottaLaff The push for a TikTok ban isn’t just a GOP thing. Meta has been lobbying for it (since 2021) since TikTok is their biggest competitor. American intelligence agencies don’t like TikTok because it won’t work with the data brokers they buy surveillance data from.

Nicole Parsons Mar 12, 2024

@MisuseCase @GottaLaff

Jeffrey Yass is also hoping to get a forced sale pushed through so he can pick up the rest of the stock cheaply...

Or force a sale to another Republican anti-democracy donor like Larry Ellison or Walmart.
https://qz.com/2179741/oracle-finally-won-tiktoks-us-data-storage-business

https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/the-tiktok-saga-continues-deal-with-oracle-and-walmart-on-hold/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-sale-to-oracle-walmart-is-shelved-as-biden-reviews-security-11612958401

This is what kleptocracy looks like, the forced sale of your company to a favored crony.

In some respects, the sale of Twitter to a Saudi-funded Elon Musk resembled a similar forced sale.

Oracle finally won TikTok’s US data storage business

Two years after the Trump administration engineered a deal for Oracle to take over TikTok's US data storage, ByteDance announced “100% of US user traffic is being routed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure."

Quartz

Misuse Case Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 @GottaLaff Meanwhile you have a bunch of ostensible liberals cheering for some kind of ban or forced sale of TikTok because “TikTok is controlled by a totalitarian government!” without realizing how ominous this whole thing really is, or what kind of precedent it sets.

grabe Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 @GottaLaff @MisuseCase I am a liberal, but allow one issue for consideration. The social media companies offered by corporations in the U.S. collect a great deal of information about users to target ads and for other vaguely understood purposes. Should social media be limited to use only to those from the country who runs the service? Should any social media service that collects information be banned?

Misuse Case Mar 12, 2024

@grabe @Npars01 @GottaLaff If we ban any social media that operates in foreign countries what do we do to immigrant communities here? And we’re kind of behaving like some very unfree regimes if we do that. I mean, Russia, China, etc. block some American web services and social media platforms and we don’t like that! For good reason!

1/2

Misuse Case Mar 12, 2024

@grabe @Npars01 @GottaLaff California’s recently amended privacy law actually makes it really easy to stop abusive data collection practices/make the business model of abusive data collection practices unviable, and also get your personal information away from data brokers who could sell it abroad. A national law like that would stop a lot of the stuff we actually have to worry about.

2/2

grabe Mar 14, 2024

@MisuseCase @Npars01 @GottaLaff my position is similar. We put other countries in a much better position to block services originating in the US if the politicians in those countries can point to our policies when communicating with their citizens.

postmasters Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 @GottaLaff
If you love democracy - Start your own democratically organized group.😀

Trump & Epstein: Biz partners.Mar 12, 2024

@Npars01 @GottaLaff
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/-everything-s-for-sale-trump-s-tiktok-flip-flop-follows-disturbing-pattern-206232133701

'Everything's for sale': Trump's TikTok flip-flop follows disturbing pattern

Rachel Maddow looks at examples of Donald Trump completely reversing a strongly stated opinion at a time that appears to coincide with a donation or other financial incentive, a situation that is not likely to change given Trump's transactional nature and his growing desperation for money.

MSNBC

Laffy Mar 12, 2024

@MugsysRapSheet Yep, I posted that too. @Npars01

Nicole Parsons Mar 13, 2024

Here is another example of how legislation was used to coerce donations to the GOP

In 2018, Trump imposed tariffs that hit the alcohol distribution & distillery industry hard as retaliatory tariffs are imposed by trading partners in response

Somehow, megadonors are "convinced" that the "solution" is more GOP campaign donations, not less

https://www.npr.org/2018/07/13/628574646/congressional-republicans-struggle-to-push-back-on-trumps-tariffs

https://www.forbes.com/sites/katedingwall/2020/07/22/trump-tariff-war-is-crippling-the-spirits-industry-americas-distillers-are-calling-for-action/?sh=58d5ac79677e

https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/12/politics/whiskey-tariffs-biden-trump/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-trumps-failure-to-learn-from-history-is-making-your-whiskey-a-lot-more-expensive/2020/02/17/797d199c-51ca-11ea-9e47-59804be1dcfb_story.html

The distillery industry's still a GOP donor

Helen Kenyon Mar 12, 2024

@GottaLaff In addition to what you've written, I'm concerned about what happens to all the data at the RNC's disposal. Does it get sent to Russian troll farms and other bad actors to help elect more fascist-friendly GOP pols and hurt Democrats? We all know by now (or should!) that TFG can't be trusted with any confidential information. So, no, I'm not gleeful about this either.

Laffy Mar 12, 2024

@Blossom3663 Exactly

@GottaLaff I have not thought this through, but won't this act as a wake up call to donors and moderate Republicans?

Laffy Mar 12, 2024

@DoctorDNS Moderate Republicans? Where are they?

@GottaLaff those three over there. I do not believe all Republicans are MAGA.
I could be wrong.

Annietime Mar 12, 2024

@GottaLaff I’m extremely alarmed. As I just said in another post on #gleichschaltung, this is just a preview of what he will do nationally if he succeeds in taking power.

Laffy Mar 12, 2024

@annietime And did. He did that last time, only it’ll be way more brazen this time.