Anne ApplebaumRather remarkable that the Trump administration response to a government shutdown is "let's inflict as much pain as possible on as many Americans as possible"
EndicottRoad59@anneapplebaum I think DJT gets off on that.
withoutclass@anneapplebaum Hmm, it seems perfect really. Blame the opposing faction for all the pain. Bonus points for extra pain.
Chris Johnson@anneapplebaum My sweet summer child: in this administration cruelty is the point.
Karl Fogel@anneapplebaum It was shocking. I fear that the lesson the Democrats learned too well from the 2024 election was "Don't make it a referendum on Trump" and thus they will not remind people of these quotes often enough. A better lesson would perhaps be "Don't make it only a referendum on Trump -- you have to make a positive proposition in addition to that", and maybe they're starting to try? But Trump's astonishing threats should not just be left in the discard pile.
Walrus 🏴It's almost as if Trump was a sadistic, insane, senile git.
Phil Thane ✅
Scary Austin@anneapplebaum
They can either take the blame for a shutdown, as is happening, or they can swear in Rep Grijalva and release the Epstein files. Either way, protests will only escalate. They are trying more and more scare tactics, but it is indeed just going to cause more rage.
Life sucks, but I'd still rather be us than them.
mastodonphan HAS MOVED
Margaret Moonshadow@anneapplebaum Unfortunately, remarkable but not remarkable at the same time.
42net@anneapplebaum We're all in trouble when the president views half the country as an enemy
Darwin Woodka@Nobodyknows789 @anneapplebaum
Please, he views everyone as his enemy. He has no friends since Epstein died.
Eric Lawton
Jerry Goff
Alex Fürstenau@anneapplebaum remarkable yes but surprising no. Quite the opposite. He seems to be rather consistent.
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency@anneapplebaum Pretty sure you've got that backwards...
Idyll@anneapplebaum What worries me is that Trump has no incentive to Ever open the government. We know he doesn’t give a s*** about the suffering of the people. He wants to prevent the swearing in of the AZ representative, because that means the Epstein files will be released, and that’s as far as his rodent brain can conceive.
galuf@idyll @anneapplebaum That's my concern, too. The very wealthy do not have to live with the consequences of their actions. They can live right on through a weak economy, government service disruptions, and other "nuisances". And Trump has shown he's all about his wealth and the "welfare" of the other wealthy people who give him money to do them favors.
Mark Keisler@anneapplebaum Not sure why this should surprise anyone
I_give_u_worms@anneapplebaum Trump's supporters need to feel the lash of Trump's policies before midterms
MasterMischief@i_give_u_worms @anneapplebaum They are never going to get it. They believe whatever right wing propaganda tells them.
@MasterMischief @anneapplebaum the food costs are high enough they are going to have to pay attention to their bellies-- government work puts so much into the economy that they need to listen to that silence before the midterms too
@anneapplebaum
The beatings will continue until morale (Behavior? Compliance?) improves.
It's an abusive relationship unless you are a fellow or wannabe abuser.
They are just as abusive to each other. We simply don't see it.
Anthony@anneapplebaum I think everyone should just calm down - the Heritage Foundation have everything under control. This is just a necessary prerequisite for a temporary state of emergency, which will somehow become permanent. No pyromaniac patsies necessary.
Jeff@anneapplebaum not remarkable at all, he had the same response to being inaugurated.
Urzl@anneapplebaum We'd have to be suspicious if he did anything else.
AlgoCompSynth by znmeb 🇺🇦@anneapplebaum He *campaigned* on that exact promise and it was a winning issue. The only remarkable thing about it is that good peoples' revulsion wasn't strong enough and early enough to muster a Harris / Walz victory.
It's the entire them of their administration
xs4me2Simply criminal…
The WookieI guess when you're planning to rig or eliminate any future elections you don't care about approval rates and what the peasants think of you. Our government has been seized by oligarchs and they will not give it back until they have harvested all they can for short term personal gain and destroyed any controls that could rein them in.
RRB@anneapplebaum That has been his governing philosophy from day 1.
@anneapplebaum Not really meant to grant pain, but I think during a shutdown every elected official (including President) should be locked in Capital Building with frozen accounts, no contact with outside (including electronic), and charged $1M/day until the shutdown is lifted. I wonder how fast they will reach a conclusion under these conditions.
Wilfried Klaebe@anneapplebaum They're taking those people hostage to force their demands through Democrat resistance.