Folks, this is starting to get scary. I mean, mega, massive, goose bump scary. A few days ago I posted a piece here “Both Steve Bannon and Ginni Thomas Are Looking To Wreck Civil Service, Replace With Trump Loyalists.” This is a major story. I seldom beg readers to read something, but you really need to have the broad brush strokes of this latest MAGA/GOP coup.
I am not the only one out there screaming and tearing my hair out. Charlie Sykes published yesterday “A Radical Plan For Trump’s Second Term” and he said
Via Jonathan Swan at Axios, your absolute must-freaking-read of the week:
Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology, people involved in the discussions tell Axios.
[…] Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say…
They intend to stack thousands of mid-level staff jobs. Well-funded groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the system — in line with Trump’s long-running obsession with draining “the swamp.” This includes building extensive databases of people vetted as being committed to Trump and his agenda.
The preparations are far more advanced and ambitious than previously reported. What is happening now is an inversion of the slapdash and virtually non-existent infrastructure surrounding Trump ahead of his 2017 presidential transition.
These groups are operating on multiple fronts: shaping policies, identifying top lieutenants, curating an alternative labor force of unprecedented scale, and preparing for legal challenges and defenses that might go before Trump-friendly judges, all the way to a 6-3 Supreme Court.
Don’t let anyone tell you that they haven’t been warned.
Hit the hot link and read Axios’ article, or read my synopsis first, but get on top of this. Forewarned is forearmed and this does not seem to be getting the press coverage that it needs. That fact frankly terrifies me.
And so does Newt Gingrich.
Trump is speaking at this conference in DC tomorrow. I expect his speech to be about this very topic.
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) July 25, 2022
I pray that this becomes a main stream story sooner rather than later.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the only reason the wheels didn’t fall off the governmental wagon back in 2017 was because we had a solid group of civil servants holding down the fort. When Trump took office and appointed his son-in-law Jared “secretary of everything” neither one of them knew that there were jobs that they were supposed to fill. That was brand new information.
One of the reasons the stumbling, bumbling Trump administration didn’t do much more damage than it did is because things were literally at a standstill in the federal government. Many posts went unfilled until way late in the game. Mick Mulvaney, for instance, didn’t take the post of Special Envoy To Northern Ireland until 2020. It had just sat there unfilled. Gary Hart was the previous Special Envoy and his term ended inauguration day, 2017. The post sat empty until March, 2020 when Trump decided to ship Mulvaney out and choose yet another chief of staff.
You won’t see this level of ineptitude again. God forbid Trump would ever get back in office, the list of loyalists is being cobbled together as we speak.
And make no mistake: this is a GOP gambit. If Trump isn’t the America First banner holder, then somebody else will be and the seeds of the Christo-fascist takeover will be sown and nurtured by somebody else.
Here’s all that you need to ever remember regarding this group of thugs:
“Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”
― Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
Repeat after me: “They will not abandon conservatism, they will reject democracy.” Power at any price, including democracy.
That is the new GOP platform. It’s not all that strange that it would come from the mouth of Newt Gingrich. It is, however, that much more terrifying because it speaks to the final rot of what used to be the Republican party. Yes, General Eisenhower, we hear you rolling in your grave. We echo your sentiment. We are wailing and keening up here, watching democracy being pushed towards its grave.
Civil service is run under an actual law, explicitly to PREVENT that kind of cr*p. Postmasters were confirmed by Congress, like other federal appointees.
Many things are under an actual law, Social Security and Medicare leap to mind. I worry about the attacks on them as well.
This is actually the point where you should start laughing and laughing and laughing until they slink away in shame. Seriously, Newt Gingrich’s endorsement should tell you this enterprise is doomed. He hasn’t made a winning bet in 40 years and isn’t about to start now.
For me the Gingrich endorsement gave it the final touch of creepiness. My heart sank. I know you think I worry overmuch about some of these shenanigans, but my point is, if we don’t pay attention to what they’re trying to do, we are missing out on how destructive and evil they are.
If we don’t rise up…we will get the fascist government WE DESERVE!!!
Yeah, the MAGA maggots tried that one already. We’re seeing how well that’s working out for them. If you REALLY believe in American democracy, then what you do is STEP up. Use that system to keep them outside where they belong.
On the contrary…they never have done the work to know our collective history good & bad & focus on voting. They were too lazy for that. It takes effort to read 500 pages of pulizer prize winning history. Time & again since our history is a long one. My call has nothing to do with what they did. Mine is to get off your asses, read up on history & keep track of the truth so you know what you are voting for. To equate the two is simply a false comparison.
I wonder how many times the Pope seriously considered Excommunicating Gingrich and his wife during their tour at the Vatican?
Think about it, and the Catholic Church (especially all those hard core RWNJ U.S. Bishops and even some Cardinals who looked the other way on Trump on matters they’d routinely and publicly condemn others for!) position on things like Marriage. You have the Pope, not just ruling Catholicism but Vatican City which is an actual country with full U.N. accrediations, status and privileges. And the Ambassador(s) from the most powerful country in the world, the one that kicks in more money to the church than everywhere else are the Gingriches.
Newt cheated on his first wife and when divorcing her so he could marry #2 (MaryAnne) he snuck into his first wife’s hospital room when she was suffering during chemo treatments for her cancer and zonked on painkillers to try and get her signature on a fucked up (for her) divorce settlement! Okey Dokey. Then he cheats on #2 (MaryAnne) and dumps her for Calista. My oh my those “Christian” family values the GOP promotes sure are something to behold. And THESE are the people Trump posts to the Vatican to represent the United States?
Come to think of it given Trump’s own history and that of so many “Christians” in the GOP power structure there’s a perverted type of logic to it. Still, while I get the Pope not wanting to create a big “thing” for a long time, once Trump was voted out for the life of me I can’t imagine why he didn’t summon the Gingrich couple to say the Sistine Chapel and in front of as many Cardinals and Bishops and other muckety mucks that could be gathered up on short notice do the formal Excommunication ceremony – and have them escorted directly from Vatican City to the airport!
In addition to a lifetime of mortal sins, Gingrich used his power and influence to do the exact OPPOSITE of what Jesus taught. If that’s not grounds to Excommunicate someone then just what the fuck is?
Oh well. That opportunity is lost. But it would have been cool as hell!
I understand everyone who is paying attention to be hair on fire with all the crap TFG and his allies are involved in. However, they and McTurtle totally overplayed their hand w/ this SCOTUS. If McConnell had insisted on another John Roberts type, they could’ve made it another electoral cycle or two. But this court just couldn’t bide their time, no siree. They had to roll back Roe, executive authority and gun safety laws. The things the electorate is most upset about, excluding inflation, which seems to be cooling. I’m not saying don’t be angry, but I am saying channel that anger into electing as many democrats as possible. Do whatever you are able to to ensure this midterm wave is blue not red.
I agree. And I, for one, would rather be in hair on fire, Paul Revere mode, than miss out on the newest scam du jour to undermine our government and our way of life.
I am always astonished when papists close their eyes to the evil they committed throughout the history of that misbegotten religion.
Two radical brothers who were priests, Phillip & Daniel Berrigan, got into trouble for damaging nose cones on fighter jets & pouring blood on draft records. Phillip spent 13 years in jail for his commitment to the gospel. The ‘religion’ shouldnt be fully defined by religious hypocrites. There are believers who walk the walk & I met Phillip, a true holy man. His brother once said, ” what the Church has done to Jesus is what the governor of California, (Ronald Regan), wants to do to the redwoods…take a wild & wonderful thing & turn it into den furniture”. Would you call this country ‘misbegotten’ cuz we committed genocide, stole the land, enslaved 4 million people & have secretly performed coups with governments we didn’t like?Nothing is simple under the sun except stupidity. That apparently is our new ‘religion’. That & selfies.
Just a little note that should REALLY concern everyone: Does anyone not think that ANY Republican who runs in 2024 and manages to win isn’t taking notes from Trump on this matter? While there’s a focus on Trump and a possible second term, I’m betting that pretty much every GOP hopeful in 2024 will try to follow this playbook.
Old pecker face could not even pick up a sword like that except in his dreams! We all know thats how he see’s himself, but the reality is he is a pile of steamy dog poop! complete with flies circling him! trump the twink BELONGS IN PRISON charged with 5 counts of manslaughter ON TOP OF EVERY OTHER CRIME AGAINST AMERICA HE HAS DONE!
WTF! Newt’s message was tired as hell by 1997. And here we all are 25 years later having to endure it again. This is why the right will never do anything for all of America, because it is the same message that Roosevelt contradicted so well from the greedy capitalists and their subsidiaries in Congress in the Gilded Age. Some things simple never change, even with recycling.