A month into Iran, the GOP’s political reality sinks in

I can’t wait to see future scholars analyze this period. The post-Trump/MAGA reality will really be something. I can’t even imagine the sheer scale of corruption that will inevitably be uncovered. Just look at everything we’re able to see openly happening in real time, imagine how much more we’re unaware of.

I think in 100 years (if the planet hasn't exploded) people won't believe that Trump was real. They'll believe that detractors and opposition change the narrative about him. Because there's no way someone so stupid, gross and horrible could have been elected...twice. Like Caligula. Most modern historians think the stories we know about Caligula were written after his death to slander his memory. Largely because the stories seem so fantastical and insane. Anyway, for this reason I now believe the stories about Caligula were probably true.

Caligula may be a close second…

Incompetent idiocy or intentional evil, either way they need to go

They're very competent at grifting. Even though this will destroy the US's diplomatic and military capacity for generations, and will negatively impact domestic matters for an unknowable amount of time, Trump's inner circle is getting even more filthy rich off of crypto, market manipulation, and prediction apps.

…so far. Those words are so critical now, and I can’t stress that enough

And openly corrupt 

The worst part about this is that we all knew it. We just have a lot of f****** generationally dumb ass Americans

Watchmen(2019) posits a universe in which Fred Trump is beaten to death by a vigilante in the 1930s.

Hasn’t he already declared victory at least a dozen times on iran?

I have a bag of unused commas in the basement. Please, take some, I insist.

Oh, I'm definitely bracing for the chicanery. ...and if I am, I can't imagine others aren't either

They simply aren’t going to recognize results they don’t like. Midterms or any other elements of the rule of law can’t save us. It’s time for a general strike or a March on Washington.

And if Trump loses a “free and fair” midterm, he’ll use every tactic at his disposal to have those elections thrown out. The week after the election, I anticipate announcements that the Kash Patel FBI and Pam Bondi DOJ are working with the Markwayne Mullin DHS to investigate allegations the votes were somehow rigged by Democrats in places where Republicans lost seats. Then the SCOTUS will get to determine how Trump’s plan to throw those elections out or pick winners via EO until he gets the results he wants is perfectly constitutional because he’s the one doing it. The threat of possible Iranian-related terror attacks on U.S. soil between now and the election will give him a wide range of “National Security” justifications for cracking down on protests and “increased security” at polling places in November.

That’s why they want to pass the SAVE Act. Claim there isn’t enough time for everyone to get an ID and that we need to push the election back to give people more time. Comes off as a semi-reasonable thing despite being completely manufactured.

Bracing for the chicanery

Exactly.  There's much assholery and fuckery about .

People on listnook love to say this but midterms aren't some magic thing Trump can wish away with an executive order. And I don't mean that as a "but that's illegal" comment, I mean there's literally no way he can cancel them. He can and will harrass, intimidate, continue to double down. There will be dirty tricks. Elections are not going to be cancelled. Don't comply in advance. Intimidation is largely all they have.

It's my first experience during war where I genuinely had no idea who to actually trust Iran has every motivation to lie to undermine the US and Trump does it just for the sport

Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.”

Claire mccaskill was a senator until 2019. Missouri has elected Democrats.

In Texas and Florida deep red seats have flipped in the most recent elections. I wouldn’t underestimate just how unpopular another middle eastern war is.

Not in a normal year. This ain't a normal year. 

All the primaries have already happened, haven’t they?

Na I think it’ll be the new Iraq/afghanistan. I don’t see how they can just pull out of it

Well… Gallup stopped presidential approval polling. Can’t imagine why?

Authoritarian/conservatives have a floor of about 25/ 30%.  In a post fox news world I doubt he goes lower than 35 

It's not actually the same. Check the graph of this aggregate here. https://fiftyplusone.news/polls/approval/president It seems that every time he causes some needless crisis, it spikes down and then normalizes. But it never normalizes as high as it did. And the downward spikes get worse each time. His lowest aggregated approval in his first term was around 34% at the height of COVID. Now, it's his biggest low in the second term. 37.8. This is anecdotal but the biggest increase in his approval rating was around December when it went from below 40 to above 40-41 again. To me, December was an extremely quiet news month. Nothing much happened. Them January comes along and it's barrage after barrage of the dumbest shit possible. 3 months in and he's losing a percentage point a month. Each of how demographics erodes a little bit at a time. Strong supporters become somewhat supporters and somewhat opposed becomes strongly opposed. All that translates to strongly opposed showing up in droves and somewhat supportive forgetting there was an election and staying home.

Trump denied knowledge of project 2025 instead pushing his Agenda 47. Now we’re half way through implementing Project 2025.

He's reduced natural gas consumption by at least 20%, and fuel usage by 10% in the short term. The increase in prices will probably driver further divestment from fossil fuels in the long term. Over the past few days i've seen numerous articles about the market for (new and used) electric cars increasing, people planting solar gardens, etc. One of the biggest problems with getting off fossil fuels was that they were c**** and in constant supply. Why buy an electric car when gas is $2.29/gallon? Well, Trump just gave the world an answer.