• @ameancow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      He is much worse, but he’s also far less of a threat, as he doesn’t have ANY public mandate, in the form of any kind of following or cultish fandom.

      Trump’s power is almost ENTIRELY a product of how he tapped into the country’s stupid fucking redneck hogs and narcissists and delusional conspiracy nuts. JD has exactly ZERO flat-earthers driving around with his face painted on the side of their van. Having a following of millions of people, even if they are mentally-deficient to a degree that is literally breathtaking, is still power, a great deal of power too because he has them under such tight control.

      Vance might be dangerous in short-term policy decisions, but he doesn’t have electoral power, he doesn’t have chips in the game, he won’t make a dent in senate/house bill votes, he won’t have influence on local and state elections. He’s pre-neutered. The only ones who should be worried about Vance are the white-house sofas.

        • @ameancow@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Yes, I said he’s worse. First line, first paragraph.

          Do you understand political power though? It’s a deep game but even at the highest levels, you can see that just being “bad” or “good” isn’t enough to shape policy and leadership. A president has a job to do, and that job is almost entirely negotiating political favors between various groups and committees and lobbyists. To be able to do this, you have to have both a shrewd understanding of political law and precedent, AND you need political capital.

          Donald Trump has very little understanding of political law and precedent, but he has MASSIVE political capital.

          Vance has none. Just like Stephen Miller, someone who is also literally a sack of insects in human skin, someone like him even being as close to the president as he is, he has no political capital. He would never get elevated to an electoral position so he had to worm his way to an advisor status.

          They could do some harm, but all their attempts at passing policy without political capital will get shot down in the other branches of government. There are a lot of examples of this in history, even recently with presidents who had waning capital like Biden. If you aren’t actively gaming the game, you’re getting left behind.

          • @zildjiandrummer1@lemmy.world
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            220 hours ago

            You seem to be ignoring the entire class that owns them. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreeson, etc. can “create” political capital through manufacturing it. That’s how Vance even got elected to Senate in the first place.

            He doesn’t resonate as strongly with the MAGA base as Trump of course, but since when did the will of the people matter, especially now that there are loyalists in every notable and important position in the whole of the executive (all agencies), legislative, and judicial branch.

            • @ameancow@lemmy.world
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              115 hours ago

              We’re still talking about different things. It’s okay, we can agree that we don’t want any of these people in power but I’m saying Vance doesn’t have the political currency to have as strong of an impact as even Trump, nothing to do with “the will of the people.”

        • @ameancow@lemmy.world
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          115 hours ago

          Yep that’s what I’m talking about, having a “movement” behind you is the strongest form of political currency. The right has wanted someone like Trump for a VERY long time because he’s wealthy and not with cash. And he’s dumb enough to be led around.

          Vance is largely a nobody. You can accurately deduce he’s a pile of shit, but he’s always going to be largely ineffectual on the political stage because his ass is broke.

        • @ameancow@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          While I do believe America is spiraling towards autocracy and dictatorship, it won’t be Vance’s face on the armbands. It will be someone but the way America falls into that hole will be a different path than Venezuela took, mostly because our government is so much larger and more complicated with far more international interests at play, requiring more long-term political capital to be spent to bend the system until it breaks.

      • @Vinstaal0@feddit.nl
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        61 day ago

        OKey at least there is that. I just want somebody in the US office who will fix the political system to be more compromise based, but I think I’ll sooner see a unicorn irl.

    • @mercano@lemmy.world
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      51 day ago

      Yeah, unfortunately, there’s no one in the line of succession I particularly like. At least RFK is #12 and Linda McMahon is #16, both pretty far down.

    • GladiusB
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      124 hours ago

      That’s because he’s dumb enough to follow the dumb guy. We all know he’s a fuckin moron.

  • @TheDeadlySquid@lemm.ee
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    481 day ago

    Is this a massive gamble by Elmo to rebuild his brand image by forcing me to agree with him on certain issues? Let’s not forget this was the same guy Nazi saluting this dude at his Inauguration a few short months ago.

    • @PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
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      491 day ago

      No, its not. Musk is just salty Trump used and discarded him. You have to understand, these are just children who stumbled into power and never really grew up.

      • @andros_rex@lemmy.world
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        161 day ago

        Yeah - nepo babies are like this. Made the mistake of marrying one, and any perceived slight needed punishment and retaliation.

      • @Auli@lemmy.ca
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        91 day ago

        It’s all just show. Elon well get government contracts and we’ll get wealthy from the stock market. Everything else is showmanship he’s the current fall guy look everything thet sucks is Elons fault

  • @Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    181 day ago

    What I really love about this is that Trump is so narcissistic that he earnestly believed that Elon liked him. That he believed in his vision for the country and that he wouldn’t want anything in return, like a load more juicy government contracts, a bill to mandate that petrol cars would be phased out, or all safety regulations about self driving cars to be torn up.

    Bless his cold dead heart for being exactly what everybody knows he is. Everybody except those idiots who jump into bed with him, because all those other people he betrayed were losers who just weren’t smart enough.

  • @iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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    621 day ago

    So let me get that straight, you spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get a guy, who you think should be impeached and is guilty of underage sex, to be the president of the United States?

    • @Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      191 day ago

      I know there is some clause or stipulation that allows for the seizure of assets obtained by illegal immigrants.

      Musk is an illegal immigrant who pursued business ventures in violation of his school visa and lied about it.

    • @ameancow@lemmy.world
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      71 day ago

      If we’re dreaming of fantasies that will never happen, I also want nationwide ranked-choice voting, and maybe we can overturn Citizens United Vs Federal Elections and stop allowing corporations to literally run our country.

  • @PotatoLibre@feddit.it
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    2472 days ago

    This scenario is quite the best outcome. Two narcissists fighting each other, hopong for a homicide/suicide ❤️

    • @msprout@lemmy.world
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      322 days ago

      I kept seeing people saying that this is all performative and that they’re both in on it, but idk, I was raised by narcissists and this is basically the exact same fight playing out on the global stage that played out weekly in my childhood living room.

      • @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        Yep, same, exactly.

        This is way, way too in depth to be an elaborately staged, intetional hyperreality performance.

        These two just actually are this stupid, this self-centered, this insecure and ego driven.

        If this is some kind of an act, it would require both of them to have been method acting at Daniel Day Lewis levels for about a decade with no breaks.

        Its ‘performative’ in the sense of intentionally being catty, shit-disturbing, dramatic, old men acting like the cast of the Mean Girls… but it is not performative in the sense of ‘entirely staged to fool us dumb rubes.’

        That being said, this all still does function as a grand distraction to any other person or kind of nefarious nonsense… but no, these two are having the messiest, most high stakes, most public breakup in probably the history of the world right now, and they are both totally genuine.

        … It is also arguably the funniest way concievable for the American Empire / Era to end.

        How in the fuck do you write a history book about this in 20 years?

        … I don’t fucking know, but I do know I want Larry David to write a script for a ‘The Death of Stalin’ style movie about the last 9 months.

        EDIT: Wait! Mel Brooks is still alive somefucking how, get in him in the writing room too!

        • @grue@lemmy.world
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          41 day ago

          EDIT: Wait! Mel Brooks is still alive somefucking how, get in him in the writing room too!

          I think this might be lethal levels of irony even for him.

      • @Zagam@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        102 days ago

        Even if it was pretend to start with they’re both so sensitive and need to be right, it’ll turn into a real fight soon enough. But I agree, neither is clever enough to pretend this. For that you need professional wrestling level acting skills.

        • @Auli@lemmy.ca
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          11 day ago

          This is exactly like wrestling they have made Elon the heel. If contracts start being canceled maybe it’s real. Unless some unknown company gets the contract like space y.

      • snooggums
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        62 days ago

        Neither one of them is able to pretend at this level. It is a real fight.

  • @Gsus4@mander.xyz
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    2 days ago

    Anybody have any idea what they’re trying to hide with this puppet show? Is the big bill getting too much attention or is it something else?

    • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      512 days ago

      I think you’re giving them too much credit. I’m pretty sure this really is just a senile old man feuding with a ketamine addict.

        • @pjwestin@lemmy.world
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          102 days ago

          I don’t really see how. Trump could be playing it up a little to distract from the Medicare cuts, but I imagine he’s genuinely pissed about the Epstien thing. That probably played really badly with his base. There’s also no way Musk is doing this as a distraction; Telsa’s stock is imploding because of this.

          • @CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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            51 day ago

            I think its a senile russian asset fighting a ketamine addict and both of their handlers are simply making good use of the natural distraction.

          • While I don’t necessarily want to believe there’s anything decent in any of his supporters, I also really don’t feel like he’d lose a single one being a proven pedophile. They’re all in.

    • @cymbal_king@lemmy.world
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      352 days ago

      There was news today that the Senate is considering cutting Medicare in addition to Medicaid, as well as news of major changes to how science funding is sent out to researchers. Also the travel bans for foreign nationals from certain countries.

    • Redex
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      31 day ago

      I highly doubt it’s anything. They’re selfish egotistical people out for their own gains. Elon never cared for Trump or the Republicans, just about what made him the most money. Now he’s buthurt and lashing out.

      • @Auli@lemmy.ca
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        11 day ago

        Imagine a timeline where Biden invited Elon to the electric car summit or whatever it was called. I imagine flipping to the Republicans was a response to being but hurt about that.

  • @Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Impeach Trump, deport Musk… but then Vance gets couch-cast ? I’d rather not see this happen

  • @BeNotAfraid@lemmy.world
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    372 days ago

    Consider this, JD Vance is Peter Thiel’s Acolyte, who desperately wants to bring about a global technocracy. What if all of this hasn’t been a genuine attempt yet. What if it’s merely theatre that has been setting the stage for Vance to take over. Trump gets to enrich his family beyond their wildest imagination, then he peaces out and the real horror begins.

    • @Dozzi92@lemmy.world
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      322 days ago

      I don’t see Vance flags on people’s trucks. I see Trump flags. I just don’t know that Vance gets the backing Trump does. I think the Rs capitulate to Trump so much because of his rabies base, and there’s this concern they’ll be replaced by someone who Trump endorses.

      I do think it’s all a game for wealthy people, and we will just pay for it one way or another, regardless.

      • @barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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        81 day ago

        MAGA is a classic cult of personality. It’s all HitlerPig, there is no #2 waiting in the wings, not even his own spawn. When HitlerPig goes, MAGA is dead, and the backstabbing will become open warfare.

        If the Dems can get their shit together, and have the spine to act, they’ll have the opportunity to sweep up the most corrupt traitors, and remove them from politics forever. They can hit a giant reset button on American politics.

        Let’s see if they have the nerve for bold action on America’s behalf.