The List

[¥akaSteelhead]

I asked chatgpt what the economic impact would be if all of the "promises" Trump made re deportation, tariffs, and other policies re federal work force, and budgets and what not were actually implemented.

The short answer was higher prices and recession.

[Dr. Shades]

In the meantime, they will frantically do their best to make it difficult or impossible for them to be ever voted out of office again by systematically purging the voter roles of any who are unlikely to vote for them again.

How is that even possible?

[Gunnar]

In the meantime, they will frantically do their best to make it difficult or impossible for them to be ever voted out of office again by systematically purging the voter roles of any who are unlikely to vote for them again.

How is that even possible?

Hopefully it will prove not to be possible for Trump and the extreme right conservatives to achieve all their most extreme, anti-democratic objectives, but if you have been paying attention at all, you surely know that Trump makes no secret of the fact that he aspires to acquire dictatorial powers like Kim Jong Un, Putin, Xi and other authoritarian dictators he has often expressed admiration for. And there is little doubt that extreme right-wing conservatives have been trying to systematically purge voter rolls of minority and ethnic groups who they deem are unlikely to vote for Republicans or conservatives. The 2025 project, which it has become clear that Trump espouses or, at least, has sympathy for, is a blatant plan to turn our government into a strictly authoritarian, Christian theocracy, based on the Old Testament, with little tolerance for others who don't share their extreme version of Christianity.

It should also be obvious to everyone by now that Trump's main (if not only) qualification he requires in those he appoints to offices in his administration is loyalty to himself above all--not to The U.S. Constitution or the rule of law and order.

Several conservative state legislatures have passed (tried to pass) legislation that would, in effect, enable Republican majority legislators to overturn or nullify majority election results that they don't like. All of this does not bode well for the survival of democracy and individual liberty in this country. They apparently have little regard for the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom and of speech and of the press except for only those who happen to agree with their extreme views.

[Moksha]

In the meantime, they will frantically do their best to make it difficult or impossible for them to be ever voted out of office again by systematically purging the voter roles of any who are unlikely to vote for them again.

How is that even possible?

What if Republicans moved to their dream proposal of one dollar one vote?

[canpakes]

.
Regarding deportations, Trump has already decided to ‘one up’ his initial plan.

[Dr. Shades]

How is that even possible?

What if Republicans moved to their dream proposal of one dollar one vote?

Republicans have no such dream proposal.

[canpakes]

Given all of Trump’s ambitious-sounding and randomly blurted chatter over the last week or so - and possibly related to his realization that he can’t do squat about grocery prices - I may have to update his ‘List’ to include the following new goals:

- Buy or take over Greenland,
- Conquer Panama,
- Force Canada to become the 51st State,
- Change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America,
- Invade Mexico, for some reason or another.

That last one might be problematic, though. If the United States conquers and subsumes Mexico, then there’s no more ‘Mexico’ to mass-deport anyone to. Perhaps we’ll just conquer it and then leave, just for the practice.

Well, it didn’t take long to walk this one back.

Elon Musk says DOGE probably won’t find $2 trillion in federal budget cuts

THU, JAN 9 20256:16 AM EST
NBC NEWS - David Ingram

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that his budget-cutting effort on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump would most likely not find $2 trillion in savings, backtracking on a goal he set earlier as co-head of a new advisory body, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Musk told political strategist Mark Penn in an interview broadcast on X that the $2 trillion figure was a “best-case outcome” and that he thought there was only a “good shot” at cutting half that.

Musk’s lowered estimate is a significant downgrade from his earlier view. At a rally for Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 27, Musk said he’d be able to cut the federal budget by “at least $2 trillion.”

That figure was quickly dismissed as implausible by budget experts, who said the entire discretionary budget was only $1.7 trillion.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/09/elon-mu ... -cuts.html

[Gadianton]

Of course if he were to take military action against Greenland it would make his supporters among the most morally reprehensible people who ever lived. It is certainly a distraction from his lies about lowering inflation and other things he can't realistically do. Is it intended to be? I have a hard time believing that his mind is together enough to plot that out. It's more like, as he's needing to back down on the deportation rhetoric a bit because many of his deep red farmers are freaking out about it, among other things, and he's not sure how to proceed, he's anxious to keep his face in the camera and so he's just making something else up that's completely stupid but is sure to get attention.

Does it affect the judgment of his supporters? By and large, no. His supporters either think he's a great ball buster and there are no real effects for them or that he's playing 4-d chess and that this is all working toward something that only the great master of the art of the deal can get us to. We don't know what that is -- he doesn't know what that is -- but God does.

[Moksha]

Would ridding Mexico of its drug cartels not be appreciated by the majority of Mexicans?

[canpakes]

.
Here we go! The new President has given us a roaring Inauguration Day speech that promises much, including a pony for almost everyone, with that list also topped with the required bucketful of pandering needed by so many fragile MAGA egos. Here’s the transcript:

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very, very much. Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, Senator Thune, Chief Justice Roberts, justices of the United States Supreme Court, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and my fellow citizens.

The Golden Age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer during every single day of the Trump administration. I will, very simply, put America first.

Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end and our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free.

America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before. I return to the presidency, confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before. But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face. While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing.

In the United States of America, as we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.

We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders, or, more importantly, its own people. Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina being treated so badly and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago. Or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense. They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now. They don’t have a home any longer. That’s interesting, but we can’t let this happen. Everyone is unable to do anything about it. That’s going to change.

We have a public health system that does not deliver in times of disaster, yet, more money is spent on it than any country anywhere in the world, and we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves, in many cases, to hate our country, despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.

My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed, their freedom. From this moment on, America’s decline is over.

Our liberties and our nation’s glorious destiny will no longer be denied, and we will immediately restore the integrity, competency and loyalty of America’s government. Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life just a few months ago. In a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then and believe, even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.

That is why, each day, under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength. We will move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety and peace for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. For American citizens, January 20, 2025, is Liberation Day.

It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country. As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda, with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural and, very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states and the popular vote, we won by millions of people.

To the Black and Hispanic communities. I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. Today is Martin Luther King Day, and his honor, this will be a great honor, but in his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true.

National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before in everything we do. My administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success. We will not forget our country. We will not forget our Constitution, and we will not forget our God. Can’t do that.

Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense. First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border.

All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my "Remain in Mexico" policy.

I will end the practice of catch and release, and I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.

Under the orders I sign today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.

As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Next, I will direct all members of my Cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices.

The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill.

America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth. And we are going to use it. Let me use it. We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it. With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers.

In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. And thank you to the auto workers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. We did tremendously with their vote. I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.

For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources. The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before to restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government. My administration will establish the brand new Department of Government Efficiency.

After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.

Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again under my leadership. We will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.

This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private light. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female. This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate with full back pay.

And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty, it’s going to end immediately. Our armed forces will be free to focus on their sole mission, defeating America’s enemies.

Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success, not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.

My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier. I’m pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families.

Thank you. America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.

President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States.

The United States — I mean, think of this — spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form, and that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back. You. I

Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization. So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred together. We will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free.


The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.

The ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation, and right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other. There’s no nation like our nation. Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on earth. No one comes close.

Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand. If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve. Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am, the American people have spoken.

I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do in America. The impossible is what we do best.


From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was forged and built by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steel workers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward, and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride. Together, they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and triumphed over every single challenge that they faced. After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. With your help, we will restore America'a promise, and we will rebuild the nation that we love. And we love it so much.

We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. So to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you. I will fight for you, and I will win for you. We are going to win like never before.

Thank you. In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable. America will be respected again and admired again, including by people of religion, faith and goodwill. We will be prosperous, we will be proud. We will be strong, and we will win like never before. We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be broken, and we will not fail.

From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign and independent nation. We will stand bravely. We will live proudly. We will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way. Because we are Americans, the future is ours, and our Golden Age has just begun. Thank you. God. Bless America. Thank you all.