TRUMP'S GAME PLAN: CREATE CHAOS, CONFUSION, & FEAR
His 'Madman Theory' of Unpredictability
"Frothing at the mouth" means to have excessive foam coming from the mouth, usually indicating a state of extreme anger or a serious medical condition like a seizure, drug overdose, or rabies. — Merriam-Webster
Send lawyers, guns, and money
The shit has hit the fan — Warren Zevon
It’s tempting to try to respond to every Trump shock-and-awe move as he unfolds his fascist game plan seemingly hour by hour. I’ve got to keep reminding myself that his plan is all about creating an atmosphere of chaos, fear, and confusion. It’s one that keeps us all, at times, feeling helpless, insecure, and disorganized.
In other words, even though many of Trump’s EOs are illegal on their face and nearly impossible to implement, his strategy is effective to the degree that it does what it is intended to do. For example, there are workers who are responding to his threatened cuts in federal funding by leaving their jobs voluntarily, only to be replaced by new pro-MAGA hires. There are many reports of immigrants self-deporting, immigrants living in fear, hiding in attics, and afraid to go to work or send their children to school. This even though in cities like Chicago, organized resistance has hampered the border czar’s ICE raids.
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Trump employs a similar game plan globally. Even though he knows his threats to annex Greenland and Canada, seize the Panama Canal, and relocate a million Gazans to Egypt, Jordan, and even Albania won’t fly, he pushes them anyway in hopes of spreading division and forcing some concessions. One foreign policy expert calls it the Madman Theory of Unpredictability, adding that it’s “rare that a reputation for madness actually pays off internationally.”
Stoking emotion
Many of Trump’s actions, like his attempt to end birthright citizenship, have fallen in the face of legal challenges. But Heidi Altman, Vice President of Policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told Rolling Stone that many of his moves are also about stoking emotions.
“The executive orders he took on his first day in office lay the groundwork for Trump to separate countless loved ones from their families, deprive essential industries of needed workers, shut the United States’ doors to refugees and people seeking asylum, and create an immigration police state rife with racial profiling and cruelty,” Altman says. “Fear is the centerpiece of all of Trump’s actions targeting immigrants and the catalyst for his mass deportation agenda.”
During his first week in office, Trump issued a series of sweeping measures aimed at crippling the federal government and withholding funds from domestic and foreign assistance programs.
On Tuesday, he signed executive orders that effectively ended federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Thousands of state and federal workers were notified that their jobs were in immediate danger, and many were panic-stricken. Then, on Wednesday, the executive orders (EOs) related to DEI programs were pulled back after a federal judge temporarily halted the initial order. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordered the rescission to end. However, the administration's other efforts to halt federal spending on DEI programs still remain in full force and effect.
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Next came Trump’s EO on public education.
Based on what right-wing governors and legislatures have done in states like Oklahoma and Florida, Trump is ordering public schools to stop teaching what he views as “critical race theory” and other material dealing with race and sexuality or risk losing their federal money.
The measure, including an order on school choice in elementary schools, seeks to fulfill some of the Republican president’s core campaign promises around education, though it’s unclear how much power he has to enact the proposals.
His EO threatens to cut off federal funding from schools that “indoctrinate” students on issues related to race and gender. The order is titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.”
Diane Ravitch writes:
Trump is expressing the views of far-right extremist groups, like “Moms for Liberty,” who hate public schools for teaching honest, accurate history about racism. They want teachers to say that there was racism long, long ago, but not anymore. They vehemently oppose any discussion of systemic racism (they call such discussion “critical race theory,” which, of course, must never be mentioned). Any discussion of the reality of racism is forbidden by this order.
Under existing law, though, the White House has no influence on curriculum and no unilateral ability to pull back funding from individual schools or federal education programs.
Trump’s EO prompted an immediate response from several blue-state governments and state departments of education, including California’s.
Resistance is bubbling up.
Case in point:
WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters)—Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with the Trump administration's firing of her, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Phyllis Fong, a 22-year department veteran, had earlier told colleagues that she intended to stay after the White House terminated her Friday. She said that she didn’t believe the administration had followed proper protocols.
In an email to colleagues on Saturday, reviewed by Reuters, she said the independent Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency “has taken the position that these termination notices do not comply with the requirements set out in law and therefore are not effective at this time.”
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And as long as we’re renaming stuff…
Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has introduced a bill to add a carving of Donald Trump to Mount Rushmore. Luna announced the bill Tuesday, calling for Trump to be added to the South Dakota monument with the message: "Let's get carving."
I would amend Luna’s bill to include Junior, Kushner, Ivanka, and DT and change the name to Mt. Griftmore.
