I'm confident they are discussing the 25th amendment in there.

A lot of GOP insiders have probably been itching to ditch Trump since before he was sworn in. They want a more sensible and common-sense single-party dictatorship without all the chaos and mess and financial ruin. But they're still scared of the rabid base, and the base follows him and no one else. They're desperately trying to balance the equation of whether their gains from tossing him into the Mt. Epstein volcano can balance their losses from having no one who they can depend on to rally the maga morons to support the new administration.

Trump has pushed other republicans into this same kind of dilemma many times before, and every time they've ended up concluding that they're stuck riding the Trump train all the way to the end of the line. But now, with his health failing. the track may finally be running out. And though they're very tempted, I doubt they'll change their ways... they probably won't make a move until he's actually in the hospital with a fair chance of never coming out.

Trump isn't the fascist here.

There are lots of fascists in the Trump administration: proudly obvious cases like Noem and Miller, quieter ones like Hegseth, and probably stealth ones — maybe Vance, we can't tell because he isn't really showing his cards yet. And there are tons of obvious fascists in Congress, like MTG and Mike Lee. And there are tons of fascist Trump backers of the Musk and Thiel stripe. But Trump himself isn't the fascist. To be a fascist would require him to plan and believe in some sort of fascist system, and the only thing he plans or believes in is just "People should all treat Trump better." He's not a fascist, he's just a narcissist. He gives no shits whatever about what happens to the rest of the party, or even the country as a whole, without him. If he has a political philosophy, it's monarchist: he thinks he should be our king.

But the Republican Party as a whole is galloping toward fascism. They didn't get their fascism from Trump — they took advantage of Trump to seize the chance to implement fascism. They jumped at the chance because, without really quite letting themselves know it, it was exactly what they had been waiting for all along. It was what Dubya's crew wanted, it was what the Newt Gingrich congress wanted, it was what a lot of Reagan backers wanted, it was what Nixon's people wanted.... all the way back to Hoover, maybe even Harding, the Republican Party has been groping in this exact direction, and now they've finally seen a clear path to get there. They are often monumentally embarrassed by Trump's messy and chaotic leadership, yet most of them can't turn it down, because it's giving them exactly what they've been wanting all along. And it's what their voting base has been wanting too: for decades, all of the candidates that have brought out real enthusiasm in elections have been the ones most similar to Trump.

Trump isn't the fascist. The fascists are the rest of the Republican Party.

all right wing movements, in the end, believe in violence as their fallback strategy

Marines and Guards face a choice

The Marines are being deployed. We know that Californians will protest and resist, and we know that Тяцмр and his pet fascists will push for a full-throttle brutal crackdown. The unknown — the choice — is now with the Marine and Guard units being asked to suppress the protests. Will they obey their oaths, or obey the White House? So much depends on their consciences.

If they do choose brutality, I hope it's just because they picked volunteers who wanted such a mission, i.e. kept the ones with consciences out of the group. If that's the approach they are taking, it could mean they will have short term success with it, but it won't scale when the resistance gets broader and they need more men to violate people's rights.

To anyone being asked to make that choice, remember that history will, in the end, be written by those who Trump no longer has any power or influence over, and will judge him and his collaborators by the standards of human rights and constitutional law, not by the demands of any supposed emergency he wants to concoct. Your descendants and your future self will also know that this is the true standard of judgment, and may be unforgiving of those who acquiesced to the push for brutality. So please, don't do something today what you will grieve later — remember your oath to the Constitution, and do the correct thing from the start.

"AI" is not just another Silicon Valley gold rush Ponzi-oid investment bubble...

...but it is mostly that in the short term.

Long term, it actually is a legitimate threat to human survival, just like in crappy B science fiction.

Even longer term, it may be the key to a posthuman super-civilization as far beyond Star Trek as that is beyond bronze age war bands pillaging early farmers.

Both the perils and the opportunities are far beyond anything you'd think possible from today's bumbling artificial idiots. Unfortunately its progress is being guided by some of the most irresponsible assholes alive.

The other Republicans are waiting for Trump to die.

Conservative base voters mostly think Dфидld Тяцмр is the most perfect president possible, but the Republican Party establishment is embarrassed by him. He's useless at policy, chaotic at leadership, and destructive to their interests as often as he's helpful. They like the deregulation but hate the tariffs, they like the easy corruption but hate the constant exposed scandal, they like the belligerence but hate the economic losses, they like his team's racism but hate the constant display of moronic ignorance. They really wish they could get rid of Trump and all his messy nonsense.

Which they easily could, of course. A minority of them could remove him from office, with Democratic help. But they won't... as long as Trump is succeeding at gaining authoritarian power. Because they're afraid of that power? No, because for them, that power justifies everything he's doing wrong!

What the GOP really wants is for Trump to establish single party rule, and then retire or die, leaving them to inherit that authoritarian power. Authoritarian systems don't actually invest total power in an individual — that's petty warlord shit, it ain't a system. A proper system has something more permanent, like a College of Cardinals or the Holy Roman Empire's Prince-Electors. A traditional monarchy invests power in a family line, and a fascist or communist regime invests its power into a political party. When a strongman can no longer continue, the party goes on.

They know Trump is destroying everything he rubs up against, but as long as it looks like he might turn his allies into such a ruling party, they are unwilling to stop the destruction of liberty and democracy. Because they were already fascists before he showed them how to seize control.

The rest of the GOP is waiting for Trump to die.

They don't want his policies, but they do want the absolute power he is setting up for them.

spidey-sense hunch about Russia: in the next five years...

...a new leader will emerge who is a semi-puppet of China.

Let's see how this comes out as a prediction.

Why is "X" Eloon's favorite letter?

Because it’s the closest to a swastika.

Why does the Cybertruck have an obtuse peak on top and sharp angles all over?

Because it’s the closest you can get to a swastika-shaped vehicle.

alarming thought: if he gets his way, the dollar may no longer be the world reserve currency

I'm no expert, but it's my understanding that the dollar can only hold its position of privilege as the world reserve currency in circumstances where we run a substantial trade deficit -- that is, we import goods and export dollars. That deal is an amazing privilege to be offered -- we literally get manufactured goods for nothing, just by printing extra currency for the purpose... but the whole point of tariffs is, as Senator Kennedy points out, to force manufacturing to move back here so we don't import stuff anymore. If they succeed, I suspect that the reserve currency role of the dollar will not be sustainable, and eventually it will come down to a contest between the Euro and the Yuan (CNY) to take over that role. That means that America will be poorer unless it can start competing as an exporter, in a world where every developing country is trying to compete as an exporter.