Seth Cotlar: Remember how Trump floated the idea that Covid would go away if we just stopped testing for it? People treated that like it was Trump being dumb, but it was actually him articulating his quite savvy, authoritarian way of handling information. Want climate change to go away? Just stop measuring it!

Importing this @volts.wtf thread from the bad place. It opens with a link to a piece that used official data to establish that yes, crime rates are indeed very much down recently. But here’s the thing, Project 2025’s Trump 2.0 promises to destroy that world in which we can “know” things like this.

Remember how Trump floated the idea that Covid would go away if we just stopped testing for it? People treated that like it was Trump being dumb, but it was actually him articulating his quite savvy, authoritarian way of handling information. Want climate change to go away? Just stop measuring it!

Need proof that Trump's brilliant policies have reduced the federal deficit despite the fact that he lowered taxes, deported 3% of the workforce, and jacked up spending to pay for his deportation force? Just look at what the very fine people Trump appointed to staff the Treasury & CBO have said!

Electing Trump in 2024 is a very different proposition than in 2016, in part because of staffing. Consider this story from Michael Lewis's Fifth Risk. In February 2016 Chris Christie told Trump he needed to appoint a transition team. Trump says "no thanks, don't need one."

Christie says "but it's legally required" because we need to have 500+ names ready to nominate for positions if you win. Trump says "fine, but I'm not going to pay for it." Christie says, "you can use campaign funds." Trump: "Nope, raise your own money. But not too much!"

In July 2016 Trump is the official nominee and the 100+ person transition team gets to work in earnest. Trump, however, has no idea this operation was up and running. He finds out by reading about it in a newspaper and immediately calls Christie in for a scolding.

Bannon walks into the meeting to find Trump yelling at Christie: "You're stealing my money! You're stealing my f*cking money! What the f*ck is this?!?!" Bannon explains it's legally required. Trump: "F*ck the law. I don't give a f*ck about the law. I want my f*cking money."

Trump tells Bannon and Christie to shut down the legally-mandated transition...Bannon talks him off the ledge, but over the next few months Trump would occasionally berate Christie for the money he was "wasting" (Trump's money, my money!) on the transition process.

where are these quotes from? this greedy, impotent rage makes him look so fucking small

The Republican government of Iowa adopted this approach to agricultural pollution of rivers and creeks a couple years ago: defunded the network of sensors and recordkeepers that made it possible to know just how bad things were getting.

It's quite the tradition! Reagan did the same thing with the newly established Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. See also repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol120/i...

"Administrative Sabotage" by David L. Noll repository.law.umich.edu Government can sabotage itself. From the president’s choice of agency heads to agency budgets, regulations, and litigating positions, presidents and their appointees have undermined the very programs ...

Want that hurricane to go somewhere else? Just update the map with a sharpie.

Trump is a useless idiot that fascists have made a useful idiot.

True but the idea IS extremely dumb. Fascism is usually extremely dumb.

The Canadian government tried this when Stephen Harper was prime minister. They forbade federal scientists, especially climate change scientists, from speaking to the press. It was not great.

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