#punishment — Public Fediverse posts

Government bureaucracies need occasional overhaul and rejuvenation.

Trump’s motivation is more about #punishment and #retribution.

His Cabinet choices point to that.

At the Justice Department, he is prepared to fire the team that worked with special counsel Jack Smith on two indictments of the president-elect.

More broadly, he looks to dismantle what he regards as an unresponsive and oppositional administrative state.

Experts say what Trump, Musk and Ramaswamy are talking about
— both in terms of money saved and workforce reductions
— is unrealistic and that they will soon bump into political and economic realities that will leave them far short of what they claim.

That doesn’t mean, however, that at the outset the president-elect should not be taken seriously about how #disruptive he will try to be in his efforts.

Musk has claimed he can cut the budget by roughly $2 trillion,
but analysts say that would require drastic (and unpopular) cuts in entitlements programs, defense or other vital services.

#Elaine #Kamarck of the Brookings Institution, who oversaw Gore’s reinventing government initiative, offered counsel to the incoming administration in a piece on the Brookings website entitled,
“Cut the government with a scalpel, not an axe.”

That was the approach taken during the Clinton administration, which resulted in the elimination of 640,000 pages of internal agency rules
and a reduction in the federal workforce of 426,000 employees.

Kamarck, however, questioned whether the federal bureaucracy is truly bloated,
as Ramaswamy and the Trump team claim.

There are, she noted about 19,000 Border Patrol agents.

How many of those would Trump cut while still making good on his promise to secure the border and deport millions?

There are about 1,800 air traffic controllers, she said. Would Trump’s team cut that workforce significantly, causing potential flight cancellations and disruption?

“It will take about a week and Congress will say, ‘Hey, you can’t do this,’” she said.

And how deeply would he try to cut the workforce at the Social Security Administration,
at the risk of checks not being sent out promptly or other breakdowns in a program that he has otherwise vowed not to touch?

Kamarck offered other examples of where the Trump team could produce only symbolic victories.

Trump has targeted the Department of Education for elimination.

Kamarck said the department could be eliminated but two key programs likely would remain
— the student loan program and Title 1,
which adds to state and local governments for low-achieving students in areas of higher poverty.

The student loan program could be shifted to the Treasury Department
and Title 1 to the Department of Health and Human Services, she said,
which means a portion of its budget would be shifted rather than cut.

Its workforce is the smallest of any Cabinet agency.

Kamarck’s point is that after programs are shifted, the money saved might not be significant and the number of workers eliminated would be tiny.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/24/doge-trump-musk-ramaswamy-budget/

Like so many classic spanking sites, Punished Brats is defunct. But fans will remember Pixie (Amber Wells), shown here getting a mouth soaping punishment and glaring (does she dare?) at the person responsible:

https://www.spankingblog.com/2024/11/14/mouth-soaping-for-pixie/

#Kinky #MouthSoaping #MouthSoap #Spanking #Punishment #AmberWells #Pixie #SpankingModel #Kneeling #Spanked #SpankedWife #PunishedWife #Wife #Porn #SpankingPorn #BDSM #PunishedBrats #Brat

#Fascist much, #DonTheCon? Must be reading his copy of #MeinKampf again. Britt commentary refers to "14 Characteristics of Fascism" by #LawrenceBritt.

10 alarming things #Trump has promised to do in a second term

by Judd Legum
and Rebecca Crosby
Dec 12, 2023

1. Trump says he will "abuse power" and be a "dictator" on "day one."

2. Trump says #ElectionFraud in 2020 gives him the power to "terminate" the Constitution
[Britt: "Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections."]

3. Trump says he will issue "full pardons" to #January6 #insurrectionists
[Britt: "Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption"]

4. Trump says he will cut funding to schools that cover subjects he believes are "inappropriate"
[Britt: "Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts"]

5. Trump says he will legally erase trans people and ban them from military service
[Britt: "The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation."]

6. Trump says he will end birthright citizenship by executive order
[Britt: Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause"]

7. Trump says he will impose a new 10% tax on all imported goods
[Britt: "Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism"]

8. Trump says he will investigate NBC and MSNBC for treason and potentially remove the company from public airwaves
[Britt: "Controlled #MassMedia"]

9. Trump says he will demand anyone convicted of selling drugs get the death penalty
[Britt: "Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment"]

10. Trump says he will order the arrest of all urban homeless and relocate them to federally-run tent cities
[Britt: "Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights"]

Full article:
https://popular.info/p/10-alarming-things-trump-has-promised

#CharacteristicsOfFascism #MAGA #Fascism #History #RabidRight #ChristoFascism #Project2025

Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of #Fascism

[Unattributed, but based on the writings of #UmbertoEco]

"#Historian #LawrenceBritt studied the fascist regimes of #Hitler (Germany), #Mussolini (Italy), #Franco (Spain), #Suharto (Indonesia), and #Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.

3. Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: #racial, #ethnic or #religious #minorities; #liberals; #communists; #socialists, #terrorists…

4. Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.

6. Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.

7. Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. #Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. #FraudulentElections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2017/08/23/lawrence-britt-14-characteristics-of-fascism/

#History #Histodon #RabidRight #Antifa #Antifascism #FarRight #Trump #Putin #Russia #MAGA #Project2025 #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DetentionCenters #VoterDisenfranchisement #VoterIDLaws #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent