Makeitstop

He gets away with it because no one has the balls to just arrest him.*

It's illegal to buy votes. It's illegal to offer anything of value in exchange for voting, not voting, registering to vote, or not registering to vote. It's illegal to offer employment in exchange for voting or not voting. It's illegal to offer entries in a lottery for voting or not voting. It's illegal to offer a lottery that isn't actually random.

It doesn't matter which way he tries to spin it, they're all illegal.

* A little bit of the hesitation could be blamed on the authorities not wanting to get attacked for being political (I'm sure Fox News would love to show footage of Elon getting arrested at a political rally). But lets be honest, the bigger issue is that he's the world's richest man, his defense would have limitless resources, and there's a good chance that the feds would interfere to get him out.

I would love it if he undermined any potential candidates to replace him, convinced that he would be able to get elected for a third term, only to lose a long drawn out fight over eligibility. Or just die. It would be a wonderful irony to have the Republicans scramble for a last minute replacement candidate because their octogenarian incumbent refused to back down.

No need to be alarmist about it. They can just apply for SNAP benef- oh wait nevermind. But there's still plenty of support for food banks which will- oh, right. But... uh, I'm sure they'll be fine if they have 401k or something, stocks are up and food prices are down again.... right?

[*whispering with unseen person*]

Really? Oh! Well shit.

They need to just show up and arrest him as soon as he hands over the giant check. The promise alone was a crime, but actually handing out the money makes it that much more of an open and shut case. Even if he claims that this isn't a prize but hiring someone to be a spokesperson (as he did last time), that's still just as illegal under Wisconsin law.

He's still the world's richest man and there's no telling what first lady Donald might do to try to get his fascist piggy bank out of jail, but it's better than just sitting back and letting them buy votes.

If musk was actually arrested and denied bail, and looked like he might actually face real legal consequences, I would not be terribly surprised if Trump just sent in the feds to strong arm their way into getting them to hand Elon over. They'd probably have some executive order that isn't even remotely legal and basically just use it as a veneer of legitimacy while threatening to take him by force if they don't comply.

I'd rather they arrest him, but I'll still take it.

Ah, but you see, someone in the administration said the phrase "national security" which makes everything legal. Plus, who the hell does congress think it is telling the executive branch that it can't do something?

He was the one who fired the people responsible for preparing for that exact scenario.

More than that, he's the one who thought that the existence of the pandemic made him look bad. He simply did not understand the concept of leadership and how he could have ended up looking better if he had tried to unite the country to make it through the crisis.

Because of this, the administration and campaign focused on downplaying the whole thing. They turned humans vs a plague into a partisan issue. And because the right wing propaganda machine exists to amplify these kinds of talking points, all the pro-Trump media followed suit and told millions of Americans whatever would get them to stop listening to public health officials.

The sad fact is that Trump is responsible for more than just the massive number of unnecessary covid deaths. He's personally responsible for convincing a large portion of the population that vaccines and public health must opposed, and that will keep the body count rising for decades.

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month,” Lutnick said on the “All-In” podcast. “A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”)

Yes, of course. Fraudsters are the ones who will want to bring attention to themselves when the checks stop coming, and not poor people who rely on that money to survive.

I know these people are stupid, crazy and sadistic, but it's like they have some kind of competition going to see who can be the stupidest and most repugnant.

While it would be nice if a significant portion of Republicans could open their fucking eyes and acquaint themselves with reality, the article is focusing on the independents who are far more likely to switch sides. One of the key factors in the last election was the large number of low information voters who voted for Trump because they wanted a change, driven almost entirely by being upset about the economy and inflation. Their economic illiteracy and confident ignorance was and is infuriating, but that feelings and vibes approach to voting is also a double edged sword. The more harm Trump inflicts on people through his idiotic trade wars and cuts to programs people need, the more they will blame him. That they will be right to blame him is just a happy coincidence.

Also, we are just two months in. We still have a long road ahead of us, and things are almost certainly going to get a lot worse.

The MAGA platform is inherently hateful, bigoted, selfish and shortsighted. It is lead by greedy amoral narcissists and sociopaths and preaches contempt for law, ethics and personal integrity. All issues are a matter of us vs them, so when one of us does something that gets called out by them, the problem is with them calling one of us out.

Anyone who is still a MAGA supporter has already excused the inexcusable more times than they can count. Those with a moral compass left a long time ago. Sure, there will be people who barely pay attention and who are genuinely ignorant of what the party they support is actually doing. But those people aren't the ones running for office or actively participating in political organizations.

Close the loopholes. Tax the loans they take out as income. Then add an inequality tax that scales based on the difference between their total compensation vs that of the lowest paid employee or contractor in their company and any related companies, with an additional modifier to penalize layoffs. Make it impossible to get rich without raising everyone else up with you.