Hidden-camera video shows Project 2025 co-author discussing his secret work preparing for a second Trump term

Additional_Prune@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 548 points –
cnn.com

Trump has publicly rejected Project 2025 as Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has sought to tie him to some of the plan’s most extreme proposals. But in private, Vought said that those disavowals were merely “graduate-level politics.”

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Vought said his group, the Center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans if he wins, describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies.

FUCKING LITERALLY every accusation is a fucking confession with these fucking people.

How can anyone who claims to be fucking religious think God is going to forgive all this lying and scheming? Do they think that their Lord stops watching when they're doing bad things? Or that he's okay with them doing bad things in his name? It's fucking bonkers.

But I guess you'd have to be fucking bonkers to believe any of that bullshit anyway.

Seriously though, spread this shit like wildfire.

I've watched a lot of religious arguments and debates and, let me tell you, the religious have no problem whatsoever with lying. I mean, sometimes they're wrong, sometimes they have a weird interpretation, but they also tell bold faced lies that are easily disproven. They do it often and even when proven to be a lie, they just keep saying it for years.

FYI, it's "bald faced". It comes from "barefaced", as in, having nothing to hide behind. A bare/bald face has no hair to hide behind, so it is out in the open.

I knew the right phrasing, but not the origins. Thanks for that.

So my beard makes me...treacherous. I see.

Hmm, I wonder if people should be judging them based on their actions instead of their professed religion.

I'm a better Christian than most Christians. And I don't even believe in a Sky Daddy!

They do it often and even when proven to be a lie, they just keep saying it for years.

Of course! After all, not questioning things regardless of evidence to the contrary is what religious "faith" is all about. Why would religious leaders push "faith" so hard if they weren't planning on taking advantage of it?

How can anyone who claims to be fucking religious think God is going to forgive all this lying and scheming? Do they think that their Lord stops watching when they’re doing bad things? Or that he’s okay with them doing bad things in his name? It’s fucking bonkers.

“Never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. His word ain't worth a shit -- not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.”

― William S. Burroughs

Because God doesn't like lying and scheming... unless it's in his (loosly defined, unprovable, constantly shifting) design.

They're morally right and you're morally wrong. Why? Because they say so.

You're right, I forgot. Christianity comes with an endless "get out of jail free" card by asking forgiveness from Jesus. All you gotta do is let Jesus into your heart and boom bam thank you ma'am all your endless fuckups and unwillingness to be a better person are forgiven! Surely you'll somehow be a better person in heaven!

Classic dark triad behavior. The ends will always justify the means as far as these ghouls are concerned

The God stuff is just used to control the masses and the useful idiots. No one in the upper echelons, including those of the Vatican, believes any of that. If they did, they would out and shame pedophiles with extreme prejudice. The God delusion is used to attain and maintain power and access to resources. Nothing more.

Edit: I understand some people earnestly need their faith, so that’s why I think religion should just be a private thing. But religion and religious belief of any kind needs to removed from serious public discourse and policymaking. Enough is enough.

No one in the upper echelons, including those of the Vatican, believes any of that. If they did, they would out and shame pedophiles with extreme prejudice.

I think the counterargument here is that hurting people is bad, even when they've done harm,

but even that falls pretty short, because it's not just that the upper echelons of the Catholic Church aren't "outing and shaming" them, but also that the system is literally protecting them.

FUCKING LITERALLY every accusation is a fucking confession with these fucking people.

It's different when they do it because they are the Heroic PCs rather than the Villainous NPCs.

They're going to do the based trad MAGA reforms, not the Soy Woke Chinese Communism.

How can anyone who claims to be fucking religious think God is going to forgive all this lying and scheming?

Idk about other Christians, but for Catholics you can just say, "oops, my bad," and do penance and you're good. God's like, oh well, you asked for forgiveness so that must mean you're like, super sorry. No Hell for you, because you're baptized and awesome.

The New Testament is like one massive cope after all the rules and violence in the Old Testament. At least from what I was taught in school; I don't read that shit as an adult.

Lol, those religious people have never actually read their religious texts. They just belive whatever their cult leader says.

LoL! They can just ask for forgiveness.

/S of course

I can't believe the guy's name is Vought.

Vought

Homelander on ‘The Boys’ Was Always Meant To Be Donald Trump — But Antony Starr Doesn’t Love It

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/homelander-the-boys-donald-trump-antony-starr-interview-1235050468/

Homelander on ‘The Boys’ Was Always Meant To Be Donald Trump

The comic series was released in 2006 and concluded in 2012, so that's doubtful. He was supposed to be the synthesis between European White Nationalism and American Exceptionalism, both of which predate Trump by centuries.

Starr straight out rejects the notion that the character is just Trump with powers, and tries to get back to why this character is the product of his conditions rather than just a reflection of an IRL ideological peer.

The through line from this abused and exploited child to an emotionally starved and psychotically included adult is what makes the character fun.

Trump has been an influence on fictional bad guys going back to the 80s. Biff from Back to the Future as an example. Idk about "The Boys" but thought we could have some back and forth with it until someone posted some actual facts.

Biff is a sleazy and cowardly narcissistic rapist, you can immediately see the similarities with Donald.

If the authors behind Homelander were going for Donald vibes, I would say they missed the mark.

The through line from this abused and exploited child to an emotionally starved and psychotically included adult is what makes the character fun.

You just described DJT though...

DJT was spoiled rotten.

I'm pretty sure his father was emotionally abusive, according to his sister. So not exactly tortured like Homelander, but it's still backstory to his villainous behavior

and his complaints that the GOP was too focused on “religious liberty” instead of “Christian nation-ism.”

This mouldering motherfucker really thought no one would notice what he was saying if he dropped an "al" from the middle of a word

This is the best and brightest they have to offer. Pretty sad.

They play stupid games like this. They refer to the "Democratic party" as the "Democrat party" to remove "democracy" from their opponents name.

Project 2025 playbook: "Don't leave behind a paper trail for watchdogs to discover."

Some hero from the Centre for Climate Reporting with a hidden camera: "Challenge accepted. Text doesn't go viral anyway."

They want to be a "shadow government" but they're so excited about all the evil they're doing they're hot to get interviews to talk about it.

The people who run our world are really, really fucking stupid.

Really proving the point of "if there really was a big conspiracy and attempted coverup, someone will eventually leak it"

Flat earth fake moon landing, alien pyramids, got nothing, despite people super actively looking for evidence, but the republicans, NSA, and the shit CIA did (and the myriad other proven conspiracies)? Yeah, those did not stay secret. A lot of them are quite in the open too, people just don't tend to be too interested

Good thing we're just going to let them do it.

Vote, get involved

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Already registered to vote. I live in a county that's been pretty carved up to dilute the democratic vote, but I'll be doing so nonetheless.

Note that the congressional maps don't impact senate and presidential races* - only house and local races

See a lot of people claim it as a reason for apathy, but it's worth remembering there's still a lot of potentially winnable fights even in gerrymandered districts

* maine and nebraska are exceptions for presidential races due to splitting some of their electoral votes

We need to do more. Much more. Trump and his followers are intending to use every means at their disposal, up to and including violence, to achieve a dictatorship. They have already subverted SCOTUS and are moving themselves into position to massively interfere with the election itself. Why the fuck are we still talking like just voting and business-as-usual campaigning is anywhere near enough to counter that?

Consider the recommendations of this article, for instance (which, frankly, are even themselves toned down compared to what is actually necessary):

Still, pro-democracy Americans need to be organized en masse as part of a larger project of corporeal politics that will involve massive non-violent protests, nationwide strikes, and other disruptions to the country’s day-to-day routine if Trump and the MAGA Republicans take power in 2025. Pro-democracy civil society organizations must focus their attention on the ongoing coup and widespread right-wing attacks on American democracy and leverage their particular resources and networks to stop it.

...

Viewers, listeners, readers, and especially subscribers need to embark upon a public pressure and boycotting campaign if the mainstream news media—and especially the elite agenda-setting news media such as the New York Times and Washington Post—continue with their Trump-MAGA enabling agenda.

...

The Republican Party has been fully MAGAfied and needs to be torn down and rebuilt (or outright replaced) in a way that is consistent with basic democratic principles such as respect for the rule of law and civil society.

In his essay at the New Republic, Rothkopf gives these marching orders to his fellow pro-democracy Americans:

The Democracy Future Project’s exercises can’t tell us whether the descent into authoritarianism will be fast or slow if Trump wins. Most likely, it will involve a combination of highly visible steps and subtler, possibly even more dangerous changes far from view. But the exercises make it clear that should Trump win in November, there is every reason to expect the worst. And that’s why there is also every reason to prepare for the worst case. If those who care about democracy start coordinating now to shore up democracy’s defenses, we’ll have a fighting chance of slowing or preventing Trump’s most egregious plans should he regain the White House.

Honestly, the second people caught wind of what amounts to a literal second coup attempt, they should have been arrested. But since it's funded by billionaires, people are looking the other way.

And that, in and of itself, ought to have justified a march on Washington of millions of non-billionaires.