Appeasers and Collaborators
This post will work around to making you feel better
When we hear the word “appeaser”, all of us of a certain age think “Neville Chamberlain”. If you are young, here’s the backstory. Basically, appeasement is the strategy of making concessions to evil (generally a foreign power) in hopes that war or other really bad things will be avoided. This never works.
NEVER
The difference today is that the appeasers will not be dealing with a foreign threat, but with the incoming fascist regime. The list of appeasers is long, and growing every, single, day. You can look at the ever-expanding list of those who made the trek to bow to their master at Mar-a-Lardo. In addition to the expected Rethuglican crew (who are often collaborators in addition to being appeasers) we find Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. More recently, Mark Zuckerberg1. A lot of corporate America is looking for ways to appease, and it started prior to the election.
These people who are NOT thinking things through will endeavor to find ways to make the Orange Menace like them, and they will make various concessions. They think this will protect them, their families, and most importantly, their money and business concerns.
They are wrong, because evil is evil. Evil always has a plan, and will leverage anyone and everything they can to achieve their nefarious ends. Joe and Mika said they wanted to talk “with” the Orange Menace, instead of “about” him. This won’t save their network, nor their ratings2. Mark will do Don the Con’s bidding over all the Meta platforms, but he forgets that’s he’s in direct competition with co-president Elmo who will endeavor to destroy Meta just out of spite, owing to the fact that Meta makes money and Twitter doesn’t.
You know who isn’t going to appease? Foreign governments3. In fact, foreign governments will leverage the insanity and idiocy of the Orange Menace to their advantage.
A couple of examples:
Normally, the State Department arranges calls between leaders. They do this, first, to keep a record, and second, to be certain of the translations4. The Orange Menace doesn’t believe in the State Department, and therefore makes his own calls.
He recently “called” Putin and reported many “good” things between them. Meanwhile, the Kremlin denied there ever was such a call.
And then…
He claimed a “great” call with President Sheinbaum of Mexico regarding tariffs, and that Mexico would work to decrease border crossings. The problem is that Mexico is ALREADY doing the right thing, per agreements with the Biden administration.
In addition, what he neglected to mention were the retaliatory tariffs that would come from Mexico. Paul Krugman’s readout of the call was:
To use technical language, Sheinbaum's response to Trump's tariff threat appears to have been "F--k me? No, f--k you" (I spent many years in New Jersey)." Link.
To be honest, it’s not a fair fight. Corporal Bone Spurs theoretically went to Wharton, but even if he did, he’s the poster child for “someone had to graduate last in the class.” More info here.
President Sheinbaum has a bachelor’s, a master’s and a Ph.D. in physics, and did her thesis work at Berkeley. She’s the author of 2 books and more than 100 articles related to energy, the environment, and sustainability. And no ghost writer.
My Take
A lot of Americans are going to endeavor to appease the Orange Menace and members of his regime. History will not remember them kindly, and they won’t get anything meaningful nor long-lasting.
Foreign governments, both allied and enemy, will play him like the world smallest violin, playing just for him5. They will exploit the fact that he talks first, oh hell, I was going to say “and thinks later” but that’s not true…he just blathers. They will leverage his need for adulation, smile kindly, and then play 5D chess while he is trying to play rock, paper, scissors6.
Collaborators
Every single MAGA head who agrees to work under the new regime is a collaborator, as is every elected official who does the bidding of the regime.
Things are not going to work out well for them. Not individually, since many (if not most) will end up breaking the law, getting caught and paying the price. Not as a group because just because they want to do something, doesn’t mean they can.
I’ve written before about IMPLEMENTATION and how the federal government is set up to make implementation a lot like a Rube Goldberg cartoon.
Let’s take a look at this as regards the collaborators on deportation. Collaborator and “Border Czar” Tom Homan says that he’s going to start with criminals.
In fiscal 2024, there were about 1.8 million cases in the Immigration Court system. Fun facts here.
So how many criminals are there? From the BBC:
“They show that, as of July 2024, there were 425,431 non-citizens with criminal convictions on ICE’s "non-detained docket" - a database of people facing deportation proceedings but who are not held in ICE custody.
Of these:
13,099 were convicted of homicide
15,811 were convicted of sexual assault
62,231 were convicted of assault”
Where are they? Mostly incarcerated, and they cannot be deported until after they finish serving their sentences. And that’s if their countries will take them. We don’t have diplomatic relations with some of these countries, like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela - so these folks will stay here after their jail sentences, most of which are way off in the future.
The MAGA heads like to use the single case of Laken Reilly’s murder as an indication of immigrants who murder, even though we know from study after study that immigrants commit crimes at far lower rates than US citizens. So, you’d think that they’d like to deport Jose Ibarra (a Venezuelan) to prove a point. But they can’t. First, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which he must complete prior to deportation, plus Venezuela won’t take him, even if they let him out sooner.
Homan and other pro-deportation collaborators will try hard to make things like workplace raids, and taking people from their homes, work, but they will face huge headwinds in their quest to implement the deportation of millions.
The Posse Comitatus Act (1878) generally prohibits the military from domestic police action. And then there is the Insurrection Act (1792) which allows the president to deploy the military domestically to quell violent rebellion.
How many regular Americans do you think will believe there is a “violent rebellion” in THEIR city, state, town, development, mall, school, etc.? How will they feel about military checkpoints in THEIR city, state, town, development, mall, school, etc.? Trust me, it’s not going to go well for the collaborators.
Tomorrow: What will regulatory changes do to home building?
Wednesday: The DOGE Boys
Thanks for reading!
We know this because over at Bluesky, they have accounts that follow his jet, along with Elmo’s, the Orange Menace and others. Once they post things, the MSM picks it up, but it’s always first on Bluesky, and if you’re not on Bluesky, you really should be.
Their show’s ratings tanked after their trip and show no signs of recovery. Comcast is planning on spinning off MSNBC, and “SpinCo” may well not be able to save the name.
Well, most foreign governments. Justin Trudeau went to Mar-a-Lardo, but the jury is still out on whether he appeased, or kept his position that tariffs BAD for both countries. Time will tell.
You need translators you can trust, who understand not just the language, but nuance and idioms.
It was what Margaret “Hot Lips” said to Charles Winchester in M*A*S*H, but if you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this.
Even playing checkers involves thought.
Thank you for summing up this (pile of poo). I tend to go ‘round the barn & lose track of some of the details along the way, so I especially appreciate this talent.