I'm shocked more people aren't already better prepared for this, but it's actually the same thing we should be doing now, and continue to do if Biden actually wins:
Organize locally. Get hyperlocal. Organize your city, neighbors, block, building, workplace, and friend group. Establish mutual aid networks, take back city councils, county boards, and school boards from the stewards of landlords and big employers.
Establish protection for those who need it, and plant the crop of future national leaders who will do the long overdue work of putting government to work for the masses. Make it harder for any president or governor to exercise state violence by getting our people in prosecutors offices and judgeships.
The Democrats are not going to save us. Biden is just planning to go down with the ship. Absolutely vote for the lesser of two evils if you live somewhere where your vote matters, but recognize that the Democratic party is not an ally to the antifascist movement, because combating fascism conflicts with the interests of capital.
That can change, but until it does, don't put faith in them. Anything positive they do will be because power-players were replaced. And that starts in your own neighborhood.
Edit: Since this has been well received, I want to say a quick word on third parties: don't be afraid of them.
Without getting into a lot of details, there are a lot of myths about the risks that third parties present, but before we parrot all of that, we should just acknowledge that there is no harm in listening to their platforms. It doesn't make you a kook to hear ideas that often get suppressed by the mainstream, or to use third parties as a way to network and meet people. I think Jill Stein has a lot of useful things to say, and if a pollster asks me, I will gladly try to bump her numbers up so that she is harder to ignore. Don't be afraid to do that.
This is good, and I'm piggybacking so I can add on:
Get a passport, make friends in another country.
Vote to slow them down, yell at anyone who tries to say that it's better to not vote or that Trump would be better for Palestinians.
If you want to engage in electoral reform, you need to start years in advance.
If you live in Texas: Vote for Biden and encourage GOP voters to not vote for Trump. If you're in a place with lots of GOP weirdos, try publicly and loudly watch his rallies at 1.5x speed; I've heard it breaks the spell b/c his cadence gets disrupted. If Texas goes blue, Biden wins and all the DNC voters suddenly know they can win, making it immediately more likely.
If all else fails, remember someone might [Comment Cannot Legally Be Finished], which would solve multiple problems.
Texas was won by fewer than 633k votes. Considering Trump's popularity I'd say it's ripe for flipping but we can't lay down on the job. Also the GOP policies are pushing out liberals and people that are vulnerable (LGBTQ+ and families with LGBTQ+ kids) so the window is closing.
I believe this so strongly!!! Everywhere i go i beg people to vote. It was really only a few percentage points. We don't even have to flip people; just get the non-voters to go to the polls.
Think it's worth mentioning that U.S. politics sets the tone of politics in a lot of the west. When Trump won, the alt-right parties in more or less all of Europe grew significantly. Here in Sweden over the span of the almost 8 years since, our nazi party grew from a smaller party that the right wingers argued whether or not they should collaborate with in order to create a right-wing coalition and win majority, to the second largest party in Sweden.
Here in 2016 South Africa our online media spaces lit up like a fucking Christmas tree with all the white supremacists coming out of the woodwork to celebrate Trump's win. Since then, the second-largest of our (so-called) "opposition" parties - a party that can pretty much be described as the party of white liberalism - has dumped any black people they had in senior positions and began using GOP-esqe dog-whistling. All our parties - pretty much the entire formal political establishment - has been very receptive to violent, USian-style anti-immigrant narratives.
So yeah... you can flee the US - but you can't really escape US politics.
Last election we had here (2022) surveillance and stop and frisk were decently big talking points. Even the supposed Liberals are like "uwu so sad privacy is dying we have to be careful but big brother needs to sees you we nweed to be hawd on cwime!1!" I think the only party that's not OK with it is the leftists.
Lol! That reminds me... about three years ago I was notified of a "town meeting to discuss local problems" held at a local school here in middle-of-nowhere South Africa. It turns out it was just a shady PR attempt by the local branch of the "white liberal" party I described above (the so-called "Democratic Alliance"), and the suit there doesn't talk about our decrepit and failing water, electricity and sewage infrastructure or the fact that this mining town is being economically extinguished by privatized interests... instead, the only order of business was to brag about how they had set up surveillance in our main streets and handing off the data to the piggy for free.
I feel like strangling that particular suit every damn time I lay eyes on him.
I still don't quite get how these people make sense of the world. We recently had a big reveal that our nazi party is using "anonymous social media accounts" to try and influence popular opinion. They claim that they don't, and that the accounts aren't affiliated with the party, but there was a whole report on the thing and it's landed them in some hot water. The people voting for them are pretty much unfazed but the right-block alliance overall has taken quite a hit to their public support.
One of the things these people who supposedly really love Sweden discussed, was how they could perhaps create some sort of campaign website to try and incide violence among migrants, and possibly incite terror attacks. Like, how do you reconcile your "patriotism and love for your country" with wanting people to perform terror attacks?
Were I to play devil's advocate I'd say that it's possible that they were just shooting the shit, but even then? Isn't it a bit over the top? As a gay guy I'm not joking about conversion therapy or forcible sterilisations.
was how they could perhaps create some sort of campaign website to try and incide violence among migrants,
We had that exact thing here in South Africa in the late 80s and early 90s - the only difference was that it was actually enabled by the Apartheid-state through their terrorist proxies (ie, mainly the South African Police). When the anti-Apartheid groups didn't act "terroristic" enough for their taste, they just did it themselves and used the media to create a narrative of "black-on-black violence" to try and destabilize the country.
Like, how do you reconcile your “patriotism and love for your country” with wanting people to perform terror attacks?
They "love" their countries in the same way that a rapist "loves" his victims - the feel themselves entitled to it and deserving of holding the power of life and death over it. They do not actually care about the real people living in Sweden in any way whatsoever. That's pretty much standard fare when it comes to far right-wing ideology no matter what part of the world you find them in.
The reason they want to "incite" (so-called) "terror attacks" among migrants they see as not "white," "Swedish" or "Nordic" enough is two-fold.
Firstly, they want the Swedish people to see these migrants the way they see them - as a (supposedly) bloodthirsty and rapacious "other." Not much different from the way the Nazis portrayed the "Jewish-Bolshevik hordes" before and during WW2. A (supposed) "terror attack" that can be blamed on the "other" will essentially result in the media performing this function for them.
Secondly, they want an atmosphere of panic - such as existed right after 9/11 in the US. They know that such a state of things will allow their ideology to suddenly seem "relevant" in the same way that militarism suddenly became standard fare in the US afterwards.
This is for everyone that is taking the "oh well" stance... or the I'm going to wait it out stance... If you are unfamiliar with what the Republicans plan to do, I encourage you to look at the Project 2025 plan.
Some highlights
slash funding for the DOJ
dismantle the FBI
decimate environmental and climate change regulations in favor of fossil fuels
eliminate the department of commerce
ending the independence of multiple federal agencies
abolish the department of education
scientific funding would be limited to pro-conservative principles
end abortion nationwide
infuse government with Christianity
criminalize pornography
removing protections against discrimination for sexual or gender identity
terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs and affirmative action
the military would be used for domestic law enforcement
the arrest and detention of undocumented immigrants
speedy capital punishment
Project director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, explained that Project 2025 is "systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state."
So, for fucks sake, can we stop saying that we can wait out Trump for another term. There won't be an America left if there is another term.
the problem is, when it's illegal, and you get caught, you'll face the consequences.
Or if you did something else wrong. VPN installed to look at porn? Well, now you did two things wrong, you must be a super special bad person. More prison time for you.
The people behind it don't care in the slightest that you watch porn. They care to have something in hand against you in case you're falling out of line
This sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan from the perspective of a conservative. Criminalize porn so people have to take the urges out elsewhere, criminalize abortions so rape victims have to give birth, and slash social services and education funding to create the next generation of uninformed, emotionally-driven voters.
The non-voters don’t care. The ones that actually subscribe to the ignorant narrative of single issue protesting are too stubborn to admit they’re wrong. And the rest of them are right-wing/Russian propagandists.
Basically, what you shared is what either of the aforementioned will use as a platform to bolster their effort to sell everyone on their bullshit ideology.
I think they do care, they've just been taught that their vote doesn't matter. This seems to be especially true of non-white people i talk to. How can we encourage people to engage? A meme or a list of concerns is not going to change their mindset when they've been manipulated into generations of apathetic resistance.
No, they’re upset over a single issue every election year. They’re easily manipulated. That’s it.
This happens every four years. Like clock work. They find some hot button social issue and use it to hold our election ransom.
And also, If they thought their votes don’t matter, they wouldn’t threaten to not vote at all or vote third party if they don’t get their way. Because if their votes didn’t matter- it would be empty threats.
The people I've spoken with who don't vote are mostly black or brown and aren't withholding votes because of some issue. They've never voted. I invited a friend to go primary vote with me and she said, "no thanks, but you have fun with that."
The degree to which one person’s vote matters is a simple matter that is easily seen. There’s no room for “believing” anything.
In the USA for instance, a Presidential vote is extremely unlikely to change the election outcome. Therefore, that vote doesn’t matter very much.
The idea that voting makes a difference, for the individual, is an illusion we use to get people to vote. In the most basic, real, concrete way, which way I vote in an election does not make a difference.
What am I supposed to do then. I tried voting progressive and Democrat, I tried organizing, I tried donating and fund raising, I tried at the local level.
And every step of the way the Democrats have gone out of their way to help move the goal posts to the point that my choices for a school board member we're someone openly racist or someone who is openly sexist.
For president I get genocide or fascism... Gee really motivating me there folks.
you get one choice that has shown he can be pressured with reason and public opinion
and one that wants to commit domestic crimes with impunity, that openly wants to have his political enemies killed, and that has shown he can be pressured by Russia. You know, the country that swore to defeat the US from within.
I will never suggest any form of equivalency because there simply is not one. The republican party is clearly a bad actor and comparing the democrats and suggesting they are in some way an equal evil is a ludicrous fallacy.
But that does not mean that voting democrat is an imperative, nor that they become a valid choice because the "others" are invalid.
The bulk of my voting power comes from republican primaries where I can have an outsized impact on which evil will get the chance to run, but beyond that my votes count for nothing.
My point is simply that if the democrats actually cared about making a difference, they would not prop up dead candidates, they would not bend over backwards to help move the goal posts for the republicans. What they could really do is change the laws around how we vote, create automatic registration, make election days mandatory holidays with mandatory time off to vote, pass laws around campaign fiance and transparency. But they wont, because the same tools help them "win" and have power.
Just look at Trudeau, who ran on a platform of voting reform in Canada, the second he had control he dropped that promise like it was radioactive. Why voluntarily break the system that put him and his party into power.... It clearly worked for them before. Same logic applies to the dem's in the US. They wont change the system, even while its being broken, because they still think it gives them a shot at power. We dont need power, we need actual population based representation and robust protection from corporate ownership of our government.
Swede here, we just joined NATO and this shit terrifies me, and what is worse is that this is what people are saying publicly, how far will they go in practice?
Nah, I doubt they'll manage what they say. Some maybe, and shit'll suck no doubt, but there's a lot of inertia in the bureaucracy. My real worry is what the CCP & Russia will do once they have a green light that the US won't intervene in their expansionist ideals.
Spend a solid week posting screenshots of my comments on this platform about how the DNC is digging their own grave after they inevitably blame the voters for their loss just like in 2016.
I mean do you like being woken up at 5 am every day? Because we had chickens growing up and it sucked. But with the price of eggs these days, maybe it's a good tradeoff.
If anyone needs help moving to the EU (and in particular Finland) let me know. I moved to Finland after 2016 (I saw the writing on the wall for awhile, before Trump - it's just that's when I finally had the best opportunity and Trump accelerated the need to move).
It takes less money to move than you might think to move. If you have a specialty (especially in STEM) it's really easy, and most jobs will even provide language classes for free.
If you don't, it's still possible, but it'll be much harder work I'll admit. You may end up as a janitor or laborer, but know this - you'll still be able to live comfortably. Wages can be much fairer here, public transportation is excellent to the point where you don't need a car at all, and you won't be bankrupted by healthcare. Even a low skilled SINGLE job will afford you financial security - something I remember was not the case in the USA.
And on the bright side, if you want to go to higher education here, university is a lot cheaper or, if you live long enough in a place to become a permanent resident or citizen, free.
If you get yourself at least 8k and 3 months of intensive Duolingo and maybe Mondly, you have a chance to move.
It takes less money to move than you might think to move. If you have a specialty (especially in STEM) it’s really easy, and most jobs will even provide language classes for free.
Unfortunately I picked the wrong specialty (architecture). Still trying to get licensed by the end of the year, that's the only chance I have at another country maybe recognizing my degree. Regardless, it's not very in-demand.
It is in the Nordics and some western Europe countries if you get some kind of green certification, as eco friendly and energy efficient architecture is in high demand to meet climate goals but there's a lack of architects specializing in that. Though from the news here it seems there's a lack of architects in general as it was seen by many as not the most profitable field for so many years, so ironically you kinda lucked out lol
Finland is one of three countries that banned my wife and stepdaughter's race by using a procedural "gotcha." Despite being a part of the Apostille convention in Geneva, Finland, Germany and Greece refuse to accept any documentation from Philippines. Therefore, they are banned from your country entirely.
Thanks for the offer though.
Reminder to all here: USA is not the only country on the planet with racism.
Could you go into more details? I have friends from the Philippines (like, directly from there, never were US citizens) and they still even visit family every year.
I'm not denying there's racism here - there is, especially against Muslims (possibly more their religion and culture than the race itself, since it's viewed very misogynistic and against Finnish values) and Somalians (this one is just racism based off ignorance). Recently against Russians too for, well, obvious reasons.
But none of my Philippine friends have experienced racism, especially the ones with Hispanic names (there's Hispanic favoritism here).
Of course, racism isn't why I recommend moving out of the USA to anywhere in the EU - it's the civil unrest, unjust work practices, broken healthcare, rolling back of women's and LGBTQ rights, corruption in government, etc.
Are you sure it wasn't missing paperwork or errors? I'm assuming your wife doesn't have a US passport for example since you said all paperwork was from the Philippines, and my high school friend's grandmother mentioned Philippine record keeping, much like Salvadorian one, leaves much to be desired. Especially after Duterte's reign making things worse and not complying with other global governments, if this was 2016-2022.
I don’t have direct knowledge on whether or not Duterte made all of this worse, but I suspect you’re correct. Philippines is worlds behind on records, which is why I understand the purpose of the Apostille certification agreement.
According to USA friends he fucked with records of ex-pats and it was a nightmare for a bit when their family members were getting citizenship. That's why I also brought him up.
It didn’t seem that way, but the behavior of the Grecian consulate officer said otherwise.
We had been planning a trip to Italy and Greece for two years. We’ve been paying on the trip monthly. My wife and stepdaughter are Filipino citizens, here in the USA as permanent residents. They have applied for citizenship. Since they still have Filipino passports, they must apply for Schengen visas.
We we through the process of applying. We live in north Alabama. We were initially told we would have to fly to Tampa, FL to apply in person for the visa. I contacted the consulate and asked if we could instead apply in Atlanta since it was closer and I was having to check our daughter out of school to attend the visa appointment. They said that was fine.
We made plans and checked out of work and school to drive to Atlanta. We arrived on time and had most (if not all) of the paperwork that we were aware that needed to be completed. I could tell right away from the sneer of the attendant that there was going to be a problem. When she saw my wife and stepdaughter her attitude changed almost immediately. She took our paperwork, then made us sit in the waiting room about 45 minutes. Finally, she came back out with a guy dressed in suit. He asked me to come back to speak with him. I’m not the one applying for the visa.
I came back to the office and he explained that in 2019 there was a convention in Geneva that most countries signed onto - it was called the Apostille convention. It was intended to resolve the issue of countries certifying documents like birth and marriage certificates for use abroad. I understood the issue, since other countries do not really know who the certifying authorities are. I told him I would gather the information. They also wanted a certified letter stating that I would sponsor and support my wife and stepdaughter abroad during the trip. I’m like… uhh, ok dude, this is my wife and yes we share finances but ok.
So he asked me to return to the waiting area while they looked into other things and I gathered the income information they wanted (this information was above and beyond what was stated on the website, so I had to pull my W-2 records to satisfy their requirements).
After some time, the suit came back out and asked me to come back to the office again. This time, my wife and daughter also got up. He let me into the office, then put his hand up in my wife’s face and said, “Not you” and shut the door in her face.
Now I know something’s really wrong.
The man holds up my marriage certificate (we got married in Philippines) and my stepdaughter’s birth certificate and said, “These are garbage. They shouldn’t have even let them in the USA.”
I asked him very calmly to explain and he again brought up the Apostille convention. He said that we must supply the required Apostille certification for the documents and “they shouldn’t have let them in the country without it.” I said ok, well, while I was waiting I researched this and found that I can get an electronic Apostille certification from Philippines and get this resolved.
The man rolled his eyes and gathered the paperwork up and slammed the folder shut. The lady said, “we’ll take your money and keep their passports and run the application after you get the required information emailed back to us. Have a nice day.” They took our $180 and kept the passports and ushered us out.
I got home that night and then went to the Philippines website to process the Apostille certification for our documents and started the process. That’s where I noticed on the Philippines website that despite all of these countries being privy to the Apostille convention, Finland, Germany and Greece have “elected” to not accept any documentation from Philippines even if it’s certified electronically. The only way to have them certify an Apostille document is to fly all the way to Manila, have an appointment with their consulates in Manila, and ask them nicely to certify the documents and Apostille seal.
Since that wasn’t happening, we had to cancel our trip.
Instead, I’m writing this comment from a first class seat to Hawaii. Our flight credits were enough to pay for a first class round trip to Honolulu for our family of 5.
Normally I would say it was just a paperwork snafu, but the treatment of my wife and daughter at the Greek consulate suggests otherwise.
Fuck Greece (and Finland and Germany too). Respectfully.
Wait, I'm confused. You went to a Greek consulate that wasn't assigned to your location, and never interacted with Finnish or German ones but lumped them in? And why didn't you apply for the Schengen visa using your wife's US paperwork? She's a permanent resident of the USA after all, and should have a social security number no?
But also, none of that has to do with the approval process of moving to a EU country
You cannot apply based on US permanent residence. You must use the process based on citizenship at the time of desired entry.
Finland and Germany are lumped into this because they also refuse to accept Filipino paperwork, according to the Apostille site. This is despite their agreement to the convention, of which Philippines is a part.
Schengen visa rules dictate that you must apply at either the country you enter first or the country you are planning to spend the most time in. In our case, Greece was the answer to both of those questions. Had we applied to Italy, they would have refused to process the Schengen visa and told us to apply at Greece, who refuses to accept the papers.
We asked the Tampa consulate if it was possible to apply in Atlanta instead, and they agreed to this request. We did not show up to the Atlanta consulate blind or without their permission.
The reason I brought this into the discussion is because an EU country is very difficult for us to move into until my wife and daughter become US citizens. I expounded on the experience because I was asked.
From my understanding what you said and texting my friends, sounds like a paperwork issue. They never had trouble, but yeah, they lived in the Philippines. The issue in your case is that she doesn't live in the Philippines, so yes, she has to go there for the process because that's the only country she's a citizen of currently, although it would probably be possible to also do through a Phillipine embassy.
So they do accept Phillipine paperwork, but only official documents from the country itself.
Did you not have any official paperwork from there first notorized by the US? That's what's usually done in cases like yours, like my Highschool's friend's grandmother had to do when she got her US citizenship as well (so it's something you might want to look into anyway just in case).
That's probably your confusion on them "refusing" to accept the paperwork (although of course it also sounds like you had to deal with a racist cunt).
That said, it's weird for you to judge entire countries as super racist when you live in Alabama based off a few racists. I mean, even my black friends from when I lived in Texas didn't like stopping in Alabama. Just, something to consider for the future. I know racism can be extremely infuriating having experienced it both myself and seeing it done to my family, but you always have to remember that the asshole doesn't make the nation. Otherwise you end up also becoming what you hate.
We had original marriage certificates from Philippines with the PSA seal. We also had original birth certificates from PSA for my daughter. The USA accepted them without question for our visa and green card processing.
These are the documents that the consular officer held up to my face and said “these are garbage.”
We were not aware of the Apostille certification process and the USA, despite being a member of the convention, did not require this extra certification for our documents.
Greece would only accept them after they have been presented in person at their Manila consulate with the Apostille certification.
I did not feel it was a racism issue until the consular officers’ behavior made it feel evident there was more to it than a paperwork snafu.
I agree that I portrayed Finland and Germany as racist in an unfair fashion, that was unintended. The racism was evident only at this Greek consulate.
Yeah, I'm pretty certain that racist asshole used bureaucracy to be an asshole.
But you should get them notarized in the USA when you can in the future just in case. Harder for smaller countries to not accept diverging when a country line the USA already legally okays it.
Hawaii is nicer than Greece. My brother lives in Waikiki. If they exterminate the mosquitoes then it truly would be pretty close to a mythical tropical paradise.
Just try to live my life like I did during all the bad presidents I've had over my life. I grew up protesting against George Bush Jr and my friends still died in Iraq. now I just try to live my best life, and love and help protect others. I've always been lower class and on the outside of middle class suburban America, so I'm used to just going about my life, no matter what's taboo, or illegal at the time. Hell, DnD was the devil when I was growing up and I still played it. I still smoked weed when it was illegal, and I'll still love a man even if they say I can't.
This is the way. Some things you have control over and some things you don’t. Don’t waste your limited life sitting in your house being mad about who the president is. Raise your kids to be good people. Try to find a job that lines up with your personal philosophy. Find a local community and be helpful there.
In any sane world he’d have no chance. At least he’s shown enough incompetence and appointed so many corrupt greedy assistance, that he won’t succeed in doing as much damage as he wants, except to Ukraine. At this point it’s hard to believe he’s running for anything more than staying out of jail, making himself above the law
This time around the people surrounding him know what they need to do. It’s not like last time where they kinda tried to run the government with some pretense of obeying the rules. IMO should trump win this time they’re just going to go all-in and place themselves permanently in power.
Resist. Reorganize. Endure. Survive. Same as we've always done with presidents.
Idk what settlers are gonna do. Probably what they always do: whine, move to someone else's land if they're seriously inconvenienced, steal their shit, ruin that too, complain about how this keeps happening to them.
Just keep doing what I am doing. My kids will have citizenship in my wife's home country by the end of summer. So I can get them out if I have to. Me personally I am in no real danger.
I'm a proficient software engineer and have the financial means to leave. I'm staying. 100%. This isn't a fight we can run from. If the US falls to fascism, there's a lot more damage we can expect around the world.
The plan is to increase the rhetoric and efforts already in place, but hopefully with more participation, as people (hopefully) slowly wake up to reality.
I had a buddy once in a previous job who didn't vote in 2016. His stance was that the system was "working as intended", and voting was equivalent to condoning the system. Not voting was his way of exercising his freedom of speech. I disagreed with his logic but I understood, mainly because I couldn't verbalize a valid and logical counterargument. Today I can.
My buddy was right. The system is working as intended. But you can't say that without also stating that, at our best, more than ⅓ of eligible voters don't vote. Couple that with a system meant to disadvantage large populations, and, yeah, the system is working as intended. I believe that our best option is to stay and fight by being politically active and encouraging others to do the same.
I also do believe in our fellow man. Trump has plenty of supporters, but I honestly believe they're outnumbered and endangered. This doesn't make them less dangerous. Probably moreso tbh. And even though they're outnumbered, the only way to truly push forward is to keep up the fight and not underestimate them. We need to be louder, fight harder, and make our voices heard when it counts. ie, vote.
But I also don't have kids. My sister left Texas when she decided to start having children and I support that decision 100%. This is no place to raise a child.
This isn’t a fight we can run from. If the US falls to fascism, there’s a lot more damage we can expect around the world.
saying that it could be similar to germany during that one thing they did would be an understatement, considering how much bigger the US is, and how much more influence it has.
It would be global, if not near global. The only good thing would be the fact that china and russia exist, and exist in significant capacity to do something about it (though it's debatable that they would) oh and india.
I also do believe in our fellow man. Trump has plenty of supporters, but I honestly believe they’re outnumbered and endangered. This doesn’t make them less dangerous. Probably moreso tbh. And even though they’re outnumbered, the only way to truly push forward is to keep up the fight and not underestimate them. We need to be louder, fight harder, and make our voices heard when it counts. ie, vote.
it's important to remember that the right is incredibly fractured right now, every party in the right hates each other. Unless everyone somehow collectively agrees, they will likely deconstruct themselves in part.
You must realize he's pandering to the far right extremists. He had every opportunity to actually close the borders and realistically build a wall. This guy is so full of shit his eyes are brown.
Check out project 2025 to see how Trump's cronies are planning on purging the govt of anyone not loyal to Trump and MAGA and replacing them with loyalists.