>>22442250 Colombia only became the source for America’s flowers when American citizens were forced to stop growing after the U.S. signed a “free” trade deal w/ Colombia that devastated the West Coast flower industry.
notable
Cynical Publius
@CynicalPublius
To fully understand just how remarkable today’s exchange with Colombia was, you need to understand how Washington DC has traditionally worked through these sorts of issues, and the different way it works now under Trump.
I’ll illustrate.
Traditional Approach:
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Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.
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On Monday, the State Department convenes an interagency task force with DoD, NSC, DEA, INS, ICE, Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security.
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The task force meets for four days and develops a position paper.
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The position paper is rejected by the Secretary of State, who is unhappy that insufficient equity considerations are built into the process.
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The task force reconvenes a week later to redevelop three new, equity-centric courses of action and create a new position paper.
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The process is delayed a week because Washington DC gets three inches of snow.
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SecState approves the new position paper for interagency circulation, and considerable input is received from the heads of other departments so the task force must reconvene.
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The original three proposed responsive courses of action are scrapped in favor of a new, fourth course of action that achieves the worst aspects of the three prior courses of action but satisfies the interagency.
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Someone in State who disagrees leaks to the Washington Post, who writes a story about how ineffective the Presidential administration is.
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The White House Chief of Staff sets up a session three days later to brief the President, who approves the new fourth course of action.
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Over a month after the issue is first raised, the State Department Public Affairs Officer holds a press conference announcing that Colombia has agreed to try to send fewer criminals into the US and everyone declares victory.
Trump Approach:
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Colombia announces it will not take our repatriation flights.
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After a par-5 third hole where he goes one under par, Trump uses his iPhone to post on social media as to how the USA will destroy Colombia’s economy if they do not do what the USA demands.
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By the time Trump gets to the par-4 sixth hole, Colombia’s President has agreed to repatriate all the illegal Colombians in his own plane, which he will pay for.
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Trump finishes three under par and goes to the clubhouse for a Diet Coke where he posts a gangsta AI image of himself and the new FAFO Doctrine.
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Winning.
See the difference? It’s called LEADERSHIP.
3:09 PM · Jan 26, 2025
https://x.com/CynicalPublius/status/1883653586032238739
per AI:
==Totalitarianism for Safety=
Totalitarianism is a form of government that attempts to assert total control over the lives of its citizens, often under the guise of ensuring safety and security. This control extends to all aspects of individual life, including political, social, and economic spheres. While totalitarian regimes may claim to prioritize safety, they typically achieve this through coercion, repression, and the suppression of individual freedoms and traditional social institutions.
Hannah Arendt, in her work “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” describes totalitarianism as a “novel form of government” that differs from other forms of political oppression such as despotism, tyranny, and dictatorship. Totalitarian regimes, like those of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, use terror to subjugate mass populations rather than just political adversaries. They often employ propaganda to control public perception and suppress dissent, and they may use front organizations and esoteric doctrines to conceal their true intentions from the outside world.
George Orwell, in his writings, critiques totalitarianism’s claim to safety and security. For example, he notes that totalitarianism does not promise an age of faith but rather an age of schizophrenia, where a society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial. This means that the ruling class, having lost its function, clings to power through force or fraud, leading to a society that cannot afford to be tolerant or intellectually stable.
In summary, while totalitarian regimes may claim to prioritize safety and security, they do so at the expense of individual freedoms and through oppressive and repressive means.
tyvm