Who could have foreseen that the guy who said “I’d love to be a dictator” is doing dictator things? Certainly not the 77 million people who voted for him.
“What do you mean the guy who said he would be a dictator on day 1 became a dictator on day 1?!”
Looking in from the outside, the US 100% does seem like it’s thiiiiiis close to being a far right dictatorship.
I see many commentators, both foreign and domestic (to the US), saying that there’s no way Republicans will win the next election after this clusterfuck, and I can’t help but wonder if it isn’t a bit premature to assume that there will be anything resembling fair elections in the US in the future – at least at a federal level or in any red state. What with the Trump regime taking an axe to federal election security etc etc
Trump has not been as badly damaged as people think, his approval rating has already recovered quite a bit. People have the memory of fruit flies.
People have the memory of fruit flies.
That seems like an unfair characterisation. Unfair to fruit flies, that is.
Also looking in from the outside, it seems obvious to me that the ‘plan’ is to manufacture sufficient crises and push people just enough that Trump can invoke the Insurrection Act and “indefinitely delay” the midterms and future elections.
What I really don’t get is, this one man seems to have total unchecked power? Americans go on and on about being ‘free’, not having a king, but their president has more power than any UK prime minister or modern king has ever had, and it goes completely unchecked. Recently in the UK, both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss (our UK-equivalent populist grifters) were ousted from the government for overreaching and lying, but there’s nothing to deal with Trump? How the heck has the US gotten in this situation? You would’ve expected the democrats to put checks in place to stop this, given Trump’s insurrection.
I just. don’t. get it.
He has total power because the GOP is a cult and the Republicans in the other branches of government choose to let him have unchecked power.
I wonder what their breaking point is. He’s on the outs with both the federalist society and Elon. He doesn’t have the support he used to have. At what point do they throw him under the bus?
Lots of “unwritten rules” that most presidents have followed historically. Just takes one person who doesn’t give a fuck about the rules to break the whole system wide open.
Republicans in Congress could begin impeachment proceedings and put a stop to this at any point. They are choosing not to. It’s not just Trump.
Yeah the amount of power they’ve handed to the president is just absolutely fucking bonkers. Like, how did they think that’d be a good idea? For all their crowing about democracy, a lot of them sure do seem like they want anything but a democracy
Trump literally said “you’ll never have to vote again.” The only way there will be another election is if he’s forcibly removed from power
But would that be enough, considering how unhinged Republicans have become? Would it just be a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” situation until the wider problem of the radicalisation of the right is somehow dealt with?
True, I guess i just what said what would have another election, not a real election.
I should have said “he and the systems of power supporting him” would need to be forcibly removed. All the shadow donors, project 2025, the dark enlightenment ancap accelerationists, all the other Russian agents, the dems unwilling to stop the corporatacracy and fascism, etc, etc, etc. It’s a pretty tall order
Yeah exactly – and this isn’t just a US problem either, but a global one. Conservatives everywhere seem to have gone off the deep end, while being totally convinced that it’s everybody else who’s gotten radicalised.
Feels like we need a global civil war. I think we called the previous one where we tried (unsuccessfully) to get rid of fascists “World War II” or something like that. Maybe a sequel to that, then?
Yup. Trump has demonstrated that there’s no consequences for doing this shit, so it must be okay for future politicians to pull the same shit and get away with it.
What’s scary is that it seems like every conservative around the world is fully erect / has soaked their panties taking notes of what the Trump regime is doing, and so many are outright blatantly copying the tactics – and they’re working
I’m getting the feeling that what the US is thiiiiis close to is civil conflict.
No kidding. Basically I’m just waiting for news of journalists getting executed by this guy
We’ll see what the national guard does. If they fight the citizens, this is it. I’m hoping they don’t. They’re Californians themselves.
Edit: 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms. If they’re deployed to protect ICE, this is it, because the people won’t stop rioting for them until they pull a Kent State and shoot civilians. I don’t see how they’ve been tasked, so hopefully they’re kept away from the active areas.
It’s about 80/20 liberal among all the jarheads I know, REALLY hope their commander decides to support the Constitution but if they start firing they may well be met with return fire from folks who went through the same crucible.
There’s plenty of civil conflict. Trump is trying to make it uncivil by calling in the military (as if local police weren’t already militarized enough).
the US 100% does seem like it’s thiiiiiis close to being a far right dictatorship.
Driving out to the Indian Reservation to tell all the First Nations people that we’re extremely worried about the direction our government has taken. Heading back through the black ghettos with a big mega-phone strapped to my car, warning people about over-policing and the gestapo-like tactics of county-wide sheriffs’ gangs. Rounding out my Paul Revere-esque ride at the US/Mexico border to inform all the migrant laborers who make their living doing piecework and odd-jobs and letting them know that they should not, in fact, trust the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Turns out they’re implementing a lawless pogrom across the southern border and are not, in fact, just protecting neighborhoods from people who are doing evil crimes.
there’s no way Republicans will win the next election after this clusterfuck
I mean, historically, the President’s party eats shit in the midterms. Very possible we’ll get a 2006 or 2018 blue wave of legislators as public opinion of the Trump administration sours again.
But what does Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies do with an incoming Dem majority? Do they rewrite budgets to curtail the resources afforded to Trump-loyal rogue agencies? Do they claw back executive authority in the next NDAA and budget bills? Do they reject Trump cabinet appointees and judges who continue to defend unconstitutional governance? Do they advance new legislation to reform the immigration process, expand the authority of state governments to protect women’s health and voting rights, and prohibit executive appointees from hijacking the digital tools of the bureaucracy in order to override legislative intent?
Or do they whine about not having veto-proof majorities and sit on their hands until 2028?
I am far less worried by the prospect of “rigged elections”, because the US election system has always been janky and corrupt but so heavily decentralized that it’s a rats’ warren of different reporting systems you’d need to hijack.
I am far more worried by the prospect of a Controlled Opposition of Democrats, who show up to lend legitimacy to Trump policy through their own tenure of ratification, while making a stink about Trump’s sex habits and online persona that lead to another series of nothingburger investigations and indictments that produce no penalty even when convictions are achieved.
What happens if Dems win for the next four years and then repeat 2020?
I am far more worried by the prospect of a Controlled Opposition of Democrats
I’ve seen lots of Americans saying that they think the Dems are essentially a controlled opposition party like they have in Russia, and it really does kind of seem like that – again, looking in from the outside. Not that there aren’t any good Democrats, but that the “party apparatus” is kind of purposefully ineffective
Edit: that wikipedia article is fucking wild. What the hell, USA?
Their official plan to “combat” Trump is to do nothing to stop him, then fundraise off the chaos he creates. They’re not actually trying to stand in his way, nor do they want to. They only care about the outcome of the next election, and more chaos means more donations. They don’t care if working people are bankrupted or suffer in the meantime, because they’ve literally said they’re now relying on funding from megadonors instead. Megadonors who share many financial interests with conservatives…
This, of course, is all built on the (flawed) assumption that the next elections are totally guaranteed to occur and will be super normal, completely ignoring the entire Jan 6 affair and aftermath, the sprint toward the far-right, fascism, and authoritarianism, and that SCOTUS declared POTUS to be basically god-king.
It’s clearly either controlled opposition, dereliction of duty, sheer stupidity, or all of the above.
The fact that the US effectively has two political parties for, what, 340 million or so people (yes yes I know eg. the Greens etc. exist, but they’re all such a minor players that they might as well not even exist) is just unbelievable. I know it’s a more or less guaranteed outcome with first-past-the-post voting, but it’s still just crazy that something hasn’t been done to fix this – not that either of the two “one party” parties has any interest in fixing it.
I live in Finland, with a population of about 5.6 million people, and we around 20 active political parties ranging from literal neofascist to communist. 9 of them are currently in Parliament, one of which is a democratic socialist party (and I don’t mean social democrat, although they’re also in Parliament). Even with all this variety, I feel like we could use more and more diverse political parties. Can’t even imagine how the average American feels about their voting choices (at least if that average American isn’t a fascist wannabe, they’re probably very happy right now)
I am going to vote for AOC, and serve in her military if needed. I have no faith in the Blue to do good, let alone the Red.
They write letters. Strongly worded ones.
Hey now don’t be unfair, they showed immense strength and resolve when they fixed systemic racism by wearing Kente cloth and kneeling in 2020. For the history books, this was the day racism in America was forever abolished:
I would like to see how much damage was done Saturday night. Hint: not much. I watched the live streams and it was just a lot of ICE standing in a line and LA peeps walking around. Very few protesters.
Then I would like to see the damage from Sunday. Hint: It was a few cars and waymos. The rest was a bit of flags and rubber bullets aimed at reporters and protestors to do harm. Oh yeah, I lot of smoke by soldiers and/or agents. Nothing makes great photos like smoke and fire when there really isn’t much else going on. The reporting photos this morning made me laugh at how they focused on the pretty waymo fires and smoke.
Saturdays Live Streams:
- NBCLA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5MfqiO3QQk
- ABC7- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdPTnHNEUiE
Sunday’s Live Streams:
- AP - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXT945ZJNCI
- Reuters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSNMZEjRBsk
- Agenda-Free TV - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BrsI2vVHKA
- AXN News (?) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kmwdCmOkdQ
I knew it was going to be bad, but fuck that comment section is radioactive.
If you look across the different streams, the comments are all almost exactly the same. It leads me to believe bots. I guess it could be 10 really prolific copy and pasters though.
Almost certainly. But that doesn’t make it less fucked.
From what I’ve seen as well most fires aside from the Waymos were started by the flashbangs and smoke grenades the police were using.
Good thing Trump is a wimp.
As others have pointed out, he may talk loud and roleplay as a dictator hard, but (so far, in the business and political world), Trump shrinks when faced with a fair fight. He’ll jawbone and bully and blow little guys up to look good. He cares about himself, and will brag about every loophole he exploits.
But it’s much harder for him to, say, cross the line of arresting Newsom. Other dictatorships, even modern pseudo ones, feels eerily similar, but look closely, and it appears the leaders pushed the envelope strategically. Hitler, for instance, was relatively tame at first and took calculated, increasingly drastic and brutal steps, wheras Trump consistently backs down from the Machiavellian solution. See: the response to Elon’s betrayal (so far).
At least that’s my hope.
And I hope someone with a spine doesn’t follow in his footsteps. The apparatus built around him is much scarier than Trump.
Trump is as afraid of war as his bonespur ‘incident’ so everybody knows his final threat is ultimately hollow as he wont risk war. In his mind he is a creator of peace.
TACO
The Trump White House wouldn’t disagree with that…
Shitolini at it again.
