• Treczoks@lemmy.world
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        23 minutes ago

        In this case, the power to be removed will be the congress and the senate, so the current president can become the dictator.

  • heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net
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    11 hours ago

    He’s getting everything prepared for when he denies the next election. He doesn’t want to lose power to a pesky thing called democracy.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      13 minutes ago

      It’s way more than that. We’re only 7 months in. This is complete power grab, complete takeover. Democracy will only barely matter by 2026. And there will be no loss to deny.

  • Ileftreddit@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Yo, try that shit with NYC and see what happens. The city is a breath away from mass protest on a GOOD day.

    • StocktonCrushed@sh.itjust.works
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      9 hours ago

      Ah yes, the dog days of summer. When cities are known for being especially peaceful and compliant. What better time of year to deploy armed thugs to intimidate the local populace.

      This is gonna be great. I’m making the popcorn.

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    19 hours ago

    Look, the Epstein shit is important, and it’s important that we keep it in the conversation, but this isn’t a fucking distraction. Do people seriously not understand how dire this is? This isn’t a fucking joke. We are deep into full-on fascism now.

    • wheezy@lemmy.ml
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      13 hours ago

      I work at Microsoft and they just did massive layoffs all of this year. Last round I was layed off. 9000 of us in the last round.

      I say this, because, I think people might associate tech jobs and education with being more liberal and pro immigrantion. This is not the case at all. The liberals are being offered fascism as a means to deal with their unemployment and will accept it with open arms as their material conditions decline. Most people I know from my job would absolutely join ICE for the paycheck as the tech sector lays off more and more people.

      I’m sure we are seeing this in other industries as well. But just sharing for mine. ICE is going to look like an attractive job for a lot “middle class” Americans to be able to make rent. None of them are having class conflict conversations either. These people have next to no idea of what is going on.

      We will not just get the hogs joining ICE. You’re gonna see a lot of liberals start to justify it as their livelihood starts to get connected to it too. This is how fascism works.

      • rayyy@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        When the economy crashes it will be the ICE half of the poor killing the other half poor - that’s the plan.

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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        4 hours ago

        That’s a really good point. I remember at the most recent DEFCON, Cory Doctorow got a heckton of cheers when he was talking about tech workers waking up to the fact that they were workers, and are beginning to push towards unionising. In the comments, people were glad to hear the cheers, seeing it as evidence of the shifting tide that Doctorow spoke of.

        However, as you highlight, this mass squeezing of the middle class will also send a significant chunk of people over to Fascism. We definitely shouldn’t become complacent

        • 13igTyme@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          Worst part was all the people on Lemmy saying they are normalizing people joining ICE. Uhh no. They aren’t. They were showing a very real situation that has historical significance for many of history’s past fascist regimes.

    • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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      16 hours ago

      As someone watching from out side, no shit. The us has crossed the Rubicon a while ago, no longer a nation based on laws, no longer a place that people have rights, no longer a place with free elections (well this one has been around for a bit with the stupid 2 party system) and no longer a place other nations want to do business with.

      The most infuriating part of this has been watching americans (and more of the rest of the world then I would have liked) act like this is all potentially bad and then normalizing just flat out dystopian shit. Like shit this is not even the first place troops have been deployed to put down political “wrong speak”.

      • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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        21 hours ago

        Those “fancy steps” are the only things that would make this legal. Without them, all he’s doing is violating the Constitution. DC presents a unique loophole for this. Anywhere else, and he’s breaking the law.

        • tane69@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Surely this time he’s done for.

          Hate to break it to you man but the law does not matter. It really never has for the rich and powerful but he has laid it all bare

          • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            21 hours ago

            I’ve said time and time again we let the entire Bush admin off the hook for war crimes… Trump hasn’t even hit war crimes levels yet. Did anyone think we were ever going to hold him to account when we wouldn’t even do anything about that?

            • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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              4 hours ago

              He committed was crimes in his first term. Ordering an assassination of an islamism general using a diplomatic meeting to lure him out… Is very explicitly a war crime.

            • bigfondue@lemmy.world
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              20 hours ago

              I think it started sooner, with Nixon being pardoned and all the senior Reagan White House officials getting away with Iran-Contra

              • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                20 hours ago

                I don’t disagree, I guess I just felt like Bush’s war crimes of torture within our own military was pretty directly egregious whereas the whole point of Iran-Contra was that the Contras were the ones committing the violence, not US soldiers at the command of their leadership. Plausible deniability and all that. Like, if our society was ever going to give a shit, that should be have been the straw that broke the camels back since there was nothing plausibly deniable about “enhanced interrogation.”

          • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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            20 hours ago

            The law does matter. People don’t seem to realize just how much of Trump’s bullshit has already been stopped by the courts.

            The majority of his executive orders have all been blocked or straight-up nullified, so far…but thanks to the overwhelming volume of court cases and the long delays in reaching some decisions…the media never covers the outcomes to the same extent.

            • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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              1 hour ago

              Exactly, he is escalating bc he is feeling pressure. He is getting worried about the midterms. That is not to say that the law will surely prevail in the end, but just to point out that he wouldn’t even be bothering to test the waters with threats of “maybe your city is next” if he didn’t believe he would see pushback.

              He’s already sent and recalled much of the military in L.A., so what tf is he even talking about? Floating the idea of sending them again only to then recall them again?

              D.C. has gained autonomy as a city, but keep in mind it was already unique compared to Chicago, LA, and NY bc it’s already a federal district. When he called for a “federal takeover” a few days ago, he meant stripping the city of its autonomy in terms of taking the power from the mayor.

              When he tried to take LA the first time, he experienced pushback from both city and state governments. Military morale was reportedly extremely low, he made them sleep on the floor bc he didn’t really have any kind of a plan other than a show of force. In the end, he basically succeeded in a public show of wasting money and resources for absolutely nothing.

              Now what? He’s going to send in the troops again? Surely they’ll get the job done the second time around.

            • tane69@lemmy.world
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              20 hours ago

              Buddy if the law mattered even one fucking iota trump himself would be buried under the prison.

              • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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                1 hour ago

                If the law was perfect or if the law even worked as intended, he would have been in prison a long time ago.

                If the law didn’t matter at all, he wouldn’t bother making threats and testing the waters. The military never would have been recalled from LA the first time around. The FBI would have already arrested the TX Democrats in Chicago, and TX Republicans would have just gone ahead with the redistricting without a second thought (which even I’m pretty surprised that they didn’t).

                Will the law alone prevail and save us in the end? Not likely, but there is a difference between being naive and not allowing yourself to panic and be backed into a corner of black and white thinking. In many ways, doing so is accepting defeat.

                Being smart and strategizing means using the law and along with everything else to your advantage while you still can. Trump has been bulldozing through law bc his goal is to betray his own country. Democrats in TX are breaking the law, but they’re doing it strategically to save their country. They’re aligning themselves with Democrats in other states, and uniting as Americans. That’s what we all should be doing.

                • tane69@lemmy.world
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                  19 hours ago

                  Oh okay please explain how the law works I’m sure youre a lawyer or a judge or some other type of legal expert. We’re all dying to hear how our president isn’t guilty of literally dozens and possibly hundreds of serious financial and sexual crimes dating back to the 1980s, or how he is guilty and the fact that he hasn’t been punished is just “how the law works”

                  Man I hate lemmoids

                • Tehbaz@lemmy.wtf
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                  18 hours ago

                  He would be dead shortly after being locked up because he wouldn’t survive withdrawal from his fast food and orange makeup addiction.

            • dogerwaul@pawb.social
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              20 hours ago

              whenever an EO gets challenged or struck down, Trump figures out a way to get rid of the problem or go around it. the only thing the law is doing is showing him vulnerabilities to exploit. state injunctions are legally being ignored thanks to SCOTUS, so… Trump does not have to listen to judges.

        • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          He’s breaking the law all over the US, when you’re rich… they let you. This is no different. Let’s see some consequences somewhere.

          • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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            20 hours ago

            No one is “letting him”. There are dozens of active cases against him and his administration, right now. The process takes time, and the media never covers it adequately…but the system is still working.

            • GuyFawkes@midwest.social
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              18 hours ago

              If the system were working Cannon could not have effectively blocked Trump’s prosecution. If the system were working the leader of an insurrection against the government of the United States could not have even RUN for President, much less BEEN SWORN IN. If the system were working the personal attorney for the most vile and morally corrupt President in our nation’s history would not have been NONINATED, much less CONFIRMED to a federal appellate court.

              THE SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING. Any conclusions predicated on another other assumption are simply wrong.

              • tane69@lemmy.world
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                19 hours ago

                He won’t realize until they come for him. People like him are how it happens

              • dogerwaul@pawb.social
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                19 hours ago

                isn’t it disgusting? depressing as hell how these people still feel so confident in “the system.”

              • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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                18 hours ago

                So…do you agree with Trump when he tries to suspend or ignore the legal process? Is that your solution? Just, “as long as it’s us doing it, it’s fine”?

                It’s kind of bizarre to advocate for the very same shit he’s pulling, as a defense against the kind of shit he keeps trying to pull.

            • dogerwaul@pawb.social
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              19 hours ago

              you’re right that the system is working. it is giving us its ultimate: fascism. this is the intended outcome for profit seeking capitalists. if you mean to say our system of American justice is working… surely you jest.

            • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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              18 hours ago

              That’s entirely the point. Legal channels are too show to counteract everything at once. See Bannon’s “stress test”.

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                16 hours ago

                Dude. That’s literally the same argument Trump was using for why he should be allowed to just deport people without due process. This is not the “solution” you think it is.

        • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
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          19 hours ago

          And the consequences of him breaking the law will be…? He’ll get arrested and prosecuted like a civilian?

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          19 hours ago

          It doesn’t fucking matter. He’ll do it all anyway, without ever declaring martial law. And what the fuck is anyone going to do about it?

            • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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              18 hours ago

              It means even less, if your first impulse is to toss it all out the window as soon as it’s no longer convenient for you to follow it.

    • Montagge@lemmy.zip
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      21 hours ago

      How quickly people forgot that unmarked vans with unmarked personnel were kidnapping people off the streets of Portland during BLM

      • SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        “No the billionaire owned news told us they were l00ters!”

        Nevermind the exact same rhetoric being used to suppress civil rights 40 years ago

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Did we forget? I kinda feel like this is an extension of the BLM persecution. It worked so well they decided to keep using the same techniques.

    • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
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      18 hours ago

      Normalize calling them the Trump/Epstein Files

      We changed people saying “Trump fucked kids” to “Trump rapes kids” in just a few days.

      Phrasing matters, and it especially matters to him. Once we call it the Trump/Epstein files, news orgs will too.

      • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
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        18 hours ago

        Normalize calling them the Trump/Epstein Files

        We changed people saying “Trump fucked kids” to “Trump rapes kids” in just a few days.

        Phrasing matters, and it especially matters to him. Once we call it the Trump/Epstein files, news orgs will too.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Helicopters have been flying low over Houston every couple hours all through the day for the last week.

    I hope y’all liked our hard work in Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya and Yemen, cause it’s coming home

    • redsand@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      18 hours ago

      That’s a lot of air time. I sure hope the notoriously poorly trained police pilots don’t fly into a bird or a drone, tail rotor first.

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      19 hours ago

      I’m not sure taking over the government and making himself a king with a personal army who cannot ever be removed from power no matter how obscene his abuses are is a diversion.

      • RotatingParts@lemmy.ml
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        18 hours ago

        I agree, but he does (or tries to do) so much and says so much that some of it probably is a smokescreen. Which parts? I don’t know.

    • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
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      18 hours ago

      Normalize calling them the Trump/Epstein Files

      We changed people saying “Trump fucked kids” to “Trump rapes kids” in just a few days.

      Phrasing matters, and it especially matters to him. Once we call it the Trump/Epstein files, news orgs will too.