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.
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.
I watched a documentary a couple days ago about a school counselor who got laid off and needed to join ICE to make his monthly nut.
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.
“… and needed to join ICE to make his monthly nut.”
needed to join ICE
Yeah, no. Fuck that.
A nut’s a nut and they’re hiring.
I was just doing my job
Is not a valid excuse for collaborating with fascists. It wasn’t for the Nazis, it’s not for the IDF, and it isn’t for ICE/Trump regime.
Fuck anyone who normalizes this.
Must be nice to be rich or out of touch enough to be idealistic.
Yeah nah fuck that and fuck you
you haven’t got a clue how many poor people have stood up against fascism throughout the last century. Fuck these excuses.
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
When the economy crashes it will be the ICE half of the poor killing the other half poor - that’s the plan.
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”.
This is exactly whats happening. Every fascist act is normalized. There is no line to cross. There are just constant moves that are more and more harmful. Sinclair Lewis wrote about this almost 100 years ago.
act like this is all potentially bad and then normalizing just flat out dystopian shit.
Yes, that’s how it happened last time as well.
thanks man, finally someone else saying it!
We’ve been chasing the dragon since 2016: This is gonna bring him down, that is gonna bring him down, oh no but wait, this is definitely going to finish him off. How is the Epstein story ever going to harm him in any way?
In reality those things are the distractions from the real shit that’s been happening. Now that he’s accelerating his fascist actions in plain sight, how dare anyone say it’s just a distraction? This narrative only works in his favour, jfc.
it’s all important. don’t lose sight of any of it
I’ve been trying not to. And I am losing my mind.
but but but guys, Kamala Harris had a weird laugh….
/s
And the emails… Bondi will make sure it gets done!
That was never the criticism from anyone actually opposing Trump. The criticism is that she built her career as a cop, locking people up for minor offenses, fighting to keep them in prison for cheap labor, and then went on to campaign for the most lethal military machine on Earth. But sure, go ahead and whitewash her record because it’s easier to joke than to confront the fact that your “lesser evil” still has blood on her hands.
If you didn’t turn out to vote you didn’t oppose trump.
I said criticism, you think no one who opposed Trump should have criticised former cop who built her career on locking people up?
ACAB, just not one of the worst kind?
She was an attorney working for the executive branch, not a cop. Applying for a job higher up in the executive branch. If we are going to call everyone who executes the laws bastards, then you can’t vote for anybody to join the executive branch, as you are willingly choosing to make them a bastard apparently.
Just so everyone is on the same page, to you the slogan All Cops Are Bastards applies not to all corrupt people in the legal system that abuse us and imprison us, but it’s exclusively police officers?
Just checking.
At least she isn’t nazi, traitor, piece of shit like Trump.
She absolutely is a Nazi. A nice Nazi that supported genocide.
Liberals have supported plenty of genocides.
As have socialists.
You are a moron.
You support genocide, just not when it’s GOP branded.
Call me names, it doesn’t change the facts at all.
No. You are a fool.
Good point. Read some books.
That was never the criticism from anyone actually opposing Trump.
Yes it was. It was a dumb and invalid argument, but it came up more often than it ever should have. It was an EXCUSE to not vote for her, because it was easier to say that than to admit that they’re just afraid of a woman in power.
I realize there were many more valid reasons to dislike her but compared to trump, she’s a goddamn saint. Plus, I liked her VP pick better than trump’s. She also would have selected a much more competent and qualified cabinet.
The criticism is that she built her career as a cop, locking people up for minor offenses, fighting to keep them in prison for cheap labor, and then went on to campaign for the most lethal military machine on Earth.
Those are all valid criticisms, but trump built his career as a criminal, is deporting people for minor offenses, fighting to deport innocent people to prison labor camps in countries they are not even from, and then went on to campaign for the most lethal military machine on Earth.
So comparing the two with just those criticisms, it’s a wash. And then adding on all the other AWFUL shit trump is doing, especially “project 2025,” it’s no contest.
But sure, go ahead and whitewash her record because it’s easier to joke than to confront the fact that your “lesser evil” still has blood on her hands.
I’m not whitewashing anything, I made a sarcastic comment mocking the misogynists who have put a LITERAL AUTHORITARIAN MADMAN in the presidency because they couldn’t handle a woman president.
When our choices are : lesser evil or absolute evil (and the third choice is: just let absolute evil win), we really can’t let petty things like “annoying laugh” (again- just a lame excuse for misogyny) go.
I was accused of having “blood in my hands” for voting for Harris. But really, protest voting against Harris is drenching yourself in that same blood plus gallons more.
I only really saw those criticisms of her from people already on the left. What I saw (in generalized and slightly exaggerated manner) from conservatives was, “NO, SHE’S A LIBERAL, WOKE, COMMUNIST WHO WANTS TO DESTROY AMERICA!”
To which most people I saw on the left respond with, “Communist? The former cop and DA?”
That’s literally what I’m saying.
This is untrue.
Every criticism presented is completely true. She would have been better than trump, but she was a terrible Democratic candidate. She would have made a better Republican candidate. Her campaign would only needed to have focused on her prosecutorial career.
Hope the next election (if there is one) goes your way and the candidate is perfect.
That, but unironically.
Winning a presidential election isn’t about the votes that are cast. It’s about the voters that stay home. It’s really difficult to get people to the polls when your entire platform is “a little less evil than the other guy.”.
I voted for the lesser evil, and I know why so many did not. You do us no favors by refusing to recognize that the lesser evil is still evil.
- supports a genocide
- supports torture programs
- supports increasing military and intelligence funding
- supports deporting innocent people
- supports a highly unpopular president
- runs on highly unpopular policies
I think you might have a skewed definitions of what “perfect” means. I think most people would settle for “not a monster” but that’s too high of a bar for the DNC.
I think you dropped this:
- supported genocide
- supported an unpopular president
- ran on unpopular policies
- let the voters know that she didn’t care about what they wanted
- wanted to keep the US military the “most lethal fighting force” despite the fact that we use them to kill innocent people
- gaslit the voters on the economy
Is Trump still worse? yes, absolutely. But maybe the Democrats could try running candidates that aren’t obviously terrible if they want to win.
We had a bad choice and a worse choice. So i said let it all fall.
We had a bad choice and a worse choice. So i said
let it all fall.I’m a sociopath that’s fine with seeing minorities being brutalized and killed so long as I can maintain some kind of bullshit ideological purity.FTFY
Now I voted (not that it would have mattered as Kamala was going to win my state regardless), but for the sake of argument I also didn’t see minorities NOT being brutalized and killed under Biden or Obama. Or Clinton for that matter.
Fuck you
At least with the bad choice more people would have energy and resources to fight back in more meaningful ways.
Worse option is exiling American citizens, tanking the economy, persecuting minorities, taking away rights, ignoring the constitution and, notably, full backing genocide in Gaza.
Bad option would not act to stop genocide in Gaza.
Clearly the same thing.
Worse option is exiling American citizens, tanking the economy, persecuting minorities, taking away rights, ignoring the constitution and, notably, full backing genocide in Gaza.
I saw all of these things happen under the past few “bad options”.
So i said let it all fall.
At lest vote 3rf party.
Otherwise the material reality is that you got out the way for the worse choice. Obstruction isn’t ideal, but its helpful none the less
Short answer: good luck with that. Deployable up to 100K. Total population you’re trying to control is 15 million. So 1 per 150 citizens.
Except it obviously would quickly need to include the Bay Area, St Louis, Indianapolis, Portland, Seattle etc
Stay the fuck outta Portland, you Nazi bastards 😠
Goddamn right.
They want to provoke a violent response to scare the shitlibs into supporting martial law and a Reichstag Fire type event.
The 100k combat troops don’t mean anything compared to a million cops and the reality that only a very, very small percentage of Americans are organized enough to actually put up resistance.
Lol Indy isn’t some hotbed for activism.
“Trump floats the idea of starting a civil war.” FTFY.
Trump floats the idea of starting a civil war
Russia floats the idea of a new American Civil war. FTFY.
Russia already won their information campaign. NATO is dismantled, Europe is weak and the US doesn’t listen to Europe’s complaints and concerns anymore. Leaving them free to start wars wherever they want in Eurasia, no one will stop them. America is checked out, and Europe doesnt have the guts to make a stand.
Nato is not dismantled. Stop pedaling bullshit
I saw that movie. Loved the ending.
We need a similar ending here.
I just want a quote.
deleted by creator
The Epstein files are going to fuck him over. There’s probably pics of his naked fat ass and his Fat Bastard baby dick.
Who are you kidding. Those files will never see the light of day. And if the unredacted files ever did - his cult followers would believe any bullshit Trunp said about how it’s all lies and fabrication by Joe Biden or whatever. Nah Trunps never leaving the White House. It’s as plain as day.
Doesn’t look like people an mass give a fuck actually. Until he dies of a heart attack, he’s gonna be invincible. That comment about shooting people and not loosing support was probably first and only true thing he told in public.
He’s like the brightest lighthouse in the galaxy blasting out the message “I AM TOTALLY GUILTY” with this diversion shit
Release the Trump/Epstein files
ACAB includes the troops. Fuck em
Is there evidence of this (yet)?
Do you think soldiers are different than cops? Do you think someone who somehow has less law enforcement training than a cop will do the job better?
Dumbfuck really wants a ground war.
they dont fear confrontation because they think they have the means to jail, out-shoot, and out-kill the “Left”
They really think they will just be fighting the left.
Depends on how loyal to him the military is.
They aren’t supposed to loyal to him, they are supposed to be loyal to the constitution.
Oh, supposed to.
Or more so, the people.
My sweet summer child. Part of the oath says you will obey the orders of the President. Soldiers are also highly conditioned to obey orders unquestionably. There’s no time for a moral debate on the battlefield.
Which is why he cleared out a lot of the higher ups. If any loyalty to the constitution still remains though, the current higher ups should reject the president’s orders that go against it, meaning the lower level soldiers will still be following orders by also rejecting unlawful orders.
I’m not super hopeful but that’s how it’s supposed to work.
WTF is in those files???
Getting the military in place for the coup.
the digital coup has already occurred.
Practice and precedence.
A coup is what happens when you remove the president/dictator.
In this case, the power to be removed will be the congress and the senate, so the current president can become the dictator.
… um… he already IS the dictator.
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.
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.
Yep, and there’s no way to stop him. Everyone just sat there looking while politicians slowly dismantled all the protections.
Yes there is, it’s just violent.
Not really since he controls the army.
Oh, wow, 100k combat troops (who won’t all join the fascists) with places they sleep at night.
What hope does the sane portion of 350 million people in the most armed nation on Earth have?
The real question is whether the generals will let him nuke American cities.
The resistance would very likely have other countries supplying weapons.
The generals quite realistically cannot stop him, short of an active coup.
The launch process is based on authentication, not authorization. As such, people who are not present are asked to verify various authentication codes. The details of the order are often not even visible to the person in question.
This allows for training exercises that are indistinguishable from a real launch order until the people in the bunker turn their keys and the readout tells them that no launch has occurred.
The selection process involves finding people who say they’re willing to kill a billion people without questioning it, screening out those that want to so you just have the ones who follow orders and don’t care, giving them snuggies, locking them underground for long enough that they’re not certain about world events, and occasionally handing them a loaded gun with orders to point it at the world’s head and pull the trigger before they find out if it’s a blank or not. If they even hesitate you replace them.The orders are pre-cached and distributed after being vetted by lawyers. The soldiers are then trained that the order are pre-approved as legal so questioning the legality isn’t valid.
The only safeguard is for one of the few people who both know the order and is responsible for verification of identity to just refuse to validate the code.
In this case, that would mean relying on Hegseth to object.
FYI - He tried this in Portland last time:
Bonus: The guy in charge of it, Chad Wolf (not making that up) had been illegally appointed and had no authority:
https://www.theusconstitution.org/litigation/dont-shoot-portland-v-wolf/
How quickly people forgot that unmarked vans with unmarked personnel were kidnapping people off the streets of Portland during BLM
“No the billionaire owned news told us they were l00ters!”
Nevermind the exact same rhetoric being used to suppress civil rights 40 years ago
Martial law is next! I tell ya.
This is damn near the same thing, without all the fancy steps.
That’s what I was thinking… this just isn’t that different. It’s already here
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.
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
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?
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.
I think it started sooner, with Nixon being pardoned and all the senior Reagan White House officials getting away with Iran-Contra
Even farther back. The mishandling of Reconstruction of the South after Lincoln’s assassination.
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.
Buddy if the law mattered even one fucking iota trump himself would be buried under the prison.
That’s not how the law works.
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
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.
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?
Law means nothing unless there’s some means to enforce it
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.
“Yes, the current system is slow and ineffective, and has done nothing to prevent the incarceration and deportation of innocent people, misappropriation of funds, and misuse of the military, but to demand anything else would be going against the ineffective system!”
SCOTUS:
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.
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.
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.
This is why we’re doomed. I cannot believe there are people who still think like this
He won’t realize until they come for him. People like him are how it happens
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.
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.
DC is under Marshall law in all but name right now.
“The Process takes time…” At this rate the process will get around to warning him he should stop shortly after he executes his political opponents and just before he starts executing judges who opposes him.
That’s entirely the point. Legal channels are too show to counteract everything at once. See Bannon’s “stress test”.
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.
So you’re saying we should “go high”… How has that been working out thus far?
And the consequences of him breaking the law will be…? He’ll get arrested and prosecuted like a civilian?
Martial Law was one of the last steps in Project 2025.
When do the Goose Stepping lessons start?
