• prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 months 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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      10 months 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.

      • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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        10 months 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

        • wheezy@lemmy.ml
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          10 months ago

          I would say there are definitely some people that care as the industry becomes more and more exploited for its labor. But I have yet to meet a software developer that has connected their pro labor sentiment to real class solidarity.

          Most complain about H1 people taking their jobs but blame the H1 people themselves and not the corporation that is exploiting their labor.

          I try to explain to them that there is no labor movement in our industry that will be successful without H1 holders being on our side at the negotiating table.

          It’s a really hard thing to get through to a lot of people.

      • rayyy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

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

    • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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      10 months 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”.

      • SupahRevs@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        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.

      • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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        10 months 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.

        • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
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          10 months 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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            10 months 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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              10 months 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.

            • chosensilence@pawb.social
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              10 months 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.

              • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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                10 months 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.

            • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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              10 months ago

              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.

              • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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                10 months ago

                DC isn’t under martial law. Technically, the district belongs to the federal government already, they’ve just been under a kind of conditional self-administration since the 70’s, I think? The only way to take away Trump’s authority over it, would be to grant DC official status as a State.

                And just curious…what system would you suggest, that is better than what’s currently in place?

                • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                  10 months ago

                  DC isn’t under martial law.

                  If you’re not going to bother reading posts before replying what’s the point?

                  DC is under Marshall law in all but name right now.

        • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
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          10 months 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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          10 months 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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              10 months 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.

              • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                10 months ago

                “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!”

                • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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                  10 months ago

                  So, because people are currently being denied the right to due process…due process itself, doesn’t work?

          • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Martial Law is too obvious.

            Russia is in full scale war, and has not formally declared war, but they are operating as if they have. Trump would do the same, a bunch of different declarations that are in practice, Martial law, but without actually saying it, because Martial law is too obvious of a rubicon.

            GOP MAGA is trying to boil the frog, what determines if there will be a revolution or not is if huge parts of the country suddenley believe we’ve crossed the rubicon, the point of no return. And it benefits MAGA for those people to have unique turning points, some will wait until X happens, Some wont take up arms until Y happens, It benefits them to boil the frog slowly, because it allows them to secure their position more and more before a potential confrontation happens

            declaring martial law is a clear sign to everyone “Yup, Im declaring the civil war” its too obvious, it doesnt benefit Trump to do that until he thinks he is ready, and at that point he’s already won and will be untouchable.

    • Montagge@lemmy.zip
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      10 months 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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        10 months 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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        10 months 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.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    10 months 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.comBannedBanned from community
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      10 months 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.

    • fluxion@lemmy.world
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      10 months 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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        10 months 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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      10 months 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.

    • AngryRobot@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Trump floats the idea of starting a civil war

      Russia floats the idea of a new American Civil war. FTFY.

      • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        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.

    • SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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      10 months ago

      I reluctantly welcome that, if only because that is permission to force his ilk into a well deserved box. At this point, I consider the Turdpublicans and Geronocrats to be the enemy of anyone who isn’t wealthy.

      We are already at war, it is just that ordinary people believed we were all part of the same society.

  • heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net
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    10 months 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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      10 months 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.

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net
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      10 months ago

      Yep, and there’s no way to stop him. Everyone just sat there looking while politicians slowly dismantled all the protections.

          • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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            10 months ago

            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.

            • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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              10 months ago

              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.

  • JohnnyFlapHoleSeed@lemmy.worldBanned
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    10 months ago

    You mean like when he wasted shit tons of money deploying the national guard to those places so they could sit on their ass, sleep in hallways, and then eventually leave because they weren’t needed and no one asked for them in the first place?

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Don’t frame it like it won’t turn out to be a big deal. That’s a bad idea, intentional or not. Deploying military assets against American citizens should be considered a serious escalation every single time it happens.

    • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      they dont fear confrontation because they think they have the means to jail, out-shoot, and out-kill the “Left”

          • Ironfist79@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            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.

            • Kage520@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              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.

  • YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Are they Democrat cities by any chance? I assume he won’t also deploy them to Republican cities?

  • wirebeads@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    The most free country on the planet is now the most fascist.

    Way to go America, yer fuckin’ winning.

    • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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      10 months ago

      The most free country on the planet…

      Well you see that is the neat part, the us was never that. They like to say that they are, but no.

      Now its just so blatantly wrong that no amount of rah rah usa will work.