I’m feeling so uneasy with everything I’ve been seeing. I keep thinking about what we will be this time next year, and if shit hits the fan, what is your plan? I’m queer and was politically active in 2020, so I would potentially be considered a political enemy.
The only blueprint I can think of is what you do in an active shooter situation; Flee, Hide, Fight.
I know there’s that romantic notion of “don’t be a coward, get out and protest”, but I remember the brutality of the 2020 protests firsthand, and even then I thought “thank god I’m going toe to toe with the CPD and not the CCP”. Next time is going to be different. The president now has authority to send drone strikes. Protests and riots don’t stand a chance agains missiles and live rounds.
Flee- I have an Uncle in Montreal who my family could potentially use as a way to at least temporarily escape the chaos. The hope I’d have is that Canada and other countries would accept American refugees, however that’s not a guarantee.
Hide- If borders are closed, lay low and move away from major cities if possible. If civil war breaks out, try to get away from the violence even if you think your side will win. Todays losers may be tomorrows victors.
Fight- If cellular data/ social media algorithms can keep track of you, and surveillance can make sure there’s no movement, this would be the last resort of desperation. I guess if possible try to either find a group for safety in numbers, or conversely go guerrilla as groups of resistance would make easy targets.
Sorry my mind is running and I’m getting scared.
I’d like to try to assuage your fears regarding a protest meeting missiles or drone strikes. Yes, the President can order drone strikes with impunity. It’s been that way since the first use of drones, early as the Obama era (maybe earlier, but I was a bit young then).
However, this does not apply to US soil. One of the benefits of state sovereignty is that federal armed forces can’t operate on US soil. National guard gets involved, at the governor’s request, but they don’t have missiles or drones. Police are barbaric, but they also don’t have missiles or drones.
So I don’t think we’d see much of an escalation in terms of weapons of violence with regards to protests when compared to 2020.
The fuck they don’t.
After my active duty service I was in the NG for a while until I figured out it was a fuckin joke, but my NG unit was a Bradley unit which means 30mm cannon and TOW missiles. And that was almost 30 years ago.
The Air NG also flies just about every fighter out there and they sure as hell have missile racks on them.
The hope is that the Americans behind those war machines will be hesitant to fire on their countrymen but Kent State puts a shadow over that hope.
From the Project 2025 wiki page:
I was unaware of “Project 2025”, interesting read! While that does contain multiple concerning ideas, this is far from a reliable manifesto. Additionally, ties have been drawn to the Trump campaign, but these are loose ties and appear primarily to be op-eds. Trump has also disavowed ties to this “publication”. Lastly, that “Washington Post report” is another one of those vague articles featuring “according to sources familiar”.
I’ve seen multiples of you anti-american accounts pushing the lie that the traitor campaign isn’t all in on this authoritarian dictatorship bullshit.
We’re not buying your smurf campaign.
Whether that manifesto’s “reliable”, well, we’ll have to see. That recent immunity move by the SC is already a big step in the direction that Project 2025 wants to take the US in with their “unitary executive theory” bullshit – everything doesn’t hinge on Trump.
Far as Trump’s disavowals go, I’ll believe it when I see it – that man lies as easily as he breathes. I’ll be happily surprised if it does turn out he wasn’t lying, but that’s not going to be my default assumption. And it’s not like Project 2025 hinges on his enthusiastic support of the Project, just its goals – if Trump gets elected he is the one choosing which recommendations he’ll follow, and I don’t find it very believable that he wouldn’t be interested in eg. expanding executive power.
That’s going to be what they publish every time the sources don’t want anyone to know it was them, but it’s not like the reporters don’t know their sources or don’t vet them –this “anonymous source bad” trope frankly reeks of the classic populist Lying press / Lügenpresse rhetoric. I really don’t understand how people think things should work if anonymous sources are bad
Why is this fucker still alive?
Clearly “the system” isn’t capable of handling the threat of right-wing extremism and something needs to be done, but anybody murking Trump would probably make things worse, not better. He’d become a conservative martyr, and they could point to his death and say “see, we told you they’re violent” and use it to deepen hatred and oppression. This is what happened after the failed assassination attempt on Robert Fico
It does not matter what anyone does. Everyone needs to understand that. They will always find something to point to and rally against. But I meant why is he still alive when his health is terrible, he’s past average life expectancy, he doesn’t exercise, and he obviously spends all of his mental and emotional energy on petty vengeance and anger. I’m honestly amazed that he hasn’t suffered multiple heart attacks.
Ah right I get you, a “how is he still kicking” instead of “why hasn’t someone fed him to a wood chipper”
I suppose “how” would have been a better word choice.
Haven’t been following the news, have we? What you said was mostly true a week ago. Now, NO ONE has legal protection under U.S. law against crime committed by an American president.
While this may be true, and a drone strike may be ordered on US soil, the President will not be the one controlling the drone, not directly in command of that person. The UCMJ supercedes in the case.
Any “official order” of the president is lawful now. As commander in chief of the military, he can indeed “officially order” drone strikes on US soil. The soldier following that will be following a lawful order. The UCMJ will not apply.
Pretty crazy that all it took was one ruling from 6 people to undo our entire system of checks and balances, and 247 years of accountability.
If he declares it an official act, then it’s not illegal. Drone strikes are pretty official.
SCOTUS fucked up super-sized
He can order it all he wants, but that doesn’t mean any branch of the military has to actually carry out an obviously illegal order. All it means is that he theoretically “can’t” get prosecuted for trying.
Soldiers swear an oath to the Constitution to not commit illegal orders, regardless of who orders them.
The issue is that the president cant issue illegal orders anymore. Since hes the commander in chief of the military, his orders are an “official act,” i.e constitutional.
The supreme court has said that the president can order military executions of anyone at all and the military can no longer legally refuse. The above is constitutional, because the people who decide what is constitutional said it is.
SCOTUS still decides what is or isn’t an official act, not that it’s reassuring.
SCOTUS can decline any case silently, with no justification. They can decide to not decide, ceding all power to the new American king if they like.
The military now have to murder americans if the the president says so, because he said so. That core check on tyranny, the military’s ability to refuse an unlawful order, was wiped away by this supreme court.
If they declined to hear it, the decision would be in the hands of whatever court the appeal came from.
One of the biggest factors is that the courts can’t get testimony from members of the executive branch of government, meaning if he does something insanely evil, as long as only his admin that knows anything about it, he can’t be effectively prosecuted. It’s pretty fucking terrible.
Someone will be willing to do so. He can just fill everything with yay sayers.
Ahh of course, america has never once committed a war crime
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
The heroic military that are totally going to stand up for what is right regardless of their orders… sat with their thumbs up their asses waiting to see how Jan 6 would shake out when it was painfully obvious that the outgoing POTUS had declared war on the US Government and was attempting to lynch Congress and the VPOTUS
The Army is gonna follow orders faster than the pioneers of NASA did in the 1940s.
This is not the protection that you think it is.
One of the elements of the Trump victory plan is for them to replace pivotal positions in civil and military services with sycophantic yes-men who are GREAT at not questioning orders - or, are of the same psychopathic stripe as they are, and are actually enthusiastic about executing such orders for one reason or another.
Not to mention: go into any US military mess hall, anywhere. What’s on the TV? (Here’s a hint: it’s not MSNBC, CBS, or CNN).
The people carrying out those acts are also not legally immune like the president is.
True, but he can pardon them easily.
If they refuse, they can be replaced with yes-men who will.
He can only pardon for federal crimes “atm” so if he drone strikes on state land the state can prosecute.
Watch as the Supreme Court use the supremacy clause to counter act this. If they’ve already reached this far, I don’t think that’s a lot further to reach
Also true. But, like, what are the states going to do about a mad king who’s federally untouchable?
I’m trying hard to not be an alarmist (mostly for my own mental health), but it’s not just that the floodgates are open; the dam has burst and we’re all downstream.
They may or may not be pardoned. Trump has a well established history of stiffing employees, screwing over allies, and throwing anyone under the bus whenever he thinks it will suit him.
His history of stiffing / screwing over / bus throwing aside, I don’t for one moment think he won’t pardon someone who has been loyal to him. Not as long as it doesn’t cost him any money or cause his ratings to drop.
He already didn’t pardon people who were loyal to him but ok…
I’m referring more to big fish like Bannon, but I’m curious who you mean (besides the J6 mob).
Nope. But they can be pardoned for those acts by the prez
Can and will aren’t the same thing, Trump throws his own people under the bus all the time and has a well established history of fucking over allies and stiffing employees, never mind not pardoning tons of people who committed multiple crimes to try and protect or serve him.
Not exactly the behavior that instills loyalty.
Project 2025 has you covered. Law abiding service members will be replaced. snap. Easy peasy.
A huge portion of the military supports him.
And a huge proportion doesn’t.
Dont underestimate how many people join the military at 18 for financial/career reasons and often end up living overseas and meeting people from different backgrounds. It’s not as conservative as people might imagine.
What year is it?
Tomorrow is the year 1446 on the Islamic Calendar. But it’s 1445 until then. (I’m using the Moroccan calendar.)
I know that many do not, but I have no idea what the actual proportions would be. Polls are iffy.
SCOTUS (or at least 6 of 'em) knew exactly what they were doing and did it anyway. On purpose.
6 of ‘em are super-sized fuckups. Po-TAY-to / Po-TAH-to.