Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.

  • rwhitisissle@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It would be so funny if America re-elected Trump after everything. Like, 4 years of tragic, all consuming incompetence, with millions dead from covid. A literal attempted coup after a lost election. And then after 4 years of a milquetoast geriatric Democrat, the country’s like the kid who stuck a fork in the outlet to see what would happen and then a few days later thinks to himself “yeah, it fucking hurt like a sonofabitch last time, but this time if I use TWO forks, something different might happen.”

      • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPM
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        1 year ago

        it’s funny in a morbid way. after everything Trump fucked up catastrophically—all the wars he nearly started, all the people he killed through inaction, all the things he tried to do to overthrow the government—it would be very poetic if he just won conventionally. all you could really do at that point is laugh about it.

        • sharpiemarker@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          I respectfully disagree.

          I don’t find the end of civilization and the subjugation of minorities and women even morbidly funny.

          • rwhitisissle@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Let’s not be hyperbolic. It’s not the end of all civilization. It’s just the decline of ours. We all learned about stuff like this in history class in high school and college. The Roman Empire declined and fell. Tons of others did the same. It’s just our turn. We’re not special or exempt from annihilation. Time catches up to everyone.

            • sharpiemarker@feddit.de
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              1 year ago

              I don’t think it’s hyperbole to characterize living in a christo-fascist ethnostate as the end of the world. Empires are made up of people and the decline you’re referring to involves the death of a lot of them, so maybe factor that into your apathy equation. It’s easy to view civilization as something you learned in high school, but for the people living in it, it actually matters.

              • rwhitisissle@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                I tell you what, bud: if I find me a magic lamp, wish 3 is gonna be for America to be the country we all dream about in our sleep. Right after I get my first wish of a blowjob machine that cures cancer and my second wish of Ronald Regan getting sent to an even lower circle of hell than whichever one he’s currently in. Wish 3, though? All yours.

        • Auzy@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          That would be awfully for us internationally too. He’s probably a huge contributing factor why the number of anti-vaxxers in Australia dramatically grew too.

        • ɔiƚoxɘup@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          I would think that if he won conventionally, at that point one would really have to question the conventions.

          Perhaps do something a little bit differently.

          If, after being so woefully unqualified and demonstrably destructive, a political official is able to either retain or re-attain office, then the mechanisms that made that possible are broken and need fixed.

          I appreciate what you’re saying though. Also, thanks for your work with BeeHaw. 🐝

    • pbjamm@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      This horrifically stupid possibility was one of the many reasons I finally pushed through and moved my family to BC over the summer.

    • ɔiƚoxɘup@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      If I didn’t have kids, I might be able to laugh with you. In either case, I’d prefer to not see the transition from democracy to fascism from such a close distance.

  • circularfish@beehaw.orgM
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    1 year ago

    This is frightening stuff. I feel like it should be at the top of every newscast, every conversation, but somehow we seem to be sleepwalking into the end of democracy. A “nah, can’t happen here” attitude, coupled with Trump fatigue, social media distractions, struggling to make ends meet, and good old fashioned apathy, are going to get people killed.