Trump has no power to “decree” that voters must present ID or to end mail-in balloting. But that doesn’t mean he can’t at least try both. Under the Insurrection Act or some other dusty statute, he can declare a state of emergency. Then he can decide that said state permits, nay requires, him to take extraordinary measures. On October 5, say, that might mean outlawing early voting. By October 13, it might mean no mail-in voting. By October 29, a reminder that all voters must present ID to vote. And by Sunday, November 1, two days before the election—an announcement that all these “reasonable” measures have alas failed, and he is now forced, against his will, to postpone the election.

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[–] 187 points 8 months ago (41 children)

Back in 2024, Kamala Harris and the Democrats struggled to convince voters that a second Donald Trump term would constitute a serious threat to democracy. We can debate the effectiveness of her, and their, rhetoric. But on a certain level, it was a hard argument to make because it was hypothetical.

On what planet was it hypothetical.

Honestly. It's like everyone's still using fucking Windows. Fuck levels critical.

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  • [–] 77 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

    He couldn't have made his intentions any clearer. I think people just figured the Senate, SCOTUS and the DOJ would keep him in check. They didn't see him taking control of those to this extent.

    Now people are about to find out just how much control he has over the military.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago

    Frankly, I don't really blame people for having faith in the guardrails. Generally speaking, whenever any truly progressive legislation (often labeled as "extremism") has been pushed forward, those guardrails have come up real quick. I understand why people thought that that would hold true for extremism in any direction. But it... well, doesn't.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    I think with the DOGE data (it was always about access to all the mainframes) and Palantir's AI, it's perfectly possible to know who will be loyal and who not. From the top of the miltary to the last redneck in Dumbville.
    If I was in the States, I wouldn't be writing these things here.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    I had hoped that even the maga members of Congress still had enough spine and self respect to put the rule of law over the promise of power, influence, and the ability to shape their christo-facist state. What a naive fool.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    I think in this case, hypothetical just means it was an "if, then" statement. As in, "if he wins, then his second term will constitute a serious threat to democracy." He hadn't won the election yet, so the electoral outcome was still hypothetical and therefore so were all of its effects.

    I agree that the wording is quite terrible though.

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  • [+] -80 points 8 months ago (33 children)

    "Trust me", said pro-genocide candidate Kamala Harris, who shows no interest in reigning in the billionaires and corporations rushing to support fascism. "I'm better than Trump. I support US imperialism politely."

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  • [–] 49 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    "Yes, of course I will choose the pile of rusty nails dipped in horseshit over the stale sandwich for lunch. As the sandwich is not very appealing, this seems like the logical choice," said the well-balanced, rationally thinking individual.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    The point isn't to choose the rusty nails, it's to settle for better than a stale sandwich. I thought that was obvious. You deserve a candidate who actually represents your interests.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    "Better than a stale sandwich" wasn't an option. I thought that was obvious. You had two choices. You refused to pick one, so you got the worst of the two.

    And now everyone who didn't pick is still screaming at all the people who were going "Just eat the stale sandwich, we'll work on expanding the menu for next time."

    The DNC should've had a primary, yes. But that's not how circumstances played out. There will be a primary next time, and that's the time to make your voice heard on who should be nominated. The general election is a zero-sum competition in which, unfortunately, practically speaking there are only two options and can only be one winner.

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  • [–] 67 points 8 months ago* (11 children)

    You're right. This is so much better.

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  • [+] -19 points 8 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    The meme has a point, but thinking there are not degrees of undesirability  and instead equating everything undesireable is downright retarded. 

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  • [+] -41 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    I wonder if there is an option beyond simply picking between fascism and blue fascism

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  • [–] 52 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Harris was imperialist and colonialist, but not fascist. It's ludicrous to equivocate trump and Harris as both being fascist.

    And in any case, yeah, vote for progressives in primaries. I know that there wasn't a real primary for 24, but that has more to do with Biden not stepping aside soon enough than anything else. Dem voters are getting tired of establishment enablers, and DNC leadership is no longer interfering to pick favorites (see Mamdani's victory) so we could actually see progressives taking over the party.

    You're painting a false equivalency (both sides the same) and pining for other options without actually offering a solution for how to get there, implying that we just stay home and not vote at all. You're the problem. If you don't like the fascism, vote against the fascist. If you don't like the non fascist option, tough shit because there may not be a next time if the fascist wins (and he did and here we are talking about suspending elections). If you actually want better Democrats in the general for the 26 elections, you need to start paying attention now because it's primary season already, and you can and should be donating/volunteering for who you believe in.

    If you're being serious about wanting an option outside of the two parties, only one of them is open to things like ranked choice to get rid of first past the post and eliminating the electoral college so that it's people and not land doing the voting. Spoiler alert: convincing people to withhold their vote helps the other guys win, and they're thrilled to keep it a two party system. You may not like somebody milquetoast like Biden, but he course corrected and arrested the slip into fascism while getting some progressive stuff through. Not enough, but it's fucking silly to say that Harris was the same as Biden and also Harris is the same as trump.

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  • [+] -12 points 8 months ago

    They are both capitalists and will therefore both trend toward fascim, albeit at different rates. But that trend toward is a very slippery one way street with entire world wars being necessary to only temporarily revert it and try new ways.

    This is why it’s such a depressing mindfuck that the dems would rather remain the way they are instead of change. They want it. Just in a gaslit “guess we gotta be fasc” manner instead of trump’s “we are” manner.

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  • [+] -9 points 8 months ago

    Imperialists and colonialists share the same beliefs as fascists. They just disagree on whether or not it’s time to turn the violence of the imperialist machine in on itself. As the decline of America continues, eventually the imperialist are guaranteed to relent and side with the fascists.

    On top of that the DNC no legal obligation to run democratic primaries. Regardless of whatever wins democratic socialists have made, they’re so far from actually wielding enough power to meaningfully reform the American system. If they had any chance of success under the current rules then the DNC would just change them. The obvious conclusion is that voting alone will not stop the rise of fascism. It literally the least you can possible do.

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  • [–] 26 points 8 months ago (15 children)

    Ive noticed that these guys are trying to start the same moral panic shit among Democratic voters to demotivate them this time around. For example, with Talarico - a key senate seat flip.

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  • [+] -21 points 8 months ago (12 children)

    Shove it up your ass. We tried to save the Democrats from themselves in 2024 and people like you ran static interference so that the Dems could run on "more of the same" and ultimately lose the election.

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  • [–] 16 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Funny, I don't remember seeing you promoting any progressive candidate for the the primaries.

    Saw you wokescolding Kamala voters a lot though...

    Must just be that you do the first part in communities I'm not in.

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  • [–] -3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Funny, I don’t remember seeing you promoting any progressive candidate for the the primaries.

    My entire comment history is right there buddy. Its all in there. Go take a look instead of relying on your clearly faulty memory.

    Saw you wokescolding Kamala voters a lot though…

    I love that word. I'm going to take that word.

    And again, instead of reacting to your impression of what you think I said, go through my comment history and find examples of that. If you need tools to better access them, I can provide that to you. I've got my entire comment history also available in JSON format, if that makes it easier for you, and you also have no excuse. In other words, put the fuck up or shut the fuck up, because I know precisely what I've said this entire time, and you are responding to your emotional impression of what I've said, not actually what I've said.

    My criticisms have been explicitly focused on the maneuvers of the party, the Biden campaign, the Harris campaign, and those who shield the parties or the campaigns from criticism

    All of this is based on the central thesis I offer, which is:

    • That its functionally and practically impossible to move an electorate over the course of a campaign which only lasts a couple of months. There are no mechanisms or tools available to campaigns to do so. Focusing critiques on individual voters when there is no function mechanism to change the minds of millions of voters is counter productive and loses you voters. The Harris campaign lost 6 million votes while not understanding this.

    • The only path to winning an election is to move a candidate to a set of popular enough policy positions they win the majority of factions necessary to capture the electoral college.

    • Any one saying that voters just need to "do better" while defending or apologizing for Candidates or campaigns with unelectable policy positions is a dangerous provocateur who, by shielding campaigns or politicians from criticism is operating on behalf of the opposition.

    If a candidate holds a policy position which will prevent them from winning the election, voting for them isn't "strategic"; its irrelevant. The only options you have is to move politicians to electable positions. There is no other way to win.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah you tried real hard, great fucking job

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  • [+] -8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Y'all wanted to lose the election, so thanks for ensuring that outcome.

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  • [–] -2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    We tried to save the Democrats from themselves in 2024

    Oh did you?

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Yes. We gave the Democrats a straight-forward path to winning. They simply needed to shift their policy on Gaza. We communicated that here, there, everywhere. We got kicked out of the DNC convention saying it. We said it before Biden stepped down, after. We wrote articles about it. We did podcasts. We wrote editorials. We made it so incredibly clear, that there is really no excuse for not knowing that it was a choice on the part of the campaign to maintain an electable position.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, dude, you made a lot of people sit at home so that they lost. You have the mentality of an early adolescent - selfish and with little wisdom or perspective.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    No it's that I actually wanted to win the election and I appreciate that I don't control the behavior of others. I have to live in reality, where you need to to motivate voters to show up.

    Instead of you, living in fantastic delusion of your own creation, where you some how expect to just guilt and shame voters into doing what you want them to do. And to be clear, the exact strategy you are advocating for is what the Harris campaign did do in 2024, and what the Clinton campaign did in 2016. They simply expected voters to show up, and tried to use same or guilt as the motivater.

    It. Doesn't. Work.

    You lose elections doing that.

    Also, if I'm some how so fucking powerful and have such masterful control of millions of voters, why wouldn't you just listen to me and advocate that the candidate change their policy?

    If you can't win the election without meeting my demand, shouldn't that be your priority? This is obvious, since, you won't win the election without doing so.

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  • [–] 64 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I mean, before he become president the first time he literally said that he would only accept the results if he wins.

    I too hate how obvious and predictable it all was but people finally getting it is surprisingly also very annoying.

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  • [–] 50 points 8 months ago

    Trump will never willingly step down.

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  • [–] 32 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Pedolini is at war with everyone

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  • [+] 23 points 8 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 23 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    Jan 6th happened once, it can happen again..

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  • [–] 22 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    J6 was a trial run.

    They learned their lessons and they will do something else to usurp the democratic process. And this time it will work.

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago

    A trial run without guns, at that.

    This time they will be heavily armed and won't wait until people have voted.

    They'll have ICE and other federal oppression agencies preventing eligible voters from exercising their rights.

    Primarily nonwhite people and people who have ever been observed protesting injustice, but no vote is safe under fascism.

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  • [–] 36 points 8 months ago (10 children)

    Trump doesn't get to say shit about how the States run their elections. Even if he "Hereby Do Dee-clares it."

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  • [–] 37 points 8 months ago* (5 children)

    He isn't technically able to do most of the stuff he does do. He just does it, and then time passes and then it gets declared retroactively illegal... but it still happened. He'll probably get punished at some point... right?

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    The states run elections, lease the voting places and employ all the staff.

    Unless the federal govt replaces all of them, just waving a chicken leg around and declaring stuff won't do anything.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Or you know he could put ice officers outside strategic polls and block anyone he doesnt like from entering.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    We both outnumber and out-gun ICE by an absolutely astounding margin. ICE posts at our polling places, ICE gets crushed.

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago

    That's true. The states can constitutionally tell him to go fuck himself. But I read a key phrase in another article that I tried to find and can't, to the effect that his plan involves ally states.

    So lets say all but five states tell him to fuck himself and hold their elections. Five do not. They have just thrown the entire election and its results into massive constitutional confusion, with lawsuits for years to come while he just sits up there shitting his Depends and grinning. And it would work: whatever anyone says should be the answer, someone else will sue over.

    Elections are a huge power grab for anyone who wants even a little power. No one is going to let their piece of the pie go easily, whether that means holding an election or not holding an election, or fighting those who want the opposite, in court, forever.

    All he has to do is introduce confusion, and then it will be up to SCOTUS to decide.

    And SCOTUS is as corrupt as the day is long.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    He and Pete Hegseth have no legal say in how the Scouts should run their affairs, too, but see what happened today?

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Its the difference of the courts stopping something vs making something happen. They can't really do either, so anything that Trump doesn't actually have a lever of power to pull to make something won't happen. At least not to the extent he demands.

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  • [–] 17 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    Well, I guess we will see how far he will go and by he I mean THEM and by them I mean the republicans.

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  • [–] 9 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    There are no Republicans any more. That was just the larval stage before they morphed into their final form - MAGA.

    The Republican Party is as dead as the Whigs, and should only be referred to in a historical or scholarly context.

    They're all MAGA now.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I feel like Newt Gingrich was the first MAGA.

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    IN Politics yes, for sure, but I'd say the first one was Rush Limbaugh. His radio show became the gathering place for Conservatives, and was the recruitment and indoctrination center for millions of new Conservatives.

    Those new Limbaugh conservatives not only voted in Newt Gingrich, but a LOT of other like minded radical Republicans for him to use as a club to beat America with.

    But, yeah, that's where it all started. Gingrich and Limbaugh were the Proto-MAGAs.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    I think "maga"/Nat-Cs are just Republicans unmasked, that's all. The party has always been full of these types (basically RWAs - Right Wing Authoritarians as described by Altemeyer). You had the John Birch Society going way, way back.

    Democracy in Chains traces some of the threads related to the university level spread of this stuff. There are people that have discussed the Chicago School of Economics. I've not read it yet, but Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics gets mentioned a lot. I'm sure there are some other good docs/books that might cover this long-running tradition, and I'd love to hear about them.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    "planning"

    I'd say it's already done. No one with any power has the balls to remove him.

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  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    No one with any power has the balls to remove him.

    Those with the power to remove him are benefitting financially and have no incentive to remove him.

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