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points by mrinterweb 3 days ago | 0 comments

We all know who Trump is. This behavior, from Trump, should shock no one by now. I'm equally upset with all those who enable him. Midterms are here, time to do the one thing we are still allowed to. Be certain, Trump will cry foul on the elections unless they go his way.

[–] dylan604 3 days ago

It's less about who is doing it rather than that a US president is doing it at all. Obviously, once you find the right person, things can change quickly. Finding the right person when the other two branches of government are controlled by the same party, you can speed run the end of democracy. This is the part that's really shameful to me more so than just a single megalomaniac POTUS. The fact Congress has just capitulated its duties while overtly corrupt members of SCOTUS flaunt jurisprudence is something I thought we'd never have to see.

[–] gwerbin 3 days ago

Congress didn't capitulate, it facilitated by obstructing any resistance. And we all saw this coming with SCOTUS as far back as the Obama administration. It's certainly horrifying to see it play out, but we've seen the warning signs since the W Bush admin.

[–] dylan604 3 days ago

I think it's a combo of both really. McConnel denying Obama's rightful SCOTUS nomination was not capitulating, but Johnson's rolling over for this administration is. Clearly, the situation we find ourselves is not the result of a single action. I think the speed run really started back with Speaker Gingrich.

[–] smackeyacky 3 days ago

The trend of ignoring convention and pushing the boundaries of what is legal certainly seems to stem from Gingrich but from an outsider view it seems to have its origins with the Nixon administration

[–] mrtesthah 3 days ago

At a certain point we just have to consider them all participants in a single oligarchic conspiracy to overturn democracy. If we cannot get justice through the system then it will have to be done by the masses themselves.

[–] hammock 3 days ago

Careful, one or two more paragraphs down that slope and you might be accused of describing a Deep State and/or an insurrection

[–] mindslight 3 days ago

Yes, the reactionary movement has been very successful at abusing real criticisms and frustrations to motivate their supporters, while doing nothing to actually address those problems (and often even shamelessly leaning into exploiting them for personal gain). It's a one-two punch of directly making the problems worse, while arbitraging away the political capital that had built up around trying to reform them.

[–] mrguyorama 3 days ago

Congress is capitulating it's duties at least partially because anyone who tries to block Trump as a republican gets voted out. Oh sure, they stirred this shit up for 50 years and just reaping what they sew, but the train is free-running now and they can't really stop it.

The Voters want a Trump King. A government cannot ignore it's own people forever.

If the voters reward corrupt and horrific behavior, and punish law and order behavior, what the hell can you do about that?

[–] AngryData 3 days ago

With congress I feel like they have been capitulating their duties for atleast a few decades now. They don't care at all about their job, they only care about the personal power and wealth and benefits that getting elected provides. In which case it was only a matter of time before someone like Trump comes along. With the only saving grace being that he is an utter moron.

[–] Rapzid 3 days ago

It makes me happy every day that his clock is running out. Clocks. All the clocks running out.

But we need to do some serious rethink and work on curbing the power of the POTUS.

[–] vkou 3 days ago

Nothing short of sending a few hundred cronies to prison, and the ones responsible for murder to the firing squad will curb that power.

[–] croes 3 days ago

And he can do a lot of damage until he is gone. He is too old to face any of the consequences he caused

[–] amanaplanacanal 3 days ago

He is visibly deteriorating. I'll be surprised if he stays until the end of his term.

It's only a matter of time before there is a deal between Trump and Vance for a pardon in return for retirement.

[–] Rapzid 3 days ago

I think that's a bad deal for Vance. He wants to run in 2028 for a four year term. Becoming POTUS and inheriting all the baggage for 2 years would harm his chances.

He actually distances himself from a lot of stuff very carefully. Like we all know he was against the Iran war. He said he wasn't going to watch the execution broadcast. Etc.

[–] hightrix 3 days ago

I’m betting he will step down the day after the midpoint in his term. Giving Vance the opportunity to rule for 10 years.

[–] ActorNightly 3 days ago

>All the clocks running out.

Hate to burst your bubble, but behind Trump there are quite a few people that are ready to take his place, with no real chance of voting ever being able to stop them. Don't get your hopes up that voting blue matters. Everyone had the chance in 2024, half the eligible population did not vote. Now we get to live with those consequences.

US is done for.

[–] mrguyorama 3 days ago

The fun thing about society and nations is that rolling over and giving up is literally the only actual failure state.

[–] ActorNightly 3 days ago

Nobody is giving up. We are just going to start on the path of being what Russia is now, while China takes over as the world superpower.

[–] wang_li 3 days ago

In this day and age, 100% of all presidential acts need to be documented publicly. It's no longer enough to wave a piece of paper around and say "see, it has his signature." Random cabinet secretaries and white house staffers running papers through the autopen should be a capital crime and the only sentence should be hanging.

[–] dylan604 3 days ago

Is this really something that has been happening, or just some nonsense that has been thrown out to see what sticks? Yes, using the autopen should be limited to the mass signing of trivial correspondence like annual christmas cards or form letter responses to anything received from the citizens that used a stamp. Has there been any one seriously concerned about legislation or executive order type of documents being signed this way?

[–] wang_li 3 days ago

It's hard to know. People have opinions that it might be happening, which is why I call for presidential action to be public, and not in the form of final signed papers. I want to be able to see the president making the decisions and taking the actions that affect everyone in the country.

[–] vel0city 3 days ago

He supposedly signed individual pardons for 1,600 people in one day.

That would give me quite a cramp and I'm not 80.

[–] dylan604 3 days ago

I wasn't aware of this supposedly. I had assumed that the EO signed covered it in a single signature. Not sure which is worse here, my assumption or your supposedly.

[–] vel0city 3 days ago

Looking more into this, it looks like you're correct. It was a single action which resulted in that ~1,600 pardons, not 1,600 individual documents. My bad.

[–] mindslight 3 days ago

Grump will cry foul on anything, because that's what he does. Normally for someone at his point in life, this would be confined to yelling at nursing home staff for the food being too cold and having the wrong color skin (because their family certainly wouldn't be visiting). But unfortunately, there are way too many gullible fools in this country who felt validated by his crying.

[–] ActorNightly 3 days ago

While Im not going to dissuade people from voting, everyone should be prepared for the following reality: true and fair elections in US very like to be a thing of the past.

There are 3 big factors in play

* 2020 attempted coup gave the Republicans valuable information on what to do this time around. Basically, the game is to put US into legal limbo and remain in power. They know nobody on the democrat side is going to think about using armed forces, and they are not going to use armed forces to keep their public image and keep economy from panicking, so they are going to just declare some emergency and keep power under the pretense of fixing that emergency. Reminder that Supreme Court is on his side.

* Trump has shown that he has no issue with having a private army operating with extrajudicial authority in public. Now imagine with what he is ok doing with a non-public army. You should fully expect people going against him to get "arrested" under some made up charges.

* Even with Trump gone, there are smarter, younger, non senile conservatives ready to take his place and grab power and do the same things, with way less mistakes. Vance is right up there with him.

As such, even if everyone gets out and votes blue, in the end its all pointless. Trump can get impeached, convicted, and either Supreme Court says nah, or he just won't leave. In 2028, he (or Vance) will declare election fraud again and do it successfully this time to remain in power.

And even if somehow Dems win the house and presidency, and manage to pack supreme court to take control of all the branches, the thing is the will be left with a insanely shitty situation to clean up that will result in economic downturn, and the idiots in US will vote republican again in 2032.

[–] alanwreath 3 days ago

Just give me a sec to crawl into a hole will ya?!

But yeah, re-election without re-evaluation of the systems that failed to protect the public from abuse will just result in a replay anyway.

cough citizens united cough

[–] jfengel 2 days ago

I think Citizens United isn't even the problem any more. We now have near-trillionaires who don't require a corporation to buy elections. They can do it personally.

[–] tencentshill 3 days ago

The election systems are the weakest they will ever be. If we can make it through this last one, reform will happen.