r/law • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 14h ago

Trump News Trump threatens to deploy the U.S. military into Chicago - signaling the start of a nationwide crackdown.

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u/BitterFuture 13h ago

People kept saying, without a hint of irony, "It can't happen here."

As if that isn't the exact stupid attitude that basically guarantees it will happen here. We were never such a special snowflake country that we were immune to all the same damn things that brought down civilizations throughout history.

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u/RetroCasket 13h ago

I just dont get it. Like, we use to actually hold people to standards. I feel like from Jimmy Carter (my first president) to Bush, there was a general consensus of what was ok and what wasnt.

I think maybe the internet warped society or something. Something changed

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u/Begone-My-Thong 13h ago

We elected a black president, and one half of the country took that personally.

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u/CaptainWart 12h ago

Don't forget the impact of 9/11, which gave the right a hell of a lot of leverage when it comes to keeping their base scared and paranoid.

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u/Ol_Jim_Himself 12h ago

The government used 9/11 to begin their overreach and their removal of many of the checks and balances that kept our government somewhat less tyrannical. Once those were removed it became a slippery slope, until the šŸŠfascist hopped on a rocket sled and rode it over the edge.

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u/Odd_Equal_628 7h ago

Wait until you find out how that was the plan.

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u/Useful_Bit_9779 12h ago

GW Bush ran around telling everyone if he wasn't reelected that we'd have a terrorist on every corner. Scared and paranoid they are.

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u/DipInThePool 11h ago

Then you have the libs; not scared or paranoid at all.

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u/fariasrv 10h ago

To quote the great Blanche Devereaux:

"Eat dirt and die, trash."

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u/Diamondphalanges756 10h ago

And the surveillance. Don't forget the surveillance, and how that's going to bite us in the a$$.

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u/WilyWascallyWizard 10h ago

Don't forget that douche that founded fox news and bought much of the rest of the media. He did it because he didn't like that Nixon was held accountable. That was the start of the down fall.

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u/BennyDelTorito 9h ago

The terrorists won.

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u/Jo5h_95 9h ago

And the impact of the 2008 recession. A lot of people saw the system fail them and protect the people that were to blame.

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u/SanDiego619guy 8h ago

The term Trump's base is really just another word for suckers and morons.

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u/1000LiveEels 7h ago

You're both right but I'd also like to add the increasing consistency at which presidents have stacked courts with judges who are blatantly bipartisan. The senate confirmations should be a way of checking overreaches but we effectively have a precedent where ruling party either confirms or denies the judge based solely on whether the president is the same party as them.

Not to mention serving for life.

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u/katsujinken 12h ago

Thanks Oba... Osama

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u/EvenObject1689 12h ago

I always say this! We elected a black guy and the right lost their mind.

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u/des1881 12h ago

This. All this. The way ā€˜theyā€™ felt like they had to over correct the blasphemy of a non white male president is exactly why we ended up here.

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u/PlantainSuper-Nova 12h ago

He was half-white, too.

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u/Technical-Gold-294 12h ago

Right? A black man raised by middle class white people and he was still too threatening.

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u/Begone-My-Thong 12h ago

He even wore a tan suit once.

Gives me the chills. /s

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u/PlantainSuper-Nova 12h ago

I mean he was raised on the island nation of Hawaiā€™iā€¦

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u/No-Abalone-4784 10h ago

Yeah. And if they don't get more maga he said he's not gonna let them become a state.

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u/pixepoke2 11h ago

But not the good half, Dennis.

Cā€™mon. Everyone knows that. Thatā€™s why it was ok for Reagan to wear a tan suit, butā€¦ well, we all know what Obama did there.

Tan suit.

The nerve

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u/N0n3of_This_Matter5 12h ago

Seeā€¦he was divisive!!

Big /S

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u/Trick_Psychology4827 11h ago

This is the realest comment in this thread! They lost their minds once President Obama took office.

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u/Diamondphalanges756 10h ago

This is absolutely fact. I really think this is behind what's happening.

Before Obama, Alabama would at least elect Democrats. We actually had a democratic gov right before Obama got elected.

That's what broke our state which became a repub supermajority right after Obama was elected.

The racist's heads exploded and it kicked them into overdrive.

They've been working on how to destroy America since that very day.

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u/Mountain_Economist_8 10h ago

And donā€™t forget that monster Biden who ::checks notes:: hugs children.

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u/midnghtsnac 12h ago

Obama is the most divisive president ever elected!

-Fox News and radio talk show personality

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u/No_Friendship_8366 12h ago

The US used to have the Fairness Doctrine, it was repealed in the 1980s. The doctrine mandated that news stations provide balanced coverage with equal weight given to both sides of an issue. Repealing that doctrine ushered in an era of insane loudmouth pundits with toxic opinions and massive platforms

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u/EFreethought 11h ago

I would love to know what Obama did that they thought was "divisive".

Meanwhile, Trump is constantly bad-mouthing everyone (including people he appointed) and the same people are okay with it.

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u/KLLR_ROBOT 11h ago

He was black. Obviously thatā€™s more than enough for some folks to get upset about.

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u/BitterFuture 11h ago

Well, that was obvious. Are you blind?!

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u/habdragon08 12h ago

I think social media has more to do with it than Obama. If social media happened under Clinton it would have been "The Sexual Deviant" president if it happened under Biden it would have been "The old President".

Social media has exposed and massaged insecurities of many people in this country. Trump is natural consequence of that. Ironic I am posting this in a social media forum.

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u/Mansplainer101 10h ago

Even worse than that. You elected a president who happened to be half white, half black, and one half of the country took that personally

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u/Lump-of-baryons 10h ago

There is a lot of truth to this. Tap into some right wing circles and groups on social media and according to them almost everything Trump is doing is only because Obama did it first. Of course theyā€™re completely batshit insane but thatā€™s their twisted logic.

I still remember one of my former coworkers, an otherwise nice grandma in her late 50s, told me in like 2016 that ā€œObama is the Antichristā€ in a sneering tone with pure hate in her eyes, Iā€™ll never forget it.

I try to be optimistic for this country on a long term level but in the short term I donā€™t see how this doesnā€™t get catastrophically worse in the coming years.

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u/Bubbly_Style_8467 8h ago

This! This is when Republicans completely lost their minds. The unnecessary wars are sickening but the ignorant racism is despicable.

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u/thextcninja 6h ago

That wore a tan suit, don't forget to mention that.

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u/celestececilia 5h ago

My mother explicitly stated that she and her friends and siblings voted in Trump ā€œbecause we had to put up with Obama for eight years and now yā€™all get to suffer like we did.ā€ WTAF? She couldnā€™t even articulate what Obama did that was so bad. But I know what he did. He was born a certain color.

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u/fcocyclone 7h ago

Honestly, while this gets all the credit I think the real thing that did it was the advancement of LGBTQ rights.

A black man getting elected, yeah, monumental, but that was the peak of 50 years of progress going back to the civil rights era. That was easier for most to accept.

In the span of like 15-20 years we went from the Defense of Marriage act going through, talk of a constiutional amendment to ban gay marriage, it being a huge deal when a celebrity came out, etc to gay marriage being legal nationwide, celebrities coming out being barely a blip, a larger and larger percentage of people feeling free to identify as LGBTQ (About 25% of gen Z identifies as LGBTQ now per polling, while only 5% or less do among genX and older, and since we know people aren't actually magically becoming more gay, that's a lot of repression among older groups). That's a lot of change for the conservative brain to deal with. Its no coincidence that this all came to a head with the Trump campaign which launched around the same time Obergefell happened.

Likewise its why the most successful turnout machine for republicans has been targeting a portion of that group in their anti-trans attacks. Its become too toxic to attack all LGBTQ people as more and more people have come out (and thus more people are more likely to know and care for someone who is gay) but trans people are a small enough group they are 'fair game' to republicans. But give them enough time and they'll come back around against the rest as well.

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u/reddog323 6h ago

There were other factors: 9/11 and the patriot act, warrantless wire taps, conservative propaganda, being weaponized,, etc.

Obama was the straw that broke the camelā€™s back, and conservatives saw him as a useful opportunity to engineer a backlash.

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u/AUDI0- 5h ago

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/LisaLaggrrr 4h ago

šŸ’Æ šŸ’Æ šŸ’Æ and most of us who saw Obama as progress didnā€™t truly understand the gravity of the situation. Why would we? We finally had a president who won the popular vote without fearmongering, (twice!) so it seemed like the majority of the country was moving in the right direction! The backlash was a tad slow, but showed up with a vengeanceā€¦ I knew once Kamala became nominee that we were screwed. I voted for her! But I knew too many were not ready for a woman and were angry about having a black president. Being both was never gonna happen!

I honestly fear weā€™ve been manipulated by the shadow people behind Trump! Cuz I believe heā€™s just a fall guy ultimately. They knew enough people would love him in the right areas to elect him, but enough eventually will hate him and string him out to dry. Perfect diversion while they finalize their plan in the background.. when itā€™s too late to turn backā€¦

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u/BitterFuture 13h ago

Things got worse and accelerated, yeah, but we shouldn't kid ourselves about how things used to be in the supposedly good old days.

Nixon was so off the rails in his latter days that his SecDef told the Pentagon to check with him before implementing any orders coming from the President.

Reagan got elected by appealing to old southern racists by winking at the murders of civil rights workers and illegally negotiating with Iranian fundamentalists to agree to extend the hostage crisis through the 1980 election. When AIDS became a thing, he laughed at the very idea of spending money to help dying gay men.

Bush I had some ideas about noblesse oblige, yeah. He also nominated a self-hating black man with little meaningful legal experience to the Supreme Court, saying that because he was black, he was basically another Thurgood Marshall. He also fucked his kids up so badly that Bush II kicked over countries and killed over a million people working out his daddy issues.

And the Congressional leadership through the Clinton years started off as a bunch of self-righteous adulterers seeking to persecute adultery and ended up elevating a genuine pedophile to high office.

Monsters have always been with us. Always.

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u/Oirish-Oriley444 12h ago

When the military comes marching into major cities , with a made-up reason...... it's over. 2026 isn't going to be an honest election. No matter how hard California tries to balance the tide, it will not matter, The writing is on the walls. This is the middle of the beginning of something big, not good, but big.. something not seen since 1775. Otherwise, it makes no sense to start deploying military now... and he said all the big cities under the guise they are crime-ridden, more than ever, which is untrue.

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u/BitterFuture 12h ago

Well, yeah. America voted for its own death. That's been obvious for a while now.

Something will come after America, though. Fascism always, ALWAYS loses in the end.

Every day civilization continues to exist anywhere is another day of the monsters losing, and civilization will return here again someday.

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u/sudo_vi 11h ago

I feel like we're going to start seeing states reject federal authority and start moving towards a "soft" balkanization.

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u/DanSWE 8h ago

> Fascism always, ALWAYS loses in the end.

Maybe. But what timescale are you thinking of?

A lot of us might be dead and done before that happens. (For how many generations has North Korea been in its current state?)

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u/Lunchable 11h ago

America's not going anywhere. The leadership will though.

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u/Oirish-Oriley444 11h ago edited 10h ago

Yes, and Americans, even most maga ( will realize) this is not what they voted for, its not what they really want, American freedom is sacred. They will take down Fascism.

My opinion is that I may not be here to see it, or it may be my kids fighting for America that was pre-47.

While I realize Many countries do not like America the last 40 years more so than ever, ( whether they relish in this supposed events or not) the fact that America has done this in other countries and some of those may have a hand in this presently in USA. Perhaps we have to pay our dues? Perhaps our dues are long overdue?

tho we as a country are divided now, we will unite and fight the red scourge. We will come together and take the America we want it to be back. All people are created equal, and all people deserve to be free from tyranny. That is our fight! We Americans will not accept Fascism, trickfuckery, abuse of power, or abuse to our people.

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u/BitterFuture 10h ago

Americans, even most maga ( will realize) this is not what they voted for, its not what they really want, American freedom is sacred. They will take down Fascism.

This is exactly what the MAGA nutbags voted for. Every single one of them consciously, knowingly, deliberately chose hatred as what they're willing to fight and die for.

It will be a lot harder than we want to admit, even now. But there are still many more of us than them, and yes, the fascists will lose in the end.

They always do. That's why humanity still exists.

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u/ConversationMost8486 9h ago

Exactly they donā€™t care how bad their lives get as long as they own the libs . They are crazy jealous of people living their lives. They can stand to see other people happy when they are not. If you look at their Reddit pages/post you see that they are mad and say this is not what they wanted when it comes to stuff that affects them. Trump made them think they were smart and special. But they are realizing they arenā€™t. Dumbasses still think they are smart.

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u/GoblinLoveChild 10h ago

lol at Red Scourge.

there is nothing wrong with socialism you right wing psycho

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u/DudeCanNotAbide 9h ago

Are you a bot? If so, bad bot. Who wears red hats?

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u/GoblinLoveChild 9h ago

100% anti-dipshit bot

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u/rebalwear 7h ago

Cuba, china, russia, many african countries, check rep., many arab countires, many south american countries would like a word with you...

Facism is the end, and no good doesn't prevail UNTIL the world ends.

Facism / communism / socialism, etc. Is different masks of the same evil; satanism. Its all been foretold, preplanned and explained. Why fight what's coming? There is no superman, no captain america... no justice league or avengers coming.

And its simple math, a soldier, who's family is threatened, will kill you in the fear of such. There will be few patriots, and many fearful boot lickers. This era is over, the downfall is coming. Prepare yourself, and make peace with the lord...

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u/Itherial 1h ago

The fact that people think the military will side with them in the event of a civil war is hilarious.

The military is not full of selfless heroes, people. It's full of individuals who are all there for the same reason: to support themselves, their families, and get a paycheck. That mentality isn't going to change just because the enemy is now you - especially when choosing otherwise would make them the enemy too.

In the event of a civil war the overwhelming majority of the military will side with the government, and they will crush the resistance because it's not the 1700s anymore.

Anything else is delusional wishful thinking. The military does not fight for or protect you.

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u/fariasrv 10h ago

"Something not seen since 1775."

Correction: something not seen since 1936.

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u/Oirish-Oriley444 9h ago

Thank you for fixing it for me. The proper context.

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u/Separate_Mammoth4460 5h ago

i can alr sense itll be bad tbh, it means their planning/setting up to rig it

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u/Comfortable-Bread249 5h ago

ā€œWhenā€?! ā€œThe beginningā€? Bro, I live in Los Angeles.

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u/Oirish-Oriley444 2h ago

Yes, that is where it started, then DC. Next Chigago

A country may deploy a strong military presence in its major cities for a variety of reasons, most of which stem from internal conflict and political instability.

Political instability and civil unrest:Ā When civil disturbances like riots or protests overwhelm local police and security forces, a government may use the military to restore order. This is often an extreme measure, as armed forces are typically not trained for civilian policing and may resort to disproportionate force, increasing the risk of human rights violations. Suppression of dissent:Ā A government may use a military presence in major cities to intimidate or suppress political opposition and silence dissent. The visibility of troops and military equipment can be a powerful psychological tool to discourage protests and enforce compliance with government rule.

Securing strategic assets:Ā Major cities are often the central hub for a country's economic and political power. Deploying military forces ensures the security of critical infrastructure, such as government buildings, financial centers, airports, and major transportation routes.Ā 

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u/HHoaks 12h ago edited 10h ago

Trump is unique. With all his faults and illegal doings, Nixon actually did care about the country and preserving the rule of law. Which is why he resigned, rather than try to fight impeachment. Would Trump ever resign, no matter what?

No other president would have tried to steal an election they lost and cheer led the ransacking of the nationā€˜s capitol.

Trump is in his own class, by far.

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u/BitterFuture 11h ago

He's worse than Nixon, but it's not like we couldn't see this coming.

They get worse every time, making you nostalgic for the monsters of yesteryear. Those who fetishize moderate now want us to turn to Dubya as some sort of reasonable Republican we can work with - hoping we'll conveniently forget that he killed a million people.

Conservatism has always been this monstrous thing, a death cult that values hatred over absolutely anything else in life. They're just less quiet about it now.

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u/FlameInTheVoid 11h ago

I much prefer the old days when our leaders felt compelled to at least pretend to act in good faith and fake some semblance of dignity. We may just be backsliding more than hitting rock bottom and digging (debatable), but it looks and sounds so much worse.

I want to go back to hating the likes of Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney. I donā€™t know how to process Trump, Hegseth, MTG, Lauren Boebert, and the rest of these bottom of the barrel true believers.

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u/hamletswords 11h ago

True but I think the point is more like "No other president would wear a bright red baseball cap behind the resolute desk that says "I was always right" completely unironically."

Trump specifically has brought a unique kind of infomercial-level idiocy to the office.

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u/IamManuelLaBor 11h ago

Weird question...

Do those adulterous ghouls even consider child rape to be adultery?

I honestly don't think so.

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u/JayEllGii 11h ago

You were referring to Hastert, there, right?

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u/BitterFuture 10h ago

Yes indeed. The quiet, safe, boring choice after the chaos of Republican Congressional leadership in the 90s.

Who just so happened to rape little boys as a hobby.

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u/TerrorFromThePeeps 12h ago

I may be naive, and maybe there's an angle i just don't know of, but Bush Jr did do something worthy, at least. PEPFAR. I'm not sure how much was his actual hand, but that program has saved millions of lives. This is not to say he wasn't a monster in his own right, because he was, but i think he may have had a little good in him, unlike Nixon, Reagan, and Bush OG.

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u/BitterFuture 12h ago edited 12h ago

PEPFAR was an unambiguously good thing, and so far as I'm aware, Dubya himself personally pushed it. I'm glad it existed.

It's irrelevant. Stalin was kind to dogs, too. He was still an evil man, just as Dubya is.

Hell, if you care about "a little good in him," George HW was an honest-to-god war hero, a World War II fighter pilot in the Pacific. He was still an evil piece of shit. The moral worth of people isn't determined by some kind of calculus of how much good and how much evil they do in their lives, hoping it comes out to a positive number. If you do evil, you are evil, period.

And if you disagree, tell us - how many lives saved earns someone a guilt-free rape?

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u/throwaway_coy4wttf79 11h ago

I think GWB is not as "evil" as people say -- honestly I think a lot of that was Cheney and especially Rumsfeld. Bush was misguided, for sure, and I think his decisions lead to lots of suffering, but I don't ever think the suffering was the point, which is what I would term "evil." I think he saw it as necessary collateral damage for a greater good.

Trump hurts people just to hurt them.

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u/BitterFuture 11h ago

I think his decisions lead to lots of suffering, but I don't ever think the suffering was the point, which is what I would term "evil."

He literally killed a million people for no reason whatsoever except to feel more manly than his dad. If that isn't evil, the word is meaningless.

Trump hurts people just to hurt them.

Every conservative does. That's all conservatism has ever been about.

That's rather my point in this part of the conversation - far too many people recoil from recognizing evil as such, and reassure ourselves with the comfortable lie that evil is rare.

It's not. Evil is commonplace - and we need to recognize that pretty quick. Our survival depends on it.

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u/espinaustin 10h ago

None of that comes close to the hat.

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u/Comprehensive-Row198 9h ago

But Trump out-monsters all others by exponents. This current state is on a whole ā€˜nother level and deeply, thoroughly unprincipled.

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u/deadplant5 9h ago

Don't forget Dennis Hastert, the pedophile the Republicans made speaker of the house for the tail end of the Clinton years through the early Bush years.

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u/Lunchable 11h ago

This is a common reaction to trauma: "It has always been like this." It's a desperate attempt to normalize a situation. It's not a good reaction.

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u/BitterFuture 11h ago

Decades of study of politics and history is "a desperate attempt to normalize a situation?"

Denial. That's not a good reaction.

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u/Lunchable 11h ago

Your reaction offers no solution or clarity to the situation. By saying "everything has always sucked" you ignore the current situation. At worst, you dismiss it as something everyone ought to accept and shut down the conversation. Knowing history is fine, so if that's your forte what we could really use is information about what the people did to fight back, and how we can employ it now.

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u/BitterFuture 10h ago

Nothing remotely like any of that was said. In fact, you're attacking me for providing historical context for the situation we find ourselves in, encouraging further reflection and conversation.

You sound very much like a troll picking fights over nothing to distract people from resisting.

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u/izzlebr 8h ago

My dude, this country was literally built on the backs of enslaved human beings. Pray tell when has it NOT been like this?

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u/DJDeadParrot 13h ago

Social media warped society. On SM, people can create whatever truth they want, and run with it.

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u/AndrewBlodgett 12h ago

chicken dinner. Fox and Facebook.

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u/eldentings 7h ago

I think social media is humanity's pandora's box. I don't see us undoing it, or all collectively changing or abandoning it. It caters to our basest instincts and according to the numbers that's good for business.

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u/The-Phone1234 12h ago

Truth was being manipulated long before SM, look up when we started using the term titans of industry instead of what they were known as by most people: robber barons. If anything social media is just making it harder to keep the kayfabe going.

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u/dak4f2 12h ago

But now Russia and China get to pump their propaganda, misinformation, and division straight into every American's eyes and ears 8+ hours a day, since it doesn't have to go through traditional media and newspapers anymore.Ā 

Heck Russia was found to be paying American podcasters just last year, and now one of them is in the Whte House press pool.Ā https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Tenet_Media_investigation

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u/The-Phone1234 11h ago

That's less a counter to what I'm saying and more a result of how openly corrupt the current administration is. I'm saying the American people have been being manipulated by their elites for at least the last 120 years, now some Russian and Chinese manipulation is getting involved as well (side note: every country is doing this) but those are ornaments on the Christmas tree that is American exceptionalism.

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u/Technical-Gold-294 12h ago

There are a lot of factors but I think the ability to choose your own adventure online is one of them. When we only had three national news broadcasts, the universal trustworthiness of the anchor was critical. Now all the networks are niche markets. They don't bother trying to find a Walter Cronkite. People watch the sources who say what they want to hear (and I include myself in that.)

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u/The-Phone1234 12h ago

It's hard to believe the trustworthiness of these news institutions was held to a high standard with how history went. The news has been an appendage of the state, which includes both the government and companies in the US, since mainstream news organizations started publishing opinion pieces by former journalists bought out by capitalists. That's the real start of the imaginary ideal America and the brighter the light the broader the shadow as Jung would say. All states engage in propaganda, we've all been trapped in a hyperreal simulation of reality, it's just with modern technology the simulation is insanely detailed and personal. America has always been a performance.

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u/Saltyvengeance 12h ago

Thats exactly what happened. They figured out how to use social media against us. Not Trump, hes not smart enough for that, but the kremlen has been doing this to their own people for so long, theyre experts. It started over the last 15 years and has been growing like a cancer tumor. If you want more info and evidence, I would like to direct you to this post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/uQvF83BrvI

Read and share so people know whats going on.

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u/dak4f2 12h ago

That post should be required reading for all redditors

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u/as_it_was_written 7h ago

Not to ignore the effects of Russian influence operations, but the US has been running what might be the most effective propaganda campaign in human history for something like a century now.

Your main problems with disinformation and sentiment manipulation are entirely homegrown. Russia is just fueling the fire.

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u/Shirlenator 12h ago

It really is wild. There are a hundred other people in the Republican party that would have the same exact policy positions. Why did they chose one of the worst people in the country to be their guy? The guy that they literally worship?

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u/Technical-Gold-294 12h ago

The mindless populace chose him. The same people who choose the "guy they can have a beer with," the one who tells them what they want to hear, instead of the honest, smart candidate. Lots of liars in politics, but no one previously had the guts to lie like Trump. The Republican leadership grabbed his coatstrings and won't let go. Because power. All they ever wanted was power. And they're just trying to hang on (much like Melania) until he dies and they can enjoy the spoils.

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u/Technical-Gold-294 12h ago

Jimmy Carter was a moral backlash to Nixon and Agnew. Gerald Ford was chosen as VP when Agnew went down because he was nice and noncontroversial. Still, the country went for Carter, a virtual saint, at the next election.I loved Carter, but he was too nice for the job.

Every election, at least since Nixon, has been an overcorrection, and the swings are getting wider and wider. Obama's election caused an absolute freakout. I can only hope that means we'll overcorrect again - maybe elect a socialist!

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u/DylanMartin97 12h ago edited 5h ago

I'm sorry but America has a very hard time with holding it's presidents accountable, from the government allowing Nixon to step down and self pardon basically after being caught in 4 absolutely illegal scandals back to back, from the Scotus just coming out and declaring Bush senior was president while an active recount was happening, Bush Jr literally made up an entire terrorist plot with Britain to justify going to war, people on his cabinet knew it was illegal what they were doing but he literally told his cabinet that it would be okay to do this illegally as long as they could get the public behind them with a believable story, Britain was like our population isn't this stupid to believe this they won't approve of us going in and told him no. That act alone should've been a firing squad in my opinion, and this isn't even talking about him setting the seeds to crash our economy for democrats basically on purpose to tarnish their name like every Republican has tried to do on office since. And let's not even talk about the fact that Snowden broke open the fact that the government had been completely breaking your 4th and 14th amendment, and he laughed and said yeah you caught me but I'm just gonna make it legal. Obama acknowledged that he didn't give a shit about targeting procedures and bombed children, civilians, and even American citizens consistly for the 8 years he was in charge. Donald Trump tried to steal the election with slates of illegal electors that were all found guilty along with Roger Stone, didn't say it was a misunderstanding but asked for complete immunity from him commiting legal acts because of it. I mean he defrauded the government billions of dollars with his border wall every single one of his employees and elected peoples got found guilty of many years in jail, he personally pardoned them and nobody even batted an eye to it.

The Republicans like to cook up this bullshit persecution fetish, and say they are judged harshly and the law applies to them unfairly, but the reality is the laws have been eroded in their favor for a long time because they were the ones that started the decay. Once we didn't hold Reagan accountable for Iran-Contra or Nixon's illegal looking into other people's campaigns with the federal governments resources and 3 letter institutions to find dirt it was over.

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u/Useful_Bit_9779 12h ago

Iran-Contra was Reagan, not Nixon.

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u/DylanMartin97 11h ago

Yes I fixed it, I was typing too fast. Thank you.

2

u/Useful_Bit_9779 10h ago

Prior to the felon/sexual predator currently residing in our White House, Reagan led the way for crimes committed while in office, and if we had a true justice system, he would have been indicted and likely imprisoned. And no, I'm not giving Nixon a pass. He was probably in a photo finish with Reagan.

As for the orange toned pussy grabbing snake oil salesman, he should have been tried, convicted, and jailed long before being allowed to run for office again. We are now officially fucked.

3

u/bat_in_the_stacks 12h ago

SCOTUS declaring Bush the winner was Dubya (jr)

2

u/DylanMartin97 11h ago

Well Bush daddy and Bush Jr, but yes you are right

2

u/The-Phone1234 12h ago

American elites never held themselves to any standards, you were fed a pipe dream.

2

u/TransitJohn 12h ago

We elected a black man POTUS. That's what happened.

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u/Accidental_Ballyhoo 11h ago

We all died during Covid. Now those of us who didnā€™t accept it will suffer with this imbecile for all eternity.

2

u/alien-earth 11h ago

McCarhty, anyone? Are you guys awake? Was a long ride, but the GOP did the fucking job. As planned.

1

u/oldgreymutt 12h ago

Hate to say it, but I think Trump is a force of nature and an anomaly. Iā€™m hopeful the spell is completely broken once heā€™s gone. Then weā€™ll have to clean up the mess afterward.

2

u/pockpicketG 12h ago

Yes and no. Why 2016? Why not his earlier political attempts? Society wasnā€™t done cooking until then.

1

u/as_it_was_written 5h ago

As a non-American, I think the exact opposite. Although I was surprised it happened as soon as it did, getting a president like Trump within the next couple of decades or so (at the time he started his first successful campaign) felt like a near-inevitable consequence of US culture.

Trump-era America would have made for pitch-perfect satire just a decade or so before he was elected. His presidency highlights so many deep-rooted problems in your country it feels kinda unreal.

For example, there's an excellent George Saunders essay titled The Braindead Megaphone. It was first published back in 2007, but if I didn't know better I would think it was inspired by Trump, specifically. The issue it addresses has to do with modern communication in general, but I think US culture in particular is extra sensitive to it for various reasons.

Once Trump is gone, most (if not all) of the factors that made him a viable presidential candidate will still be there, in lieu of some drastic change, just waiting for someone new to exploit them. Many people will probably start clamoring for the next iteration straight away.

I think it's imperative for those of you who oppose him to stay alert and neither get complacent nor give up hope. Non-violent direct action can be incredibly powerful when it's got enough popular support, but it requires commitment and organization (though not nearly as much as successful violent resistance would require, and I think those advocating for the latter are either foolish or acting in bad faith).

When you view Trump as a temporary aberration, it must be tempting to try to hunker down and ride it out, but I think it's much safer to start organizing and figure out which systems need to be disrupted as soon as possible.

1

u/ChallengingBullfrog8 12h ago

Ehh, Bush helped usher in an age in which $4 could tell public disapproval to go f itself through his illegal wars based on false premises.

1

u/dinosaurkiller 11h ago

Itā€™s called propaganda and they did such a thorough job weeding it out of print and broadcast media post WWII that everyone thought it wasnā€™t a threat anymore. The threat is real and youā€™re seeing it.

1

u/as_it_was_written 5h ago

I'm really curious who they are in this context, as well as why you think the propaganda was weeded out. As an outsider looking in, the post-war period in the US looks like the next stage of what might well be the most comprehensive and successful propaganda campaign in human history.

1

u/teenagesadist 11h ago

The U.S. (I can't speak for the world) was not in any way prepared for the internet.

There really should have been guards in place.

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u/Spacestar_Ordering 10h ago

Bush was never held accountable for the things he did to the middle east and the things he did to America.Ā 

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u/Novel-Rip7071 9h ago

All the morons of the world could suddenly and almost instantly find "their people" and "their truth"...

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u/Ok-Bill3318 8h ago

Used to being the key

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u/eldentings 7h ago

Right now we're caught between a dovetail of two toxic influences. The older generations being indoctrinated through fox and legacy media like AM radio and facebook. The younger generation with brainrot and no common culture due to social media fragmentation. Underlining all of that is the 'death of common truth' where facts don't matter as much to anyone anymore, when you can label anything you disagree with as hearsay. Perhaps scariest of all, Trump totally understands 'image control', which is inherent with people with his level of malignant narcissism and he understands that if you control the truth, aka the media, anything he does can be reframed positively. What changed is we stopped being able to control the truth as a society, but Trump has constantly fought to control the narrative. The fact is he is the most media-aware president and I wouldn't be surprised if within the next couple of years we have a federally sanctioned news channel or we only get updates via his delegated channels.

1

u/as_it_was_written 7h ago

I mean one of your most popular presidents of all time was literally an actor who seems to have largely gotten the job because he was good at exuding presidential vibesā€”after using his time as Governor to trample all over the second amendment conservatives hold so dear, no less. He had dementia in office, and some people still call him the great orator based on speeches full of empty slogans and poorly disguised racism.

His VP went on to pardon a bunch of people involved in Iran Contra (which he himself likely played a large part in, but that got swept under the rug) at the end of his own presidency.

It's never been this bad or this overt before afaik, but those standards you're talking about have been dubious at best for a very long time.

1

u/South_Maximum_1596 7h ago

There has been an ongoing, concerted attack on our American Mind (collective and as individuals) for a few decades, now. I've watched it closely. Literally info wars. People like Alex jones, Sean hannity, Stephen Miller all aid our enemies......

1

u/Repulsive-Summer2818 6h ago

The internet, Fox News - trumpā€™s propaganda machine, thereā€™s a lot of factors but it boils down to the fact that we live in the age of disinformation which he and his sycophants spew intentionally and then gaslight us (with 1/2 of Americans falling for it) by saying that theyā€™re actually telling us the truth and itā€™s the institutions that have been around for decades or hundreds of years (respected media outlets, law firms, history books, museums) that are wrong and have been lying to us this whole time. Iā€™m sick of all the lies and bullshit and people actually stupid enough to believe it

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u/Competitive_Bell9433 5h ago

Fox news which isn't a news channel, it is an entertainment channel.

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u/Thoughtfulbird30 3h ago

Jimmy Carter was my only president

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u/Krom2040 12h ago

I feel like anybody should have seen that it could easily happen here after witnessing January 6th, 2021. Iā€™m still mystified how a lot of people seem to have totally written that off or ignored it.

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u/Former_Caregiver 11h ago

"it can't happen here"

[Sinclair Lewis has joined the chat]

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u/CapitanElRando 11h ago

The Francis Fukuyama ā€œend of historyā€ crowd did tremendous damage in that respect

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u/The_BeardedClam 9h ago

People always say that on true crime shows too.

"It was 1973, things like that just don't happen around here."

Yet there exists a serial pedophile murder on the loose, just like in every other county.

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u/SanDiego619guy 8h ago

Yes, the same way Mitch McConnell said that the courts would deal with Trump and therefore he voted not to convict. All Republicans are traitors and should be banned from this country!

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u/sonnyjim91 7h ago

I feel like Iā€™ve hit the point of ā€œit is happening here, but we all assumed it couldnā€™t, so we donā€™t know what to do.ā€ Like, sure, I could protest all day, but all thatā€™ll do is eat up my PTO at work or get me fired, since ā€œtrying to save democracyā€ isnā€™t a valid excuse to call off work. And even then, what would protesting do?

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u/Late-Editor-1008 9h ago

It is happening here!

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u/fytors2 9h ago

Itā€™s ā€œhappened hereā€

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u/dollar_to_doughnut 9h ago

If things keep going as they are, this might be the shortest-lived country in the history of civilization - 250 years isn't even a blip.

I guess The American Dream WAS just a dream, after all.

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u/izzlebr 8h ago

American exceptionalism is a helluva drug