Erdogan has main rival arrested. Trump can skip this step as he already has no real political opposition.
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Democrats playing 4D chess
That was a good video. I thoroughly enjoyed watching an expert say all the things I’ve been trying to say. Watching America walk into authoritarianism over the last 40 years then be surprised by Trump is difficult at times. If I wasn’t such an egotistical prick it would be disheartening.
She or someone needs to do a follow up video on how to recover from an authoritarian if you get them out of power. Show examples of what it takes to remove them and what it takes to purge the country of the things that brought them to power.
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I think guillotines would be set up in town squares.
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It’s like they made a list of people they don’t like because they got favorable press and are trying to deport them.
I don’t know that it’s a list as much as much as a power-that-is reads about a person in news or social media, and sends a note to the minions saying, “be sure to get so-and-so”.
Guessing she has been on someone’s hit list since 2017 when she made the Time list.
The gaul,… gawl? (Googling…) gall of her on the same list as tRump!!
Ted Cruz clerked for Luttig when he was still a judge. He is, or at least was, recognized as a hard core conservative. He doesn’t think highly of the current administration.
“The president of the United States has essentially declared war on the rule of law in America,” J Michael Luttig told MSNBC. “In the past few weeks … the president himself has led a full-frontal assault on the constitution, the rule of law, the federal judiciary, the American justice system and the nation’s legal profession.
“When the president of the United States wages a war on the rule of law and the federal judiciary alley, America is in a constitutional crisis. The constitutional role of the president is to faithfully execute the laws. Needless to say, the president is doing anything but that at the moment. Most constitutional scholars have long agreed that a constitutional crisis exists at least when the president defies a court order. That’s essentially what the president is doing today and what it appears he intends to do in the future.”
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So are we moving from alternative facts to no facts?
The only facts are the ones declared by dear leader.
Quote from the article referenced, after Microsoft translation:
So, criticism of Dear Leader is now terrorism?
I probably ought to do an extra scrub my gadgets before traveling abroad in the future, to limit personal stuff on them. Having gadgets searched is always a risk when crossing borders, but…DAMN.
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I would recommend a burner phone and a low end laptop or mini you keep just for travel. Of course I am a bit more paranoid than most.
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This is more of a milestone towards an oligarchical government than an authoritarian one, I think, but…
Canadian folk musicians questioned on their loyalty to the US during a traffic stop in Ohio (gifted link)
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When people wonder “is there a point at which the military will refuse to follow an order?” I think the answer is increasingly “no.”
Oh, sure - the military has been trained so that it will not follow an illegal order and all that, but in 2025 what’s really illegal to the government? If Trump orders the troops over the border to Canada, who in the military is going to say “this is utterly fucked up, we’re not doing it?” Everything going on is a softening of the fences so that when the command is given to do something against Americans or to go invade another country that’s done nothing to us except whatever Trump and his inner circle claim, everyone will have been conditioned to think it’s just an extension of the last thing and that was OK to do, so this thing is OK as well.
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I’ll say that modern authoritarians work hand in hand with oligarchs, so not much of a difference.
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Trump will keep villainizing Canadians until we are perceived as pure evil. It is easier to invade another country when they are thus portrayed. The lies he has used so far are extensive but he will ramp them up.
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Disturbing. Every time one of these articles comes up another few thousand Canadians will boycott the US.
Remember: The military powers that be were reported to have been ready to refuse orders to respond to the big red button when the Dear Leader was reacting to his loss in 2020.
I think there are enough adults around still to divert truly idiotic orders, but I’d agree that I’m less certain about some illegal orders (think posse comitatus) or unwise decisions (invading Greenland, bombing Ukraine).