Politics Thread!

[Dio]

It's certainly possible.

[F-ZeroOne]

Given Trumps most recent comments on Ukraine, a timely take on the situation:

[KlaxonCow]

Homeland Security turning up with 5 people to do a "welfare check" on a now 19 year old, who was an unaccompanied minor entering the US originally.



Of course, they're not really doing a welfare check. They're a kidnap squad and there's 5 of them to be able to physically overwhelm anyone who might resist being taken and deported.

There's still a pretence of legality here, and their family lawyer could scare them away. And they conveniently weren't in, to give the lawyer time to actually get there.

But that won't last forever. Soon enough they'll just kidnap people, without any consideration for due process at all and if you resist them, then they'll just beat you down.

America is rapidly becoming a fascist dictatorship. Shit you thought you'd only see in corrupt third world countries are becoming the norm.

[zip accident]

I'm wondering what Trump et al are going to do about the US Army, overt nazis wouldn't have been appointable even in the previous Trump term in office. There are a lot of generals, and many more lower level officers. They can fire one or dozens, but not the majority, and an attempt at the Katyn Forest solution seems very risky if not certain to backfire.

[PFVA]

This man is annoying to say the least
The Rose Garden and the trees are historic.

During his first term, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump removed a significant portion of Jackie Kennedy's Rose Garden at the White House. Now, the second term has removed another tree, and pavers are being placed

Trump told staff his desire to tear up the grass in the Rose Garden and cover it with a solid surface.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-rose-garden-2671768013/

[KlaxonCow]

The resistance begins.

[KlaxonCow]

Trump caught asking El Salvador to build 5 more prisons for him, as he's planning to send "homegrowns" there. De-naturalising US citizens to send them to a foreign Gulag. No due process. If Mad King Trump doesn't like you, then he's sending you on a one-way trip to El Salvador.

At what point can we stop beating around the bush, mincing words, and just plainly state that Trump is a fascist?

[zip accident]

At what point can we stop beating around the bush, mincing words, and just plainly state that Trump is a fascist?

When he starts cancelling or seriously mess about with US elections.

At this point he's still pretending to be a president.

I mean, I dunno, there are a lot of bad signs, but then people called Nixon, Reagan and Bush fascistic, however in the end they left the presidency.

[KlaxonCow]

When he starts cancelling or seriously mess about with US elections.

Okay. But, like, he has already stated that he intends to run for an illegal "third term" and that there are mysterious "ways and means" of making it happen, even though it's illegal.

So, you know, we already have an openly declared intention to subvert or cancel the next Presidential election. He's not even hiding it, mere months into his second term, casually stating he intends to violate the 22nd amendment.

And what's worrying about it is when a journalist posed to him the most legitimate of the dodgy routes to attempting to make it happen - running as vice president to JD Vance and then getting him to resign (although, I'm not entirely sure that is a legitimate route, as I'm sure that the vice president has to meet presidential qualifications too, for obvious reasons of the possibility of succession) - then Trump was like "oh, right. Yeah, that's another way of doing it".

As if the idea of looking for legal loopholes was a brand new concept to him, as he'd just been thinking of burning down the Reichstag Congress with everyone inside it and maybe hanging Mike Pence for old time's sake, then declaring martial law under a "national emergency". That kind of thing.


My money's on the Julius Caesar route. He's got a majority of Republicans in all branches of government, so he makes them create the new office of... well, I'm sure he'll give it some disguised name like "Lord Protector" or "Herr Fuehrer" but essentially "King of America". What the Romans called "dictator" (because that word was actually just a Roman job description at first, and only came to mean "tyrant" after the long succession of dictators, named "Caesar" in his honour, made the word synonymous with tyranny). But that route would fail if the Republicans massively lose in the midterms... although that's a reason to suspect that, as tufty's suggested, the midterms don't happen or they're rigged or a sham election or something, to keep hold of that total control and not let democracy slip back in again to thwart his plans.

[Dio]

That's not quite right on the historical dictators. Rome had many (largely successful and non-tyrannical) dictators before the office disappeared from use (because it was no longer necessary; Rome was so powerful it had outgrown the crises that a dictator was meant to manage). 100 years later, Sulla grabs the title to paper-justify his attempt to resolve a very different type of crisis, and that singular use transforms its meaning into 'tyrant'.

Caesar didn't take the title of dictator himself. It was applied to him by his enemies to compare him with Sulla, who by 45BC everyone agreed had been a disaster.

[KlaxonCow]

Someone's finally found a good use of AI.

[PFVA]

Our banks profits were released yesterday.
They are doing very well in spite of all the international political turmoil.
I'm not sure that the same can be said for people

[F-ZeroOne]

The results are in, autism is entirely due to "environmental factors" and vaccines and there can be no other possible alternatives (such as that annoying science-y idea that its genetic and perceived rises are likely due to better awareness):

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -vaccines/

What do you mean, the investigation isn't supposed to be concluded until September?

[KlaxonCow]

If vaccines did cause autism, then we need better mental health provision, greater support for parents and teachers, and improved social infrastructure for those with autism.

Because we don't stop the vaccinations in the face of a pandemic, as that could kill millions, if not billions.

Covid killed 7 million people worldwide and it is a very mild respiratory disease, in the grand scheme of things.

Even if vaccines did cause autism, then this argument doesn't change the calculus at all. It simply tells us that, sadly, we're going to have to cope with more children developing autism.

You don't get to potentially murder your child and others they come into contact with, because you fear being able to cope with disability. Particularly not if it's based on antiquated religious notions that some god is "punishing" you (because it's all about you, huh?), or your child is "lesser" for it.

Let us hope that vaccines do not cause autism because when we necessarily must continue with the vaccination programmes - that aspect of the continued survival of the human race is non-negotiable - then it can have the least harmful effect.

They think this is an argument against vaccination. It is not. Even if they were right. Which they're not.

[PFVA]

The head of the bishops conference (I think what it is called) gave an interview to the Catholic radio station reproduced by all the media stating that some of Trump's behaviour and actions can be compared to Hitler. He called for people to speak up and say that behaviour is not acceptable. He gave as an example the take over of Greenland and compared it to Hitler's expansion into Poland.

Trump's interference in our universities is making a lot of people to speak up. If he wants to cut the programs sponsored by the US is fine but he doesn't have the right to tell how we should run our universities.