5mo ago

Trump Kicks Aside Congress With Sweeping Claims of Presidential Power | With aggressive reading of Constitution, president aims to upend balance of power in Washington

www.wsj.com

wsj.com

The top-level post uses a gift link with a cap on how many times it can be used. If it runs out, an archived copy is available

I'll note that as a newspaper for the owning class, their hard-news section is much more willing to plainly describe the coup against congress & constitution that's going on than other outlets.

Edit: Indivisible is calling for people to make in-person visits to their congressmembers local offices

74 comments

- Seriously, this seems like the advice that might be getting the most pertinent. Scary fucking times.
  Be prepared enough to take out at least one cop before you are undeniably taken out yourself.
  I feel terrible for people with children and families.
Welcome to The Crisis
- The crisis was when he won the election. It's too late. You and your loved ones will be lucky if you have food in 3 months.
Everyone in the US. Call your representatives (https://5calls.org/ is a great resource for this). Explain to them, POLITELY (because you are talking to the equivalent of a CSR who has gotten screamed at all day), that you are their constituent and you do not feel represented. Explain that you understand their powers are limited but ask them why they are quietly and meekly rolling over. Beg them to be vocal before it is even too later. And leave your name and contact information.
There isn't a lot that can be done but we can at least show our former allies that some of us care. And we can show those on the firing lines that they at least have a modicum of support.
- Two of mine a MAGA Republicans. One of those participated in Jan 6.
  Another is an alleged Democrat who's had a stroke and bent the knee.
  None of them care what I think, and have told me so with multiple letters when I've contacted them.
  
  It's going to take an angry crowd showing up at their district office to make them care
  
  Yes. The majority of republicans and even some of the democrats are all just eager to get as many kickbacks as they can and then bail.
  But that isn't the entire government. There are still Democrats who actually give a shit about their constituents just like there are republicans who only want black people to get a little bit hurt. And, right now, the majority of them just hear silence.
  The people who give a shit need to talk to the politicians who give a shit so that they will shout it from the rooftops and others might even know what is going on. How many stories were there about people who didn't even realize biden had dropped out?
  Because just look at the defunding of medicaid last week. There was pushback and it was dropped immediately.
  
  Same thing here. Mine is hardcore MAGA and both Senators are 100% shills. Also no one in my area cares... they all think Trump is going to do a great job and save everything. There are two Democrats in Congress from my state but neither one is capable of fighting anything. I don't know what to do but watch it burn.
- Everyone in the US. Call your representatives
  So they can mark me down as a dissident that needs to be purged?
Something, something, dictator on day one...
- Day 2 and on: also dictator.
  
  Day 3 and 4, belive it or not, also dictator.
For people who claim to love the Founding Fathers, the current US government sure is speedrunning the death of the Father's vision of a nation free from religious control and without monarch levels of unchecked power.
- To be fair, the country they created lasted 250 years... 🤷‍♂️
- Who loves slavemasters? Founding daddies? Free from religious control?!? These creeps were the epitome of unchecked racist power. It's hard to imagine that adults believe/upvote this wacko nonsense.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_religion#American_Revolution
I’m not 100% on NYT. Their roaring silence on Luigi was bothersome to say the least.
That said, I did check back in with the Ezra Klein podcast this morning. It wasn’t his usual thing, but a 12min piece entitled “Don’t Believe Him.” (You can play it or read it, it’s on most podcast listings: apple, Spotify, Castro, etc)
Basically, this blitzkrieg of executive orders is a show right up until we CHOOSE to believe in it. It’s only as effective as places like the WSJ say it’s effective, and people rolling over and playing dead in capitulation with a yeah, sure. The entire “muzzle velocity” approach is meant to scatter and demoralize opposition.
His reason for avoiding congress is if these executive orders went through Congress, he would lose. And that would make him look weak. And thus his plan of King Trump would die. Remember, this is a man who has NEVER been interested in the Constitution of The United States of America, only power.
The birthright thing has already been laughed out of court by a Reagan nominee, for starters. Because, Constitution. Now, if that judge had decided to “believe him”, it would’ve gone differently.
Think about it. He wasn’t holding court with most of Congress at Maralago, but key social media influencers: Google, Facebook, Bezos, and he already had Musk.
- NYT wasn’t just silent on Luigi, they ran an article calling him a worse terrorist than Osama Bin Laden. You probably think I’m making that up because it’s so absurd, but I assure you it’s true. I can’t link the article because I am no longer a subscriber after that.
  
  I'm sure you can find articles that were very opposed to him because there's lots of authors at NYT, but this one i found definitely does not read that negatively about Luigi.
  https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/magazine/luigi-mangione-memes-jesse-james.html
  
  I was never. I just followed this guy and The Daily.
  They always have something to say relevant to current events but they were silent on Luigi.
every member of congress, of any party affiliation, from the far left to the far right, should all be pissed off at the usurper; and they need to start voting like it.
- A lot of the legislators who are helping Trump seize their power for himself are gonna be really surprised when they get the Saddam Hussein treatment eventually.
It looks like the orange utan is on track to beat the little mustachioed Austrian's speed record.
- Orangutans are intelligent, empathetic creatures. Don't malign them like this.
"...A law effectively banning TikTok as of Jan. 19 passed Congress with overwhelming House and Senate majorities. Trump has delayed enforcement for 75 days, saying in a December court filing that his status as “one of the most powerful, prolific and influential” social media personalities gives him unique abilities to evaluate the app."
I hate this asshole so much. Everything he says and does is somehow mind bogglingly stupid, arrogant, and evil.
is there anything we can do? as just ... people? i have a hard time finding solid organization...
- Get together with a bunch of people you know, and show up in-person at your local congressman or senator's office
- Revolt
For anyone still not aware, the America we've always known is gone and it isn't coming back.
Welcome to the shit future anyone with brain cells has been warning about.
This country will change so much we may as well stop calling it by the same name.
I'm rooting for Russia 2.0 because that's the most accurate name.
- Failed Divided States
It’s a lot more simple than this: Trump demands a factor dictatorship, and every idiot in power is gladly handing it to him. Including the Democrats, because they are so lost in their own self flatting bullshit, they can’t pay attention to the needs of the people. Because they haven’t paid attention to the needs of the people for almost 50 years.
We are all witnessing the fall of the American empire
- weird how you turned this into a dig at Democrats; when they much better represent working people and concerns about climate, education, corporate regulation, healthcare, etc.
  
  That’s not what happened. The only weird thing is that you hallucinated that this is a dig of Democrats.
  Perhaps you shouldn’t project your own fascism onto other people’s comments.
- I'm glad the DNC recently admitted the "We go high" thing was a mistake
- Ah, and there's the bothsides take.
I guess he could give himself a new title that goes well with president: chancellor.
- Nah, he can give that to ~~Elon~~ Leon
  Hindenberg was a puppet, just like orange fuckface
  
  A weird little detail in all this madness is that "Doge" as in an italian renaissance leader is related to the word "Duce" so I guess "Il Doge" would fit Muskolini perfectly?
No shit
Vive la resistance
Anticipated yesterday here :
https://lemmy.world/post/25005956
Nazification (also in USA ?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung
Ahh, the sweet smell of Machtergreifung.
Congress uh you tryna not have any power?
- The critical problem right now is that either all, or almost all the Republicans in Congress favor what he is doing, and they hold a majority in both houses.
  It's going to take incredible pressure from constituents and campaign donors to change that. That's going to mean calling, or better yet, showing up in person with as many people as you can bring.
GLEICHSCHALTUNG
He’s already signing decrees left and right so I don’t think you’ll feel any difference.
LOL. Did the jaguar bite your face WSJ?
(or whatever the libs keep saying)
Hey America, what was all that bluster when now you are wimpier than the Germans of 1930s?
Wait, I’ll translate.
Why are you acting like the side that lost the 1939-1945 world war you joined in 1941? You sure like taking credit for the win. That’s stolen valor, by the way, because you were fucking waffling on the fence until someone hurt you. Anyway, what was all that stuff about freedom and strength when you deny it to your neighbour and get walked on?
- Just because someone might actually read your nonsense post:
  People should understand what WW2 actually was. Yeah, the US basically just sold guns and materials to the allies until Pearl Harbor. And we do very much take WAY too much credit in ways that marginalize how long the Brits (among others) held out for.
  But basically everyone (except the aggressors) in WW2 only got involved when they were either under attack or very clearly next in line. That was mostly a response to how brutal WW1 was and how many countries resented being pulled in to one of the bloodiest wars in (modern) human history because of ink on a page.
  Why does that matter? Because look at the war in Ukraine. Nobody is going to help anybody until it is clear they can "get away with it" or they have no other choice. NATO left Ukraine to die in that first few days and only stepped in once it was clear they weren't going to be steamrolled and could bleed russia for a few months (now years).
  Nobody is going to step in until trump's america points the guns at them.
  Also, I'll just add on. If ANYONE thinks that people gave a shit about the horrific genocide before, during, and after WW2? Maybe look up how Europe and the US treated The Jews prior to the war. What Russia/Stalin did to... a shit ton of people after. Or how people STILL don't give a fuck about what Imperial Japan did (and what American and Russian soldiers, in particular, did as well).
  Finding the concentration camps was great for political capital for the various generals and politicians who wanted to have power post war. And while I would like to think the soldiers on the ground were horrified and motivated to "finish the fight" by seeing it... it had jack all to do with why they were out there in the first place.

74 comments