Nightwingdragon @ Nightwingdragon @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

"Louisiana hospitals warn Mike Johnson of 'devastation' from megabill"

"Yeah, that's kinda the point"

-- Johnson.

I love it. We just had a Supreme Court ruling that further anointed Trump as a king that can do what he wants, and yet the first thing everybody goes to in one of these articles is that the states can just take it to the courts and this time, THIS TIME the courts will stop him! It's not fair! What Trump is doing is illegal and unconstitutional!

No fucking shit it's unconstitutional. But guess what? The Constitution is dead. The Supreme Court has already hand-waved away half of the amendments, and the people in charge of enforcing the rest have already repeatedly said they weren't going to. They have repeatedly said that Trump can basically do whatever he wants, and Congress has given him their blessing. So what the fuck do you think the courts are going to be able to do to stop this? And what the fuck makes you think the Supreme Court would even allow it?

If states started seriously threatening to withhold federal payments, Trump would just send in the National guard. Or the military. And before the "But that would trigger civil war!!!!!", it ain't triggering shit. Trump just rolled his troops into downtown LA and started yanking citizens off the streets while Stephen Miller literally went on Twitter and told Newsom "You have no say in this, we are in control, and federal law will be enforced". And Newsom stood there and took it like a cuck. There was no violent rebellion, no resistance to the military takeover of LA. They're still there.

The courts are not going to save us. They've just been stripped of whatever ability they had to even try. I mean, should the states at least try to go through the courts? Yeah. Not that it'll matter much because the Supreme Court will just overturn any lower court decision anyway and either order the states to pay or allow Trump to seize the funds. But in the long run, it'll be a symbolic gesture of resistance as they either bend the knee and make the payments or have the payments taken from them.

Until violent rebellion happens, this is the way it is now. Trump has closed off all other viable avenues. And good luck organizing any kind of rebellion without having your group be infiltrated and everyone shipped off to some 3rd world country on treason charges long before it hits critical mass or manages to accomplish anything.

Why is it that every time we get rid of the Joe Manchins of the party, someone else insists on taking on his role and torpedoing whatever Democrats manage to try to accomplish? There's always one. Sometimes two.

It's not pro wrestling. We don't need someone "turning heel" at the last minute and "Swerving the voters" to keep things entertaining. We don't need character twists like it's some kind of HBO drama. But yet every time one of these Manchin morons goes, it's like Democrats say "Ladies and gentlemen, the role of 'Shitstain Democrat here to gum up the works' will now be played by......"

Never said they were. In fact, I specifically said "Granted, they're not doing a whole lot of anything right now". But just because this group of Democrat leaders are feckless morons doesn't mean we just willingly hand it over to Republicans and prevent possible future Democrat leaders from at least having the option to use it in the future.

The only people who benefit from ending the filibuster are Republicans.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Feel free to downvote me if you want, but downvotes don't change the truth.

The filibuster is an absolutely necessary evil. Yeah, it sucks when the GOP use it to block Democrat policies. But it's also been used by Democrats to stop the worst of GOP's policies as well. Dems have been asking for the end of the filibuster for years now, and people like me have been saying that eventually the GOP would return to power and shove it right down our throats. I believe it was Mitch McConnell who warned Democrats of exactly that when they voted to remove the filibuster for judge confirmations. And then the GOP took control and we've been paying for it ever since, with McConnell saying "What did you expect? We told you we would do this." the entire time.

And the same thing would happen here. As bad as this Trump administration has been (and it has been BAD), imagine how much worse it would be if there were no filibuster. Even if Chuck Schumer had a spine, it wouldn't matter. He'd have no voice that would be heard. They'd have no power. No way to stop the GOP from doing literally anything they wanted. Their only purpose would be to show up and watch. To make sure that there was a quorum. That's it.

Granted, they're not doing a whole lot of anything now. But the filibuster is a tool that we can use to at least try to stop the worst of the worst. And it's basically the only tool we've got left. It may not do much, but the last thing you want to do is willingly give that last weapon over to your enemy.

We've already been down this road already, and have been paying for it ever since. The 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court and Trump flooding the federal courts with his hand-picked cronies are a direct result of this. Why do people think it's a good idea to do it again?

The problem is that the GOP plans are to just shit on everything and tell Democrats to just keep it that way because if they try to clean it up, the GOP are just going to shit on it again, so they might as well just let it stay shitty and let everybody just get used to it.

The other problem is that most of the time, Democrats agree.

You guys have a system set up by a bunch of random guys 3 centuries ago that you worship as gods and refuse to update. That might be part of it

The problem isn't the system itself. The problem is that those random guys forgot to add in little things like consequences and what to do when someone violates it. The entire thing was written by a bunch of people who somehow forgot that they had JUST GOT INTO A WAR OVER THIS SHIT. It's like the idea of tyranny somehow became a foreign concept that nobody would ever consider and everybody is going to be good to each other forever and ever and ever amen so there's no need for consequences, right?

If you're a WWE fan, you'd understand how funny that is.

Several years back, a wrestler named Jack Swagger was running an anti-immigrant gimmick (How fitting.....) as a bad guy. He was basically wrestling's MAGA before MAGA was a thing. His taunt would be that he would forcefully slap his hand to his heart like someone pledging allegiance to the flag while screaming "WE THE PEOPLE".

Then he was busted with marijuana in the real world. Suddenly, fans started taunting him with chants of "WEED THE PEOPLE." at arenas and online. It was hilarious. It basically killed the gimmick because nobody took him seriously after that.

(Granted, not many people were taking the gimmick seriously anyway because Swagger wasn't very good and the gimmick was a bad idea from day one. But the taunts put the final nail in the coffin.)

Look at it this way. Think of the "city slickers", as you put it. I'm going to assume you're not talking about cities like Dallas or Houston, where gun ownership is obviously much more common. I'll assume you're talking about those who weren't raised around guns. If push came to shove right now, how many of them would you trust with a weapon? How many of them are more likely to hurt themselves or you than they are their adversary? Would you want any of those people covering you in a shootout?

A majority of people fall in that category. I know people I'd barely trust with a Super Soaker, let alone an actual firearm. And while I fully agree with you that extreme situations make people do extreme things, especially when they have nothing left to lose, there are limits to that. It's not going to turn your average first grade teacher or bank teller that barely got their firearms license into a military sniper just because bullets start flying at them. At most, it'll help someone to stop pissing their pants out of fear to grab the gun and control their terrified shaking long enough to fire off a few rounds that at least go in the direction they want the bullets to go.

The fuck you think you're going to do there, Rambo? You think you're gonna win a firefight against SWAT agents armed to the teeth? You think a bunch of neighbors are gonna come to help you and turn it into a modern day shootout at the OK corral?

And if you do, what do you think the result's gonna be? Do you think if you just wait it out, it's like GTA 5 where your wanted level will just go away in a few minutes? That they'll all just say "Aw, shucks" and give up? What's gonna happen is that they're going to call for even more reinforcements who have more weapons, armor, and attack dogs. The best possible outcome for you is being dragged out after taking a few non-lethal shots and charged with murder/attempted murder of whatever cops you shot. The worst is that they'd be removing the splattermark that used to be you and anything that so much as twitched in the house off the walls with a squeegee.

This assumes you even see them coming. Most likely they're just gonna raid your house while you're out cold at like 2 in the morning, giving you exactly zero seconds to even try reaching for the weapon you think you're gonna be able to use. You're not gonna be standing tall against tyranny making a stand defending your home. You'll be dragged out of the house in your underwear at about 2:01, hoping that they didn't shoot your pet hamster for casting a menacing shadow in the process. And that's the good outcome.

Life isn't an action movie. You are not Rambo. You are not John Connor. If you were in that situation, you would do exactly two things: 1) Shit your pants, 2) Repeat.

I’ve been shooting guns since I was six years old.

This leads me to believe that you were raised in a household/community that was extremely gun-friendly. Not everybody has the same experience. I'm in my 50s and could count on one hand the number of people I've ever met who owned or have ever handled a firearm, and the idea of allowing a 6 year old to use a firearm even in a supervised environment would probably get you a visit from child protective services around here.

And there's also a major difference between shooting targets in a supervised environment and actually pointing your gun at a human being who is firing back at you.

Because they act like being a citizen who owns firearms means that you have an entire gun shed like Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando. They don't understand that a good chunk of people probably have no business owning the one handgun they do own, would probably find a way to aim at the ground and still miss, and would probably piss themselves if they had to actually raise their gun against another human being. And these are the people who would be going up against people who have bigger weapons, better training, years of experience, body armor, and probably several other officers covering their backs.

They think that a citizen with the minimum amount of training needed to get a license going against a law enforcement or military soldier is in any way close to a fair fight. They think that if one day the Trump administration comes for them, they'll be able to arm up and defend their homes, as if law enforcement will eventually give up like it's GTA5 and their wanted level ran out.

They act like law enforcement and the US military won't follow an "illegal" order. They'll refuse to raise arms against their own citizens. Of course, they ignore decades of systemic racism. A law-enforcement and military culture that traditionally skews hard right. A police system where they insist that military equipment and SWAT-style raids are necessary for every bust right down to local street dealers, and seeing half a dozen cops pulled over even for simple traffic stops. Never mind the ones that would go along because the person who gave the order is also the person who gets to decide what is and isn't legal, and they're trying to avoid being jailed themselves. But they don't understand that not only is a sizeable portion of our military willing to follow illegal orders, they're chomping at the bit waiting for the opportunity to flex their muscles and go full COD on as many brown people as possible with the blessing of the US government. It's not a moral dilema to them. It's a wet dream.

And some of them are dumb enough to believe that the "doomsday preppers" will stand up and defend us, because this is the exact situation they've been prepping for! They don't understand that the preppers are MAGA themselves. If anything, most of the 2A gun nuts that are armed to the teeth would be more likely to gleefully join the Trump administration than stand up to them. And even if there is a doomsday prepper that actually isn't MAGA, they'd simply be overwhelmed by a military raid who would just seize the weapons and leave what's left of him as a splattermark on the walls wherever the bullets splattered his brain.

It wouldn't be a fair fight or anything close to it.

“No right is safe in the new legal regime the Court creates,” states Sotomayor’s dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown-Jackson. “Today, the threat is to birthright citizenship. Tomorrow, a different administration may try to seize firearms from law abiding citizens or prevent people of certain faiths from gathering to worship.”

"Yeah, that's kinda the plan. Been going pretty smoothly so far."

-- MAGA

What do you mean try?

Given the opportunity, they will say this. And given this Congress and this Supreme Court, they'll succeed.

But if your goal is to make the water undrinkable, all you need is that 1%.

And that's all Trump cares about. He's made far more than 1% of the water undrinkable shit. But all that means is that even though he lost 99% of the time, he still won in the end because the water is just as undrinkable.

It's worse than that.

This is, I believe, the fourth or fifth amendment to the Constitution that has been hand-waved away once it became inconvenient. Birthright citizenship is no longer a thing. Due Process is no longer a thing. Insurrectionists can run for President. Freedom of the Press can be invalidated by executive order. The US Constitution isn't even secondary to federal policy. It's been successfully relegated to a really old piece of paper with some guidelines that can be ignored at will. Our elected officials have made the repeated and affirmative decision to not enforce or defend the Constitution of the United States, and our Supreme Court has given them their blessing to do just that. With nobody willing or able to enforce, uphold, and defend the Constitution, it has all the practical legal weight of a Dr. Seuss book.

And yes, the rule of law is long gone. It's been replaced with Trump's Supreme-Court-Endorsed policy of "I'll do what I want, because fuck you that's why.". Stephen Miller literally said as much when he told California's governor that "You have no say in this. Federal law will be enforced", and openly dared him to do something about it.

Sure. Just let me know exactly what your plan is.

We could hold protests.....until Trump sends in the National Guard and has anyone that looks vaguely brown or uppity arrested.

We could petition our elected representatives, who either are not in power or have willingly ceded power to Trump. I'm sure that'll help.

Maybe we could get reliable information from the news, if they weren't already curtailing coverage that's critical of Trump or anything Trump doesn't like out of fear of political retribution or retaliatory political action.

We could sue through the court system, which was just stripped of virtually any ability to do anything about Trump.

I mean obviously, we need to get involved in our next election. Which is only 18 months away. Surely nothing catastrophic could happen in such a short period of time, right? Can't wait to elect deep-blue representatives in my already deep-blue state. I'm sure that'll accomplish a lot. That's assuming elections even take place.

And hey, there's always getting involved locally. Organize a resistance. Go ahead. I'm sure you're more than willing to be the first to stick your neck out there. And I'm sure there's no chance that your group is infiltrated long before it gets to anything resembling a critical mass or manages to accomplish anything noteworthy.

You don't get it, do you?

Trump won. He has full control now. The Supreme Court has now said that not only is Trump legally immune from prosecution, judges don't even have the right to stop him. Congress has willingly ceded their authority and he's already using the national guard to quell anything he deems a "protest". Our educational institutions have bent the knee, businesses are adopting Trump-friendly policies, and the press has severely curtailed criticism of Trump out of fear of retribution.

The only path forward is violence. And even that is a long shot as Trump has control of law enforcement who are chomping at the bit waiting for the opportunity to go full Call-of-Duty on as many brown people as they can. All other pathways have been closed. You wanna be the one sticking your neck out? Go right ahead. Let me know how the weather is in El Salvador. Or South Sudan. Or whatever 3rd world shithole you find yourself taking an involuntary vacation in. But not all of us think that this is a movie where we're just waiting for John Connor to rise from the ashes and lead us to victory.

No government or politician ever gives up their power voluntarily.

The chances are high that even a "Democrat" politician would end up being corrupted by their own power. The chances of that Democrat willingly ceding that power away are virtually nonexistent.

For all those copium-takers who have been saying for months now that "Trump has been losing in the courts" (despite all evidence to the contrary) and that our court system would ultimately protect us......

Now what?

In a nutshell, and none of this is hyperbole:

• Birthright citizenship is no longer a thing, despite it literally being a constitutional amendment.
• Constitutional amendments, for that matter, can be once again just hand-waved away the minute they become inconvenient for the ruling party.
• Judges no longer can do anything to stop the Trump administration from violating your rights (Unless you have a shitload of cash and can win the race to the courthouse).

I want everybody to let it settle in for a second. If you thought the Presidential Immunity ruling was bad, Trump was just told that he can now literally do whatever the hell he wants, Constitution be damned, and even judges don't have the authority to stop him. What the fuck do you think he's going to do with that kind of power?

The Supreme Court said that Trump can do what he wants. Then Congress said Trump can do what he wants. Our pillars of society, who for literal centuries said that they would be there to stand up to tyranny in all its forms, then literally crumbled at Trump's feet at the first sign of pressure. Then the Supreme Court once again stepped in and said that not only will they not stand up to Trump, they'll make sure that no other judge in the country has the power to either.

Our democracy has fallen. There will be no rebellion. The shift to authoritarianism was welcomed with open arms by the votes of almost 80 million of our own citizens, the apathy of tens of millions more, and the unwillingness of our society to stand their ground.

The strength and resiliency of modern Democracy in the US has been shown to be nothing more than a paper tiger that can be defeated by even the slightest breeze.