Not quite, undermine implies sabotaging standard process. Trump doesn't actually have the authority to do this shit. Their rulings block over reach but don't currently undermine anything.
I'm sure, but a watch is 1000% more convenient if you don't need any normal smart phone functionality (social media, games, internet access, media player, etc...). Its simpler to not have the option to use those features at all than to blacklist everything.
On top of that, it's less likely to get lost or dropped/damaged like a flip phone. Probably has better battery life too. For small form-factor messaging + GPS its the most functional package.
Signal is based in San Francisco and, last I checked, runs on AWS/Azure. Bsky is similar, US based and operated. Google/Apple could be ordered to delist anything from their stores preventing wide adoption of other apps.
Best I can think of is something very decentralized like Briar or Matrix/fediverse/i2p alternatives. As of right now, adoption of those is limited. If you pulled the lever tomorrow and cut the major platforms, most people wouldn't even know where to go as a fallback.
I posted proof of this happening in Trump's first term in another reply. As others have pointed out, these clerical 'errors' are already happening again; ICE conveniently can't (won't) release the full list of deportees. But that's fine, you can ignore that, you need proof-positive.
Why not listen to it straight from the horse's mouth. They're publicly calling for citizens to be arrested for exercising their right to protest. Permanent residents can be disappeared because "we didn't know he was a terrorist when he came here" with no supporting proof.
That's too vague? How about this one: Trump invented a war on a gang specifically to gain sweeping powers that override constitutional rights. Citizens were rounded up by these same powers during WWII as potential enemies of the state. You can put the 2025 and 1941 proclamations side by side, they're the exact same. Let's see if we can connect the dots...
Don't pretend to be any kind of leftist if you're too politically disengaged to open your fucking eyes. Go ahead and wait for Trump-appointed judges to issue more orders that get ignored with no repercussions.
You can't deport me I'm a citizen! Look at my genuine passport!
Read the fine print, that's property of the US Government and they can revoke it whenever they want.
But wait here's my birth certificate! Surely you can't...
Mmmmmm, looks like a forgery. We'll put in a request with your birth state to confirm. In the mean time please take your seat, we're wheels up to Venezuela in 15 minutes.
Crazy that anti-vax has even a fig leaf of personal liberty as a defense. Yes, you do have the right to make your own choices and you can be a negligent parent in 1000 different ways.
But this isn't even close to a personal freedom issue. You being a dumb piece of shit is a direct threat to the rest of society. YOU don't get to make the personal choice to kill MY child.
It should be simple for these serious diseases: unless you have a certified medical issue preventing it, you have to get the shot. Fuck any objection (personal, religious, whatever...). If there's some negative side effect or a bad vaccine batch, you get generously compensated for our collective societal fault in harming you.
Strap them down and jab them, let them bitch and moan about everyone's children being alive and healthy later.
The Arab Spring is a great case study on why that type of resistance will never happen in the USA. The proliferation of social media was a key spark in those movements. Let's take a look at what stance those platforms take today:
Eh, I feel like every day there's a new story of Tesla's being torched. That's a pretty directed and forceful form of protest that gets no credit.
Also, it's not like America never has large scale protests. Hundreds of thousands of people fill the National Mall pretty regularly, skimming Wikipedia I counted 14+ since 1950 of over 200,000.
Just 5 years ago 15m-26m people participated in some especially roudy protests across all 50 states, but no credit for that either.
Large protests that get even slightly out of line in the USA usually end with:
well armed, paramilitary police violently dispersing everyone
the CIA assassinating protest leaders
and/or the 6 media conglomerates suppressing coverage at the behest of the ~15 people that own them
If you're criticizing Americans for anything, it should be for their response to that and not their ability to organize and orchestrate protests.
If you're prepping for an invasion your best bet would be supporting wartime mobilizations instead of personal defense. Bootstrapping a total war economy is no joke.
Your government can probably handle the logistics of recruiting/arming/training people better than local defense cells. However, even if you're not enlisted they'll still need people to work the factories, drive the trucks, sell war bonds, etc...
It makes sense, more proximity to a weapon is more potentially deadly encounters. An intruder very rarely enters your house, but you pass the gun safe in your closet every day.
I think soft power only goes do far once you start achieving your goals. Propaganda got Trump elected twice, but now that the rest of the world sees him driving America off the cliff to toe Putin's line other countries are being hardened.
Its kind of like an immune response: look at the whiplash in conservative polling numbers in Canada or the mounting regulation/push back on captured social media platforms.
9/11 was a fantastic success for fascists, there's never been so much sweeping support for surveillance and racism. No reason to stop killing the geese that bleed the golden paste...
I don't disagree that there's a lot riding on that house of cards, but as you pointed out the stakeholders in keeping that up are nearly every global state. Do the Houthis really hold any cards when they're under that microscope?
I imagine attacking a target that could literally collapse the world economy would be slightly harder than flying drones at a very expensive boat.
Edit: The petrodollar is all but phased out by Saudi Arabia. I don't think that current US financial interests are anywhere near as coupled to those oil fields (compared to just a few years ago).
Not quite, undermine implies sabotaging standard process. Trump doesn't actually have the authority to do this shit. Their rulings block over reach but don't currently undermine anything.