#constitutional-crisis

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

John: you’re awful, you know that?

Caliborn: WHAAAAT? DuDE THIS IS SWEET! YOu’RE TELLING ME, IF YOu HAD THE CHANCE TO TEACH A STuPID AND CLuELESS PERSON HOW TO SWEAR, YOu WOuLDN’T?

John: well, hold on, let me check.

John: dirk, am I awful?

Dirk: I don’t think so, no.

John: THEN NO, THE ANSWER IS NO.

[tomorrowusa]

In the US military, you swear an oath to the Constitution – not to the President. If Trump issues an illegal order then officers may wish to punt by taking the matter to court rather than defying Trump or breaking an oath they could face a court-martial for.

Pentagon officials are holding informal discussions about how the Department of Defense would respond if Donald Trump issues orders to deploy active-duty troops domestically and fire large swaths of apolitical staffers, defense officials told CNN. Trump has suggested he would be open to using active-duty forces for domestic law enforcement and mass deportations and has indicated he wants to stack the federal government with loyalists and “clean out corrupt actors” in the US national security establishment. Trump in his last term had a fraught relationship with much of his senior military leadership, including now-retired Gen. Mark Milley who took steps to limit Trump’s ability to use nuclear weapons while he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president-elect, meanwhile, has repeatedly called US military generals “woke,” “weak” and “ineffective leaders.”

As if we don't have enough to worry about, the military must deal with a demented president with his finger on the nuclear button.

In general, the options are limited to keep Trump from doing crazy things ahead of time.

There is not much the Pentagon can do to pre-emptively shield the force from a potential abuse of power by a commander in chief. Defense Department lawyers can and do make recommendations to military leaders on the legality of orders, but there is no real legal safeguard that would prevent Trump from deploying American soldiers to police US streets.

Beware of misuse of the Insurrection Act.

The president’s powers are especially broad if he chooses to invoke the Insurrection Act, which states that under certain limited circumstances involved in the defense of constitutional rights, a president can deploy troops domestically unilaterally.

There's certainly potential for a constitutional crisis if Trump provokes tension with the military.

[captain-price-unofficially]

T-80UD near the House of the Soviets during the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis, 4 October 1993.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Donald Trump is nauseatingly cringeworthy and an absolute embarrassment to America.

His morally deaf supporters are an embarrassment to the rest of America. So is Elon Musk, in his sheer boundless tackiness and nakedly ugly ambition.

I intend on switching them all off for an extended period of time. They will not be a part of my life.

+

Trump taps ⁦Jared Kushner⁩’s father, Charlie Kushner -- who in 2005 pleaded guilty to 18 counts of illegal campaign contributions and tax evasion, as well as witness tampering, after he retaliated against his brother-in-law, William Schulder, for the latter's cooperation with federal investigators, by hiring a sex worker to seduce Schulder, videotaping the encounter and sending the tape to Schulder’s wife, Kushner’s sister; he was subsequently sentenced to two years in prison but was pardoned by Trump in 2020 -- .as US Ambassador to France.

Un choix inspiré! Isn't kakistocracy wonderful? A historic break-the-glass-ceiling moment for the Convict-American community.

+

Tacky tech billionaires bent on world domination, sleazy sex-offenders, Russian assets, anti-vaxxers, rabid MAGA-mad anti-constitutionalists, and just plain awful people: it's an art, a subtle skill akin to ikebana flower arranging -- putting together the new Trump cabinet.

+

On the day Trump is sworn in, Chris Wray will have two years and six months left on his 10-year term as FBI Director. Bur Trump intends to fire him to install Kash Patel in his stead. Who will make Matt Gaetz seem like Benjamin Franklin by comparison. Kakistocracy in action. This regime will implode at some point under the sheer weight of its own trashiness and grotesque incompetence.

In the meantime, the US is headed for a constitutional crisis of unprecedented proportions.

(Mikhail Iossel)

[jangillman]

[bitegore]

ok this isnt meant to be a dig or anything but it's always really funny to me when people like just cracking 30 are like "omg you're in your early twenties, you're a babyyyyyy"

babe you're like barely 30, you're a baby too. You're a blink and a half older than me. I spend too much time around people over 50, the difference between 23 and 33 is a few years at a job and a little more distance from living in your parents' house but it's like, nothing. the gap closes every time you breathe and every time i move. the difference between you and me is like one-fifteenth the difference between you and my dad's friend Joe or whatever. don't worry you'll get to live more life too, but don't kid yourself.

and this is doubled when it's coming from a 25-year-old currently experiencing a crisis of age because they're soooo old, they're 25, the horror! You are twenty-five. We have an age difference of three years. Your concern over this is embarrassing for you and highly entertaining for me. But like don't kid yourself here. You are 25. You are a like a fucking baby to me.

[all-socialism-is-democratic]

[sawsily]

yes he got shot thats funny but anyone else filled with a dread for the future

[straynoahide]

YOON SUK-YEOL IS IMPEACHED!! YES!!! JUST IN!!!!

Democracy wins!!!

[stephen-barry]

Hundreds of scientists issue emergency warning following 'catastrophic' shift in Antarctica: 'Nowhere on Earth is there a greater cause of uncertainty' https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/hundreds-of-scientists-issue-emergency-warning-following-catastrophic-shift-in-antarctica-nowhere-on-earth-is-there-a-greater-cause-of-uncertainty/ar-AA1vdGkv In other words, what happens in the Antarctic doesn't stay in the Antarctic. The warming there, which is nearly twice as fast as the rest of the world, has consequences well beyond the region. Antarctica is melting ice more than six times faster than it was 20 years ago, according to satellite imagery...

[cindylyns]

Please vote. Our democracy is in danger.

"The union of America is the foundation-stone of her independence; the rock on which it is built; and is something so sacred in her constitution, that we ought to watch every word we speak, and every thought we think, that we injure it not, even by mistake."

Thomas Paine, The Crisis

[originalleftist]

City Governments Are Coordinating Plans To Resist If Trump Wins And Fulfils His Promise To Deploy Troops Against Their Cities:

I don't care for the Guardian these days, they've had some very questionable takes, but people need to understand this.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN THE US ARE PREPARING TO RESIST IF TRUMP DEPLOYS THE MILITARY TO TAKE OVER THEIR CITIES AND ROUND UP THEIR PEOPLE.

Though some will undoubtedly feel otherwise, this is not hyperbole nor panic, nor is it treasonous. It is, unfortunately, a measured and necessary response to what the Republican nominee has campaigned on doing. Better to have contingency plans and not need them, than need them and not have them.

They're also not talking about violent resistance, probably for obvious reasons, and I imagine that the initial attempts to resist would be administrative or through the courts or legislatures. I also expect, however, that Trump would respond to any such defiance with escalating force. And the comments by Philadelphia DA Krasner seem to hint at an awareness of where this could ultimately end.

"Krasner predicted that Trump would face severe blowback if he tried to carry out any of his menaces. "We're not going to let somebody carry out a coup as soon as he's in office, whether with tanks or on paper. My father served in World War Two, and countless Americans died to resist fascism. If anybody tries to orchestrate a coup they're going to encounter tremendous resistance."'

In a horrible way, I find it reassuring that they talking about this, that they are taking this seriously, that they're making plans now, rather than just hoping that everything will work out. Because once troops are being deployed on streets, it'll be far too late to plan. At least we won't be caught flat-footed. This is noting less than their duty- as local government to protect their constituents, and as Americans to defend the Constitution.

But it's shocking that we're here, and this could be unimaginably horrific.

Far, far better to stop him now, in November. While we still can.

It is also past time for Unions to be making general strike plans in the event of a coup/attempted dictatorship. A number of unions made such plans in the event of a coup in 2020, but they thankfully never needed to be used. If you're in a union, see what you can do to push things in this direction, if your union isn't already preparing for it.

And if you're in the military, I hope that you are thinking hard about how far you are prepared to follow orders, what risks you are willing to take to defend our Constitution not just against external enemies, but internal ones, and where your loyalty truly lies.

PS: Any Tankies/Marxists/Anarchists reading this who are giddy at the prospect of finally getting your Revolution if Trump wins- You may think that civil war is all games or theory, or you may truly believe that it'll be worth it to lead to whatever better society you imagine, or maybe you just hate the world and want it to burn to the ground. But the reality is that if Trump becomes President, millions of people-mainly marginalized, vulnerable people, not the rich and powerful-could die horribly. To say nothing of the very real possibility that your side could LOSE. Or that we'll be basically burning the country instead of working on addressing climate change.

Let this be our wakeup call. Stop it now. Please.

[saviourkingslut]

holy shit dutch election exit polls abt to make me enemy of the state no.1 for real. racist islamophobic backwards far right party in a far lead im going to throw up i hate this fucking country

[captain-price-unofficially]

Russian tanks shelling the White House in Moscow during Black October (1993).

[icarus-suraki]

Next work email I get is getting BAPPED.