I highly recommend the following book: “On Tyranny: twenty lessons from the Twenty Century”
There’s also reading of it by the author on YouTube.
I hate that book. It’s a great read. Horrifying, inspiring and becoming more important by the day.
It is, but the more people read it the bigger hope we have that it won’t happen.
Not “may have,” did. They did legalize any action taken by the person holding the office of the presidency. Trump tried to have his VP killed for fucks sake. That actually happened. It’s no longer the case that everyone in America is equal under the law. The president is now legally allowed to do anything that would get the rest of us thrown in jail. This society isn’t even pretending to be equal anymore. We’re finished.
I’m so fucking tired, and I feel like that was one of the main points of this. Dems are too exhausted and afraid of taking big actions to do anything about this, so like I said, we’re finished.
It’s no longer the case that everyone in America is equal under the law.
Is there a “never has been” version of the “always has been” meme?
Them taking the mask off and being open about it is serious and dangerous don’t get me wrong, but lets not pretend the law is, or ever was written nor administered equally - filthy rich and powerful white men in particular have always put themselves above it.
Nah unfortunately you’re 100% right, it has never actually been equal in practice. But at least we all could delude ourselves into thinking that we were striving towards that principle. It’s all laid bare now, and it’s fucking ugly. The fact that they’ve been actively working towards these very goals with laser focus, for decades, makes it all the worse.
Didn’t they just legalize “any” official action?
Exactly, and that’s how this court is so tricky. By not fully defining what an “official act” is, they’re claiming the power to decide later. Because that very issue will inevitably reach them after some batshit district court ruling. So they ultimately get to decide regardless, and this court regularly makes up ahistorical and completely absurd justifications that don’t pass the smell test, so we’re doomed.
Easy.
Republican: Legal. Democrat: Illegal.
Who says what is official?
They do, and it will only be “official” when a Republican does it. Once they control the courts, it’s game over. Nothing short of unstacking the court will avert a fascist dictatorship.
I do find it amusing that SCOTUS made a ruling that legalizes having them assassinated as an “official act” though. After all, being in contact with intelligence agencies is definitely an official act as is writing pardons, so he can always pardon the assassin(s) afterward.
They remanded to the lower courts to determine that. But like it does have some implication. They definitely did not say everything the president does is an official action.
And who gets to decide if a lower court decision stands? You guessed it, the Supreme Court. This was always going to be their ultimate decision.
So doesn’t that mean the US didn’t really ever have separation of powers? Sounds like the door to fascism wasn’t locked and we just used the honour system.
Congress. Since Congress isn’t functional, that means whatever the president does is now legal.
As far as I can tell, yup. And by official, it basically means anything done while in office, so he could theoretically walk out onto Pennsylvania Avenue, spray a group of protestors holding signs with an M16, and walk back inside with no legal repercussions.
Yes…any action the president takes and say it’s part of his official duties is legal.
Biden doesn’t have the balls to do what he needs to do right now.
The great experiment failed.
AOC will enter the chat
/s
AoC falls out a window in the next 4 years…I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a lot of high profile Democrats having accidents as soon as Trump gets back in the chair.
I see the /s but she says she will file articles of impeachment against one member of the Supreme Court once Congress is back. And it’s about time. They should all be bogging everything down with this until the election because it’s that important.
Articles that will be immediately shot down by the Republican house majority and probably a few spoilers as well because they need to make it more obvious they want a real dictatorship.
Guaranteed they do, but every member of the house that cares about democracy should bring their own. The Congress should be nothing but this until the election. Let the Republicans go on record everyday until the election denouncing democracy.
Idk where you’ve been, but they’ve been actively denouncing democracy since 2020 every chance they get. And continue to get elected by doing so.
There’s nothing Congress can do with Republican control of the House.
I’m fucken angry. We need to get together. We need to protest. We need to do it relentlessly on their doorsteps until the country is in distinction from us not showing up to work. Its either that or fascism wins.
What a can of worms. If Texas can ignore SCOTUS then with this ruling what’s to stop the president from ordering his staff to do the same?
You know in the game Secret Hitler when the board has sufficiently advanced into fascism that it becomes strategic for the liberals to vote fascism and unlock a bullet? Honestly makes me think of that.
Not saying this is what needs to happen. I honestly don’t know how americans can do to get out of their quagmire.
In my experience, the liberals lose games like that 9 times out of 10. Either they kill a liberal and doom themselves, or they kill a fascist and then lose the game anyways because the deck is stacked.
What this would actually look like in effect would be if Biden had Trump assassinated by their own rules, either Biden would get impeached by the republicans + a few breakoff dems, or it would start a precedent of political assassinations in the U.S., which would end with a lot of blood.
Either way, it will be a disaster. I don’t want to be a doomer, but I don’t see a way to salvage this shit show.
That’s not doomer, that’s being a realist. Either Biden becomes a dictator and risks MAGA civil war, or Trump becomes a dictator and risks a rebellion. Those are the 2 choices.
Have the opposing judges and Trump assasinated on the same day. Court is now in your favour so its an official act and no impeachment.
Assuming the ones who are left would decide based on what’s good for the country, or what’s good for their principles.
Presumably the ones left decide based on not getting assasinated.
It was already effectively legal, presidents have been ordering people killed for how long now? And often not even in wartime scenarios. Just cause they wanted them removed.
Barack must be relieved he’ll never be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder and first degree murder.
Oh look a crazy person
What? In theory he could have been prosecuted for having Gaddafi killed. Now he can’t.
Remember that this whole time biden could have packed the SCOTUS and turned the Republican majority into a Democrat majority. Nothing in our Constitution says only 9 supreme court appointees. He’s just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn’t want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
If it was trump he would have (and did) wielded the knife of political power with no hesitation but the moment Democrats have the knife they hold it with fear the Republicans would accuse them of being partisan.
He’s just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn’t want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
This is ABSOLUTELY wrong and /u/exanime pointed that out to you already. Manchin and Sinema said they would have blocked it. It would not have succeeded because they sold their souls NOT because biden is tOo LiBeRaL. Jesus christ.
The Biden admin has fought tooth and nail for things that are actually fucking possible and the average american has benefited. We all want to expand this illegitimate court but you simply CANNOT pin the blame on Biden’s chest.
What about Obama?? Where was the packing of the court then? You know, that time in which he could have forced RBG out and chosen a pick but instead mitch pushed for the AmErIcAn PeOpLe to get the choice (and then did the exact opposite when it was trumps turn). Too much of a lib as well?
So much lib apologism holy shit. First of all I responded to the users comment. They are correct about that but just because the two said they would oppose doesn’t mean biden did his best.
The biden admin fought tooth and nail? What did he fight for? You think I’m supposed to accept the one thing he fought for, student debt cancellation as some sort of pity policy? Trump came out all the time pushing the window to the right, fighting for his policy. You literally could not make him shut up about the border while Biden hardly ever used his platform meaningfully to bully others in the government into doing what needed to be done to build political power for the democrats. If you can’t see that then I think you might not understand the full extent of the power of the presidency. Where’s decriminalizing weed? When did he push for the minimum wage? Those were like his main campaign promises. The worst part is especially with weed he could have just descheduled it but instead he just lowered it by a single schedule to raise his approval rating.
I don’t get why you have such a hard-on for biden. He did some good things but that doesn’t excuse his negligent misuse of his political appointment at a time when our democracy depends on it.
With regards to Obama, do I have to complain about every politician I don’t like whenever I criticize any other politician? Obama sucked at this too and this is in many ways more his fault than Biden’s but do I really need to bring him up every time I go to criticize other democrats?!
And what would stop the next Republican president from packing the court further to have a conservative majority again?
And this goes back and forth until there are 100s on the Supreme Court
Biden not doing something out of principle is not a guarantee Trump won’t do it. The contrary is often true.
Packing the court solves nothing as it can be immediately reversed as soon as a Republican is in office.
The new surpreme court could chance the laws so that is no longer possible.
Undo the current surpreme court laws, and weaken the powers of the president before Trump gains power.
In the case they reverse it then we are back at square 1 except we had a more progressive supreme court for a bit. I don’t see how this makes our situation worse. I guess we should also give up and never bother with executive orders since they can just be undone when the Republicans get in
It’s moot, anyway, as the President doesn’t have the power to add Justice vacancies. That’s Congress’s job.
I hate this reasoning. They would do it anyway! They attempted a coup. You really think they would stop because there’s some gentleman’s agreement not to add more?
Trump and the GOP have always used these gentleman’s agreements against the Democrats when they are in power and ignored them when it was their time. Obama did the same shit when he was in office not forcing through the supreme court appointee.
One thing that people seem to be missing is that the President cannot add SCOTUS vacancies. Only Congress can.
And it is the President’s responsibility to nominate justices, so if the majority party just nullifies every single nominee until they can secure the presidency, we shouldn’t pretend that they aren’t obstructing the operation of government to try to seize power.
All of this “but the government actually works this one specific way” argument isn’t much of a real argument when the issue is that bad faith actors are exploiting and weaponizing the way our government works in order to destroy it and to turn it into a dictatorship.
Dems had majority in the house and senate. If they managed to get all dems to agree (which is not guaranteed) in the Senate on the appointee) then in all likelihood they would be able to increase the size with congress
They’d have to have a supermajority in both, which is an impossibility with current gerrymandering. Really, I think the Judicial branch needs a serious overhaul from the bottom up. 9 unelected lifetime appointees getting to decide what the law means for over 300 million people is ridiculously easy to exploit, which we’re seeing now.
They would have to do the nuclear option and crush the filibuster. I agree with you though on the lifetime appointees thing. They really should have terms and elections
Didn’t they and Manchin and Sinema promised to block it?
It’s possible but there was at least an opportunity to try putting forth some moderate judges which would have a chance to pull over center Republicans or Sinema/Manchin. Or at least force the issue. I believe they also had a chance after Roe V Wade before election time in November when the political will was more there to defend the abortion issue by getting a supreme court more favorable on the issue
Well now Biden can kill them, officially
He won’t though because he’s a spineless liberal.
Why couldn’t Biden have gotten the fun kind of dementia instead of the Everywhere at the End of Time kind of dementia
That would be great. Surely making people into martyrs will definitely go well for the entire left.
I’m glad we’re in agreement
He’s just not willing to do it because he is a liberal and doesn’t want to use his power to crush the Republicans like they need to be.
Liberals love to maintain the status quo with small, incremental changes.
Capitalism loves unfettered, infinite growth. This is such a small minded, short term mindset. I much prefer a “controlled and sustainable” growth approach. Liberals are trying to build an equitable country for all of us and our progeny, the other side is trying to cash out before it all comes crashing down. It’s disgusting. But history repeats itself, because humans are the common factor and humans, broadly, suck.
You can’t say Liberals are trying to build an equitable country when they clearly are not, while trying to pin the blame on “humans”.
Humans are not the problem, capitalism is the problem. The capitalist system is working exactly as intended - putting all the wealth in the hands of a few men while making slaves of the rest of us.
You cannot build an equitable or sustainable society in the capitalist system. It will always lead to fascism and ruin.
The capitalism that the Liberals love is the same capitalism that the Republicans love. It doesn’t make much difference if you stick a rainbow flag on it. There is no nice version of capitalism. There’s nothing “controlled or sustainable” about neoliberal capitalism.
Please stop trying to blame humans for being forced with violence, homelessness, and starvation to try to survive in a cannibalistic system that forces people to become greedy. I’m tired of hearing the Malthusian untrue “humans suck” meme. Humans learn from the conditions they are raised in. There is nothing inherently greedy in humans. That is purely conditioning. If we lived in a society that rewarded cooperation and didn’t threaten us with homelessness and death for not being obedient slaves we would be cooperative and have the possibility to work toward building a sustainable society.
Humans are not the problem, capitalism is the problem.
Oh yes, that magical system that was created by ghosts or ghouls or something other than a human.
Humans are the problem and have always been the problem. Hell, we even invented the word problem to describe all of the problems we have, and cause!
America has fallen.
*is continuing to fall. The next time any Republican becomes president, the end of the fall will be imminent.
the end of the fall will be imminent
We’ve got so much farther left to go. Go check out how Argentina is handling its Trump-style President, and even they’ve got a ways to go. Check out the Philippines under Duterte and Marcos. They’re getting closer, but still plunging.
Now Haiti? Libya? Ukraine? Sudan? That’s your rock bottom.
One of those last examples isn’t quite like the rest
Country devastated by natural disasters and civil wars.
Country devastated by civil war and foreign occupation.
Country devastated by civil war and foreign occupation.
Country devastated by civil war and natural disaster.
Just because the chicken runs around after its head is cut off, doesn’t mean it’s not dead.
It’s still possible to save it at this point, although the chances get worse and worse every year.
Unbiased tldr?
Read the article.
Whyeee?
It’s the only way to get an actually unbiased take of an article. It’s not that long.
Good luck
For how long this took — for the mere fact they took this case — and given their previous rulings, I’m more stunned the experts are stunned.
“I’m stunned!”
Reaches for Big Mac and Diet Coke.
“Did the Celtics win last night?”
I’m honestly not sure why he doesn’t just have all of SCOTUS murdered, and if anyone in Congress moves against him, have then eliminated as well. Do Trump in, whole he’s at it. Full on blood bath.
Tell me why not?
Couldn’t they just vote that it wasn’t an “official” presidential action and try him for murder? With this new ruling and the absurdly vague definitions of what is or isn’t official it seems like absolutely anything is legal but only if the SCOTUS say it is. So right now it certainly seems like if you wear red you could do anything you want and if you wear blue you are screwed six ways to Sunday. I may be misunderstanding this whole thing tho.
Who’s “they” and how do they feel about an air-mailed Slap Chop?
Cam I start calling the US authoritarian now?
You’re only just starting?
Bit past that now. From the outside, the US is looking a bit like a failed state now.
No, from Europe I tell you, we see you as less democratic than you used to and with many problems that can escalate and screw you up (we are not celebrating here either), but you are still far from being a failed state, there are still police more or less functional, you can still call the fire department if your house catches fire, there is still a clear institutional hierarchy, more authoritarian but clear.
Yes, the speed at which you are flushing democracy down the toilet, when, I don’t know maybe 20 years ago, you were the example to follow in many aspects, it is surprising for everyone.
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, but I’m also in Europe and stand by my original words, they were from my perspective
Oh, I thought you were an American worried about how you look outside and I was trying to calm you down. I respect your perspective of course, but it seems to me that a failed state is a bit exaggerated for this, Somalia or Yemen are still a little worse than the USA in the comparison. Authoritarian, close to breaking up as a nation, things like that I think are closer to reality, that is my vision also from the outside, I could be wrong and you may be closer to reality.
No that’s fair to say, there was a bit of nuance in me saying “looking a bit like a failed state” and not explicitly saying “is a failed state”—I’m more saying they’re long down the road, not necessarily there yet
The way I see it, it’s a failing state. Some institutions are still working “properly” so to speak. Some are going to shit, and some are already fucked.
Yes, I suppose you are right, the most basic thing has not failed but certain fundamental and important institutions seem to be in it, in any case one can have a horrible and dystopian but functional totalitarian state, without being failed, I don’t know if I explain my point correctly .
this is also for @9point6@lemmy.world, I don’t know how to answer both of you at the same time, but what I say is valid for both of us.
Maybe not quite yet, but if Trump does win then Project 2025 will certainly mean that they’ll be authoritarian before you can say “well fuck”
No. You can say oh fuck now.
Remember: Fuck Mitch McConnell
Don’t have sex with turtles, you’ll get salmonella.
I feel like you don’t really need the whole bit after the comma.
I once made up an idea for an action thriller, called “President Psycho”, where a serial killer gets elected as the president, and immediately legalizes murder involving brutal torture for himself and his friends, if committed to the “right target”. God my ideas are becoming reality before even realizing them, and the worst is that I had an idea for an edgy magical girl metroidvania that set in a dystopian world which has been completely overthrown by fascists, all while I just started to take more seriously a much more simpler and smaller game idea (Arkanoid clone that is basically a hacking minigame but bigger).
Maybe it was a premonition, the game sounds cool
I can’t believe people in here openly advocating to assassinate supreme court justices. You all need to step away for a bit, take a few breaths and go talk to some real people.
Well people were openly trying to hang mike pence
Yes, and that was insane and unacceptable.
