Holy shit if those are true he’s planning to completely destroy the Army’s ability to project force and stop the procurement of modern combat vehicles. Then he wants to tie up money in long lead stuff with Naval ship procurement. So we couldn’t effectively reverse that decision after he’s dead or out of power.

This could not be more calculated to fuck up our position as the pre-eminent world power. It’s exactly what China and Russia would request.

Eh, it’s at least hybrid. Classic hard power is the use of the military. That can include garrisoning but usually by force, not by permission.

They’re right too. The US has the luxury of turning a blind eye. The UK and Europe does not.

Basically the license plate and sticker readers are attached to highways. Highways are regulated at the federal level. But approvals were already given and the infrastructure is already in place. So right now the federal government would have to get a favorable court order and then show up themselves to take the infrastructure down. Because the state is just going to ignore him. Which because of the way federal/state powers work is something they can do to an extent.

I’m pretty sure the American people would shut down D.C. To be honest any military adventurism is going to be hard for them to pull off after 20 years of fighting. But especially against our oldest allies.

Kick us out, Trump is not in the G7 to do anything but fuck it up. Being a self interested stakeholder is normal but he’s not self interested. He is clearly under Putin’s influence.

Yup this is the problem with digital news. It isn’t naturally archivable. You can’t go to a library and check old issues of stuff that was removed from digital storage.

Oh there’s no danger of the US trying to fight Europe militarily. Just the US going isolationist again.

I don’t think Europe cares.

Yeah he went to Munich and gave a speech where he scolded our European allies for criminalizing or de-legitimizing Nazi political parties. Europe immediately started leaning into the EU Army concept.

Great job JD.

That’s because it’s also the silver spoon brigade who’ve never faced a consequence a day in their life.

Optimism makes the world go round. Nobody goes to the illegal declaration of Independence convention without optimism. Nobody marches in the street without optimism.

Having that possibility, that hope, is the core of making shit happen. Pessimism shuts shit down before it even begins. Realism can at least lead to doing a duty you’re pretty sure will kill you.

Maybe where you are? I’ve seen several since the beginning of the month. And nobody should be doing violence right now. We do not have the organization, moral high ground, or legitimacy for that.

They’re claiming a bunch of things but all they’ve actually managed is data access, a money stop, and firings. The big claims are being tested in court right now.

I agree the biggest constitutional crisis of our life is already underway. I do not agree that we’ve reached the panic stage. Protest, organize, and be ready to vote in 2026. That’s what we do right now.

A new constitution is a really bad idea until we can do a lot more organizing. Conservatives have been practicing for a convention for at least 20 years. If we called one right now they’d steamroll the liberals and we’d have an actual king again.

Yeah I never claimed this would be easy. It’s all predicated on people showing up. Because of course if we just sit there and go, “oh dear, someone should do something.” Nobody is going to do anything.

There’s more guns than people in this country. Picking up a gun to disregard paper is a very dangerous game.

There’s a giant difference between hiring and firing in the civil service and declaring a new Constitutional Amendment without Congress or the States approving it.

No, in the USA States have a limited form of sovereignty. They elect their own officials and hold all powers not expressly given to the Federal Government. So while the President has some law enforcement agents, most of them are actually employed by the State Governors and Counties/Cities. The Governors have a Secretary of State that is also elected who are responsible for running all elections in the state.

So if Trump tried to make an Executive Order that only Republicans could vote, (this is meant to be an extreme example, it would backfire hilariously in real life), the states could legally ignore it. However if Congress passed that as a law and the Supreme Court upheld it then the states would be legally bound to prevent anyone not registered as a Republican from voting for federal offices.

The thing is the Republicans don’t have enough of a majority to just pass any law they want. So it’s very unlikely there will be an extreme voting law in the next 2 years. So if federal agents showed up trying to enforce an Executive Order from Trump it is highly likely they would be arrested by the state or city police for interfering in voting.