Americans may forget, but foreign policy and trade alliances have been irreparably damaged here. As long as there is no consequences for this administration's illegal and fascist activities after they are out of power, no one will be able to trust the USA for more than 4 years at a time, because if they could elect one Trump, they could elect another and that's simply the opposite of stability.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
Americans may forget, but foreign policy and trade alliances have been irreparably damaged here. As long as there is no consequences for this administration's illegal and fascist activities after they are out of power, no one will be able to trust the USA for more than 4 years at a time, because if they could elect one Trump, they could elect another and that's simply the opposite of stability.
We'd need to either end democracy (but with the actual "good guys" in lasting control---a daunting prospect for any merely human leaders, or meritocratic systems implemented heretofore---or any likely near-future alternatives (at least within the next two years or so)) or drastically revise our democratic system and make it rigorous in a way that no future Supreme Court or law-breaking president could wreck.
Maark Abbott, on 08 January 2026 - 05:19 AM, said:
I see that the Orange Gestapo are openly executing people in the street now.
Trump is falsely claiming that the victim "violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer, who seems to have shot her in self defense, [...] Based on the attached clip, it is hard to believe he is alive, but is now recovering in the hospital".
Even though the video shows that he wasn't "run over" by the car at all:
When reporters questioned him about it, he offered to "play the tape for you right now" and had an aide bring over a laptop for him to watch it on. Even with the evidence right in front of him, he just insisted it was "horrible to watch".
My guess is he's hoping that enough people who aren't hardcore MAGA will decide that it's too horrible to watch---perhaps they'll tell themselves that they don't want to watch a "snuff film".
And hardcore MAGA DGAF.
Then again, while he clearly wasn't run over, there is a moment where it looks like the car might have touched him . A video from another angle which I'm reluctant to link to because it looks like part of it may have been sped up to obscure what's happening, and it seems to be available only through Fox News (on Youtube), makes it look like the car was moving much faster than it was in the previous video and might have clipped him before he fired:
According to an eyewitness, "She was trying to turn around, and the ICE agent was in front of her car, and he pulled out a gun and put it right in – like his midriff was on her bumper – and he reached across the hood of the car and shot her in the face like three, four times." So he may have placed his gut against her car. And she was moving forward, but didn't accelerate to the point where it would have been dangerous for him until after he shot her.
Also, obviously, the Fox News video obscures when the shots were fired by not including audio. She accelerated more after being shot in the face, and her car might have glancingly struck the ICE agent after he opened fire.
Tiste Simeon, on 08 January 2026 - 11:45 AM, said:
Maark Abbott, on 08 January 2026 - 05:19 AM, said:
I see that the Orange Gestapo are openly executing people in the street now.
I've heard Tim Walz is bringing the National Guard in to stop ICE (or the US Gestapo if you like, and I do...)
I could be wrong, but this seems unprecedented....a US State Governor called in the National Guard to defend that States citizens from the Federal govt.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
I'd just like to make the point...they are killing you guys anyways...let that sink in.
This happened like 4 blocks from where George Floyd was murdered.
Is your constitution an actual legal document, or a historical piece of paper for the floor?
I don't understand. Your whole country operates like you are the most free on the planet, and how sacrosanct your laws and checks and balances and amendments are....but you're here now. Inside Authoritarianism. You're past the general strike shit or protests being able to do anything.
This administration shot an unarmed woman, in cold blood, in her car, who was trying to drive away...there are like 6 angles of it proving this is what happened, and they are all gaslighting you all to your faces that this isn't what occurred...they showed Trump the footage to his face on the news and he maintained she rammed him and it was self defence.
Where is the line? What's been done to rebuke this until now has done bupkis...
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
Just yesterday I was reading an article in the New Statesman about how Tim Walz "failed" (he's decided not to run for reelection) in part because he was too nice.
Now he might lead to the first or prelude shots of a civil war between armed government agents (constitutionally legitimate military vs MAGAmilitary (granted, ICE isn't technically military, but militarized pseudo-military)).
Reminds me of the profile of Stephen Miller in The Atlantic yesterday:
Quote
Stephen Miller runs his daily 10 a.m. conference calls—yes, even on Saturdays—less like a government adviser and more like a wartime general. His is the dominant voice, as he plays the role of browbeater, inquisitor, and bully. He accepts no excuses, entertains no dissent.
Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy ruthlessly pursues the president's vision [...]
During debate prep for the 2024 campaign, Miller found himself in a contentious back-and-forth over immigration with a more moderate Trump ally. Finally, a frustrated Trump interrupted the two men: Stephen, he said, if you had it your way, everyone would look exactly like you, someone familiar with the exchange told us.
If they kill US soldiers, I wonder how far that could escalate. Trump could even send in US troops to get shot, then claim it was Danish aggression against them, and use that as a pretext for seizing Greenland---and perhaps some Danish ships too, or tribute from Denmark (perhaps in the form of some of their remaining oil), or the Faroe Islands if he thinks they're nice. He could even threaten to retaliate by bombing Denmark.
This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Today, 01:51 PM
Yep. Same. There's only so much "But he'll declare martial law!" I can take...he's done that anyways when his officers are killing American citizens with impunity and lying about it in the face of evidence.
The frog is already boiling.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
Yep. Same. There's only so much "But he'll declare martial law!" I can take...he's done that anyways when his officers are killing American citizens with impunity and lying about it in the face of evidence.
The frog is already boiling.
What do you think Americans should do? A general strike?
Edit:
There are already mass protests being planned, but I don't think peaceful protests will do much to deter the Trump administration.
Mass protests certainly didn't stop Netanyahu.
And I don't think violent protests, despite all the guns in circulation, would be successful. People would just get slaughtered.
But a general strike could bring down the US economy---at least so long as workers are still necessary. It would have to have enough workers devoting themselves to it though, and being able to survive while forgoing or jeopardizing their paychecks.
This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Today, 02:13 PM
You're past the general strike shit or protests being able to do anything.
So I guess you mean civil war? For it to be effective, I think we'd need to enlist the military, or (less plausibly) forces that could actually be very effective against the US military during assaults on federal government property.
This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: Today, 02:52 PM
Azath Vitr (D, on 08 January 2026 - 02:52 PM, said:
Sorry QT, I hadn't seen your earlier post:
QuickTidal, on 08 January 2026 - 01:38 PM, said:
You're past the general strike shit or protests being able to do anything.
So I guess you mean civil war? For it to be effective, I think we'd need to enlist the military, or (less plausibly) forces that could actually be very effective against the US military during assaults on federal government property.
I'm not suggesting anything directly as far as what actions you should take. I'm not American. I am however suggesting that you all need to figure out what you should be doing to rebuke your fascist govt, and that the things you've all done thus far have not worked or changed anything.
It's up to you as a combined populace to decide what's the best way forward...a someone from the outside looking in, you're all not doing anything and all just seem to exist on hoping that at the midterms and in 3 years that you can change things with your votes...that's not going to fix anything. Voting in Joe Biden might have calmed things a slight bit for a little while on the surface, but nothing changed and no one was held accountable for anything, and those that were....were ultimately pardoned a few years later. Until you have an administration with the will to actually hold previous rule-breakers responsible to the full tilt of the law and stick to it, you have nothing and your hope of vote-change is worth nothing either.
You account for like 4% of the total world population, but you affect that world an entirely outsized amount for that amount of people....and we are all looking at you doing nothing.
EDIT: What you need is a state governor who stands up and tells his police, the state police, to start shadowing ICE. The moment that 1 breaks a law, you arrest 4 of them and detain them all for 24 hrs. And do that until they leave your state. Why no one is willing to stand up to the feds (who have no problem breaking laws) in this way baffles me.
This post has been edited by QuickTidal: Today, 03:47 PM
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
Interests:Sacrificing myself for everyone else's greater good!
Posted Today, 07:12 PM
There's are a few things that complicate your line of thought regarding the state police shadowing ICE, QT.
1 - There's just no guarantee at this point that police are going to stand up to what they see as another branch of law enforcement and the federal government. A Governor pushing that line will just continue pushing us closer to that breaking point.
2 - This administration has no issues launching legal investigations into political opponents for false pretenses (see numerous fraud investigations ongoing). I believe a lot of state and city leadership is afraid of giving them actual fuel for sedition charges. Which this administration absofuckinglutely wants.
3 - The leaders of the Democratic Institution are weak cowards who are invested in maintaining the status quo, plain and simple. Every time we start seeing someone make progress towards changing that leadership, they get quashed through technicalities by that establishment. See David Hogg getting booted from the DNC. We can't even get rid of fucking Schumer.
In all honesty at this point, as an American, I don't have faith in our ability to fix this either.
There's are a few things that complicate your line of thought regarding the state police shadowing ICE, QT.
1 - There's just no guarantee at this point that police are going to stand up to what they see as another branch of law enforcement and the federal government. A Governor pushing that line will just continue pushing us closer to that breaking point.
2 - This administration has no issues launching legal investigations into political opponents for false pretenses (see numerous fraud investigations ongoing). I believe a lot of state and city leadership is afraid of giving them actual fuel for sedition charges. Which this administration absofuckinglutely wants.
3 - The leaders of the Democratic Institution are weak cowards who are invested in maintaining the status quo, plain and simple. Every time we start seeing someone make progress towards changing that leadership, they get quashed through technicalities by that establishment. See David Hogg getting booted from the DNC. We can't even get rid of fucking Schumer.
In all honesty at this point, as an American, I don't have faith in our ability to fix this either.
I get you, but I feel like this is just further proof that you're all there. The frog is boiling. The breaking point happened already. Police states don't happen in one incident that flips a switch, it happens in many and inches over one line after another and before you realize you're there. You're a step away from Trump calling anyone who disagrees with him a domestic terrorist...Hell, Kristy Noem already called Rene Good that.
And yeah, I don't think you all have it in you to fix this. Too many small steps have occurred to prevent it, and the Democratic Party establishment is the other wing of the same "power corrupts" bird, but with a tad more empathy.
I repeat, they are killing you already and then gaslighting you about what you can see with your own eyes on video.
Things I've seen/heard today: The anguished cries of Renee's wife who was on scene....and I don't think I can unhear it. An ICE officer pepper spray bombing an unarmed protester to the face point blank. I've seen border patrol officers go to a high school and get into violent confrontations with fucking teenagers. The slow boil is a rapid boil.
Also, make no mistake, I feel for those of you who hate that this is happening to your country...but I have no idea how you get out of it.
"When the last tree has fallen, and the rivers are poisoned, you cannot eat money, oh no." ~Aurora
"Someone will always try to sell you despair, just so they don't feel alone." ~Ursula Vernon
Help
Macros, on 07 January 2026 - 05:48 PM, said:
