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Yup. Trump has demonstrated that there's no consequences for doing this shit, so it must be okay for future politicians to pull the same shit and get away with it.

Trump has not been as badly damaged as people think, his approval rating has already recovered quite a bit. People have the memory of fruit flies.

Also looking in from the outside, it seems obvious to me that the 'plan' is to manufacture sufficient crises and push people just enough that Trump can invoke the Insurrection Act and "indefinitely delay" the midterms and future elections.

What I really don't get is, this one man seems to have total unchecked power? Americans go on and on about being 'free', not having a king, but their president has more power than any UK prime minister or modern king has ever had, and it goes completely unchecked. Recently in the UK, both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss (our UK-equivalent populist grifters) were ousted from the government for overreaching and lying, but there's nothing to deal with Trump? How the heck has the US gotten in this situation? You would've expected the democrats to put checks in place to stop this, given Trump's insurrection.

I just. don't. get it.

I'm getting the feeling that what the US is thiiiiis close to is civil conflict.

Trump literally said “you’ll never have to vote again.” The only way there will be another election is if he’s forcibly removed from power

the US 100% does seem like it’s thiiiiiis close to being a far right dictatorship.

Driving out to the Indian Reservation to tell all the First Nations people that we're extremely worried about the direction our government has taken. Heading back through the black ghettos with a big mega-phone strapped to my car, warning people about over-policing and the gestapo-like tactics of county-wide sheriffs' gangs. Rounding out my Paul Revere-esque ride at the US/Mexico border to inform all the migrant laborers who make their living doing piecework and odd-jobs and letting them know that they should not, in fact, trust the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. Turns out they're implementing a lawless pogrom across the southern border and are not, in fact, just protecting neighborhoods from people who are doing evil crimes.

there’s no way Republicans will win the next election after this clusterfuck

I mean, historically, the President's party eats shit in the midterms. Very possible we'll get a 2006 or 2018 blue wave of legislators as public opinion of the Trump administration sours again.

But what does Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies do with an incoming Dem majority? Do they rewrite budgets to curtail the resources afforded to Trump-loyal rogue agencies? Do they claw back executive authority in the next NDAA and budget bills? Do they reject Trump cabinet appointees and judges who continue to defend unconstitutional governance? Do they advance new legislation to reform the immigration process, expand the authority of state governments to protect women's health and voting rights, and prohibit executive appointees from hijacking the digital tools of the bureaucracy in order to override legislative intent?

Or do they whine about not having veto-proof majorities and sit on their hands until 2028?

I am far less worried by the prospect of "rigged elections", because the US election system has always been janky and corrupt but so heavily decentralized that it's a rats' warren of different reporting systems you'd need to hijack.

I am far more worried by the prospect of a Controlled Opposition of Democrats, who show up to lend legitimacy to Trump policy through their own tenure of ratification, while making a stink about Trump's sex habits and online persona that lead to another series of nothingburger investigations and indictments that produce no penalty even when convictions are achieved.

What happens if Dems win for the next four years and then repeat 2020?

Trump verifiably tried to steal the 2020 election on live television. Even though he failed, his attempt came close enough to succeeding to give pause for thought. There are fewer guardrails now than there were before to prevent something like that from happening again.

So, to that point, I say why wouldn't trump cheat again? He was never punished for his last attempt. In fact, he was rewarded for it!

We're never having another election that won't have doubt cast on it from either side. We burned that bridge on January 6th.

"What do you mean the guy who said he would be a dictator on day 1 became a dictator on day 1?!"

Love your username.

I'm travelling to Florida right now and I can't view pornhub or any if it's owned brands, which is a lot of adult content right now. It's apparently like this in 17 states. That's a self-imposed block, but it's because those states have ID check laws that are so invasive that they're rather not serve to those states.

TACO

From what I've seen as well most fires aside from the Waymos were started by the flashbangs and smoke grenades the police were using.