People are literally being disappeared. This is capital-H History happening right now, the bad kind, and if you're thinking to yourself that things will settle down after Democrats do well in the midterm, you need to wake up.
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They're absolutely going to fix how the elections are decided. They've already started.
If nothing else, Trump thinks you can't have elections during a war... and he's started shit with Mexico, Canada, Panama, Greenland, Gaza, China and Iran.
I assume the purported reason for this prediction is "Dems are so much worse than the GOP" (since this is what I see non-stop every day on Blue Sky from the kids LARPing as "leftists")
So many of them! And they're not all bots or trolls. At least two are people I already knew from Predictit before setting up an account here (where they had become raving anti-Dem posters)
Sadly, because the propagandists' bot and troll farms have been running rampant for years, they've had time to inflict a lot of damage by recruiting/brainwashing a percentage of regular people.
We do everyone a favor by denying them (and their victims) any more oxygen.
That's assuming the people running against them won't start being among the "disappeared". It hasn't been common for a few decades, but it used to be used to keep "undesirables" from effectively running for office in the past, sometimes even against white politicians like Eugene Debs.
The whole "maybe the fever will break" wishful thinking was done in 2018 and 2020. It didn't. It won't. I think the present day Republican party and right wing ecosystem is so grotesquely disfigured that it will go on once Trump kicks the bucket.
If 1/3+ of the country is by your definition, evil and never capable of changing, there is no logical solution except to split the country or have a long bloody civil war.
And I'm not talking about a civil war to resolve an issue. I'm talking about a civil war with the sole intent of killing people that vote differently than you do.
we are a half step away from 'the president declares anyone who criticizes him a domestic terrorist and ships them off to concentration camps where they will likely die' so i mean the conservatives are already on 'kill anyone who is not us' mode.
At a time when the Trump admin is snatching People from the streets, rounding them up & shipping them to gulags & refusing to give info to the courts about it.
We should all be more inclined to support a Democrat whom we know will NOT break the law & can be encouraged to enforce it more strictly.
Making better laws is utterly irrelevant if they can't prosecute even the most blatant lawbreaker.
If you still think they, in particular Merrick Garland (and by extension Biden) did the best they could, I recommend a weekend of reading
@sarahkendzior.bsky.social
Some valid points, but do you have a constitutional solution? Any solution? Look forward. We have to win elections soon, including in the states, & make better laws that strengthen separation of powers & allow prosecuting the executive, vs memos. Do you propose extra-legal remedies? Just bitching?
None of that shit matters when a raging fascist is threatening to send native born Americans to el Salvadorian prisons to become slaves and the firmest resistance they can muster is fucking ping pong paddles
He was only able to gain this power by lying to People & dividing Dems base.
Once the election is over, we can't change the results... & Idk if People keep attacking Democrats instead of Republicans who can impeach him rn if they wanted to, that this will help make any change in the next election.
I truly, genuinely fucking despise the notion that the house chamber is worthy of respect, never mind that respecting it is somehow more important than making it impossible for trump and his cadre of mutants to do anything
Respectability politics died a decade ago. It does not fucking matter if the people in charge of the Democrats are good lawmakers when there won't be a code of law outside of trump's whims by midterms.
Right? Maybe if we had a functioning and healthy democracy? Our democracy is engulfed in flames and democrats are worried about the negative messaging and polling around forming a water brigade to save it.
Because if we stooped to their level, we'd BE them. That being said, our leaders need to understand the sociopathic behaviors they're up against and come at it from that angle. GOP are rooted in sickness and depravity.
Agreed we shouldn’t stoop to their level, but we SHOULD fight to protect everyone from this fascism, no matter what that fight entails. While many of us are fighting mad, the passivity and hesitancy coming from many Dem politicians in this moment is beyond frustrating.
If we were dealing with people who are not Nazis i could understand. But there is no more left or right or center. This is Either With the Nazis or against them, no bipartisanship can take place under this circumstances
Because half the Dems agree with 80% of the GOP platform but know it doesn't fly in democratic politics. They want the GOP to do the nasty bits first so they don't get the blame.
NY state politics is a great example of how this works. See Cuomo and the IDC.
This is silly. Democrats don't agree that Medicaid should be significantly cut, that the Social Security Administration should be significantly cut, that medical research should be significantly cut, or that immigrants should be sent to prison in El Salvador without due process.
Oh my god Democrats absolutely do believe SS, Medicaid and Medicare should be cut. Biden gave a few famous speeches about cutting it while he was in congress. Obama bargained to cut it. They'd do it in a hot second if they could.
Cuomo was horrible for a lot of reasons, but in a state-by-state comparison, the difference between the Dems and the GOP is pretty obvious. Blue states are much more likely to have higher minimum wages, free school lunches, more health care subsidies, and etc.
They're useful idiots. Their careers only exist because they think wrongly that the only true right answer is to take the hand of the Right and make policy. If they had any fight in them they'd be replaced as soon as possible.
The task of actually fighting for our welfare was never part of the calculus for the majority of Dems. That has been revealed by their inability to meet this moment over and over again. When the equation flipped from how can I parlay my status to, how am I going to fight autocracy, they folded.
14th Amendment Section 3 applies to everyone involved in this shit. Make Colin Kaepernick the Senator for Mississippi. Reconstruction but this time it’s getting finished.
Can we just win the Wisconsin election on April 1st instead of flipping out on Blue Sky the next week? Tell your followers to sign up to phonebank or canvass and push @wisdems.bsky.social to get a texting operation going. We win this election, it does a lot more for morale than anything else
This is, by far, the most dreadful part. There’s no reason to believe we have an opposition party capable of stopping this from proceeding apace over the long term.
They need to be reformed or replaced from the top if we're to have any hope - a pressure campaign is our best shot right now.
We put together a list of demands and strategy for the DNC - it's pinned to our profile. If enough of us demand reform, maybe, just maybe we can wake them up.
Impeachment and removal would be the best solution to unnatural disasters Donald Trump and Elon Musk, but it would require some Republicans in Congress to find their spines. Pray that courts act quickly and that we still have elections in 2026 to vote out slavish Trump lackeys.
If Democrats get back in power I guarantee most will just want to move on. They'll excuse fascism and not punish those who are actively destroying America. The two party system is a joke in this country and holds real progress hostage.
When our streets look like Istanbul or Budapest, while the courts keep doing what they’re doing, and GOP Congress members determine it is safe to turn on Trump, we will see an immediate removal of Trump. We. Aren’t. Close. Yet. But it’s gonna be a hot fcuking summer!
I...think that things will settle down after Democrats do well in the midterm. The longer term issue is that we are careening into a dynamic where we are going to have wildly criminal and unchecked behavior every time Republicans win an election, which is unsustainable.
idk about settling down, but you are right about the longer term problem even if the Dems somehow do manage to regain power in the short term (and I do mean POTUS, the crazy train doesn't stop or even slow without it)
If it does, it will be a fake settling down, like the Biden admin was. But given how much power Trump will have amassed by that time if we let him and how much he's breaking, I don't think it will settle at all.
Yeah, a dollar. But you won’t bet your pension on it. The deed to your house?
Up until now, those were safe SUREFIRE bets. Now we have a President who must be President forever to avoid dying in prison. How do you think that’s going to play out over time?
You do know Russia also has elections and that fascism and fixed elections are a thing (and the US already has a very fucked up electoral system that's even more broken now). The lack of urgency some White men feel tells on them...
She's certainly going to try. I don't see how it can legally be done, but it's going to make life miserable for people who are working there. But long term, I don't see how they can completely get rid of some of the services DOE provides.
Yes, and people have largely forgotten about it. (I lost three family members and certainly haven't. But times move on.). No one is saying anything that's happening now is good. It's not!
Seriously, I am not trying to be especially confrontational about this, but l feel certain that what is happening now will take decades to repair. We are headed to a very bad place. At 53 years old I do not personally expect to outlive the time it takes to rebuild from Trump’s and Musk’s rage.
Oh, without question. Lots of damage is being done. Some things won't be repaired at all. But I don't think we are on track for imminent dictatorship, for instance.
There may not be specific flags flying and military parades but for millions of people, singular and arbitrary control over their well being (health/environment/legal rights/speech and travel rights) it's a distinction without a difference. Get put on a list and you can't fly/work/etc.
I agree we are going to turn back a Trump dictatorship. I also believe we will get into guillotine territory before we get to that, but further, Trump is also more likely to die from natural causes before that, anyway. But this damage, man, it’s deep and it’s gonna be a hard row to hoe.
You think Democrats will do well in the mid terms?
I'm not that sure.
He will cheat, and I believe the economy is being manipulated so it shows a Trump recovery by then. Watch this space.
Elections in the US are hard to game (ironically) because they are run through the states. There's only so much he can do, his popularity is already dropping, and low information voters don't come out for the midterms. I think they will be a bloodbath.
They are not hard to game at all, the amount of voter suppression in the US is mindboggling to those of us who live in nations that encourage us to vote.
Having relatively low turnout for a democracy is not quite the same thing as voter suppression. Most of the reasons for lower US voter turnout are systemic--partisan sorting and first past the post rules make it so that all votes are not equally important.
They’ve already shown, just a couple days ago, that DOGE will either be let in to any building they want, or if not, the cops will forcibly let them in and kick everyone else out. This, plus errant bomb threats called in from overseas and I’m not sure there is “only so much” he can do
Trump has already stated that there won't be a Presidential Election in 2028. 2026 would be a good opportunity for the GOP to begin trying out methods for shutting down democracy in the US. You're already erasing non-whites, you're deporting without due process. Anything is possible.
No one talks about it because it's a stupid, racist idea. millions will suffer. Here I was subtweeting someone who was laughing at red states suffering from hurricane damage, but the same concept applies. By encouraging partition you just condemn people to immense suffering
What disappoints (but does not surprise) is that Bernie and AOC can have a rally with 43,000 people and their only message is to vote. We need a Gandhi-level shut-it-all-down. The reason past civil disobedience has worked is that it literally shut the government down. It’s not symbolic arrests.
Yeah I mean Orwell made this point definitively as it was happening. Non-violence may well be a dead letter against a regime (and, crucially, a society) that is fascist. We know we have the former; do we have the latter?
Well that's nice to read. History has not often accused us of being too moral in our dealings with the rest of the planet. Good to know it at least happened once!
We’re building to that. AOC & Bernie are exposing the size and anger of the opposition. For months the MSM has been lamenting “the marches are gone.” People aren’t protesting. (i.e. where’s the dramatic footage we can put on air) A&B are proving we’re out here & the tipping point is coming.
Every single day, another piece of our democracy is being torn apart. We must begin to educate moderate Republicans in the house , how dangerous Musk/Doge are to the very existence, survival of our democracy.
They don’t care about democracy. They want (pseudo) libertarianism and social Darwinism. If you can’t cope or adapt, then tough luck. Repubs in Congress are more than happy to stand by while a dictator tears it all down and leaves the have-nots to rot.
The Rs are burning it down. The Ds are content to let them. We’ve been lulled to sleep and need to wake up and make something better than this fucked up structure that delivered us here. No one is going to save us but ourselves.
All of the things Republicans did to stop Ds when they were the minority. The narrative of helplessness is a fiction. At some point you have to ask yourself if Ds actually want the same things you want.
Well, the only Ds I see fighting have also been fighting party establishment for a long time. It’s not a troll, it’s an observation. Aspirations for a Dem party that doesn’t exist isn’t going to help us now.
And you think you have the best view? Also you are leaving out the angry republicans showing ip at town halls booing their reps. They are ripe for turning and Bernie is out there trying and many dems and finally the dnc getting dem leaders to town halls in republican areas where R reps are noshows
I hear this "don't be alarmist" a lot from white corporate professionals including some Europeans & Brits too.
Many of these folk believe either that it won't happen to them (or their kind) and or they are privately ok with who it's happening to now. And they prefer the economic status quo.
I live in Ireland. I have not spoken to a single person lately who is not deeply disturbed by what is going on in the US. All speak up in person - not sure about LinkedIn
People who speak against Trump or Elon on LinkedIn are getting largely lambasted; it's quite disturbing to see.
I can't tell if more people aren't supporting their messages out of fear (your name and place of work are right there, after all) of inviting retaliation. Lots of support for the Right.
In my LinkedIn network people mainly talk about professional bits directly related to their jobs and generally US politics wouldn't enter into that very much
Professionalism in a fascist or even "just" an authoritarian context doesn't make much sense, as is being increasingly recognised.
Also it's noteworthy that the folk who say this have often been happy to comment about genocidal war crimes against Ukrainians or human rights in the Third World.
I will say, in Ireland, which is one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in the world, there is no cost to speaking up against the genocide. But we can all do more for sure
I personally wouldn't risk travelling to the US for the foreseeable 😔
You know where white ppl are taking the threat seriously? Canada.
For all their faults, they can see clearly that Trump has the same designs on them that Putin does for Ukraine.
The United States will not survive until the midterms.
Something will happen to prevent elections. Whether the Orange Dotard will dismantle the country further, or he and Melon Muskrat sell control to their daddy Vladdy and numerous corporations, I doubt there is much left for the United States.
One thing I think is clear and that most people who have covered these sorts of attacks on Democratic norms is that the pushback is going to have to come from civil society, so all of this focus on the opposition party is probably a distraction, though they’re doing terribly
I'd say within another 3-6 months, most courts/lawyers and institutions will be sufficiently disabled to where Trump can do whatever he wants, it 'NEVER' makes the news through official platforms, and the systems we have right now just cease operating.
Like yeah they’re hedging on the SSA right now, but after a few weeks of rhetoric they’ll go the next step and declare it insolvent and start shuttering it and putting millions on the streets and it’s gonna drop wages like you’ve never seen as corporations take this as a goldmine of cheap labor.
Indeed. I guess some of us will end up replacing all the migrants in agricultural work and Americans in general will be used to being even lower rung than ever before, because you know damn well the next generation won't be able to afford college at all or even have the skills to attend.
Nobody will end up being able to fight it being shutdown, as the courts will be tied up in endless battles at best, and sure, violence will erupt, but it will be smashed as 'radical left lunatics' and they'll just send 'em all packing to El Salvador, the first people they catch.
There’s still a normalcy at present and despite agency shutdowns the Gen population hasn’t felt major effects yet. He’s still running with the expectation by corporations that could be affected to maintain that normalcy, but he IS crazy and he wants to do more as soon as he feels less restrained
Id say he’s gonna wait to go further until he can indeed normalize the arrest and detention of people he doesn’t like so he’s gonna keep pushing that angle until it takes
#NotNormal
Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.[1] Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias
Oh yeah, lots of stuff going on under the radar that the media just doesn't care about, won't report on for fear of Trump targeting them, and so on... but pretty soon we'll be in a near total blackout as the anti-press rhetoric, which kicked off in earnest will soon become pretty heavy.
Elections are held by the States. The feds have nothing to do with it. But that's fine, the Red States can sit this one out if they want. All we need is 8 more seats in the House and the Dems can expel all #MAGA for violating their Oath of OFfice, right @aoc.bsky.social
1.) We'll be lucky if there are ANY midterms.
2.) Even if there are, and Democrats do well, the "King" & his sycophants will insist the elections were rigged, fraudulent, etc., and therefore will be deemed null and void and nothing will change. This is how it works in Autocracies. Hellooooooo!!!
They don't have any kind of answers to "what if they refuse to acknowledge the results/arrest you?" They are already trying to overturn an election in North Carolina
The fatal error in times like these is mistaking extraordinary rupture for temporary deviation believing normal politics will resume after one more election cycle. History warns us: authoritarian consolidation rarely pauses for ballots.
This delineates the biggest reason for Democratic Party failure. The leadership of that party is so interwoven with the oligarchy that their neoliberal policies created they cannot see how different it has now become.
Also, assuming Democrats do well in the midterms, do people think that a political movement as fervent as the MAGA movement would just give up two years into their once-in-a-century opportunity to remake the country in their image?
I am no Pollyanna, however with the general population showing up at their republican townhalls angry, it isnt just the Dems, and so MAYBE if Bernie can, as he is, help to unite people around a common set of values to say YES to a change for The People, maybe maybe the the tide can turn.
*gestures vaguely at this whole website* fuckin everywhere. liberals who shouted at you for daring to suggest that maybe it was bad biden was aiding and abetting genocide *now* care about the genocide because the guy they dont like is doing it.
I agree! Trump is now trying to, (of course!) distance himself from this by stating that he didn't sign this Executive Order, even though his signature is on the executive order! He is trying to throw Little Marco under the bus by blaming him. Trump knows that this is wrong. It's a test to see if-
he can get away with it with zero backlash. When he gets backlash, he plays the "It wasn't me, it was little Marco!" Routine. This is an Impeachable offense, and one that needs to be investigated! Impeach Trump now!
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If nothing else, Trump thinks you can't have elections during a war... and he's started shit with Mexico, Canada, Panama, Greenland, Gaza, China and Iran.
We do everyone a favor by denying them (and their victims) any more oxygen.
He’s gonna a take it as far as this country lets him.
13 years ago!
@schumer.senate.gov
@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social
@kenmartin.bsky.social
@klobuchar.senate.gov
@kirstengillibrand.bsky.social
@wyden.senate.gov
@judiciarydems.senate.gov
@smith.senate.gov
Dems might not be the most passionate politicians, but they are the better lawmakers.
Rs disparage them by calling them "technocrats."
Every meaningful improvement in average Americans' lives in the last 80 years was a law by Democrats.
https://bsky.app/profile/msderohanes.bsky.social/post/3lir4ldy4o22e
As much as I love wonky technocrats that sort of leadership is completely useless for meeting the current moment on its own.
Exhibit A of not knowing what to do with power: Merrick Garland
We should all be more inclined to support a Democrat whom we know will NOT break the law & can be encouraged to enforce it more strictly.
If you still think they, in particular Merrick Garland (and by extension Biden) did the best they could, I recommend a weekend of reading
@sarahkendzior.bsky.social
Take Schumer along, same shit.
Clearly, right now, we need People who can meet the moment.
Once the election is over, we can't change the results... & Idk if People keep attacking Democrats instead of Republicans who can impeach him rn if they wanted to, that this will help make any change in the next election.
On the flip side, Republicans have made the political scandals of “House of Cards” seem quaint in retrospect.
NY state politics is a great example of how this works. See Cuomo and the IDC.
Moderate Dems don't get credit for progressive policies when they block or fail to fight for them.
What's the point of getting the GOP out of power if their replacements still want to harm us? There isn't one.
Incorrect.
Talk about not paying attention
We put together a list of demands and strategy for the DNC - it's pinned to our profile. If enough of us demand reform, maybe, just maybe we can wake them up.
Up until now, those were safe SUREFIRE bets. Now we have a President who must be President forever to avoid dying in prison. How do you think that’s going to play out over time?
I'm not that sure.
He will cheat, and I believe the economy is being manipulated so it shows a Trump recovery by then. Watch this space.
Why is no one talking about this? It’s the only way we’ll be OK. Literally the one and only way.
But, specifically, the oligarchs want to reinstate the country of the 19th century.
Many of these folk believe either that it won't happen to them (or their kind) and or they are privately ok with who it's happening to now. And they prefer the economic status quo.
My corporate/financial sector contacts aren't good on political risk. Probably some agree with MAGA anti DEI/anti immigrant policies.
Others care but self censor cause they are service providers to this sector.
I can't tell if more people aren't supporting their messages out of fear (your name and place of work are right there, after all) of inviting retaliation. Lots of support for the Right.
Also it's noteworthy that the folk who say this have often been happy to comment about genocidal war crimes against Ukrainians or human rights in the Third World.
Yes some folk need to take extra care (eg given the politics of their employer, if they need to travel to the USA for work)
But there's a LOT that EVERYONE can do to show more support. This can be discreet too.
I will say, in Ireland, which is one of the most pro-Palestinian countries in the world, there is no cost to speaking up against the genocide. But we can all do more for sure
I personally wouldn't risk travelling to the US for the foreseeable 😔
For all their faults, they can see clearly that Trump has the same designs on them that Putin does for Ukraine.
#GordieNotGretzky
🙌🏾
Something will happen to prevent elections. Whether the Orange Dotard will dismantle the country further, or he and Melon Muskrat sell control to their daddy Vladdy and numerous corporations, I doubt there is much left for the United States.
Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings.[1] Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias
✌🏼🍀💚💪🏼🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸💪🏼💚🍀✌🏼
2.) Even if there are, and Democrats do well, the "King" & his sycophants will insist the elections were rigged, fraudulent, etc., and therefore will be deemed null and void and nothing will change. This is how it works in Autocracies. Hellooooooo!!!
Keep saying they’re gonna be wrong.
2 months ago they proudly countered that they had confidence they were right.
Today they wistfully look off in the distance.
So I tell them it’s ok. We can fight if we fight together.
The stakes are just as high for them right now.
The issues with MAGA will come when the roadblocks hit. The democrats and their leadership aren't a roadblock.
@governorwalz.mn.gov
Any swing district will be blasted with dis- and mis-information, and every other tactic MAGA can concoct.