The FBI is not your friend, don't worry about them.
The FBI is not my friend, therefore I worry about them.
What's Going on at the FBI?
141–150 of 189 posts
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many dictators, including the famous great, started out by being elected into government.
In my mind democratically elected and coup are antonyms. If you are against trumps style of cleanup then I would probably stick to illegal, although that is TBD, radical or destructive.
I would encourage you to check your priors wrt definitions. Ergodan was democratically elected, then staged an auto-coup and now Turkiye is a weakened democracy. Who knows if Erdogan will stand down if he loses election. Many dictators start with elections then seize powers they are not granted through election.
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many dictators, including the famous great, started out by being elected into government.
In my mind democratically elected and coup are antonyms. If you are against trumps style of cleanup then I would probably stick to illegal, although that is TBD, radical or destructive.
Self-coups are common and widespread in the last hundred years. If you cannot list at least a few, your history lessons have failed you.
And no, being elected to a public office is no blank cheque to dismantle checks on that office by other branches of government.
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not necessary, just out of fear. They capitulated to Trump's threats instead of standing up and fighting hard for principles.
Sure, but Fauci should also not have to spend the twilight years of his very accomplished life defending himself from petulant fascists' revenge prosecutions.
Yes, emotionally I'd agree. However, legally, I think it's a very slippery slope. What if Don Jr shoots someone dead and then Trunp premptively pardons him so no one can investigate the shooting?
I think the hard part of enforcing the law is enforcing it equally, even towards those we love the most.
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#145Hypothetically, had FBI agents complied with completing the questionnaire and they had worked on the Jan 6th investigations, would it be legal for the administration to fire them based on that alone? Or would the agents be able to sue? My understanding is that they have limited collective bargaining rights compared to other federal employees, so presumably they'd only have whatever protections Congress provides all f…
I think the question "is it legal" is only relevant in a state which respects laws. Which is, increasingly, not the United States.
We have a court system, it's just slower and draws far fewer headlines than the executive branch. The Trump administration EO banning birthright citizenship was put on hold. A U.S. District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the OMB payments freeze for grants and other programs, which actually forced the administration to rescind the order. Don't believe the Trump admin when they claim they have the power to do something, they quite often simply don't.
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the problem is that most people think nothing ever happens, or to put it bluntly "It couldn't happen here". Harris literally offered nothing - when pressed she even said that she wouldn't have done anything different from Biden, which is the last thing you want to hear about a president whose only selling point was not being Trump and giving the country breathing room to come up with something better. Yes, th…
> the Democrats have nothing to offer in response to the people's suffering. WTF? The Democrats are the ones with concrete offers to ease people's suffering. Literally. Stuff like Medicare for all. For example, Clinton offered coal miners retraining and income support in order to ameliorate the inevitable. Trump offered empty impossible promises. People voted for the empty promises rather than the concrete reality. C…
> WTF? The Democrats are the ones with concrete offers to ease people's suffering. Literally. Stuff like Medicare for all.
No. Democrats have concrete offers. The Democrats don't. The Democrats had several opportunities to pass far-reaching reforms like Medicare For All but didn't.
There's a massive difference between the ideals of a few activist politicians running for office and the actual policy decisions of a government led by that party.
Also, I already acknowledged that the US handled the recession remarkably well. But that still doesn't change that generally things are pretty rough and "doing largely the same for 4 more years" isn't a very attractive position to the masses when the other guy is appealing to the base instincts of "strong man will fix problem" - especially in a cultural environment where "hard problems require hard solutions" (i.e. that morally repugnant actions are often necessary to help people in the long run) is often accepted without questions.
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're underestimating the damage he's done and will do. semi-permanent changes: - complete radicalisation of an entire congressional party against functional democracy - complete politicisation of the entire federal government - normalisation of just straight up lying to the Senate in confirmation hearings (RFK on everything, Patel on q anon) - normalisation of just straight up lying during campaigns (no ide…
The lying is the most incomprehensible to me. I actually had a conversation with a family member about RFK's lies (including lies about Bernie Sanders! Which everyone around seemingly tried to suppress him from defending himself on!). To give an example of what the process felt like with another case I made the mistake of talking about (makes a better story than just the pure lies of the rfk conversation, where said…
The real mind-virus.
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#148J. Edgar Hoover ran the US for decades and was more powerful than any president. His successor, far less powerful, is in a power struggle with the richest man in the world and a political party that controls all three official branches of government. The situation looks unpredictable. It may be worth rereading Mike Lofgren's essay from 11 years ago, before Trump's first campaign, in which he tries to apply the Turkis…
the guy predicted today's coup by the broligarchy against the Deep State (more precisely what happens isn't coup even though it looks like it, in the short time i think we'll see that it is really a takeover of the Deep State by the broligarchy): >That said, evidence is accumulating that Silicon Valley is losing billions in overseas business from companies, individuals and governments that want to maintain privacy. F…
Wasn't Marc A saying the last admin was basically preventing the ability of crypto and AI startups from thriving?
Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think when you look holistically at the promises that China has made, and broken, it still doesn’t make sense to align with China. That could change in the future but the time isn’t now. An example; look at what they’ve been doing in the South China Sea, Hong Kong or Xinjiang. Some instability in the U.S. is definitely uncomfortable but the alternative is not better.
What are some of the broken promises? I'm not well informed on the subject and now you've got me really curious.
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Re: What's Going on at the FBI?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes it a coup is that Trump is acting completely illegally. He was elected president, not dictator. He does not have the legal authority to create a new government department, DOGE, to appoint Musk as its head without Senate advice and consent, and to give it full power over all other agencies.
That doesn't make it a coup. "Coup" has a definition, which is to unseat a government through illegal means, or to stay in power through illegal means. For example, January 6th could be considered an attempted coup. But just acting illegally a coup does not make.
One or two illegal measures would not be a coup, but if the president arrogates himself dictatorial powers, that is a coup. Trump is taking wide-ranging, illegal measures to fundamentally alter the nature of the American government. Constitutional rule very well could be coming to an end in the US.