Summary
Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding presidential control over independent agencies, including the FTC, FCC, and SEC.
The order enforces the “unitary executive theory,” which argues the president has sole authority over the executive branch. It grants Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, oversight of these agencies’ performance and budgets.
The move is expected to face legal challenges, as past presidents have largely respected agency independence.
Trump defended the order, stating, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
America, when are you going to stop this? You finally have a chance to exercise the second amendment, to defend your freedom and to show the world you aren’t the bad guys; And you do nothing…
Trump/Musk are literally following the steps laid out by Hitler and they aren’t even hiding it.
I see this sentiment a lot. “Why aren’t Americans doing anything? Why aren’t leftist militias rising up to take back the capital? Etc. Etc. Etc.”
First of all, asking “why aren’t Americans doing anything” is a highly unaware question. We are doing things, but they aren’t going to give any airtime to the protests, marches, boycotts, and legal efforts taking place, because the media is now firmly on the side of those with power, not the common people.
Second of all, it’s pretty heartless of you to just casually ask us to “exercise the second amendment”, because when you ask that, you’re asking for at least some of us to die. Put yourselves in our shoes, and be honest - if you were in our position, would it be so easy and casual to just pick up a gun and join a violent revolution? Would you be willing to risk death in that situation? Personally, I’m not a soldier, I’ve never had an interest in guns, I’d be less than useless in that capacity. So I’m looking at other things we can do before escalating to that.
I get that everyone’s scared because the nation with the most powerful military on earth is falling into fascism. That’s terrifying to most Americans as well, and I think a lot of us are still frozen with that fear. I understand and agree that this problem is on Americans to fix. But I hope the rest of the world will be willing to help when we call on them, instead of just sitting idly by wondering when that magical second amendment is gonna kick in.
Yeah the people making 2A arguments are seemingly asking people to murder people on their behalf with zero regards to how that plays out. Not surprisingly most gun owners are in fact not looking to murder people.
Also, even if they were, who do they have access to murder? It’s almost begging people to take their frustrations out on their neighbors, which will only make things so much worse.
Exactly, the people in the Trump sphere Im closest to is I knew some people whose fathers knew Trump. They are/were nice and decent people. I would he really sad if anyone hurt them and would have a hard time seeing how it would improve anything.
We should be amassed outside the homes of our legislators and judges demanding they stop this.
I have plenty of guns and ammo to use for the defense of myself and family. As a disabled vet I can barely feed my family, let alone March alone from Colorado to overthrow the President.
When they come to me, then I can fight. I can’t afford to join a secessionist movement because we still have a group of people that still are supposed to fight using the law and wors before the guns come out. The 1st Ammendment is 1st for a reason. The 2nd is the last resort which most sane gun owners don’t want to have to use.
There’s supposed to be an opposition party to fight the executive encroachment.
I think the second amendment is pointed out so readily, because most of the world has watched America and their guns and ridiculous gun problems, and that is usually what is pointed at in some kind of gotcha defence. Second, we do see the protests and legal efforts, and honestly looking in, seems like that’s pissing into the wind.
As for myself committing violence in an situation similar to America’s? Can’t honestly answer one way or the other until I am in the situation myself, but don’t think it would be a hard no, I’m not opposed to violence in the correct situation, and boy you guys are, if not there already, very very close to that correct situation.
The answer is no, most of these people calling for violence are cowards themselves.
Not cowards just have sense, better someone else dows the violence rather than your own life get ruined the end goal is you having a better life if you do the violence your own life gets worse objectively.
We all want luigis, but none of us are desperate enough to be luigis, because we obviously dont want our own lives to goto shit? There is no happy ending for them
You can try to justify it any way you want. If you call for someone else to commit violence in your stead, you are a coward.
Or not an idiot with a sense of self preservation, you call it coward, I call it not a dumbass who was born to die
You can be that, without calling for violence. The moment you do otherwise, you are a coward unless you’re fighting yourself.
There’s also the fact that people with consumer grade weapons aren’t going to be doing shit against the military, which is what would be brought out against them. If I knew there was even a good chance that I could do something leading to my death that would do a damn bit of good, I’d do it. But there isn’t.
America, when are you going to stop this? You finally have a chance to exercise the second amendment, to defend your freedom and to show the world you aren’t the bad guys; And you do nothing…
Most of the people who are so in favor of the 2nd amendment are actively supporting this.
And people ask why we aren’t doing anything about it as if people can just pick up a gun willy nilly and go join a violent revolution as easily as joining your local church group. What are people supposed to do? Walk up to the Capitol with an AK-47 and start firing while shouting “DOWN WITH TRUMP?”. That’s a great way to end up dead, in a psych ward, or in ADX-Florence. Trying to organize armed resistance of any size that matters in an era where everybody is carrying around a tracking device in their pockets is a great way to have the whole group rounded up and sent to Gitmo on treason charges.
This isn’t the movies.
On top of this. It isn’t just Dump. It’s the entire GOP. Plus the douche crew and his nazi youth that have been ransacking shit that they don’t understand. Yeah, going in armedmay get you 1 person. It won’t do any good. You’re cutting a small scale off of a large shit snake.
The best we can do is arm ourselves (and I fucking hate that I have to resort to this option) and prep for when shit goes south. I suspect that will be mid terms. We’ll see armed yokels “guarding” vote drop off locations and polling locations. If there is any sign of a dem win anywhere, all hell will break loose with diaperdon claiming fraud. He’ll probably pull some shit like his attempted coup and we’ll see the polling station yokels going nuts.
I think you’re right, but the chance is very high they will cancel midterms shortly before the date.
Probably spouting some excuse. Either in the line of it undermining “democracy” because Trump was already chosen, or they’ll go the way of it being a plan to block the current path for the USA so it will be postponed until the plan is on more solid grounds, “for the good of the country”.
If they do let the midterms proceed, Trump will dismiss the results whatever they are, citing that by then he only has governing power.
He already has made an executive order that only he and a sole AG decide what the law is…
A promise was made that when he was chosen he’d make it so that there would be no need to vote again…
Everybody seems to hold on to the midterms as the slot where things will turn around again, but the project 2025 camp has plans to close this window for sure. And frankly, it feels by then fear will rule all and the slippery slope has shifted to a freefall.
They don’t need to cancel the mid-terms, they already fired everyone at CISA who is responsible for securing state elections. The elections will absolutely happen and miraculously the republicans will win across the board with a higher vote percentage than they’ve ever won by before, and they’ll claim that this means the US population is 100% in support of the fascist policies of the GOP and accelerate the descent.
The elections will absolutely happen and miraculously the republicans will win across the board with a higher vote percentage than they’ve ever won by before
Elections just for show. To keep the masses thinking they live in a democracy.
We’ll be no better than Russia or any other shithole nation that runs elections just for show. This country is cooked. And it wasn’t taken from us. We gave it all away. Utterly shameful. Our entire generation will be viewed as pathetic in the context of world history.
To be honest, this fascist autocracy was inevitable once the loathsome Newt Gingrich got the GOP to sign on to the idea that anyone who opposed the GOP’s plans was an enemy to be destroyed, not a loyal opposition to persuade or with whom to compromise.
You’re right in that, I just did not want to put that in words yet :-]
I wonder how much another overwhelming fraudulous win for MAGA would be ignored, because it definitely is a clear sign bridges were burned.
American Democracy is dead. Thanks to a corrupt GOP and their lackeys in the SCOTUS
Everyone’s quality of life would have to drastically decline and a significant number of citizens would have to start openly expressing the desire for rebellion, then leaders would materialize, and it would go from there.
But we aren’t even close to having enough people’s quality of life declining enough for that to happen. If our oligarchs are smart, they’ll keep us near that red line, without allowing us to go over it. But I’m starting to think their greed outweighs their intelligence.
We’re too complacent with our TV and Doritos. We need to start losing some material things before we wake up. Here’s hoping it happens.
That didn’t wasn’t effective in Hitler’s Germany, and it won’t be in Trump’s US. Not with Putin, the GOP, and Xi helping Trump keep power.
There were multiple assassination attempts.
The time to have stopped him was long ago. But our law enforcement entities lacked the courage to do their jobs. Especially Meritless Garland.
*Hey look, this guy brought a rifle to a drone fight. *
If Congress wasn’t filled with feckless lickspittles, they could just not fund the executive branch. But they are, so they will
How does that actually work with Musk and his merry band of douchebags in direct control of the mechanism by which the US government pays out money?
The US Constitution gives Congress sole control of “the purse” meaning all funding of the federal government. They allocate it and the executive branch spends it. If they weren’t trump’s puppets, they could stop allocating funds for him to misuse.
Legal challenges? They are ignoring the courts. How will that change anything?
When do we start exercising our second amendment on this tyrannical dictator?
This has been the first time in my life I’ve actually considered buying a gun.
Do it! Exercise that right before they try and take that away too. Go to a gun show, super cheap! Talk to the guys there about personal defense, they will give you such good advice. Head to a shooting range and fire off a few to get a good idea on how they handle. What’s the worst that can happen? They sit around and collect dust because you don’t need to overthrow a tyrannical dictator?
Absolutely literally -
that would mitch mcconnel.
I don’t even have the words to express my feelings properly to this bullshit.
I do but saying them gets you put on a list.
Probably already are, or will be soon.
I’m rewatching handmaid’s tale in absolute despair and I’m not even american. You people need to fight, not only for yourselves and your country but for the rest of us who are living in America’s shadow. You set yourself up as the land of the free - you can’t fall. There’s too much riding on you. We’ll all follow, if America goes. If Hitler was American…
And when you get rid of these assholes, don’t allow the same shitty systemic injustices. You need to institute a libertarian socialist society and start being a true leader for the rest of the world, no more robbing poor countries.
See, the thing is, America’s been propped up by toothpicks and Santa Claus-esque belief for most of our lifetimes. There were clearly no guardrails, no real systems in place, and no people with the willpower or actual dedication to the country to hold it against any level of dedicated attack. Hell, many of its people are so broken and systematically idiotic that they welcomed the attack as long as the got to guffaw and clap like seals at the people brought down to their god awful level.
It had to fall. It likely won’t rise again in any healthy, phoenix sort of way, but if it manages to do so, maybe it won’t only have the untested veneer of strength. But for now, it’s a corpse. Europe needs to save itself and not add their bodies to the cemetery, because what took down America is actively coming for the world.
Do you think the realities of global heating have caused a kind of mass delusion?
What is the legal argument against this? The article was paywalled, but the summay only says that past presidents have respected agency independence. That sounds like just a gentlemans agreement. Nothing legally binding. So do the challenges have a leg to stand on?
Musk’s and his actions are illegal, or were illegal mostly before the Supreme Court decided there’s some sleezy presidential immunity. The problem is they are so firm and quick at changing the rules of the game that no institution can catch up and, most importantly, generally afraid they would be directly attacked by these fuckers. Some commenters preciously said that it’s stupid that most of people who could’ve challenged or straight up dismissed his executive orders are pussies for resigning or being complicit, but, in their defence, all of their personal data was leaked by Muskrat and he and Trump have a pardoned terrorist cell to carbomb them or whatever. And it’s snowballing from department to department, and every new one looks at those who already kneed to the maggot.
All these famous checks and balances were DDOSed and frightened into submission. i don’t think they were exceptionally and inherently fragile. it’s just the rightwing strategists just got the right guy, the right coverage and the right plan to make it all as easy as break-and-enter with absent homeowners.
What was illegal about what musk did? Be specific. On paper he is “working” for the president, and my understanding is that the cabinet members in charge of the various agencies gave him the go ahead to do what he is doing. Both of those are directly or indirectly elected officials charged with running the executive branch of the government. My take is that congress has depended on gentleman’s agreements rather than passing laws to ensure the agencies aren’t tampered with like is happening now.
There are laws against it but the Supreme Court gave the president total immunity so all those laws are now void
Which laws. Cause I haven’t seen any quoted anywhere. And, they only gave him immunity for official acts. Then said they (the courts) get to decide what an official act is. Lastly, they did not take away congress’s ability to prosecute him in the form of impeachment.
Did you actually read that. A lot of “potentially”, “possibly” and things like that. In short, it isn’t all that clear cut.
Think of it like a whole bunch of people standing around a $100 bill left on the ground. Everybody’s standing around waiting for the legitimate owner to come by and pick it up. Trump doesn’t give a shit about that. He’s gonna walk by, shove everyone aside, and grab it. When everyone else tries to stop him and say the money isn’t his, he’s just going to look at you and say “Who’s is it, and why haven’t they picked it up yet?” And while everybody else is standing around trying to figure out the answer to that, Trump is walking away with the money and saying “Finders keepers, asshole. It’s mine now”. Even if the original owner shows up later and tries to lay claim to the money, he’d have to prove that that specific $100 bill was his to begin with or the judge is just going to say that it’s Trump’s money now.
Think that, except with the power of the US government instead of a c-note. And Trump is hoping that the courts will use the same logic: since nobody else tried to claim the power before, and there’s nothing explicitly granting those powers to someone else, Trump is hoping that the courts will just let him keep those powers in a twisted form of finders-keepers. And given this court system, he very well might win.
This is the truth of it. Picking up $100 bill off the ground in public that isn’t yours isn’t actually illegal. And what trump is doing is attempting to stretch the powers of his office. This isn’t anything new really. Just how he is doing it, how much and how fast is new.
Who would have thought the Air Bud defense would be the death knell of democracy in America?
What is the legal argument against this?
None. We stacked the court with Unitary Executive friendly judges a long time ago.
So do the challenges have a leg to stand on?
John
MarshallRoberts has made his decision; now let him enforce it!Well the boards are appointed by the President with Senate approval. The President can also remove a board member at any time. The board members are generally in pretty good control of the agency.
This seems like it is at most an attempt to end run the Senate but likely just an order to establish a liaison office once you parse everything. He’s passing all these sweeping language orders but also putting in that they should follow all applicable laws.
“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” It’s literally in the OP bro.
As a German, this is precisely what comes to mind
Good thing we spent the 4 years between trump terms with a young, motivated go-getter who checks notes his in a closet for four years and was less seen/heard than any other president.
Moderates are not equipped to fight fascism, we can’t keep rotating between the two because the fascists will break more than a Neoliberal would ever want to fix.
Neither actually wants to fix shit, just keep their wealthy donors happy
Also, this time we have fascists with a plan at hand. They even say beforehand what they will do and no one bats an eye, until “wait, they were serious?”
They did their homework and are swiftly taking over.
Trump’s abhorrent smug face of late tells everything we need to know if they are succeeding or not.
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That’s a list of random things that happened during his presidency…
I have no idea how that’s relevant.
This would be tho:
In the 100 years since Calvin Coolidge took office, only Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan held as few news conferences each year as the current occupant of the Oval Office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/politics/biden-public-appearances-media.html
He wasn’t fucking capable of being president. Even Chris Clizza admits it now, why can’t you?
Those four years was not the time to let Grandpa go in a Sunday cruise, we needed an actual fighter and moderates aren’t fighters.
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Remember about this in the next terms when the new president will not revert this order.
You’re basically saying both parties are the same. Clearly you want us to stay home and are a Vance supporter. I assume you don’t organize locally, so you should go do that instead of impotently criticizing your allies in the DNC. /s
You’re basically saying both parties are the same.
Yes, remember about this the next term
The southern and conservative trash has brought us first the confederacy, the folks that supported Hitler in WW2, Nixon who said the president was the law whilst ordering crimes, Reagan who sold drugs to fund death squads, Bush Jr who lied to start a war and normalized torture, now Trump.
Conservationism in America has been on the wrong side of history since monarchists supported a British Kings’s right to rule the colonies.
Where are the American “patriots” who would defend democracy and protect the country against tyranny with their 2A rights to their dying breath?
That’s right. Fucking crickets from that bunch.
The ammosexuals voted for this shit. They only stroke their guns over the idea of helping put down any uppity {DEI}s that are nearby. All their talk about guns this, guns that, is and always has been a threat meant for others.
They don’t give a fuck about democracy and want to be the vanguard of tyranny.
It’s terrifying to think that there’s still nearly 4 years left of this.
Oh don’t worry. It won’t end in 4 years.
Unitary Executive Theory is a throwback to the Bush Jr Era (and if you dig deep enough you’ll find it back to Truman/Eisenhower/Nixon). Its a relic of the Cold War, when Americans were poisoned to the idea of popular government by the horrifying threat of Soviet infiltration.
You consolidate power in the executive branch - under guys like Hoover and Dulles and McNamara - so they can do the grisly work of squashing the Tankies at home and abroad without squeamish liberals in Congress or the courts getting in the way. Then we can have our liberty back, right after we have guaranteed our domestic security and our international sovereignty. Right after we’re confident our people will make the Right Choices at the ballot box.
This isn’t something that will end in 4 years because its something that has been ongoing for the last 80.
People forget about Bremer, the Elon Musk of Iraq.
FCC huh? There goes TV that’s against him
Trump defended the order, stating, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Okay, Adolf.
Napoleon, actually. So, a different dictator, but still a dictator.
Wait, this was ACTUALLY a quote from a famous dictator? I thought I was just being snarky and connecting this comment to the kind of rhetoric famously used by dictators. I didn’t realize this is specific rhetoric used by a specific dictator.
You don’t even need to read between the lines anymore. Insane.
