this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 48 points 8 months ago (16 children)

I remember watching V for Vendetta when Obama was president and I actually can't believe the US went from the Obama era to being on the brink of becoming a christofascist nation.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I'm sure they've focus tested this and yes it is the most important issue, I think they have too much faith in the American voter.

I can easily see Independents or frustrated Democrats thinking "we were warned ad nauseum about a fascist takeover by trump last time and it didn't happen and inflation is killing me..."

I think trump's threats to democracy is the most serious issue but I can't see this winning many new voters. Maybe the hope is to increase turnout on our side...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

They don't have anything else, because the other platforms are related (don't genocide minorities) or anti-disaster-capitalist.

Actual liberal policies could fix some of the problems neoliberalism has created by going back to certain New Deal era policies and regulations but that simply will not happen in post Citizens United world.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What about climate change lol?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Donald subverting democracy would be a much more immediate threat and make climate change almost impossible to deal with. One has to be avoided to deal with the other and is thus the higher priority.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No matter who wins, the US will pump and burn more oil than the year before. It's far too late for lesser of two evils politics, my friend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

the US will pump and burn more oil than the year before.

Possibly. But, the US will also be on a course to lower emissions in the long term.

The Inflation Reduction Act was the most significant piece of climate change legislation in American history. If that goes uninterrupted, so many new battery, solar and other green projects will continue. It's imperfect but we have a chance (not a guarantee) with the Democrats and none with trump.

And frankly, in North America, most of climate change for the foreseeable future is more inconvenience than it is "societal collapse."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

We'll see, I spose

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

I watched the ad and I saw Trump's name a lot more than Biden's. Other than that it feels like a bunch of stock footage trying to make me feel like being an American isn't shameful.

Not a good ad. But what I expected.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Joe Biden’s first campaign ad of the year focuses on threats to US democracy, timed for release on the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.

As footage of political violence and rioting shows on screen, the president notes that “there’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs in our democracy”.

Donald Trump is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination for November’s presidential election, despite his multitude of legal woes, which include charges linked to the Jan 6 attack.

The former president has also struck a notably more extremist tone during his campaign, raising fears he aims to deliberately erode US democratic institutions.

The Biden attack ad will run nationally and in local markets in swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as online.

The spot highlights how Trump and his followers are continually working to undermine elections, the Biden-Harris campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a news release.“Over the last three years, Maga Republicans haven’t shied away from the Big Lie – they’ve doubled down.


The original article contains 338 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 46%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

If you want to actually do something, help out with volunteer time and, if you can afford it, money.

Get involved with a close house or senate race too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Everything Trump says and does is a campaign ad for Biden.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Not for his brain-dead loyalists.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This a lob ball for republicans who just have to point out democrats are the ones taking opposition off the ballots.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (6 children)

It's so fucking stupid that Jan 6 was a cut-and-dried insurrection, that the 14th amendment should obviously bar Trump from office, and yet it might be better, politically speaking, to let him run anyway. All because there's a giant segment of the population that receives all their news information from sources that scrub it for anything politically detrimental to their party/ point of view.

I fucking hate it here. Fuck Nixon and Reagan, giant pieces of shit, for bringing this horrible reality to us.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How do you mean? The people challenging Trump being on the ballots are Republicans with standing in those jurisdictions.

I am not offering my opinion on these cases, but I think it's important to make sure we understand who the plaintiffs are.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

the two states that have removed Trump from their ballots are Colorado and Maine, Colorado's entirely democrat appointed supreme court, and Maine's democratic secretary of state.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You are saying their rulings go against written law in preference to their party affiliation? If so, I'd be interested in understanding how.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I am saying they are democrats that have removed republican opposition from the next election. This is what republican voters are going to see and its gonna be hard to campaign on democracy itself while setting this precedent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Do our laws matter or not? The guy has been found by courts to have participated in an insurrection. He lost last time, we all know that. He tried to make it so he stayed in power, we all know that. We are just supposed to pretend that didn't happen because some people still like him?

Sorry, not how our county works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The way it's supposed to go is he gets arrested immediately after the crime by the DoJ and brought to federal trial. But that didnt happen, for several years.

This is like someone being charged with illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, but without ever being convicted as a felon. No matter how much you believe they committed a felony, they still have to be found guilty first. In this case it's someone being barred from running for office as an insurrectionist, without ever being convicted as one.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The way it’s supposed to go is he gets arrested immediately after the crime by the DoJ and brought to federal trial

No. The way it's supposed to go is the DoJ gathers evidence and decides whether there's enough of it to charge someone with a crime, and then that person is presumed innocent and has a right to an attorney who builds a case for their defense, using a process called "discovery" which grants them access to evidence and witnesses, and then they are entitled to a jury of their peers, which takes time to select from the general population. Where the fuck did you learn how prosecution works? Pyongyang?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think you again stopped reading mid sentence. You are describing the federal trial. And you are confusing arresting with sentencing. For many crimes, especially violent ones (which, considering 5 deaths and over a hundred injured, I'd say this qualifies), arresting is actually the first step, to make sure no one else is endangered while the legal process goes on. Again, the DoJ has the authority to arrest, charge, and prosecute for federal crimes. And prosecute does not mean sentencing, it does not mean the DoJ gets to find anyone guilty themselves, they bring them to trial and make the case, they try to prove that the person committed the crime, and it's up to judge or jury to decide to find them guilty or innocent. That is what prosecution means.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

For many crimes, especially violent ones (which, considering 5 deaths and over a hundred injured, I’d say this qualifies)

Yes, and the people directly responsible for that violence were arrested as quickly as they could be identified and located. It's like you simply refuse to accept that assigning culpability is not so straightforward when it's several degrees removed. Mens rea in a criminal conspiracy requires an overt act to commit a crime, and the overt act must be verified, else a charge wouldn't be provable in court. And no DA in the country would arrest someone that high profile in such a complicated case without gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, crossing t's, and dotting i's:

Whether a decision about Trump’s culpability for Jan. 6 could have come any earlier is unclear. The delays in examining that question began before Garland was even confirmed. Sherwin, senior Justice Department officials and Paul Abbate, the top deputy to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach — focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder.

I don't know what world you live in where the DOJ can simply act like John Fucking Wayne whenever it wants, but these are career prosecutors, and thankfully they're not dumb enough to try to lock up the kingpin before closing the net around the underlings and making sure the case is ironclad.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah theyre handling this case so meticulously that the defendent will be in position to fire the prosecutor because they took so long. Its already creating a trainwreck with state level democrats trying to remove his election eligibility before theres any convictions. I bet you those cases are gonna make their way to the supreme court a hell of a lot faster than any charge against Trump ever has.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The. DoJ. Should. Not. Consider. Political. Implications. When. Pursuing. A. Criminal. Trial.

Full fucking stop. The moment they start speeding shit up because it might be effected or affect an election, is the minute we become a banana republic. The DoJ is NOT, nor should it ever be, a political weapon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think the only reason its taken this long is some fumbled political strategy to try to distract trump from campaign season. They werent gathering evidence for 3 years, theyll be as prepared for this case no better than if they charged him 3 months after the crime. What evidence would they not have by then?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Corroborating witnesses and guilty pleas. Honestly, dude. Have you not ever spoken with an actual lawyer in your life? You can't possibly be this clueless.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Witnesses? The whole thing was filmed! Everyone watched Trump rally his followers to march on the capital and "fight like hell", where news crews were already stationed. We've had an insanely extensive breakdown on the attack for a long time now.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

You have literally no idea how criminal conspiracy or mens rea work. Jesus fucking christ dude. I'm so glad people like you aren't in charge, or Trump would walk after a 2-day trial and 4 minutes of jury deliberation. I honestly can't even figure out how to start explaining how shittily informed you are.

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