please, we prefer to call ourselves "Anti-democracy Activists" these days

The draft order [...] would allow Trump to unilaterally ban mail-in ballots and voting machines

The fucking headline even said it was illegal. It wouldn't "allow" him to do shit.

It would be him CLAIMING he has some power that he doesn't have. And EACH AND EVERY STATE needs to just fucking ignore it, run their elections as they are the sole arbitrators of elections according the the constitution.

It's not even a fucking presidential election. IT DOESNT TOUCH THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, and therefore EXECUTIVE orders are even more absurd.

Literally draft the documents they need to pass to override his "emergency" and put it before Congress the moment he tries this bullshit. Congress has the power to nullify any "emergency" he declares.

Write up articles of impeachment.

At least prepare it all and make it clear to the people you have it ready.

And keep fucking doing it. Shut down any and all congressional action until this shit stain is out of the white house. Refuse to fund anything. Impeach anyone and everyone they can that is involved in this.

Hold congressional hearings over and over and compel these fascist fucks to waste their fucking time answering questions we already know. Make them say it out loud. Then fucking spread their fucked up answers far and wide. Not just in democratic mailers asking for money, but to every influencer.

I feel like it is hard to synchronize. I want to do this but cannot solo

Who certifies the election results, JD Vance?

No. (de jure, at least, who knows what will actually happen in practice)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Count_Reform_and_Presidential_Transition_Improvement_Act_of_2022

The law identifies the governor – or, in the case of Washington, D.C., the district's mayor – as responsible for submitting certificates of ascertainment, unless otherwise specified by state laws or constitutions. In addition, a certificate that was revised as ordered by a state or federal court judgment before the meeting of electors supersedes all previous certificates.

The law clarifies that the vice president's role in the counting of the electoral votes is "solely ministerial," with no power to "determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors."

Do it up Minnesota style. These organizations don't come from nowhere. Talk to your neighbors. Express these concerns to them. If they share your concerns, connect them with one another. It doesn't have to be "organize a paramilitary force" but it does have to start with knowing who is with you in your community

Like I said, this is already clear. No new law needed.

The Enabling Act

The Nazis were elected

This would be the end of a free USA. Real authoritarianism. The end. Fake elections from here on, just like Russia, Venezuela, etc. We are screwed if this happens. The fascists are winning.

What do you mean? We have infinite money, don’t you remember that glitch? 1970s crisis, we just printed our way out. 2000 dot-com bubble, printed our way out. 2008 housing crisis, then COVID, … guess what we did both times. We just print our way out of our problems; problem solved.

If Trump destroys us, we’ll just print little Trump Cash cards on the back of freshly synthesized plastic cutouts made from the byproduct of his glorified coal companies running on the blood, sweat, and tears of our children.

Like the other post, applying for UK Visa hit's record high, so no need to fight for your country, just let them take it.

You say this like the 100 prior absurd things that have happened shouldn't have occurred because we have a stable, sane system with checks and balances; but we don't. So people that are complicit, or scared, or both are complying with demands that are not technically enforceable. I could see this as one of those orders that red states would gladly comply with.

And who the fuck is going to stop him? He's been doing shit that's unconstitutional this whole time. He's going to rig the election and have a third term, and all our politicians will do is write strongly worded letters.

Oh, I know. I'm screaming into the wind here. Letting my frustration out at, well, everything.

It would get struck down by the courts, make its way to the Supreme Court, and then who the fuck knows.

The Trump admin ghouls understand this logistical red tape, know if will not pass muster and time it so that they achieve maximum compliance in a short window of time.

This emergency executive order is going to get thrown down mid to late October, and by the time the courts can churn it through the appeals system, the election in November will have already happened. Oops, looks like all of Trump's cronies and sycophants won, too late to go back now - we already swore them in!

It is part of project 2025. Fratelli d'Italia (the party of Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister) and the republican party are very tight with each other. So much that Giorgia Meloni herself participates republican rallies and conventions sometimes so I wouldn't be surprised if they're following the diktats of the republican party or any foreign imposed authoritarian agenda

If they choose to follow Trump, there isn't, no. They have to convince people to refuse Trump's orders if they're illegal or when he has no authority. Re-committing to the system of government and the rules of the distribution of power is necessary. Its hearts and minds right now. Follow Trump or follow the Constitution and its founding doctrines. You can't serve both because Trump and the GOP have abandoned the constitution already. They can't coexist.

That's what the law says. But they can just say different and we're in conflict. Even if the courts decide against Trump, there no way to actually enforce that judgement.

ahhh now my penny drops. They are in the ECR fraction in the European Parliament, same fraction as NVA, the party of Belgium's prime minister, and also the minister of defense who's a vocal Trump supporter, still. It makes sense now. An orchestrated effort indeed. Starving the beast in Belgium, stripping social security, increased subsidies to billionaires, it's all in that playbook I guess. And the silly social-democrats in governemnt yelling 'without us it would be worse' lol. All goddamn bastards.

Blue states would likely ignore it, but red states would happily accept their marching orders.

Sparkling authoritarians.

Until people like you are thinking "It's gonna have to be me" then the situation will not likely improve.

That wasnt very specific. :(

Do you mean "it's gonna have to be me" like that guy who tried to sneak into Mara a Lago and was shot by the secret service? Or maybe that guy who missed his shot?

Or do you mean that me specifically is going to have to rally people in my neighborhood, then my city, my state, and then most of the country to physically resist and arrest our leaders and have them stand trial for their crimes while having the bravery to leave your wife and kids behind to potentially die trying seems a little beyond my scope to be honest.

waving a copy of the Constitution lightly over their rulings

Doesn't Bannon do a lot of work in Europe and Italy specifically? Well lobbying and such and apparently trying to create a force of people. Sure he has his project 2025 orders to focus on from those higher ups.

Adolf Schmitler doesn't have the stomach for bold collective action, who would'a guessed.

Is this meant to be in character, or did you seriously only realize the USA was authoritarian when it started being mean to white people?

States run elections

It wasn't necessary athoritarian previously. It was really following the will of the people of the time. Essentially white dudes voting in white dudes to protect their shitty interests. That is not where the majority of the population is now. Society has shifted beyond where the government is, that is why they are trying to control the voting process.

What about that time it used genocide against dozens of indigenous nations to expand, or became a police-slave-state that codified naturalized racism, or restricted voting access along race and gender until forced otherwise, or adopted an organised military to suppress unions, or spent decades intervening and invading countries that elected governments who said mean things about the US, or when it suppressed climate change knowledge for decades, or when it constructed a mass - surveillance apparatus over a century, or when it imprisoned the largest number of people anyone has on the planet to perpetuate forced labour based on that one time it was a police-slave-state? I didn't even mention the Patriot Act or how they use nukes.

Again, are you meant to be the actual Cpt. Oblivious, or is it meant to be a dig on me like the joke is unclear. Above is more for the benefit of any chuds who may feel validated by your previous comment.

Indeed, he set up the necessary structures in Brussels a few years back. Local news coverage was minimal at best.

Also not surprising that the Belgian prince Laurent is in the Epstein files. Ties in nicely with Bannon and Trump.

Didn’t I see some meme about how things end every 250 years??

If it makes you feel any better, an EO like that needs people on the ground to enforce it. Even his thug army, ICE, doesn't have the man power to control every polling station.

What will happen is that duly elected representatives and senators will show up and they'll refuse to seat them. At that point, there's nothing left of a real government and shit will really pop off.

It wasn't a dig. All those things you mentioned were not straight up authoritarianism, they were in part by the largest group voting group getting their way. That's what the voters want. It was extremely shitty stuff and I never said it wasn't. Just because these happened doesn't mean it was because of authoritarianism. We slowly evolved getting better over time, but now we are regressing. And it will be extremely difficult to vote our way out of it, even when the majority of eligible voters want to. In no time in our Constitutional history has so much power been under one man.

Well, I think you’re saying those are things that you can’t do. And thats fine, but a lot if poeple need to take ownership of what they can do and figure out how to cooperate appropriately to get some things done.

New leaders need to emerge thats true, but they will need support as well in various ways.

But all those people will all have to take ownership for making this stop and figure out how to fight back.

I get safety/security is a concern, but things are in a circumstance now where you will probably get fucked either way.

As long as everyone keeps waiting for someone else to do something real, youre all screwed.

Empires don't fall by themselves. People burn them down.

If everyone in America is waiting for "somebody" to fix everything for them then there's a good chance America is going to exceed that 250 year mark.

It's legal if no one has the balls to shut it down.

Because “blatantly illegal” has been such a stopping force so far.

"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within" ― Will Durant

as long as there are no checks and balances, as long as no one exists with the will and sense of duty to do their job, there is no distinction between legal and illegal.

Nothing popped off for the time they didn't swear in Adelita Grijalva. What makes you think it will if that happens for someone else?

Authoritarianism is a spectrum. We are more authoritarian than ever.

That doesn't mean we weren't authoritarian before.

I have a feeling you knew all that and just wanted to fight CptOblivius, though.

They can't steal and election if we steal it first...Genius.

Your country probably has almost or exactly as many deranged morons as we do here with MAGA, per capita. The difference is we've weaponized voter disenfranchisement and bipartisan hackery (crucially including gerrymandering), largely abandoned ethical journalism standards, and never really properly dealt with the aftermath of our civil war, what with shaming our traitors and educating and rebuilding the nation. We were able to get away with all of that because we toot our own horn so hard for so long about being the bastion of democracy, and the world largely agreed with us.

So we still have backwoods y'allQaeda training grounds who vote Trump because anyone with a (D) is the (D)evil, and their vote counts more than someone in an educated area due to the electoral college system.

TL;DR: MAGA isn't special - other countries have AfD, FdI, etc., which are all rising in popularity despite you turning your nose up at us for us being uniquely ridiculous.

A bit off the mark there orioler25, what do you suggest we do?

Calling a thing "unconstitutional" just spurs that orange jackass forward

Yes.