I’m feeling so uneasy with everything I’ve been seeing. I keep thinking about what we will be this time next year, and if shit hits the fan, what is your plan? I’m queer and was politically active in 2020, so I would potentially be considered a political enemy.
The only blueprint I can think of is what you do in an active shooter situation; Flee, Hide, Fight.
I know there’s that romantic notion of “don’t be a coward, get out and protest”, but I remember the brutality of the 2020 protests firsthand, and even then I thought “thank god I’m going toe to toe with the CPD and not the CCP”. Next time is going to be different. The president now has authority to send drone strikes. Protests and riots don’t stand a chance agains missiles and live rounds.
Flee- I have an Uncle in Montreal who my family could potentially use as a way to at least temporarily escape the chaos. The hope I’d have is that Canada and other countries would accept American refugees, however that’s not a guarantee.
Hide- If borders are closed, lay low and move away from major cities if possible. If civil war breaks out, try to get away from the violence even if you think your side will win. Todays losers may be tomorrows victors.
Fight- If cellular data/ social media algorithms can keep track of you, and surveillance can make sure there’s no movement, this would be the last resort of desperation. I guess if possible try to either find a group for safety in numbers, or conversely go guerrilla as groups of resistance would make easy targets.
Sorry my mind is running and I’m getting scared.
“On Tyranny” has some great guidance on this, as well as some guidance on how to do what you can to help put the brakes on it happening.
TL;DR there’s quite a lot more, but stay off the internet, get used to making small talk, making eye contact. Know who’s in your community physically and who has your back. Renew your passport, make friends in other countries if you can. Make friends. Stay off the internet.
Curious: Why “stay off the internet” ? It’s mentioned twice, so I’m assuming for a good reason.
Is that a mental health thing or a keep from being profiled/targeted thing?
Your IP addresses, home, cellphone, etc… They all lead back to your actual home address where you can be identified.
It is soo easy to forget about just how much identifying metadata you leave on the internet just by reading stuff.
You know the cookie banners you see? Those that claim to let you opt out from being tracked by advertisers?
Yeah, those are just the overt tracking mechanism, tracking pixels are far far more insidious.
Lets backtrack a bit, back when Facebook started getting big, companies started embedded Like buttons on their webpages, cool right? You could just click the Like button and it would help you post a link to your Facebook feed to the page you were visiting.
Seems fine, right? What’s the issue?
It would be fine if the image of the Like button was stored on the local web server hosting the rest of the site.
But it isn’t.
It is stored on Facebook’s servers, it is stored in a way that every single Like button has their own ID, so every time you load up your favourite website about abandoned radiation experiment sites it makes your browser send a request to Facebook’s servers as well and depending on how the request is sent they can at minimum log that your IP address loaded the Like button with the ID number X, the ID number X is tied to the specific webpage you visited.
Then you go and do some research on impotense and how to cure it, the pages you read all have Like buttons as above, but with their own ID numbers, Facebook now knows at a minimum that you are a man who is interested in science, technology, society and modern history, you may also suffer from impotense.
Well, you keep browsing the web and read local news, well the Like button is also there, and with the ID number Facebook can add an area of interest to your profile.
It keeps going like this, but with one huge important change, people are starting getting warey of the Like buttons and Facebook in general, so they simply remove the button, while introducing the tracking pixel, a 1px*1px transparent picture, it works like how the Like button loads, and keeps generating data for Facebook.
Facebook is not alone in this, I just used them as an example.
You can read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_pixel
This is also not even getting into browser fingerprinting.
Oh, yeah. I’m aware of all that. Good info, though.
I meant for the purposes of what moz was saying from that “On Tyranny” TL;DR guidance. Like, should I just assume that metadata is going to be immediately used against me to determine if i’m an “undesirable” ?
May have answered my own question there lol
Well, yes. There’s no take backsies, but showing you’ve dropped off the internet, as sus as it is, also shows you’re done with all this, and makes it harder to prove your current status as “undesireableness” by lack of evidence. The longer you wait to disappear, the more relevant the evidence that can be used against you.
I have not read that book, but seeing as the right is on the rise also here in Europe, it might be worth checking it out.
It’s really hard to make friends in other countries without the internet. Gonna have to go back to ARPANET.
He didn’t actually say stay off the internet; that was my oversimplified retelling. A little more complete but still oversimplified version would be: Be careful and don’t share more than what you think is safe to share, and try to focus on the real world as much as you can. The real world doesn’t have mass surveillance in quite such a prepackaged and straightforward fashion, and it is where all the real outcomes good or bad will eventually take place anyway, so prioritize it as much as you can.
I will move to the EU because they will love the influx of US citizens who will show them how to create a working economy, I mean those guys live in the Middle Ages, do they even have running water???
Nothing really. By then everyone in my household will hold dual-citizenship and be able to leave when they decide the situation has gotten unacceptable.
I won privilege bingo so me personally am in no danger, at least for the foreseeable future. Work in the infrastructure sector and plan to go down with the ship. You guys have fun with your civil war and genocides, I will keep the garbage and sewage at bay. At least until the secret police get to me and put a bullet in my brain.
Does your uncle have room for one more? I’ve been feeling very uneasy about things too. I really don’t know what I’m going to do yet if Trump wins, but even if he doesn’t by some miracle, I feel like we’ll just be in the same situation again in 2028, 2032, etc. I feel like the democrats are not effective at fixing things and the republicans have gotten very effective at breaking them. I don’t think it’s going to be civil war time if he wins, but I do think he’s going to really mess things up for everyone, especially those in blue states again and it’s going to be even more difficult to fix. I’m pretty fortunate to be where I am now in my life and I don’t think I can just uproot everything and move to another country. I also wouldn’t even know where to move other than maybe Canada, but I kinda also don’t want any country that elects Trump as a king to be my next-door neighbor either. I think I just have to keep my head down, keep going and hope things get better then keep voting to try to change things and hope enough people feel the same, but I’m really feeling like they don’t.
The same as if Biden wins. I don’t think the office of president is going to meaningfully change my life. It did not the last 8 years either.
Either way we’re headed to war, economic troubles, radicalism, etc. Biden and Trump are both stepping stones towards the authoritarian state capitalist system we have been cultivating for decades.
People are going to be fine as long as they do what every person in Latin America did under the military dictatorships supported by the US. Shut up, do your job, and don’t make waves.
Don’t worry, it can’t last forever. These systems have a tendency of falling apart eventually. The next manifestation will be better. Just like WW2 had to happen to bring us our post-60s civil rights era society.
“As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.” - Biden 2016
Oh i’m sorry. That was Trump… (Right under the video) https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-says-he-s-fine-gay-marriage-60-minutes-interview-n683606
Based on the judges he appointed it doesn’t really matter what Trump says
Edit: oh my god. The article is from 2016. He’s done the exact opposite for gay rights
Well, the Dems gambled in 2016, regard the supreme court judges, and lost. Big time… The people will pay the price… Weird that the oligarchs win no matter what happens…
So cheap to always both sides it. The “oligarchs”. Do you guys have a script you pass around? You guys can’t seem to have any original thoughts
If you really think that the Dems are so much better, why don’t people have nice things in California? The dems have super majority there for many years…? Just bad luck?
Depends. By what metric? It’s the fifth largest economy in the world with the top literacy rate in the nation. What are you comparing it to? Mississippi? I need more than but muh California!!!
Having m4a, affordable housing, 25$ mimimum wage, helping the homeless, food programs. Anything that helps the poor…
I, too, take Trump at his word, which is how I know he’s sexually interested in his own daughter.
You shouldn’t take any politician by their word…
Then why are you quoting one?
To illustrate my point. Doesn’t matter who said it. It won’t be reflected in passed policy because the exploitation-class benefits from division.
I’m a simple person. I take people at their word, until it doesn’t work, and then I hate them.
Good reply. I can respect that.
Move to the states
Business as usual - just like his last term, just like Biden’s term. This years gonna be a good one for me either way.
Just wait for them to come get me, I suppose
Hit Facebook, Lawyer the Gym, Delete Up
Do you really think anyone competent will work for Trump? The first time around he tried to deport dreamers, didn’t end the program the right way, and they didn’t get deported for his entire term. He would sometimes forget to sign bills he had photo ops with. He lead a group of rioters to the capital, told them where the electoral votes were, and they ended up taking selfies and Nancy Pelosi’s podium. And these were his intelligent supporters.
I’m Canadian. I plan to steal a dump truck, drive it to the middle of the bridge to the US that’s 15 km from my house, turn it sideways, and disable it. Then, when they remove it I’ll do it again.
Don’t forget to load it with something heavy first.
a dump truck would indeed be more effective than doing this with a trump duck
I’d like to try to assuage your fears regarding a protest meeting missiles or drone strikes. Yes, the President can order drone strikes with impunity. It’s been that way since the first use of drones, early as the Obama era (maybe earlier, but I was a bit young then).
However, this does not apply to US soil. One of the benefits of state sovereignty is that federal armed forces can’t operate on US soil. National guard gets involved, at the governor’s request, but they don’t have missiles or drones. Police are barbaric, but they also don’t have missiles or drones.
So I don’t think we’d see much of an escalation in terms of weapons of violence with regards to protests when compared to 2020.
If he declares it an official act, then it’s not illegal. Drone strikes are pretty official.
SCOTUS fucked up super-sized
SCOTUS fucked up super-sized
SCOTUS (or at least 6 of 'em) knew exactly what they were doing and did it anyway. On purpose.
6 of ‘em are super-sized fuckups. Po-TAY-to / Po-TAH-to.
He can order it all he wants, but that doesn’t mean any branch of the military has to actually carry out an obviously illegal order. All it means is that he theoretically “can’t” get prosecuted for trying.
Project 2025 has you covered. Law abiding service members will be replaced. snap. Easy peasy.
A huge portion of the military supports him.
And a huge proportion doesn’t.
Dont underestimate how many people join the military at 18 for financial/career reasons and often end up living overseas and meeting people from different backgrounds. It’s not as conservative as people might imagine.
What year is it?
Tomorrow is the year 1446 on the Islamic Calendar. But it’s 1445 until then. (I’m using the Moroccan calendar.)
I know that many do not, but I have no idea what the actual proportions would be. Polls are iffy.
Doesn’t help that Trump regularly shat on the military in the past.
Obviously illegal order
Ahh of course, america has never once committed a war crime
Someone will be willing to do so. He can just fill everything with yay sayers.
The people carrying out those acts are also not legally immune like the president is.
True, but he can pardon them easily.
If they refuse, they can be replaced with yes-men who will.
He can only pardon for federal crimes “atm” so if he drone strikes on state land the state can prosecute.
Watch as the Supreme Court use the supremacy clause to counter act this. If they’ve already reached this far, I don’t think that’s a lot further to reach
Also true. But, like, what are the states going to do about a mad king who’s federally untouchable?
I’m trying hard to not be an alarmist (mostly for my own mental health), but it’s not just that the floodgates are open; the dam has burst and we’re all downstream.
Get thee to an armory
They may or may not be pardoned. Trump has a well established history of stiffing employees, screwing over allies, and throwing anyone under the bus whenever he thinks it will suit him.
His history of stiffing / screwing over / bus throwing aside, I don’t for one moment think he won’t pardon someone who has been loyal to him. Not as long as it doesn’t cost him any money or cause his ratings to drop.
He already didn’t pardon people who were loyal to him but ok…
Nope. But they can be pardoned for those acts by the prez
Can and will aren’t the same thing, Trump throws his own people under the bus all the time and has a well established history of fucking over allies and stiffing employees, never mind not pardoning tons of people who committed multiple crimes to try and protect or serve him.
Not exactly the behavior that instills loyalty.
This is not the protection that you think it is.
One of the elements of the Trump victory plan is for them to replace pivotal positions in civil and military services with sycophantic yes-men who are GREAT at not questioning orders - or, are of the same psychopathic stripe as they are, and are actually enthusiastic about executing such orders for one reason or another.
Not to mention: go into any US military mess hall, anywhere. What’s on the TV? (Here’s a hint: it’s not MSNBC, CBS, or CNN).
One of the biggest factors is that the courts can’t get testimony from members of the executive branch of government, meaning if he does something insanely evil, as long as only his admin that knows anything about it, he can’t be effectively prosecuted. It’s pretty fucking terrible.
So what you’re saying is that cops are getting drones
The heroic military that are totally going to stand up for what is right regardless of their orders… sat with their thumbs up their asses waiting to see how Jan 6 would shake out when it was painfully obvious that the outgoing POTUS had declared war on the US Government and was attempting to lynch Congress and the VPOTUS
The Army is gonna follow orders faster than the pioneers of NASA did in the 1940s.
Soldiers swear an oath to the Constitution to not commit illegal orders, regardless of who orders them.
The issue is that the president cant issue illegal orders anymore. Since hes the commander in chief of the military, his orders are an “official act,” i.e constitutional.
The supreme court has said that the president can order military executions of anyone at all and the military can no longer legally refuse. The above is constitutional, because the people who decide what is constitutional said it is.
SCOTUS still decides what is or isn’t an official act, not that it’s reassuring.
SCOTUS can decline any case silently, with no justification. They can decide to not decide, ceding all power to the new American king if they like.
The military now have to murder americans if the the president says so, because he said so. That core check on tyranny, the military’s ability to refuse an unlawful order, was wiped away by this supreme court.
If they declined to hear it, the decision would be in the hands of whatever court the appeal came from.
This is a good point. So the main stalls the supreme court has are to take the case and issue the opinion on the last possible day of the term like this one, and then find that whatever it was fell onto the broad immunity.
National guard gets involved, at the governor’s request, but they don’t have missiles or drones.
The fuck they don’t.
After my active duty service I was in the NG for a while until I figured out it was a fuckin joke, but my NG unit was a Bradley unit which means 30mm cannon and TOW missiles. And that was almost 30 years ago.
The Air NG also flies just about every fighter out there and they sure as hell have missile racks on them.
The hope is that the Americans behind those war machines will be hesitant to fire on their countrymen but Kent State puts a shadow over that hope.
Haven’t been following the news, have we? What you said was mostly true a week ago. Now, NO ONE has legal protection under U.S. law against crime committed by an American president.
While this may be true, and a drone strike may be ordered on US soil, the President will not be the one controlling the drone, not directly in command of that person. The UCMJ supercedes in the case.
Any “official order” of the president is lawful now. As commander in chief of the military, he can indeed “officially order” drone strikes on US soil. The soldier following that will be following a lawful order. The UCMJ will not apply.
Pretty crazy that all it took was one ruling from 6 people to undo our entire system of checks and balances, and 247 years of accountability.
However, this does not apply to US soil. One of the benefits of state sovereignty is that federal armed forces can’t operate on US soil
From the Project 2025 wiki page:
In November 2023, The Washington Post reported that deploying the military for domestic law enforcement under the Insurrection Act of 1807 would be an “immediate priority” upon a second Trump inauguration in 2025. That aspect of the plan was being led by Jeffrey Clark, a contributor to the project and a former official in the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ). Clark is a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, a Project 2025 partner. The plan reportedly includes directing the DOJ to pursue those considered by Trump as disloyal or a political adversary
I was unaware of “Project 2025”, interesting read! While that does contain multiple concerning ideas, this is far from a reliable manifesto. Additionally, ties have been drawn to the Trump campaign, but these are loose ties and appear primarily to be op-eds. Trump has also disavowed ties to this “publication”. Lastly, that “Washington Post report” is another one of those vague articles featuring “according to sources familiar”.
I’ve seen multiples of you anti-american accounts pushing the lie that the traitor campaign isn’t all in on this authoritarian dictatorship bullshit.
We’re not buying your smurf campaign.
Whether that manifesto’s “reliable”, well, we’ll have to see. That recent immunity move by the SC is already a big step in the direction that Project 2025 wants to take the US in with their “unitary executive theory” bullshit – everything doesn’t hinge on Trump.
Far as Trump’s disavowals go, I’ll believe it when I see it – that man lies as easily as he breathes. I’ll be happily surprised if it does turn out he wasn’t lying, but that’s not going to be my default assumption. And it’s not like Project 2025 hinges on his enthusiastic support of the Project, just its goals – if Trump gets elected he is the one choosing which recommendations he’ll follow, and I don’t find it very believable that he wouldn’t be interested in eg. expanding executive power.
Lastly, that “Washington Post report” is another one of those vague articles featuring “according to sources familiar”.
That’s going to be what they publish every time the sources don’t want anyone to know it was them, but it’s not like the reporters don’t know their sources or don’t vet them –this “anonymous source bad” trope frankly reeks of the classic populist Lying press / Lügenpresse rhetoric. I really don’t understand how people think things should work if anonymous sources are bad
Why is this fucker still alive?
Clearly “the system” isn’t capable of handling the threat of right-wing extremism and something needs to be done, but anybody murking Trump would probably make things worse, not better. He’d become a conservative martyr, and they could point to his death and say “see, we told you they’re violent” and use it to deepen hatred and oppression. This is what happened after the failed assassination attempt on Robert Fico
It does not matter what anyone does. Everyone needs to understand that. They will always find something to point to and rally against. But I meant why is he still alive when his health is terrible, he’s past average life expectancy, he doesn’t exercise, and he obviously spends all of his mental and emotional energy on petty vengeance and anger. I’m honestly amazed that he hasn’t suffered multiple heart attacks.
Ah right I get you, a “how is he still kicking” instead of “why hasn’t someone fed him to a wood chipper”
I suppose “how” would have been a better word choice.
Don’t underestimate the US military, as an ally. They are primarily younger, and the upper echelons are educated and all take their oath very seriously, to defend the Constitution, from enemies foreign and domestic. Of course there will be factions that will stick to Trump, like certain national guards, but that will fracture command and weaken our ability to react internationally. The military understand those implications, the potential literal end of the world. In the end, they push the button, not the president. The lower ranks have no desire to fight American civilians either, it’s antithetical to everything they are taught, and the age range is generally people in their 20’s and 30’s.I trust a Marine, a soldier, an airman, a seaman heheh, coast guard too, oh and the spacemen, way more than a cop, to do the right thing.
A vet.
Gonna try to find a way to get to DC on Jan 20, get as close as I can to Fuckface 45, and kill myself.
