Never start taking for granted that it’s not completely bat shit crazy that we live in a country where a president could plausibly make multiple criminal cases against him just go away. That is not something that rules-based societies allow. That is not compatible with a democracy, at all. If he gets away with it, never again pretend that the US is a democracy. Never ever pretend that we are guided by things like a constitution or laws. Never pretend that we cherish justice or truth. Never let the rulers, like our new fascist overlords, wrap themselves in the comforting pretense of all these virtues. If they are going to be the bigoted theocratic autocrats that Americans apparently want, then make them at least be open about their evil. Don’t let them dress it up in nonsense and pretend to be good guys. Never let the drooling masses that voted this in forget that every dead kid, every broken family, every polluted stream, every flooded city, and every grinning billionaire criminal, is on them. They wanted this.

Are we still pretending that impeachment in the US is any kind of meaningful threat to a president?

Naturally. I mean, if we’re doing this authoritarian thing now as the electorate has indicated that it wants, might as well be a less racist, less stupid authoritarian.

Are there any historical examples of fascist regimes losing power without a violent takedown?

If the US pulls out of nato, I hope the nations of the world reform into an alliance that properly stands against US hegemony.

Hawaii, because Florida.

Given that the Supreme Court has ruled that presidents can do anything with impunity, I suggest the Biden take this opportunity to execute trump as an official act based on national security and protecting the homeland against fascists.

It is if that leadership consistently refuses to learn from their mistakes and fails to mount any meaningful opposition to fascism as it creeps into more and more control over decades.

Just take a moment to marvel at the naked fiction that is law and order in this country. This is the entrenched oligarchy leaping into action, if full public view, to preserve their insulation from the very laws they use to rule you. The grotesque irony here, of course, is that this is the very “swamp” that maga dupes blab on and on about. Their lord and savior thinks so little of his moronic minions that he has no shame in flaunting his very own participation in that swamp right in front of them. Never pretend that we live in a rules-based society, nor doubt that the vast majority of Americans are among the dumbest motherfuckers to ever grace this earth. Sure assholes, take another swig of that milky self aggrievement from that feudal teet. I could not have more contempt for the reality of this fucked up, corrupt, hypocritical, and thoroughly evil nation.

This is basically the big thing that has been weighing on me. It’s very clear that the culture I thought I was brought up in, the thing that gave me pride, was not really US culture. It’s very clear to me that US culture values justice, democracy, truth, and the general wellbeing of people in no meaningful ways beyond the PR value of pretending to value these things. It’s very clear to me that this culture is way more racist, sexist, and classist than I was led to believe. It’s also very clear that this culture has an active disdain for education. In aggregate we are a gullible, irrationally emotional, entitled and greedy population with a nearly insatiable bloodlust for violence. We are, on the whole, a profoundly evil country made up of willfully ignorant masses that are ruled by duplicitous oligarchs. Now, I know that there are a lot of good people here. But there is nothing intrinsically American about their goodness. If anything they are an aberration from the seething awfulness that is America.

For the record, I’m pro-Tucker’s demon. Good job demon.

I feel so bad for the people being deployed and their families. These people are being positioned to be triggers for a war against Iran. They believe it will be easier to manufacture consent for that war if the administration (whichever one we have) can point to dead Americans. Sick shit.

And just think, President Biden is just sorta okay with this.

Israel is a cancer.

Why should it feel a need to respond? This administration and congress have shown nothing but breathless support for every illegal and inhuman action they’ve taken and imposed exactly zero meaningful consequences for violating the few feckless ‘red lines’ Biden has feigned to impose. They have nearly complete ideological and/or monetary capture of the administration and congress, and the US professional media is salivating about having more wars to cover. Both presidential candidates have promised no change in policy. Furthermore, the international community seems to be largely unwilling to meaningfully intervene and challenge US hegemony.

I’m willing to argue that the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor was replete with war crimes by modern standards. I’ve cited some documentation above. Since doing that I’ve learned that there are also specific prohibitions against booby-trapping: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/ccw-amended-protocol-ii-1996/article-7 Turns out that Israel has violated many international standards for war crimes and terrorism. It’s simple mystifying to me that any of this is controversial.

First of all, there was no way for Israel to know whether the people they claim to be targeting were combatants when the attack occurred since Israel had no information about the status of these bombs when they chose to detonate them.

Secondly, placing a bomb in a common device that you have every reason to believe will spend much of its time in the proximity of civilians, in homes, markets and other public spaces, and choosing to detonate it without knowledge of the location of the bomb, or it’s proximity to your supposed target, is actively avoiding distinguishing between ‘combatants’ and civilians. I can’t believe that western brain rot requires this to be spelled out for it.

On the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks:

“© those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.”

https://www.justsecurity.org/81351/the-prohibition-on-indiscriminate-attacks-the-us-position-vs-the-dod-law-of-war-manual/

It’s important to note that this is the consensus of much of the international community and the US (and I presume its surrogate Israel) have not signed on to the above provision despite speaking to support it. The weasely approach we (the US) have taken to these standards really demonstrates how hollow our sentiments are when we feign moral authority in international affairs.

18 U.S. Code § 2441 - War crimes

Prohibited conduct: “(D) Murder.— The act of a person who intentionally kills, or conspires or attempts to kill, or kills whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause”

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2441

It’s literally a war crime to attack people who are not actively participating in combat. That includes people who are members of your enemy’s military.