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The seeming lack of effort to try to stop Trump from putting the US under authoritarian rule makes no sense
The statements Trump has made are problematic as they suggest he might be willing to disregard the democratic process in order to maintain his power. I'm worried about what this might mean for the future of democracy in the US. Some people are saying that the time to do something was at the polls, but even if not enough people voted, ~74 million people (edit: ~75 million) voted for Harris while ~77 million people voted for Trump. It's not right to act as if no one or only few people voted and give up saying non-Republicans had their chance to prevent what will unfold. Edit: Possible things to do: Preparing for the worst, talking to elected officials about ways to protect against what's likely coming, etc. Paying attention to executive orders and other actions. Not letting us be divided and conquered: Not insulting each other. Asking what led people to their conclusions. Listing things you want see for humanity and asking what other people want to see for humanity. Finding common ground. Edit: More articles. https://www.reuters.com/article/world/trump-praises-chinese-president-extending-tenure-for-life-idUSKCN1GG03P/ "He's now president for life, president for life. And he's great," Trump said, according to audio of excerpts of Trump's remarks at a closed-door fundraiser in Florida aired by CNN. "And look, he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll have to give that a shot someday," Trump said to cheers and applause from supporters. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/vote-four-years/ And again, Christians: Get out and vote! Just this time. You won't have to do it anymore! Four more years, you know what? It'll be fixed, it'll be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians ... Ingraham: [The statement is] being interpreted, as you are not surprised to hear, by the left as, "Well, they're never going to have another election." So, can you even just respond? Trump: I said, Christians. I started off by saying, just so you understand, you never vote. Christians do not vote. Well, they vote in very small percentages. Why? I don't know. Maybe they're disappointed in things that are happening. But for a long time I say, you don't vote. I'm saying go out. You must vote. Nov. 5 is going to be the most important election in the history of our country, whether you vote early or not. We should have, by the way, one-day voting. We should have voter ID. We should have proof of citizenship, and we should have paper ballots. Okay, that's what we should — we don't have that. But, I said to the Christians in the room, thousands of them, I said, typically, Christians do not vote. Why it is? I don't know. You're rebellious, something's going on. Don't worry about the future. Vote on, you have to vote on, Nov 5. After that, you don't have to worry about voting anymore. I don't care because we're going to fix it. The country will be fixed, and we won't need your vote anymore. Because, frankly, we will have such love, if you don't want to vote anywhere, that's okay. And I think everybody understood it. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/donald-trump-keep-saying-dont-need-votes-election-2024-rcna163808 On Fox News Thursday morning, Donald Trump had a weird instruction for his supporters: they don’t have to vote. “My instruction: We don’t need the votes, I have so many votes,” Trump said on Fox & Friends before going on a rant about how much support he has in Florida. As a clip from the show makes clear, the former president didn’t appear to be kidding. ... If the phrasing sounded at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. The day after last month’s presidential debate, for example, Trump held a rally in Virginia and told attendees, “We don’t need votes.” A week earlier, the Republican spoke at a far-right conference and said roughly the same thing. “I tell my people, I don’t need any votes,” said Trump, who added: “We don’t need the votes.” That came on heels of the GOP candidate pushing the same line during an appearance in Detroit. “Listen, we don’t need votes,” Trump said. He added: “We don’t need votes. We have to stop — focus, don’t worry about votes.” In fact, as my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones noted, the former president has been pushing this line since last fall, during his party’s primary process. “You don’t have to vote,” Trump told a New Hampshire audience in October. “Don’t worry about voting. The voting — we got plenty of votes.” https://newrepublic.com/post/184269/trump-urging-supporters-not-vote-election Trump’s message was preceded by talking about how his campaign had lawyers at “every poll booth,” suggesting that he thinks that he can legally get the election outcome he wants. He said something similar in October, too, when he told supporters at a New Hampshire rally, “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting—we got plenty of votes.” At that time, Trump also told his supporters to “get out there and watch those voters!” If he’s using the same words now, it could mean that he wants to encourage voter intimidation at the polls. It would go with the new Republican Party platform he’s pushed, which makes veiled threats to “secure our elections.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9gCyRkpPe8 And then he journeyed to Pennylvania, where he spent like a month and a half campaigning for me in Pennylvania. And he's a popular guy. And he was very effective. And he knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those voting-counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennylvania like in a landslide. So, it was pretty good. It was pretty good. So, thank you to Elon. https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1inaszr/comment/mcao0bs/ Various things. https://www.politifact.com/article/2024/jul/01/what-the-supreme-courts-immunity-ruling-means-for/ Sotomayor wrote that the decision "effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding. … Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune. … In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/donald-trump-fifth-avenue-comment/ I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-10-05/trump-debate-white-supremacy-racehorse-theory “You have good genes, you know that, right?” Trump told a mostly white crowd of supporters in Bemidji, Minn., on Sept. 18. “You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it? Don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we’re so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.” https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-says-us-will-take-back-panama-canal-2025-01-20/ "The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons," he said. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-threatens-land-grabs-panama-canal-greenland-force/story?id=117428826 "I'm not going to commit to that," Trump said on Tuesday when asked if he would rule out using the U.S. military to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/politics/trump-putin-ukraine-russia-smart/index.html “They say, ‘Trump said Putin’s smart.’ I mean, he’s taking over a country for two dollars’ worth of sanctions,” Trump told a crowd at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago, according to a recording of the event. “I’d say that’s pretty smart. He’s taking over a country – really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in.” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/controversial-dictators-leaders-donald-trump-praised/story?id=40373481 "I think in terms of leadership, he's getting an A and our president is not doing so well," Trump said of al-Assad during an interview with Fox News in September. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/elon-musk-says-that-if-trump-wins-hell-cause-the-economy-to-crash/ar-AA1tdA02 During the town hall last week, Musk promised to "balance the budget immediately," something that would result in people being "upset." The efforts would "involve some temporary hardship," he warned, "but it will ensure long-term prosperity." "I’ll probably need a lot of security, but it’s got to be done," he said. "And if it’s not done, we’ll just go bankrupt." ... But as MSNBC points out, this latest talking point makes little sense, because there's no evidence that the US is at any risk of going "bankrupt." And if it was, Trump would be the last person to fix the issue; during his presidency, Trump's tax cuts for the rich caused the national deficit to soar. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42493918 The president's supporters point out that interactions with foreign nationals are routine during any White House campaign, but three Trump associates have now admitted lying about these encounters. Who's been charged? The special counsel has indicted more than 30 people, including four members of Mr Trump's campaign team or administration, an adviser and long-time ally, and 26 Russians, as well as three Russian companies. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/09/nx-s1-5181965/2024-election-foreign-influence-russia-china-iran "One of the major trends that we saw is the highest volume of online foreign influence efforts directed at the U.S. elections by…three state threat actors…Russia, Iran and China," says Brookie. Russia used intermediaries to hire American right-wing influencers to spread Kremlin talking points. It created networks of websites that resembled trusted U.S. news outlets, along with fictitious sites, to spread polarizing content. China sought to sway down-ballot races by posting negative content about congressional candidates it deemed anti-China. ... In the weeks before Election Day, inflammatory videos tied to Russia surfaced on social media. One falsely depicted ballots being destroyed in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; another claimed to depict a whistleblower alleging election fraud in Arizona; a third falsely alleged noncitizens were voting in large numbers in Georgia, an idea Trump and fellow Republicans embraced in the run-up to the election. https://www.pcmag.com/news/putin-reportedly-asked-elon-musk-not-to-deploy-starlink-in-taiwan Not unlike former president Donald Trump, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been "in regular contact" with Russian President Vladimir Putin for years, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. Putin, whom the US blacklisted in 2022, reportedly asked Musk not to deploy SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink in Taiwan because China's leader Xi Jinping doesn't want it to happen, framing it as a favor. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-fires-17-independent-watchdogs-multiple-agencies-late/story?id=118097873 In a late-night Friday move, President Donald Trump fired at least 17 independent watchdogs -- known as inspectors general -- at multiple federal agencies, sources familiar with the move told ABC News. The conversations about ousting these government watchdogs began during Trump's transition back to the White House. While inspectors general can be fired by the president — it can only happen after communicating with Congress 30 days in advance and in 2022 Congress strengthened the law requiring administrations to give a detailed reasoning for the firing of an IG. ... "There may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so. I'd like further explanation from President Trump," Grassley said in a statement given to ABC News. "Regardless, the 30 day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress." https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-trump-pardons-jan-6-f6e23bcd84eaed672318c88f05286767 Rioters locked up for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were released while judges began dismissing dozens of pending cases Tuesday after President Donald Trump’s sweeping grant of clemency to all 1,500-plus people charged in the insurrection that shook the foundation of American democracy. With the stroke of a pen on his first day back in the White House, Trump’s order upended the largest prosecution in Justice Department history, freeing from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after his 2020 election loss. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-administration-says-gulf-america-name-change-now-official-2025-01-24/ The Trump administration's Interior Department said on Friday it had officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and the Alaskan peak Denali to Mount McKinley. U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the name changes as part of a flurry of executive actions hours after taking office on Monday, making good on a campaign promise. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/06/elon-musk-asks-if-us-should-liberate-britain.html America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government Yes 58% No 42% 1,998,221 votes - Final results https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/09/world/musk-livestream-afd-weidel-germany-intl/index.html Elon Musk praised the co-leader of the German party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as “very reasonable” on Thursday, urging Germans to vote for the far-right party in what is the latest high-profile sign of the tech billionaire’s involvement in European politics. “Only AfD can save Germany, end of story, and people really need to get behind AfD, and otherwise things are going to get very, very much worse in Germany,” Musk said during an audio livestream alongside party co-leader Alice Weidel on X. https://www.ibtimes.com/elon-musk-time-germans-move-past-guilt-far-right-afd-rally-3761020 The AfD, widely viewed as Germany's most controversial political force, has been accused of fostering xenophobia and undermining democratic values. ... "There is too much focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that," Musk added. ... His comments aligned with AfD rhetoric, praising the party as Germany's "best hope" for the future. "It's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything," Musk said. https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-the-far-right-is-weaponizing-nazi-history-in-germany/ On Jan. 23, lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) walked out of an official Holocaust commemoration event in Munich, in protest of a speech critical of the party from an 86-year-old survivor. But this time, the backlash was muted. “There was no massive outcry,” said Josef Janning, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. The stunt was hardly new for the AfD, which in recent years has sought to downplay the crimes of the Nazi era and challenge the central role of the Holocaust in German cultural memory. Senior figures in the party have demanded an end to the “guilt cult” around Nazi-era crimes, dismissed the Third Reich as “just bird shit” in the scope of German history, derided a Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame”, and insisted that Germans have the right to feel proud of their ancestors who fought in the Second World War. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/far-right-german-legislator-arrested-after-sieg-heil-salutes-heard-2023-10-30/ A legislator with the far-right Alternative for Germany party was arrested on Monday on charges including displaying forbidden totalitarian symbols, with neighbours of his fraternity complaining of often hearing the Nazi "Sieg Heil" victory salute. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-69012813 Björn Höcke, who leads the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the state of Thuringia, was on trial for saying the words "Everything for Germany!" at a May 2021 rally. The slogan is associated with the SA stormtroopers, who played a key role in the Nazis' rise to power. Höcke - a former history teacher - had denied knowing the phrase's roots. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-poisoning-blood-remarks-never-knew-hitler-said-rcna130958 The former president said Friday that he didn't know Hitler had used the term, but he has repeated it throughout the week after the comparison was made by critics. ... Former President Donald Trump on Friday defended his recent remarks about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of America, saying he never knew it was language used by Adolf Hitler. https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/08/politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-comparison-response/index.html Donald Trump on Tuesday addressed criticism of a new practice at his rallies that has been compared to the “Heil” salute from Nazi Germany, dismissing the controversy as “ridiculous” before saying he would look into ending it. “I don’t know about the Hitler comparison. I hadn’t heard that, but it’s a terrible comparison. I’m not happy about that certainly,” Trump said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Recently, Trump has started asking voters to raise their right hand and pledge to support him – creating an image that some have argued evokes the rise of Adolf Hitler, particularly when coupled with his sharp rhetoric toward minority groups like Mexicans and Muslims. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sebastian-gorka-made-nazi-linked-vitezi-rend-proud-wearing-its-n742851 Possible salutes (and smug ones at that): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyDnFKz20Lc https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1i68puj/have_we_learned_nothing/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1iugh5w/steve_bannon_sieg_heils_during_cpac_speech/ https://youtu.be/z4rqyQoTEdg?si=sA8NDrVnlGfcU1bZ&t=909 Not salutes: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/musk-kamala-harris-salute/ submitted by /u/EsperGri to r/self [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
EsperGri |
Jan 22, 2025 |
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26 year pilot, just witnessed something I cannot explain.
Time: 01/04/2025 2318Z Location: 20 miles NE of Williamsport Airport(KIPT) @ 30,000ft I've been flying corporate aviation the better part of 16 years. Flown all over the world and many of my hours have been at night, I'm accustomed to seeing how things are supposed to look. Never seen anything unexplained in all my career, the wildest would be a newly launched Starlink chain and some rocket launches.. Last year I invested in a very high spec pair of NVG goggles, mainly to look at the stars from home and to hike around in the woods with at night. I like bringing them on flights at night to look at the stars. This particular trip we were heading to Newark NJ (KEWR) from the Western US. Having been following the "drone" situation out there and this being a night flight I was looking forward to bringing my NVGs on this particular flight. We were cruising at 45,000 ft Eastbound and the sun began to set. We started our descent around 300 miles from our destination. It was dark enough around 250 miles out that I could start using my goggles. At 250 miles away the entire area around NY, NJ & PA looked like the cameras on the red carpet at the Oscars from all the strobe lights on aircraft over the East Coast. You could see plenty of stars, satellites & even watched the ISS overhead. Upon descending through around 33,000 ft, and with my naked eye and that of my co-pilot, we saw an incredibly bright bluish light, approximately our altitude, and roughly 10 miles away at my 11 0'clock.(I was in the left seat flying). Distances can be deceiving at night and I came up with that distance based on the size of the light, it was rather large. I should also point out we had nothing on our TCAS(a traffic collision avoidance system using transponders of aircraft), nor anything on Foreflight using ADS-B. The light was getting larger and heading directly at us at approximately our altitude(at this point we were reaching 28,000 ft). I looked through my goggles to get a different view and zero strobe lights or a beacon flashing were showing. Just a round single point of light. The point of light shifted from heading directly towards us to moving past our left wing. It passed within I would approximate 3 miles, staying incredibly bright past my 10'o'clock, 9 o'clock, & upon reaching my 8 o'clock position the light shut off, and a single flashing red light appeared. Throughout this event I switched between looking at it with my naked eye and back to the goggles. I got a very clear view of it directly off my left side through the goggles. It was an oblong sort of circle with a single point of very bright light shining straight at us, like a car in headlights. Its speed was not anything unusual and was about the speed of a normal aircraft passing by. I tried running through a series things to disprove what I saw. Normally climbing through 18,000ft you turn off your landing lights and are left with just your strobes and a beacon lights. Okay so maybe they forgot to turn them off all the way up to 28,000ft and also forgot to turn their strobe and beacon on, which is highly unlikely but possible. The really weird thing is that as it passed my and went to my 8 o'clock position the landing lights face forward, these would not have looked like a spotlight shining at me. My next thought was maybe they had the wing light on(this illuminates the leading edge of the wing to look for ice). If this were the case it was slightly above my altitude and still would not have looked as bright or direct as this did(even with the naked eye it was incredibly bright. The the fact the light simply turned off and a blinking red light appeared(which I saw through the goggles and my naked eye), was very strange. Also, had we been down at a much lower altitude I would have chocked it up to a helicopter with a rotating spotlight mounted on it, but I've never seen a helicopter up at 33,000ft. Also ATC would have informed us of aircraft at that location and altitude, and our TCAS would have shown an aircraft. My one regret was not calling ATC to ask if an aircraft was at that location, even though it did not look like one. Also I did not bother with a video because they never show up correctly at night and I didn't want my attention diverted away from simply observing what I was seeing. No clue what that was but it was strange. I've included a screenshot of us on ADS-B, no aircraft meeting that location, altitude or description. The one 737 to the almost 6 o'clock position in the screengrab was at 38,000 feet and not in the correct location or direction of travel from what I observed. My aircraft is the blue one lowest in the image. Anyway, that was strange. https://preview.redd.it/9st529cvr3be1.png?width=1844&format=png&auto=webp&s=7842f5b54c91951e578fe10add42a47e073d2ef0 submitted by /u/EllensActualStuntDbl to r/UFOs [link] [comments]
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reddit.com |
EllensActualStuntDbl |
Jan 5, 2025 |