this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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Senior Democrats in US cities are preparing to defend their communities in the event of Donald Trump’s return to the White House after the former president has repeated threats that he would use presidential powers to seize control of major urban centers.

Trump has proposed deploying the military inside major cities largely run by Democrats to deal with protesters or to crush criminal gangs. He has threatened to dispatch large numbers of federal immigration agents to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people in so-called “sanctuary” cities.

He also aims to obliterate the progressive criminal justice policies of left-leaning prosecutors.

“In cities where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order … I will not hesitate to send in federal assets including the national guard until safety is restored,” Trump says in the campaign platform for his bid to become the 47th US president, Agenda47.

Trump provoked uproar earlier this week when he called for US armed forces to be deployed against his political rivals – “the enemy within” – on election day next month. But his plans to use national guard troops and military personnel as a means to attack those he sees as his opponents go much wider than that, spanning entire cities with Democratic leadership.

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[–] Gumbyyy@lemmy.world 1 points 11 minutes ago

But the constitution forbids the US military from operating within the borders of the US! Surely that'll stop him from ever being able to do this! Right? Right?????

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 1 points 33 minutes ago

I think the information is good, but they really need to actually talk about military leaders. It's basically known that the military should not be operating within the US borders, with the exception of national guard, and that with strict limits. We know, because military leaders have told us, that they have discussed what they would do if Trump gave unconstitutional orders. But we don't know the details, and we don't know who has decided what. Of course it's difficult for people to go public with hypothetical responses to that kind of blatant abuse of Presidential power. But it's still something that needs to be mentioned.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 10 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

mass deportations of undocumented people

I feel like this is something that won't really happen. Despite conservative rhetoric and posturing about closed borders, the reality is that major parts of our economy - like agriculture, meat packing, restaurants and construction - are utterly dependent on undocumented immigrant labor. Mass deportations would be insanely difficult to actually achieve, and would cause enormous economic upheaval, what with the fact that fucking food and housing are apparently important to people. Not to say that conservatives would really give a shit about that, but the people hiring all these undocumented workers and exploiting their cheap labor are generally conservative and wouldn't want their cash cows disrupted.

On the other hand, I didn't think they would really do anything much about abortion either, since that's such a major thing to fire their base up about. I should probably never underestimate their willingness to destroy the whole country in order to hurt what passes for the Left here.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 7 points 56 minutes ago

I should probably never underestimate their willingness to destroy the whole country in order to hurt what passes for the Left here.

I think we should take them at their word. They are insane enough to do a wide variety of terrible things and ruin the country. As far as their rich backers go, everyone thinks they can control the monster they've unleashed until it's too late.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 1 points 1 hour ago

I think it's the threat that is the point. Maybe the efforts won't reach the critical "mass deportations" but the purpose is to make migrants scared.

[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 36 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Correct, so maybe we could stop protesting Harris over Israel until AFTER the fucking election?

Just saying, we should probably stop the genocide coming for us before we try to stop the one not in our backyard? I mean it's going to be harder to get Israel to stop bombing Palestinian children and give humanitarian aide to said children while we're lined up for Trump's gas chambers

signed, a transgender woman who don't want to end up in a mass grave full of other AMAB individuals all of us wearing pink triangles!

[–] Machinist@lemmy.world 9 points 3 hours ago

Fucking right?! Hate is being preached from the pulpit every Sunday supporting this clown and the machine pulling his strings.

In many places in this country our queer brothers and sisters are in mortal danger. These people hate and demonize the different and the other. It's an old playbook, but, it sure does work.

If you don't think the machine would put our people in camps; you're wearing blinders and don't know your history. Lives depend on this election.

[–] zbyte64@awful.systems 0 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

People said the same of Biden but protesting him got us Harris.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 25 points 12 hours ago

No not ''at risk''. This is his NUMBER ONE policy promise. He's running on this. Explicitly. Why are we pretending it's not?

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 30 points 14 hours ago

So, ghettoes. And not the US ghettoes of the 60s and 70s, but the German ghettoes of the 30s and 40s.

[–] AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social 128 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I feel like everyone forgot what happened last time.

People in unmarked vans with no identifying patches or badges, just fatigues, grabbing people off the streets at night in the northwest.

Even worse than the official fascists, the unofficial ones who were emboldened to act with impunity, riding into cities and inciting violence. Attempting to run Kamala's bus off the road in 2020 in Texas.

Dems run like they want to lose. Always conceding the arguments of the fascists. Touting the endorsement of monsters like Dick Cheney. The kinds of monsters who made the Republican party what it is today.

If "senior democrats" actually gave a shit about avoiding conflict in the US, they'd actually be fighting for universal voting rights and eliminating FPTP voting.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 14 points 17 hours ago

You hit it on the head. The unmarked vans, unbadged troops, people "disappearing"--those were their practice drills and how they'll do it. Uniformed troops will also be used in some situations (like the mass deportations), but the ones doing the daily dirty work against any demonstrators, specific political targets, etc. ("the enemy within") will be those incognito forces. 😧

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 25 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Oh, I fuckin remember.

Honestly, if Trump somehow pulls out a win - and definitely, if he pulls out a win with some very clearly bullshit tactics involving GOP congressional leaders and the Tribunal of Six - I am completely serious when I say I expect an order of magnitude increase of political violence, up to and including a potential civil war. It’s that bad.

[–] in4aPenny@lemmy.world 7 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I think it's important to contextualize what a civil war in America nowadays would look like. It will be military vs police, national guard vs army, civilians vs government, etc. etc. Most Americans don't even have a shared history anymore, let alone present.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve gone back and forth on what to do in the event of a Trump win. I’m honestly not sure what I should do at this point. Like yeah, I live here, and I want to defend the place I grew up in from fascists… but if the government just converts to fascism, I’m not sure there’s a way to save this place in it’s current incarnation. It’ll probably be Balkanized to one degree or another after a LOT of messy conflict. And the corollary there is that we won’t be backstopping global stability, like, at all any more, which will have a shitload of absolutely horrific effects in so, so many regions. And yeah - I get that a lot of countries resent American hegemony. As an American, we’ve done a pretty shit job of “defending democracy” (largely because authoritarian regimes are the more stable option for basing agreements). But at the same time, I can guaran-fucking-tee you that Russian and CCP hegemony will be worse.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

I want to leave too, but let me ask you this...

Where are you going to go that is safe from a doomsday cult with access to enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a few times over?

We can make a bigger difference here, keeping the fascists too busy trying to get and maintain complete control to let those apocalypse dogs off their doom chains.

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 15 hours ago

A civil war is the only thing that can pull the US out of a Trump win, because fascists never give up power by choice and no one is coming to save us

[–] horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world 34 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Mega donors don't want anti fascist rhetoric because it cuts into the profit margins

[–] AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social 26 points 21 hours ago

It's almost as if fascism and unbridled capitalism have some kind of a mutually beneficial relationship.

Weird.

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[–] celsiustimeline@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (4 children)

Deploy the National Guard all you want. The Armed Forces of the United States of America swear an oath to the Constitution, not the President. It would be unprecedented for the NG to be deployed in such a manner to "democrat cities", so this is purely hypothetical, but the Armed Forces as a general rule, do not fire on civilians or otherwise restrict the rights of civilians without just provocation or reason. Yes, Kent State is a famous example of when the National Guard opened fire and killed unarmed civilians exercising their 1st Amendment rights, and the aftermath of Kent State is why the National Guard will think long and hard about ever doing that again. It would make the George Floyd riots look like a picnic.

[–] AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 3 points 11 hours ago

It wouldn't even be the first time people were deported over political ideology.

[–] kboy101222@sh.itjust.works 41 points 19 hours ago (20 children)

Man, you have way more confidence in the military not being full of MAGA idiots than I do.

As someone constantly surrounded by people in the military - they're almost all MAGA idiots, and the ones who aren't are fence sitting "libertarians" who go right wing every time.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Curious are you surrounded by Marines? Because all the other branches poll about 30 approve /70 disapprove on Trump specifically. And the military has told him he can't order this stuff before.

[–] kboy101222@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

That's weird then because Army and Navy really aren't the pro-trump branches. Marines are on top for some reason, probably because they're already kind of a cult. Then Air Force who pushes Christian Evangelism in the ranks. Then Army and lastly the Navy. The Army specifically hates trump for his actions as president. When he stole school funding from their kids and denied people were getting injured by Iranian rockets. To be clear this doesn't mean the branches don't still lean conservative. But if trump ordered them to go against all of their trained ethics they'd tell him to pound sand.

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[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

US will get a taste of its own medicine nothing else.

[–] MoonRaven@feddit.nl 9 points 20 hours ago

I guess he's seen the episode of deep space nine and thought it would be a good idea...

[–] oce@jlai.lu 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Do we have any idea of what military heads are thinking about that? Are they enthusiastic, mixed, or ready to oppose their commander in chief?

[–] Theprogressivist@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 23 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

But on the flip side: go into any mess hall, on any base, and tell me what is on the tv for the news channel. I can guarantee that you won’t like the answer.

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