Any level with a low number can be controlled by elites. Debate can be done on forums. Good ideas go up, bad ideas go down in flames.

To add to the other response the leaders of both nationalities were veterans of the Prague Spring. They had no appetite for more violence. Could you truly say the same of the US?

Congratulations on finding a split I missed though.

Anyone under the delusion that splitting a country can be peaceful should research any split since the idea of nationalism took hold. India and Pakistan are still the odds on favorite to kill us all with a nuclear winter.

I don’t believe that. Not the same America that elected Obama. I think Trump’s first term convinced people he wouldn’t be that bad compared to a party that tried to do a “Weekend at Bernie’s” with their candidate. This is a different Trump than we had last time. This one is willing to do every word of what he says. And that caught people by surprise.

In this specific case? We’ve spent the last two decades watching overly broad anti terrorism laws get passed under the implicit agreement they wouldn’t be abused. Then comes Trump. Americans have been asleep at the wheel since the 1970’s. That’s part of why right wing rhetoric keeps getting more extreme. They need to keep their voting base engaged. Most people don’t want anything to do with politics. If that doesn’t change then no amount of reform will prevent us from voting ourselves out of a democracy.

Suuure. Temporary. Just like when IT strung that wire across the ceiling…

The US Marshals are actually organized under the DOJ. Meaning they’ll just fire any Marshal that obeys that order.

Nope, news everywhere has been fucking this headline up. SCOTUS defined the government’s duty as requesting his release politely and allowing him back in if El Salvador does release him. The previous ruling would have forced the state department to tell El Salvador they must do it, or else. This is a far lower standard and will not be enough to get him released because the leadership in El Salvador knows Trump doesn’t want the guy to come back.

They put a lot of people in the cells, not just 2 or 3. So they are quite large and still quite crowded.

Oh no you’re reading this wrong. SCOTUS just gave them permission. They said they must “facilitate” and that the lower courts order to “effectuate” was likely an over step.

The payload here is that facilitating means they’ll send an official request that El Salvador will officially deny and then tell everyone they did everything they were ordered to do.

Oh they’re clearly moving to make that outdated. They want to turn any protestor into a terrorist.

It has to be used the right way too. If you just hold a sign and go home then nothing changes. That’s the consensus building and demands phase. When you have critical mass and demands aren’t met you burn down police stations and setup autonomous zones. The problem with both of those wasn’t that they happened it was that the people fell for the media’s demonization of them.

I keep telling people this. To add, armed conflicts have a nasty habit of hardening a country. Getting rights back after it’s over is a pain, even if the “good guys” win. If you can manage change by overwhelming numbers in the street then it’s far better.

Somebody has to give them orders. It’s not like it happens magically. And we’ve spent 70 years building an officer corps willing to tell presidents no. And at the lower levels I’m not going to deny he’ll find people willing to do his dirty work. The military is a reflection of society. But that works both ways and there’s a giant difference between a military willing to act as a whole and having to find people willing to follow orders.

They also require a high school degree and an entrance exam. And officers are sourced solely from University graduates.

This is not your grandpa’s military.

I’d love to see a source for that. Afaik nobody did an active duty poll this time. And in 2020 the military voted blue.

It’s already happened, last time Trump was president. The Joint Chiefs told him no to his face.

Honestly, even when they were ideologues, they’re 17 or 18 years old and have been fed Americana mythology their entire lives. Many of them didn’t realize it was all bullshit until later. But they do usually realize it.

That’s not really true. He has the unwavering support of really old veterans who got the same fox news pill as the other boomers. The serving military voted blue in 2020. The Military Times elected not to do a poll in 2024…

There are very vocal service members who support him but the military as a whole does not and is not a fan of Hegseth fucking around in the DoD either. For example one published plan has us divesting our only mobile firepower platforms (strykers), just as the war in Ukraine is making everyone else want them. And F-47 did not go unnoticed either. The Air Force went from a study wondering if we needed NGAD to selecting a vendor without a flyoff and naming it. That thing is going to get ditched January 21st 2029. Then Hegseth is fucking around with physical fitness tests which is actually promotions, schools, and unit qualifications. This is making the most deadly parts of military dislike him. For example we’ve had women working with Delta for 20 years. First of all Delta isn’t giving them up, 20 years ago women were officially banned from combat and that didn’t stop them. Second it just conditions them to be anti-administration. So when they get ordered to go get an American “insurgent” who held a sign outside a Tesla dealership one too many times, they may just refuse.

If they’re willing to take democratic signatures then Trump can’t stop it.