No one in the government is going to do anything about it. They'll argue about it, but nothing will be done. They all bow and lick the boot of a fucking clown. Trump, with a lot of help from billionaires and the media, lied and manipulated his way into power, but he's just a mouthpiece and easily manipulated himself. He's not smart enough to come up with any of this. The fact that 33%+ of the country's population thinks he's a genius is sickening.
Immigration is the horror show they're going to use as a distraction while they pass Christofascist laws, all while Trump and his new billionaire buddies loot the country. I would suggest everyone actually read Project 2025 and see what their future plans are.
Most power is freely given in authoritarian regimes. We should fight back, not give up hope. We should call and write our representatives in congress.
This was a law that went throught congress first. 12 democrats voted for it. Those Democrats we should be flooded with our thoughts and feelings on the issue.
Republicans as well. I'd like to believe there are a few left who don't agree with what's going on, but are too spineless to do anything about it. Maybe guilt and pressure can make them fight next time.
We should fight too and nail with everything we have. We haven't totally lost our democracy until they shred the constitution and write a new one, or pack it with amendments.
Seriously. Americans act like scared puppies, barking but backing down when facing an inbred orange pomeranian.
The people have the power. Organize statewide protests, block roads, and mobilize the working class to stand against fascism. Be more like the French citoyens.
Stop waiting for someone else to save your asses. This is 2016 all over again, when you pinned your hopes on Mueller or some other investigator. No one is coming.
Every member of the military needs to be reminded that they are obligated to disobey illegal orders. They can be criminally charged for obeying an unlawful order.
Every member of the military needs to be reminded that the Posse Comitatus act prohibits the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement activities.
And every member of the military needs to be reminded that immigration is a law enforcement issue, not a military issue.
One final reminder to every military officer: The statute of limitations on these crimes extends well beyond Trump's term. They can be prosecuted under the next president.
I would like for the civilized world to do a full trade embargo on the US. I want the economy to nosedive so hard that either the GOP votes to remove the motherfucker from office, or get crushed in the biggest electoral landslide in history in 2026.
As a Canadian, it really really sucks that we have to hurt our friends to help them, or you'll hurt us all worse. It really sucks that you, personally, had to say those things too, but it's also brave, and makes me hopeful that we can get through this.
I feel like the sane world needs to make a global Alliance where if America tarriffs any country in the membership, everyone else responds with similar tarriffs.
America needs to learn that it isn't alone in the world and it can't survive in its current state without friends.
Poor Columbia having to give in to America's demands over coffee, if they had an alliance with other countries maybe they could have said fuck you Trump.
That is probably the most effective thing that could happen. But if they won't do it to Israel for committing genocide then I doubt they'd do it for it's political doppelgänger.
I think it's more likely they'll go after us than go after Israel, because the world doesn't have centuries or millenia of anti American bigotry stored up that in a twisted fashion leads them to let the Israeli government do whatever it wants to poor Muslims as long as that means there's a Jewish state.
What complicates matters is all the military power we have and the certainty most people have that Trump would order it to attack anyone who embargoes us.
the unfortunate thing here, is that the US and the USD is so integral to global trade, that we would probably experience a global economic downturn similar to that of the great depression.
I'm almost as disappointed in the rest of the world not standing up to the USA as I am disappointed in my fellow citizens' abdication of social and civic responsibility, common decency, and basic humanity.
The only problem with accelerationism, is that sometimes it accelerates in a direction we didn't expect or want.
It's very possible that whatever terrible consequences befall our political body have been planned well in advance by people smarter than us, or those in the cameras, and this whole thing is the groundwork for actually seizing and abolishing democracy.
Best case, we depose a wanna-be despot because things go to shit.
More likely case: we get both concentration camps AND a dictator.
It’s very possible that whatever terrible consequences befall our political body have been planned well in advance by people smarter than us, or those in the cameras, and this whole thing is the groundwork for actually seizing and abolishing democracy.
Gitmo should have been shut down two decades ago. Torture, waterboarding, "advanced interrogation techniques" ... don't think we forgot about that. It's a shame that no American president had the courage to close down dirty military institutions.
Stop. This is so fucked up. This has nothing to do with president's of christmas past. This is the current president opening a concentration camp. Just stop with this false equivalence.
Edit: the both siders are really coming in in force now.
Edit2: It's really sad after everything people would upvote this both sides bullshit. If we put kamala in the white house do you think there is even a 1% chance she would open a concentration camp at gitmo? 40+ people upvoted this propaganda and haven't learned a god damn thing.
You had 2 Democratic presidents since it opened. It's a legitimate criticism. Trump is using existing infrastructure that could've been dismantled.
Same with the patriot act and surveillance state: the thing that we warned everyone about is going to happen: the President has a ridiculous amount of power that is going to be abused (even more) now. But the bipartisan consensus was that terrorism was worth giving up your rights and privacy for.
Kind of jumping into the middle of yours and his here, but quite frankly the ghosts of our past are ALWAYS relevant and pretending things should be changed or answered for in the bubble of "here and now" does no good when anticipating the effects down the line. Torture has been shown to be ineffective and counterproductive. Many voters opposed Citizens United, yet it was passed under Obama. Many citizens opposed the Patriot Act, citing it's opportunity to be misused to indefinitely hold people. And sure enough Bush signed it and we are still dealing with the repurcussions.
Both Obama AND Biden ran on the platform to close Guantanamo so it could not be misused, and did not. Could Trump have reopened it? Sure! But then we'd be faulting him for reopening it AND using it as a camp. It's not "both sides nonsense" to say that if Obama had succeeded in it before he left office, we wouldn't be in this position. (The earliest I could find with quick Google) He stated as early as 2009 in a press release he aimed to do so, and had 7 years after that to get the votes together, ultimately handing it off to Trump in 2016 with 0 inmates because he failed to get a vote to approve it. Trump didn't close it for obvious reasons, and then Biden had 4 years to take his crack at it and also failed to close it. And now, here we sit almost 20 years later with bushes prison island still open, being used for the same evil bush used it for - hiding people from the press so those nasty headlines stop because they can't access the island.
Over turning Bush II's policies were the primary reason I voted for Obama. Since then, I've only depressingly voted for democrats on the basis that they would at least slow the rise of fascism.
This isn't "both sides", but if we couldn't get gitmo closed with democrats, how could we do it with bold faced fascists?
Dude, fascism didn't spring into being fully formed out of nothing on the dawn of January 20th, just as the Roman Republic didn't crumble in a day. It's been decades and decades of baby steps towards this point, until we finally got to where things could get much worse all at once. Yeah, Kamala wouldn't have made gitmo into a concentration camp, but she wouldn't have dismantled the machinery built by the war on terror and the war on drugs that the fascists are using right now. Let's not oversell it; at best, she would've kicked the can down the road another four years. Our past leaders all had chances and made commitments to close gitmo, and they had the perfect authority to do so, and then decided that they could wield the tools of fascism wisely rather than destroying them so that a future fascist wouldn't have them just laying around.
Yes, I am against concentration camps, I just wish that our previous decades of leadership had been too. If we're going to do accountability, let's do accountability.
If we put kamala in the white house do you think there is even a 1% chance she would open a concentration camp at gitmo?
I believe that having the choice to either expand gitmo, close gitmo, or do nothing and leave it for the next republican to deal with, she would choose to do nothing about it, which is still better then Trump and why I voted for her, but it was a depressing vote. She is not more progressive then Obama and Obama did not close gitmo. You don't gently wine down Auschwitz.
I was excited when Obama won and would close gitmo. I was hopeful that Biden would have a huge program to reunite the separated families. I begrudgingly voted for the cop that the DNC thought was a good idea after months of BLM protests. I'm burnt out now.
How many people has Donald Trump had tortured...so far? His crimes still pale in comparison to George W Bush, who should have been hanged by the neck until dead as the war criminal he is.
This has everything to do with past presidents. They all wanted Guantanamo Bay to stay open so they could torture and imprison people. They did, and now Trump is.
It's not like nobody could have predicted this. It's not like nobody told them, "You should stop torturing people, stop imprisoning them there, and close the place down." ... In fact, they all heard that advice and ignored it, because they were happy to forget about human rights.
Of course Trump is doing terrible things, and this is one of them. But he's not the first, and he certainly won't be the last. And what you wrote about Kamala is on-point, but you don't even see it, do you. Would she have closed Guantanamo Bay down? Of course not. Because she feels the same way.
In the presidential campaign, when Trump said he would help out the average person, yet he filled his cabinet with nazi billionaires. I mean, what are we to believe, a criminal is held accountable, or something? Ha ha, boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
Biden made a gesture, but it was feckless and performative. He EO'd not renewing DOJ contracts with geogroup and core civic, but the current contracts stayed in place and were years from expiration. And, it was just DOJ which does not include ICE. Geo and core run the majority of these detention compounds on the border. They have been buying political influence with the money they get from government contracts. Of course Trump is all in for it. They have been lining his pockets for a long time. The more people locked up, the more money they make. And by "they" I am referring to shareholders, which consist of cops and teachers and other municipal workers who have their pensions invested in geo and core. Capitalism has started to eat its own tail.
call these camps or detention centers whatever you want. It is the wrong language. These places are not owned and ran by the US gov. They are owned and ran by mostly 2 companies. Geogroup, and core civic. I encourage everyone to learn this, and to relay it. Instead of getting rid of these compounds, we need to get rid of these companies who have turned our justice department into a for profit billion $$$ industry. These companies are publicly traded. Cops and teachers have their pensions invested in them. YOU could have investments in them and not even know it. Esp if you work for the government
It is highly unlikely that anyone will be able to do anything about this, or any of the other many shotgun shenanigans rolling out of the White House of late. They've got all three branches of the federal government, laws clearly do not apply, and Trump himself has explicit permission from SCOTUS to commit crimes.
Any opportunity to stop all of this was at the beginning of November.
No, there is no stopping it, not any time soon. If there's a midterm election, there might be a chance of wresting back one (or one half) of those branches of government, but even if Democrats take control of one or both houses, they don't have the best track record of doing anything about it.
It will not end well, and when shit goes sideways, it's gonna happen fast.
Yes, I already did, even before this particular news broke out...
I tried to individually tell every one I know IRL (which is not too many ppl sadly), basically told every single one of them to consider back-up career options... There are a couple of 1-year exchange students from Europe in my floor and I have not-subtly hinted at them to make contingency plans for PhD training back home. I've been following the news very carefully recently so I can share relevant items as soon as possible... The people need to know. I've even considered making know-your-rights printouts before they claimed they're doing an ICE raid in Chicago, but realized how little resources I have for that... I absolutely will do something. Not sure what it is but I can't see society go this way.
I just feel bad that as a non-US citizen there is only so little I can do... I don't even know if I could join a protest without being considered for deportation at this rate. Am planning my leave as well so there's that.
Funny incident, I blurted out to my family 2-months ago that Trump will probably build a concentration camp and was told to shut the F up... Murphy's law I suppose
I don't know what gymnastics you've already seen, but I think they share some blame. I agree Trump proposing to send migrants to Guantanamo falls on Trump and Trump alone. However, Obama and Biden both campaigned on closing Guantanamo and claimed it was a priority for their legacy. Both had 2 terms each to do so. Both could have done so with executive orders without the need of congress. But as soon as they were elected you never heard about it again. Because Dems don't want to close Guantanamo. They want to have an offshore prison where they can detain people without due process and torture them on foreign soil. Dems love the police state and Dems love military expansionism as much as Republicans. It would be a lot harder for Trump to send people to Guantanamo if the facility had already been shut down and turned over to the Cuban government. So its not the Democrat's fault but it would not have been possible if they had followed through with their campaign promises. So fuck Trump and fuck Elon as well, but let's not pretend the Dems actually have any intention of advancing a progressive or even a populist agenda because they don't.
Thats what I said, they didn't vote at all. Trump votes did increase but only barely. The DNC voters just stayed home because everybody shits on them online.
Poll aggregates projected a trump victory the entire cycle. It is not just suppression or intimidation, it is that we who did vote did not manage to convince everybody else to vote with us.
I saw your deleted comment, so a bit more information. I am currently working with NATO and The UN. Though I can’t ally with a leader who won’t be transparent and meet for a private dinner. In my inherited culture it’s not only a sign of respect but deeply ingrained in history. When tacticians and leaders would meet. It’d be a beautiful and detailed feast. With discussions of plans and otherwise. Most people here act in haste, btw no offence. Voting for a leader is much more than a face, or speeches. To properly vote for someone. One must understand them and to me. That is hearing them face to face speaking. I also contacted Trump with a very bold message. Like how I thought he was the reincarnation of Hitler. Though I came to question certain things but even then. I offer my services as a tactician for hire. Though I will make sure all your ideas are done ethically. You can probably guess he didn’t answer since he only wants loyalist. But I was never going to vote for him for sure.
It matters for all of us, we have a way to contact the whole world at our fingertips.
What we desperately needed and still need now is to support the DNC without fail, to convince people to vote blue no matter who. With better outreach we can right all the wrongs, with 60 D senators we can pass everything needed to fix this nation.
Simple I couldn’t vote due to. Kamala deciding to stay silent in my offers. I don’t align with speeches but visions. I asked for a private dinner to discuss these future.
Gonna be tough to stop the creation of the camp since it’s in Cuba but there are orgs that are rolling out strategies to protect people in their communities from getting caught up in this. Check out your local orgs and see who is working on this and cooperate with them.
Internet search for ICE watch and your city or region would be a good place to start. And I know people hate Reddit but a lot of people on my local sub are talking about this too.
I am upset about it but what else can we do? I think looking to follow the lead of those who have been working on this issue for longer is the right place to start at least. Maybe we will need to go further but first we need to connect offline.
This was exactly the same approach the Australian government took with its 'pacific solution'. Offshore detention into remote, hard to access locales, classify all reporting of 'illegal immigration' under national security laws. Makes getting news in and out nearly impossible.
I sent a text to those I love in any capacity, even former coworkers who’ve probably deleted my number. Not a group text - one by one. I think it’d be prudent for all US readers to consider doing the same.
Knowing some of you are like me, in that you might not know how to word such a text to someone not expecting it from you, I offer you my copy/pasted text:
A consideration to the ending of slavery in the United States was the advent of photography. Film was used to share the horror of the Nazi concentration camps in WW2 because they knew there would be people who deny history. Israel denied access and targeted journalists in Gaza for over a year for a reason.
Public perception sways from indifference to protests when they can't look away from the destructive results. It's the whole reason black sites like Guantanamo Bay exist in the first place and were used to hold extradited citizens without due process for years, they want to pretend the Constitution doesn't exist and they haven't sworn oaths to it and will do everything they can to hide their crimes.
Maybe we can start by looking at all the corporations who are most supporting him, and push hard for boycotts. It might be slightly indirect, but corporate partners do seem to have the most influence on policy decisions. Maybe we could make a document in the style of the PrivacyGuides project to help people choose alternatives to fascist supporters.
I've seen posts on Mastodon calling for the general strike as well.
General strike is the way to go. It's like peaceful protesting but it's devastating to the thing they care about most. Older gen are mostly trumpets so they also get hit when their generational wealth drys up and they get to be the ones worrying about making rent.
I've been saying it but most people are hard programed not to question anything and never stick their neck out. I would have hoped concentration camps would be a line in the sand but just look, all over the this post people are obsfucating who is responsible. They think it's important to assign blame to democrats, an almost irrelevant factor, after they proved they can no longer win elections at a national level.
Anyway, I'll be there with you when the strike hits. By that I mean the strike of the billy club as they throw me in a patty wagon for dissent.
While you're right that this is what will change course for the nation, not many people get is exactly WHAT a "general strike" really is.
There is no possible way we can get enough people on board with toppling the current administration that they will shut down basically the whole world. A general strike shuts down everything and I mean EVERYTHING. The amount of economic damage an event like this could do is astronomical, factories will burn, shipping lanes will choke, services will go out.
Ideally it would only last a couple days, but a general strike is basically a military action by a nation's citizens, an organized resistance that crushes a country's entire function. When the wealthy suddenly stop making money, it can permanently ruin them because of the way capital is tied through everything. They really, really don't want to see even less-general strikes, and will do everything imaginable to prevent it from happening.
I dunno man....are you? I can't afford to go to prison. I have three kids that rely on me for sustenance and a house. Nothing that Trump administration does is going to make life more difficult for me currently. I'm emailing politicians, trying to make good points online, and protest. I think that's all I can do right now. Now, if my family is threatened, or I can no longer provide for my family, then we'll talk again.
The people in power that are supposed to stop this aren't. AOC is trying to rally people, but not sure how effective it's going to be yet.
Anything you do as an individual is likely to fail and only make things way, way worse. So you tell me man....what should I do that I'm not already doing?
Joining an armed resistance has a high chance of death. Turns out a lot of people like being alive. I can see why other countries saw a bit more resistance too, when your country voted for it there is probably an impression many support it
Yup. I've seen in my own family. Started in November with the anti Nazi talk. Then around Christmas the Biden whataboutisms started: Yeah but Biden is actually doing stuff Trump started so they are both bad. Now I am hearing the same points @alteon made. Anything to keep from doing the right thing and fight fascism bc I have an early meeting, the kids have soccer practice, well I don't see any of it so its not as bad as the internet makes it sound, blah blah blah.
Is there anything Americans could do to petition other countries to help us? ICC or the UN? Or in civil court, could we crowdfund lawyers to sue the government?
The US government does not recognize the ICC. The UN has no power, at most it can sent a stern letter. What could happen is the EU maybe complaining or even sanctioning the US but considering that Germany literally passed an illegal immigration law yesterday(the conservatives with support from the nazis), my hopes are not high.
Human rights is more of an optics(or an excuse) issue, rather than something that governments care about.
America is not a part of the icc any more effectly putting the usa out of reach. Also they were never a signatory to the international declaration for the prevention and punishment for the crime of genocide
About that. One frequently looks to the Executive branch to enforce laws, rulings, and other things of legal import. Exactly how does this work if that arm of the government is found guilty of a crime?
Make a negative post about the US and watch the same people complaining in this thread suddenly become super-"patriotic" and defend the way things are in the US at all cost. You need to redefine what it means to be patriotic IMO. As long as patriotism in the US is understood as reflexively defending what the American government has done at all times, there's nothing anyone outside of the US can do to help.
Patriotism should be looking after the interests of your fellow citizens, and that should routinely mean being opposed to the government, not rallying around it as soon as it's criticized by an "outsider". It's bizarre watching so many people from oppressed minorities being gung-ho flag wavers while the government is planning to put them in internment camps.
It's a great idea, I agree. But people have to realize that a good 40% of the country thinks that holding undocumented immigrants in a military prison indefinitely is hella balls-to-the-fucking-wall awesome. These people are not interested in striking and most of the 60% left over are worried they'll get fired tomorrow if they don't show up to work.
Bruh, more than a third of your voting population didn't bother to vote. That was the best chance to avoid this shitshow. What makes you think they'll go on strike?
Guantanamo bay was a thing ever since 2002. Biden and Obama tried to make it smaller. Trump is trying to grow it. If there was a clear action to be done that ended this abhorrence it would have been done by now already, but it has proved too resilient already. So no, there isn't anything that's gonna be done about it, except grow it as per Trump's request.
Think the only ways to stop this is passing a bill prohibiting using money on GITMO like the Republicans did with the prohibition of spending money to close GITMO.
You just watched over a year of a live-streamed genocide. What makes you think either party is opposed to this? Or that the people will draw the line here?
I think it’s a distinct possibility, obviously there is something going on that he doesn’t want the American people to see. Best case scenario, ill treatment of detainees, worst case scenario, yeah it’s a death camp.
You need to find, pressure, back up, help and signalboost elected politicians who are willing to challenge that. Or civilians going the route of lawsuits. Or Luigy some motherfucker or two, but that's more of a desperate option.
"To understand revolutionary suicide it is first necessary to have an idea of reactionary suicide, for the two are very different. Reactionary suicide: the reaction of a man who takes his own life in response to social conditions that overwhelm him and condemn him to helplessness.”
“I do not think that life will change for the better without an assault on the Establishment, which goes on exploiting the wretched of the earth. This belief lies at the heart of the concept of revolutionary suicide. Thus it is better to oppose the forces that would drive me to self-murder than to endure them. Although I risk the likelihood of death, there is at least the possibility, if not the probability, of changing intolerable conditions.”
“But before we die, how shall we live? I say with hope and dignity; and if premature death is the result, that death has a meaning reactionary suicide can never have. It is the price of self-respect.”
Plenty of not-terminally-online people are organizing to resist mass arrests and deportations. Reach out to your local DSA. My Houston chapter's been great about pulling together legal resources, just for starters.
At this point, beyond enduring, I'm afraid there is no "non violent" options. And to be clear, I don't think non-violent options are going to improve anything, just that there's not much else to do.
Agreed that there is no non-violent way to stop this admin from making concentration camps in Guantanamo, but there are plenty of things you can do to keep people from ending up in those camps without using violence.
Most undocumented people get snatched up outside of their homes. Keeping an eye out for ICE, and breaking their cover is a huge help (Just walk up to them and say 'Hi', ask what they are doing and in general occupy their time with innocuous conversation), you can also provide food and financial assistance to your affected neighbors, as they may be unable to work without getting snatched. Make an emergency plan with them for who to contact, and if they have an immigration lawyer in the case that they get grabbed. If anyone with a badge actually asks about them, you don't know shit, you've never seen shit.
This might be dumb, but what if everyone right now changed our income tax status to where they aren't deducting taxes from our paycheck with the threat of not paying taxes?
He allowed extra-judicial torture practices there against UNHR and any humanitarian objections. He didn't do what Trump is going to, but he allowed it to normalize and continue despite the power to stop it, and makes it less of a leap for a right wing freak to make something like this happen. It's not a "thanks Obama", but people down voting holding Obama to account for keeping it open want Dems to be blameless despite complicity in the neoliberal bullshit dating back to Clinton as the party swung for corporate interests and abandoned their humanity.
Who are you people making this a left v right thing??? How is trump opening a concentration camp housing tens of thousands of people remotely similar to legacy prisons housing what, 36 people?