The White House has found a novel way to ensure Donald Trump’s nominees ascend to power.
Federal judges in the Western District of Washington swore in former King County Superior Court Judge Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney Wednesday morning. Within 54 minutes, Trump fired him.
The district’s 17 federal judges have been trying to find a replacement for Seattle’s First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd, after Trump failed to formally nominate him. Floyd was appointed in October, though his name was never officially advanced to the Senate for consideration.
Federal law grants a district’s judges the power to appoint a U.S. attorney if the president and the acting attorney general fail to do so within 120 days, subsequently stonewalling the procedural Senate hearings.
Couldn’t they just rehire him? (If he’s willing to game this)
Not without waiting the 120 days, or that’s how I’m understanding this game. And if they did, the Administration would probably do the same. It a technically correct method that skirts the spirit of the law.
They’ve been doing this with US Attorneys in several states, to get what they want. They did the same with Tessa Gormon in the same district, and Donald Kinsella in NY.
This is a good topic for LegalEagle or lawfaremedia.org or similar, so watch for something soon.
Spiraling toward a full fascist dictatorship. Hardly anyone trying to stop it.
Another step towards becoming an authoritarian dictatorship and still Americans do nothing.
What should they realistically be doing?
Violent revolution is the only answer, but we won’t do it. So my plan b is to move. Doesn’t solve the world crisis the US is causing, doesn’t solve the rise of fascism, but it at least gives me some breathing room to reset and regroup.
Don’t try to move north. We don’t want servile, shitty cowards up here.
Well, sorry, but CAD is plan b and I already have an employer there willing to assist
Absolute trash. I hope whatever you’re running from catches up first.
If you think Canada will be immune to this fascistic cancer you are very, very wrong.
Once the wheels start moving they will come for Canada and Cuba and Venezuala and Greenland. Mark my words this will happen. We (Canada) will be in the fight from day one, this is more than crystal clear.
They will need to make their move right around November, most probably in a Reichstag fire type moment (maybe they assassinate trump and blame liberals? That would take care of two birds with one stone).
They will tell us that Antifa and the Democrats have done this. They will declare martial law and will start arresting liberals and leftists. After they take the US they will immediately turn their attention outwards.
Our only saving grace is that we will have righteousness on our side and they will have failing moral from invading their closest allies whom they train with constantly.
I have no doubt that Canada will prevail in the coming war but it wont be easy.
Were well aware of all this, thanks.
Been telling you to stop letting your fuckup kid play with matches for ages- in return, you got belligerent and shitty and gave us the finger yelling about freedom and how good you were at fighting. Now that your house is ablaze and threatening to engulf everyone else’s, we we tell you to put it the fuck out and you respond by reminding us that “your house is next” like this isn’t what we’ve been telling you for decades would happen?
“We” will have righteousness on “our” side? No, you’re complicit in what is happening in the US right now. Yes, YOU, personally.
Go fuck yoirself, really. You’re MAGA-lite at best.
You need to learn to read and stop hating.
You have fallen for lies and can’t admit it and it has affected your ability to understand text.
Hate is a powerful drug and you are high on a billionaires supply, congratulations!
Enjoy ICE.
A national shutdown.
Every direction now involves hardship, because there’s no more fair elections till this regime is removed. Peaceful shutdown is the easiest and least bloody.
They failed at the easy option, twice. Running won’t help either because we can’t stop it and it’s not our job to.
People in the USA can’t afford to lose everything by missing even a week of work. I’m dead serious. If you do a shutdown, you will get fired. If you get fired, you will lose your access to healthcare, assuming you have any. There is no housing protection and no food safety net in place to help people who commit to a cause.
Now, let’s say none of that mattered. Something close to 2/3rds of Americans cannot cover an emergent $500 expenditure. To fly from the west coast to DC in order to protest costs about $1000. Driving across the country costs even more.
Now, let’s say none of that mattered. The USA has about 2 million of its citizens in prison at any given time. This doesn’t account for the implementation of concentration camps both throughout the USA and abroad to hold people detained by ICE, including American citizens, some of whom have been deported to countries that they have never been to.
Now, let’s say none of that mattered. Slavery is still 100% legal in the USA as punishment for a crime under the 13th amendment. The cool thing about slaves is that you can assign them to do whatever. Maybe you work a call center for a corporation, maybe you get sent out to fight wildland forest fires, or even disaster relief cleanup. For those that are compensated, the average across state rate is $0.62 per hour. If you refuse to participate, the consequences start with the removal privileges, escalate to solitary confinement, and eventually you get transferred to a higher security facility.
Now, let’s say none of that mattered. While in prison you will be exposed to abuses including but not limited to the following: physical violence, sexual assault, excessive force, and systemic retaliation.
All of this can happen as a result of 1 serious offense, where the seriousness of the offense is determined largely by the current presidential administration. A typical felony case in the US will cost you about $5,000 unless you go with a public defender. A public defender still costs money, but the cost is less and their services are funded through a sliding scale fee based on the defendant’s income, plus court filing fees. While there is no difference in the severity of the outcome of provided by a public defender, there is a difference in the timeline, with public defender caseloads requiring longer timelines to get before the court. It’s not a huge difference, but remember where you would be waiting it out.
So, as a parent in the USA I have to decide if I want to protest against the government. This is an unseen entity on the other side of the country. My job is dope, so I could actually do this. I could buy a ticket, take the time off work, travel to Washington DC, protest, get arrested, pay the money to expedite my trial and return to my family in, let’s say, a calendar year, during which time I would lose my job, income, and healthcare benefits and my daughter cannot go to college or really count on any type of inheritance. I have to decide if that is a price that I am willing to pay. Given that we live in a high surveillance police state, the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of me being caught. This also assumes that the federal government doesn’t gun me down in the streets, which is now a real possibility.
Or I can do nothing, hope that the old fucks in government die off (they are all very old), and generally live a decent life. I know that the government has no qualms about destroying my life or those of my fellow citizens on a large-scale basis. It’s seriously not worth the risk. Does that make me complicit in the atrocities committed by my government both at home and abroad? Sure does. Does it spare me being the victim of those atrocities personally? Sure does.
This isn’t written as an excuse for the average American’s behavior. It is written to provide some insight into why the average American doesn’t take up arms or even publicly resist the government. The average American is scared of losing access to the incredible amount of wealth and privilege that we enjoy. We know that it is all built on outsourced oppression. As long as we don’t make waves, we can enjoy access to shitty food, mass produced culture, and use internet filters to block out the bad news that we don’t want to see.
Where the real money is, in terms of political change in the USA, is lone wolf violence. Not the fake stuff coordinated by the President, but actual nut-job, mass-shooting, cars-into-crowds, crazy home invasion political action. Since I am a regular-ass human being, none of that is reasonable to me. But the other side has people who are sure as shit willing to throw their lives away on a murder charge because they believe, rightfully so, that they have a non-zero chance at a political pardon followed by a boost in income from becoming a minor celebrity to their cause, and literally no access to mental healthcare or opposing viewpoints. Even if my fake-ass “left” political party was in power, I couldn’t get away with that.
So, yeah, that was off-the-cuff and a bit of a ramble, but I hope that it provided some insight to, without condoning, the behavior of the typical American citizen.
Not really, it’s just a summary of the necessity to put up with hardship, the easiest form of it, because they couldn’t take the easy path.
This opinion that we don’t understand because we’re outsiders is just another example of Americans expecting understanding they don’t offer others, over a problem that now threatens the entire world because they couldn’t vote.
Nice story, but it adds nothing. We know they’ll lose jobs and healthcare. It’d take two weeks for a shutdown in just the cities to get Congress acting, but don’t expect any sympathy from outsiders when we just keep getting more, longer excuses implying we don’t understand.
We understand all right; it’s a selfish population of individualists who only start caring when their own shit pile is harmed. Then they’ll probably try and run.
Rioting
And when CBP, the national guard, and police show up and shoot everyone when Trump declares martial law (you know, exactly what Trump wants before the midterms)? What then? I’m taking notes.
You surround them and take their shit as soon as they show up. Yes some people are going to get hurt, but thats already happening anyways isnt it. Revolution does not come quietly
No, no- Americans don’t want to be told what they need to be doing. They want to be given easy performative bullshit that requires zero risk or sacrifice but telegraphs to everyone that they’re “one of the good ones.”
Pieces of shit pretty much to the last individual, and at this point they deserve whatever MAGA has planed for them.
The point is to show up in large enough numbers that it doesn’t matter.
Revolts aren’t without risk, and typically bloody.
I don’t disagree. But people generally don’t want bombs dropped on their heads and will avoid it until it becomes the final option. Until that time comes, small groups will be shot or imprisoned. Just like what happened in Texas last week. Just like what happened with BLM. There are countless examples of people rising against, only to be stomped because the fed arrives. Trump would love any excuse to fuck over the midterms, and would be happy to kill some left leaning opposition if given the chance.
Further, the US is very spread out. The cities and urban areas are relatively easy to get together. It’s everywhere else that needs the ability to join the crowd. It’s not like Europe where it’s fairly easy to travel around, unfortunately.
If you want my thoughts on what we should do, it’s to actually hurt what they care about most: their wallets. A general, nationwide strike would work well. However, to make it so people don’t just starve to death, we need to set up a strike fund or food network. With that, the strike could last long enough to affect their bottom lines, and people would actually be willing to participate, knowing that their family won’t starve to do it.
No-one said the revolution would be easy, immediate, nor convenient.
You get the treatment you tolerate.
Prepare accordingly.
That is exactly my point. People outside of the US are expecting it to be easy and want immediate results. It won’t be easy nor will it be immediate.
Why? To get shot by the police? How long ago was BLM?
You absolute goddamn coward.
And yet you haven’t been killed in a riot, curious.
Haphazard corpses don’t change the world, no matter how noble their intentions before becoming corpses. This isn’t a problem you throw bodies at. This is a problem which requires organization, and strategies more coherent than “Riot”.
You’re part of the problem.
Fucking protest at the very least. When other countries try authoritarian shit you have millions of people protesting in the capital for days on end.
Edit: I’m clearly going to get down voted into oblivion, but that doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that if you are a US citizen, protest AFTER the upcoming election if you are going to do it. Especially if you are in a “red” state We need to remove as much of the veneer of legitimate as possible from this administration. If you protest now, there is a risk your vote gets removed. Don’t listen to dumb fucks from other countries who have no concept of the social issues of the US. They don’t even understand the moral, economic, and social issues around tipping. Their opinions are invalid. VOTE. It probably won’t work, but we can always protest etc. After. This act now right before midterms bs is just ignorance or psy-ops.
Original post below: He’s doing this to create civil unrest so he can declare martial law. You are suggesting people take action that aids that goal.
You cowards have been using this line for cover for more than a year now, and continue to be steamrolled every day.
Just keep your head down, yeah? Everything will just work out if you stay peaceful.
No, protests could (and should) have happened earlier. They also have.
The No Kings protests occurred but caused little social changes. Given that the US doesn’t have the same social support system of other countries, it is difficult for most people to protest for an extended time without essentially destroying their own life.
Due to rampant racism, the Black Lives Matter protests simply resulted in most white people taking personal offense instead of actually comprehending the systematic bias US society has against blacks and minorities.
Occupy Wallstreet lasted pretty long, but was co-opted by fringe social movement groups and homeless plants by police. And that happened during the presidency of everyone’s favorite Dep president darling, Obama.
My point is that protesting right now, during an election period, instead of just fucking voting doesn’t make much sense given that US society has very clearly marched to this point with everyone aware.
Afterwards, when the system clearly doesn’t work, and/if we are still fascist, sure let’s fucking riot.
With regard to the “coward” comment. If you aren’t in the US, you likely don’t have the same social political, economic, or societal factors in place so you can’t really judge.
Also, more crudely, if other countries had got off sucking US dick decades ago, it would have removed US soft power, wealth, and resources, and allowed internal social movements to have more weight. As example, we wouldn’t be able to amass such a large military if other countries hadn’t allowed the US to be their police. So, kindly fuck off and fix you own damn problems so we can do the same, though probably slower because of you cowardly enabling fucks.
I’m not reading your excuses.
We’ve been protesting weekly in Minnesota for half a year now. Since the ICE stuff started.
Great. You’re participating in democracy. That’s what you’re supposed to be doing during the BEST of times.
Try doing something.
Great, you’re expressing great frustration without explaining any specific details. That’s not what you’re supposed to do.
Try telling us what to do.
You’re not asking what to do. You’re asking what performative nonsense you can do that requires no sacrifice or risk on your part but allows you to feel less guilty. Fuck off.
Similar things could be said about the UK.
Except things are way worse in the US than in the UK (as bad as they are there).
Sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s not getting worse in the UK as well. I haven’t seen much action on the UK’s part either, but unlike most people leaving comments like the one I replied to, I’m willing to admit that I don’t live there to see what people are doing on a daily basis.
They’re getting worse elsewhere BECAUSE YOU ARE SITTING ON YOUR ASSES.
You spent a century belligerently giving everyone else the finger and crowing about how fighting authoritarianism was the one thing you’re better at than everyone else. Yeah, fascism will spread to our countries topic but at least before that happens MAGA will give you what you deserve.
