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Trump boasts he ordered DOJ to sue Alaska to get election result tossed out if they lose (www.independent.co.uk)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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Attorney General Todd Blanche has declined to pledge DOJ’s independence from the White House and would not rule out similar suits in other states

Donald Trump says he ordered the Department of Justice to sue the state of Alaska in an effort to block the results of a U.S. Senate election from being certified, unless the incumbent Republican wins.

Government attorneys filed a lawsuit Friday arguing that the presence of Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the ballot would confuse voters who support the sitting senator, Daniel S. Sullivan, in the unusual matchup of two candidates with the same name up against a Democratic candidate.

“I’m the one that said do it,” Trump told reporters Friday. “They have two Dan Sullivans.”

Trump’s admission of an extraordinary intervention in the nation’s elections follows the president’s threats to overhaul election administration and assert federal control before critical midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress, and fate of his final years in office, at stake.

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[–] 4 points 7 hours ago* (5 children)

I can't blame the bro for leaving. The Jewish people who stayed in Nazi Germany until it was too late, mostly died. There was no virtue in staying, no bravery, no solidarity with the other victims. It didn't change anything, except for them dying instead of living. It didn't help anyone except the nazis to kill them. There was no reason to stay.

Every one of the victims would have been better off leaving while they could, so anyone staying behind and saying "no guys, stay behind with me or else I'll call you all cowards" harms their fellows far worse than the ones saying "I'm leaving while I can, and you should too."

Besides, bro can still vote by mail. There's literally no reason to stay if you have somewhere else you can go. Not leaving does nothing to help the people who can't leave.

And if I'm reading their comment right, they didn't call you a bootlicker. Unless, that is, if you were at J6. In which case, well...

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  • [–] 0 points 7 hours ago* (4 children)

    "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" is the full quote he used there. It's a call to revolutionary action by Thomas Jefferson. He's condemning the lack of some kind of violent response to the Jan 6th stuff while himself big chillin somewhere cozy on the wealth he managed to extract from the USA (read: it's victims around the world). Feels a lot less like a persecuted jew taking flight, and a lot more like someone's nephew setting up shop in Argentina.

    Whether or not you can make a difference by standing your ground and showing a little solidarity is a whole other can of worms, more debatable but I'm stuck here and can't help resenting someone who's clearly got the resources to help for bailing instead. If you can't see any virtue bravery or solidarity in the people who helped one another survive ghettos and concentration camps, the people who smuggled those actually in danger to freedom, or the people who formed literal armed resistance movements I really don't know what to tell you

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  • [–] 3 points 3 hours ago* (3 children)

    I know the quote. The point the commenter was making is that the people who always chant it (i.e., 2A folks) were, in the end, the ones who stormed the Capitol at the behest of their favorite dictator.

    You don't know that the commenter is chilling on a pile of wealth. He might be a sysadmin and got a job at some startup in Estonia for all you know. Try not making uncharitable assumptions about people while preaching from your high martyrdom horse.

    Whether or not you can make a difference by standing your ground and showing a little solidarity

    Solidarity isn't unilateral, and unless you're lucky enough to live somewhere where that actually exists among your neighbors, then no exertion of willpower on your part will make it happen. And yeah, standing your ground alone is suicidal.

    I'm stuck here and can't help resenting someone who's clearly got the resources to help for bailing

    That sucks, I'm stuck here too, but I don't resent people who get out while they can, because if I could I would too. Your resentment is your problem, not theirs.

    If you can't see any virtue bravery or solidarity in the people who helped one another survive ghettos and concentration camps, the people who smuggled those actually in danger to freedom, or the people who formed literal armed resistance movements

    That's a misreading of what I said. When did I say that? I said the people demanding that others stay did more harm to anyone foolish enough to listen to them. Bringing a few dozen extra neighbors to the camps with them wouldn't save anybody. Are we crabs in a bucket?

    Which one of those things are you doing, by the way? Are you helping anyone survive? Are you smuggling anyone to freedom? Are you forming an armed resistance? And if the other commenter stayed, do you think they'd be in any position to do those things either?

    Or is all you're doing demanding that people stay and keep themselves in danger? If I offered to let you climb over me to escape the bucket, wouldn't you take me up on it? Would you remain behind just to keep pulling others down when they try to climb out?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago (2 children)

    This is honestly too much for me to reply to through a phone, so here's a few poorly articulated bullet points.

    Assuming everyone who thinks a state monopoly on violence is bad is against you is idiotic and self defeating. Even on a reread (which I did before replying to you earlier and again just now) I'm pretty confident they're making the equally dumb assertation that there should have been an armed response to the J6 bullshit and that the lack thereof is somehow hypocritical.

    It's expensive as hell to move at all, emigration moreso, and anyone able to make it out of here was doing pretty well in the first place to pull that off. Community is pretty much all I've got, and I build that every day through consistent participation. Whether I want to or not, because we need each other. It absolutely takes 'willpower' and has nothing at all to do with luck. That's exactly what makes it happen and the only thing that can.

    Re: resentment? Nobody's perfect, said I couldn't help it, their attitude and the criticism coming down from such a privileged position got to me. You have no idea how life changing even the price of dude's plane ticket out itself would be down here. He's the crab who made it out and is kinda being a dick about it, where I'm committed to tipping the bucket if I want to live (solidarity/collective action is the only hope of pulling that off).

    You literally said there was no virtue, bravery, or solidarity in staying behind and doing so changed nothing, wish I could quote.

    The attempted callout is deeply hypocritical a couple lines after telling me not to make uncharitable assumptions, and I'm not about to dox myself to validate the efforts I make to you. Absolutely working my ass off to get myself and others through this though, despite often failing to do so. The tendency for anyone with the resources to do so to put the Rational Self Interest we're conditioned for above the needs of the many really doesn't help. They're in a much better position to help than I am and chose not to.

    Begging, pleading, entreating would all be better words than demanding for whatever the hell it is I'm doing here. Not exactly operating from a position of power. I've turned down opportunities for myself because of the position it would leave my community in more than once, it's what makes me a part of it and what lets me feel like a good person.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 child)

    Let's reread what they said:

    It was just disappointing to know all those "Tree of liberty needs to be watered" folk were the real bootlickers all along.

    That reads to me as: "The people who quote that line turned out to be the ones who support fascism." In other words, "The don't tread on me people turned out to enjoy being treaded on/treading on others."

    Maybe you read it differently, but if my reading is correct, then I'd say the other commenter wasn't lying. Calling that "assuming everyone who thinks a state monopoly on violence is bad" is... a take...

    Community is pretty much all I've got, ...

    Okay. That's a privilege. If you think everyone in this country has that opportunity, you're assuming everyone is in a similar situation as your own, which is ignorant.

    Do you think a trans person in Alabama could build community solidarity by an act of willpower alone? Or a gay man in Nebraska, or a lesbian woman in Utah, or a Latino person in Mississippi?

    I'm assuming from your words that your neighbors are mostly anti-maga. Do you really think that's the norm everywhere in this country? Because if it was, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

    And by the way, are you assuming that the other commenter is a cishetero white man? Because if literally anyone else were to get out while they could, would you still be so opposed to it? I didn't see anything in their comment that indicates one way or another.

    their attitude and the criticism coming down from such a privileged position got to me.

    Let's look at the rest of their comment:

    I knew they wouldn't do shit after J6.

    Obviously talking about the government here, who failed to prosecute the leaders of that insurrection.

    Glad I got out of the US

    I would be too.

    so I don't have to deal with that theocratic shit hole Reich that's embedding itself into government

    They ain't wrong.

    What about this sounds condescending to you?

    You literally said there was no virtue, bravery, or solidarity in staying behind and doing so changed nothing, wish I could quote.

    Doing so literally changes nothing, ergo there is no virtue or bravery in it, only stupidity (if it's done by choice when there's an alternative option, at least).

    You might be able to argue that there can be solidarity in that, but it's the solidarity of crabs in the steamer. There's no shame in climbing overboard, but there is shame in dragging someone back down when they're trying to climb out. Not sure how you don't see that.

    The tendency for anyone with the resources to do so to put the Rational Self Interest we're conditioned for above the needs of the many really doesn't help. They're in a much better position to help than I am and chose not to.

    The cost of a plane ticket is not enough to fix this mess. Just because they got outta here doesn't mean they could have done anything to help even if they had stayed.

    Not exactly operating from a position of power.

    None of us are, dude. That's why some of us leave.

    I've turned down opportunities for myself because of the position it would leave my community in more than once, it's what makes me a part of it and what lets me feel like a good person.

    Would you do the same if 90% of your community were malicious, ignorant magas?

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  • [–] 1 point 16 minutes ago

    My brother in Christ, you're ignoring pretty much all of what I already made my best effort to communicate and this doesn't feel productive or fun. If you're going to rehash the original comment, maybe quote the whole thing instead of just the lines that, out of context, support the point you want to make. I'm here for a conversation, but you're treating it more like a contest and that just makes me want to forfeit. Calling community a privilege "is... a take...". I'm a fuckin bigshot in mine because I have this phone and a car to sleep in. It's the one thing available to literally everyone that can't be bought, sold or taken away and is maintained exclusively through participation. Fuck your fixation on identity too, you have no idea who I am or where I'm coming from or what life is like for the constructs you prop up so glibly to make your point. Community is absolutely available to every one of those people and exactly how they survive those environments. You can find it in a prison and I have. You can find it in a concentration camp and I will. I guarantee I have a much closer relationship with the human beings behind the shallow strawmen you present here than you do and that the kind of "support" you're offering would piss them off. Community is about shared purpose and meeting needs, not performative politics. Ignorance is entirely forgiveable, most things are. Just have to be genuine, well intentioned, and in this together. If you want to see what that's like, try leaving home without your wallet for a while.

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