Summary

Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding presidential control over independent agencies, including the FTC, FCC, and SEC.

The order enforces the “unitary executive theory,” which argues the president has sole authority over the executive branch. It grants Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, oversight of these agencies’ performance and budgets.

The move is expected to face legal challenges, as past presidents have largely respected agency independence.

Trump defended the order, stating, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

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[–] 191 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Trump defended the order, stating, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

Wow, that really sums up the fascist intent right there. The ends justify the means and no law applies to him.

I wish the general public were paying more attention.

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  • [–] 105 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

    America, when are you going to stop this? You finally have a chance to exercise the second amendment, to defend your freedom and to show the world you aren't the bad guys; And you do nothing...

    Trump/Musk are literally following the steps laid out by Hitler and they aren't even hiding it.

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  • [–] 113 points 2 years ago (15 children)

    I see this sentiment a lot. "Why aren't Americans doing anything? Why aren't leftist militias rising up to take back the capital? Etc. Etc. Etc."

    First of all, asking "why aren't Americans doing anything" is a highly unaware question. We are doing things, but they aren't going to give any airtime to the protests, marches, boycotts, and legal efforts taking place, because the media is now firmly on the side of those with power, not the common people.

    Second of all, it's pretty heartless of you to just casually ask us to "exercise the second amendment", because when you ask that, you're asking for at least some of us to die. Put yourselves in our shoes, and be honest - if you were in our position, would it be so easy and casual to just pick up a gun and join a violent revolution? Would you be willing to risk death in that situation? Personally, I'm not a soldier, I've never had an interest in guns, I'd be less than useless in that capacity. So I'm looking at other things we can do before escalating to that.

    I get that everyone's scared because the nation with the most powerful military on earth is falling into fascism. That's terrifying to most Americans as well, and I think a lot of us are still frozen with that fear. I understand and agree that this problem is on Americans to fix. But I hope the rest of the world will be willing to help when we call on them, instead of just sitting idly by wondering when that magical second amendment is gonna kick in.

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  • [+] 36 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago

    Probably because they expect your military to start murdering them with zero regards to how it plays out within the next 4 years.

    This is essentially what happened within Nazi Germany before World War 2

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  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    I think the second amendment is pointed out so readily, because most of the world has watched America and their guns and ridiculous gun problems, and that is usually what is pointed at in some kind of gotcha defence. Second, we do see the protests and legal efforts, and honestly looking in, seems like that's pissing into the wind.

    As for myself committing violence in an situation similar to America's? Can't honestly answer one way or the other until I am in the situation myself, but don't think it would be a hard no, I'm not opposed to violence in the correct situation, and boy you guys are, if not there already, very very close to that correct situation.

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  • [+] 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)
  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    On top of this. It isn't just Dump. It's the entire GOP. Plus the douche crew and his nazi youth that have been ransacking shit that they don't understand. Yeah, going in armedmay get you 1 person. It won't do any good. You're cutting a small scale off of a large shit snake.

    The best we can do is arm ourselves (and I fucking hate that I have to resort to this option) and prep for when shit goes south. I suspect that will be mid terms. We'll see armed yokels "guarding" vote drop off locations and polling locations. If there is any sign of a dem win anywhere, all hell will break loose with diaperdon claiming fraud. He'll probably pull some shit like his attempted coup and we'll see the polling station yokels going nuts.

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    [–] 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Legal challenges? They are ignoring the courts. How will that change anything?

    When do we start exercising our second amendment on this tyrannical dictator?

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    [–] 48 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 46 points 2 years ago
    [–] 46 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I don't even have the words to express my feelings properly to this bullshit.

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 34 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I hate they way he coops that quote that was meant for luigi.

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    [–] 31 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    Good thing we spent the 4 years between trump terms with a young, motivated go-getter who checks notes his in a closet for four years and was less seen/heard than any other president.

    Moderates are not equipped to fight fascism, we can't keep rotating between the two because the fascists will break more than a Neoliberal would ever want to fix.

    Neither actually wants to fix shit, just keep their wealthy donors happy

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  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago

    Also, this time we have fascists with a plan at hand. They even say beforehand what they will do and no one bats an eye, until "wait, they were serious?"

    They did their homework and are swiftly taking over.

    Trump's abhorrent smug face of late tells everything we need to know if they are succeeding or not.

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  • Biden was an opportunity for the old Republican party to prevail. Instead they rolled out the carpet for MAGA, and now they are rolling it for an authoritarian dictatorship. Frankly, had the democratic stoked more attention, the more bullshit that would have been spun up about them. The root of the problem is that MAGA was getting propped up with control of social networks personality cults and the sort of modern day profile targeting a shitload of money can provide.

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    [–] 31 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Trump defended the order, stating, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

    Okay, Adolf.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    If Congress wasn't filled with feckless lickspittles, they could just not fund the executive branch. But they are, so they will

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    [–] 25 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    What is the legal argument against this? The article was paywalled, but the summay only says that past presidents have respected agency independence. That sounds like just a gentlemans agreement. Nothing legally binding. So do the challenges have a leg to stand on?

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Musk's and his actions are illegal, or were illegal mostly before the Supreme Court decided there's some sleezy presidential immunity. The problem is they are so firm and quick at changing the rules of the game that no institution can catch up and, most importantly, generally afraid they would be directly attacked by these fuckers. Some commenters preciously said that it's stupid that most of people who could've challenged or straight up dismissed his executive orders are pussies for resigning or being complicit, but, in their defence, all of their personal data was leaked by Muskrat and he and Trump have a pardoned terrorist cell to carbomb them or whatever. And it's snowballing from department to department, and every new one looks at those who already kneed to the maggot.

    All these famous checks and balances were DDOSed and frightened into submission. i don't think they were exceptionally and inherently fragile. it's just the rightwing strategists just got the right guy, the right coverage and the right plan to make it all as easy as break-and-enter with absent homeowners.

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    [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    Laws are more like suggestions.

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  • [+] 24 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    See, the thing is, America's been propped up by toothpicks and Santa Claus-esque belief for most of our lifetimes. There were clearly no guardrails, no real systems in place, and no people with the willpower or actual dedication to the country to hold it against any level of dedicated attack. Hell, many of its people are so broken and systematically idiotic that they welcomed the attack as long as the got to guffaw and clap like seals at the people brought down to their god awful level.

    It had to fall. It likely won't rise again in any healthy, phoenix sort of way, but if it manages to do so, maybe it won't only have the untested veneer of strength. But for now, it's a corpse. Europe needs to save itself and not add their bodies to the cemetery, because what took down America is actively coming for the world.

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    FCC huh? There goes TV that's against him

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    They had already started with that under the guise of DEI hiring nonsense at the stations. Comcast was already being threatened that its DEI hiring practices were cause for the FCC to pull their license somehow. He broadcast (pun intended) his plan to have state run media and to diminish or ban the rest during his campaign, just nobody pays attention.

    Edit s/pin/pun

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Where are the American "patriots" who would defend democracy and protect the country against tyranny with their 2A rights to their dying breath?

    That's right. Fucking crickets from that bunch.

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  • [–] 18 points 2 years ago

    The ammosexuals voted for this shit. They only stroke their guns over the idea of helping put down any uppity {DEI}s that are nearby. All their talk about guns this, guns that, is and always has been a threat meant for others.

    They don't give a fuck about democracy and want to be the vanguard of tyranny.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It's terrifying to think that there's still nearly 4 years left of this.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Can’t think of any way this will come back and bite us. /s

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  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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