this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2025
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politics

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[–] PotatoLibre@feddit.it 224 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

What part of.. "you'll not have to vote again", do people not understand?

[–] Runescholar@lemmy.world 86 points 1 day ago (2 children)

People didn’t believe that he even said that, and when I showed them the video, they said it was out of context. And when I provided full context, they said he didn’t mean it like that. When I showed other examples of him suggesting similar, they shrugged. Pretty soon they’ll be saying it was always the plan, and we should accept it.

[–] PotatoLibre@feddit.it 30 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Next few years are gonna be an atomic answer to the question.. "what I would've done in Germany 1930?".

For the Americans and also for us European which can't do much (and for many rising countries which hope in a better and more democratic life).

I never believed I would experienced anything most important than WWII, but what US are going to experience until the next election (or over), it's going to impact the world balance even more.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

only reason i didn't believe (at firrst) is it sounded too coherent

[–] Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 21 hours ago

They understood it well and wanted it. Magats want you dead and that’s what they voted for. They are not allies

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 165 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Hey NRA, that thing you made out was your whole reason for existing is happening

Gonna stop it?

[–] GrindingGears@lemmy.ca 68 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The calls are coming from inside the house unfortunately. They represent the same interests. Nobody is ever going to look at the NRA with any seriousness or ethics.

[–] gdog05@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The NRA is working for Russia, not for American citizens.

[–] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago

Not long ago, Maria Butina was busy giving sloppy toppy to its membership in order to curry favor on behalf of Russia.

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 8 points 19 hours ago

National Russia Association.

[–] Azal@pawb.social 9 points 21 hours ago

Where do you think most ICE recruiting ads go to?

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[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 141 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

After a couple of wannabe carjackers punched out the DOGE operative known as “Big Balls” in DC, Trump used it as an excuse to threaten to take over the city and bring in the National Guard to police it, in a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. This despite the fact that crime in Washington DC is at a 30-year low and the city already has the largest police force, per capita, of any municipality in America.

None of that matters; Trump wants to turn America into a police state, just like every other dictator does when they get ahold of a democracy. They steal from the people, enrich their cronies, break laws with impunity, and then use police agencies to terrorize the general populace, judges, and legislators into docility and submission when they object.

In fact, they told us this was their goal. They showed us. They planned it in writing.

A leaked memo from inside the Department of Homeland Security reveals what many of us feared but hoped we were wrong about: that the military is no longer a last resort in American governance. It’s now a first tool. A central player. A political weapon, just like in Russia.

And they’re not even hiding it anymore.

This isn’t some vague speculation or dystopian what-if. This isn’t a shadowy plot hatched in secrecy. The document was written, circulated, and discussed at the highest levels of DHS and the Department of Defense and it spells out, in clinical, terrifying language, a plan to normalize and expand the use of the United States military within our own country, on our own soil, against our own people.

The memo, obtained by The New Republic, outlines a coordinated strategy to embed military forces into immigration enforcement not just at the border but across American cities. It calls for replicating the recent Los Angeles deployment “for years to come.” It uses phrases like “homeland defense” and paints immigration threats as akin to al-Qaeda or ISIS. It pushes for “new ideas” on how DHS and DoD can work together on “national security” threats inside the United States.

This isn’t about law enforcement. It’s about militarization.

This isn’t about safety. It’s about power.

This isn’t about stopping crime. It’s about building a political machine with boots and guns that can intimidate or even subdue any opposition.

And it’s already happening. America is rapidly turning into an authoritarian police state.

Over the past two months, Trump has done what no modern president has dared. He sent 4,000 National Guard troops — federalized, not state-controlled — into Los Angeles to back up ICE raids. He followed that with 700 active-duty Marines.

These weren’t weekend warriors. These were combat-trained infantry troops deployed to performatively surround federal buildings and “support” immigration enforcement while pro-democracy protestors filled the streets.

Marines. In American cities. In June and July. “Guarding” federal offices and intimidating demonstrators.

And now, we’ve learned that smaller units have been sent to Florida and are prepping for deployment to Texas and Louisiana. The memo wasn’t a warning. It was a blueprint. A playbook for turning the world’s most powerful military force inward and turning constitutionally protected First Amendment political dissent into a “national security threat.”

Don’t believe Trump’s PR spin or the media’s pretending this isn’t as illegal and anti-democracy as it is. Don’t let the uniforms fool you into thinking this is routine.

This is not normal. This is not legal. This is not American.

This memo, which Pete Hegseth and friends didn’t intend you and I would ever be able to read:

Urges DHS to persuade top military brass to view immigration enforcement as a “homeland defense mission.”

Seeks to embed armed, kill-trained military personnel inside ICE and CBP to “increase information sharing” and support “nationwide operational planning.”

Frames transnational gangs and cartels as equivalent to al-Qaeda, a dangerous, dishonest leap that pretends to justify extreme, deadly force.

And it admits, in its own words, that due to the “sensitive nature” of the meeting it documents, “minimal written policy or background” should be preserved.

Translation: They know what they’re doing is legally and morally criminal. So they’re minimizing the paper trail.

Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, put it bluntly:

“This speaks to the intent to use the military within the United States at a level not seen since Japanese internment.”

I’d add, also not seen since the Civil War, when Americans turned their guns on each other and 700,000 of us died. And outlawed a decade after that war with the Posse Comitatus Act. And after the Kent State massacre, we resolved, “Never again.”

Joseph Nunn at the Brennan Center warned that this could create a permanent “domestic Forever War,” a campaign of endless militarization justified by fear and manufactured crises. Soldiers — including armed, masked ICE agents answerable only to the president — terrifying civilians on their own streets and in their own homes: a military occupation of the United States of America.

And that’s exactly the point. It’s all part of the classic dictator’s playbook.

You gin up fear about migrants and minorities. You call them invaders, terrorists, cartel assassins. You blur the line between protest and insurrection. You say cities are out of control. Then you send in the troops. Not to protect, but to occupy. And you call it “national security.”

This isn’t just Trumpism. This is textbook authoritarianism in the mold of Putin’s Russia and Orbán’s Hungary. It embodies the early stages of all the horror stories of 1930s Europe.

And let’s not forget the power grab embedded in all this. When Trump federalized the California National Guard, he did it against the will of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The state fought back in court. A federal judge ruled in California’s favor, but the administration appealed, and for now, the troops can remain under federal control.

That’s not just a skirmish over jurisdiction. That’s an open attack on the sovereignty of states, the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution. That’s a president saying, “Your Guard is my army now.”

This moment is a test. Of our Constitution. Of our institutions. Of our will.

Because if we let this stand — if we normalize Marines in our cities, Guard troops on our streets, soldiers surveilling residential communities — then we’ve already surrendered.

What happens when the next protest erupts? What happens when a city pushes back against federal immigration policy? What happens when a journalist, a mayor, or a movement becomes “too disruptive”?

Do we really think they’ll hesitate to send in the troops again?

And what kind of soldier will say no, when DHS and DoD have spent months telling them they’re defending the “homeland” against “enemy cells” within?

The line between foreign combat and domestic suppression is being erased. On purpose. By design.

The Founders of this country were obsessed with avoiding a standing army for precisely this reason.

It’s why they wrote the Second Amendment into the Constitution requiring a “well regulated militia” at the state level and that same Constitution, in Article 1, Section 7 bars Congress from appropriating money for the Army for any period longer than two years. (“The Congress shall have Power To … raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;”)

They had seen what happened when monarchs used soldiers to police dissent. They knew the threat; not just to liberty, but to the very idea of a democratic republic. They wanted to keep the military on a very, very short leash.

So they built guardrails. Laws. Norms. Civilian command. Posse Comitatus. State control over Guard units. Strict separation between military and police roles.

All of that is being unraveled right now.

You may not see it in the headlines. But if you read the memos — and watch the deployments — you’ll see it plain as day.

The military is no longer on the sidelines.

It’s here.

And unless we act — loudly, urgently, relentlessly — it will become a permanent force in American civic life. Not a protector of freedom, but a tool of control, just like in Orbán’s Hungary or Putin’s Russia.

We are not at war with ourselves, at least yet. But our democracy is under siege.

And the troops have already landed.

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That was beautiful, I hope it's shared everywhere.

[–] Tower@lemmy.zip 17 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Agreed, but it's also the text of the article.

[–] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 10 points 21 hours ago

/accidentally_read_the_article

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 16 points 22 hours ago

I hope the military guys getting deployed to US soil are talking about what they're gonna do when they get illegal orders.

I hope officers are taking the risk to talk to their troops.

And we should all be aware that one of the upcoming steps will be to make the troops afraid and angry. Most likely there will be a false flag attack on the military while they're standing around doing nothing. Because the best way to provoke the military into actually being violent on US soil (which they're currently against), is to attack them.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 92 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Marines. In American cities. In June and July. “Guarding” federal offices and intimidating demonstrators.

And now, we’ve learned that smaller units have been sent to Florida and are prepping for deployment to Texas and Louisiana. The memo wasn’t a warning. It was a blueprint. A playbook for turning the world’s most powerful military force inward and turning constitutionally protected First Amendment political dissent into a “national security threat.”

Don’t believe Trump’s PR spin or the media’s pretending this isn’t as illegal and anti-democracy as it is. Don’t let the uniforms fool you into thinking this is routine.

This is not normal.
This is not legal.
This is not American.

This memo, which Pete Hegseth and friends didn’t intend you and I would ever be able to read:

  • Urges DHS to persuade top military brass to view immigration enforcement as a “homeland defense mission.”
  • Seeks to embed armed, kill-trained military personnel inside ICE and CBP to “increase information sharing” and support “nationwide operational planning.”
  • Frames transnational gangs and cartels as equivalent to al-Qaeda, a dangerous, dishonest leap that pretends to justify extreme, deadly force.
  • And it admits, in its own words, that due to the “sensitive nature” of the meeting it documents, “minimal written policy or background” should be preserved.
[–] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 12 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Personally, I'm glad to see America's military turned inward. Better than turning it outward.

The world just has to hold out until the American economy collapses. The American left (both the Democrats and the grassroots movements) is completely ineffectual, but the more Trump's idiocy starts to impact the pocketbooks of his right-wing supporters the greater the chance for change.

[–] witten@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You do realize that when dictatorships/kleptocracies burn through their economic output at home, they tend to turn outward (to war) to keep the pyramid scheme going? It's not in anyone's interest to let America metastasize like this.

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[–] dickalan@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, I saw a couple troops leaving for work this morning in Austin, Texas at the hotel I work out. I asked him some questions, but I didn’t believe his answers

[–] JargonWagon@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

What questions and what answers?

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[–] BetaBlake@lemmy.world 72 points 23 hours ago

Yeah it's called project 2025, it's awful and they advertised that to us, they don't care

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe 51 points 1 day ago (3 children)

But hey, let’s not talk about doing anything about it. Aaaand, let’s mock people who complain.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I only ever get excuses for why people aren't defending their own democracy.

If you ever wondered how the Nazi holocaust could possibly happen, this is exactly how. We've got front row seats this time.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Plenty of historians documented the process. General apathy, combined with a delusional denial that anything bad could be connected with the superstar leadership. "If Hitler only knew" was actually a thing people would say about the suffering. And he enjoyed just as much support after the war as before, because, yeah, delusion.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 5 points 21 hours ago

If history doesn't repeat, it certainly rhymes.

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wish we were allowed to talk about it on Lemmy without getting banned by the vast amount of conservative mods just “doing their jobs”

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 8 points 22 hours ago (6 children)

Talk about it without brushing up against laws. Talk about it like you have a brain.

The guy with the huge post talked about it and it's not objectionable at all.

Lemmy is a free service and admins are just trying to stay clear of trouble. Surely you can understand that.

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[–] chosensilence@pawb.social 6 points 23 hours ago (9 children)

i'm incapable of extending any emotion regarding fascism publicly nowadays. it has been beaten out of me by the gaslighting and accusations of doomerism. my favorite is when people i talk to say, well, what are YOU doing?," as if one of my main points hasn't been we are all currently powerless without collective unity and not everyone is near support or capable of forming their own group. i don't see any organization doing what needs to be done, because what needs to be done can't be discussed, and on websites like Lemmy merely acknowledging that fact could flag my account.

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[–] Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 21 hours ago (7 children)

Thank your local magat voters for taking away everyone’s future. Thank them very well.

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 8 points 16 hours ago

Give them a slap...on the back?

...with a shovel!

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

Also thank the Russians on the internet for their tireless propaganda.

Accounts like Davel (and his new spam account davriellelouna), Dessalines, etc

They kep pushing "don't vote for genocide joe" and other "no point in voting" rhetoric

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[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 48 points 1 day ago

The Fascist States of America is here.

[–] 13igTyme@lemmy.world 43 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Leaked memo? This shit was in Project 2025. We've known about it for years. One of the last steps is declaring martial law. I keep warning people, but this is 2016 all over again and people are calling me an alarmist, again.

People need to wake the fuck up to what is actively happening.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 26 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

“This is not American”

How many FUCKING TIMES do we have to tell you mouth-breathing morons that this kind of shit is PRECISELY what the US has always been about? “Who could seen this com”- ALL OF US SAW IT COMING, and we’ve been begging you to pay attention for decades upon decades!

A stupid country full of stupid people who couldn’t pass an open-book text if there was a gun to their head. Ya’ll suck rocks.

[–] Flagg76@lemmy.world 16 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

It's a bit harsh but yeah... Looking at the US from a distance I've been saying it is turning in some sort of weird industrial/corporate dictatorship resembling a third world country for a decade now.

Only thing I ever got back was, 'murica is the best country in the world".

And they still are saying that to this day...

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[–] Greee1911@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Tough part in the US is it's 50/50. 50% idiots who have been spoon fed propaganda and fox new lies. 50% educated people who's votes get suppressed because old as electoral college bs from the 1800s. Oh and gerrymandering. There are good Americans out here, problem is, the whole thing is rigged against us doing anything about it. Protest? National guard gets used against you... they own the house, the senate, the fbi, and the Supreme Court. Litterally the U.S. is cooked.

I will give it to trump though. They masterplayed the propaganda. It is unreal how fanatical these people are. They blindly follow question nothing. Madness.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 4 points 4 hours ago

The 50% idiots are still US citizens. I don’t know why people act like we’re all just supposed to act like millions of people, and millions more who are “undecided voters” just don’t count. I know there are good people in the US, really I do, but as a country you can’t just act like the people you don’t like aren’t such a major part of the fabric of the place. Besides, the propaganda isn’t even that clever and half the time is just an excuse for people to say what they’re already thinking out loud.

Ya’ll need to accept that this is who you are if you’re ever going to grow out of it. And you need to understand that I don’t give shit about the good people there if the main export of my neighbour is pain and suffering.

Canadians are disappointing me right now, and I’m not going to act like they aren’t Canadians. I’m from Ontario, and we couldn’t even rustle up 50% voter turnout to get rid of an obvious criminal at the helm of the province. That’s not me but is us.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 19 points 8 hours ago

Regarding the joint ICE/ DoD operations in LA, from the memo:

It hasn’t been perfect, and we’re still working through best practices together, but I think it’s a good indicator of the type of operations (and resistance) we’re going to be working through for years to come.

They are counting on MAGA Nazi rule forever. There will NEVER be another fair election, if there any elections at all.

This is the initial step to create an armed military force within America, dedicated to controlling American cities and citizens by force.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 14 points 5 hours ago

Release the Epstein files

[–] Cocopanda@lemmy.world 10 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Get your guns ready and start physically training for the coming civil war. Even if it doesn’t happen. Get yourselves prepared physically anyways.

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[–] forrgott@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 day ago
[–] damnedfurry@lemmy.world 7 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Anywhere the actual memo can be read? If it was leaked, let's see it. Personally, I'm not interested in a given website's 'interpretation' of a document I can't also reference directly, I want to read it myself.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

They link to it in the article, here's an archive link: https://archive.is/2nETW

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

Is it more kid raping?

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 8 hours ago

Well, at least when we're forced to let soldiers stay in our homes (like the British forced upon the colonists) we'll finally be great again. I mean, that's where we're headed. Once he's king, we'll be great and all this democracy bullshit will be in the rearview mirror. FINALLY! A leader brave enough to just do what it takes and reestablish monarchy.

[–] don@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

Wonder how long it’ll be, if it even happens, that something useful is done, like CWII.

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