They did focus groups this past summer about at what point people would stop voting for Trump based on his felonies. The overwhelming answer was if he received a custodial sentence. The double delay signaled to voters that these felonies weren’t actually that bad.

Similarly the non action on the Jan 6 case also signaled to voters that it wasn’t a big deal. So they didn’t feel like they were voting for the guy who tried to murder Congress.

The accepted wisdom is yes. The people voted for the VP already and that is honored. Worst case scenario is the election ends up in Congress where Vance would win anyways.

Yeah if Trump actually follows through on this the US military is going to take decades to recover. But that’s the point. Both for daddy Putin, and American owners of Private Military Companies. They’ve been trying to privatize the grunts since 1990.

Generals aren’t selected by him personally though. Not unless congress completely folds to him. Remember one Senator holding up all of the promotions? That actually frees up military leadership to appoint replacements themselves. Within reason of course, they aren’t putting a private in charge of a brigade. But it does mean that with the tiniest bit of cover from Congress an officer corp loyal to the Constitution can block Trump’s agenda and make any purge take literal years to bear fruit. Not to complete it mind you, that will take even longer, just to cobble together enough of a chain of command to get a unit to actually deploy domestically.

That said the military are masters of malicious compliance. There’s a really big chance that resistance in the ranks looks like the generals ordering their troops out of the barracks but not taking any weapons because that would violate Posse Comitatus. Then fulfilling Trump’s orders by politely asking anyone they see for their papers. They wouldn’t arrest, detain, or chase anyone though, because that would be law enforcement and violate Posse Comitatus. They would of course studiously maintain an armed QRF on base just in case anyone finds the invasion of enemy aliens Trump is going to declare an emergency over. You might even see them get used against Cartels at the border in an attempt to appease Trump without clearly violating Posse Comitatus.

I do acknowledge it’s entirely possible the generals fold and put the onus on the lower ranks to ignore illegal orders. Which would destroy the military much faster as enlistments drop through the floor, stop loss is engaged, and desertion skyrockets.

Well. The chips are down. Your move Generals.

For what it’s worth I think there’s going to be a ton of pushback. To the point where using the military for this becomes infeasible.

Oh we’ve had grind culture for a long time. It just didn’t apply to finance yet.

There’s been a few more disasters. Fukushima is notable because if they had built for flooding they would have been fine. But that cost money.

Russia is Game of Thrones in real life. I wouldn’t bet on positive change there.

Power move. That and shooting yourself, in the back, multiple times.

You’re just blessed enough not to recognize gallows humor. We’re actually jealous of you.

Internal consistency was never their strong point.

It’s going to be like those troubled teenager reform schools. They will torture non compliance.

He mentioned SSRIs in the article. Now I’m imagining a bunch of PTSD infantry combat vets laughing their ass off at the instructor.

I mean, I’m good with giving up Boeing…

But honestly, the profit motive doesn’t fit everywhere. It can certainly fit in places like retail, with good safety nets. (Like basic government food available at cost or less for people who need it)

In infrastructure where cost cutting costs more maintenance money, at best? It really doesn’t belong.

The year is 2289.

We know how Dyson spheres work

That star is just literally free energy

But we blew up a solar system and wiped out a developing race one time and we stopped using it.

Imagine if hunters had stopped using fire?!?

Fukushima showed us the truth, Nuclear Safety is incompatible with capitalism. I don’t care to find out what other time bombs we build into future plants.

336 million people can stop them.

The aristocracy actually extended a lot further down than people realize. And if we’re getting rid of all the supports outside generational wealth then we are instituting an aristocracy system by default. Because at that point anyone without generational wealth will only be able to advance by being chosen by someone with generational wealth.

I’m not trying to say parents shouldn’t help their kids out. I’m saying we need that to be the cute little thing it used to be, not the main means of pulling oneself into the middle class. The big problem is we keep electing people who seem to think everyone just draws a bit of credit off their stocks when they want to buy something big. They don’t realize how hard it is for the lower class. And the other people we elect get caught talking about shit like making a man with kids have more votes, or the Christian nationalist movement which openly calls for white landed Christians to be the only voters.

See what I mean? It’s a nice thing in a robust economy with plenty of chances to pull oneself out of the lower classes. It’s much less nice when those other avenues are getting shut down and people are talking about making it the centerpiece of society.

No, it’s not. You cannot tell 336 million people they don’t get an election. That’s what we need to normalize and organize around. You cannot occupy 336 million people without their cooperation. I will not accept your defeatist attitude of just letting them have whatever they want.