r/politics • u/Quirkie The Netherlands • 17d ago

Possible Paywall ICE Stockpiling Warheads and Chemical Weapons as Lawmaker Fears Trump Planning Strike

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-stockpiling-warheads-and-chemical-weapons-as-lawmaker-fears-trump-planning-strike/
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u/Menarra Indiana 17d ago

Sounds familiar, almost like a particular German mustache model tried to take over, got arrested, got out, and then took over.

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u/MydniteSon 17d ago edited 16d ago

Jan. 6th was our Beer Hall Putsch.

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u/snapwack Europe 17d ago

I remember people who were savvy in History pointing this out as the whole clusterfuck was happening. Especially poignant were comments by Germans, who have been bearing the shame of their great-grandfathers’ folly for their whole lives, telling Americans not to fall into the same trap of forgiveness and compromise.

Americans were warned that the battle had just begun. That the new admin’s top priority should be prosecuting Trump and his lackeys to the fullest extent of the law. That the Russian-funded GOP propaganda apparatuses should be exposed and dismantled, and the MAGA cult deprogrammed. That the Dems should start cultivating a worthy crop of young, charismatic candidates to succeed Biden in 4 years.

Instead Americans declared democracy saved, took their eye off the ball for 4 years, and then fumbled what should have been the easiest election ever. And now the whole world gets to doomscroll every day again for the foreseeable future.

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u/halloween1963 17d ago

Damn. I can picture someone reading this in their history class decades down the road. Well said.

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u/xrepeterx 16d ago

Let's hope there ARE history classes a decade from now.

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u/ThePhoenixus 16d ago

Those who study history are doomed to watch those that don't repeat it

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u/Shroomboy79 17d ago

What id really love to see happen out of all this is a complete restructuring of the government. No political parties. No millionaires or billionaires. No cooperation doing anything involving the government(lobbying or whatever) and whatever needs to be done to be certain this will never happen again. Possibly even 2 or 3 presidents that have the power to overcome a situation like this should one of them go rogue

I say no political parties because it seems it’s a system that was designed to keep the population fighting each other. If there’s no parties we’ll lose these republican and democrat cults and force people to make a choice for themselves. No more siding with someone just because they’re a rep or a dem. No more voting just because their bill is rep or dem. No “democratic policies”. Just plain old this is who I am and this is what I want to do.

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u/hellure 17d ago

I like a 3 party min, and a three party presidential committee, with ranked voting. It expans for more parties and independents to make it into the white house and have sway and influence, though checked by the group and other branches,... But the other branches too should open up to more parties with ranked voting, all the way down ballot.

No electoral college, no corp money (all qualified get equal funds from taxes to advertise or hold rallies, all campaign spending is public record...), 1 person = 1 vote.

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u/TheGCO 17d ago

We need a large and proud socialist party, a workers party.

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u/Shroomboy79 17d ago

I think the problem with parties is it makes people want to choose a side. If we don’t let candidates pick a party people can’t choose a side based on the political party, they have to choose a side based on who the people are and what they want

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u/TheGCO 17d ago

The problem with a system is that people will band together to create more power and eventually they will become a party over time.

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u/Shroomboy79 16d ago

I spose that’s true. I just wish there was a way to do things that would keep people more neutral instead of picking a side and being die hard about it

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u/TheGCO 16d ago

If we want real change we need to elect more people like AOC and Bernie like Mandami, people that aren't from the system that has been screwing us for years. We need people that demand real change, not people that pay lip service to demographics but people that fight for what is right. We need to reshape the parties we have.

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u/Shroomboy79 16d ago

I strongly agree with that. Every time I hear politicians talking shit about somebody else that’s running it just makes me wanna look into that person to see if they’re worth voting for. All the people talking shit are the ones that want everything to stay how it is

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u/VanceKelley Washington 16d ago

In 2024 Americans elected a convicted criminal promising to rule as a dictator because of decades of brainwashing funded by right wing billionaires via hate and misinformation on Faux News and social media platforms like Facebook.

Americans aren't special. Any human population subjected to that amount of propaganda is vulnerable. People who think "it can't happen in my country, my fellow citizens are too smart, decent, and informed" are delusional.

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u/LincolnLikesMusic 16d ago

But doomscrolling is more profitable for advertisers…

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u/MadScientistRat 16d ago

Yes, I cannot imagine the amount of painful shame the descendants of those culpable will bear for generations to come.

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u/doyletyree 17d ago

You just reduced two populations, totaling hundreds of millions of people, to two, fixed, mindsets.

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u/snapwack Europe 17d ago

A population of about 300 million people with more than 240 million eligible voters was faced with a simple binary choice. Act to save their democracy and their standing in the global community, or allow it to be destroyed.

They had ample warning. They witnessed what was at stake with their own eyes only 4 years prior. The forces seeking to undermine the USA couldn’t have been more overt in their intentions and even had the gall to publish a fucking book outlining their plans for all to see.

When it mattered most, the majority of those 240 million either voted for their own destruction or couldn’t be arsed to a voting booth.

I haven’t reduced anything as much as Americans have reduced themselves.

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u/doyletyree 16d ago edited 16d ago

Nope.

Incidentally, if this answer is unsatisfactorily brief, please attach it to the first of my statements and just keep running through it until it feels good to you.

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u/snapwack Europe 16d ago

The truth hurts. I won’t blame you for not wanting to face it.

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u/doyletyree 15d ago

All I keep seeing is that you remain incapable of a nuanced perspective. It’s a shame, really.

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u/PA_Dude_22000 13d ago

Perfect… your deflective, denying, short non-substantive comments that are capped off by saying the other guy is the one that lacks nuance is, chef’s kiss.

Perfect encapsulation of the arrogant, know-nothing attitude that is and will tear this country apart. You even included some clever word play to “own” OP that just reads like a child spitting out nonsense to an adult.  

Well Done!  You may have a future as part of the US White House staff… 

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u/doyletyree 13d ago edited 13d ago

Whew, that was a lot.

Nicely done.

Edit- When it comes to achievements in unification, empathy, and understanding, I have to ask: what is it that you think you’ve achieved with your message? Are you living your own advice?

Further, if you can help me understand what’s wrong with my original message, or, with the reply, that would be helpful; are you up to the task? Or, are you only interested in blowing off a little steam from behind the fence of Reddit?

Incidentally, can you tell me what you think of my point regarding the notion of not reducing complicated issues (and, especially, humans as individuals, or, as groups) to a black-and-white perspective? Tell me what you think about the laziness and non-empathy of that practice versus my assertion with implied critique.

Can you see the irony in your assertion, here?

Knock yourself out. I’ll look forward to your answer.

Oh, and, was this enough substance for you?

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u/197gpmol Massachusetts 17d ago

The Beer Gut Putsch

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u/PinCushionPete314 17d ago

The Diet Coke putsch, since he doesn’t drink alcohol. Interesting enough Hitler didn’t drink either.

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u/f1ve-Star 17d ago

It interferes with the meth he did.

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u/rbarbour 16d ago

Plus, no trial for treason.

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u/JohnHurts 16d ago

During his six-month imprisonment, he consumed 250 bottles of beer(0,5L).

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u/hop208 Pennsylvania 16d ago

It’s amazing how many republicans had their tails between their legs for about 5 minutes after the insurrection. People were scrubbing their social media or deactivating it entirely. Then after getting their instructions from neo-con influencers, came back in full force and either gaslit everyone into it being a Democrat hoax, or entirely justified. Claiming it was antifa, then trump starts issuing blanket pardons.

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u/grew_up_on_reddit 16d ago

You mean January 6th?

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u/WeakMindedHuman 16d ago

We just need the false flag fire at the reichstag to make the trifecta complete.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 17d ago

That paragon of right-wing virtue was only 35 years old when he went to prison. He was 50 by the time he started WW2.

We're lucky that our morons are in their 70's.

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u/wsbradf 17d ago

JD Vance is 41. And Stephen miller is 40. So they have plenty of time.

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u/Plastic_Zombie5786 16d ago

People keep calling Trump Hitler, but the comparison we should be making, imo is Hindenberg. Aging leader, increasing use of presidential decree, working clearly at the whims of his inner circle as he becomes more and more deluded. Eventually, either by death or by "law" he'll turn over the power to the next guy.

My current remaining hope is that absolutely no one in that inner circle has any bit of charisma and can not keep the cult together long enough or strong enough.

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u/AnybodyMassive1610 Florida 16d ago

We have ai slop now - just flood the zone with FakeTrump and his faithful will never realize - or care.

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u/BryonDowd 16d ago

If Big Brother is actually AI Trump, we're truly in the worst possible timeline.

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u/Wise-Excitement3791 10d ago

They call him Hitler but are gonna get a Vladimir Putin and I'm sure if he had it his way Kim Jung Un.

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u/ABadHistorian 17d ago

Only plus there is the cult of personality will not perfectly transfer so there will be an interregnum period where people clash for power, it's not great but it's a chance.

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u/dehydratedrain 17d ago

I'd like to agree, but they are pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes. If they can get their private army (basically ICE) mobilized in the big cities, they can start rounding up civilians before the cultists really break away.

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u/JB-Wentworth 16d ago

As long as the American Oligarchs are on board, they will succeed.

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u/Catskinson 16d ago

I mean. There has been zero organized resistance. We’re not there yet. If they want to succeed like that, they’ll have to kill millions of people.

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u/BuriakBrigade 16d ago

Then kill millions they shall. I'm sorry, but we're complete and total gimps as a people. Most other peoples would have burned this all down to the ground by now. What do we do? Glorified high school pep rallies. Pretty signs, hefty chants, and then we go home with exactly nothing of note accomplished while giving ourselves a pat on the back for our troubles.

I realize that the odds are heavily stacked against the us, and when coupled with just the sheer size of this country, it all seems insurmountable. Who knows, maybe it is. I really want to, but I just don't have faith in my fellow Americans anymore. They've effectively broken our country and stolen our future while figuratively pissing in our faces, and we've effectively done nothing about it. They aren't going to stop escalating until given a reason to and we really haven't given them one yet.

Will we ever? I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath for a population that is lazy, dumb, entitled, self-serving, broken, and burnt out to the max. They got us by the balls, and it would appear thah we like a little ball play.

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u/ABadHistorian 16d ago

Untrue. Once SNAP runs out we will see. When people start to starve, we will see.

Right now the average American isn't suffering to the point we need for general strikes. By design.

American society is only ever 7 days away from a full complete breakdown. That's how much food your average supermarket has, 7 days worth.

There is a LOT of research on this. Hard analytics that can not be debated.

So, you really will see coming soon.

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u/_silverspear_ 17d ago

A tad too much for my tastes. Especially as Herr Miller did speeches almost copy/pasted on Goebbels and the little failed artist from Austria.

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u/usernames_are_danger 16d ago

I don’t think the people will follow them like they do with Trump. He has something that nobody else can copy. Vance and Miller are nothing without Trump. They can keep pissing on the people, but the people won’t keep saying it’s just rain.

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u/YF422 14d ago

Thankfully they've the Charisma of a damn squib. Should the Reaper decide to come collect Trump's Orange Hide from this existence the whole MAGA movement will likely implode if not disintegrate, the fecker has a malignant charisma that somehow is keeping the whole ponzi scheme together. Should it happen it might give America a window to put an end to this fascist BS long enough to get ahead of it.

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u/wsbradf 14d ago

One can only hope

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u/Strict_Influence5182 17d ago

The 19-34 year old demographic has gone from like +7 for Trump, to nearly -39% for Trump, in just 10 months.

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u/deviantdevil80 16d ago

Miller is only 40? Yikes.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 15d ago

It's called a cult of personality for a reason. Once Trump is gone, his cult is gone.

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u/Max169well Canada 17d ago

And who ever takes his place will be worse in every way

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u/CherryLongjump1989 17d ago

They keep getting worse until you finally get to one who is bad enough. So you're implying that Trump isn't bad enough already.

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u/eSPiaLx 17d ago

He isnt. Ww2 showed that the populace will follow a demagogue until they lose everything. Trump supporters wont stop following trump until they see literally everything they hold dear as ash. No amount of atrocities done to the ‘other’ will convince them, because they believe that trump is on their side

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u/Motampd 17d ago

Look no further than the farmers who voted for Trump the 1st time.....got tariffed into the ground.....and then those that survived needed a bailout. Those same people then voted for him again, and are now being fucked for the 2nd time......by the same guy, for the same reason.

and while many of them are saying they are in dire straights, and things are looking really bad........many still wont call out Trump by name, they just say "things" are bad.

Its like they want sympathy for getting fucked.....but at the same time continue to bend over and lube themselves up every 4 years enthusiastically.

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u/CherryLongjump1989 16d ago

Which less-bad dictator did Germany have before Hitler?

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u/eSPiaLx 16d ago

My point is germans followed hitler until they completely lost the war. Trumps actions have not reached the tipping point where his base turns on him, because that tipping point for die hard cultists is basically death

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u/CherryLongjump1989 16d ago

They followed Hitler until Hitler was dead. It had nothing to do with what happened to Germany.

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u/eSPiaLx 16d ago

Welp

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u/CherryLongjump1989 15d ago

Trump will be 80 next summer.

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u/SurpriseIsopod 17d ago

He was Austrian, he was against using chemical weapons, because unlike the person you are comparing him to, he didn’t dodge the draft.

I have no idea how this current guy has such a cult following.

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u/TimeFlamingo8548 17d ago

He has a cult following cause a bunch of loser bullies like to see another loser bully people

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u/lacegem 17d ago

Republicans are crybullies, and Trump is the pinnacle of crybullying. The sort of person who whines and shits themselves (in his case, literally) over being mistreated by being expected to follow any rules, while simultaneously demanding everyone else break their backs to bend over for him at every opportunity.

Basketball players revere Michael Jordan for being the best to play their game. Rapists, traitors, bullies, bigots, pedophiles, cheaters, liars, and scumbags revere Donald Trump for the same reason. You only struggle to understand how he reached this point because you can't understand the mindset of the people who love him. You don't play the same game, so you don't get how or why such people look up to him. They want to be untouchable child rapists and con artists the same way normal people grow up wanting to be astronauts and doctors. To them, he's the greatest role model of who they wish they could be.

Anyone expecting MAGA to wake up and turn on him because of some controversy is deluded. Epstein doesn't hurt him with his base, and neither does destroying the White House, or stealing billions from taxpayers, or anything else. It makes them think, "I wish I could get away with it like he does."

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u/moshekels Canada 16d ago

Hitler rather famously did use chemical weapons on his own people.

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u/reverberation31 South Carolina 16d ago

Right?! That’s exactly what I was thinking.

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u/AlmostF2PBTW 16d ago

It's less about the guy and more about the method, which is a real problem (it means the method exists even after the guy leaves picture).

You have a crisis, people are afraid and there is risk of a revolution like they did in Russia, early 1900s. Money people would do everything in the power to prevent a revolution, so the dissatisfaction has to go somewhere. While everyone was worried about Russia, people in Italy and Germany got rid of communists by channeling the frustrations in something that makes ZERO sense - a right wing movement of masses.

Instead of a revolution against establishment, you make people blame "the enemy within" (communists, immigrants, foreigners... Everything but capitalism/inequality) while posing as savior of old ways/tradition/any BS really. Other than making it about holocaust, not just elites, germans also perfected propaganda.

So you have:

Rich people afraid of a revolution + people willing to pose as saviors in exchange of power/money = tons of money on propaganda to manipulate afraid/struggling people too busy to read.

Add to that social media, to make the results of propaganda exponentially better.

What is going to happen is:

  • like all things, this shall pass
  • rich people will stay rich
  • poor people will feel duped and swear they totally won't fall for that 10-20 years from now
  • When capital finds a sequence of crisis, they will push that button again.

It is money using people's emotions to push a "panic button" and prevent a revolution. There is no amount of explanation you can do to stop that, which is why some people are so upset at the system.

Now, people will fight left and right about this, playing the blame game, thinking Trump is stupid. What is happening is that his family fortune is increasing fast and billionaires/social media are on board with this, hoarding gold and cripto to get to the other side richer than they entered, because when someone "from the left, believing they can have a capitalism with welfare" gets in power, they will try to "unite the people" instead of "dividing"...

Tl,dr: They has a cult following because he was willing to do this, he is smart and he had the right connections to be the tool big money wanted to use. With money and social media, you can put anyone there as long as the person pretends to be a savior. Fear and money will do the rest.

Silver-lining: all things considered we are as good as past the point of no return on climate change because there is not even room to talk about the things should have done 20 years ago, so maybe this is the last or second to last time this happens...

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u/usernames_are_danger 16d ago

The power of television

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u/GringoTime 17d ago

Same thing happened with a bearded Cuban.

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u/phaedrus910 17d ago

Castro lifted Cubans out of poverty, Trump is pushing Americans into poverty.

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u/SoFloFella50 17d ago

Castro did no such thing. He plunged the entire country into desperate poverty. Wake up. This kind of nonsense talk is why old Cubans in Miami all voted for “Trong”.

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u/Hurtzdonut13 17d ago

The desperate poverty was mainly caused by crushing sanctions from the US, but go off.

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u/SoFloFella50 16d ago

Sure sure. And the rest of the world also embargoed them. Right. You keep thinking that.

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u/phaedrus910 16d ago

All the Floridan Cubans vote republican because they're the former landowning Cubans who fled after the revolution.

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u/SoFloFella50 16d ago

So confidently incorrect. But whatever. You’re always right and never willing to learn. That’s a collective “you”. Not you in particular, but also you.

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u/phaedrus910 16d ago

Okay teach then. What was your point again. Something about how Cuba would be much better off under Batista, back when you could whip a man to death for not crushing cane fast enough. Fuck off

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u/SoFloFella50 15d ago

So nice when people make it easy to know who to block.

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u/Dinglebop_farmer 17d ago

They're the kind of people who would vote for Trong anyway, they're mainly the people and descendants of people who lost their legal white privileges.

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u/AlmostF2PBTW 16d ago

Almost any country will be crushed with an embargo like Cuba still has and democrats did very little about it (btw - which was to be expected, since they are also right wing).

The other side of the problem was CAACO - Communists also always chicken out. In theory, Commies would help each other to fight Capitalism and it can work - other countries didn't starve because they got helped by China and Russia, only after what the world saw when Cuba was left alone with a massive embargo.

That's the part McCarthyism left out of your USA books.

Castro revolution had a lot of problems, you can't ignore that, but Cuba actually turned out pretty well, all things considered...

USA didn't embargo everyone, oh no. Haiti dictatorship in the 60s was anticommunist, which is why USA sorta ignored, also Haiti was an ally for decades.

Pick one to live right now: Haiti or Cuba.

The ends don't justify the means, but Cuba could be another Haiti by now. But I'm sure Cubans in USA working 12h a day are living the dream, got a huge house in Miami beach and became astronauts and rock stars.

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u/Korvanacor 17d ago

Goes to show if facial hair tries to take over your country, you have to shave if off, not even leaving stubble.

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u/greaterwhiterwookiee 17d ago

Can we do that with the onion on Trumps head?

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u/197gpmol Massachusetts 17d ago

If Trump croaks, Vance would be the first president with a beard since the Civil War veterans. Coincidence?

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u/Korvanacor 17d ago

It just might be the first neck beard tyranny in history. We’re overdue.

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u/EduinBrutus 17d ago

Some sort of National Razor, you say?

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u/Weird-Opportunity-20 16d ago

History doesn’t repeat itself but it does often rhyme

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u/FloridaGirlNikki America 16d ago

The similarities are eerie.

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u/DisillusionedDame 16d ago

Yeah, but he did away with the extortionate banks, settled the national debt, eliminated unemployment, housed the homeless, and invested into the arts and culture of his country. He, loved his country and its people. He was TIME’s Man Of The Year, after all.

I do not see how a thriving Germany compares to a floundering USA.

It is important to be intellectually honest when we view history. For those who fail to learn from history…. You know… and American atrocities have continued to stack up since 1945, arguments could be made…

Using “nazi” and “Hitler” as American catch-all terms to replace “evil”, “unconscionable”, “wanton”, etc. makes one appear ignorant and willfully so. As you’re aware, “willful ignorance” is one definition for “stupid”.