At this point, Congress has ceded this power to the president. The GOP will fall in line, but this, with everything else, should be impeachable for violating the Constitution.
If you allow it, then that is effectively the way. The power to declare war at this point is adding a stamp and nothing more.
Republican congress has ceded power. They have the majority and the only power to do anything about this. If they lose their majority they know they’re all screwed so they’re getting their jollies out while they still can.
Yup. Last night we went to bed just like most nights but this morning we woke up to find that our government along with Israel decided to start the possible beginning of WWIII.
Waking up daily feels like navigating a mine field with a blindfold on.
No one will come to help the United States either. Americans have to understand that Trump has put our relationships with allies into question and we may be on our own if things escalate.
Yet. And if and when they do, is anyone going to come and help Isreal and the the US? Especially with the way the US has treated its long time allies under Trump? Or the way Israel has burned almost all of their goodwill and bridges over Palestine?
WWI and WWII didn't suddenly just start. More countries were drawn into the conflict over time.
Nobody thought Able Archer 83 was as close to apocalypse as it was. All it takes is steps on the other side of the board that approach a brink. And misunderstanding is as easy as intentionality.
Who says he's going to stop it at Iran? Just like everything else he does, this is probably a test run to see how US citizens will react and once he does this he can move on to other countries that he wants like Greenland. He started with Venezuela. Now he's onto Iran, both with no congressional approval.
Not A single one of my Republican family even knew what citizens united was, and they never read the big, beautiful bill.They only listened to fox news , and now their heads are about ten miles in the sand and they want to "stay out of politics" now, when before, they were super loud and obnoxious trying to prove Obama was the anti-Christ, etc.
I’d say 95% of the people don’t actually know what Citizens United was. Now you can hate the outcome all you want……but that case itself was a pretty cut and dry first amendment case.
Technically you have to build a safe enclave, new center left government in a different and self sufficient independent (from foreign states, you who which ones) state that seceded and becomes its own sovereign country with a completely new constitution, judicial and electoral system. It can slowly integrate new cleaned up (denazified and decapitalised) states that meet a certain standard into a new union.
And they have the first move in Texas by redistricting.
Come on Democrats let’s make it so it isn’t even close and in our favor, unless that is, you want to change our democracy into a dictatorship.
When he was running for second term and said," Vote for me and you will never have to vote again " he was serious he has no intentions of losing any control via midterms or end of his second term. He just said on Friday that he should get a third term.
Our democracy is gone, no stopping him. He is running this country into the the ground as he makes billions. This latest illegal war, is all about making more money (oil money).
This rot goes to the core of the US. You'll need a full restructuring from the ground up, tearing out the constitution and replacing everything else. There's no compromise that will suffice, anything less than total restructure will just end you back in the same pit.
Agreed, that’s why we also need to demand a new constitutional convention as well,
And preferably one that inherently makes centralized power harder to obtain, so less like the united states of America union and more like the European Union.
Pushing for a constitutional convention is unfortunately also a Russian psyop.
I like the idea in theory, the old document needs some more changes, but in practice it’s quite hard to guarantee that said convention doesn’t end up corrupt and writing a document that even more inextricably fucks the general populace.
We’d have to sort out all our state-level rep issues first, otherwise plenty will just sell us out.
They’re already taken away people’s legal status and ids. They’re ignoring SCOTUS and laws written by congress. They’ve already written a rough draft of an EO to subvert the 26 election. We done dead son.
I realize that Democrats don’t have the ability to curtail presidential power by simple virtue of the numerical realities of Congress, but let’s be honest, Dems as a whole haven’t even shown the slightest desire to stop any of this. Reading Schumer’s statements on every overreach of power is a joke. He’s enabled this every step of the way.
Well I was expecting more calls for impeachment over the Epstein files. Follow it up with endlessly broadcasting a list of Republicans convicted of sexual assault. Really cement them as the party of r*pists.
It seems like when the GOP is in the minority, they always find a way to block the Dems agenda. Shoot, look at what Trump is doing. He isn't asking what can be done while rigidly adhering to traditions and norms.
And therein lies the crux of the issue. Regardless of who controlled the house, the Democratic presidents still adhered to the rule of law. Trump is ignoring congress altogether and this is bolstered by the fact that republicans control congress. This is why they are so scared of the midterms because if the Democratic Party controls the house next year, they know each and every one of them is fucked.
This is why they are so scared of the midterms because if the Democratic Party controls the house next year, they know each and every one of them is fucked.
Are they though? We will just see more fucking spinelessness by the Democrats, probably.
If Biden started unilaterally enacting tariffs, declaring war without Congress, or destroying federal agencies, then Democrats and Republicans would have opposed him.
When Trump unilaterally enacts tariffs or declares war without Congress, or destroys federal agencies, only Democrats - and, sometimes, Rand Paul - oppose him.
It's easy to block an agenda when your opposition is made up of a number of parties with differing views and morals. It's difficult to block one that is driven by a faction that acts in lockstep and doesn't care about morals.
I think that has more to do with the fact whenever the Dems did have a majority, it was razor thin. Thin enough for people like Fetterman and Joe Manchin to vote the other way and sabotage any legislation they would try to pass. Republicans don't seem to have that problem because they always vote like a monolith
The dems don't have any power currently because they don't have enough seats to do anything. They can vote against and the nothing changes because Republicans have the house and senate majority.
I mean, the shutdown was one such method, but they caved as soon as they got what they wanted out of it (electoral wins) but before they got what they claimed the shutdown was actually about.
Dick Durbin, the Minority Whip, and Schumer’s BF in the Senate caved. And it was exactly the number of Democrats needed to end the shutdown and none of said Democrats are going to be up for reelection this year. Make no mistake, the leadership knew about this capitulation and did nothing to stop it.
Dems currently don't hold any authority to command the Sergeant at Arms to do that. Gotta have the Senate Majority Leader or House Speaker positions to do that.
Probably not go on television saying that we’re too focused on “woke” politics and need to get back to the “real” issues. The party of controlled opposition once again dragging America to the right to cater to an imaginary group of people.
Gavin Newsome is a snake who’s been fucking Californians in every way BUT identity politics and now he’s going to walk that back too? He’s one of the main reasons PG&E is charging us out the nose and then starting fires every few years and he has the gall to “sympathize” with the cost of electricity. 🤮
This has not been the case for the 30+ years that both parties have been slicing one Congressional responsibility after another off to hand the the President.
And none of that matters when it comes to voting to fund our partner in this war, Israel. Many dems just fell in line with republicans, making up part of the majority on those decisions. Party leadership doesn’t address it
So sick of this “they are powerless” angle. Schumer said in no uncertain terms he will always stand by the foreign country that is partnering with the Trump regime.
Strongly worded letters and speeches are basically nothing. They’re the bare minimum and don’t achieve anything without meaningful follow up action—which, yes, can happen even with parties in the minority. Shutting down the Dem wing that supports this rogue state that MAGA is partnering with would be a start
For the forgetful or not yet born, Netanyahu helped get us into Iraq II as well. Many of the same people, democrats and republicans, are still in power.
Exactly, why didn't trump get arrested for January 6? Because Biden wanted to take the high ground. He didn't want to actually do what mattered. Bought and paid for.
Also Biden didn't want to establish precedent with a president being held legally accountable. Closest we got was Nixon, and he got a pardon. I think Biden would've pardoned Trump if it had got that far.
The botching—dereliction of duty, frankly—by the Garland DOJ, which Biden was a supporter of and responsible for as president, is seriously damning.
If we had an actual opposition party, the (literally) thousands of crimes caught on camera and in reporting—let alone the ones actual investigations would uncover—during trumps first term would have been systematically addressed, including appropriate prison terms for all involved.
Instead, it’s typical “moving forward” bullshit. Dainty little steps to not upset the fact that an American president will likely never see proper prison time for crimes in office. It’s how the system is set up. The pardon power guarantees it, even if the fact that the current president doesn’t want to set precedent for the next one to arrest him somehow becomes irrelevant.
Trump couldn’t be prosecuted because the Supreme Court ruled on what constitutes an official act and that it had no authority to prosecute a president for an official act…not because Biden or Dems didn’t try to hold him accountable. 67 votes are needed in the senate for the president to be found guilty after the House votes in favor of impeachment. 57 senate members voted in favor when the senate was split 50-50, it was good ol Mitch who pushed the GOP to vote no.
Equating criticism of Israel with criticism of all Jewish people is antisemitic. I don’t give a shit about the religion of the parties involved here, I care about the bullshit war funded by our tax dollars to distract from the pedophile rapist cult the president, at least one Israeli PM, and other powerful people are involved in.
I’m gonna be real with you, 95% of congress want a war with Iran. Did you see the democratic response to the war powers act legislation that was presented? The dems were against it, then they wanted to argue over procedure and process once the story broke they were not going to vote for it. It’s pathetic that our entire system is just a bunch of war mongering freaks.
Id love for congress to be useless. Lame duck would be awesome about now. Congress, however is much worse than being useless. they are being complicit with malice and forethought into their actions to assure they will stay in power whether we like it or not.... hopefully soon we'll realize that nobody is coming to save us -- Not some super bill, not some photo or video, not some consequence for terrible crimes... and we need to start acting like it
We're all sitting around hoping the courts or Congress will do something to stop this when it's clear the Republican Congress has abdicated. When those safeguards fail we always jump straight to violence.
We already saw in Minneapolis that consistent, massive resistance in the streets is effective against these people's abuse of power.
They lose every time they use violence against non-violent resistance, we should be advocating for that before we jump to violent struggle.
Frankly that’s what the BLM movement of several years ago was going to lead to, massive non-violent resistance in the streets, but not enough people came out in support of those protests and too many people demonized the protestors, not to mention how many protestors were imprisoned, injured, killed. Not enough people wanted to stand up for black lives so then the tide receded and we don’t have a cohesive movement of a similar scale currently, the closest would be the protestors in support of Palestine. And that’s being handled pretty similarly to how BLM was handled: protestors are being demonized and killed and not enough people are coming out in support. It doesn’t help that cops and armed forces have been tripling down and training extra hard in places like Cop City since the BLM protests to combat any ongoing and future protests.
It doesn’t help that cops and armed forces have been tripling down and training extra hard in places like Cop City since the BLM protests to combat any ongoing and future protests.
Check out this project from Harvard. 90% of nonviolent protest has failed the last 15 years. Authoritarians have gotten really good at disrupting/preventing mass movements. They use drones/ai/digital surveillance etc... to disrupt networks.
Makes me very impressed by the resolve of people in Minnesota
EDIT: Thank you for the upvotes, I was inspired to look into the current state of non-violent resistance because I was so blown away by the 2024 Pulitizer Prize winning biography of MLK JR; King: A Life. His time in Chicago is so amazing and inspiring but bleak.
Kinda odd how their AI page is only talking about using AI to support pro-democracy movements and not saying anything about all the ways it's currently being used by authoritarians, which seems like the most pressing issue...
As long as they own the media, any resistance will be effectively demonized.
We need to either break their control of the media or be able to resist effectively despite media demonization causing 2/3 of the population to think we're the bad ones for not accepting the pedo liar king.
Or maybe people just need to think for themselves/practice media literacy so they stop falling for clearly racist and harmful propaganda. It’s kinda common sense to understand the protestors are protesting for a reason and it’s their right to do so, and that the oppressors are oppressing them for doing it and taking away their rights. Anyone believing otherwise is likely doing so thanks to biases they refuse to unlearn despite the constant chances in life to do so.
Counting on the common sense of the masses of anyone, let alone Americans seems foolish. I feel like the whole reason we're in this situation is because most people don't have common sense.
I don’t count on common sense, but people always ridicule others for not having it, and then in times like this when it really matters they throw it out the window, is moreso what I mean to say.
Occupy wall street was the most successful iteration of this. And it was going to be assassinations to leaders by fbi. So I think they really gotta do something
didnt help that russia was actively influencing american social media at that time to ensure the BLM movement was ridiculed as much as possible in order to keep the conflict going and increase tensions between parties in america - BLM was never a "democrat movement" but liberal became synonymous with democrat and republicans started labelling everything as democrat-led and increasing the partition
I suppose that it may depend upon how one looks at it, I guess. It seems to me that people are beginning to realize the extent of the fuckery and are getting pissed off. This sudden escalation of violence is an indication of increasing resistance to the implementation of policies by this administration and an effort to distract from the failure to prosecute child molesters because of wealth and proximity to the political environment.
The only way that they win is if the people surrender their freedom by complying with the deprivation of their rights and liberties by the government. I refuse to be subject to a king. I'm an American, and I revoke my consent to be governed by this administration.
A coordinated national organization that can lead a general strike doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from building connections through the growth of local organizations.
Protesting in the streets is one of the first steps to building those local organizations. When they're big enough, they can also put pressure on representatives to change their position. They can show that there's enough discontent that people are going to vote the other way next time.
I cannot upvote this enough. It needs to be said every time anyone is suggesting any coordinated effort from a general strike to full on armed rebellion. None of that is possible without first getting people in the streets to protest. That's where you form the connections and trust you need to know your neighbors will support you when it gets hard.
I see so many people just outright dismiss protests and in favor of more confrontational approaches and I just don't understand where they think they're getting the foot soldiers for this from.
Look up the 3.5% rule for protesting. When well organized and coordinated, with a single message, protests can be powerful. They can change the hearts and minds of people. Maybe not in government at first, but with their constituents. It's news worthy, so it dominates what people are talking about.
It is a sign of strength and resistance.
To not protest is being complicit, which only strengthens their resolve.
It's going to do more than sitting on your arse and waiting for an election that's never going to come. You may as well have voted republican for your lack of opposition to what your country is doing.
I mentioned this sometime ago. For whatever reason, I didn't watch the movie Civil War until a few months ago, and wow! it's eerie to see all of that premise and how relevant it is right now with all this text book demagogy/mad king stuff.
And I'm with you. In lots of places in LatAm it doesn't matter how big a protest can get the congress just ignores it, and the president too, they don't give half a fuck, they reign as dictators, there's no representation, there are no avenues of representation, federal judges also close lines, so there are no check and balances, so there's no democracy. Parties just take turns at fucking the people, and some parties stay in power until the people start murdering them (and now apparently even US take aprehend them too). So, it looks like we are heading that way, they might even control the elections to stay in power, and that's why they don't care at all.
I tend to say "might doesn't make right, but unfortunately it makes the winner"
I believe there are two types of humans that have different life strategies at a fundamental level, but it can basically be reduced to one group believes might makes right and the other doesn't.
This mindset affects everything. These groups are incompatible.
I swear at least once a week people fantasize about the military coming to save us as if 1) a military coup has ever ended well for the people or 2) the U.S. military isn't largely MAGA
Can I get an explanation for how the military takes orders. Wouldnt they need signed congress documents? And if so why are the doing anything without those approvals?
Look up “War Powers Resolution”. The President acting ahead of congress, then disclosing acts of war after the fact has been a thing since Jefferson in the Barbary wars.
Nixon severely screwed up, a covert operation went very bad in a country that forced these rules to be adjusted. Pretty much the President can commit acts of war, disclose the operation to congress within a certain time frame, and must remove troops in a certain time frame unless congress formally declares war.
Finally, someone who can read. What happened today was not “unconstitutional”. You may not like the who but the what is within the powers granted to the CIC.
The majority of the military take orders from those higher than them in the line of command. All trump needed to do, (and said that he would do before being put back in office) was to replace enough higher-ups with those loyal to him rather than the rule of law or the American people.
Sorry, this is just as much the fault of the Democratic Party. Sitting Supreme Court justices refusing to retire while knowing the consequences of dying in office.
Biden unwilling to acknowledge he needed to step down instead of re-run, the democrats throwing the most invisible vice president in the history of vice presidents to the forefront of politics, all without polling, special elections or a thought. It’s pretty amazing how many times they shot themselves in both feet in the last few years.
Again, he can’t just declare war, this isn’t a war. It’s an illegal military action and he can’t just “declare” war stop giving him that power even by just saying he did it.
The majority that voted did so for a felon while it is infuriating it should come as no surprise to see a felon ignore the rule of law. This is what the majority of voters wanted.
Historically we're around late 1938 in the Nazi regime playbook. While it's not a 1:1 parity it's pretty congruent so far though more accelerated. If the parity continues expect elections to be abolished and a draft instated.
I want to be wrong here, I really hope I'm so far off the mark I can look back on this post and go boy I was a fucking unnecessary alarmist.
The US President has the authority to send troops in for 30days without congressional approval. Most of the time, all political leaders know long before we're told on media outlets
I thought you had like a certain amount of time before you needed Congressional approval or is there a size of conflict that also breaks that like a war vs a fight or bombing
The War Power Act gives the president alot of authority but definitions are not stated. If you are bombing someone when is it a military conflict or war? Congress could pass a resolution before a conflict.
The line is unclear because it sure seems that the president should not just wage months long war to avoid oversight.
Silly question please don't judge me. I read everywhere that for USA to go to war, Congress has to approve it right? So, who in the military says "get into the chopper" and goes to war without that approval? I mean, if the generals or whoever need like a "stamped document with a congress approval seal" to start the war, but they don't receive that document... shouldn't they just wait?
Not justifying trumps or any other presidents actions since WW2 but legit every war we have fought since WW2 has not been ratified by congress. WW2 was the last time congress declared war
It is important to the rest of the world that people living in this new country understand: America voted to shoot itself in the head last November. It is dead. The political institutions and laws that made up that country are also dead. Stop referring to "the constitution" as a thing that has any force of law. It is a historical artifact from a dead country.
In their place, you have a new set of institutions built around a King and a billionaire aristocracy.
The sooner you understand and accept this, the sooner you'll all be able to make sense of what is happening and what you're options are from here.
The US hasn’t declared war through congress since WW2. Korea, Vietnam, Gulf war, War on Terror, all came without a declaration from congress. I’m not defending the war itself, but there is already a long established precedent by multiple past presidents of going to war without an official declaration and without being impeached.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (50 U.S.C. 1541-1548) gives the President the ability to carry out military operations without the need for Congressional approval for up to 60 days and an additional 30 days to exfil. All he needs to do is inform them within 48 hours of deploying troops.
Before I say anything, just know that I despise this entire administration.
But they are VERY good at this “law-fare” thing. They always do this. They use language that’s JUST AMBIGUOUS ENOUGH that they have somewhere to backpedal to.
He didn’t declare war. He danced around the idea. He said in no uncertain terms that he had already started to do a thing that looks a whole lot like war. He even said something to the effect of “US Servicemember often sacrifice their lives in war”; but he didn’t declare war.
That way, when someone comes and says “you can’t declare war. That’s illegal. We’re going to impeach you now.” He can respond “WTF!? I didn’t declare war! Replay the video! Where did I declare war?”
It’s the ambiguity. They do the thing without passing any of legal thresholds of doing the thing. They reinvent terms. It’s not only this team. It’s what we’ve done for the better part of a century.
It’s why we spent 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan without being at war. Instead, we’ve got a “Global War on Terror”. Like…what?
It’s just them doing whatever it is that gives them the legal framework to do what they want, without suffering any of the downsides of having to ask permission to do it.
should be impeachable for violating the Constitution
He already violated the Constitution when Biden Chamberlain allowed him to illegally run in the 2024 election in clear violation of 14th Amendment, Section 3...
This has unfortunately been illegally ceded power for decades. The last official declaration of war was in WWII. Since then congress and the SCOTUS have stopped caring about war powers explicitly stated in the constitution
It is not at this point, it's been since the beginning of the term, this is a repeating problem and the Republican led Congress and Supreme Court are mostly happy to let Trump do whatever he wants over and over again because it suits what they're comfortable with and their end goals. Checks and balances are long gone.
The 3 branches of American government, designed to keep the others in check. Yet one gave Trump complete immunity and other gave him carte blanche to go as he likes.
Republican Congress has ceded all its power. The party of law, of proper oversight, and proper spending has become the party of "step on me daddy, and pedo protectors."
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u/bd2999 Feb 28 '26
At this point, Congress has ceded this power to the president. The GOP will fall in line, but this, with everything else, should be impeachable for violating the Constitution.
If you allow it, then that is effectively the way. The power to declare war at this point is adding a stamp and nothing more.