Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy. (Politics General)

I do hope the far right doesn’t get a chance to hollow out the EU and national governments like it did in the US. But unless the liberals are willing to let leftists help people they will. The EU is starting to make investments but it might be too little too late.
Fascism is an anti-ideology. They don’t need to have strong values or good policies. They are defined by what they oppose so fascists don’t have to offer anything, they just need to succeed in discrediting the EU. The net effect will be the same as the US, hollow out the federal government and have megacorps move into the power vacuum.

Luckily we already had our elections and it was an old school EU. With the fascists being the largest party but not by much and being significantly outnumbered by the other parties. It looks like it’s going to be a typical EU thing, uninspired but competent.

Suspect is still at large

At the risk of being crass, anyone who had United Healthcare insurance would have motivation. Going to be hard wading through a suspect list as large as the company’s client list.

@Dustcan
Screwing over people via their healthcare tends to make you a lot of enemies.

So… chances of Trump declaring martial law and arresting the senate? Assuming they don’t do his bidding.

@Background Pony #6471
Not high but not non-existent.

Trump has already promised to enact martial law (not on the Senate though) and it’s something Project 2025 outlined.

Once again we’re at a hypothetical where I don’t think it’ll happen, but the chance isn’t 0 that the guy who had his own people tear gassed just so he could hold a Bible upside down would try it.

It’s kinda ironic that the ones who are most desperate to identify as “American” are the ones who want to hollow out the American government and make it meaningless. If they were saying they were “Texan” over being American it at least would make sense. If you mainly identify as “American” you should want the American government to be as strong as possible rather than trying to empower megacorps or state governments.

@Background Pony #6471
Not high at all. Infact it could backfire on him if he did do that.

@igotnopicks
Hitler declared martial law and it made him dictator pretty much until the country was obliterated.

@marinus18
The thing with Hitler there was no Congress doing their job to make sure laws were written in a way to make sure that the one person could not hold power.

Right here could be the same thing. Congress still holds more power than the President. As they write the laws. The President can veto the laws and is in charge of the military. (Key note the Military is the way I think would be a way for Trump to lose power first). As most of his Generals would keep their heads above the float to not go after the people that write the laws down. As of lately the Second Amendment is a way to prevent Trump from holding on to too much power too. And note he is a felon that means he can not hold any guns.

@Background Pony #6471
Please dial back the doomtrolling questions.

Morning Consult poll for G7 leaders:

Trudeau: 26% approve, 68% disapprove

Macron: 18% approve, 75% disapprove

Scholz: 19% approve, 75% disapprove

Ishiba: 24% approve, 53% disapprove

Starmer (!!!): 30% approve, 59% disapprove (he’s only been PM for five months)

Meloni: 38% approve, 55% disapprove

Biden: 37% approve, 55% disapprove

The most popular leaders in the “liberal democratic” world are a fascist (an honest-to-God one!) and a Cold War-era liberal who just paved the way for Trump to return. Not great!

@SleepySteve
Macron right now is blocking the left leaning French government from functioning. He is an obstacle to the functioning of French democracy which is why his approval rating is so low. I don’t know much about Scholz but Germany is a mess right now with a very vulnerable economy so that likely is it.

Scholz, Macron and Trudeau are all neo-liberals which was the thing Trump really overthrew.

@SleepySteve
Surprised Trudeau is more popular then Macron. Everyone seems to hate that guy.

@Background Pony #2572
Macron is stopping the French government from functioning cause he rather have fascists in power than lessen the power of capitalists even a tiny bit it seems.

@marinus18
Speaking of which, a vote of no-confidence against Macron’s right-wing Prime minister Michel Barnier is currently in progress.
Given how Marine Le Pen has stated that the RN would vote in favor, Barnier might just be about to become the first French Prime minister to get ousted by a parliamentary vote since 1962.

Edit: Welp, that’s a done thing now. 331 votes in favor. Suck it, Macron.

United Healthcare’s stocks has gone up since its CEO was killed.

As a self-believing funnyman, I am now in what comedians call the “Danger Zone”.

I’m really not looking forward to President Le Pen, which seems increasingly like an inevitable outcome given that the French left has been AWOL for the last decade with zero leadership outside of Mélenchon (who remains ostracized for even questioning the EU and NATO, even though he’s not quite as cranky on that front, at least right now).

@SleepySteve
Unlike in the US, French law doesn’t allow eligibility for convicted felons, which Marine Le Pen might become come next March 31st (when the sentence for the case of the fictitious positions of assistants to the RN European MPs will be pronounced).

There are reports saying the man behind the murder had reportedly kept track of the CEO before hand and knew what hotel he was staying in.

He also used a silenced gun, collected the ejected casing from the gun, and had his back to the camera the whole time.

This has caused people to suspect that this is less like a random spur of the moment killing, and is theorised to be the work of a professional hitjob.

I know I’m already skirting the limit, but that’s clearly crossing Rule 0.

@SleepySteve
Indeed though le pen can never become a full on dictator and is restricted in how much damage she can do cause she’s a woman. Woman in fascism can only go so far, they can only serve as proxies and can’t be leaders in their own right. Fascism is inherently sexist cause it’s all about hieararchy. If a woman is the leader that means woman are superior to men which the majority male following won’t accept.

Unlike the Italian fascist I don’t think Le Pen can just make migrant’s lives worse and leave it at that.
But also pushing against the EU and NATO right now is not a good idea. The European left needs all the allies it can. In today’s political climate it’s all or nothing. Either you are pro-EU or you’re anti-EU. Going halfway will only hurt you.

As part of an anti-trans rally held outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments of a case that could well give the green light to affirming care bans across the nation, Matt Walsh said “This case is just the beginning of the fight. It is not the end. We are not gonna rest … until trans ideology is entirely erased from the earth. That’s what we’re fighting for, and we will not stop until we achieve it.”

I remember a couple years ago one of the “stop overreacting” brigade was in here telling us that calling the anti-trans wave a genocide was every bit as ridiculous as Nazis’ Great Replacement Theory. Hope that person is doing alright for themself these days.