America

[Which Tyler]

Sadly, all the warning signs were there. Being a dictator for even one day, project 2025 and so on. It was all there in plain sight. Hopefully the majority of the electorate will learn their lesson.

It's the hope that kills you (if ICE doesn't beat you to it)

[Puja]

When the NRA comes out in support of the innocent…

You know you’ve lost. How it’s possible for the republicans to come back from losing the NRA, I don’t know

By denying free and fair elections*

Ice sweep Dem areas 1-3 days previously - they don't care about justification, just remove people from the streets on voting day
Ice stand around polling booths (especially in Dem areas) - even if they don't disappear anyone, their presence will keep large numbers at home
Ice stand around polling booths (especially in Dem areas) - even if they don't disappear anyone, their presence will intimidate those who do turn out
If given a fig leaf of "due cause" then apply martial law, and not even hold a vote
If given a fig leaf of "due cause" then the right will rally around the flag
If they lose an area they really want to win, then storm the Capitol, &/ exert huge, intimidating pressure on state electors to ignore inconvenient ballots - and all the other stuff Trump accuses the other side of doing (which, as ever, is him publicly admitting that he's either done that, or fully intends to do that)



* Worth noting that American elections already aren't particularly "free and fair" due to gerrymandering, voter suppression measures

Agreed, no doubt ICE will intimidate and disrupt voting in stronger Dem voting areas.

Hope (I struggle to think of reasons for it):

1) The police are sent out to defend voters. But would they have the manpower to do this, given ICE's huge budget? And would it turn into a riot, a fight between ICE and the police which would make voting impossible anyway (but only in those Dem areas)?

2) Trump/Vance/MAGA is so unpopular that even these measures aren't enough to swing the vote in their favour. But then they just change the numbers, or if the counting is still done with integrity, ignore the result, say the election was stolen, don't leave the White House, wait for the Supreme Court to rubber stamp the dictatorship).

But I think genuine, massive unpopularity is the best hope (as it should be).

Bold to assume that police wouldn't be on the side of intimidating "foreign-looking" (ie, not white) people from voting. Both as individuals and as an institution, police forces heavily skew MAGA. Plus the emphasis that the Republicans have placed on getting key people into downballot positions over the last few years (Yay, Project 2025!) mean that a lot of target seats for the Dems have incumbent MAGA people in key decision-making positions where they can be highly obstreperous to any attempt to unrig an election.

Interesting point about NRA condemning the shooting. I’ve watched that video, there’s a very good analysis on Bellingcat, and the victim was no threat. Yes, he had a holstered firearm, but at no time did he remove it. And firing ten rounds into a person prone on the floor who who have just disarmed is frankly murder.

It's the timing of the shots that horrify me. It's BANG, then a second pause and BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG. This isn't one person panicking and firing ten bullets; it's one person opening fire and that giving the rest of them permission to draw and riddle him with bullets. Every single one of them was primed and ready to escalate to murder in a split-second. Utterly terrifying.

Puja