The Colorado Supreme Court is removing former President Donald Trump from the primary ballot, saying he is ineligible to be president.

In a stunning and unprecedented decision, the Colorado Supreme Court removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.”

“Even when the siege on the Capitol was fully underway, he continued to support it by repeatedly demanding that Vice President (Mike) Pence refuse to perform his constitutional duty and by calling Senators to persuade them to stop the counting of electoral votes.

“President Trump’s direct and express efforts, over several months, exhorting his supporters to march to the Capitol to prevent what he falsely characterized as an alleged fraud on the people of this country were indisputably overt and voluntary.”

Ratified after the Civil War, the 14th Amendment says officials who take an oath to support the Constitution are banned from future office if they “engaged in insurrection.” But the wording is vague, it doesn’t explicitly mention the presidency, and has only been applied twice since 1919.

We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these unAmerican lawsuits,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement.

Chief Justice Brian Boatright, one of the three dissenters on the seven-member court, wrote that he believes Colorado election law “was not enacted to decide whether a candidate engaged in insurrection,” and said he would have dismissed the challenge to Trump’s eligibility.

LINKS

AP: Colorado Supreme Court bans Trump from the state’s ballot under Constitution’s insurrection clause | @negativenull@startrek.website

Washington Post: Donald Trump is barred from Colorado’s 2024 primary ballot, the state Supreme Court rules | @silence7@slrpnk.net

CNBC: Colorado Supreme Court disqualifies Trump from 2024 ballot, pauses ruling to allow appeal | @return2ozma

NBC News: Colorado Supreme Court kicks Donald Trump off the state’s 2024 ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution. | 18-24-61-B-17-17-4

CNN: Colorado Supreme Court removes Trump from 2024 ballot | A Phlaming Phoenix

CNN:Colorado Supreme Court removes Trump from 2024 ballot based on 14th Amendment’s ‘insurrectionist ban’ | @Boddhisatva

New York Times: Trump Is Disqualified From the 2024 Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules | @silence7@slrpnk.net

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I can’t wait for the megathread when he fucking dies. Hopefully, after a few years in a supermax.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      He has access to rich people doctors, we’re stuck with him for at least another decade.

      • ivanafterall@kbin.social
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        11 months ago

        The comparably-built Jabba the Hutt was apparently nearly 600 years old in Return of the Jedi. He’s sure to surpass Kissinger, at least, in this timeline.

        • Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          While fighting Beldorion on Nam Chorios, Leia Organa Solo remembered from her time in Jabba’s palace that Jabba’s fat hid a great deal more muscle than anyone suspected, and for all his apparent sluggishness, he could move deceptively fast across a room, particularly when his temper was roused.

          From his Wookiepedia page

          • TheFriar
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            11 months ago

            Let’s hope trumps doctor pumps him full of fentanyl.

              • swim@slrpnk.net
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                11 months ago

                Well they could have seen the same celebrity doctor in Hollywood once or something, but there were two different dudes responsible for their individual care when they died; Michael Jackson’s doctor got 4 years in prison for manslaughter, and has no connection to Prince.

                • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  Now you’re making me question my memory but I’m not going to go back and look. I know Prince got hooked back on drugs and I thought it was the same doc that did it. It could have been that they had the same lawyers that took over their estates? There’s some serious connection. I could have sworn it was the doctors.

        • Coreidan@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You can have all the best doctors in the world but if you’re addicted to drugs they can’t save you if you OD. I doubt Trump is a heroin junky but you never know!

        • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Michael Jackson didn’t die of natural causes. Elvis died in a time when doctors still used chainsaws to open the birth canal wider and help women give birth. I wouldn’t consider those good examples.

      • TheAuthor_13
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        11 months ago

        Not if he keeps up his high-protein meal plan… Wendy’s is awesome once or twice a month, not a day.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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            11 months ago

            Until proven otherwise, I will continue to believe he was silenced (as in: killed, perhaps even at the order of Trump himself somehow, considering how tight he historically was with Epstein). Every single official explanation of the situation I have seen since his murder (and again: I firmly believe it was murder) has simply ignored HUGE questions and discrepancies that are at the absolute core of the matter.

            • Zink@programming.dev
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              11 months ago

              It almost seems like it was done to send a message. Either that or a situation where they had to act when they had the chance even if it would look bad.

              • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                The part that’s deeply problematic - and, in fact, should absolutely be considered a constitutional crisis if any evidence can be uncovered to the effect - is that Trump may have ordered the summary, trial-less execution of a person who was fully and completely in the custody of The State, and that the execution was carried out. And the simple fact that everything about the matter is still opaque and was pretty definitely kept quiet from multiple angles indicates clear consciousness of guilt on the parts of whoever was involved.

    • Brutticus
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      11 months ago

      honestly? I hope he dies in the next few months. It would save us all a lot of heart ache. Natural causes. We dont need hm becoming a martyr.

      • 4lan@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        all those amphetamines and cheesburgers have to catch up with him sometime. he’s morbidly obese and nearly 80

        • Brutticus
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          11 months ago

          And he rawdogged covid full force.

          But he is an old important white guy

          • 4lan@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            rawdogged? didn’t he have access to treatments the general public didn’t? a la Rogan?

            • Brutticus
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              11 months ago

              yeah, but that was before the vaccines were developed. So it was all reactive. He still took an ungloved punch.

    • rauls4
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      11 months ago

      That day I will buy the biggest pig and roast it and invite all my friends to party like it’s 1999.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      He won’t last years in a Supermax. Maybe a few mooches, not a few years.

    • Mamertine@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You make it sound like you’re not looking forward to the “Trump Convicted” and "Trump Sentenced’ mega threads

    • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      If convicted, Trump is likely to serve out his federal sentence in Colorado at the Super Max prison at ADX Florence.

    • scripthook@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      By then there will be several digital AI clones and all the supporters will think he is still alive or faked his own death etc

    • gmtom@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’m not, you will literally never hear the end of the rampant and insane conspiracy theories from the magats.

    • CADmonkey@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I’ve wondered what will happen to the rightoid obsessives when he eats that final hamburger. Who will they latch onto next? None of his kids are as popular, nor are any of the other candidates. The obvious answer is “some corpo dickhead will try to create a new rightwing messiah”, but I really think those types are so out of touch that whoever they created would be universally lambasted.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Y’all need to tamper your expectations. He will NEVER go to jail, never. The best we can hope for is to bog him down in legal cases until he dies by big Mac overdose, but am ex president of the u.s is not going to jail.

    • TheOriginalGregToo@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      This comment is how I know you’re a morally superior “good” person.

      Shame on Trump for being such a meanie. Fortunately we have “good” people like you to oppose him.

      • abbenm@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        for being such a meanie

        Lol. You mean literally engaging in insurrection? This is exactly what internet hippo was talking about in their now famous tweet:

        New right wing thing is describing crimes as generically as possible to pretend like they’re not crimes. Someone gets convicted of conspiracy and they start yelling “Wow so it’s illegal to make plans with friends now”

        I’d love to see a whole chart of how various crimes get described in a generic way. Describing insurrection as being a meanie probably something that should be printed in framed and hung up in a Hall of Fame honoring greatest all time excuses for federal crimes.

        • TheOriginalGregToo@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          If Republicans are using that tactic, it’s only cause they learned it from you.

          Burning down buildings, looting businesses, assaulting people, property damage, physically intimidating people, murder = “summer of love” and “mostly peaceful protests”.

          Black lives matter ಠ_ಠ

          • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            “They started it”

            When’s the last time that worked out as a defense? 1st grade? Kindergarten?

            Even assuming your point was accurate, that’s a pretty weak argument dude.

            • whofearsthenight
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              11 months ago

              Even assuming your point was accurate

              Hang on, need to stretch a bit so I can get my head far enough up my ass to see their point.

            • TheOriginalGregToo@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              What’s my position, that BLM is a bullshit corrupt organization, shown time and time again through their fraudulent behavior? That criminal acts should not be excused as “mostly peaceful” or “summer of love”? That the left used gaslighting to excuse abhorrent and illegal actions because it was their side doing it?

              Seriously, what’s your point?

          • Zink@programming.dev
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            11 months ago

            Guys, guys, hold up. Did you see this shit? There are OTHER people that committed OTHER crimes too! Why are we even paying attention to the leader of the free world trying to take over one of the biggest and by far the most powerful/dangerous country? Who the hell Is going to fix that window in the front of Macy’s!?

                • TheOriginalGregToo@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  The world IS bigger than Seattle, I agree. That being said, Seattle is a key US city, and as such what happens there has cultural and political ramifications for our country as a whole. The fact that you are either dismissing and/or not aware of what happened there is a little troubling and makes me question your qualifications to hold an opinion on the matter.

                  As for the obviously hyperbolic claim that “whole cities were burned down”, that’s absurd. As someone who lives very near Los Angeles, I can tell you that there absolutely was widespread looting, vandalism, protests/riots, and violence. This was not localized and spread both into Orange County as well as the Inland Empire. I know this because 1. I saw it with my own eyes, and 2. I had multiple clients reach out to me and reschedule because they needed to shutter their businesses and board up their store fronts with plywood to prevent them from being smashed and looted.

                  Since we’re sharing articles, how about this one that talks about two individuals who burned down a Wendy’s. Both individuals pleaded guilty of 1st degree arson and as a result got a slap on the wrist ($500 fine and 150 hours of community service). Explain to me how that’s even remotely a reasonable punishment for burning down a building…

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    In other news, Colorado confirmed most patriotic state in the union.

    If a few more states follow suit, even if they are “safe blue” states, the GOP will have no choice but to drop Trump and pick up the next best candidate. Winning local elections is way more important for Republican-aligned agendas to continue forward, but if people won’t turn out because Trump is off the ballot, it’ll be a blue wave of lower offices flipping. They’ll need to work fast to push the “Trump Bad, X Good” where X is whatever conservative sock puppet they prop up to take his place in hopes of saving their chances at maintaining a multi-state hegemony on state congressional seats.

  • SPRUNT@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    They’re calling it an “unprecedented decision”, but I like to think of it as a “precedent-setting decision”.

  • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 months ago

    Surely this will be challenged, and I’m not optimistic about the federal Supreme Court maintaining the same decision, but, fuck, would that be nice.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      SCOTUS could decline to take it up. Remember, they were not interested in entertaining Trump’s election fraud claims.

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
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        They also have typically demurred to “states’ rights.” It was a violation of Colorado’s Constitution, so I agree that it’s less than likely they’ll rule in his favor on appeal.

        Edit: it was ruled as violating the US Constitution. But I still stand by what I said.

          • jonne@infosec.pub
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            Yeah, I can’t believe so many people are still fooled by their ‘originalism’ story. The originalists have just the most radical interpretations of the law that have no relation to the wording it intent of those that wrote it. Biggest example of that is how they interpret the second amendment.

            And also the continual hollowing out of the fourth. The founders would be shocked to see what police can legally do these days (and if they do something illegal, there’s still no consequences, because the people in charge of enforcing the law are apparently the only ones where ignorance of the law is an excuse).

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          also, the feds don’t decide who goes on the ballots- that’s a state matter. They run the elections. It’ll probably come before SCOTUS only if trump actually wins the regular election.

          similar to how, a state can send a congressperson to congress that’s ineligible, but they get kicked out on day one.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
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          They only care about “states’ rights” if it suits them. They’re completely happy to trample on the state’s right to regulate other things they don’t like.

      • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        Some of the articles note that Trump wouldn’t need Colorado to win (and didnt win in 2020) and while this sets a wonderful precedent, I’d wager that most would-be-Red-voting states simply wouldn’t recognize this decision.

        In that light, this seems a little bit of a hollow victory, but maybe I’m wrong and this is the precipice of something far better.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I suggested elsewhere in the thread that it opens the door to other challenges in other states and that his primary opponents are probably looking into the idea since it’s the only chance they have. Maybe it wouldn’t work in the redder states, but in purple states?

        • TechyDad@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          True, but this removes him from the primary. If enough other states do this, you could have Nikki Haley or someone else winning that state. Then again, Colorado’s primary takes place on Super Tuesday (March 5th). By the time, Haley is announced the winner, it would likely be too late to stop Trump. (Assuming nothing else stops him first.)

        • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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          Sure, but those red states aren’t going to make a difference no matter what, they’re stocked with crazies. Where this is going to make an impact is purple states that might have enough liberal justices to support the ruling, but also have a sizeable enough population of MAGAts that Trump could win the state. Cutting those off from him should be enough to make the GOP drop him.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It would be a perfect out for them, as long as they don’t get Dictator B elected instead. Then they’d end up on the enemies list.

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      11 months ago

      Current SCotUS is hella corrupt, but I don’t see them denying that the individual States control their own elections.

      • WindyRebel@lemmy.world
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        Yeah, was gonna say that if they rule against that then there’s going to be a fuck ton of challenges to everything they’ve ruled using state’s rights as the ruling.

        • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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          They’ll have to be really careful if they take the case, because the wording of their decision is critical. They could inadvertently empower the Voting Rights Act.

      • Odelay42@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        They don’t have to. They could simply say Jan. 6 wasn’t an insurrection as described by the 14th amendment.

      • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The Jan. 4th deadline isn’t that meaningful. The ballots don’t even exist yet, so striking him from the ballots on January 4th isn’t actually possible.

        The more interesting deadline is not Jan. 4 nor Mar. 5 (the primary election date), but February 12, 2024 because this is when mail-in ballots will be sent. No changes at that point.

        • Chef@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          Colorado deadline to submit primary candidates for the ballots is January 5th - one day after the deadline.

          • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Yes and that might be important but I think the court could be persuaded to permit a candidate to be added if a higher court ruled that it was constitutionally required. That’s why I think Feb. 12 is the real goal line.

            • Chef@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              Ah I understand the logic now. The “practical” deadline is essentially when the ballots must be created and mailed. Got it.

              • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
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                11 months ago

                Those ballots need to be created before they can be addressed/mailed. All that takes time, and thus the January 5th deadline. Once the process has started I don’t think it’s practical to scrap ballots and start over.

                • nfh@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  The real hard deadline is probably between the two, if a SCOTUS opinion dropped on February 11th, it’s probably too late to correct, but if it came in January 6th, they’d probably make a good faith effort to correct it if necessary.

    • Nobody@lemmy.world
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      It’s not impossible. This court is extremely right wing and pro-Republican, but some justices are also fanatically religious. And a lot of religious conservatives are souring on the “Trump as orange Jesus” thing, especially educated ones.

      If they rule on it fairly quickly, the GOP could still field a religious candidate that shares the justices’ beliefs.

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      It would lead to a lot of terror attacks in the US, a much larger insurrection attempt, and ruin the Republican Party

      The Supreme Court would never put justice above their own interests

      • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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        11 months ago

        It sets the precedent for other states to strike him.

        If he ends up not being the candidate in enough states to deny him 270 votes, he’s done.

        • root_beer@midwest.social
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          Which states would actually bar him though? I thought the same thing, that he’d have lost CO anyway, and I’m just not seeing this happening in states where he’s likely to win or where it’d actually be competitive.

          I’m not trying to be a pessimist or anything, despite it being my usual inclination, I’d genuinely like to know whether other states might actually do the right thing, where it counts.

      • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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        In theory, no. SCOTUS does not have jurisdiction over state election process (unless they give it to themselves, because who will stop them?).

        But they have jurisdiction to interpret the federal constitution. Since this ruling is based on the federal constitution, SCOTUS may have jurisdiction because of that.

    • cyd@lemmy.world
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      If Haley is next up, I think Biden will have big problems winning. But there’s little chance of the SC upholding this decision.

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    it would be “nonsensical to imagine the framers of the amendment, fearful of former Confederates returning to power, would bar them from low-level offices but not the highest one in the land” - commented the lawyer

  • Octavio@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The US Supreme Court will surely overturn this. Not because the Colorado Supreme Court was wrong, but because the US Supreme Court is crooked.

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    11 months ago

    How is it surprising or an open legal question when it has been thoroughly proved and stated in countless ways that he betrayed his position several times? Wtf? You have proof that he is dangerous and anti democratic? Wtf?

  • Duchess of Waves@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Recently I watched “The Man in the High Castle” and had a good laugh at the stupid story. Like Germany would have ever been able to conquer the US and put it under Fascism rule. No. When America goes fascist it will do so out of its own choice, by its own politicians, elected by their own population. Like my grandpa once said:

    *“The proletariat is so stupid that they vote their own executioner into power just for the vague hope of seeing their hated neighbour in front of them in the queue for the gallows.”

    “Das Proletariat ist so verblödet dass sie ihren eigenen Henker an die Macht wählen nur aus der vagen Hoffnung zu sehen wie ihr verhaßter Nachbar vor ihnen in der Schlange vorm Galgen steht.”*

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    Please, remain alert. Even if he gets disqualified by the Supreme court next, he’s likely to try Jan. 6 Part two: Orange Boogaloo. There’s enough armed psychoes to vouch for him even if it’s meaningless. I feel like every major institution needs to double their security in case something like that happens. Like any lifetime loser, this idiot just can’t lose, especially having a slight chance to escape responsibility for his ongoing trials.

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    Fucking finally. That one Colorado judge didn’t have the courage to do it (and I understand why), and I’m glad this panel did. I hope they got personal protection, because Trump is effectively a mob boss.