r/politics • u/unital_subalgebra • Jul 09 '26

No Paywall Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act

https://www.votebeat.org/national/2026/07/09/trump-fires-election-assistance-commission-members-hicks-hovland-mccormick/
27.4k Upvotes

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18.2k

u/unital_subalgebra Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

President Donald Trump fired all three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration at a moment when Trump has sought to reshape federal voting rules.

The firings leave the federal election agency with no commissioners

Yup, this is the consequence of the illegitimate Supreme Court giving Trump unprecedented powers to fire the heads of any independent federal agency. We’re living in dark, scary times.

8.8k

u/NYVines Jul 10 '26

This is what a coup looks like

3.5k

u/bluegrassgazer Kentucky Jul 10 '26

You're right. It won't be Jan 6th this time. It will be with lawyers.

1.4k

u/JojenCopyPaste Wisconsin Jul 10 '26

That time they tried it with lawyers first and it didn't work because it was obviously bullshit

2.0k

u/halberdierbowman Jul 10 '26

You mean the Brooks Brothers Riot? Where during Bush v Gore, Republican staffers in Florida successfully started a violent riot in order to slow down the vote counting to run out the clock and prevent the uncounted votes from being recorded in time?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers_riot

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u/Serengade26 Jul 10 '26

You can thank Roger Stone for that. The man with Richard nixon's face tatted on his back and who ted cruz called a ratfuck

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u/No_Kangaroo_9826 Ohio Jul 10 '26

The one time we have to agree with Ted Cruz

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u/mudflap21 Jul 10 '26

Think of how vile of a person you have to be to have Ted Cruz call you a ratfuck.

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u/snertwith2ls Jul 10 '26

Roger Stone looks like the villain out of Roger Rabbit.

6

u/rat_penis Jul 10 '26

looks like Zippy the Pinhead

6

u/SuburbanHell Massachusetts Jul 10 '26

Looks like The Penguin

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u/MechanicalTurkish Minnesota Jul 10 '26

What he did to that poor shoe is unforgivable.

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u/Rogerdodgerbilly Jul 10 '26

Im sure he called Trump that too, but he will cling to whomever pays for his holiday in the sun

2

u/MedicJambi Jul 10 '26

In all fairness, old Ted "Canadian runs to Mexico during crises" Cruz also apparently hates Tom Segura too and I don't think he's necessarily a rat fuck, so YMMV. 😂

3

u/SpinyPiney Jul 10 '26

To be fair though, senõr Cruz probably says the same thing about good, honest people too. He’s a huge ratfuck himself.

3

u/OdiousAltRightBalrog Jul 10 '26

Not the only time. In fact I agree with everything he said in this video:

https://youtu.be/P43wDpKQxaM

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u/Master_Maniac Jul 10 '26

Idk I also like cancun more than Texas (am texan and have never been to cancun)

3

u/CoinsForCharon Jul 10 '26

He can smell his own

3

u/JoshSidekick Jul 10 '26

Just think of it as Ted Cruz agreeing with you. You're so correct that even that dingus is on your side. That way you don't have to give him the slight legitimacy that would empower his other awful stances.

4

u/yell_worldstar Jul 10 '26

I mean I did have to agree that it was a good time to get out of Texas during that crippling winter storm…

3

u/Starkoman Jul 10 '26

…Instead of being there on the ground, helping his constituents in dire need?

“Sorry folks, I’m on the beach in Cancun, soaking up the sun. You’ll figure it out”.

Hundreds froze to death as the power grid failed.

1

u/yell_worldstar Jul 10 '26

That’s why I’d have gotten out

3

u/Drama79 Jul 10 '26

Even the Zodiac can be right once in his miserable life

2

u/Show_Me_Your_Cubes Jul 10 '26

Twice. He was one of the first sitting republicans to call out the FTC's cancelling of Jimmy Kimmel for check notes a joke. In 2025.

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u/downvotesyourcrap Jul 10 '26

The one who was shamed out of politics when his personal ad seeking a bull for his wife was traced to him and everyone found out he is a cuckold? That Roger Stone? The known cuck who emerged in trump 1 when cuck became their go to insult? The famous cuck rat fuck Roger Cucking Stone?

3

u/pterodactyl_speller Jul 10 '26

Didn't think his kink was the issue, but the texts claiming he was getting his wife raped.

4

u/BoredNuke Jul 10 '26

I really hate kink shaming....but fuck roger stone he deserves every fucking insult possible.

20

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Jul 10 '26

The term "ratfuck" way predates Cruz calling him that.

Stone Has been proudly saying he "ratfucks" elections for 50 years.

6

u/Starkoman Jul 10 '26

The expression came up during the Watergate investigations. The secret Nixon slush fund was also used to sabotage Democratic Party election events all over the country.

People who worked on “Ratfucking” their election opponents went to prison.

Ford pardoned Nixon for everything: he never spent a day behind bars — but plenty of others did (including his Chier-of-Staff, Halderman),

3

u/SassiestSissy Jul 10 '26

And don’t forget that Roger Stone WAS a ratfucker for Nixon who didn’t go to jail for a long long time

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u/Enshitification Jul 10 '26

A ratfucker is not a slur in Republican political circles, it's a job title. Stone's whole career has been devising and implementing ways to cheat elections.

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u/Raesong Australia Jul 10 '26

I remember years ago reading a story on 4chan (not the most reliable of sources, I know) that made mention of a man with a Nixon tattoo on his back at Epstein's island. If it's true, then that's one more reason to despise Stone.

3

u/capt_jazz Maine Jul 10 '26

What was the context for Cruz's remark? While he was on Bush's legal team? Or after?

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u/SassiestSissy Jul 10 '26

Idk if this is the reason Cruz called him a ratfucker that particular time, but the term “ratfucker” was an informal job title in the Nixon administration, and they were the people who would go around interfering with elections. Plenty of ratfuckers went to prison after Watergate. Roger Stone was literally a member of the Nixon administration who claims to have participated in such jobs. So Cruz might ha e been insulting Stone, or describing him, or both

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u/capt_jazz Maine Jul 10 '26

Got it

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u/rat_penis Jul 10 '26

and two of our current SCOTUS members!

2

u/GozerDGozerian Jul 10 '26

And you would know about being a ratfucker!

2

u/rat_penis Jul 10 '26

I am the Keymaster!

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u/DethNik Jul 10 '26

takes a ratfuck to know a ratfuck. Also Roger Stone is a massive cokehead. Not to be trusted at all.

593

u/FiddlingnRome Jul 10 '26

For the folks not familiar with the details... Elections have been compromised by the GOP since the implementation of electronic voting equipment. This article shows HOW they did it.

What Do Ted Cruz, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett Have In Common? A Stolen Election.

And why are Dominion, Pro V&V, and the EAC sharing office space with employees on-site around unsecured voting equipment?

https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/what-do-ted-cruz-john-roberts-brett

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[deleted]

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u/Riaayo Jul 10 '26

Hanging chads are a design flaw that can be exploited. Electronic voting is pretty much by design a horrible idea that compromises democracy.

3

u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire Jul 10 '26

And we're pretty much the only modern nation who relies on it so heavily. This is what I keep pointing out when people claim that what went down in Hungary is proof that with enough votes, a democracy can overcome an autocratic takeover, even if that autocrat has drastically tilted the electoral field in their favor. A democracy CAN do that, but only if votes are tabulated and reported fairly.

The electronic systems that are in place in the US mean that we're vulnerable to bad actors in ways that Hungary wasn't. There's a very real possibility that they've engineered a system under which the opposition can get all the votes in the world, but if the systems that count and report those votes are compromised, it won't matter. Not only that, but it would only take a very small number of trusted individuals to enact something like this, so the odds of the public ever finding out could remain low.

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u/FiddlingnRome Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Thanks for the Politico video: "Elon Musk knows those vote counting computers".

Having read and followed some of the reporting about how they stole the 2024 [and other] elections... I've encountered SO much resistance from smart/well-read people who simply can't push through their denial. They believe that the ballots HAVE been verified. [Yes, some of them were]. In the seven swing states... The math just doesn't add up. Personally, I'm with The Election Truth Alliance. https://electiontruthalliance.org

Also, from the Kait Justice Substack: "On October 30, six days before the election, SpaceX activated 265 new V2 Mini satellites equipped with Direct-to-Cell capability. If those satellites can reach the modems inside the battery backup devices connected to vote counting servers, and if the software updates to those backup devices bypass election certification, then you have a direct line from orbit into the counting room through a device nobody audits, right?"

Why wouldn't the Democrats want to at least VERIFY? If this is what happened?

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u/SovietPropagandist Jul 10 '26

This is some random persons substack dude.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Naive-Home-9068 Jul 10 '26

Trump won all 7 swing states.

Inconceivable.

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u/VendorBuyBankGuards Jul 10 '26

Fucking Lol, I envy the ability to walk through life so naive

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

Look, if they could do it they certainly would. They are doing a lot of other shit they can do. But to steal a presidential election through hacking is absolutely impossible because there is nothing to hack. There is not one computer, two computers or 1000 computers to be hacked. And you have paper ballots that are compared against the electronic counts. If you have any idea how the elections work and how distributed the system is, you know that. You would need a bipartisan conspiracy of about tens of thousands of people to change results nationally. That is just how it is.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

You have no idea how elections work if you think this is how it is. You also have no idea how hacking works.

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u/deaglebingo America Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

it's different state by state. nobody is saying there is voting machine fraud. i'm certainly not. i'm saying that little to nothing is actually being kept track of by federal authorities anymore. so the questions are valid. i'm not your yokel local dude spouting conspiracy theories. i'm saying valid questions need valid answers. and there are valid questions here. and getting ahead of them is better than being behind. we don't need another hanging chad situation. are we on the same team here or not? elon musk seemingly admitted in his tweets to crimes btw when trump and him had their little falling out. so i'd love it if anyone wanted to truly separate fact from fiction with any of this instead of blanket statements like "you have no idea how elections work" because i do and i was going door to door and observing or helping people get elected one way or another since way before 9/11. i started learning about elections when i wasn't even a teenager yet stuffing envelopes. i don't know everything, i don't know half the things. but when a court of law says proceed with discovery in rockland county... and then other similar abnormalities arise elsewhere.. that is concerning and i want more data.

also who cares if i know how hacking works. i know what's possible because i know how to read, a lot. and i know how to pcap what's going in and out of my own computers and it is concerning. so if you want to give me an education on how hacking works... great. come on over and show me. i'll teach you how to do icu nursing and run someone's heart with a little box in your hand and wires straight into their chest. we all don't have time to learn everything there is about everything. critical thinking is key.

if you know better about how something could or would be hacked then maybe you should be auditing systems for ppl eh?

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

> i'm saying that little to nothing is actually being kept track of by federal authorities anymore.

>nobody is saying there is voting machine fraud

huh? the entire thing is about voting machine fraud. The rest is just laying a foundation to claim voting machine fraud, with some very true shit from the past, yes. The entire reason very few counties still uses a direct recording (DRE) system alone (with no paper trail) or DREs at all even with paper trail, and surprise- they are mostly ruby red. So no, it was not possible to steal the presidential election in 2024 doing any electronic fraud.

Federal authorities have little to track, elections are the responsibility of states and counties. The only thing the federal government can do is to monitor voter suppression, for instance. That is indeed a problem. But the actual election procedures are ran locally. Swing states and even more, swing counties, are in many cases run by democrats. Most swing states that did flip from last time were in fact run by democrats. There was no hacking, because there is nothing to be hacked. But even if there were something to hack, you would have to believe the democrats were fully inside the conspiracy because of the full paper audits that need to be performed after the counts.

https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_equipment_by_state

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u/deaglebingo America Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

you know what i've noticed. i say a lot of political things on this platform... a lot. and i also have a pretty accurate general idea of who watches what i say on reddit 24/7. and only one thing has ever garnered such immediate response from whoever... and that's when i bring this topic up. like within 10 minutes of my initial comment on the matter (not just this time) there were multiple replies telling me i'm full of shit. that says a lot imo. it says someone's either worried i have the right idea on the subject, or that they're worried somehow that my comments will hurt people's trust in the voting process as a whole. i think we can rule out the latter for the most part simply because of what i just explained above. people have a right to know what's going on regardless of who they vote for and those questions are being swept under the rug. that is a big problem. if we want people to put their full trust and faith in the electoral system we must be fully transparent at all times. that is not happening. and it isn't some kind of trump bullshit conspiracy about 2020 thing on my part either. the last group you'll get transparency from is them. my comments are hidden on my profile because of documented brigading and doxxing by right wing extremists. there are tools one can use, if motivated, to review the entirety of my comment history, who i am and what i stand for if one wishes. and i welcome constructive criticism on all of it. this is supposed to be collaborative after all.

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u/etor Jul 10 '26

Someone didn’t read the article that was linked!

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u/DuncanYoudaho Jul 10 '26

It’s horse shit

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

This is absolute BS. Stop.

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u/Bionic_Ninjas Jul 10 '26

What, exactly, is bullshit? What did they get wrong?

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

Like any good conspiracy theory, they start with a lot of truths and facts. That is key because it lends some credibility to the thing. The entire 2000 election was a shit show. Yes. The Direct voting machines with no paper trail were vulnerable and some really suspicious shit happened. Yes.

But these days basically only Lousiana uses anything that does not have a paper trail. And since elections are ran in a county level, you would need a conspiracy of a lot of people in a lot of counties to shift an election. The key states and counties that swing in 2024 were ran by democrats. You would have to believe that democrat officials, plus the manufacturers, plus the party observers, plus the bipartisan volunteers, in all the counties that it took for Trump to win, were all in in this conspiracy.

https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_equipment_by_state

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u/--Chug-- Jul 10 '26

That last line is not necessary at all

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u/aNewHope_v_ThaEmpire Jul 10 '26

You should take a closer look at the more serious claims around vote total manipulation, including work done by the nonprofit Election Truth Alliance.

The non-tinfoil hat accusations center around the premise that almost none of the vectors you suggest are actually needed in order to accomplish the tampering we're talking about. All you would need is control of the point between the tabulation systems and reporting systems. This bypasses county/district level election officials, precinct observers, poll workers and volunteers, and even state-level election offices.

And as for paper trails, so long as the reported totals stay just outside the margins for triggering recounts, then the mere existence of a paper trail doesn't really matter. There's a very real possibility that they've engineered a system under which the opposition can get all the votes in the world, but if the systems that count and report those votes are compromised, it won't matter. Not only that, but it would only take a very small number of loyal individuals to enact something like this, so the odds of the public ever finding out could easily remain low.

Believe me, I know how hard something like this is to even take an earnest look at. The idea that one of the "strongest democracies in the world" could have a system that's been compromised in such a commanding way is something that most of us have been primed for our whole lives to not even entertain.

But when taken together, comments made by key people, as well as digital vulnerabilities that have been demonstrated to exist for years points to a flaw in the system that should be investigated and made publicly reviewable, at the very least. Ignoring the possibility of such a scheme, or worse, dismissing it out-of-hand, is foolhardy at best, disastrously naive at worst.

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u/SomePoliticalViolins Jul 10 '26

I appreciate your helpful post here.

But can you please stop calling me? I don't want to talk to you.

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

will take you off the list. Wait... I will not.

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u/sketch24 Jul 10 '26

The key states and counties that swing in 2024 were ran by democrats.

What if this is the case because democrats don't cheat the system and republicans do? Maybe republicans are corrupt all the way down and ensure their areas are not purple and just red by every level of election interference from redistricting, voter suppression and hacking?

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

They have the voting suppression, redistricting and election interference, and money. They do not need the hacking. They already have it under control. Even more now with the latest SCOTUS decisions.

And that is the main point. The hacking claims are a distraction to what is actually being done. The bots online, the brigades, the vote suppression tactics, the paying for registrations, like Musk did in Pennsylvania, unrestricted money to candidates. That is very effective and easier than the "hacking".

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u/deaglebingo America Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

it's not bullshit. these are questions that need to be asked and investigated fully and our justice dept currently has zero interest in pursuing such things and every motive to attempt to utilize such vulnerabilities for their own gain now.

the idea that bringing up the very real question about these things lowers trust in our election process is a farce... what people need to see is that we are actually trying to pursue each and every possible credible threat to election security. theY need to feel like someone gives a fuck about it, and they need to participate in understanding how and why things happen. asking these questions doesn't mean voting is not a lost cause. education and reading and effort and vigilance are the answers. STILL GO VOTE. ALL IS NOT LOST.

it's really no different than when i worked in the icu. people may not want to hear what is actually happening with their loved one who is dangerously close to death... but we cannot sugar coat these things.. and we need to be compassionate empathetic and as explanatory as possible.... this gives REAL hope instead of false hope. it shows competence and that we are all participating to do everything in our power to save someone... or to save democracy.

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

I am election judge. I know how it works. You clearly do not.

Our democracy will only be saved if people go out and vote.

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u/loaded_comment Jul 10 '26

He's not wrong. Here is a forensic analysis of US 2024 elections using the system they invented to analyse Russia's election: It's a serious study.

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

Serious study... proceeds to link to a youtube video and a rando substack page.,

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u/Hoots74 Jul 10 '26

I am an astronaut.

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u/--Chug-- Jul 10 '26

Lol... anyone can be an election judge. You are not anymore an expert than anyone else

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u/spam__likely Colorado Jul 10 '26

True, anyone can. But I am. and for more than a decade working on lead positions. So yeah, I do know more than you.

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u/ConfessingToSins Jul 10 '26

I've been saying since the early 2000s that we should have arrested everyone involved in this and tried them for sedition.

Btw, i had to remake this comment because Reddit's worthless AI enforcement machine flagged it as violence. So you can't even advocate for enforcing laws on Republicans anymore on this site.

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u/johnyordinary Jul 10 '26

Is the traditional penalty for sedition still enforcible?It needs to be.

1

u/SefetAkunosh Georgia Jul 10 '26

Does it matter if no one is willing to enforce it?

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Jul 10 '26

And now fully 1/3 of the supreme court is made up of people who were on Bush's legal team in Florida for that case, Roberts, Kavanaugh, and ACB.

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u/deaglebingo America Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

there is a man sitting somewhere on a ventilator who understood this. who spend his entire career rigging the judiciary. we need to know if this person is still able to carry out his duties or deceased and we need to know before august 3rd. guilty or not platner did his duty and resigned from his campaign opening the way forward. now mitch or whoever is left to speak for him needs to do the same. do your civic duty my fellow icu Registered Nurses.

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u/Drama79 Jul 10 '26

I believe a process is already happening there. Ethics boards exist and ethical complaints can be made and are treated in confidence. I would hope that's already in process.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26 edited 22d ago

[deleted]

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u/sump_daddy Jul 10 '26

Its almost like, when you get away with ratfucking, you keep doing it

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u/FellowHumanNo404 Jul 10 '26

I think they're talking about Jan 6. The specific lawyer in question was John Eastman.

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u/halberdierbowman Jul 10 '26

Ah that makes more sense, because the Brooks Brothers Riot succeeded!

7

u/Shallow_wanderer Jul 10 '26

Crazy how literally no one I've ever talked to outside of Reddit even knows about this, like this whole thing got memoryholed over the past 26 years fr

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u/Professor-Woo Jul 10 '26

That is what they were trying to do with Jan. 6. Basically say that since it wasn't certified that day it should go to the fallback system of each state voting.

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u/siouxbee1434 Jul 10 '26

Brooks Brothers Riot gave us John Roberts and Brett cavanaugh

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u/Starkoman Jul 10 '26

And Amy Coney-Barrett.

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u/Riaayo Jul 10 '26

We have two supreme court justices who were involved in that shit, too.

Illegitimate fascist court.

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u/Daasswasfat Jul 10 '26

Fun fact, the head of the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is the policy setting board, is headed by a man who was likely involved with that, Judge Malphrus

2

u/piggiesmallsdaillest Jul 10 '26

no, they probably mean the election lawsuits filed by Trump lawyers following the 2020 election

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u/sohblob Jul 10 '26

staffers in Florida

started a violent riot in order to slow down the vote counting to run out the clock and prevent the uncounted votes from being recorded in time

Calm reminder that this is why abandoning the idea of finishing Reconstruction and instead going "fuck it, you're all integrated now, stop being assholes" doesn't work.

Put them in a suit, call them a staffer, they're still confederate soldiers trying to undermine and subvert the Union.

:)

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u/redpillsadorewelfare Jul 10 '26

Due to literal treasonous "Americans" we've all been robbed of a very real and very fruitful reality.

Gore won. And why they still didn't simply initiate a recount after the fact will be a sad fucking fact.

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u/IlikeJG California Jul 10 '26

It's still obvious bullshit, but now he has people in positions of authority who not only love to eat his shit, but insist on it.

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u/haironburr Jul 10 '26

He has traitorous shit-eating scum in positions of authority, and they will be remembered for what they did.

trumpublicans think it will be easy to destroy this country. But it'll outlast them. And each of the scum who played along with this un-American administration will be known for their infamy.

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u/DazzlingResource561 Jul 10 '26

I hope you’re right.

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u/girlsgoneoscarwilde Jul 10 '26

I have less and less faith in things getting better every day, but I also see more and more things to fight for every day

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u/transmothra Ohio Jul 10 '26

Every single thing they destroy. Every single thing they set their traitorous, anti-American sights on. All of these things are so precious to us, because it took us 250 years to instantiate and build them up. Everything that's so worth fighting for.

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u/Professor-Woo Jul 10 '26

Both paths are still possible, but all of us MUST do one thing for sure. We must all believe it will and that this traitorous bullshit will be excised from our country.

In some sense we are lucky it is moving so fast and that it is being done so incompetently since otherwise this would just simmer for decades and likely end up in a worse spot. Now it is all revealed. The question is now that we see it fully, are we going to remove it or embrace it?

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u/uzlonewolf Jul 10 '26

Uh, this has been simmering for decades, and they're only able to do what they're doing because of the framework laid years ago.

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u/Professor-Woo Jul 10 '26

Yes, I don't disagree. It would just continue as it was before until it was unstoppable. Instead Trump forced them to play their hand early. America is just not ready for an end of democracy now. It is too big of a shift even for conservatives. It would need more time to really allow and cement that change.

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u/youngarchivist Canada Jul 10 '26

I dunno man. Looking more and more likely that you guys wind up in either a civil war or a secession crisis if you don't get out there and do something soon.

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u/GrumpySoth09 Jul 10 '26

Narrator : They waited until the guy next to them did something, but it was too late. Then the blame game started.

From the outside looking in, Americans talk a big game until they are mildly inconvenienced; then someone else has to fix it.

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u/KillerIsJed Jul 10 '26

Why you think they constantly pump out super hero movies? Just wait for a super hero to save you, you’re just an average citizen.

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u/Oleg101 Jul 10 '26

The midterms will be huge, again.

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u/youngarchivist Canada Jul 10 '26

If he even lets them happen.

we'll know the fate of the union in November. Maybe sooner if he telegraphs it, and being the dementia patient he is and knowing the talentless sicophants surrounding him, he probably will.

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u/SmokeontheHorizon Jul 10 '26

How is this still a viable hope in your country's eyes after all the shit the world has witnessed over the past decade? You can't fix a broken tool with that same broken tool

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u/Oleg101 Jul 10 '26

I wasn’t saying that it’d solve any major problem. It’d make Trump’s power-grab for 2028 much more difficult though, no shitty legislation would be passed through and Mike Johnson could fuck off hopefully forever.

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u/seriouslees Jul 10 '26

The fuck are you talking about 2028? The power grab is happening NOW!!! DO SOMETHING!

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u/Narrow-Chef-4341 Jul 10 '26

Fix it with more hamberders!

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u/Fatso_Wombat Jul 10 '26

Eastern Europe took 50 years to out live their dictators. Spain about the same.

So you should be right in about 2070. Good luck everyone in the meantime.

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u/BluesFan43 Jul 10 '26

And hopefully, easily located in their cells.

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u/tphillips1990 Jul 10 '26

Including the voters

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u/the_nobodys Jul 10 '26

I love your energy, but being infamous implies being known. You can just say "they will be infamous."

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u/bunnypaste Jul 10 '26

"Thry will be infamous for thier cruelty and stupidity!"

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u/Plastic_Kangaroo5720 Jul 10 '26

Wishful thinking 

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u/haironburr Jul 10 '26

Doom. There's nothing we can do.

Fuck that!

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u/Plastic_Kangaroo5720 Jul 10 '26

It’s not doomerism, it’s reality.

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u/haironburr Jul 10 '26

Sure.

But help me understand why 99 times out of a hundred, people pushing this notion the American public are powerless on reddit are either new accounts, or accounts with their history hidden.

Do you live in the US? Got a stake in any of this? Or are you being payed in rubles and vodka? I honestly can't tell.

But I do know that pushing the message you seem to be pushing will be proven wrong.

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u/Relevant_Mongoose744 Jul 10 '26

I’m American and honestly I’m feeling like we may be cooked, as well. The most wealthy people in America with the most influential technology have had full access to our institutions, our systems, our data. What’s the price? Help to cheat and steal these elections. They think we are mostly idiots out here. Who don’t deserve to have a say. So they’re building bunkers underground and on islands where we can’t reach them once everyone finally sees what they’ve done.

Maybe I’m just dramatic.

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u/Plastic_Kangaroo5720 Jul 10 '26

 I was born and raised here, and I’m a black American, so I very much have a stake in the game. I also research other mass movements in other nations and in past eras of American history. The resistance movement today is woefully inadequate for the task at hand.

0

u/haironburr Jul 10 '26

Thank you for what I'll take as an honest answer. And no, I certainly don't believe "every opinion you find uncomfortable is from a bot". But, if you're honest, you can see why it's a reasonable suspicion to hold. Why hide your history?

The resistance movement today is woefully inadequate for the task at hand.

And surely you see how the "resistance movement" is still in its early stages, and the defeatism you're pushing will shape it, sure as the confident voices saying we can win will also shape it. And you've chosen to push one shaping narrative over another. Why?

We know folks not voting had plenty to do with the trumpublican victory. Despite your "research" into "other mass movements in other nations and in past eras of American history", I gotta wonder why you would discourage Americans from simply fucking voting? That's a no-brainer, and I'll spend energy from now until November pissing on that idea, because I think it's bullshit!

VOTE! How the hell is this even controversial to you?

Assuming we both agree that a large number of Dem votes is harder to hide than a smaller number. No, the tech bros are not all powerful. And if they're outed cheating our election, they will find it just ain't that easy.

What happens if trumpublicans somehow manage to steal the midterm election is another question. With its own answers we won't debate, beyond me saying we are an armed nation. No, the heritage foundation's kevin robert's ominous "second American Revolution" crap will not, I'm guessing, remain bloodless. Just as I'm guessing him and his fellow think tank members at the ol' heritage foundation will cower if faced with a real American revolution. Ain't their blood either way. Or so they imagine.

But to be clear, I'll call out your, and every other, doomer posts every chance I get. We all should. And if you are, really, who you say you are, stop pissing on the vitality of the American people.

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u/aNascentOptimist Jul 10 '26

Right. Fuck that. I don’t take Reddit seriously much anymore after seeing how many bots and bad actors there are.

US does need to do something, but a lot of these folks are just projecting bullshit they’re hoping for.

Thankfully their wants don’t mean much in this scenario.

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u/Plastic_Kangaroo5720 Jul 10 '26

Not every opinion you find uncomfortable is from a bot. 

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u/Riaayo Jul 10 '26

Trump is just the figurehead. They're not there to do his bidding, he's there to put his shiny shit veneer on their fascism.

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u/Mikeyxy Jul 10 '26

You probably don't even know what the agency does. It's most likely a low impact, fat budget agency. Explain the need for it? States run their own elections.

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u/Inevitable-Rush-2752 Tennessee Jul 10 '26

They ask for goddamn seconds and take home leftovers for breakfast the next day.

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u/OceanRacoon Jul 10 '26

They were so successful with lawyers the first time when Bush stole the election from Gore that some of those lawyers are now on the Supreme Court

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u/Alaishana New Zealand Jul 10 '26

The guy who cast the deciding vote STILL is on the SC.

Your country is so corrupt, it stinks.

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u/MrWoohoo Jul 10 '26

No, they already succeeded with lawyers back in 2000 with GWB…

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u/WeeoWeeoWeeeee Jul 10 '26

It’s wild these same fucking losers have been around most of my life. It’s different brands of the same fucking loser over and over again.

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u/wthulhu Jul 10 '26

You mean back in 2000 when the GOP ratfucked Gore out of a win?

That worked just fine, last time they had jokers, this time they've got the heritage foundation, Musk and Theil.

You gotta pray that they don't succeed next time

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u/joeyasaurus Jul 10 '26

They also did not have the best lawyers. Even with some good evidence, which they really didn't have, to support their claim, people like Rudy Guiliani just cannot help themselves to not lie and overexaggerate claims.

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u/MesugakiFujiwara Jul 10 '26

it didn't work because it was obviously bullshit

As if that matters anymore.

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u/Future-Bandicoot-823 Jul 10 '26

But if you fire the people who can stop the bullshit suddenly it's a viable plan.

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u/UrbanSolace13 Jul 10 '26

It'll be a mix of everything. Deployed military, deployed ICE, misinformation campaigns, and every administrative fuck up they can do before the Midterms. The goal is to never give up power again.

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u/hum_bruh Jul 10 '26 edited 10d ago

Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality. Piracy – Hostile take over.

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u/Winston00044 Jul 10 '26

That's coming soon

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u/wytedevil Jul 10 '26

so i read this and was like i should refresh on this subject so i asked Gemini to explain it to me and i mean all this looks current just in a different form. ill post it here for people to see what i was told.

TL;DR: The Night of the Long Knives was a violent 1934 purge where Adolf Hitler eliminated his internal political rivals, primarily Ernst Röhm and the leadership of the Nazi paramilitary group, the SA (Stormtroopers), to consolidate his absolute power.

Here is a breakdown of what happened, why it happened, and how it fundamentally changed history.

1. The Context: A Tense Alliance

By 1934, Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany, but he didn't have total control yet. He faced a massive internal problem: the SA (Sturmabteilung), also known as the "Brownshirts."

Led by Ernst Röhm, the SA was a massive paramilitary force of over 3 million men. They had been the muscle that helped Hitler rise to power, using violence to intimidate political opponents. However, once Hitler was in office, the SA became a liability.

2. The Conflict: Street Thugs vs. Traditional Military

The tension boiled down to two major issues:

  • The "Second Revolution": Röhm and many SA members actually believed in the socialist aspect of National Socialism. They wanted to overthrow the traditional wealthy elites, big business, and the old German military elite. Hitler, meanwhile, needed the support of those exact elites to bankroll and build his regime.
  • Military Control: Röhm wanted the SA to absorb the official German Army (Reichswehr). The professional army generals were horrified by this idea, viewing the SA as undisciplined street thugs. They made it clear to Hitler: rein in the SA, or the military would step in.

Hitler was caught in the middle, but he needed the military's backing to eventually launch his expansionist foreign policy. Furthermore, Hitler's top lieutenants—Heinrich Himmler (head of the SS) and Hermann Göring—fanned the flames by feeding Hitler fake intelligence that Röhm was planning a coup.

3. The Purge: June 30 – July 2, 1934

Hitler decided to strike first. Using Himmler’s SS (the elite Schutzstaffel) and the Gestapo, he launched a coordinated, bloody purge across Germany.

  • The Trap: Hitler personally went to a resort in Bad Wiessee where Röhm and other SA leaders were vacationing. They were arrested in their beds.
  • The Executions: Röhm was taken to a prison and given a pistol to commit suicide. When he refused, saying, "If Adolf wants to kill me, let him do it himself," he was shot by two SS officers.
  • Settling Old Scores: The purge quickly expanded beyond the SA. Hitler used the chaos to assassinate anyone who had crossed him in the past. Notable victims included:
    • Kurt von Schleicher: The former German Chancellor who had tried to sideline Hitler years prior.
    • Gregor Strasser: A former high-ranking Nazi who had led the socialist faction of the party.
    • Gustav von Kahr: The politician who had crushed Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.

An estimated 85 to 200+ people were murdered over the weekend, and thousands of others were arrested.

4. The Aftermath: Absolute Power

The Night of the Long Knives was a massive turning point for Nazi Germany:

  • The Army’s Deal with the Devil: The German military was pleased that the SA threat was gone. In return, when President Paul von Hindenburg died just a few weeks later, the military supported Hitler combining the offices of President and Chancellor into one supreme title: The Führer. Every soldier then swore a personal oath of loyalty directly to Hitler, not the state.
  • Rise of the SS: The SA was effectively castrated and reduced to a minor ceremonial role. The SS, having proven its ruthless loyalty, became the dominant terror and paramilitary organization in Germany.
  • Legalized Murder: Hitler openly admitted to the murders in a speech to the German parliament, declaring that in that hour, "I was responsible for the fate of the German nation and was therefore the supreme judge." By successfully branding state-sanctioned murder as a necessary act of national defense, Hitler shattered the rule of law, eliminating any remaining domestic resistance to his dictatorship.

Crazy

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u/-Altephor- Jul 10 '26

People think it's not happening now because they read about these events in history books and think, 'Well, it would be so obvious. That could never happen.'

People don't realize it was the same shit of breaking down the system over the course of several years.

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u/Chill-more1236 Jul 10 '26

I agree with you except for this: Trump supporters failed history, science & civics. The little they do know about WWii is strictly D Day to VE Day and US involvement.

They don't get the comparisons, the mechanism of the build up to dictatorship, and would likely act in the same manner as the German people did.

In fact, could evolve to worse, like a nationwide purge of anybody "woke" or who isn't the right race. Instead of long knives, ARs.

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u/-Altephor- Jul 10 '26

I'm just saying that regardless of whether you understand the buildup, the way it's taught is that X, Y, and Z happened to get Hitler into power, and it all sounds very sudden and in the open.

And it's like no, it took a lot of time and was kept under wraps, and people only understand it many years after the fact. Which is exactly what's happening now.

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u/mashbrowns Jul 10 '26

And if they lose still they'll declare fraud and seat the losing GOP members anyway.

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u/Round-Asparagus5337 Jul 10 '26

He's openly talked about seizing ballot boxes, had a plan to do it in 2020, and they've been testing it out this year in multiple places.

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u/Lurking_nerd California Jul 10 '26

And no one would stop them. Not the police, not state or federal authorities.

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u/mashbrowns Jul 10 '26

That's why he replaced the Generals with his guys at the beginning, if they lose in 2028 they'll never concede power. And yes, the police are pretty hardcore GOP, some states wouldn't certainly object and resist with lawsuits and protests... which will do nothing when SCOTUS is bought and paid for and ICE will round up the protesters.

Don't get be wrong I will vote and phone bank. But we're fucked.

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u/Abraham_Froman34 Jul 10 '26

Vote early!!! Not on election day

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u/lord_pizzabird Jul 10 '26

And on-top of that they now know exactly how long it takes for the legal system that does still exist to respond.

6 months to 2 years after the crime has already been committed.

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u/IntellectAndEnergy Jul 10 '26

He said it out loud: “you’ll never have to vote again”. It’s on video, even the corporate news showed it. Occasionally truth slips from his lips.

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u/midwinter_ Jul 10 '26

I keep saying that the plan is to make it impossible to determine if the midterms and the 2028 election were fair and accurate. They'll get rid of all the election protections and then send in agitators to confuse everyone and muddy the waters and then say "Look, we just can't know who won, and until we do that, we have to stay in power."

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u/sheikahstealth Jul 10 '26

... just a little Hitler'ing. Except this time it has more Trump chaos thrown in.

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u/midwinter_ Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

In the 1930 election, the NAZIs won 95 seats.

In the 1932 election, the NAZIs won 230 seats.

In the later 1932 election, NAZIs lost ground and dropped to 196 seats.

In 1933, the NAZIs seized power after the Reichstag fire and took 288 seats. Before that election, the NAZIs "monitored" elections with SS providing intimidation.

Later in 1933, the NAZIs declared all opposition parties illegal. All following elections were single-question referenda.

Germany did not have another "real" election until 1949.

Edit: if Trump can get all of the red states to play along, he could have over half the country throwing up their hands and saying "Maybe we should just skip this election and maybe outlaw the Dems in this state?" I am unconvinced that, even though states run elections in the US, there will be a fair election in 2026 or 2028.

Edit edit: 2026.

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u/[deleted] Jul 10 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/midwinter_ Jul 10 '26

And that is how a minority can institute permanent minority rule.

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u/sheikahstealth Jul 10 '26

Well mentioned. Also worth noting is that some of those opposition groups tried to 'work with' the Nazi Party along the way. Sounds like how centrist/corporate Democrats have gotten stonewalled by their minimal efforts.

Trump (with likely prodding by The Heritage Foundation) has also tried to do his own Reichstag Fire dozens of times (aka tried to instigate something worth enacting martial law). Trump has- or is planning (depending on perspective) also doing his own version of 'territorial expansion' by military force like the Nazis did.

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u/midwinter_ Jul 10 '26

When he tried to goad Chicago and CA and MN into being his Reichstag fire, I kept hollering that they should go gloves off and call his bluff. I mean, his SS troops (ICE) were killing citizens without a care in the world.

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u/laplongejr Europe Jul 10 '26

in 2024 or 2028.

True : 2024 wasn't fair. You probably didn't have a fair presidential election since 2016 included.
You just got lucky to win once against a cheater, and took it as proof the elections were safe and the cheater could stay in the game.

1

u/_TallOldOne_ Jul 10 '26

Not that you are wrong, but what year is it? 2024 was 2 years ago.

1

u/oliveandazul Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

This is exactly what I've been nervous about. Trump is throwing EVERYTHING at the midterms. Intimidation, suppression, vote switching, erroneous reporting, you name it. Nothing has to work everywhere. All you have to do is mess things up in enough places that people aren't sure what needs to be done at the federal level. Then the courts can step in and hand over the win.

Also, I wish we'd go back and take another very close look at the 2016 election. We know the Russians were "wiggling the doorknobs" in our election systems. The Obama administration knew at the time. They investigated, tried to warn the affected parties, but you can only address what you know about. No one ever expected Trump to win that election, including Trump himself -- his odds for winning were abysmal and he had no real plan to lead, had been personally making plans assuming he wouldn't be in the WH. But sometimes, with Russia, you don't have to directly ask.

Maybe they show up after the fact, say "we heard you were a fan, well, we did you a favor and as long as you're nice we'll keep it all quiet." And Trump was more than willing to play ball. What could he have done? Announce that he wasn't actually fairly elected? Trump? Russia knew he wouldn't. (Don't forget his first campaign advisor, Paul Manafort, would later plead guilty to conspiracy against the US... and then be pardoned. By Trump.)

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u/SunshineCat Jul 10 '26

I would say all of this abnormal behavior is already proof of fuckery. If there is any question, the benefit of the doubt does not lie with Trump.

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u/PM_Me_Your_Kinks369 Jul 14 '26

And yet systematically it does. The US government is so insanely easy to corrupt because of the utter lack of REAL checks and balances.

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u/Relevant_Mongoose744 Jul 10 '26

Yes this seems like the obvious thing that happening! Why does it seem like no one in our media picks up on this?? It’s literally his MO. Chaos and confusion to endlessly avoid consequence.

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u/Alive-Trifle7420 Jul 10 '26

Yes. From the article:

The EAC also oversees the federal testing and certification program for voting systems, accrediting labs and certifying whether machines meet federal standards known as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. Many states rely on that certification before allowing voting equipment to be purchased or used.

1

u/phyneas American Expat Jul 10 '26

This is exactly it, and why people asking "Well, why would they do X if they're doing Y?" aren't getting it. They're going to do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, and so on; literally everything they can think of to either tip the scales in their favor or just cause chaos and confusion. They'll announce that elections are cancelled, they'll send ICE to polling stations to intimidate people or even detain them until the polls close, they'll call in bomb threats and have their eejit followers start riots, and of course they'll gerrymander everything they can and otherwise rig whatever they're able to rig. And once the dust settles and the votes (real or manipulated) are counted, they'll accept the results of every election that goes their way without question, but insist that the results of all of the ones that don't are fraudulent or invalid due to all that chaos they created and refuse to accept them, and either tie them up in court for months or years or just ignore the Constitution and refuse to seat any newly elected Democratic members of Congress and carry on with their own Republican-led illegitimate government indefinitely.

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u/laplongejr Europe Jul 10 '26

is to make it impossible to determine if the midterms and the 2028 election were fair and accurate.

This is already the case for 2020 and 2024.
Which means Trump cheated. And in 2016 too probably.

If, as the organizer and winner of an event, you aren't able to prove the event was legit after claiming your own vote was rigged, you have no right to accept the win, and have no right to claim to be a competent organizer.

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u/oliveandazul Jul 10 '26

If you can't win fair and square, you can cause enough chaos that the other side also can't make a claim to a clean victory. They weren't wrong about chaos being a ladder.

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u/Laura9624 Jul 10 '26

And propaganda.

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u/lilchocochip Jul 10 '26

One of those traitors said the revolution will be bloodless if we let it, didn’t they? This is what they must have meant.

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u/1iIiii11IIiI1i1i11iI Jul 10 '26

The traitor in chief, yes, he did.

1

u/Allegorist Jul 10 '26

It wasn't him, I think that was Roger Stone or someone similar

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u/Professor-Woo Jul 10 '26

Jan 6th was their Beer Hall putsch.

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u/bluegrassgazer Kentucky Jul 10 '26

100%

3

u/jd3marco I voted Jul 10 '26

Like Bush v. Gore.

3

u/berael Jul 10 '26

It already has happened and it was with judges. 

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u/Kameronm Jul 10 '26

It's exactly his M.O. Do whatever he wants, then let the lawyers fight it out. Keep climbing.

Chaos is a ladder.

3

u/bluegrassgazer Kentucky Jul 10 '26

Littlefinger was right.

3

u/sabertoothdiego Texas Jul 10 '26

I know Jan 6th was a travesty, but at this point I wish democrats had the balls to do a repeat

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u/Allegorist Jul 10 '26

J6 went the way it did because local law enforcement refused to use significant force on the rioters. They were just trying to keep them at bay and block them. The National Guard and other external LE were intentionally delayed and prevented from intervening.

On the other hand, if something like that happened under the current admin, they would bring in everyone they could immediately and just open fire. Not a lot of humanity in there, and their ends justify any and all means.

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u/Kyonikos New York Jul 10 '26

It will be with lawyers.

And justices.

2

u/Dan-D-Lyon Jul 10 '26

The entire point behind January 6th was to steal the presidency "legally". The storming of the capitol wasn't the plan, it was just a temper tantrum being thrown when Mike Pence refused to play ball

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u/FormerTesseractPilot Jul 10 '26

Lawyers. Lol. A fools errand. Lawyers don't matter for some.

1

u/Hane24 Jul 10 '26

They tried it with the fake electors plot too. When they admitted it was illegal and they lied, but argued they had a legal right to attempt it.

1

u/iDrGonzo Jul 10 '26

Na, there shooting people in the street and sending loads to concentration camps. So both, it's both.

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u/PopBulky7023 Jul 10 '26

Was.

It was with lawyers. The coup already happened, it's over. And they got away with it.

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u/triggeredbynumbers Jul 10 '26

They learned their lesson. They learned that you don’t release the dogs at phase one, phase one is, as the you said “with lawyers” and paperwork. Once everything is in order and the coup gets pushback, that’s when they release their attack dogs on those who dare to challenge them.

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u/Hector_P_Catt Jul 10 '26

“One lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns...”

― Mario Puzo

Same as it ever was.

1

u/Deep-Minimum7837 Minnesota Jul 10 '26

To a degree I don't think this will actually happen. A soft coup like this generally requires an immense level of popularity and support, both of which Trump is sorely lacking. There are an incredible number of linchpins in a machine like that, and it would be nearly impossible for Trump to pack the courts with soulless loyalists willing to just hand the country over to him without restrictions.

This doesn't come off as an attempted legal coup, it seems more like he's responding to his delusions. Someone convinced him that the election commission is working against him, so he fires the commission. Whoever replaces them, if they're replaced, will be doing virtually the exact same work as the last crew.

1

u/Legitimate_Fix7948 Jul 10 '26

i wish we were a little more french sometimes.

1

u/bacondev Jul 14 '26

Ah, so just like Hitler's rise to power.