Members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have warned America for three years to take former President Donald Trump at his word.
Now, as Trump is poised to win the Republican presidential nomination, his criminal trials face delays that could stall them past Election Day, and his rhetoric grows increasingly authoritarian, some of those lawmakers find themselves following their own advice.
In mid-March, Trump said on social media that the committee members should be jailed. In December he vowed to be a dictator on “day one.” In August, he said he would “have no choice” but to lock up his political opponents.
“If he intends to eliminate our constitutional system and start arresting his political enemies, I guess I would be on that list,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). “One thing I did learn on the committee is to pay attention and listen to what Trump says, because he means it.”
Lofgren added that she doesn’t yet have a plan in place to thwart potential retribution by Trump. But Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who has long been a burr in Trump’s side, said he’s having “real-time conversations” with his staff about how to make sure he stays safe if Trump follows through on his threats.
“We’re taking this seriously, because we have to,” Schiff said. “We’ve seen this movie before … and how perilous it is to ignore what someone is saying when they say they want to be a dictator.”
Either Trump is an existential threat that requires the strongest possible response, or he’s just another corrupt asshole in a country dominated by others like him.
And before you go “but America doesn’t do that sort of thing!”, I’d encourage you to look up Fred Hampton.
I’m familiar with COINTELPRO and more recent black sites used by CPD.
My point is that we shouldn’t sink to their level. We can neutralize the threat of a wanna-be dictator man child without murder. The man is sick and he deserves to be treated for his illness.
No. He deserves death. Hitler in a bunker with soldiers on his doorstep style if we’re lucky. Unless you think Hitler didn’t deserve death, in which case go suck my fuzzy sack you fucking Nazi.
Trump is not a ‘wanna-be dictator.’ If he wins he WILL get rid of his political enemies and fully capture our government. Then he WILL lock up the Trans people, then the gays. Then send his secret police forces to terrorize the general public into obedience as they erode and shit on every freedom you’ve ever had.
This is not hyperbole. This is the future they have publicly announced. Read about Project 2025. They mean every word.
Just because I oppose the death penalty doesn’t make me a nazi. ffs, look in a mirror.
I’m a Nazi because I want Hitler 2 dead? Jesus christ you fucking sympathizer. All you can do is say ‘No u’ because you know that fucker doesn’t deserve life.
Every being deserves life. Even sick ones. They deserve treatment for their illnesses.
Sure, imprison, convert or kill. Those are the three ways to neutralize someone and they should at least try one.
The sentence in prison should be as long as is needed to rehabilitate them.
Prison isn’t a place to “convert” or “torture” or “punish” someone. Its s place for them to get care and education until they are safe to return to society without being a risk to themselves or others.
Those three methods are taken from the FBI suppressing Black revolutionary thought. I’m this model, prisons are absolutely places to torture, punish and convert people.
There is no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do.
The purpose of a system is what it does.
There are countries where prisons are used to torture and there are countries where prisons are used as rehabilitation centers. Both exist.
My point is that we should build the later, not the former.
There is no prison on Earth that does not punish people. Even the most humane institutions struggle to treat inmates as anything other than subhuman, because no matter how lofty the goals of a prison system it’s still a prison. And the purpose of prisons is very clear.
My point is we should abolish prison.
Sorry, thats not true. There are definitely prisons that dont punish people. I mean they may lock you in a cage, but thats to protect you and help you, not to punish you.
Even the US prison systems (one of the worst I’m the world) is run by the Department of Corrections. At this point they may as well rename it to the Department of Torture (and also Department of Defense should be renex back to the War Department) as the name is double-speak).
We should strive to replicate prisons in nordic countries, not those of the US.
Here’s what prisoners have to say:
All prisons are prisons. You have a rosey imagined image of the Nordic model, probably because you’re from a nightmare country that openly and gleefully tortures prisoners (don’t worry, I am too), but the reality is that all prisons are punishment. The purpose of a system is what it does. We should strive for a world without prisons.
This is totally a bit
Not in the US it’s not…
The US is the most violent and one of the most classist societies in the world. Slavery is still legal in US prisons.
Its hardly a benchmark.
I very much do not give a shit whether Trump is rehabilitated or not, he’s an existential danger to many groups of people, if somebody decides to put a bullet in his head I’m not gonna cry over it.