Mastodawn

Wait, what...?!!!

#Trump Is Exploiting the #Shutdown to Set Up Something Truly Terrifying

By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
Oct 17, 2025

Excerpt: "I think that is a dangerous thing, and it’s pretty much undeniable that Trump has just crossed yet another Rubicon. He has already asserted presidential control over taxes through his tariff policy. He has asserted control over the Federal Reserve and interest rates and monetary policy. And now he’s asserting control over appropriations—and not just through pocket rescissions or canceling projects in blue states, which he had already done. Now he is actually asserting a constitutional imperative to spend money in a way that Congress has not approved. When you combine all of those things, it’s hard to see how the separation of powers still exists in this country."

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/7cYI5

#USPol #TrumpIsAFascist #SecretPolice #CapitolGuards #Panem #authoritarianism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Trump Is Exploiting the Shutdown to Set Up Something Truly Terrifying

This takes it all a step further and makes it look like Trump can fund his own personal army of thugs who will do whatever he wants.

Slate

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LukefromDC Oct 24, 2025

@DoomsdaysCW As of now I am assuming the service/appropriations shutdown to be permanent.

A true government shutdown would empty the prisons and send the guards home. Police stations would close and all cops would be sent home.

Courthouses would close all the way, and both legislators and executives would be furloughed without pay.

The military and National Guard would also be sent home for lack of money to pay them. Federal checks would be worthless no matter the recipient and everyone would know it.

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OverreadProle Oct 24, 2025

@LukefromDC

This almost sounds oversimplified, but actually I think it needs to be said.
The care and communications governance is gasping with it's cord pulled while the police state is left on.

We may have to invent a new kind of peaceful transition of power if we want one.
I'm not so sure the one we put on the books last will work. I'm not completely sure it's been working since we went digital, or the gerrymander broke in, but it's going to take some authoring, discourse, and consensus, surely...

@DoomsdaysCW

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Noel Kelly Oct 29, 2025

@DoomsdaysCW

Should be remembered England beheaded Charles I in 1649 for doing exactly this.

This is pre-1776, and thus a direct legal precedent.

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Ariadne Oct 29, 2025

@DoomsdaysCW @Miro_Collas Thank you for posting this is SO significant 🚨The US is truly in a constitutional Crisis as constitutional attorneys like Marc Elias have been saying. This Quote from the article sums it up „All that Trump could say in the memo justifying this action is that he is drawing on his Article II power as commander in chief. But if that power allows the president to give money to the military that Congress has not appropriated, then we don’t even really need a Congress anymore. There is no real role for Congress.“

PS thank you for posting the Archive link so one may read the full article