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Rright now it is unlikely that Trump gets a "rally around the flag" boost for his seizing of Maduro as
1) it didn’t happen with his invasion of cities or his attack on Iran
2) the country just isn’t on board some kind of extended military campaign in Venezuela
3) it increasingly feels like Trump has no real plan for what comes next in Venezuela, and like Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, thought the government would just fall and he could waltz into the Capital.

@tante@tldr.nettime.org
2026-03-05 10:02:07

Okay, my "Democracy instead of just “Open Source”" talk proposal for #rp26 was rejected. Maybe I'll find another home for it.
tante.cc/2026/01/19/republica-

@tiotasram@kolektiva.social
2026-03-02 17:12:33
Content warning: Uspol, Iran, necropolitics

Seeing Iran appoint new leaders and continue to fight is seeing the more literal kind of necropolitics in action, as a hierarchical system continues to function while replacing the expendable human parts that it lost. The system is of course changed and influenced (and ultimately was built) by humans, but it has become something undying, or at least almost as hard to kill as an idea, and it maintains a terrible inertia in it's destructive tendencies (e.g., "Morality Police" continue to patrol the streets).
Lest anyone think this somehow expresses approval of US actions, the same logic applies here too: what once had a (thin) verneer of democracy, a system which loudly proclaimed to be controlled by "the people" (but which never was nor was ever intended to be) has lost its paint job, exposing the inhuman machinations beneath. Trump is a symptom, not cause, of an institution built on blood and spoils, whose alignment with the Epstein class (and moreover, their institutions) is ever more apparent with each disregarded law and principle.
Stepping back for a moment, this systems/necropolitics perspective is just a perspective, with its own distortions and blind spots. To paraphrase LeGuin, any institution built by humans can also be changed or destroyed by them. But I think it's very useful to put on the systems goggles in this moment, especially when some are fond of preaching about the dangers of "overwhelmingly powerful systems unaccountable to humans which pursue destructive ends" without actually examining the plethora of existing systems that do just that.
P.S. yes, United Healthcare is another good example of this.
P.P.S. yes I bending the meaning of necropolitics here, but the two are related: these systems would not be so free to profit from human death and suffering if they were more vulnerable to the deaths of their constituent parts. Necropolitics of the standard variety is of course present as companies like Raytheon and Lockeed Martin profit from the carnage. The F-15 caught by friendly fire? Just as profitable for Beoing to replace as one downed by the enemy.

Trump has effectively turned the White House into a slush fund,
running the federal government like a personal ATM.
Public money, political favors and government power are funneled to his friends and family businesses,
while regulatory agencies and enforcement mechanisms are hollowed out or weaponized for profit.
His oligarch allies, from big tech executives to big oil barons, are already seeing massive returns on their political investments.
This is not demo…

@blakes7bot@mas.torpidity.net
2025-12-26 22:17:30

Series C, Episode 07 - Children of Auron
CALLY: This is not a trap.
AVON: Not knowingly, perhaps.
TARRANT: Zen, reroute to planet Auron.
AVON: Just like that?
TARRANT: A democracy. You're outvoted, Avon. Three to two.
blake.torpidity.net/m/307/165 B7B6

@inthehands@hachyderm.io
2026-02-10 03:54:35

This is exactly the groundwork we need to be laying right now, and I’m delighted to hear it coming from a US Senator (!):
If Trump tries to prevent a fair election from happening, then we need “a true national strike in the sense that, if they do this, if they try to overthrow our democracy, if you are allied with democracy, do not go to work . If you’re a pilot, do not show up. If you drive a train, do not show up. If you’re a teacher, do not show up. We grind the country to a halt.”
theguardian.com/us-news/2026/f
1/

@pre@boing.world
2026-03-02 00:39:38
Content warning: #war #iran

It is such a mystery, why do American presidents start patriotic wars far from home when they are unpopular and the mid-terms are coming up and there's incriminating evidence against them in the news every day. 🧐 🤔
Nothing like this has ever happened before.
Some say he's doing what he promised and ending the forever wars!... By winning them!
Israel thinks that having the country next door fall to chaos and civil war makes them less of a threat. I don't think that's right, but I think that's what motivates them. Those in charge of it's military want that Greater Israel with bigger borders and smaller neighbours.
Trump thinks he can go down in history as the saviour of the world and if he just chops off the head of the regime the people will rise up and be a liberal democracy. I don't think that's right either. He thinks similarly about Venusualia.
The US administration aim to take control of the global oil supply for private American and multinational owned corporations. Their power is rooted in control of the literal power supply. Oil. Distributed clean energy is a threat to their power. They want to stop all this solar windmill crap and go back to good old fashioned tax and control of centralized oil distribution hubs.
Starmer just thinks he has no choice and he has to do what America says and can't risk the Telegraph and the Mail calling him antisemitic. He falsely accused thousands of not-terrorists of terrorism and is putting them through courts as terrorists for the same reason.

@Tupp_ed@mastodon.ie
2025-12-11 17:39:57

New Mini-Gist: Power’s Walled Cities
A Democracy where politicians are in constant office, but do not respond to citizens’ wishes (or even just their own voters’ interests) but just advance the policies that suit monied lobbies is a disaffection machine.
thegist.ie/mini-gist-powers-wa

@simon_brooke@mastodon.scot
2025-12-12 22:57:22

I feel a wee essay coming on on why #democracy and #liberalism are incompatible with one another.
I suspect it will irritate a lot of people, because, like the emperor's lack of clothes, this is not something we are supposed to notice.

@tiotasram@kolektiva.social
2026-01-18 23:17:10
Content warning: ICE & resistance

In case anyone was wondering about the relevance of #LandBack in the current moment, via CrimeThinc an article on the Minneapolis resistance states:
"""
The Whipple, a federal building in Fort Snelling on the outskirts of the Minneapolis and St. Paul, has long been a regional headquarters for ICE, having previously housed other federal agencies. The complex is located across the street from a National Guard base, down the road from a military base, and next to the preserved fort itself. The fort sits on the sacred site of the convergence of two rivers. It was one of the earliest sites of colonization in the area; at one time, it was a concentration camp holding native Dakota people.
"""
If at any point in the past you ever felt that maybe Native soverignty was a niche issue, or so far from being realized that other causes were more important or relevant, things like this are a good reminder that that cause: overturning the colonial order, is the *same* cause as any meaningful change from the fascist status quo. Things like a "return to democracy" aren't necessarily bad, but the rot runs to the root of this nation, and any intervention that doesn't go that deep is going to leave us right back in this situation again later on.
The fact that ICE is detaining Native Americans is not at all a mistake given their white supremacist aims.
Article link: #ICE #LandBack

Democracy experts believe there is no longer any doubt about Trump’s desire to interfere with this fall’s elections.
“We should not be waiting for the next shoe to drop,”
said Wendy Weiser, vice-president for democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice.
🆘“There is a full-blown effort to seize control of some of the mechanisms of our elections and to lay the foundation for interfering in upcoming elections.”
The president has no power over federal elections,
and …

@curiouscat@fosstodon.org
2026-02-11 15:19:31

I donated again to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Due to the dire threats to the USA from the current administration and the Republican party I am donating as much as I spend on myself to charity this year.
splcenter.org/
We still have so much racism injustice for the poor in the USA. We…

@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca
2026-01-24 20:28:43

Full disclosure for Canadian folks.
Yes I am an #NDP member.
I have also been a Green Party (Federal) member. #gpc
I have always been on the orange/green fence. This post explains my history and current thinking about parties and this moment in Canada.
I had never been a member of any party, then I voted in the GPC leadership race with Annamie Paul and Dimitri Lascarsis because I wanted to make a difference more than just talking online…
When that party disintegrated, I left, but had got the taste… so then I joined the BCNDP to participate in their leadership campaign after Horgan. I supported the upstart Appadurai who got disqualified… but she made a splash and a very very important point!
So I stuck around… and now I am going to vote in the Federal NDP leadership because I see a couple really good candidates that could push Canada in a #democraticSocialist direction.
I encourage others to do the same. Canada and Canadians need real options right now. Liberal, NDP, and others. Be involved. Become a member even if you don’t think you’ll stick. Be involved.
After the leadership vote I will likely let my membership lapse and go back to being a free agent… towing a party line is not my style…
But it is important in this moment in the world to fight for what you believe in, so that’s why I am voting in the NDP leadership.
I know I will be voting for one or more of these depending how the voting works.
@…
@…
@…
#canpoli #cdnpoli #canada #liberalparty #democracy #beinvolved