Or France, which I remind you has thermonuclear weapons, will start selling said thermonuclear weapons to the rest of the EU, which then enables them to conduct retaliatory strategic strikes on Russia if it invades. Iran immediately develops and deploys thermonuclear weapons (they really only need to put the things together, they have all the parts they need) for strategic or tactical strikes against Israel. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia will acquire thermonuclear weapons for self-defense once the US nuclear umbrella is removed - and they have more than enough resources and know-how to just manufacture nuclear weapons from existing materials. India, with a higher population than China and an existing strategic thermonuclear arsenal, can and will turn the entirety of the Indian Ocean into a no-passage zone simply by attacking merchant transit lanes with their destroyers, effectively blockading China from much-needed Middle Eastern fuel and African minerals.

And if Putin decides to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine or Europe? Pandora’s box is open, baby. Nukes deployed all over the world, mushroom clouds galore. You get cancer, and YOU get cancer, and YOU get cancer, everybody gets cancer.

The US military is actually surprisingly decentralized, with a lot of leeway and authority given directly to NCOs, and officers routinely getting ignored, circumvented, or subjected to malicious compliance if they even order something considered unreasonable, much less illegal. Also see: fragging. Malingering. Mutiny. Desertion. And the worst nightmare - Insider Threat. So much of the military runs purely off of trust, faith, and compliance to words on a page.

You think Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was actually fully complied with? Sentries already fall asleep while at their post, willfully, without needing to have any excuse other than being tired or disliking the watch officer. Roving patrols routinely miss rounds, don’t actually pay attention or inspect anything, and practice what we call “blazing logs”, that is, writing down “all conditions satisfactory” without actually looking at the conditions. Maintenance also gets blazed all the time - technicians just straight up not doing the required maintenance and writing down that they did, substituting unauthorized materials, or half-assing the maintenance. Paperwork just gets “lost”, or never gets signed, never gets filed, never makes it to the intended recipient, just because the admin secretary doesn’t feel like it. Information isn’t entered into a system, including disciplinary or otherwise disqualifying stuff, because the admin or command likes you or needs you.

Purging the upper brass won’t do anything to circumvent or “fix” any of that, it’ll make it worse, because it’ll incentivize the servicemembers to do it even more. The E-4 Mafia will straight up disappear when needed, entire supply chains will stop cold. Separation and disciplinary paperwork will just not get sent.

I don’t think he’s ever heard of “fragging”, “mutiny” and the extreme disdain the enlisted already have for REMFs.

Orders already routinely get ignored, it just doesn’t get reported or logged. Maintenance isn’t actually done as written, or in the periodicity specified. Corrective maintenance isn’t actually done correctly, substitutions aren’t actually authorized properly. Gauges aren’t actually read, valves aren’t actually checked, and the sentries are neither alert nor roving. The IDs aren’t actually checked and the guard just waves people through unless there’s an inspection going on and the supervisor is there.

That’s not even getting to the officers sweeping all this under the rug to look good on evals. Or the commanding officers ignoring stuff to get the ball rolling faster than the next commanding officer, to get that promotion. Equipment failures don’t get reported, personnel issues are just covered up - especially when everyone knows that so-and-so technician is doing this unauthorized vice, but we need said technician so nobody says anything, including back in Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. No, sir, I don’t know where the flamboyant individual is, probably doing the extremely essential maintenance only they are qualified for, sir. Definitely not in the parts locker with another individual of the same sex, which I’m standing in front of to prevent you from entering.

Whoops, looks like the gender and sex record of the individual had a glitch at some point, must have been IT and Admin again, amirite? Well, the system says he is and has always been a man, sir, says it right there in the computer.

You mean most of it isn’t already?

He doesn’t understand just how decentralized the military command structure is, and the enlisted-officer relationship that has existed for a very, very long time. Just because anything is written in a regulation and a high-ranking officer with a good idea fairy perched on his shoulder says something or orders something doesn’t mean it happens. Or that the report back from down below is actually true. Officers that actually rise up through the ranks understand that they, too, should sleep with one eye open if the enlisted do not approve.

I suppose, then, that when “Palestinian” is only applicable in the past tense, it won’t be a worse end-state, only exactly the same as the current state? That when people, like yourself and your entire family, are rounded up, that it “literally” won’t be any worse than it is right now when you can still walk freely and aren’t being literally tortured?

Joining mutual aid groups, coops, triple-checking that you don’t have any subscriptions you don’t absolutely need and doing your best to just use FOSS (it’s free!) instead for the sake of your own limited paycheck, triple-check that you’re taking advantage of the free programs and resources available to you like libraries and buy-nothing collectives, try growing a bit of your own food in used jars and buckets, encourage your children to also take advantage of the free resources they might not even know are available to them and ways to save even more by simply reusing every last bit they can if they aren’t already? Get to know your neighbors if you have any time left in your day, parents of your kids’ classmates? I don’t know your situation - none of these might be realistic for you - but those are some of the free ways I could think of off the top of my head for preparing.

what kind of person

A billionaire. Especially an old billionaire, who doesn’t give a shit about what happens to the planet because he won’t see the consequences. A psychopath narcissist who doesn’t care about anything except money - but I repeat myself.

I wonder how long the judge will maintain his sanity after disappearing into solitary as an “enemy of the state”, and whether this will give him any comfort as he is beaten and waterboarded for funsies.

So what you’re saying is, if there new federal government says to round up the Hispanics, Muslims, gays and trans people and put them in camps, States should comply, because there shouldn’t be exceptions?

Why not, in this reality we live in? Not in the ideal make-believe reality, in the current reality. Why shouldn’t we aim for it, especially when it comes to this, knowing that all three branches of the federal government are going to go a particular way? Even if it sets a bad precedence, screw it. Save lives now, rather than chase an ideal.

Tell that to the states that have legalized recreational marijuana, while marijuana is still a federally Class 1 controlled substance

So what’s your solution? Or should we just shrug and start reporting each other for “leftist behavior” to the secret police?

Unfortunately it still is the 18th century in some places in America, and women are afraid of their own lives if their husbands found out who they voted for.

If there’s one solace, it’s that “AI” is so broad a category that the Pentagon can just point at something like computer assisted target acquisition and go “done”.

Cool, you first. Go ahead. When the Trump Gestapo start marching down the steer in broad daylight, go out and riot. We’ll be right behind you.

Which country? You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific.

Yeah, how was that working out for you until they started turning up the heat? How was “when they go low, we go high” doing, in terms of actual election results?

The United States Military and the US Strategic Forces stand ready to fulfill our oaths to the Constitution. The Strategic Forces, in particular, stand ready to launch upon the receipt of a valid and authentic order to do so. And those of us who still take our oaths seriously stand ready to respond with whatever force is necessary to stop those traitors within our ranks who would defy or threaten the Constitution, in accordance with all rules and regulations set forth. Hooyah.