Regarding Trump ordering the military to fire on demonstrators

[orangecrush]

Probably a very bad idea.

For him.

"As anti-government protesters demonstrated in Timișoara in December 1989, Ceaușescu perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire on 17 December, causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across the country. The demonstrations, which reached Bucharest, became known as the Romanian Revolution—the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the course of the Revolutions of 1989. Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital in a helicopter intending to go to the Vatican via Vienna, but they were captured while still in Romanian territory by the military after the armed forces turned on them. After being tried and convicted of economic sabotage and genocide, both were sentenced to death, and they were immediately executed by firing squad on 25 December.[2][3][4]["

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu

[magicarpet]

1. What a hell of a wonderful idea.

A fitting exit for a traitor.
Would you like a blindfold ?
Bye-bye.

[dweller]

2. We

should be so lucky



✌🏻

[Mad_Machine76]

3. Has Trump done a new order?!

[BBbats]

4. With Hegseth at the helm........

They'll fire on civilian protesters with glee!
We'll see it!

[orangecrush]

5. Great way

To turn the population and the military against you

[MarineCombatEngineer]

19. What you seem to not understand is that if such an order were given to the military,

the brass at the Pentagon may go along with it, but the line officers and NCO's, those that actually get the work done, would more than likely refuse to obey such an illegal order.

Back in '64, when I first enlisted in the Marine, I took an Oath of Enlistment:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

Even though I retired in '99, my Oath didn't and I still live my life by that, it defines who I am to this day.

The least of my worries for our country is the military turning their weapons against American citizens.

[hatrack]

20. Wouldn't be the military - it would be ICE goons hired from 3%ers and Proud Boys

After all, why the masks when rounding up "suspects"?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

21. That may be true, but what they would find out real fast and fatally,

is that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of us liberal/progressive veterans, including those that have actual combat experience, unlike most of those wannabe's, that would fight back against the tyranny.
I'm not afraid to die defending my country against those MAGAt asshole traitors, and I know plenty of other vets who feel the same way.

[Doodley]

6. Could happen here. Trump and his gang of fascist morons have already shown that they love killing.

[MadameButterfly]

11. I wonder though if Romania had a devoted population of

Ar16 owning crazies still loyal to the dictator.

That could complicate this scenario for us.

[carpetbagger]

7. I don't think that's an equivalent.

That happened at the end of the regime. We're just at the beginning.

[Kaleva]

15. I agree

[orangecrush]

16. It took a week

From firing on protestors to firing squad.

[carpetbagger]

22. But a long generation to get there.

Ceaucescu was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. By 1989 he was in power for 25 years, communism and rationing, and he himself, were deeply unpopular and unpopular for a long time in a way that Trump isn't yet. He governed by secret police and quasi-legal arrest/prosecution, so a massacre was a sign of desperation, it happened when his personality cult, police powers, and goon squads has all failed him.

Trump's not there. He just won a marginally free election, after we already knew his character in government. The parts that were hinky (plutocratic influence, voter deregistration, etc) are in place, but media control is a tool that will keep a dictator viable at 30-35 percent real popularity.

If I had to bet (and I kind of am betting, I'm avoiding D.C. although I'll be in Maryland next month and my partner wants to see. D.C., I'm also planning on emigrating to Canada next year)... I think a shooting into a crowd would likely kill 20 people, maybe less. Likely just a big Kent State, something that the president's party survives and runs on with success, maybe like countless race massacres in America. In this case, I think it has Reichstag fire-type effects with consolidation of police power under Trump. Less likely but more concerning to me immediately is a Rwanda-scale national race riot, or a national Tulsa.

He became president twice bragging about being able to shoot people on 5th Avenue with impunity. I wish we were better people. We're not.

[alfredo]

8. I remember that.

[BurnDoubt]

9. Martial Law is where they're headed.

Every day, he adds another atrocious act to his recipe. By the New Years Yahr Null Celebration he will have killed American Citizens in the streets and established martial law at the rate the pressure is building. Tariff shortages, price increases and cuts to the safety net will, by then, have affected every working-class family and those at the bottom of the Economic scale, causing job losses, food insecurity and trepidation at the outlook for the future. These frustrations are bound to trigger demonstrations and strife. Time to call in the Christo-Fascist troops to do God's Work and restore Order.
It's a scenario, but recent history makes it more-likely-than-not.
The geniuses that slobber over him around the Kabinet table have clearly never read a book, and don't realize they are creating the conditions for the violence that birthed Communist Revolution.

[Grokenstein]

10. December 25th, huh?

Well then, I wish another Merry Christmas to all. Early is good too.

[oswaldactedalone]

12. A real War on Christmas

You might say. The Rethugs wet dream will finally come true.

[orangecrush]

17. And to all a good night.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Kent State Redux?

[orangecrush]

18. Romania televised the firing squad.

Reality t.v. before it was cool.

[Kaleva]

14. It took 25 years for the Romanians to overthrow the Ceaușescus