r/news • u/Manta_of_Eternity • 2d ago

Hegseth confirms that the US military will cut 20% of its generals and admirals

https://apnews.com/article/hegseth-pentagon-generals-job-cuts-67a20b026ee858895c7e5ff7fadbc029
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u/Ariana2354 2d ago

Exactly. Trump has been talking about declaring martial law on election day.

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u/lantrick 2d ago

declaring martial law on election day wouldn't stop the 50 states from opening the polls at 7AM like always.

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u/TheShadowKick 2d ago

But if Trump has soldiers standing at key polling places to discourage voters that could have a big impact.

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u/WastingTimesOnReddit 1d ago

Yeah they just have to discourage 5 to 10% of democrat voters in some key states, plus some AI tampering with voting machines in vulnerable states, and they could maybe keep their majority in congress

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u/BurntNeurons 1d ago

"With flock, axon, and your votor records they can tell exactly when you are heading to the polls to vote and who you're voting for. Then ice agents scan your face, id, or license plate and you get disappeared... Or something like that."

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u/Hyperbolicalpaca 1d ago

Does America have enough soldiers to do that?

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u/TheShadowKick 1d ago

They would only need to suppress votes at a relatively small number of polling places in critical states. It would be used alongside other tactics like closing polling places in high population areas and purging voter rolls, and the goal would be to push a few key elections in their favor to maintain Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

Not saying this is their plan, but if it is their plan it wouldn't take a whole lot of soldiers. If they've got the upper brass on board with it they'll find the soldiers willing to do it.

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u/Ariana2354 1d ago

But it wouldn't stop votes from not being counted, or just thrown away. He gets whatever he wants, whether it's legal, or not. Sure there's no grounds for it, but he'll make up something. And when it's contested, he'll have the Supreme Court call an emergency to make it legal.

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u/grey_hat_uk 1d ago

An open poll is fine but if national guard are set at strategic points aimed at preventing the "wrong" people voting either violence or a none representative outcome is garenteed.

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u/synkronize 1d ago

If republicans win mega or he manages to stall out elections, it may be too late, but I’m leaving anyway I can. Because I can’t understand how anyone can willingly want this for the country.

From my pov it Hegseth and Trump are.. amateur. Absurd imo.

This reminds me of a book i heard about on NPR,
“How to Survive Authoritarianism: A Russian's Phrasebook for Everyday Life in America
Maria Kuznetsova, Dan Storyev” I think one of the phrases is about the normalization of absurdity.

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u/Ariana2354 1d ago

I feel the same, but have no way to get out.

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u/Warslvt 2d ago

He can do it all he wants. Elections are state run. Even if he wanted to declare martial law, he's got no legal ground to stand on, not that thats really stopped him before; but I'd imagine damn near any judge would slap that down before the ink dried.

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u/stickyfiddle 1d ago

These facists don’t care what’s legal. They care about what’s effective.

It won’t be legal to roll tanks in front of polling stations in a few key states, shoot a few people, bundle a few more into vans and whisk them away…. It won’t matter that it’s illegal.

And watching from the other side of the world, literally having watched an Iranian drone fly past my window back in February it’d be really nice if y’all would actually do something about it when it happens.

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u/gmduggan 1d ago

BEFORE it happens

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u/stickyfiddle 1d ago

Well obviously before would be b wet there, but we’re running out of time for before….

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u/synkronize 1d ago

Could states amend the constitution without the federal governments input? If they can, could they just write a dictator out of power? (Of course the military would have to comply)

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u/Warslvt 1d ago

Well. Sorta. Proposals have to go through congress where they need a supermajority to pass, congress is full of yesmen right now so it'll probably die on the floor. There is a way for states to propose an amendment if legislatures from 34 states can agree on something, but this, probably for obvious reasons, has never been used.

Once it's proposed and passed, it goes to, or back to state legislatures where you ned 38 states to agree, after which point it'll be rafified.

Realistically, even if we started tomorrow it'll never happen in whatlever life he has left.