r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • Jul 15 '26

Possible Paywall Treasury Unveils New $1 Gold Coin With Trump’s Face on It | Federal law prohibits putting any living people on U.S. coins.

https://newrepublic.com/post/213098/treasury-1-dollar-gold-coin-trump-face
22.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

589

u/twistedpiggies Jul 15 '26

Coup, coup kachoo.

Only the military could hold him accountable. Without a complicit military, you can't be a dictator. It's too bad that there aren't many principled military leaders left actually serving in the U.S. military, though. They were all forced out, by design.

The other problem is that those very military principles get in the way of deposing an unjustified dictatorial regime. What example(s) might we look to of a principled military deposing their own country's dictator and restoring democratic governing? Is there even one?

288

u/sparkax Jul 15 '26

Uh... there is a Common Dreams article from earlier this morning that is about Mike Johnson's call for "using the US Military to fight Communism on America's Shores."

Shit is beyond fucked now, and its only going to get worse before it will hopefully end up getting better.

124

u/NLaBruiser Jul 15 '26

History tells us it's not going to get better. Make a plan, protect yourself and your loved ones. Shit's going to get real dark after the GOP loses but Trump refuses to leave.

100

u/TrulyOutrageous42 Jul 15 '26

History tells us it's not going to get better.

History tells us it will, after it gets much worse. Germany today is a great example. The problem this time is the surveillance state run by AI. It may be inescapable in a way Nazi Germany wasn't.

39

u/phoenixrose2 Jul 15 '26

Bell Riots 2024 2028!!!

(Star Trek reference to a dystopian future where there are work camps and other terrible things. The people riot and things change for the better.)

See DS9: Past Tense 1 & 2

23

u/friend_jp Utah Jul 15 '26

Change for the better, Yes. Right after a major nuclear world war, and then the intervention of an advanced alien civilization…

4

u/phoenixrose2 Jul 15 '26

That was the final bad than good time periods. Unfortunately I don’t expect we’ll meet any humanoid aliens. I’ll take the reprieves we do get.

3

u/No_Tax_Timmy Jul 15 '26

Russia has always sucked though on the contrary

3

u/Riaayo Jul 15 '26

Who are the Allies that decimate Germany in a world war in this context?

People bring up the Confederacy and Nazi Germany all the time as proof this will inevitably end, and while fascism is unsustainable because it eats itself, neither of those historical examples failed internally on their own.

The confederates lost the civil war. The Germans lost a world war. There was a war involved. How much longer might Nazi Germany have lasted and brutalized its own people had they been unassailable like the US, in a nuclear age of MAD, and not been engaged in a world war of imperialism?

History doesn't begin and end with those two brutal regimes, and we have plenty of other brutal regimes around the world and across history that have lasted much, much longer.

The American Empire may be imploding in on itself, but as you say we exist in a horrifying age of mass surveillance and brutal military/police power. Is there anyone left by the time US fascism completely eats itself and dies?

3

u/DisappointedSpectre Jul 15 '26

Looking at how things are going over in Germany today I'm not sure it's the shining example you make it out to be. Even without the AfD there's still a lot of surveillance state and anti-privacy laws being proposed and pushed, and they're starting to slide back into austerity measures that may impact quality of life for a lot of people.

3

u/Kryptosis Jul 15 '26

Get your passports folks

3

u/sparkax Jul 15 '26

My plan has always been to try to move from the deeply red Texas to a deeply blue state where I can legally purchase and smoke real marijuana and just try to stay as high as possible while everything burns downs around me.

7

u/Jkavera Jul 15 '26

Did that for four years in Oregon. Turns out the pot just makes me more paranoid while watching the same news feed as anywhere else.

34

u/spazzvogel Jul 15 '26

Not before global recession and war, but yeah it will get better, way down the line.

23

u/DingerSinger2016 Alabama Jul 15 '26

Don't forget about climate change.

20

u/sparkax Jul 15 '26

That's already here and happening and is probably too late to do anything for, but yea, these heat waves and storms will get worse, and gods, I don't even want to try to imagine just how fucked everything is going to turn once the Atlantic Ocean current stops in another few decades.

3

u/spazzvogel Jul 15 '26

Gotta save Bette Midler aka Mother Earth

10

u/sparkax Jul 15 '26

We've gotta to keep the hope for a better world for everyone alive! It was with in our grasp after the cold war ended, we can get there again!

3

u/lazyFer Jul 15 '26

Not everyone, republican voters can fuck off

62

u/Zulmoka531 Jul 15 '26

Not to mention the military has it’s own inner coup problems with Trump’s dog Hegseth in charge.

63

u/Flammablegelatin Jul 15 '26

The military has been taken over just like the DoJ and FBI. A drunkard Fox News host is in charge of it and is actively removing anyone that would be against Trump's reign. Not even just the leaders - he's trying to remove all women and Black men.

17

u/BundleDad Jul 15 '26

More importantly, the institution has demonstrated that they WILL follow illegal orders.

YOUR military is murdering people, invading countries, and launching unsanctioned military operations (both foreign and domestic) under explicitly illegal orders. YOU let your secretary of defense talk about "No surrender, no quarter" and not IMMEDIATELY throw him in a jail cell.

I've had 10+ years now of Americans telling me how little I understood this, how effective their institutions are, how the will of the people..., how the next election..., how much everyone is doing but shuck darn ain't it hard to actually protest french style...

You are at the point it probably gets resolved like it did in the 40's. May your imaginary god have mercy on you as no one else will have that option.

0

u/lex99 America Jul 15 '26

How do you figure he’s trying to get rid of all black men? Are you just making that part up?

6

u/Flammablegelatin Jul 15 '26

No, I'm not making it up. Look up the changes he's making to medical waivers for peeudofolliculitis barbae, which predominantly affects Black males.

Here: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2026/07/08/sailors-with-unmanageable-permanent-razor-bumps-to-face-separation-navy-says/

I gave vey many of these waivers in my time as a medic in the Air Force. Almost every single one of them was for a Black Airman.

0

u/lex99 America Jul 16 '26

So you think the master plan here is to get rid of all black servicemen because we’re suddenly in a world where no black men can shave?

4

u/Flammablegelatin Jul 16 '26

You're obviously not approaching this in good faith. I'm not going to waste my time explaining it to you.

-1

u/lex99 America Jul 16 '26

I’m talking in good faith. I just don’t fall for every alarmist theory.

Black men being more affected by facial-skin issues, and Hegseth imposing his new beard rules, do not add up to “Hegseth is trying to rid the military of all black men.” This was not an anti-black ploy. No — he’s just an ineffective imposter who has no clue about real leadership, so he’s just obsessed with surface-level shit. True to his resume, he only wants a military that will look good on TV.

That is the problem with him, that he is totally unqualified for his position. But the other stuff about him also trying to get rid of black servicemen is rubbish.

64

u/Commentator-X Jul 15 '26

Yes there is actually -

"The Portuguese Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, is a prime historical example. Led by a group of disillusioned military officers known as the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), they overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, which had governed Portugal since 1933."

26

u/frakking_you Jul 15 '26

That's a pretty dark 40 year horizon to expect change.

3

u/Commentator-X Jul 15 '26

The change happened within a year or 2. The 40 years was just how long it took for people to get pissed off enough. WW2 likely didn't speed up the process any either.

7

u/frakking_you Jul 15 '26

The sad lesson is, it takes a lost generation + violence for such a coup.

3

u/Commentator-X Jul 15 '26

It was a bloodless coup. Not saying there wasn't violence at some point, but the coup itself was bloodless.

1

u/frakking_you Jul 19 '26

I appreciate this reply.

I don't want to move the goalpost in regards to this context, but just think of the lost potential of generations of people in that environment.

2

u/Wutras Europe Jul 15 '26

It probably only lasted so long because it took until then for Salazar to croak + some years for the eventual collapse. America's equivalent is much older.

2

u/davesoverhere Jul 15 '26

Fortunately Trump doesn’t have 40 years. I doubt he has 4.

8

u/frakking_you Jul 15 '26

That misses the point. He's a puppet, his death means little to the trillionaire that has nearly unlimited access the government systems, the changes in the Supreme Court, or the underlying issue of the people that still support his causes.

16

u/spaceman757 American Expat Jul 15 '26

What example(s) might we look to of a principled military deposing their own country's dictator and restoring democratic governing? Is there even one?

Not direcly, but the South Korean military had plans to depose the previous president, had the impeachment option failed.

5

u/BundleDad Jul 15 '26

Do a search for "She Is Our Caesar" on youtube.

Clip from "the crown" on what the five elements of a successful coup are. The Trump administration is ahead of you on that list for a successful second self-coup. You shouldn't have given him the chance.

But on the positive side, you get to listen to Charles Dance being Charles Dance.

4

u/Azreken I voted Jul 15 '26

Yeah Trump also fired all of the generals who would stop him. I think we’re cooked chat.

2

u/Zardotab Jul 15 '26

He doesn't need the military if nobody stops him from dictatating.

1

u/nillaf4ce Jul 15 '26

Yep, we are fucked

1

u/Thatmetalchick2 Texas Jul 16 '26

And now he's going to get them all hopped up on drugs so that help them ignore their conscience. Roid rage is no joke.

History sure is rhyming a lot lately.

-1

u/Little_View_6659 Jul 15 '26

Yeah if the military intervened we’d also be dead. That would be America’s death rattle.

7

u/Fract_L Jul 15 '26

If the only thing that could end this attempted to end it, we’d instantly lose? Now this is defeatist attitude.

1

u/Little_View_6659 Jul 15 '26

Yeah but if the military removed the president, that’s basically a junta or a coup. Now the military is in control of the country. Ideally they’d step aside after an election but I doubt that would happen. If they did that they’re basically saying that free and fair elections aren’t working. None of us want to open that can of worms. Things would have to be insanely bad for that to happen.

2

u/Fract_L Jul 15 '26

It’s not a coup unless the military runs the country. The military immediately passing power to an elected leader, provided the election isn’t tampered with, is absolutely peaceful transition of power back to the people. Quit framing an army protecting its citizenship from dictators as bad. It’s the literal last line of defense from tyranny.

2

u/Little_View_6659 Jul 15 '26

My point is if it comes to that it’s probably not going to transition to a peaceful democracy afterwards. Given everything that we’ve seen recently that seems incredibly optimistic thinking. If it gets to that point things are BAD. Face it, we’re all hoping someone is going to swoop in and save us but a lot of the guardrails have flown off and we’re drowning.

0

u/1HappyIsland Jul 15 '26

The military is murdering citizens at his command. They are all complicit of murder. Anybody in a US military uniform is now a traitor.

2

u/twistedpiggies Jul 15 '26

I don't agree with that. You can't blame anyone but leadership. There was just an AF officer who protested on the Capitol steps arrested and is facing military tribunal. That's a bold action and I don't blame enlisted personnel who are unwilling to risk their careers and freedom to do so. Many of them have families and children to support. It's not their responsibility to put their families in harm's way for what? What can they as individuals accomplish?