9 points

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Donald Trump may turn off the internet if elected to a second term in the White House, a former staffer has warned.

Miles Taylor, Trump’s former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, was asked on MSNBC about what potential damage the former president, who is the frontrunner in the GOP primaries, could do in government without breaking the law.

I think Americans still don’t understand the full extent of the president’s powers and things Donald Trump could do, bubble-wrapped in legalese, that would be damaging to the republic."

“He could invoke powers we’ve never heard a President of the United States invoke—potentially to shut down companies or turn off the internet or deploy the U.S. military on U.S. soil,” he added.

In a Republican debate later that month, Trump said he was “open to closing areas” of the internet to prevent terrorism.

Removing internet service in certain areas of the U.S. would require multiple companies to turn off their cell towers and fiber networks, and to restrict satellite access to people living in those regions.


The original article contains 636 words, the summary contains 178 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

permalink
report
reply
224 points

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet,” Trump said. “We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people.”

He said this in 2015, folks. And we still elected him. We’re fucked.

permalink
report
reply
118 points

‘We’ didn’t elect him. A horde of deluded, ignorant douchebags in just the right states did.

permalink
report
parent
reply
37 points

Don’t forget the tens of millions of Americans who stayed home because “both parties are the same”

permalink
report
parent
reply
24 points

Yeah, that’s always the problem. Sometimes it’s just a lack of motivation. Also don’t discount voter suppression, like how voting day still is not a holiday and there’s a significant lack of facilities in urban areas compared to suburban and rural regions. Nobody should have to wait in line for 5 hours (complete with BS like ‘giving them water is a crime’) to vote.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

Even worse. The single issue voters, or hard core progressive voters who voted independent or wrote in names on their ballot because they didn’t get their way. They know who was better for America out of the two real choices, but made the statement of “I’d rather see the country burn than participate”

permalink
report
parent
reply
-9 points

Weird. I didn’t know not casting a vote meant you were responsible for the person that millions of other people did vote for.

(for the record, I voted)

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

A quick browse of this community will show you that a large percentage of the users here fall into that category.

permalink
report
parent
reply
124 points

No, a bunch of empty land elected him.

permalink
report
parent
reply
56 points

I can only imagine where the country would be if we reformed the Electoral College and the Senate. It’s absurd to be giving 1 million people in Hickle Dickle the same votes as 30,000,000 in another state. Or even worse, in the EC people in small states get 3-4 times the voting power as citizens of some larger states.

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

That’s just locker room talk…

permalink
report
parent
reply
44 points

We have to go see Bill Gates

This line… Lol

“Hi Bill, you’re the CEO of the internet, right? I’m going to need you to turn it off for me. Thanks.”

permalink
report
parent
reply
13 points

He saw that South Park episode and thought it was a documentary.

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

tfw someone breaks it to him that he’ll have to call Al Gore…

permalink
report
parent
reply
8 points

Well he doesn’t know Al Gore personally, for some reason he never seemed to show up to Epstein’s parties

permalink
report
parent
reply
27 points

It’s amazing, he’s said so many terrible things, I’m still learning about stuff like this he said years ago.

permalink
report
parent
reply
6 points

Ironically he got elected in large part because of his always online meme army. I’m guessing that part of the Internet sticks around.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Oh shit he’s been watching south park

permalink
report
reply
1 point

I mean he wanted to attack a hurricane with nukes likely because he saw it in Sharknado, so not that unlikely.

permalink
report
parent
reply
38 points

Thankfully, he thinks unplugging the router in the Oval Office breaks it for everyone else, too.

permalink
report
reply
3 points

He’ll just keep hitting the reload button in his browser. Makes it hard for anybody to read anything.

permalink
report
parent
reply
49 points

“Things the person speaking does not fully understand for $200.”

permalink
report
reply
15 points

Wait until he hears about amatuer radio licensing, unlicensed spectrum, and experimental radio. It will blow his fucking mind.

I bet he actually thinks that all data is transported by fortune 500 companies that will do as he says “or else.”

permalink
report
parent
reply

politics

!politics@lemmy.world

Create post

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to “Mom! He’s bugging me!” and “I’m not touching you!” Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That’s all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

Community stats

  • 15K

    Monthly active users

  • 16K

    Posts

  • 464K

    Comments