r/politics • u/sweatycat New York • 1d ago

California to Negotiate Trade With Other Countries to Bypass Trump Tariffs

https://www.newsweek.com/california-newsom-trade-trump-tariffs-2055414
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19.7k

u/wankbollox 1d ago

If Texas can ignore the federal government and make its own immigration policy, then I guess California can make its own trade policy. Seems fair. 

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u/TinFoilBeanieTech 1d ago

States setting their own trade agreements is totally unconstitutional, but we haven't been following that for a while now anyway. I'm hoping the whole west coast can form it's own trade coalition.

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u/palmerama 1d ago

Now the plot of Civil War doesn’t seem so far fetched.

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u/Faux-Foe 1d ago

The biggest far fetched idea in there wasn’t the movie, it was which states were aligned with each other.

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u/Emblazin 1d ago

That was by design so the right couldn't complain about being the bad guys.

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u/rainzer 1d ago

then they complained anyway cause they recognize the fascist president as Trump

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u/InsuranceToTheRescue I voted 1d ago

I mean, they were really big on The Boys until the Homelander parallels became clear to them.

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u/Vohdre Illinois 1d ago

Which should have been 5 minutes after Homelander was introduced

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u/animatroniczombie 1d ago

They're not the sharpest knives in the drawer

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u/ActOdd8937 1d ago

Heck, they aren't even the sharpest spoons!

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u/Silidistani 1d ago

Gah, beat me to it! 🫵🏼

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u/JTitch420 15h ago

You Don’t need knives when you got all the guns

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u/thefirecrest 18h ago

I broke up with a guy because he told me Homelander was his favorite character.

Homelander is also my favorite character in the show. But I could tell that we didn’t mean that in the same way. And the way he meant it but didn’t dare say aloud was a huge red flag lol.

(There were other red flags before that, but this one was the one that broke the camel’s back. I wish conservatives men wouldn’t try to pretend not to be conservatives to date liberal women.)

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u/Vohdre Illinois 16h ago

That's why any woman who lists themselves as moderate or non-political was always an immediate skip. We know who you are.

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u/ButterscotchHappy515 10h ago

THis is just like hecking star wars

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u/yungcdollaz 1d ago

I don't agree the president was supposed to be trump. he would've ordered a cheeseburger at the end

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u/deekaydubya 1d ago

no he would've left the nation at the first sign of trouble lol

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u/Imapatriothurrrdurrr California 1d ago

Berder*

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u/WalkingEars Georgia 1d ago

Well done with ketchup and no vegetables

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u/SCViper 1d ago

Nick Offerman wasn't wearing a diaper during filming so they couldn't have made that parallel.

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u/nigelfitz 1d ago

and nick is a good looking dude

nice hair, no obnoxious tan, nicely fitted suit

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u/SomeMoistHousing 1d ago

I'm sure it was intentionally noncommital on left/right politics to be more broadly palatable, but I wish it had been honest and just made the bad guys be the bad guys

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u/rokerroker45 1d ago

I'm sure it was intentionally noncommital on left/right politics to be more broadly palatable

no, they were pretty clear on the bad guys being ultraright, they just didn't spell out which states those folks were repping

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u/BlisfullyStupid 1d ago

Civil War wasn’t really a movie about American politics though.

It never makes any real statement about either side, pretty sure they don’t even really explain why the secession happened. The whole movie was about journalism in the same vein Hurt Locker was about the dopamine kick the protagonist felt risking his life.

Making the movie “bipartisan” seems the correct approach when you look at it that way. The context of the civil war seems more like the pitch to intrigue you since the current political landscape is very receptive to it, but the most political statement it ever makes is the “what kind of American are you?”

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u/jcrestor Foreign 1d ago

It really wasn’t necessary.

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u/xflashbackxbrd 1d ago

Its most logical if you presume the fascist president is feuding with constitutionist military leadership, most of which are stationed in California and texas.

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u/machogrande2 1d ago

Whatever you do, do NOT watch the Red Dawn remake. And not just because it was a shit movie. They didn't want to piss off China(which would have been at least kinda plausible) so they went with the batshit insane idea of North Korea invading and holding territory in the US.

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u/RickToy 1d ago

Because thats not how it works. Basically no American citizen is ready to engage in a civl war, no matter what side they are on. Many of the "bad guys" would also be victims of different combatant groups fighting over territory. Many good guys might technically be in "enemy" territory and forced to participate in battle efforts, if just to keep food, water ready and available. Thats the best part of the movie, it shows the societal collapse that would happen, and how localized things would become.

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u/gatorbater5 California 1d ago

i thought they liked being the bad guys

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u/Elegant_Plate6640 1d ago edited 1d ago

They like being the bad guys, they don’t like to think about the consequences of their actions.

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u/dunkolx 1d ago

I really like thinking about consequences for them. Like, a lot.

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u/FinancialRip2008 California 1d ago edited 1d ago

i'm sad for the fools that got duped. especially the ones who are realizing when it's too late. i don't think the bad guys will ever suffer for their actions though.

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u/UpperApe 1d ago

Wait you're telling the guys who fought for slavers and against abolishing slavery...

...were the bad guys?!

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u/cosmicosmo4 1d ago

I see it as being because they wanted the movie to be about journalism during war, not about the political situation that led to the war. So they did their best to make it not make sense in today's actual political climate, but it's still super fucking clear that the divorced-from-reality, staying-past-his-term, FBI-dismantling white guy is more Trump than he is anyone else.

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u/Emblazin 1d ago

Agreed. Which I think is important because it humanizes journalists who have been demonized since the advent of the internet and Russia's psy-op on the liberal world order started under Putin. Of course journalists have been demonized before then as well, but the same consolidating of power after the 1999 apartment bombings (Google Ryazan Incident) is possibly coming to America under Trump, or we move closer to the reality in Civil War...

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u/cosmicosmo4 1d ago

Unfortunately, your post is more interesting and contains more actual insights on the state of journalism than the movie does. It had great sound design, though.

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u/Emblazin 1d ago

I'm glad someone else noticed that. I saw it in theaters and I was blown away at how DEAFENING the shootout scenes were front to back. I want a movie version of Robert Evans' It Could Happen Here Season 1 podcast.

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u/cosmicosmo4 1d ago

Good news, just stay put for like a couple years and you get to experience it with unparalleled realism.

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker 1d ago

Cowardly move designed to make a movie about civil war in the US entirely apolitical.

I get that the movie is actually meant to be about journalism, not politics but for me it is a huge miss.

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u/LaScoundrelle 1d ago

I think it’s also realistic to what tends to happen in real modern civil wars. People tend to form coalitions with those they aren’t 100% aligned with to amass power, and then things fall apart when they win. Also Texas and California are the two states that could raise powerful armies on their own.

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u/MercantileReptile Europe 1d ago

Which was cowardly. Good movie, bad move to suppress realistic circumstances.

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u/seriouslees 1d ago

And that's why I hold the writers in such low regards. What absolute cowards. The Right ARE bad guys, refusing to imply so in a film is... greedy at best.

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u/VirginiaMcCaskey 1d ago

There are no good guys in that movie, which is kind of the point

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u/say592 1d ago

Yeah, that was clearly done intentionally to make it less of a red state vs blue state thing.

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u/UncommitedOtter 1d ago

Which makes the movie incredibly stupid and just a journalist circlejerk

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u/DeltaViriginae 1d ago

You think? For me it had a fairly critical tone on war journalism.

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u/xaviersi Texas 1d ago

From Texas here, we'd never align with California on anything even if they're in the right. Ethically, Texas has fallen quite a bit.

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

Texan cities might want to work with CA, but they are surrounded by rural Texas.

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u/xaviersi Texas 1d ago

As an Austinite, this hits so deep, lol

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

Especially Austin

I could see a massive exodus from ATX to the west coast if things go further off of the rails

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u/xaviersi Texas 1d ago

The rumblings are definitely there. In my household especially, I'm pushing for Minnesota, personally. Lol

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u/Healthy_Ad_6171 1d ago

Same here. Thinking west coast though. Cause this is insane.

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u/Larovich153 1d ago

Move to swing states and force them to go blue

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

I just hate the cold so much, or else I'd go back to NY

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u/speakingofdinosaurs 1d ago

Arizona is purple and warm. Similar to Texas but with a chance of your vote making a difference.

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

I worry about settling down somewhere with scarce water supply. Austin is arid, but has some decent aquifers.

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u/sniper1rfa 1d ago

Austin airlift.

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

Build a wall?

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u/ReyRey5280 Colorado 1d ago

It’s already happening with the influx of Texans to CO, Coloradans bitch about asshole Ford mallcrawlers with Texas plates on the road, but in my lifelong experience in Denver, Texans and Georgians are some of the chillest and fun transplants thatve been moving out here. Minnesotans and some Chicagoans are up there too. On the other hand, all the upper and lower Midwest to other southern states transplants seem to be the most basic of extra mild bros and bland oblivious Karens who don’t realize the nice overpriced rebuilt house they afforded through generational wealth to get out of their shitty Ohiowa town

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

As much as I hate the cold, I've been thinking about Colorado. At least it's sunny there.

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u/Secure_One_3885 1d ago

Coloradans bitch about asshole Ford mallcrawlers with Texas plates on the road

Coloradans stub their toe and blame Texans. That's just who they are, as people.

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u/ReyRey5280 Colorado 1d ago

There’s truth to this

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u/ninjaandrew 1d ago

San Antonio too. Many will avoid being sitting ducks as the entire city is surrounded by military bases that could roll out federal or state enforcement if local policies start becoming “too left”. Scary times.

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u/Worthyness 1d ago

Texas rural folks would match California's rural folks. More trump fans in California than people in Wyoming.

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

Rural folk in CA don't control the state government.

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u/Schonke 1d ago

If they can gerrymander within states, what's stopping gerrymandering of state borders?

Just make a half a mile wide stretch of land from California to Austin, and entire Austin, into California!

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 1d ago

Don't threaten me with a good time!

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u/A_Furious_Mind 1d ago edited 1d ago

California has a bit to answer for, as well. But, given that their economy is absolutely gargantuan and they're basically carrying the US on their back, I find it hard to judge. It's not like my state is doing that.

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u/azurricat2010 1d ago

People, esp the maga type, don't realize this. SF alone has a bigger GDP than most southern states, ranked 31st across all states. SF metro area would be ranked 13th across all states.

CA has a GDP around 4T which would rank in the top 5 of countries and only slightly behind Japan and Germany who are at 4.2 and 4.5.

SF has a GDP around 225B

SF Metro has a GDP of 668B

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u/Buff-Cooley 1d ago

The Greater LA area also has the third highest GDP in the world, only behind NYC at #2 and Tokyo at #1.

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u/azurricat2010 1d ago

Speaking of Greater LA. I "love" the maps that conservatives use to show how much support they have across the nation, not realizing that land doesn't vote.

LA county alone would probably rank 10th or so in population if it were a state.

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u/Imapatriothurrrdurrr California 1d ago

4th largest economy in the world.

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u/EggsceIlent 1d ago

They have something like the 5th largest gdp in the world.

Behind us(prolly formally),china,Germany,Japan

I'm sure after the last few days and months of Trump, that list has changed.

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u/Ancient_Sentence_628 1d ago

Ethically, Texas has fallen quite a bit.

Ethically, Texas was always bottom of the barrel. I've seen how poorly they treat minorities and women and children there, as far back as 2000...

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u/coleman57 1d ago

Willie celebrated his 90th at the Hollywood Bowl, LOL.

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u/AllRushMixTapes 1d ago

Texas seceded from two countries so they could keep slaves. They haven't fallen that far.

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u/Stellar_Duck 23h ago

Fallen? Compared to when? From when it was stolen from Mexico?

When it joined the Confederacy? Jim Crow? From where did it fall?

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u/PenImpossible874 New York 23h ago

Mmmhmm.

If California were to ban CSAM, Abbott would legalize it in Texas the next day.

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u/UpperApe 1d ago

"Fallen" implies you were elevated to begin with.

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u/pyuunpls Delaware 1d ago

It was never a States vs States issue but conservatives wanted to make it that. So now here we are in the “Fuck around and find out” phase. States like Mississippi can rot.

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u/ktwarda 1d ago

I think that was the plot driver though - it didn't seem like they were initially aligned but it got bad enough that they ended up allying together.

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u/Bonesnapcall 1d ago

Actual people fighting as a cohesive army was the REALLY farfetched idea. A Civil War will much more closely resemble large, armed, protest groups meeting armed counter-protestors. Some shots will be fired, everyone will scatter. You'll have about a dozen or so casualties. That will be a daily occurrence.

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u/ZellZoy 1d ago

Ehhh not quite as far fetched as it seems. There are a lot of Democrats in Texas and Republicans in California. More than many smaller states combined. I agree it's unlikely but it's not like, immersion breaking

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u/throne_of_flies 1d ago

Get Texas on your side against a populist president with this one weird trick: nationalize the oil industry to solve an energy crisis

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u/throne_of_flies 1d ago

Oh and 100% the most far fetched idea is that a group of boogaloo boys (hawaiian shirt soldiers who fought in the office building) would have no fat white guys

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u/the_waysian I voted 23h ago

The movie brings you into the conflict near the end. Safe to assume those less fit to fight were disproportionately weeded out at the beginning.

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u/Palchez 1d ago

There's kind of a quick line in the movie mentioning that they're only together to overthrow DC and then it'll those two against one another. But, yeah, I agree its the most unbelievable thing that happens in the entire film.

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u/Roy-Southman 1d ago

Yeah, it honestly feels like the people who made the movie wussed out on calling it like it is with the political alignments of the States and which States would follow the insane president, which States would go against them, and which would go their own way.

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u/PeeTee31 1d ago

I thought it sounded about right. If the US Government went full authoritarian, I don't see TX just willfully going along with it, but as another commenter said, they wouldn't align with CA either.

CA leading the rebellion made a lot of sense. TX saying fuck everybody else made a lot of sense. I can't remember what other states were aligned with which.

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u/Nice-River-5322 1d ago

Nah, people are still too fat and comfortable to ever even remotely consider a civil war

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u/The_Autarch 1d ago

If a president seizes a third term after massacring a bunch of peaceful protestors, I think you'd see a lot of "loyal" state governments replaced with ones ready for war pretty quickly. Texas is huge and has plenty of people who aren't lunatics.

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u/medusa-crowley 1d ago

Right wingers were fully in support of protestors getting shot in 2020. They also fully believed AntiFa were burning farms in Oregon; they were out and armed and patrolling for us.

 All it takes is them being told our cause isn’t justified and that Trump is taking a third term to fight against a crazy leftist mob. We’ve seen this play out in miniature already. 

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u/BabyBlastedMothers 1d ago

Texas seems like the second most likely state to try and form its own trade policies. Could see them not as allies but not necessary co-secessionists

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u/Low-Dream-1644 1d ago

Forgetting that the US and the USSR allied during WWII? It makes sense that it would be an alliance of convenience.

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u/redditlvlanalysis 1d ago

It's less far fetched than you think Texas is red but there are some deep blue cities and a crap ton of tech that is going to get wrecked by these tariffs

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u/overcomebyfumes New Jersey 23h ago

There's a lot of right-wing nuts in California. It's not too hard to imaging a coup in the state government, leading them to secede and ally with Texas.

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u/Totalwar1990 8h ago

Alex Garland has a time machine and/ or interdimensional cable.

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u/Ziograffiato 1d ago

While you were distracted watching for signs of WWIII, Civil War II snuck in the back door.

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u/Top-Tie2218 1d ago

Bro, I watched that movie a while back, and each day looks more like that movie, It's not good.

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u/wronguses 1d ago

Want to see something that's getting less and less far fetched by the day?

Read the plot section of this strategy game from 20 years ago.

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u/DeltaViriginae 1d ago

Now this brings back memories!

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u/catalytica 1d ago

That has overtones of Gore v. Bush, with a smattering of Trump insurrection and sprinkle of Kiefer Sutherland's Designated Survivor. This game Nostradamus's

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u/Adventurer_By_Trade 1d ago

Loved the ending.

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u/EPIC_RAPTOR 1d ago

The second that dumbass started talking about a third term is when I started seeing the connection

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u/Icy_Respect_9077 1d ago

The movie does mention that the President is in his third term of office, which is a disturbing thought.

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u/nonaveris America 1d ago

Except that the President in DC wins this one.

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u/kex I voted 1d ago

Red Dawn totally miscalculated how Russia would take over.

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u/Sprig3 1d ago

I knew it was about tarriffs!

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u/catalytica 1d ago

I for one applaud the Western Forces steamrolling into Washington DC. And hey if Texas can align with us over this trade war bs more power to them.