"Welcome To TACO Hell!": US POLITICS, JUNE 2025

<ERIC ANDRE GUN MEME>

"WHY DID ROBOT BIDEN DO THIS?"

it's some real dem grand strategy shit, is making a robot that shits the bed and doesn't recognise George Clooney!

Step 1: replace Biden with https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=77&threadid=92365

argh

In September the deep state killed Biden for the very first time

Now he’s a robot
It’s June

Times
Times

I am the Biden man

(Secret secret, I’ve got a secret)

Robot Biden is two trochees, like ninja turtle, zombie vampire, or Jesus lizard.

https://xkcd.com/856

Looking up at a TV playing the local news, and they're actually using graphics calling it "The Big Beautiful Bill" ffs...

Which Ohio diner are you in?

That’s what it’s called!

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/fema-head-wasnt-aware-hurricane-season/

Good luck to all on the east coast

He was just having a little fun while doing his job—dismantling the agency.

FEMA = Feverishly Eliminating Most Americans

assholing for assholery's sake

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename an oil ship named after gay rights activist Harvey Milk, a move that pointedly comes at the start of Pride Month.

Military.com first reported the impending name change, citing a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy. The document reportedly showed that the service planned to strip the oiler USNS Harvey Milk of its moniker...

‪Brett "Solidarity 2025" Banditelli‬
✧@bandite✧✧✧.o✧✧‬
· 55m
Minneapolis residents running ICE/DHS out of town so hard multiple police agencies are lying about what really happened while DC Democrats give Republicans free TACOS really does show the difference between the party base and the party infrastructure, doesn't it?

c'mon call him out by name

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/elon-musk-trump-spending-tax-bill-disgusting-abomination-rcna210690

game recognize game

But Musk won't call out the tax cuts he's getting or the Medicaid cuts

After seeing his work on the DOGE I'm guessing he isn't objecting to extending and enlarging the tax cuts of 2017 for the wealthy. The "abomination" he's thinking of is the failure to make massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Exactly. The Medicaid cuts aren't big enough for him.

Marjorie Taylor Greene - Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years.

I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there.

This section was in non- Maga news coverage, but she didn't see that or read the bill

tbf, the bill was withheld from most of the members of Congress until the last moment before the voting and was well over 1000 pages.

and it wasn't in pop up book format

Pretty sure MTG can't read, period.

really hoping this Musk sniping on the spending bill eventually transforms into a full-blown, drug-fueled breakup of the bromance, with lots of mutual mudslinging and cheap insults

it almost seems inevitable

He knows he needs the MAGAs to keep Twitter usership levels from shrinking, so as of yet he hasn't called Trump out by name, probably is egotistically hoping that someone as brilliant as 'him' giving the hint is enough to get the big man to stop listening to the morons around him.

so I guess we need someone to create an index that hypothesizes what the stock price of Twitter and Tesla would each need to decline to before he finally takes gloves off.

IDK, don't you think a full repudiation of Trumpism would ultimately be the best thing for his brand? Liberals could maybe talk themselves into buying a Tesla again

But I guess the Federal contracts is where the real money is, especially with Starlink etc

if he's going to do that, he needs time to pivot. that crowd still makes a huge chunk of his enthusiastic user base.

feel like the Tesla brand is pretty much shot barring him selling the company outright

Xp — there were drafts of the bill for weeks — I spent an hour or two skimming and making notes — someone whose actual job is to vote on legislation should have at least done that?

well yeah but they are not actually opposed, it's just cover for voting for unpopular horrendous things to say they wouldn't have voted for it if they'd known

welp, when the bill comes out of the Senate and goes through reconciliation, she can see if that provision stayed in the final version.

She might not remember to check though, which is totally valid. Who has time, really?

Yes this is a gift link to an Atlantic story — but it's a good one, called "Feudalism Is Our Future."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/07/government-privatization-feudalism/682888/?gift=83kOO-_pxHChnfcCXfgpODcYwIxBDk3wsibK8lRrGXc&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Public police forces with a mission to protect everyone are largely a 19th-century invention. But police forces are shrinking. In the U.S., anyone with money and a need now hires private security guards, who outnumber police officers by a ratio of 2 to 1. Among companies based in the U.S., the third-largest global employer—after Amazon and Walmart—is a private security firm, Allied Universal. Private guards patrol small towns and swaths of entire cities. A consortium of hundreds of businesses in Portland, Oregon, hired a company named Echelon Protective Services to secure their downtown precinct, day and night. During the fires that devastated Los Angeles in January, the wealthiest residents of Brentwood called in the secretive security firm Covered 6 to protect their homes from looting. As for personal protection, the market has no ceiling. Mark Zuckerberg’s reported annual budget for personal security is $23 million, five times more than the pope pays for the Swiss Guards.

As in medieval times, the affluent withdraw behind barriers. If it were built today, Windsor Castle would be described in the sales prospectus as a “privately governed residential community.” In the 1990s, when the economist Robert Reich began writing about “the secession of the successful,” some 3 million American housing units were lodged inside gated communities, which protected a population of about 8 million. Today, gated communities encompass 14 million housing units. On its website, a real-estate company in Florida earlier this year asked readers, “Is a Moat Right for You?” It was an April Fools’ joke, but not a very good one, because modern moated residences already exist. Perhaps the most exclusive gated community in the world is actually an island—Indian Creek Village, in Biscayne Bay, Florida, with 89 residents (including Jeff Bezos, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner) and a perimeter-security radar system designed by the Israeli company Magos. Officers in speedboats intercept anyone venturing too close.

Privatization has also upended the law. One example from an ambitious survey by Robert Kuttner and Katherine V. W. Stone in The American Prospect : the growing use of compulsory arbitration, written by corporations into private contracts, as a way of settling consumer and employment disputes. The public court system is clogged. Arbitration—the “outsourcing of jurisprudence,” as the authors call it—creates a parallel private system, one in which efficiency may be more highly valued than public oversight or due process.

Oversight more broadly—of the environment, food, drugs, finance—has been drifting for decades into the hands of those being overseen. In their 2021 book, The Privatization of Everything, Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian documented the loss of public control over water, roads, welfare, parks, and much else. The deliberate dismantling of government in America in recent months, and its replacement with something built on privatized power and networks of personal allegiance, accelerates what was long under way. Its spirit was captured decades ago in a maxim of Ronald Reagan’s economic adviser Murray Weidenbaum: “Don’t just stand there— undo something!”

so ruthlessly priors validating that i don’t think i should read it and don’t know if i can endure a worst outcome experience tbh

police forces are NOT shrinking, wtf

the rest of that is otm but...

IDK, don't you think a full repudiation of Trumpism would ultimately be the best thing for his brand? Liberals could maybe talk themselves into buying a Tesla again

He's not cynically exploiting the fascists, his daughter transitioning (and years of drug abuse) just broke down all the walls that stopped him from talking about it in public. He can't repudiate his soul (such as it is).

My city’s police force has shrunk, but they are now raking in even more $$ on overtime.

This based on BLS data says total police declined slightly from 2012-2021, so with population growth police per capita is down a little. Police everywhere are having a hard time recruiting, fancy that.

https://www.safehome.org/resources/states-with-most-police/

I'm talking about budgets, not actual #s of cops, like that might be true that actual #s are down but it feels disingenuous and unrelated when police budgets are like literally 60% of some larger cities

TLDR ACAB

Oh yeah I thought it was already known that police depts have been using ever-increasing budgets to pay offers MORE, not to pay more officers. (Cf the prior statement about recruitment, and I can't remember where I saw this so it might have been specific to the NYPD.)

Sure, still plenty of cops to show up in riot gear when needed. I think the bigger point is just that there are twice as many private security guards.

that's fair but I don't think it should take away from the "defund the police" discussion

iow framing this as "private cops are replacing public cops" is inaccurate and misleading in terms of actual economics and budgets, give that public cop money to the damn schools if all we have are private cops now

I chuckle at the idea that lawmakers of the richest country in the world would approve a bill 1000 pages longs, knowing where it came from, without reading any of it. What exactly wouldn't you do to prove your loyalty, suck his d. ?
I also can't get over the fact that media is using "BBB" with a straight face. Big and beautiful, seriously ?

On the private security guard thing, the ratio is some other countries can be 4 or 6 to 1 police. It's a 20-yo global trend.

xp some ppl want to build back better tho the better business bureau has beef with this bs

Good morning,

That Cullen Murphy piece is very good (and I say that as someone who avoids the Atlantic), thanks for posting it. I'm somewhat bemused he never says the word neoliberalism, but maybe he was intentionally avoiding it.

It pairs well with this Defector piece on Bitcoin: https://defector.com/what-world-does-bitcoin-want-to-build-for-itself

yea I liked that Defector piece a lot. kinda dovetails with this Taylor Lorenz video I watched detailing (in part) the way young people have descended into this sort of techno-nihilism where they expect to be paid handsomely just for being into crypto and fascism.

The Defector piece was pretty good also at showing how the Crypto is almost identical to multilevel marketing in the pitches (join or you’ll lose out!) and the exact that Crypto needs an endless supply of new suckers who come in late to prop up the price but only the people at the top of the pyramid get rich.

“ The fact that Crypto”

This is interesting to me because I think the Trump admin has been running the government a lot like an MLM. A big reason why all their supplicants (politicians, judges, lawyers, schools, news platforms, corporations) refuse to bail even when they should see clearly that this is all heading towards ruin, is that they think they'll be the ones to cash out. They may or may not believe in the product they are selling, but they absolutely believe that they can get one over on the marks.

he's running it more like a BM

more on the assholery:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday ordered that a naval oiler ship named for gay rights icon Harvey Milk be renamed.

The news was first published by Military.com, which reported that the order was specifically made by Hegseth, and the timing of the announcement — during Pride month — was intentional, and part of the administration's move toward "reestablishing the warrior ethos."

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to rename other ships, including those named for Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman and Cesar Chavez.

Oh yeah I thought it was already known that police depts have been using ever-increasing budgets to pay offers MORE, not to pay more officers. (Cf the prior statement about recruitment, and I can't remember where I saw this so it might have been specific to the NYPD.)

Same in Oakland and other major cities with high costs of living. Watching cops hang out while public works employees dismantle homeless encampments is demoralizing on so many levels… also sleeve otm

named for Thurgood Marshall, Harriet Tubman and Cesar Chavez.

that's going to do wonders with their recruitment efforts among white supremacists, but nobody else

just find it absurd that mousse & bronzer Hegseth is now somehow an expert on the 'warrior ethos'

He has tattoos. He's a warfighting machine.

the word that keeps coming back to me about this administration: camp

the whole lot of them

a Biden robot maybe have done better in the debate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCP2iiP7YTg

you really have to be the shittiest kind of old white man to lose to Donald in a debate

what isnt camp is kayfabe and i am pretty pissed off at them for ruining fun

Nazis were camp too, also not fun

^otm

return of his greatest hits... note that Egypt is NOT among the countries affected; just a seemingly random selection of non-white people, surely curated by Stephen Miller. This held up in SCOTUS before and there's no reason to suggest it won't again.

President Donald Trump is banning visitors from 12 countries from entering the United States and partially restricting travelers from seven other nations.

The move is the latest in Trump's efforts to secure America's borders after a Colorado terror attack in which an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa allegedly set people alight at a pro-Israel demonstration.

Nationals of Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be barred from entering the United States under the new proclamation.

Further to that ban, citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be partially restricted from traveling.

'We don't want 'em,' Trump said in a video released shortly after the ban was announced.

That list only makes sense if about half of them were chosen purely based on the fact that only about 0.01% of white Americans simply know nothing whatsoever about them and have probably never heard of them before. They got chucked in to make the list more impressive, because a list twice as long means Trump is doing twice as good a job of protecting us all.

wait but Egypt *ISN'T* on the list?!

sorry I realize that was already noted, but wtf

banning all Egyptians from entering a country after the actions of one person is of course as insane as the rest of it

only about 0.01% of white Americans simply know nothing know anything whatsoever about them

now it's correct

Obviously Egypt is not on the list (assassination or not), it's the second African economy with a population of 115M. Not exactly the same impact like barring people from Equatorial Guinea.

*attempted murder rather

Gov. Tim Walz is doubling down on trans rights — and criticizing members of his party who are retreating — at a time when the issue has become a political lightning rod nationally and back home in Minnesota

I trust the guy's sensibilities as well as his moral compass - still think the "Repubs are weird" thing could have been an election-winner

Makes me proud that he’s my home state governor.

“only about 0.01% of white Americans simply know nothing know anything whatsoever about them”

at this point many white americans know nothing true even of themselves

sorry for butchered take quote i got zinged

AOC finally endorsed Zohran Mamdani

now bring back Abrego Garcia next (they won't, until they're finally backed into a corner, because it will 'symbolize weakness')

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-returns-guatemalan-man-to-u-s-after-judge-says-he-was-wrongly-deported/

Millions of Obamacare enrollees would lose health coverage under the Republicans’ major policy bill, which would make coverage more expensive and harder to obtain.

Most of the proposals in the bill, which passed the House last month, are technical changes — reductions to enrollment periods, adjustments to formulas, and additional paperwork requirements. But together, they would leave about four million people uninsured in the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday.

“In many ways, it’s sort of repeal by paper cut,” said Audrey Morse Gasteier, the director of the state marketplace in Massachusetts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/upshot/obamacare-cuts-republicans.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Mk8.rG3A.GQtjHD2qgCa1&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

they already largely fucked it by removing the individual mandate, which decreased enrollments significantly and sent prices skyrocketing.

true, the price increases were happening before the penalty for not enrolling was suspended, but thsi was rocket fuel for additional hikes.

so sure, why not fuck it some more, it's only people's lives

Another thing about it is that it will require more frequent income verification —- which can be good because people who are getting subsidies that they have to repay when they file taxes, could adjust sooner, rather having to repay a lot all at once. It can also really suck for people who don’t file (some because they don’t owe), especially now that they are getting rid of free-file to focus on “public-private partnerships” …

I heard Jerry Nadler on WNYC this morning and he said he was outraged about DHS agents handcuffing one of his staff members in his own congressional office, but he didn't quite sound outraged. Brian Lehrer seemed a little taken aback by Nadler's lack of affect, and asked what he was going to do about it. Nadler said House Dems were requesting a hearing at the Judiciary Committee for Kristi Noem to come and answer questions about it. Lehrer was like, c'mon do you really think Jim Jordan's going to give you a hearing? And Nadler was like, well that's the process ...

When they opened it up to listener questions, the first text was from someone asking why Nadler didn't seem more mad about it. He insisted he was mad, he agreed with the listener that it was an example of "creeping fascism," but there still wasn't much spark in any of it.

exciting news for extremists: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-dhs-thomas-fugate-cp3-terrorism-prevention

When Thomas Fugate graduated from college last year with a degree in politics, he celebrated in a social media post about the exciting opportunities that lay beyond campus life in Texas. “Onward and upward!” he wrote, with an emoji of a rocket shooting into space.

His career blastoff came quickly. A year after graduation, the 22-year-old with no apparent national security expertise is now a Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention, including an $18 million grant program intended to help communities combat violent extremism.

to put that in perspective, this child was born at least one year after 9/11

Weird voting results will be moving through the courts:

The anomalies in the presidential race include multiple districts where hundreds of voters chose the Democratic candidate Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate, but where zero voters selected the Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/retransmission-2024-presidential-senate-results-181500140.html

Violent extremism? Fugate about it!

xpost So we're going to find out that Kamala really won New York?

this week in is he a Nazi or just stupid

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lqupq2vswf2h

no need to mention the war!

Remember when the Nazis invaded that innocent country Germany?

why not both

I really want April 9 to be a US holiday

well then

Miley 🐠‬
✧@milesk✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 3m
45 minutes before market close, Tesla down 16%, Musk throws the "pedo guy" hail mary. an extraordinary day in posting

lol

James McLeod‬
✧@jamespmcl✧✧✧.c✧‬
· 3m
In one sense, I wasted many years of my life posting on Twitter.

In another sense, every second of it was preparing me for understanding and appreciating the moment we now live in.

Time to drop the really big bomb:@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Have a nice day, DJT!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 5, 2025

this is gonna be fun

Well, we know who isn't getting a pardon now

ok this might be one of the funniest days in the history of US politics

perfect storm

holyyyyyyy shit pic.twitter.com/N9HceK6aFR

— Natalie Wynn (@ContraPoints) June 5, 2025

Trump says "enough is enough" to Elon, revokes Norm Eisen's security clearance

This is all very amusing, but I highly doubt it's leading anywhere meaningful.

yeah, Musk can't bankroll a primary challenger to Trump. Trump probably can't pull Musk's contracts while he's trying build a space dome.

it's fucking hilarious who cares what it means

yeah, Musk can't bankroll a primary challenger to Trump.

No, but he can bankroll primary challenges to Republican senators who vote for the Trump budget.

Trump probably can't pull Musk's contracts while he's trying build a space dome.

Sure he could! Oh, but when has Trump ever done something shortsighted and stupid in a fit of pique without considering the long-term consequences?

like Trump cares about other politicians

immovable object, meet unstoppable force

asylum granted to Tesla and X employees

send Elon to CECOT you coward

Nobody should go to CECOT. We can clown these people without sinking to forced rendition levels.

My non-doomscrolling friends are sending me LOLs about this *rubs hands together*

a friend of mine actually took a half-personal day today because he was loling so much at the Trump news he wasn't getting work done so he decided to take the reset of the day off

*rest

Nobody should go to CECOT. We can clown these people without sinking to forced rendition levels.

his DOGE cuts have already killed an estimated 300k people many of them children and the number will be in the millions in a year's time, all so unfathomably rich people like himself can get unfathomably richer, I would argue nobody deserves to go more

Nobody should go to CECOT. We can clown these people without sinking to forced rendition levels.

Agree. They should be drawn and quartered by monster trucks in US football stadiums.

stephen bannon just suggested that elon be deported , and elon retweeted ian miles cheong saying trump should be impeached. let’s go

I wonder if this pushes us any closer to seeing what it's the 'epstein files'... somehow I doubt it

why not both zoidberg dot gif

xp

Where did Bannon and Trump leave off? I can’t remember where they stand, this show has too many plotlines.

Sorry but I think the guy with an army and the security services will win this one.

Putin? *badumtish*

I didnt think the “so the president could send seal team six after a rival” trial balloon would be this…

Elon is probably gonna claim every little inconvenience is retaliation by Trump now

Hard to imagine this is some permanent rift, these guys have too much shared interest in the world being run by white billionaires.

This is getting lost today because of...you know. It deserves better.

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lqurvhnffc2v

I wish this happened last week because "We cannot build bananas in America" would have been a great thread title.

We are not gonna fall for the banana in the tariff pipe

Hard to imagine this is some permanent rift, these guys have too much shared interest in the world being run by white billionaires.

― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Thursday, June 5, 2025 4:51 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yea I mean the typical outcome is that this is fun for a few days and then we all return to hellworld by next week, I mean the federal government is in pretty deep with SpaceX and Starlink right now, that said this does feel a little different in that A) Elon is prone to drug-fueled manic episodes and is somehow even less capable of thinking strategically than Trump is and B) the media absolutely LOVES the reality show narrative so they're probably gonna keep harping on this

I hope they don't lose track of the Joe Biden is too old story

Health code violations at Trump golf course!

I found this to be a very interesting conversation. Lots of discussion of Trump and tariffs and the political ramifications of the US economy being regionally divided the way it is (basically, the US economy is a battle between states that make their money off fuel and manufacturing, and those that make their money off information technology and financial gamesmanship), but the larger point is that the US is absolutely in decline, that from a purely demographic standpoint but also economically speaking the second half of the 21st century is going to belong to Asia, and that we are being left behind on environmental and industrial issues and we can't see it because we live in a US media bubble. It's very much worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iScVfNWBmxk

Health code violations at Trump golf course!

bedminster?

WASHINGTON – A recent inspection found more than a dozen health code violations at President Donald Trump's ritzy New Jersey golf club.

Raw meat was improperly refrigerated. Milk was spoiled. Handwashing areas were missing soap. And the person in charge failed to "demonstrate knowledge of food safety," according to an inspection report on May 6.

The inspector gave the club unusually low marks (32 out of 100) compared with other restaurants in the area that month, records show. The club earned a C rating and was ordered to fix all its health code violations and pay a reinspection fee, which is standard practice.

It takes a lot of health code violations to get Trump's food just how he likes it.

reading this thread with "Gimme Shelter" playing in the background, seems perfect to me

Thinking of that recent 'dinner' for the top buyers of the trump memecoin

‪Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof‬
✧@evanbern✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 2h
Night of the long knives but literally there’s no plan and everyone is just stabbing each other wildly and the stabbing is quote-poasting

fuckin blue dog bullshit

Jonathan Cohn‬
✧@jonathanc✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 15m
Shame on these 5 Democrats who joined Republicans in voting for a bill requiring the Small Business Administration to take money away from "sanctuary" cities:

Henry Cuellar
Don Davis
Laura Gillen
Jared Golden
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez

They're just straight-up bigots.

primary them all

plus every Dem over 60

We are in collective denial about the degree to which congressional democrats are cheering on the Trump agenda.

otoh since the house is 220-212 R, we can look at it as "these five horrible people are openly supporting the opposing party's agenda when the stakes are low" and deal with them accordingly (by primarying them)

as I looked that up I was intrigued by the apparent fact that there are THREE empty seats in the House now? that kind of seems like a big deal?

3 democrats died! After Houston Rep. Turner died in March, Gov Abbott delayed the election for the open seat until November.

the gerontocracy is real

if only those D seats had retired and endorsed a young progressive replacement

(continue ad nauseum)

More like a Necrocracy

fair

Warhammer 2025

incredible day, can't wait for tomorrow when we will reenact The Hangover but featuring various rich losers

Chris Murphy is being torn apart on Bluesky for scolding people about getting distracted by today's drama

https://bsky.app/profile/chrismurphyct.bsky.social/post/3lqvnxckpo22y

Ukrainians watching this big beautiful beef unfold:⚡️ Zelensky promised to end the war between Trump and Musk within 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/Bquwib5F6y

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) June 5, 2025

Ending with both of their deaths, I hope.

More like a Necrocracy

Fun fact, the households of deceased and mummified Incan emperors wielded significant political influence.

At times there were multiple dead emperors whose clans had competing claims on power, with the mummies ostensibly speaking from beyond the grave about the affairs of the living.

Insert Biden joke here

Oh and maybe can we take a moment away from the schadenfest to ask whether it was wise to give Mr. Unhinged McKetamine unfettered access not only all our personal data BUT all the nation's secrets?

Maybe revisit some of those prior conversations where officials were fired for resisting DOGE requests. And prog/lib/dem folks getting ridiculed by those on the right for being alarmist?

wise from whose perspective? probably was quite useful in furthering the oligarchic panopticon

Welp it's a bit late now but I remember progressives being shouted down by magaworld for saying "uh maybe don't let the twitterkids get their hands into all these government systems." Even trad Republicans were like "I would prefer a scalpel approach rather than a chainsaw."

And there was a lot of "let bruh cook; this is what I voted for, moar chainsaw pls, ree."

Now that magaworld doesn't like Musk anymore, I am simply holding my breath waiting for the apologies that will surely come.

Unpaid racist 20 year olds who had convictions for hacking, no less!

they did it for the love (of killing poor people)

Fun fact, the households of deceased and mummified Incan emperors wielded significant political influence.

sometimes i know it's going to be a Puffin post right out the gate

Well, I made it through U.S. Customs and my ILX record didn't stop me.

yeah if they ask to see my 'social media' I'm just gonna open ILXor and let them search for my posts

I went through customs and the officers looked at my passport, then looked up at me and said, "Ah, you're from Pennsylvania. I was born in NEW JERSEY." I think it was a secret ILX reference.

I regret to inform you that I have been 51'd from the United States of America

I asked if I was free to go and they said "so not gonna happen"

I brought back an entire suitcase full of beer from Belgium and they didn't even stop me!

"No see, they're supposed to be controversial opinions, that's the name of the thread ..."

point them to the conservative beliefs thread if they give you flack about viewpoint diversity

"how do I feel about tipping? sorry, my lawyer told me not to answer that"

“It’s been hard to watch today,” pro-Trump activist Charlie Kirk said Thursday night on Fox News. He added in a social media post: “I hope Elon and Trump reconcile and do so privately. It would be good for the country and the world if they do.”

Catturd, a popular conservative influencer on the Musk-owned X platform, said he lost followers — including Musk — on Thursday as he sided with Trump in the feud. Catturd wrote that Musk had “crossed a redline” after suggesting that Trump was listed in Jeffrey Epstein’s files. The influencer encouraged his 3.7 million X followers to continue opposing Musk.

sometimes i forget that i fell into an evil mirror dimension back in 2015

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is coming back to the US where he'll face charges for transporting undocumented migrants. No idea if there is any factual basis to these charges

https://abcnews.go.com/US/mistakenly-deported-kilmar-abrego-garcia-back-us-face/story?id=121333122

he will face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S.

is this like driving a buddy to Walgreens?

that's exactly what I was wondering

He said he was doing it for work opportunities for them I think, yeah

sigh

‪Phil Lewis‬
✧@phille✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 9m
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court allows DOGE team to access Social Security systems with personal data on millions of Americans for now.

why do they even need that info?

To surveil and control us.

To sell , of course.

I'd imagine LifeLock has a division finding and releasing hacks and info to keep their sales up.

Cool, they've devised a way to funnel millions to the Proud Boys

https://bsky.app/profile/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3lqxjanelri2p

OMG there's no way Sneaky Fauci is gonna wriggle out of this one.. they've GOT HIM

The Trump administration has recovered a cell phone and hard drives used by Dr Anthony Fauci during the Covid pandemic, the president's FBI chief has revealed.

Speaking Thursday on the Joe Rogan Experience, FBI director Kash Patel described the discovery as 'a great breakthrough' in the government's ongoing investigation into the origins of the pandemic and the federal response.

Patel said investigators had long struggled to locate the devices Fauci used while serving as chief medical advisor to the White House — records that could shed light on key decisions surrounding lockdowns, mask mandates, and ties between Fauci's former agency and the Wuhan laboratory central to the lab leak theory.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/seiu-president-detained-ice-operations-downtown-la-mayor-bass/3717671/

Fauci is a hero, but you know half of the country will believe he is a villain. The way they are hounding him is so despicable, when he has done nothing but try to do right for us

I think it can't be overstated: the fox news/newsmax/oan etc media has created an ecosystem where crazy right-wing talking points are repeated ad nauseum to where they actually have an effect.

The right-wing propaganda floats into the ether and the clueless mainstream media picks up on it and then presents it as fact, which then filters down to the rest of us as a given, and we end up believing it

I think mainstream media has a hand in this. We think of it as an entity that is liberal and thoughtful, but it is not. It is just composed of twits looking for the next news rush, they don't care where they get it from. Just look at the breathless reporting of the incredibly stupid spat going on right now while our country is falling apart

the fact that our FBI director is doing Rogan is pretty insane on it's own.. like, bro, don't you have some real work to do, beside investigating 82 year old Anthony Fauci?

I just watched a talk by a Stanford professor about Hoover’s FBI and white Christian nationalism… J Edgar Hoover definitely did the equivalent of Rogan for decades!

‪Chad Loder‬
✧@chadlo✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 32m
Reply to
Chad Loder
Several large crowds have begun to converge at the federal detention center in Los Angeles on Alameda.

CHP has blocked several of the freeway exit ramps and streets leading to the federal building to try to prevent people from gathering. Most streets are still wide open and full of large crowds.

‪El Norte Recuerda‬
✧@elnorterecue✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 23m
ICE has arrested more than 2000 people—workers, day laborers, parents picking up children from school, students—in LA today. I can barely fucking concentrate

Note that they followed up that post by saying the number wasn't right, it seems to have been much lower, but not good either way.

ty

Sean Beckner-Carmitchel‬
✧@acatwithn✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 2h
LAPD sweeping people out of the MOCA parking lot- I’ll follow up, I believe that’s private property?

Mural says “who is beyond the law? Who is bought and sold? Who is free to choose…” etc.

1 of these 2 bad Supreme Court Friday night emergency docket decisions (made with no hearings or briefings) was mentioned upthread

DOGE on Friday notched two legal victories. The Supreme Court said that it can have access to sensitive Social Security data and ruled that, for now, the organization does not have to turn over internal records to a government watchdog group as part of a public records lawsuit.- NY Times

The 3 liberal justices dissented from these 2 unsigned majority decisions on the emergency docket

stuff popping off in NYC now

Marisa Kabas
Things are escalating outside immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza.
‪Gwynne Hogan‬
✧@gwynnef✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 13m
NYPD push demonstrators out of garage entrance onto adjacent. sidewalk.

https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social/post/3lr25mo2vyc25

yep

Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast)
On the East Coast NYPD are starting a brutal crackdown on an ice protests by civilians in the city
‪Luis.documents🧢‬
✧@luisdocume✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 1h
NOW: NYPD officers randomly charged into the crowd and tackled a protester.

Three or so cops began dogpiling him, earlier he was just standing next to me. His condition appears to be severe as he reports he can’t feel his head nor his legs.

Cops may have broken his knee.

‪LorennaCleary.bsky.social‬
✧@lorennacle✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 29m
LAPD denies assistance to ICE to leave area. Sheriff also denies assistance to ICE. ICE is trapped by the people of Paramount.

Live streamer : “They’re gonna have to call their daddies to come get them”

Homan says that Trump is sending the national guard into LA to suppress the protests. Can't tell if it's all bluster, if they're invoking the insurrection act or if Newsom signed off on it. Newsom's a worm but I honestly don't see him signing off on it after his back and forth with trump the last few days over fed funding/taxes

Declaring martial law to protect ICE from skaters

https://bsky.app/profile/jeremotographs.bsky.social/post/3lr2duyta5k2y

*deep breath*

ABC live coverage here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymmbtHouoDU

Well, looks like it's happening
Governor Gavin Newsom

The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers.

That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.

If he went over Newsom's head then we should expect an announcement invoking the insurrection act pretty soon.

Newsom doesn't have to approve the deployment

https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/142-five-questions-about-domestic

is anything even happening in LA right now? are the protests still ongoing?

Worth reminding as well that Insurrection Act is not martial law. That's not me downplaying, because this would be a completely invalid reason to invoke it, but it doesn't put the military in charge of governing. Interestingly enough, the memo from Trump doesn't mention invoking the act. So I'm guessing there is questionable legality here.

really pisses me off the way the media is describing this as "clashes over immigration reform" while doing fuck all to mention that all the violence is coming from ICE and what they are doing is incredibly illegal

https://bsky.app/profile/stevevladeck.bsky.social/post/3lr2rzytdes22

It's theater. They're deploying 2k Guardsmen to take on a handful of protesters holding signs.

If protesters actually showed out with a couple thousand people tomorrow, the Guard would be overwhelmed.

They know this, so they're gonna send them out to be photographed while local law enforcement or ICE do any and all arresting

https://www.stevevladeck.com/p/156-federalizing-the-california-national

Hegseth is tweeting that he will activate the marines if necessary , and Newsom has tweeted that such an action is deranged

https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3lr2s6bq4k32d

Trump thanks National Guard for job well done helping quell protests in early morning hours, yet first Guardsmen didn't arrive until like 45 minutes ago.

But people who only get their news from Fox etc will never know that. I'm sure their narrative is already, LA WAS BURNING TO THE GROUND AND THE NATIONAL GUARD WENT IN AND STOPPED THE VIOLENT MARXISTS.

*checks Fox News homepage*

https://i.imgur.com/qmGKxO3.png

omg u guys a whole CAR was on fire at some point in the last 24 hours. Send in the Marines!

A shopping cart was on fire too

Well shit. Better just level the place.

Pete sending the Marines to his office with his Sunday morning order from the ABC

Then National Guard called in when he assaults a Marine for bringing him well Whiskey

Yeah Fox got their money shot: a guy with a Mexican flag driving a motorcycle in circles around a burning car.

Per the NYT, a guy in a dinosaur suit = "things are heating up.":

Livia Albeck-Ripka Reporting from Los Angeles

Things are heating up outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Protesters are yelling at National Guard troops, some of whom are now holding batons and have moved closer to the crowd.

“This is how ridiculous you look!” shouted a protestor in a dinosaur costume and holding a sign saying “ABOLISH ICE.”

Tom Cotton writing a new op-ed for the Times calling for Seal Team Six to take out dinosaur man.

Terroristaurus Rex

mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️ journalism‬
✧@madyc✧✧✧.c✧✧‬
· 1h
Reply to
mady castigan✨ 🏳️‍⚧️ journalism
Back to the federal building, the protestors have exploded in numbers and are approaching the building again

This is WAY BIGGER than any previous protest. The national guard is instigating far LARGER of a response and the feds are LOSING.

(in LA)

maybe now, finally, the UK/EU people who always come in on these threads with "where are the protests, like in Europe" will STFU forever

fwiw these protests have been larger and more widespread than anything in US history aiui

Tina-Desiree Berg‬
✧@tinadesireeb✧✧✧.c✧✧‬
· 19m
LAPD assisted by the Huntington Beach Police just came in full force firing munitions and with Horse support. Someone was trampled. Another has a serious head injury.

‪Chad Loder‬
✧@chadlo✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 1h
Pasadena, CA: The AC Hotel has asked ICE to leave. Hosting ICE agents at your hotel is bad for business.

Saw an Australian news reporter get shot in the leg by a rubber bullet mid-broadcast, you can see the cop aim their gun at them and fire

I really don't give a fuck for people saying that this is what the administration wanted, and they are playing into it.

I'm proud of Los Angele! wtf choice do they have when you have masked raiders coming into their city and taking thier neighbors?

i don't see the people of LA just rolling over here and good on them for it.

otmfm

I don't trust any "this is playing into what they wanted" responses to resistance at any level. TV-brain shit. respond to fascist bullshit early and hard.

No, what's most frustrating to me is all the headlines and reports using words like "chaos." First, it's obviously not true — this is happening in a couple of isolated places in and around L.A., most of the city is just going about its business. (Which the NYT did at least acknowledge in a story today.) But also, framing it as "clashes between protesters and ICE" obscures that it is ICE and the feds who are the provocateurs here. They're the destabilizing element, and everybody who's not Fox News should be emphasizing that.

The actual NYT front page headline: "Trump Jumps at the Chance for a Confrontation in California Over Immigration." Which surprised me.

Xpost that's the general issue with "playing into the government's hands". Protests of this size have happened throughout the year without issue.

Although this is not the first ICE protest, it comes after Trump admin and ICE themselves have been taking an increased number of Ls, so Trump and ICE are escalating things, but the protesters have mostly just been defending themselves.

What do people want them to do, go home? Yeah, good luck ever recruiting protesters again if your group folds instantly at the first sign of trouble. But also...it nullifies the work you put in.

You wanna do mass (often illegal, civil rights depriving) deportation? Ok. Well then angry civilians have decided they're through making things easy for you.

I don't trust any "this is playing into what they wanted" responses to resistance at any level. TV-brain shit. respond to fascist bullshit early and hard

agreed. same with "it's all a distraction." i saw a bizarre tweet that claimed that trump was invading los angeles to distract us from his tanking the economy and from elon saying trump is in the epstein files.

even though a) people are capable of paying attention to multiple things at once, b) trump has been a political figure for 10 years now and has no real history of acting strategically, c) trump always wants to do stuff like this for its own sake because he is an authoritarian, and d) this doesn't exactly make him look good!

i feel like a lot of people are anxious about everything that is happening and our capacity to respond to it effectively, and also traumatized by trump's ability to get away with so much, which leads them to adopt this overly savvy attitude. *they* don't want to be chumps. *they* pay attention and can see everything for what it is. but their understanding of trump and his motivations is disconnected from reality.

Yeah this isn't the distraction, this is the main event. It's troops on the ground in an American city. The executive order he signed for the deployment is not limited to L.A. We're going to see this in multiple places, probably soon. It's all driven by ICE, so they can stage the times and places however they want. All they have to do is announce big ICE operations in any given metro area; show up and start doing aggressive arrests; wait for protesters to arrive, as they will; then send in the troops.

I think the broader goal is to normalize militarized presence in American streets by the end of the year.

And they have a lot of capacity to play with. He ordered 2,000 troops to L.A. The Army National Guard has 325,000 members.

one good point I've seen made recently is that Dem politicians need to start stressing that metro areas are every bit as American and the rural flyover spots everyone gushes over. it seems to be strongly implied a lot that places like LA aren't "real America"

Yeah, metro areas aren't just "real America," they're where most Americans actually live. Including the huge majority of Trump voters, who are suburbanites, not small-town folks.

And yet of the 2000 there, only 300 are being deployed at a time. They have far too few in a populous state like CA to actually be effective, on top of the fact that this isn't their specialty.

But Trump wants his narrative and he also wants to dissuade people from protesting his bday celebration. Lol...

more of this, please

‪Yashar Ali 🐘‬
✧@yashar✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 9h
BREAKING

The City of Glendale, California — one of the most populous cities in Southern California — says it has terminated its contract with U.S. Homeland Security and ICE.

Thinking out to '26, I assume they want to create as much perception of chaos during the election year as possible, constantly force Democrats to "defend criminal thugs" or go along with the ever-growing militarized round-ups. I'm sure the GOP would love the election to be a mandate on who can "protect America" from immigrants and their lawless enablers, protectors and protesters. And they mostly have the levers to control how and when the chaos happens.

Worked quite well in November 2020.

are people not actually seeing through this though? the protestors aren't doing shit. at least with the MN protests you had a couple Walgreens getting ransacked

was a car set on fire?

lol

Can't we all just get along?

‪Jared Yates Sexton‬
✧@jysex✧✧✧.b✧✧✧.soc✧✧✧‬
· 1h
It's hard to overstate how destructive the reflexive "this is a distraction!" stuff that politicians and commentators and people are always peddling.

Everything is happening all at once. That's how authoritarianism works. If you can't navigate and synthesize this, you're not meeting the moment.

Dem politicians need to start stressing that metro areas are every bit as American and the rural flyover spots everyone gushes over. it seems to be strongly implied a lot that places like LA aren't "real America"

Sorry, no political rhetoric is legible as authentic unless it emanates in a diner, from a plumber in a threadbare hat. This is widely known.

Political rhetoric is only good if it sounds good while strummed on an acoustic guitar

Plenty of diners in cities and university towns where the vox pops on offer aren’t spouting racist law-and-order opinions.

It's not a legit diner if someone in the parking lot doesn't have a dead deer on the roof.

Bondi's husband got massacred in his DC Bar race. So did the other MAGA candidate

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-attorney-general-bondis-brother-loses-election-lead-washington-dc-bar-2025-06-09/

Err brother

Go to Minnesota. Half of my friends from high school have various fishing/hunting licenses and they consistently vote for the most progressive candidates.

Meanwhile, won't somebody please think about the vacationing rich people?

MARTHA’S VINEYARD, Mass. — A million-dollar home excavation project has been delayed because workers were too afraid to show up at the construction site. A pool at a vacation inn was closed to guests after the maintenance crew didn’t arrive.

https://wapo.st/4kzxDG4 (gift link)

AG Bonta has indicated California is in process of filing lawsuit challenging National Guard deployment

I think they should sue, but I'm pessimistic about their chances. I know there are laws around use of the Guard, but their wording is fairly broad. And obviously SCOTUS is very deferential to executive power.

....towards Republicans

they should do it anyway. we've seen pretty fuckin' clearly what *not* fighting this shit leads to, the smoother this goes the more they'll do it in the future

Trump threatening to arrest Newsom now. Go ahead, see if I give a fuck!

which is funny cos Border Czar is a made up position, basically an advisor, so Homan couldn't do it if he wanted to. I mean he could tell someone to, but would they obey? doubt it

Can't we all just get along?

― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Monday, June 9, 2025 10:11 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Heh

President Donald Trump, asked about his claims that there were “insurrectionists” in Los Angeles, said: “I wouldn’t call it quite an insurrection. But it could have led to an insurrection.”

“That was a lot of harm that was going on last night. I watched it very closely, and it was amazing the job that the National Guard did,” he said.

you can always tell when he's just talked to internal legal counsel

"don't call it insurrection now, it gives you more options later Donnie!!! love u"

seems to be a pattern here:

1) Trump hires an unqualified idiot to a government positions
2) The unqualified idiot gives an interview and says something not only insanely dangerous but downright illegal, in large part because he has no clue what he's doing
3) Journalists try to make headlines by asking Trump about it
4) Trump says "sure! sounds great to me!" because he is actually dumber than the people he hires and operates purely in reactionary mode
5) Media either ignores it or makes it about Biden, and if they can't do either they find a way to bothsides it, giving the impression that there actually are riots happening because people don't want immigration law to be enforced, moving the Overton window even further to the right

don't call it an insurrection
it's been here for years

Media either ignores it or makes it about Biden

yes we really can't lose sight of how fucking horrible and responsible the Media is for all this this shit. They suspended a Jounalist for making fun of Stephen Miller on twitter on the request of Karoline Leavitt FFS

The National Guardsmen on active duty in Los Angeles are carrying weapons but don’t have rounds in the chamber, and they aren’t using rubber bullets or pepper spray, according to a U.S. official.

yes and

“The troops — whose makeshift quarters are shown in photographs exclusively obtained by the Chronicle — arrived without federal funding for food, water, fuel, equipment or lodging”

Now they're maybe sending active duty Marines to LA? That's a pretty big deal

They'll be standing around in heat sweating and doing nothing

as they've been trained to do

arrived without federal funding for food, water, fuel, equipment or lodging

Are they wearing boots?

Then they should pull themselves up by the straps

didn't realize army men got per diems

might be nice for the Dems to remind people that YOU ARE PAYING FOR ALL OF THIS. as life in America gradually becomes more and more unaffordable never lose sight of the fact that they are literally taking money out of your paycheck every 2 weeks to fund all this bullshit

they could just against ICE and the people of LA would feed them so well xxp

turn against*

Do the troops get an entertainment budget?

to clarify, the "arrived without funding" refers to the Guard not the Marines

They should just set up a GoFundMe

Being even more unpleasant than he already is

The television personality Dr Phil was embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers as they carried out controversial raids in Los Angeles that led to days of protests in California, his TV network said.

Trump’s broken every article and amendment to the constitution except the one about quartering troops in people’s houses…yet.

Shhh!

The Supreme Court will rule that that clause was actually about pulling people apart with horses.

leave out a clean towel for the corpsman

what's funny is the different way the news is covering this. Fox News is calling these riots, NYT is saying cars are people and we shouldn't burn them, CNN is reporting things that happened 8 hours ago that they only finished stealing from people on the ground on BlueSky writing minutes ago

Senate Republican leadership is urging senators to double down on condemning the chaotic protests that erupted over the weekend in Los Angeles, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Republicans are convinced they have a winning issue. "This gives us an opportunity to remind Americans how extreme the Democratic party is on immigration," Sen. Tom Cotton's office wrote to communications staff on Monday.

"Americans have a choice between Republicans' law & order vs. the Democrats' car-burning, illegal alien rioters," the email, obtained by Axios, continues.

Republicans see a political opening: "So far, every Senate Democrat who has spoken out has backed the rioters..."

Zoom in: Republicans want to specifically target California Governor Gavin Newsom. The Cotton staffer encouraged Senate offices to paint Newsom as "the lead enabler of these riots."

"What kind of governor blames police officers and the National Guard for 'inciting' this violence," Cotton wrote on X.

Newsom is viewed as a likely formidable 2028 presidential candidate.

Republicans also see it as an opportunity to remind voters that a key part of their sweeping "one, big beautiful bill" involves providing significant resources to ICE.

Typically a state's governor has control over whether and when to call in the National Guard.
The protests began in response to ICE's aggressive arrest and deportation operations.

sadly, i think Republicans are right that many people would side with them on this. some would no matter the details, and more moderate folks will move their direction because it's happening in California and, to a lesser extent, Newsom.

well yeah look at how the media is covering this, they're swallowing the Trump admin's shit wholesale

i mean, that's the problem for the past 40 years that got us to this point, no?

Noted piece of shit Mark Green quitting the House, thinning Johnson's margin by one.

Meanwhile, the worst Kennedy just removed the entire CDC vaccine advisory committee.

The Supreme Court will rule that that clause was actually about pulling people apart with horses.

Looks like so far, still just staging

an estimated 700 U.S. Marines are being mobilized, moving from Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles, to Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, defense sources said.

The mobilization will put the troops closer to Los Angeles, where they could be deployed alongside National Guard troops to protect federal resources and personnel, two U.S. Department of Defense sources said.

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, with its main address in Oceanside, is about 90 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

U.S. Northern Command activated the U.S. Marine Corps infantry battalion that had been placed on alert over the weekend as a result of raucous protests against federal immigration enforcement in L.A.

The 700 Marines are with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, U.S. Northern Command said in a statement. The rapidly deployable battalion is commanded by Maj. Gen. Scott M. Sherman, U.S. Northern Command said.

It's been tasked to help the more than 2,000 National Guard troops available under an executive order from President Donald Trump to help law enforcement in Los Angeles. An estimated 300 to 500 National Guard troops are on the ground.

U.S. Marine Corps and National Guard personnel are not, under federal law, to execute arrests, but they can otherwise protect federal resources and help local law enforcement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhZF66C1Dc

the battle of Newport Beach

Operation Pup 'N' Taco

He could update the song for LA (Lehrer is still alive at 97).

I'm not convinced the WH will "win" this question in the long term.

Montana's Supreme Court knocked down three abortion restrictions in a 6-1 decision, reaffirming the state's unofficial motto of "Fuck you, mind your own goddamn business."

awesome

I'm not a lawyer or a right-wing Supreme Court justice, but the California lawsuit looks pretty strong to me.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/09/us/ecf-1-complaint-ng.html

Funny that the Republicans are saying what kind of governor blames the National Guard for inciting violence because the last time the Feds called in the guard without the state governor requesting it … it was mf Arkansas blaming the feds for not letting them be racist in peace.

And now the Guard's there to protect the people doing the racist brutality. It's really like they're doing a Bizarro planet reversal of everything about the civil rights movement.

Meanwhile, back at the leadership vacuum:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/08/martin-hogg-call-private-meeting-00393517

Those 2 Dems need to talk. Martin grumbling doesn't help.

Meanwhile thanks to right wing media too many people focusing though on the 5 Waymo self-driving cars getting graffitied and destroyed and on the rock throwers and the people waving flags from other countries, rather than on the reporters and protestors shot with rubber bullets

“Hogg, 25, did not respond to…”

i have no ideas re the players but rn i’m laughing til i fucking puke this is hilarious

How do you present any kind of confidence when everybody's heard you whining about some kid who spoiled your rollout.

Martin and Dem insiders who say they want to focus on criticizing Trump instead spending more time blaming Hogg and planning a vote to replace him

I know we can't expect much from the DNC under the best of circumstances, but they seem like a parody of themselves.

Meanwhile--

Kristi Noem on LA: "They're not a city of immigrants. They're a city of criminals."

“Noem also asked Hegseth for ‘drone surveillance support’ as well as weapons and logistics assistance in Los Angeles.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/us-world/article/noem-immigration-protests-letter-20369001.php

Noem's letter to Hegseth is unhinged--

“We need … support to our law enforcement officers and agents across Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Federal Protective Services (FPS),” Noem wrote, “as they defend against invasive, violent, insurrectionist mobs that seek to protect invaders and military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations, and who seek to prevent the deportation of criminal aliens.”

Once again, rooting for the stroke

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., called the protests in Los Angeles “anarchy and true chaos,” slamming his party for what he characterized as a refusal to condemn violent acts.

“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration — but this is not that,” Fetterman wrote on X.

“My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,” he added.

The protests have been largely peaceful, and there have not been widespread reports of damage.

They’re really into that “military aged males” thing

It's crazy. They're arresting construction workers at Home Depot and calling them "military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations"

It’s this generation’s ’reds under the bed’.

Hogg, 25, did not respond to…”

i have no ideas re the players but rn i’m laughing til i fucking puke this is hilarious

― Theodor W. Adorbso (Hunt3r), Monday, June 9, 2025 10:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Hogg survived the Stoneman shooting

yeah, what a knee-slapper this conversation!

It's crazy. They're arresting construction workers at Home Depot and calling them "military aged males belonging to identified foreign terrorist organizations"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmM8rE_LdFA

Meanwhile:

First bit of polling after Trump's escalation in Los Angeles, and it is very bad for him. Here are the last three YouGov polls of Trump's job approval:

45%-49% (-4) - June 2
45%-55% (-10) - June 6
40%-53% (-13) - June 10

And these losers:

https://i.imgur.com/L8bmVAM.png

fucking scumbags

lol Swalwell

Frederica Wilson was the shocker.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKfmpcxSC1b/

Hamilton Nolan with a good vent.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/youre-a-bunch-of-cowards

The Wall Street Journal reported on a meeting last month where Stephen Miller summoned ICE’s leadership to a meeting where he demanded that federal agents lower their standards and “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” outside of 7-11 or wherever. “‘Who here thinks they can do it?’ Miller said, asking for a show of hands.” The outcome of that demand can be seen in the ongoing terrorization of immigrants happening across the country.

Now, Stephen Miller is a little rat-faced Nazi bitch. Since his youth just about everyone around him has despised him because he has always been a miserable racist little shit whose evil heart is manifested in his detestable rodent-like visage. Knowing that, I like to imagine all those big, bad, ICE agents, manly men, so macho, shifting uncomfortably around a conference room table as they are harangued by that psychotic little bureaucrat, and then rushing out to kidnap working men from a Home Depot parking lot in order to demonstrate to their master, Stephen Bitch Ass Miller, how good they are at being America’s new gestapo.

“Oh, Mister Miller, sir! I put on 40 pounds of tactical gear and tackled a 55-year-old partially disabled day laborer! I prevented him from doing some drywall work and feeding his family, for you, sir! I yearn for your approval!”

Fucking clowns. Straight up clowns. All you guys lacked proper male role models or whatever. All you ICE agents wear shades and face masks because you huddle in deep fear of being seen. I’m quite sure you can hardly stand to look at yourselves in the mirror each morning before you set out to lick the feet of your racist paymasters. Change everything about your lives immediately or I promise that your self-loathing will consume you forever. Clowns.

“ Abolish ICE. If you feel the need to grab people and let out your rage, take up boxing or wrestling or sex parties or interpretive dance. Many options.”

Lol

The SOTH call for a state governor to be tarred and feathered

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lrb4pduxjj2p

I don't mind that talk tbh. I wish Pelosi would've said it about the GOP.

I don’t think she owns any tar or feather stocks

yeah we are long past the point re: worrying over these shitheads rhetoric

'Tarred and Feathered' is as based as Speaker Ned Flanders is going to get

Besides the GOP doesn't own feathers because they think they're gay

and tar is for roofers, and we know where THEY come from

https://bsky.app/profile/mistuhbull.bsky.social/post/3lrbbueqmqk2f

Trump claims he talked on phone to Newsom yesterday and told him to do a better job. Newsom says he never spoke with Trump yesterday and there was no voicemail left either.

The cost of deploying national guard and marines to LA, and the cost of the Trump birthday military army parade in dc seem likely to go up

well it's a good thing we are making cuts to the VA to make up for it!

during his first term, he sent the National Guard to the southern border and I think they mostly played football in the dust, and strung up some barbed wire

Hegseth says the troops will be in LA for two months; hopefully they can see Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Walk of Stars and the Hollywood Forever cemetery, so much to explore

Maybe they can catch the Jelly Roll and Post Malone concert

wtf two months? We're going to have Marines just camped out in L.A. for two months? Insane.

pretty cush deployment

Lots of restaurants around

yeah, that Downtown Market Hall place (by the Angel's Flight) is right there, something for everyone

WaPo headline: Trump warns that protesters at Army parade will be ‘met with very heavy force’

welp

aren't they gonna have soldiers in period war fighting costumes? So fucking camp, they might as well do a goose-steppin' chorus line

almost sounds like an invite to disrupt his little birthday party as much as possible

My thoughts on what’s going on in Los Angeles: pic.twitter.com/9G8SFHR7Xk

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) June 10, 2025

Bernie correctly sees this as an effort to consolidate authoritarian control

(Apologies to Angelenos, who could write a much funnier version of this)

Dear Stephanie,

My darling I ache when I think of the 142 miles, much of it along the I-10, that separate me from you and our housing there at Twentynine Palms. It feels much farther, especially during rush hour.

Things are deteriorating by the day. A girl with purple hair and a skateboard came right up to me, just a few feet away, and told me I was being a bully and a coward. I do not know how much longer our resolve can hold out. Especially because we were stationed next to a King Taco for like six hours, and people were going in and out while ICE was arresting the entire kitchen staff, and I just kept smelling the carnitas. So hungry!

I am looking forward to a little R&R this weekend. Rage Against the Machine is playing at a festival, Jon thinks he knows someone who can get us tickets. But even that won't be enough to make up for this time so far away from you.

Stay strong my love!

weird thing is I have a cousin named Stephanie who lives in Long Beach

she recently quit her job running the SpaceX Montessori school when Elon went full Nazi

:O

aren't they gonna have soldiers in period war fighting costumes? So fucking camp, they might as well do a goose-steppin' chorus line

Don't worry, Trump shoot some missiles into the clouds.

Jimmy Panetta signing onto that made me sad …

Thunderstorms are predicted in DC for the day and wit will be high 80s with humidity

Slippery Ramps?

On that Mark Green departure: sounds unsurprisingly sketchy.

https://www.notus.org/congress/super-cagey-rep-mark-green-mysterious-resignation

Jonestown 2 electric boogaloo

On Tuesday evening, the three Trump appointees on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an “administrative stay” blocking a Wednesday deadline the Justice Department faced to explain how it is going to provide constitutionally required due process to the people it unconstitutionally sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison in March with no such process-

From legal news reporter Chris Geidner’s Substack

Oh great another thing where there's an injunction to block the stay of implementing the delay of a deadline to impose a ban on prohibiting something, where there are so many layers you forget which outcome you're rooting for.

Mad at the NYT again today because the first story I saw about Newsom's speech on the site this morning was an analysis of its implications for the 2028 election and how he's positioning himself — I had to click around to find the actual story on the speech. Seems to me that "California governor warns of military assault on American democracy" ought to be enough news to carry the cycle for at least a day before jumping into early horse-race coverage.

I'm inching closer to starting a "have you quit the new york times yet?" thread

this kinda...flew under the radar, no?

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/authorities-search-for-more-victims-after-driver-hits-protesters-during-downtown-l-a-rampage/

Driver will be Trump's special guest at the next SOTU

Thank Christ he was in California and could be arrested I think Texas and Florida legalized vehicular homocide for libs.

The 700 Marines mobilized to the Los Angeles area on Monday night are still undergoing training as of Wednesday morning, and it is not yet clear when they will be employed onto the streets to help with protests, according to a US Northern Command spokesperson.

The spokesperson told CNN that as of this morning, the Marines “have NOT completed their [Standing Rules for the Use of Force] and nonlethal weapons training, and I do not have an estimate of when they will be employed by Task Force 51.”

Bondi/DOJ submit a court filing with a blank TOC/TOA

https://bsky.app/profile/chrisgeidner.bsky.social/post/3lrdywnlezs2c

ICE is preparing to deploy its Special Response Teams to five cities run by Democratic leaders, two sources familiar with the planning of the future operations told NBC News today.

The Special Response Teams (SRTs) are tactical units under ICE that use BearCat tracked vehicles, long guns and tactical vests in operations considered high risk. They were used in the raid on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ home, for example.

They were most recently used in Los Angeles and are seen as among the reasons protests began.

The sources said the SRTs have been ordered to deploy in Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, northern Virginia and New York.

It is not clear that the raids in those cities will begin immediately, but all SRT units in those areas have been told to be ready to deploy, the sources said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/ice-protests-la-trump-deportation-policy-live-updates-rcna211981

kinda feels like we are real, real close to being a military dictatorship here

x-post - Trump Justice Dept table of authorities filing in response to Newsom lawsuit is blank, but they made an argument In response to Newsom suit, Trump administration argues it has no obligation to consult with or get consent of Calif. governor before sending in National Guard or troops.

Trump's contention is that the Courts cannot tell him what to do in his role as Commander in Chief, so expect a lot of military activity (especially if other things get pushed back.)

f. hazel otm, this is getting very unsettling very fast.

It definitely is unsettling. But what's the end game or even the medium game here? Like, when we say "military dictatorship," what are they envisioning they can actually do? Thinking a year out, what's the regime they want to have in place in 12 months?

And I don't mean "They want total control over everything," I know that. I mean, what do they envision sustaining? Hegseth says troops in L.A. for 60 days. So, no troops in L.A. in 12 months? It feels to me like they're running pell-mell down a tunnel that they haven't actually built yet. Not that I'm optimistic, but I'm still very skeptical of their capacity.

Republican war on universities and research continues also-

The dozen board members of the prestigious Fulbright program that promotes international educational exchanges resigned on Wednesday because of what they said was political interference by the Trump administration in their operations, according to people familiar with the issues and a board memo obtained by The New York Times.

The members are concerned that political appointees at the State Department, which manages the program, are acting illegally by canceling the awarding of Fulbright scholarships to almost 200 American professors and researchers who are prepared to go to universities and other research institutions overseas starting this summer, said the people, including Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/us/politics/fulbright-board-resign-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OE8.J5_X.K4m92ebn5EDm&smid=url-share

xp

seems like they are buying time while congressional republicans are hashing out their big bill which will vastly expand ICE's powers

what's the regime they want to have in place in 12 months?

They're testing how compliant the military will be with operations inside our borders. If they end up willing to do what Trump tells them to do as Commander-in-Chief and the courts say he's free to do so then we are only a minute or two from midnight. Imagine if he orders the National Guard to open fire on protestors in LA, they do, and there aren't any real consequences - courts OK with it, media reports on it in the anodyne way they react to every other Trump outrage, military brass don't object? Don't think America can survive that.

Don't think America can survive that.

than perhaps maybe it shouldn't

I don't know. I think all of that only works in the context of a.) massive civic uprisings, where some percentage of the public really thinks there's chaos that needs to be reined in; and b.) immigration enforcement, where the feds have so much jurisdiction and their targets have so few legal protections. Neither one of those translates easily to "And now we have a military dictatorship running day to day life in America."

Obviously things are bad! But they're picking relatively soft targets, and I'm not sure how they intend to make the leap from soft targets to some kind of sustainable authoritarian rule. (One theory of course is that that's not really the plan — it's more to do massive short-term damage to everything that can be used to hamper or restrain the long-term desires of billionaires and corporations, on the assumption that even if/once Republicans are out of power it will be hard to repair.)

these raids on California farms & ag facilities have a two-fold intended impact: a) a bunch of deportations to meet the Miller 'quotas'; b) severe economic damage against California's ag sector, even though I've no doubt that many of these farmers are probably Trump voters

trump remains very unpopular: https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3924

Voters were asked whether their sympathies lie more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians based on what they know about the situation in the Middle East. Thirty-seven percent of voters say the Israelis, while 32 percent say the Palestinians, and 31 percent did not offer an opinion.

This is an all-time low for the Israelis and an all-time high for the Palestinians since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question of registered voters in December 2001.

these raids on California farms & ag facilities have a two-fold intended impact: a) a bunch of deportations to meet the Miller 'quotas'; b) severe economic damage against California's ag sector, even though I've no doubt that many of these farmers are probably Trump voters

Even so, you've already got Valadao, admittedly in a classic swing seat, already making noises about this not being the best approach. When you're already having to think about it a year and a half out...

_Don't think America can survive that._

than perhaps maybe it shouldn't

many lived here before it too

deep, bro

hey man it's not our fault that our immune systems were specialized for infectious diseases and theirs were specialized for parasites

(apologies for obscure "1491" reference/joke)

Many will live here after. This is not a place of honor. No noble deed was done here.

sorry, but I believe I Get Wet was made here.

Subhed on WaPo editorial about Harvard made me lol: Trump’s reckless attack on higher education shows why colleges have to regain public trust.

Yes when will Harvard finally get some respect

Was that from an op-ed or the actual editorial board?

Elites HATE Harvard cause they had a black woman president

I mean the NY Times made her mild plagiarism and insufficient fealty to Israel a crisis at the level of “baby in a well”

That was from the editorial board, or whatever remains of it. The overall thrust is, yes, Harvard should win its lawsuits against Trump, but academia has done this to itself with all of its ideological rigidity and blah blah blah. Hence the subhed.

So-called moderates as usual laundering bullshit right-wing media talking points.

Meanwhile at Politico website-

President Trump is leveraging his role as commander-in-chief in a much clearer and more urgent way than during his first term — whether that's showing off the military in a parade or using it to quell protests.

From Los Angeles to Washington,Trump leans in as Commander in Chief

Sheryl Sandberg, so much to answer for.

He should lean into one of Air Force One's engines.

i really, really hope the parade is a shambles

I would love to see a few tanks fall into the potomac

Going to be pretty rainy along most the eastern seaboard I think

Some tanks passed through my neighborhood today

He should lean into one of Air Force One's engines.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Wednesday, June 11, 2025 6:37 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

real lol

75% chance of thunderstorms!

He should lean into one of Air Force One's engines.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Wednesday, June 11, 2025 6:37 PM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

real lol

who's gonna be in the crowd for this parade? I mean, DC is not exactly trump country
Will it be aging republicans from suburban virginia?

Turnout is very much an open question, because apparently they've been as haphazard about verification of reservations as they've been about... everything else they do. Apparently a lot of people have been reserving spots they have no intention of claiming.

yeah, in North Korea attendance is mandatory

I ('Stanley Robinson') just confirmed my reservations for myself and my doting wife Carol... (you can put in all bullshit info, they don't send an email or anything)

https://events.america250.org/events/250th-anniversary-of-the-us-army-grand-military-parade-and-celebration

hopefully all the ILXors can be seated together

75% chance of thunderstorms!

Okay can we get the Jews who control the weather to up that to 100%?

Also somebody tell Trump that he's not allowed to hold a tall metal stick up into the air, like with the eclipse

Oh and: ugh, I was in a bar where a tv was playing the congressional baseball game. Democrats getting absolutely creamed by Republicans wearing maga hats and fist-pumping like they're roided-out gladiators.

That we still cling to traditions like this - comity, "setting our differences aside, for charity" - bugs me, frankly. There was a world in which that made a type of sense but we left it in about 1994.

Many of the CA farmers who rely on immigrant labor are Republicans… probably voted for Trump. … Having worked for several and having seen the charitable contributions of others when I worked for a CPA firm where I grew up.

I signed up for the military parade with gay sex chat lines

see you there

genuinely curious how many folks are actually gonna show for this, I can see this resulting in some downright embarrassing visuals

Seeing some "Coupon the movie" scenarios unfolding

gift link, just one of many stories obviously. But each one is still shocking. Imagine being this pastor and having this happen right in front of you, in your church parking lot. This total eruption of violence and violation of all norms, the gratuitous cruelty of it, it's terrifying for everyone around. Which I'm sure is the point.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/us/la-protests-ice-raids-church-arrest.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OU8.v8Ut.dSzLyWs8kqm5&smid=url-share&fbclid=IwY2xjawK3O4dleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFINVYxckdMcEU5YW9URTVBAR6HAGhNH1AfWVBBXQgXL1NJg6-Jl3CLFi_6GB3Lw7W1eH5aWdzwiAxEi5BqJw_aem_Aqq5gUe_Bcp9f7eKsFahHA

Satanic is what it is

Meanwhile twitter is full of stories from Republicans ranting about looters and blaming daytime protestors for overnight looters in different areas. There were some Monday night which is why the LA Mayor put in a curfew, and apparently it was much quieter tonight. Republicans are determined to frame this just like they did BLM protests in 2020.

https://abc7.com/post/stores-looted-amid-continued-unrest-downtown-los-angeles/16713513/

Still didn’t help them in the election.

protestors should do whatever they want. the right is so divorced from reality that they make up the same stories no matter what happens.

yeah I agree with the idea that if the government is going to act in such an irresponsible and lawless way then the protestors actually don't have any obligation to "be respectful" or even peaceful. they are abducting kids and deporting people with no criminal record without any due process whatsoever. why are we the ones who suddenly have to care what "the law" says??

Law binds us but doesn’t protect

protestors should do whatever they want. the right is so divorced from reality that they make up the same stories no matter what happens.

this

good morning!

Democrats will continue to lose until they figure out there are no rules anymore.

The Rev. Al Lopez, an administrative pastor at the church, said that he tried to question the men in the parking lot, and told one of them that church leaders did not want them on church property.

“This will stand in my mind,” Mr. Lopez said. “This gentleman just shouted, ‘The whole country is our property.’”

Ahhh there it is.

saying the quiet part out loud

Lol at Santa Monica resembling a “failed third world country”

I wonder how expensive it's going to be to have troops occupying every blue city in America

More infuriating shit from Democratic insiders: https://www.notus.org/democrats/gavin-newsom-democrats-2028-la-protests

The strategist praised Newsom’s response but warned the party is fighting over political turf that might intrinsically favor the president. A CBS News poll released this week found that most Americans supported Trump’s deportation plan, and the president has generally received the highest marks of his presidency when voters are asked about his immigration policy.

“I also think we have to come to terms with the fact that immigration enforcement is largely popular, and we can’t simply oppose the idea of it because Trump does it in a way we don’t like,” they said.

If you can't make families and communities being torn apart and terrorized by armed masked thugs sympathetic in a way that resonates, you're a terrible fucking politician.

yes Donald Trump is pissing in our mouths, but we cannot ignore the fact that human beings do get thirsty sometimes

Immigration enforcement is popular when it’s at the border or otherwise easily ignored. Fed cops who think they’re Delta Force acting in every urban area is pretty hard for normies to ignore.

Dems don't seem to realize that the average voter is in fact very uneducated when it comes to issues like this and maybe has never really thought them through in a critical fashion, a good chunk of them seem to think the border actually is wide open thanks to FOX News and idiots like Jake Tapper. I grill conservatives on this all the time. I always ask them "who?" - okay, you want deportations, who should be deported? Give names! If you don't know their names, tell me where they work! And they never answer, insisting that we need to get rid of the criminals and 'bad people', as though we don't spend billions a year doing just that

maybe the dems could try pointing out that there is currently no "legal immigration" in the US given ICE showing up at hearings & courts. like the most dully centrist position on immigration -- "you have to follow the rules" -- is now radical in the current context

Anyone remember this essay?

https://reason.com/2019/12/18/there-is-no-line/

The House and Trump trying to cause more damage on various issues , and some Dem members will still attend bipartisan Congressional picnic

The House is set to vote Thursday on a package of funding cuts inspired by the U.S. DOGE Service that until recently was overseen by Elon Musk. The clawbacks, totaling $9.4 billion, take aim at foreign aid and funding for PBS and NPR, among other things. It could be the first in a series of similar rescission packages. At the White House, President Donald Trump signed a measure Thursday that blocks California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. He is also scheduled to sign executive orders and host a congressional picnic

Dems don't seem to realize that the average voter is in fact very uneducated when it comes to issues like this and maybe has never really thought them through in a critical fashion

this is also why the "let Republicans hang themselves" strategy that some people have advocated for is so stupid. people don't perceive events on their own and come to independent, rational, and unshakable conclusions. their beliefs are shaped by the narratives they hear from politicians, the media, and their own social groups.

Anyone remember this essay?

https://reason.com/2019/12/18/there-is-no-line/

― zydecodependent (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, June 12, 2025 1:11 PM (eighteen minutes ago)

hadn't seen that before. the default libertarianism is irritating, but he does a good job laying out how things actually work

I wonder if they're looking to wriggle out of this, in the guise of 'public safety'

Donald Trump’s plans to hold a military parade in Washington DC coinciding with his 79th birthday this Saturday have been put in doubt by a thunderstorm warning, according to the Times.

Steve Warren, chief spokesman of the US army, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary, told The Times:

'Rain won’t stop us, the tanks don’t melt, but if there’s lightning then that puts the crowd at risk … they will disperse the crowd and even cancel or postpone the parade. It will depend on the president, too, when he’s available.'

"when he's available" is weird there. are they saying he may or may not show up to his special big boy birthday parade?

that is weird... maybe he double-booked with a McDonalds party

the real parade was the happy meals he ate along the way

(or maybe he's deathly ill? fingers crossed)

manhandling and detaining a US Senator, but sure, it could never happen here...

https://bsky.app/profile/phillewis.bsky.social/post/3lrgjf6nuek2m

"I might make an appearance but lotta stuff going on that day, expect me there between Thursday and 11 pm"

"when he's available" is weird there. are they saying he may or may not show up to his special big boy birthday parade?

the Padilla thing happened right after Noem said at a press conference: "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city [LA] from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city."

more of this please

Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) on Thursday lambasted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling him an “embarrassment” and demanding he resign...
...

“You know what? I’m not going to waste my time anymore,” he said. “You’re not worthy of my attention or my questions. You’re an embarrassment to this country, you’re unfit to lead, and there’s been bipartisan members of Congress that have called for your resignation.”

“You should just get the hell out and let somebody competently lead this department,” he added.

so we're arresting members of Congress for asking questions at a press conference now? we are 6 months in

very much expect Noem's comments to be quoted in the hearing w/ Breyer Brother's hearing re: California this afternoon

xpost he's not in custody and wasn't arrested according to his office, but he was briefly handcuffed at one point, which is not too much less fucked up

xp

yeah, hardly sounds like they are there to protect ICE or whatever tf the previous rationale was

i was wondering what charges they were going to try and make up xp

unbelievably fucked up

who did this btw? like "ice agents" or whatever?

who even knows what agency any of these goons are supposed to be with

Noem is already teeing this up as a "he was being disruptive and I had no idea who he was" angle, not surprisingly

You know what would solve this is if the Democrats talked about abundance some more.

not giving anyone any ideas but I can't imagine it would be too difficult to wear some of these costumes and infiltrate them during this shit.

https://bsky.app/profile/jacobsoboroff.bsky.social/post/3lrgkxcjdwk2x

video of the handcuffing and an invocation of "FBI rights"

well if she didn't know who Alex Padilla is, she sure does now

In the video I saw, Padilla announced who he was as he was being manhandled away by two men in FBI back patches. We're in a bad place. I don't see how this could be spun as a mistaken identity.

Yeah FBI. That's unbelievably dark and worrying.

lol. really dying to hear his description of the discussion

“We had a great conversation. Sat down, talked for 10, 15 minutes about operations in LA, some activities of the Department of Homeland Security, and so I thought it was very productive,” Noem told reporters after the news conference.

“I wish that he would have reached out and identified himself and let us know who he was and that he wanted to talk,” Noem added. “His approach was something that I don’t think was appropriate.”

Asked why the response was to forcibly remove Padilla, Noem deferred questions to law enforcement, adding, “but I will say that it’s — people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people during press conferences.”

In the video I saw, Padilla announced who he was as he was being manhandled away by two men in FBI back patches. We're in a bad place. I don't see how this could be spun as a mistaken identity.

― BlackIronPrison, Thursday, June 12, 2025 3:16 PM bookmarkflaglink

she obviously knew who he was, it's just the excuse she's using and has been planning to use in the half hour since it happened

^Padilla is the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, which has oversight of the Dept of Homeland Security

did Noem announce they planned to use the Feds to 'liberate' LA from it's democratically elected leaders? am I understanding that correctly?

It's basically a win-win.

Padilla gets to say, "Look at this fascist."
And Noem gets to say, "Look at me being a fascist."

she also said they would liberate LA from the socialists

the Padilla thing happened right after Noem said at a press conference: "We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate the city [LA] from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city."

― rob, Thursday, June 12, 2025 2:53 PM (thirty-three minutes ago)

just trying to wrap my head around it. like this isn't them saying "Newsom and Bass need to cooperate with us more" with a wink-wink nudge-nudge, they're straight up saying they want them removed

a lot of people are going to love the noem/padilla things. she's doing it for the 55% of people on the "support" and "unsure" sides here:

https://i.imgur.com/OzaXNkQ.png

xxp kinda sounds like a California coup they're planning

Shit is spiraling out of control so fast this week. Please let me be proven wrong, but I fear this weekend is going to be a tinderbox.

my read of things is, Noem had to know who he was, the goons who arrested Padilla probably didn't know who he was when they moved toward him (Noem otoh did), but they did by the time they were cuffing him, and they opted to just finish cuffing and hauling him out because they figured they could pivot and argue he was being disruptive or made Noem feel 'threatened' like they always do. cos 'authoritah'

but Noem is trying to get this out of the news cycle desperately now but it's going to be *the* news story for at least another few days, and she can't control the narrative this time because itw as a sitting Senator and not a civilian she could silence easily, and activists are already using it as a rallying point..

just today trumps was talking about how farm workers and hotel staff should probably be given a break, I guess he's getting some pushback from, well, big Ag and Big Leisure

Not that I have any faith in any media at all, but in a better world that footage would lead every news program across the country for days and be the photo on the front page of every newspaper.

Instead it'll get buried 12 pages deep and the NY Times will publish an op-ed about Dem's lack of decorum.

the family that produces Cuties citrus are big Trump supporters, they're probably terrified of being forced to pay a living wage

I mean the whole thing is just insane. going after LA in particular. this isn't like Portland or Atlanta, a metro area that your average American maybe doesn't know that much about but finds too woke or too scary to actually visit. LA is one of the biggest and most well-known cities on the planet, it's a place a large chunk of Americans have actually visited, it's the epicenter of the entire entertainment business, they contribute way way way more in taxes than they're given, idk just feels like a really bad city to pick a fight with

She said that his approach without “identifying himself” was inappropriate. “I will say that people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people,” she said.

O rly people need to identify themselves before they start lunging at people? Huh.

*people of color

xxpost NYT and Washington Post have the Padilla story just below the airplane crash in India.

44% on the oppose side is actually really bad numbers for Trump. yeah, it looks bad that 41% of the people support it, and 15% dngaf, but a plurality of your populace actually saying "this is too far" for something (immigration and the nature of protests) that tends to get wishy washy opinions even among the D-affiliated is a sign that there is pushback...especially because these numbers are not likely to improve for Trump's admin the longer this goes on.

especially because the actual support FOR the protests themselves is much lower in the same survey, so it means there are more people that think the use of National Guard/Marines is fucked up than people than actually believe the protests are worthwhile...ie even the ones who aren't strongly supportive of teh protests are recognizing this isn't normal.

I have no faith in the Dems to actually do so but this seems like a pretty clear line in the sand, they need to be making moves to arrest the agents who assaulted a sitting senator with no legal pretext and at least lay the groundwork for what might happen if you obey clearly illegal orders

Nah, that would take time out of their busy schedule of chasing young progressives out of the party.

whether or not Ds do anything, this is for sure going to increase the # of people in the streets of LA fairly dramatically for the rest of this week. and for as good as the turnout has been thus far, that's LA being restrained.

Leaving aside the political optics of it, if you don't oppose what ICE is doing on basic grounds of principle, what the hell are you even doing in office? But also, as discussed above, there are very good and politically advantageous ways to fight back against all of this. Unfortunately they require having a really strong and pointed counterattack and narrative out there, and hammer on it every day over and over.

A tense moment erupted at a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday afternoon when Rep. Maxwell Frost called upon the panel to subpoena Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The Florida Democrat’s request came shortly after California Sen. Alex Padilla was handcuffed by officers at a Homeland Security press conference in Los Angeles as Noem was touting the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. The aggressive action against Padilla, a sitting elected official, is rapidly unnerving congressional Democrats.

During an unrelated hearing featuring three Democratic governors testifying on their states’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Frost interjected to call on House Oversight Committee chair James Comer to subpoena Noem over the incident.

Comer interrupted Frost in an effort to shut down his request, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shouted, “Oh, Democrats can’t follow the rules, can’t follow the law.” Comer yelled at Frost to “shut up.”

needs to be more concentrated in the Senate rather than the House, though and actually coordinated as a repeat point of discussion in the press and in the chambers.

I do not believe for a moment they actually believed this, but I knew this would nonetheless be their defense

In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security said Secret Service members thought Sen. Alex Padilla "was an attacker" when he interrupted a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

"Senator Padilla chose disrespectful political theatre and interrupted a live press conference without identifying himself or having his Senate security pin on as he lunged toward Secretary Noem," DHS said. "Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands. @SecretService thought he was an attacker and officers acted appropriately.

"Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting."

Details about the meeting were not immediately available.

Fuck Katy Tur, while we're at it. Even though there is at least two videos I've seen where Padilla clearly introduces himself, Tur was just reporting on MSNBC that he did not identify himself. Just lies everywhere.

gonna re-state the obvious: this is racist

Minor side note to this fascistic shitshow, but apparently the White House is grumbling about canceling the parade due to the weather. But probably because they can't find enough seat fillers.

two Palestinian activists, invited by Jewish groups, had their visas revoked AFTER arriving in the Bay Area:

U.S. Authorities Detain Two Palestinians Invited to Speak With Jewish Groups in California

Two activists from the West Bank's Masafer Yatta, whose visas were sponsored by a synagogue near San Francisco, are detained without being allowed to communicate, an organizer says. 'Their visas were very valid – they will be deported today back to Qatar'

Minor side note to this fascistic shitshow, but apparently the White House is grumbling about canceling the parade due to the weather. But probably because they can't find enough seat fillers.

managed to get onto the Zoom for the California lawsuit hearing w/ Breyer Brother

Xp - there was a call to demo at the airport

Look I registered some people !

a buddy RSVP'd for both Henry Rollins AND Dez Cadena

DOJ Solicitor Shumate states even if Trump violated the statute regarding coordinating with Newsom, he still possibly had authority to Federalize National Guard.

He is evasive and ill-prepared and Judge Breyer is sounding annoyed. This is just the first inquiry lol

DOJ believes it is not subject to judicial review. Shocker. Always their argument.

I mean the whole executive privilege argument feels especially tendentious when it comes to the military, given that Congress has the sole power to declare war. Often trampled on as we know, but if you're going by the Constitution there's not a lot of room to claim unilateral control over armed forces.

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe (R) activated his state’s National Guard on Thursday in what he called a “precautionary” measure, joining Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) as the second leader to deploy National Guard members in anticipation of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement measures.

Judge Breyer is asking how it could be interpreted that the order went through Newsom if it wasn't sent to him but the adjutant general.

DOJ is arguing this counts. Breyer seems unconvinced, says the wording doesn't seem to support that

DOJ says Governor is merely a "conduit".

Breyer is very much picking apart his argument. He's suggesting that DOJ is arguing that Trump had the power of the Commander in Chief of the National Guard prior to taking the steps to federalize the National Guard.

Also pointing out the DOJ seems to be suggesting this requirement of going through the Governor amounts to little more than a proclamation

DOJ trying to say that criterion 1 of the statute authorizing the President to federalize the National Guard is not eligible for judicial review, which implies criteria 2 and 3 also aren't.

Judge Breyer states Trump didn't use criteria 1 as the basis of his response, but also that he's not sure he agrees, citing threats from overseas vs onshore often are treated differently in terms of legal deference to the President.

DOJ floundering as usual

Justice Breyer clearly agrees with Cal AG over DOJ. now...whether that means he feels he can take any action, i have no idea

Cal AG states DOJ is saying Trump can take control of National Guard by fiat.

Justice Breyer compares DOJ's arguments for the legality of the order to actions taken by a monarchy

First matter of conflict between California and Justice Breyer is that he believed California was asking him to issue a judgment based on the suspicion of the National Guard or Marines violating the Posse Comitatus Act. Which Breyer says he doesn't feel is his business since it's pre-emptive.

California AG clarifies they're looking for narrower relief than that. Breyer states he's finding his main function is to determine the legality of the deployment.

DOJ states the relief California wants is excessive for what they believe is a footfault, a procedural area that they should be allowed to cure.

Breyer states "well it's more that the action wasn't authorized"

Ruling likely coming tonight.

It’s all so fucking gross

CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS Plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary
restraining order.
• Defendants are temporarily ENJOINED from deploying members of the
California National Guard in Los Angeles.
• Defendants are DIRECTED to return control of the California National Guard to
Governor Newsom.
• The Court further STAYS this order until noon on June 13, 2025.
• Plaintiffs are ORDERED to post a nominal bond of $100 within 24 hours. The
bond shall be filed in the Clerk’s Office and be deposited into the registry of the
Court. If said bond is not posted by the aforementioned date and time, this Order shall be dissolved.
• Defendants are further ORDERED TO SHOW CAUSE why a preliminary
injunction should not issue. A hearing on this order to show cause will be held
on June 20, 2025 at 10 a.m. Plaintiffs’ moving papers shall be filed no later
than June 16, 2025; Defendants’ opposition shall be due no later than June 18,
2025, and Plaintiffs’ reply shall be due on June 19, 2025.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated: June 12, 2025

so...?
Nothing happens until tomorrow? I can't follow all this

I'm sure they run to SCOTUS, right? And SCOTUS stays the injunction and schedules a hearing for sometime or other, who knows, don't need to be in a hurry.

yeah, probably likely

and because it's Justice Stephen Breyer's brother, the asshole majority will really let it dangle

Because this TRO is very short and only lasts until 6/20 until the next hearing, the experts i talked to on BlueSky don't anticipate 9th circuit or SCOTUS issuing an administrative stay .

Basically if there is no admin stay, this goes into effect noon tomorrow. National Guard might have to decide whose orders to obey. Fun

so regardless of whatever happens tomorrow (likely hours of media breathlessness followed by trump doing some cowardly back down that maga spins as a sign of benevolent power), this appeal eventually reaches SCOTUS and inevitably they make some absurd ruling that does a fun house mirror version of saving face that they are not rubber stamping our descent into autocracy, while functionally rubber stamping our descent into autocracy, right? esp with the repub governors already falling over themselves to eliminate these roadblocks in their own states, i don't see how this doesn't end with trump using troops to execute whatever domestic agenda he wants. untold horrors of violating the rights of immigrants and other groups, sure, but then it's hard not to see armed maga warriors outside every polling place on election day...

Dems gotta move quick to arrest somebody, hopefully somebody who tackled a US Senator, needs to be real fuckin clear to the military right now that illegal orders are still illegal

Will probably come down to how many Dems value the Constitution above the sacred spirit of congeniality in Congress.

Oh well, guess the TRO won't actually happen

https://bsky.app/profile/annabower.bsky.social/post/3lrhii7cbts2v

2 of 3 judges on that 9th circuit panel are Trump appointed, and the panel is holding a hearing June 17th .

Anything can happen!

If hired goons with clubs are the order of the day at protests, maybe it’s time for American protestors to bring back Book Bloc:

https://www.brh.org.uk/site/2020/10/book-bloc/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwK4keJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHm9-H0hm8KzI7oQhtqDOIsmXPtAIwC_CRkBPTY3YECU54xfQF5d6kkQofsV-_aem_802l2knM3Om4OJL3BIi7qA

Book Bloc sounds like a Dem idea

We share links to things so people can read that Book Bloc began with two groups far to the left of today’s Dems: antifascist British and Italian students. My feeling is that if you can’t use violence against cops, you can always make them look stupid.

People are hurting and scared right now. Don’t distinguish yourself by being THAT stupid about protest.

Sorry, it was a dashed off attempt at a joke 'cos I thought Book Bloc was a typo for Black Bloc....

...ok, actually clicked through to the link, thanks for posting that, I hadn't heard of it before...

Nothing like waking up to the cusp of World War III and Civil War.

Hey, it's Friday the 13th, what more do you want?

Fair point.

A guy with a hockey mask to jump out of a lake and kill everyone?

T'would be preferable to this.... *gestures wildly at pretty much everything*

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration this week provided deportation officials with personal data -- including the immigration status -- on millions of Medicaid enrollees, a move that could make it easier to locate people as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.

An internal memo and emails obtained by The Associated Press show that Medicaid officials unsuccessfully sought to block the data transfer, citing legal and ethical concerns.

Nevertheless, two top advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the dataset handed over to the Department of Homeland Security, the emails show. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services were given just 54 minutes on Tuesday to comply with the directive.

Fucking disgusting.

NY Times Pitchbot

Follow
My 3 year-old was reading the Times when he turned to me, gravely, and asked: "Daddy, why did the senator ask mean questions to the nice plastic surgery lady?" And when I told him "because that lady pledged to liberate LA from socialists," he started crying.

How could a 3 year old who knows how to read believe the plastic surgery lady was nice?

I read a nextdoor post about a woman taking a lyft or uber and they entered some kind of DUI checkpoint on a Tuesday night.. they explained that they were stopping only every fifth car, but they weren't the fifth car - and the driver was latino. He showed his license, they were fine and left the checkpoint quickly.. but we don't really have DUI checkpoints in Oakland, not that I'm aware of

Be careful out there folks

i genuinely do not understand what these jokers are doing. there's no win condition! _they control the game_. they make the rules. they could win! very easily! if they had a win condition. but there isn't one. i know my win condition. they give up and walk away. they don't even have to _lose_. they can declare victory and retreat. how many fucking times has the president done that? it's simplicity itself. isn't that what "taco" or whatever means?

not only that, i don't really have a lose condition here. even if i'm the poor bastard who winds up dying for what she believes in. this whole "it takes two people to make a fight" thing - it's obviously not true. they stop fighting, and there is no fight. this is a nuisance to me. i guess i'll show up for this shit, even though i have social anxiety and i don't like being around large groups of people. that's what i'm afraid of. not getting tear-gassed or whatever. i'll show up and hang out around a bunch of people i don't know and don't necessarily have anything in common with and feel awkward. being teargassed would at least give us something in common. a social lubricant or whatever. should i drink before showing up there? for my social anxiety?

what was Hitler's win condition? he shot himself in the head in a bunker in Berlin with his country lying in rubble and untold millions of lives lost, so I guess we'll never know

i drink before showing up there?

Not before, DURING.. I'll be lugging a backpack full of beers

whoa, check out the massive Trump banner in the background of the photo... is that some Big Brother shit or what?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jun/13/donald-trump-national-guard-los-angeles-ice-protests-military-parade-us-politics-live-news-updates

what was Hitler's win condition? he shot himself in the head in a bunker in Berlin with his country lying in rubble and untold millions of lives lost, so I guess we'll never know

― whimsical skeedaddler (Moodles)

lol you brought up the "h word"

that's the thing, obviously i have severe moral and ethical objections to fascism, but i honestly think my bigger objection to fascism is that it doesn't _work_. is anybody in the administration even aware of the basic macroeconomic "guns vs. dairy products" dialectic? it doesn't seem so. in fact, they seem to genuinely believe that what they're doing will somehow magically lower the price of eggs. it just doesn't work like that! looking at history, the only thing fascism "produces" is corpses.

i know if they get to ramping up direct large-scale corpse production, i got a pretty high likelihood of being one of those corpses. weirdly, this doesn't bother me that much. i mean, my personal preference would be to not be killed. i'm doing what i can to not just stay alive, but to build a life worth living. a lot of things are just out of my hands at this point, is all.

so i'm not saying what's going on here is _farce_, exactly. there's certainly a lot of tragedy involved. it's a personal tragedy for me, no question. if i survive this shit, i'll have to deal with that tragedy, and it'll be hard. right now, though, all i can think about is how fucking stupid the administration is. it's fascinating. if i'm frustrated at all it's with people who somehow think there's any benefit to cooperating with - appeasing - the administration. i mean even gavin fuckin' newsom knows better than to play along with this. the military and the national guard... i don't blame them. yet. at some point they'll probably be ordered to fire upon peaceful protesters. i hope that they choose insubordination at that point. that's the thing i'm most curious about. to see what happens then.

in the meantime, if we're doing trump-as-hitler, he's the version of hitler that got publicly called a pedophile or something by goebbels last week. and i guess he's doing a nurnberg rally tomorrow? when the fuck did he decide to do this, anyway? last week? i mean, again, i'm taking him seriously, because people didn't take hitler seriously. they thought he was a joke. i take the president very seriously. he very clearly would like me to not exist and is very clearly taking steps towards that and. and he's still a fucking joke. who the fuck thought this guy up, dan aykroyd?

The birthday military parade had been planned for months, unfortunately. I hope it gets cancelled due to thunderstorms, which unfortunately look less likely on Saturday than they did a few weeks ago.

xp

that's my point though, there isn't a goal or a rationale or optimal way for any of this to work. it's just pure stupid nihilism and barbarism that won't find an endpoint until it burns itself out while taking everyone else out with it.

A federal judge ruled this week that the government cannot hold the Columbia University graduate Khalil under the rarely invoked law it used to detain him.

But ICE announced today it has no immediate plans to release him

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/nyregion/mahmoud-khalil-trump-detention.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ok8.Og9W.1YDlfKyMIohX&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

The birthday military parade had been planned for months, unfortunately. I hope it gets cancelled due to thunderstorms, which unfortunately look less likely on Saturday than they did a few weeks ago.

― The "W" and Odie Trail (Boring, Maryland), Friday, June 13, 2025 2:02 PM bookmarkflaglink

yeah the Executive Order banning inclement weather on 6/14 seems to have done its job

xxpost Whenever they get a win they push the goalposts further right. I can't see them being satisfied until all New Deal and Great Society programs are gone, everyone is Christian or too scared to state otherwise, there's a clear racial hierarchy, no immigrants are admitted, America completely dominates the globe, all of Israel's enemies are killed, all 'terrorists' are killed, etc.

xpost as written, the judge's order, unfortunately, did not require Khalil to be released, just stated that the specific law couldn't be used as the rationale to detain him, so they are using 'other' rationale, to be cutesy about it. Khalil's lawyers are now trying to get the judge to explicitly order that he be released - DOJ has responded to the judge's deadline to respond, so now ball's in his court.

i'm not optimistic that Khalil is going to be released today or this weekend because of how long this judge typically takes and likelihood of allowing for a stay pending appeal.

xxpost Whenever they get a win they push the goalposts further right. I can't see them being satisfied until all New Deal and Great Society programs are gone, everyone is Christian or too scared to state otherwise, there's a clear racial hierarchy, no immigrants are admitted, America completely dominates the globe, all of Israel's enemies are killed, all 'terrorists' are killed, etc.

there is no end point that doesn't involve them being stopped, whether by elections or force or some other catastrophe

implied by etc.

I can't see them being satisfied until all New Deal and Great Society programs are gone, everyone is Christian or too scared to state otherwise, there's a clear racial hierarchy, no immigrants are admitted, America completely dominates the globe, all of Israel's enemies are killed, all 'terrorists' are killed, etc.

Well this is the thing with the contemporary post-Cold War American right. With the commies removed as the Big Bad just as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News were getting cranked up, we've had three decades of marinating hatred on the right that has been consumed with identifying and attacking domestic enemies. We — people on the left, broadly, and of course specifically women and racial and sexual minorities — are their only real motivating cause. Hating us is the reason they get out of bed in the morning. It's why it makes perfect sense to them to deploy the military against us, we are the only actual enemies they care about.

They did get distracted for a bit by hating Muslim after 9/11, but that has subsided significantly. These days they get more worked up over librarians and drag queens.

yeah, it's a movement of resentment rather than a political ideology. They can't wait to shoot protestors and throw students out of helicopters.

I realize it has fallen out of favor, but we do have a doomposting thread y'know

This is more "Know Your Enemy" than Doomposting

https://resizing.flixster.com/GzWniZz9AB3yp9wcHyPpIpu8kxg=/206x305/v2/https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/p45056_v_v10_aa.jpg

They did get distracted for a bit by hating Muslim after 9/11, but that has subsided significantly

IDK, they're definitely going back to this, especially with the student abductions and travel ban etc.

I can't see them being satisfied until all New Deal and Great Society programs are gone, everyone is Christian or too scared to state otherwise, there's a clear racial hierarchy, no immigrants are admitted, America completely dominates the globe, all of Israel's enemies are killed, all 'terrorists' are killed, etc.

The thing is, you can have the one in bold, or you can have all the others, but you can't have both. Going for all the others will turn the country into a worthless backwater with radically diminished foreign investment. But try telling your average right-wing knuckle-walker that (and the current president is actually a well below average right-wing knuckle-walker, of course).

yeah it was shit like US AID that had us dominating the globe

otm

likewise, the tariffs and many other things are taking us in the opposite direction. Trump seems to be more about isolationism than global dominance, although he loves threatening our neighbors and closest allies.

and the chinese are already there to fill the need where we're abandoning people.. foreign universities happy to take the advanced students that we're not letting in

and the chinese are already there to fill the need where we're abandoning people.. foreign universities happy to take the advanced students that we're not letting in

People really need to look into what Chinese money is accomplishing/buying them in Africa.

Guess who shares a birthday with Trump?

Ernesto "Che" Guevara! So we radical leftist monsters have something to celebrate as well, that'll put a spring in my step during the march

This is more "Know Your Enemy" than Doomposting

Exactly, nothing I've been posting here or elsewhere is meant to be taken to mean "this is inevitable and can't be stopped" but rather "this is where they will take things if they are not opposed".

that was more to PK than u, not fingerwagging I swear

trump's popularity is also low and sinking by the day, and I don't really see where/how he can turn things around... there might be some bread & circus thing like a 'DOGE tax refund' or something, but that will only register a minor blip

my take is that these fuckers have overreached in a major way, we'll see

well having Stephen Miller as a senior advisor..? that guy's to the right of Pinochet

while specifying this is not related to anybody ITT (and more 'people on Bluesky/friends), my personal distinction between 'reality-posting' and 'doom-posting' is:

Reality-posting

-Is not sugar-coated, does not dabble in false hope
-Is honest and raw, can be grim but is not inherently so
-Is fluid and fluctuates based on the reality on the ground
-Is focused on the here and now, does not try to forecast the future, but shares possibilities as a warning
-Uses a foundation of both facts and emotional appeals
-Acknowledges victories and mourns losses
-Tries to see a path forward and do so collaboratively, even if a narrow one

Doomposting

-Is not sugar-coated, but conflates legitimate hope with "false hope"
-Is inherently grim, hence the name - starts from place of honesty, but moves into hyperbole
-Is static, with proponents often repeating the same ideas no matter what's happening on the ground - often "broken record"
-Extensively focuses on predicting the future with certainty, often presenting it as a foregone conclusion
-Leans heavily towards emotional appeals and not very much to facts - proponents often get details wrong and do not like being corrected
-Mourns losses, minimizes victories or suggests they don't matter
-Reflexively shoots down every suggested path forward, speak as if they are the only ones who see reality for what it is

solid breakdown imho

I mostly objected to the helicopter reference, I don't doubt that these clowns would want that but I frankly doubt they are competent enough to achieve that level of repression

fwiw I don’t think PK is doomposting when he says that some number of these assholes would absolutely love to shoot protesters and throw libs out of helicopters. It becomes doomposting if you say that’s inevitable.

sure, just reminding folks that there's a thread

Why post doom when you can just live I.

…live in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0TOdvalcQ

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrmemes/s/Q6Z0ywPO93

The problem with the Trump admin is hubris. They see what's happening in LA now and think "Well, this is probably as big as it's gonna get, and we contained it."

The demonstrations in California, even with as many people that have showed up already, has significant growth potential still. Activists however are having to be careful to balance showing unyielding resistance while not triggering a series of events that might bring more harm to the people they're protesting for.

But things escalate on the government's side in terms of violence to an unknowable level, that's...gonna change things rather quickly and in a populous state like CA, that won't go well for the gov

(It won't go well for US, either, to be clear, in that many innocent people would die in that scenario. But people who aren't MAGA but are either apolitical, soft-R, independent, centrist, etc, would have a visceral reaction to seeing state-sponsored massacres)

already received three dem fundraising emails referencing Padilla

Paper isn't cheap. Help us fund our sternly worded letters today!

yeah, it's a movement of resentment rather than a political ideology. They can't wait to shoot protestors and throw students out of helicopters.

― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes)

me personally... i like the differentiation between "doomposting" and "realityposting". my personal take is that whether they _want to_ or not, the likelihood that someone in the military will open fire on unarmed protesters is non-negligible and gets higher the longer this confrontation goes on.

there are still so many people who, for whatever reason, still think that the president _wouldn't_ do that. that he wouldn't justify shooting unarmed protesters. and to me, like... so many americans have been suffering and dying for years and people don't want to acknowledge it, it doesn't _count_. and i guess to a lot of people it probably won't "count" even if federal troops shoot unarmed americans in cold blood, they'll say the victims deserved it or some such shit.

i do know people like that. they're miserable, they're suffering, they're _dying_, just like we are. and they keep saying that it's our fault, somehow. that we're the ones to blame. i mean, personally, i _don't_ think they deserve to die. i think they deserve better. i genuinely want their lives to be easier. i mean, not to the extent that i'm gonna support them in their goal of making me and the people i care about not exist. i kinda have to treat them as enemies because of that. it's frustrating because i feel like i could do more to support them than the grifters who are killing them and robbing them blind, but, i mean, they're on Team Grifter.

there's this great bit from don joyce's "over the edge", where he's pretending to be the DJ of something called the "california superstation". an irate caller rings him up:

"i'm going to slash the tires on your car"
"ok well i took the bus actually"
"ok i'll slash all the tires on the bus"

i mean suit yourself my man. it's not my bus, and i'm not the only one taking it. if you slash the tires on the bus, well, i guess i'll take another. i mean, slash, slash, cut, cut, break, destroy... it's not just that they're slashing the tires on the bus. it's that the people supporting this chucklehead _take the bus everywhere they go_.

he's trying to get OHSU's gender affirming surgery program shut down. i mean gender affirming care is mandated by oregon law and he's trying to... he's trying to get it shut down on the grounds that it violate the false claims act? that me being a woman is a violation of the false claims act? i mean i gotta assume the courts will back him up on this, because he's the one who put those people in the courts. and what's oregon gonna do?

i don't know if i was saying this here, but this whole idea of the "implied consent of the governed"... speaking personally i feel like that's a dubious perspective on consent. i think it's more accurate to say that the people in power _presume_ the consent of the governed. the administration has made a lot of rules and taken a lot of actions that i don't consent to and will not comply with. i'm not going to violently resist. i'm not even going to tell them "fuck you" to their face. in certain circumstances, however, i will privilege my own values over their regulations. in certain circumstances, i will not do what they tell me. if they roll out a tank, i'll stand in front of it. it's up to them to decide how they want to resolve that issue.

one of the friday wonks on PBS News Hour was discussing the possibility of Trump pardoning Derek Chauvin - for the sole purpose of activating urban protests/riots, thus giving him the prompt to invoke the Insurrection Act and suspend a whole bunch of civil liberties

It's not that far-fetched

cool cool, normal fascist shit:

LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON, June 13 (Reuters) - Marines deployed to Los Angeles temporarily detained a civilian on Friday, the U.S. military confirmed after being presented with Reuters images, in the first known detention by active-duty troops deployed there by President Donald Trump.
The incident took place at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles where Marines took charge of the mission to protect the building earlier on Friday, in a rare domestic use of U.S. troops after days of protests over immigration raids.

I wonder how many right wing kooks are hurriedly deleting posse comitatus chapters from their manifestos.

lest we forget

Former Gov. Kristi Noem said in 2024 there would be “war on our hands” if former President Biden federalized South Dakota’s National Guard and stopped them from performing duties at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“If (Biden) is willing to do that, and to take away my authority as governor as commander in chief of those National Guard (troops), boy, we do have a war on our hands,” Noem said Feb. 4, 2024, on Fox News.

Noem tweeted Feb. 6, 2024, that federalizing the Guard would be a “direct attack on states’ rights.”

Jack-booted thugs? We love em, don't we folks?

The birthday military parade had been planned for months, unfortunately. I hope it gets cancelled due to thunderstorms, which unfortunately look less likely on Saturday than they did a few weeks ago.

― The "W" and Odie Trail (Boring, Maryland)

glad to see he's planning ahead, at least. has he decided what bunker he's going to live in yet?

From the National Weather Service:

Saturday
A slight chance of showers, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm.

now, an arrest is not a conviction, but...his screen name

Republican in South Carolina arrested over distribution of child sexual abuse material

RJ May, who used screen name ‘joebidennnn69’, charged with 10 counts and ordered to remain jailed until his trial

A Republican member of South Carolina’s state house whom prosecutors say used the screen name “joebidennnn69” has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of distributing sexual abuse material involving children.

Meanwhile our city has reassured us that OPD is not going to cooperate with ICE but they won’t tolerate property damage and violence… tomorrow could be chill or … not. The City just passed the budget that was literally referred to as “Nobody’s Happy Budget” and are probably praying for as little OPD OT as possible.

Especially considering what my friend who is on tour in LA observed, “lots of cops standing around doing nothing”

A glance at comments on the local paper’s social media informs me that MAGA has adopted the refrain “ICE ICE baby.” Which seems too on the nose, but we’re not in an age of subtlety.