America

[paddy no 11]

I see a press conference ongoing now.............

[Which Tyler]

Pentagon chief orders US military officials from around the world to Virginia next week
Who's being invaded? Venezuela or Greenland?

Or is it ""just" for an oath of allegiance to the führer?

[Son of Mathonwy]

I’m not jumping straight to conspiracy theories, but I’m curious about the phrase “law enforcement reproduction” when we’re seeing these text messages detailing and admitting to all the crimes that have just come out.

Anyone know what this really means? A direct copy/paste from a messaging app? The term just feels a bit open to interpretation.

I have seen a lot of memes about the texts and had assumed that people were writing hyperbolic mocking exaggerations of them. Today, I learned that what I thought was exaggerated mockery is actually the literal texts that the FBI are claiming are genuine:


FB_IMG_1758783417513.jpg


I'm not saying it's definite that that "reproduction" is fake, but those are some pretty stilted and fake-sounding texts. Maybe the guy just wrote really weird and so did his alleged girlfriend? Maybe the FBI is currently run by a podcaster who believes in conspiracy theories about the deep state, Q-Anon, 2020 elections, and vaccines who is entirely beholden to Trump?,

I am also looking at this picture released by the FBI of the "engravings" on the bullets used by the "radical leftist shooter", who only shot at and injured detainees rather than ICE Agents:



And wondering whether there is any value in believing any statement of fact that this current FBI makes about anything that could possibly be considered political. It feels wild and tin-foil hat to be saying, "I don't trust the FBI not to lie about crimes" or "I don't trust that sharpied 'Anti-ICE' message not to've been evidence tampering by the FBI to push an agenda," but here's where we are.

Puja

There are so many holes in the shell casings story it's ludicrous

Like who would write anti ice ffs. The made up person they say done this would have wrote fuck ice or death to ice not fucking anti ice. You idiots you just wrote your own perception of "the left" on a shell casing

Where is the shooter have they turned up a body and a bullshit back story yet

I'm not totally convinced that the text conversation is fake (even if it seems a bit stiff) because I would have expected all kinds of admissions to being a lefty and Democrat and being paid by AOC or whoever they want to go after.

The ICE shooter, however. Jesus, just follow the bullets. Who got shot? We have a sniper on a roof who looses a number of bullets and they only hit and kill detainees? No ICE personnel? Seems a bit more anti-detainee on the face of it.

And the scribbled ANTI-ICE, yeah, not very convincing.

[Which Tyler]

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lzt76aq5q22p

[Son of Mathonwy]

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lzt76aq5q22p

When he shuts down the elections or arrests any Democrats with a pulse, his posts will look just like that but it'll be too late.

In functioning democracy he'd be impeached for this. Every day he does things any other president would have to resign for.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Trump designates 'Antifa', whatever that is, as a terrorist group. Leaving the aside the legal meaninglessness of the order it does make me proud that Starmer has led the way on the misuse of antiterrorism laws. Good old Blighty got there first!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ganization

[Son of Mathonwy]

Trump tightens his authoritarian net by designating anyone holding views that could be described as:

anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality

as being potentially violent, and to be fully investigated and their organizations disrupted in order to preempt their possible future violence.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... jK#image=1
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential ... -violence/

[Which Tyler]

Didn't he pardon a bunch of people who actually did try to "overthrow [of] the United States Government"?
Isn't he himself "extremis[t] on migration"?

[morepork]

No religion has a legitimate monopoly on international policy. Blind faith in a particular species of fictional omniscient superbeing has no business in the obligation of elected public officials to serve the good of the public. It’s an irrational, medieval justification for callous incompetence that should just fuck right off.

[Son of Mathonwy]

When greeted with silence Trump threatens to end the career of anyone who leaves the room.

At least this will make it clear to them (if clarification is necessary) who the real 'enemy from within' is.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-al ... om-within/

Would-be dictator, hopefully coming face-to-face with people with backbone. Hopefully.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Didn't he pardon a bunch of people who actually did try to "overthrow [of] the United States Government"?
Isn't he himself "extremis[t] on migration"?

Just imagine though if Trump had our antiterrorism legislation where he could prescribe any group, and actually make support a criminal offence. We're ahead of him in some ways (thanks to Blair).

[Son of Mathonwy]

When greeted with silence Trump threatens to end the career of anyone who leaves the room.

At least this will make it clear to them (if clarification is necessary) who the real 'enemy from within' is.

https://www.democracydocket.com/news-al ... om-within/

Would-be dictator, hopefully coming face-to-face with people with backbone. Hopefully.

Positives (I'm doing my best here):

Trump gathered all the military together to get a face-to-face but that means they also got a face-to-face with each other, which might help their solidarity against him. The best weapon against this kind of thing is solidarity (sadly absent in most of Trump's targets).

They did show a certain amount of resistance to their commander in chief. Better if they'd all walked out but the silence was definitely something.

Hegseth is a clown and the generals probably have even less respect for him than I do. It would have been worse if Trump had found a real Colin Powell type general (but not black of course) to push his agenda.

[morepork]

The toxic incompetence of the cosplay masculinity on display at that event was pretty fucking jarring. I give up.

[Which Tyler]

In response to a federal court order that blocked his attempt to federalize the Oregon National Guard, President Trump is deploying 300 California National Guard personnel into Oregon. They are on their way there now," Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. "This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power. The Trump Administration is unapologetically attacking the rule of law itself and putting into action their dangerous words — ignoring court orders and treating judges, even those appointed by the President himself, as political opponents.

[Which Tyler]

Trump open to invoking the Insurrection Act

The comments came a day after a federal judge blocked the president from sending National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Trump open to invoking the Insurrection Act

The comments came a day after a federal judge blocked the president from sending National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon.

I wish the journalists would do their job and show us pictures of Portland to go with his 'burning hell hole' description.

It's not really news though. Trump would obviously be open to invoking the Insurrection Act, and much worse.

[Which Tyler]

We are documenting the actions, statements, and plans of President Donald Trump and his administration that may pose a threat to American democracy, since the start of his second term in January 2025.

Each action is mapped to one or more of five broad domains of authoritarianism, helping to make sense of a deeply concerning political trajectory. Every entry includes a source link and date. You can filter the actions by domain, by date, or by free text search.

[Puja]

Stephen Miller accidentally says the quiet bit out loud:



For those not familiar, "Plenary authority" means complete power, with no restrictions or checks. It is literally what Mussolini requested to be become dictator in 1922.

What is most bizarre is just how bad Stephen Miller is at being a human. Why does he just stop still and reverted to default motion like a glitchy NPC?

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Also worth noting that, whilst it was a CNN interview (left wing bias etc), CNN didn't put that on YouTube - they put up the 2nd go around after Miller had been switched off and on again, and given another go at the same question with a 5 minute run-up.


This is the mulligan. The only version that CNN acknowledges.

[Which Tyler]

April - We're just after the bad hombres, the worst of the worst

October - Psyche! we're zip-tying naked children to the pavement at 3.00am and shooting praying priests in the head with pepper balls, for a giggle

[Son of Mathonwy]

Stephen Miller accidentally says the quiet bit out loud:



For those not familiar, "Plenary authority" means complete power, with no restrictions or checks. It is literally what Mussolini requested to be become dictator in 1922.

What is most bizarre is just how bad Stephen Miller is at being a human. Why does he just stop still and reverted to default motion like a glitchy NPC?

Puja

I assume someone told him off-camera he'd got that plenary thing completely wrong or maybe he realized that himself(!?), then couldn't think of any way of getting out of it or understand what his team were screaming at him so he decided to do the most pathetic interview fail since Matt Hancock pretended to cry over how proud he was that the UK had imported some vaccines.

CNN should keep this up because this 'plenary' error and the human glitch make a golden combination.

[Which Tyler]

I assume someone told him off-camera he'd got that plenary thing completely wrong or maybe he realized that himself(!?), then couldn't think of any way of getting out of it or understand what his team were screaming at him so he decided to do the most pathetic interview fail since Matt Hancock pretended to cry over how proud he was that the UK had imported some vaccines.

CNN should keep this up because this 'plenary' error and the human glitch make a golden combination.

Meh, IMO he realised he'd gone too far (for a national news outfit) and ruined the take so that he'd get a second go at answering the question - a second go where he didn't mention plenary authority.

Also worth noting, CNN broadcast the above live - but didn't put the clip on youtube - they only put up the mulligan.

[Puja]

Stephen Miller accidentally says the quiet bit out loud:



For those not familiar, "Plenary authority" means complete power, with no restrictions or checks. It is literally what Mussolini requested to be become dictator in 1922.

What is most bizarre is just how bad Stephen Miller is at being a human. Why does he just stop still and reverted to default motion like a glitchy NPC?

Puja

I assume someone told him off-camera he'd got that plenary thing completely wrong or maybe he realized that himself(!?), then couldn't think of any way of getting out of it or understand what his team were screaming at him so he decided to do the most pathetic interview fail since Matt Hancock pretended to cry over how proud he was that the UK had imported some vaccines.

CNN should keep this up because this 'plenary' error and the human glitch make a golden combination.

The Trump-bot-net in the comments are screaming that it's AI-generated and, frankly, if it weren't that this was live television and confirmed as actually broadcast, I'd believe that. He looks and moves so genuinely inhumanly that I'd absolutely believe in it being a glitched AI video.

Puja

[Puja]

In brighter news, socialist Zohran Mamdani is continuing to knock his campaign to be Mayor of NYC out of the park. Won the Democratic nomination, despite every bit of the party machinery supporting Cuomo as a 'moderate' because he's 'electable', and now is trouncing (a now independent candidate) Cuomo again, with polls showing him leading 46-33. The billionaire-owned newspapers are hard against him, the billionaire-owned social networks are hard against him, the Democratic party are hard against him because "no-one will vote for left wing policies or liberal policies" and yet he's still cutting through and showing that people *do* want these things and *will* vote for them.

Aboslutely loved this - not politically-savvy, but honest and kind and real and decent, and it appears that that is actually way more savvy than the career politicians are willing to give it credit for:



Puja

[Son of Mathonwy]

In brighter news, socialist Zohran Mamdani is continuing to knock his campaign to be Mayor of NYC out of the park. Won the Democratic nomination, despite every bit of the party machinery supporting Cuomo as a 'moderate' because he's 'electable', and now is trouncing (a now independent candidate) Cuomo again, with polls showing him leading 46-33. The billionaire-owned newspapers are hard against him, the billionaire-owned social networks are hard against him, the Democratic party are hard against him because "no-one will vote for left wing policies or liberal policies" and yet he's still cutting through and showing that people *do* want these things and *will* vote for them.

Aboslutely loved this - not politically-savvy, but honest and kind and real and decent, and it appears that that is actually way more savvy than the career politicians are willing to give it credit for:



Puja

It says everything how hard the Democrats are against him. They want there to be no place for the left in US politics - they are the force that prevents left policies from happening.