Pressure on Senators •is working•.
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@stepheneb @inthehands I never liked, and never listened to, the NRA.
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@amyshark @samiamsam @inthehands
Republican billionaires funded a multi-front war on democracy.
Courts. Congress. Disinformation. Sabotaging education. Book bans. Defunding higher education. Decades of Fox News blasting away into the minds of soldiers on military bases.
An equally broad response is required to counteract it.
A counterinsurgency needs guerilla tactics beyond simply voting.
Get creative. A big one is collecting evidence for war crimes trials. DNA. Payroll records. ID'S.
@Npars01 @samiamsam @inthehands
Education is huge. Everyone must understand basic civics & what rights they do/not have in different circumstances. Free speech, assembly, etc. aren’t unlimited- recognize when you need a permit or a time/place/manner/content restriction being imposed could be genuine. Know your 4th, 5th, & 6th Am rights & how to invoke them. Document. Everything. Citizen journalism is essential as are quick drops before spoliation.
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I don’t actually expect centrist Senators to do this. I mean… come on. But a bunch of these noodle-spined tools think politics means splitting the difference between opposing positions, so I’m just giving them an opposing position that actually packs a punch before they water it down. (“Don’t negotiate against yourself. Ask for what you want.”)
3/
"If you want a string quartet, ask for a brass band."
~My Mama
(Ask for more so in compromise you get what you want.)
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I don’t actually expect centrist Senators to do this. I mean… come on. But a bunch of these noodle-spined tools think politics means splitting the difference between opposing positions, so I’m just giving them an opposing position that actually packs a punch before they water it down. (“Don’t negotiate against yourself. Ask for what you want.”)
3/
@inthehands Yeah, I've sent my reps another message, citing various abuses by the DHS over the years, and saying that at this point the entire department needs to be closed, the homeland security act repealed completely, and anything short of that should be considered an act of treason, because it's a fundamentally antidemocratic department.
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@Npars01 @samiamsam @inthehands
Education is huge. Everyone must understand basic civics & what rights they do/not have in different circumstances. Free speech, assembly, etc. aren’t unlimited- recognize when you need a permit or a time/place/manner/content restriction being imposed could be genuine. Know your 4th, 5th, & 6th Am rights & how to invoke them. Document. Everything. Citizen journalism is essential as are quick drops before spoliation.
@Npars01 @samiamsam @inthehands
In addition to the legal risks of being a bystander, have a plan to protect your data and that of fellow protesters. Consider using a burner phone and understanding what other data tracking exposure precautions you can take in case you are in a situation like Red Jacket.
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Umm … everybody who watched the videos knows Alex never touched his gun.
NRA wrote:
“This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong.
Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.”Which part is the gaslighting?
I think @Sunny just misread the post
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@inthehands @amyshark Exactly this.
The Anschluss is now, we're being invaded. You either stand up and be counted, or you hide away and hope they pay you no notice.If you're an elected politician READ: Henry David Thoreau's : *Civil Disobedience*
`Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.`
Read Sebastian Haffner’s “Defying Hitler.” We’re past the point our government can help us. Civil Disobedience assumes a functioning representative democracy. This administration has dismantled too many agencies for citizens to seek redress for constitutionally protected harms, disregarded the judiciary and legislative branch, and our representatives are not acting based on our will but in their self-interest. We have to help ourselves.
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@inthehands I would add: anyone who was employed by ICE during either Trump administration is permanently disqualified from employment by the federal government. Any state or local government or private company in the US that employs a former ICE employee will have any federal funding reduced to zero.
We need to *punish* the fascists, by prosecuting the criminals, but also by inflicting harm on anyone who had anything to do with them. Let them be impoverished, and shunned.
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@inthehands I would add: anyone who was employed by ICE during either Trump administration is permanently disqualified from employment by the federal government. Any state or local government or private company in the US that employs a former ICE employee will have any federal funding reduced to zero.
We need to *punish* the fascists, by prosecuting the criminals, but also by inflicting harm on anyone who had anything to do with them. Let them be impoverished, and shunned.
@slimhazard @inthehands no access to banking, loans, credit cards, pensions or any government functions, if they hate democracy so much they can fuck off & live somewhere more to their liking, they should never be able to avail themselves of all of the things that democracy has given them...
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Read Sebastian Haffner’s “Defying Hitler.” We’re past the point our government can help us. Civil Disobedience assumes a functioning representative democracy. This administration has dismantled too many agencies for citizens to seek redress for constitutionally protected harms, disregarded the judiciary and legislative branch, and our representatives are not acting based on our will but in their self-interest. We have to help ourselves.
@amyshark @carpetbomberz @inthehands All these struggles by all these avenues and more. There are lots of us: “all of the above” is possible.
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@slimhazard @inthehands no access to banking, loans, credit cards, pensions or any government functions, if they hate democracy so much they can fuck off & live somewhere more to their liking, they should never be able to avail themselves of all of the things that democracy has given them...
@Vonskinnback as @inthehands has pointed out, these are the moderate solutions. My more radical version would be to exile them to North Korea. If they want to grovel before a preposterous dictator, let them go do that. Put them on a boat off the North Korean coast, let it drift towards the shore, good bye and good riddance.
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your "extremist" position reminds me of this short story (from @garbados ?) that i have had open in a spare tab for *months*
https://blog.bovid.space/they-let-me-live
it is oddly hopeful about the aftermath of adopting the extremist position
@trochee @inthehands @garbados just read the story and it is still the moderate position
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My message to Senators:
❝The correct amount of funding for not just ICE but the •entire Department of Homeland Security• is zero. ZERO. You heard me: the entire agency. Under current leadership, it is off the rails. It is dangerous. It it a menace.
“More training” is a pathetic non-answer; that just means more money. These murderers are trained; they are just monsters. Don’t say “better oversight.” Don’t say “more reforms.” Pull the rug. Switch it off. • Shut • it • down • NOW •
If you have to shut down every airport in the country because the TSA budget is in there too, then you shut down every damned airport in the country. If you have to shut down the federal government again, you shut it down. Your inaction is sleepwalking the country into civil war. SHUT. IT. DOWN.❞
2/
The TSA has not actually been able to present any compelling evidence that they have prevented any terrorist attacks. All they can conclusively show is that they have taken a great many things from travelers, most of which are demonstrably harmless. They also routinely fail their own tests -- missing weapons hidden in luggage that they are supposed to be stopping.
It is theoretically possible for them to do a much better job. But not likely, regardless of budget.
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Pressure on Senators •is working•. Previously head-in-sand centrist Senators are actually coming out to vote against ICE funding. Their positions are still weak and insufficient, and more need to cave to pressure — but they are visibly buckling.
Again, we should not and must not wait on elected officials to save us — they will not — but we can and should deploy pressure on them as a strategic tool in moments when that can be useful.
Now is such a moment. KEEP IT UP.
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@inthehands Honestly the sad part is that you even need public pressure to defund the gestapo even after they started doing public executions. The Senators should just be acting on their own after shit like that. -
My message to Senators:
❝The correct amount of funding for not just ICE but the •entire Department of Homeland Security• is zero. ZERO. You heard me: the entire agency. Under current leadership, it is off the rails. It is dangerous. It it a menace.
“More training” is a pathetic non-answer; that just means more money. These murderers are trained; they are just monsters. Don’t say “better oversight.” Don’t say “more reforms.” Pull the rug. Switch it off. • Shut • it • down • NOW •
If you have to shut down every airport in the country because the TSA budget is in there too, then you shut down every damned airport in the country. If you have to shut down the federal government again, you shut it down. Your inaction is sleepwalking the country into civil war. SHUT. IT. DOWN.❞
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@inthehands I think so too. Ross had eight years with the brutal force.
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And to be clear, zeroing out the budget, scrapping the DHS, returning its law enforcement duties to local agencies, and prosecuting ICE officers — all of that! — is the •moderate• position here.
The extremist position is violence of a kind and scale I shudder to contemplate.
Pressure them. Rattle them out of their stupor.
/end
UPDATE: I am now seeing reports of Senators calling for the impeachment of Noem.
Good. Fine. Do that. Yay. Put a head on a pike.
My demand upthread doesn’t change. Having a different Trump appointee running ICE will not fix ICE. You can’t fix ICE. Scrap it. Abolish it. Shut it down. This deranged tyrant must not and cannot be allowed to have an unaccountable personal army.
Still, I’m delighted that Senators are scrambling to do something. Keep up the pressure. Keep them all scared.
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your "extremist" position reminds me of this short story (from @garbados ?) that i have had open in a spare tab for *months*
https://blog.bovid.space/they-let-me-live
it is oddly hopeful about the aftermath of adopting the extremist position
@trochee regarding extremist positions, C.L.R. James wrote that "The cruelties of property and privilege are always more ferocious than the revenges of poverty and oppression. For the one aims at perpetuating resented injustice, the other is merely a momentary passion soon appeased." @inthehands
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UPDATE: I am now seeing reports of Senators calling for the impeachment of Noem.
Good. Fine. Do that. Yay. Put a head on a pike.
My demand upthread doesn’t change. Having a different Trump appointee running ICE will not fix ICE. You can’t fix ICE. Scrap it. Abolish it. Shut it down. This deranged tyrant must not and cannot be allowed to have an unaccountable personal army.
Still, I’m delighted that Senators are scrambling to do something. Keep up the pressure. Keep them all scared.
@inthehands Having someone more responsible in charge of the secret police does not make it okay to have a secret police in the first place.
And if ICE is not removed - if the secret police continues to exist - then the absolute best case result is this calms down now, and the same thing happens again later. -
@inthehands Honestly the sad part is that you even need public pressure to defund the gestapo even after they started doing public executions. The Senators should just be acting on their own after shit like that.
@reiddragon
Politicians never lead. The population leads; politicians follow. Sometimes it seems like maybe that’s not the case, but it is. -
@reiddragon
Politicians never lead. The population leads; politicians follow. Sometimes it seems like maybe that’s not the case, but it is.@inthehands it's just that you'd think that at least in times like this it would be obvious enough what the people want that they don't even need to say it, though
