It puts first things first, and it revokes the absolute immunity that our gang of American Nazis claim for themselves. www.the-reframe.com/absolute-imm...

Again, putting first things first doesn't preclude persuasion or oppose persuasion; it frees persuasion from the abuse it suffers by putting it in its proper place, and it opens up persuasion, by allowing us a wider field: more methods of persuasion, and more effective.

When persuading those who refuse to enter a shared reality or respect humanity, it is far more effective to persuade them of consequences—that if they engage in abuse, they will be understood as an abuser and treated as one. This persuades them without giving them authority over the persuasion.

So often persuasion is framed as one person changing another's mind. But a person is the only one with the power to change their mind, and appeals to logic and morality are only effective on those who have decided to be moved by logic, who have chosen a morality of equality rather than of domination

Do you think it would persuade authorities to de-escalate rather than escalate? Do you think it would start persuading citizens that the system worked for them instead of corrupt abusive power? I think it might. It would be a start, as we work for total abolition of police and the carceral state.

Do you think it might persuade the sort of people who want to shoot other people in the face from taking on an authority that no longer permits them to shoot people with absolute impunity? I think it might.

Speaking of persuasion: If we passed a law reversing the application of qualified immunity, and then started enforcing it in courts, do you think it would persuade law enforcement that it no longer enjoys absolute immunity from consequence for murdering civilians? I think it just might.

If an authority without equipment to brutalize and kill civilians makes them worthless at their jobs, perhaps they were never good at their jobs, and maybe we never needed them in the first place. And maybe not having them at all is an even better outcome still.

If the interaction results in a tragic outcome, then it is authorities who must be presumed responsible. If authorities can't accept this natural consequence of authority and equipment, they should not have the equipment or the authority ... and stripping them of both is an even better outcome.

Since authorities should exist for the protection of civilians, in an interaction with civilians, it is they who *should* be in more danger than civilians—at least as long as they are armed—because their equipment and their training must prepare them to handle that danger without a tragic outcome.

In interactions with authority, civilians are the ones who usually wind up dead, and unlike authorities, civilians are not trained for armed conflict. Civilians have the more justifiable claim to fear—a FAR more justifiable claim.

In a conflict between civilians and authorities, it is civilians who should receive benefit of the doubt; who should be allowed to claim to be frightened, who should receive qualified immunity under the law.

If our authorities exist for the protection of the people, then the laws should exist for the protection of the people, not the protection of authorities. If the law exists for the protection of authorities, then the authorities do not exist for the protection of the people.

Under this framework, it is civilians who should enjoy greater considerations and protections following (hopefully rare) violent interactions. This might sound extreme or unrealistic to you; I'd invite you to sit with how obvious it is, and how warped social beliefs around policing have become.

This shift isn't a framework that says it is legal to go out and shoot authorities; it is rather a recognition that, in conflicts between police and civilians, it is civilians who far more justifiably can fear for their lives, and civilians who are far more justified in defending themselves.

What we have now is a "qualified" immunity for authority against citizens that effectively functions as absolute immunity; the legal assumption that in interactions with civilians, it is police who have the greater claim to fear, and who are justified in any force they deem appropriate in response.

Let me give you a thought experiment: Imagine not just a ban on qualified immunity for authority, but a reversal; a new legal framework, under which authority bears greater responsibility than civilians in matters involving force—as it should. www.the-reframe.com/absolute-imm...

I don't think it's possible to emphasize enough, how big an impact this will have on slowing down the Trump machinery. Once judges lose patience, they start handing out losses to the side doing the fuckups. And keep handing them out, faster and faster, as incompetence continues. Example: this guy.

SEOUL, Jan 13 (Reuters) - South Korea's special prosecutor on Tuesday requested the death penalty for former president Yoon Suk Yeol on charges of insurrection over his brief imposition of martial law in December 2024.

ah clarence thomas, everyone's favorite constitutional psychopath

Murphy: The United States Congress should not fund a Department of Homeland Security that is not obeying the laws of the United States of America

If this dude gets fired we need to support him

The most chilling part of this DOJ story isn’t the shooting. It’s what happened after...and who was quietly told to stay out of the room.👇 www.jackhopkinsnow.com

Not the key part of this story, obviously... but they *sold* his phone? WTF?

I remember when the line was you can’t vote for Democrats because they would come and take your guns, stoves, etc. It’s always projection

The worker, identified as TJ Sabula in the Washington Post, said “I don’t feel as though fate looks upon you often, and when it does, you better be ready to seize the opportunity. And today I think I did that.” www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

This guy writes better than Bari Weiss lmao

So, if I'm reading this right: 4 prosecutors at the Dept of Justice Civil Rights division quit because the Trump-appointed leadership won't investigate Good's killer, and 6 from the Minnesota US Attorney's office quit when they were told instead to investigate her widow. (HT @benjaminkabak.com)

I cannot stress enough the fact that a lot of assholes in the media are going to be held mercilessly accountable as fascist collaborators, & this vile headline is collaboration with Nazi murder, @cnn.com

this fucking headline and the lede is that she *served on a fucking school board*

your journalists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should

what the fuck are we doing here, @cnn.com?

Another entry along those lines. bsky.app/profile/brad...

The site has been down all afternoon. Someone outside the US should mirror it on a server hosted in their country.

People should be downloading this right now in case it gets taken down.

The President of the United States. 🇺🇸 @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I am once again wondering what the point of passing a Congressional budget is if the White House does not feel bound to the contents of that budget.

Records show the Trump Organization has requested over 2,000 foreign workers since 2008. Its latest request seeks a $13.90 hourly wage—the lowest the winery has offered since 2021.

Sensitive details of around 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees—including almost 2,000 agents working in frontline enforcement—have been leaked by a DHS whistleblower upset by the murder of Renee Nicole Good. www.thedailybeast.com/personal-det...

The folks better get it through their heads that if you go along with and enforce the fascist agenda, then we are going to drag you in front of tribunal alongside the Nazis you are enabling. That includes publishers. Collaborators get the same fate as the fascists.

Knew this was coming. Something I've been noticing happening slowly for a while now. It's also happening in conjunction with the aging up of YA and the influx of romantasies that tend to feature cisallohet relationships and dabble in fascism-adjacent storytelling themes.

This is 10th-grader Arnoldo Bazan. A citizen. Immigration agents grabbed him and put him in a chokehold. "We're from the United States bro!' he screamed. Agents took and sold his phone And when he finally got home hours later, his shirt was ripped, he neck had angry, red welts, and he sobbed.

WATCH: Trump shows his middle finger and appears to say "fuck you" after Ford worker yells "pedophile protector" - TMZ

Abolish ICE.

So, now they'll just shoot us from the sky? What does Counter Unmanned Aircraft System mean?

Abolish ICE.

So while Elon’s MEMPHIS-based Grok is undressing kids and women, Hegseth is incorporating it into the Pentagon

The most important thing is that Oregonians can trust the investigation into last week’s shooting. That’s why we launched a parallel investigation. If you have tips, leave a voicemail on our tip line: 971-673-3900

WASHINGTON (AP) — Claudette Colvin, whose refusal to move seats on a segregated bus helped spark the civil rights movement, dies at 86.