"The freedom of individuals verbally to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state." —William J. Brennan Jr., joined by White, Blackmun, Stevens, & Marshall, Houston v. Hill, 1987

If being disrespectful warranted murder, the world would be rid of conservatives

Another example where reactionary conservatives assert that they have no agency - they’re merely a force of nature that the world must adapt to, the idea that they could be responsible for their actions or change for anyone isn’t an option.

And Dem leadership keeps confirming them in the spirit of good faith bipartisan politics, a thing that totally still exists.

An inconvenient truth is that right-wing and especially right-wing extremists have always been more violent than even the most violent left-wing extremists. And unlike the left, the right has always had the state's army of armed men on their side. #TrumpTerrorist #IceAgent

Holy fuck they actually did it

Seriously, read this: "'Waiting for the facts' means waiting to develop a cover story. It means waiting for story to blow over. It means waiting until 'But that was seven months ago! Get over it!' becomes a legitimate excuse." web.archive.org/web/20140901...

incredible to see all the people who criticized the killing of Ashli Babbitt suddenly change their views on police killings

They will keep doing it until somebody stops them. The entire MAGA view is that you can do whatever you want as long as nobody actually prevents you from doing it. If ICE can kill people with impunity, they will. If Trump can take countries' oil, he will. They have no morality.

They would gladly kill you and slander you despite overwhelming evidence and footage and eyewitnesses that it was murder. This isn’t something that elections will fix. It’s going to take a massive reformation and these criminals will have to be punished.

*squinting* Hey look it’s McConnell.

This is correct. In liberal political theory the very foundation of the state is the government's offer of protection and its ability to *end* the state of nature. (Liberal political theory is BS but bear with me here.) Behavior like this by the state indicates the entire social contract is void.

Yeah. Training doesn’t matter if there are no consequences to breaking the rules. Police have qualified immunity, and ICE thugs even less incentive to behave. The problem is not that they don’t know the rules. The problem is that they don’t give a shit and will never be punished.

This is the video.

This is why I’m pushing for a state escrow account that holds federal funds before sending them on to Washington. If Trump wants to steal our tax dollars that were legally appropriated by Congress, then we should just be paying ourselves.

Everyone currently paying bribes to the White House should be made to understand that we are going to remember and make them regret it. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/if-he-buil...

Checkmate, you bitch.

every troop that deploys against civilians must face the tribunals. Disobey your nazi orders if you think you're so fucking brave

It’s like when dummies try to distinguish “crony capitalism” from “capitalism”. Like no my dude - it’s a system that inevitably produces cronyism and monopoly in its shameless pursuit of profit at any cost. The 1st thing they’ll do with the “no ceiling” power is wipe their ass with your rule book.

"Don't follow illegal orders" would be more meaningful if Democrats had prosecuted literally any of the prominent war criminals of the last 30 years instead of, you know, fucking campaigning with them

"oh no, this'll make the right wing mad!" Buddy they get into a frothing rage over like, cereal mascots and cartoon characters and the mere existence of gay people and what oil a French fry is cooked in and women knowing how to read, etc. They'll get mad anyway, no matter what. Tell em to fuck off

The inability to just tell the right wing to eat shit, fuck off, die mad about it, is based on a perverse belief that their incessant whining pissy moaning is something that deserves any kind of respect or civility.

God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group

Anything short of a wholehearted "fuck literally all of this, we are going to go Nuremburg on these freaks and then drain Elon dry to fund fixing this stuff" will lose, badly. And there's like zero chance the dems will even think to say that.

if there's a reason to keep up the "tribunals for all involved" discourse one such reason it is to put in stark relief how far away some of the Dem politicking is from the mood on the ground

"post-liberal" leftism cannot position itself as against or counter liberalism (for this is the path to reactionaryism). it must position itself as the inheritor of liberalism, as a movement that seeks to resolve the contradictions of liberalism, to ensure it fulfills its promise of universal rights

I don't think post-liberal leftism has to mean "illiberal" as much as it is a does a dissatisfaction with the people and institutions associated with liberalism that fail to uphold liberal values. Nobody called Dems "post-liberal" when they vote for the Laken Riley Act or to ban TikTok, for example

Someone is going to have the write the thing about how “vibe” has become a substitute for meaningful theory in a world where the theory is so clear — grift and power — but we collectively refuse if because it isn’t sophisticated enough to generate make work for empiricists.

It’s crazy to think about the crimes we’re going to learn about after this regime ends. We’re already hearing about Watergate level crimes every week. Imagine what will come out after it’s over. We’re going to need a full accounting of all that’s been done in violation of the constitution.

Moral rot in elite journalism is killing the whole field — The Nuzzi/RFK Jr. mess and the revelation of Epstein’s journo pals lay bare a profound moral absence at the heart of our free press. www.thehandbasket.co/p/moral-rot-...

In 1945, the US Army put out a training manual intended to help rank and file soldiers spot incipient fascism in the US. One of the telltale signs that one was dealing with a fascist was that they called everyone to their left "a communist." bsky.app/profile/seth...

maga uncles all catatonic going into thanksgiving, doing the charlie day conspiracy map meme trying to make sense of it.

Reagan in the background? perfection.

BREAKING: Republicans pass bill to condemn Socialism, 285-98. 86 House Democrats voted yes, further demonstrating that we have two right-wing parties in America. 2 members voted Present, and 47 members of the House did not vote (20 R and 27 D).

Rolling out the Matt Christman quote from after Charlottesville (2017) again:

I’ll say it again: all these disenfranchised high level troops and agents thatve been pushed out of the regime *should* be getting organized together by someone in the opposition - at best, to reinstall into leadership roles when it’s over and at worst to help us fight it “conventionally”.

Any response other than an immediate "fuck you, make me" is an indication your institution is already ok with fascism, and is now just haggling over the price.

We need phone banking but for delivering incandescent hatred and righteous anger instead of GOTV campaigns.

become the joker dot gif

They caved in March so they could get a better deal now. They’re caving now so they can get a better deal in some indeterminate future. The better deal is always just beyond their reach, but continuing to cave will get them there. And if you don’t agree with that, you don’t understand Politics,

All my homies hate the “fucking asshole” caucus.

Aspects of our political system which are currently failing and long overdue for reform: - The two-party system - The US Senate - An all-powerful, stand-alone presidency - A politicized Supreme Court with full veto power over Congress and the executive

This is 100% the script for confronting these pieces of shit. If Dem leadership could say the same, it would be a big fucking help.

There needs to be trials and there needs to be people sent to die in a prison cell. Consequences must fall on the people who issued the orders and those who carried them out. We must make the punishment of these people a national spectacle that will be remembered for generations.

The thing mainstream conservatism is trying to conserve is unassailable cultural, economic, and political supremacy for white landowning christian men. Its inevitable conclusions are subjugation, oppression, corruption, slavery, and genocide.

I am not an apologist but if you think what happened in the Soviet Union in the 1960s/1970s is worse than what happened to Russia in the 1990s you are either deeply ignorant or intellectually dishonest.

I think Dick Cheney’s death today highlighted this divide. The Democrats who still say shit like “reach across the aisle” and praise evil people are playing to a political audience that no longer exists. Mamdani wasn’t cruel to Cuomo in a Trumpism style, but he didn’t concede anything either.

You have to survive. There are graves to piss on that haven't been dug yet.

Elected Democrats spending more time today praising Dick Cheney than Zohran Mamdani is a great case study in abject fucking moral failure.