DocWatts

Here's Legal Eagle's take on Mahmoud Khalil (plus a second vid on Trump's defying the courts to send American citizens off to gulags in El Salvador with no due process) Seems to me that this is a pretty open and shut case of Lawfare - the weaponization of the law, by maliciously using it a highly selective way to punish dissent and oppress political opponents. This is standard stuff of authoritarian regimes such as Putin's Russia, which Trump and his sycophants are working to to import into America. The use of literacy tests and poll taxes in the Jim Crow South is another example of laws that were technically 'neutral' on paper, but were selectively enforced to deny black Americans their political rights. The context in which this is happening matters - the aim here is to terrify protesters, clamp down on dissent, and intimidate the American public into obeying in advance. How anyone can claim that any of this is 'above board' when Trump is simultaneously using of ICE as his personal Gestapo to send American citizens to for-profit gulags in El Salvador is beyond me. Keep in mind that this is coming just weeks after Trump gave a blanket pardon to all of the January 6th insurrectionists. In short - you can't just look at Laws are written on paper, you have to factor in the broader context in which they're being applied and enforced.

Give 'em credit, they're better at psychological projection than anyone else on the planet. Trump Derangement Syndrome, indeed. https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-senator-justin-eichorn-arrest

Thanks, my district is on that list. This is an encouraging sign - at least some Dems are realizing that they need to be campaigning their asses off over the next four years, while activists like myself are out on the streets building a civil resistance campaign against Trump's regime. One or the other on their own aren't going to cut it.

Also, since Blue Dog Dems were brought up, Blue Dogs don't have to be spineless and unimaginative - the current mayor of Detroit, Mike Duggan, is great example of how they can have have both convictions and be a creative and empathic force for change that inspires people. (Detroiters such as myself generally agree that Dugan is the best mayor we've had in decades).

100%. Some of the best messaging I've seen has been from the Lincoln Project, and from Christians who are disgusted by Trump. The project then is to build a popular front between the Left the Center (including both the Center-Left and the Center-Right) against fascism. 'No Oligarchs. No Kings. Restore the Rule Of Law.' is one way of doing that.

Hard agree. This is a pic from Bernie's 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour from my home town with close to 10,000 people in attendance. (I'm in that crowd!). And below that is some of the messaging I've been creating for the protests I've been attending - 'No Oligarchs. No Kings. Restore The Rule Of Law.'

I %100 agree on the need for national unity and strategic compromise. It's not about being as far Left as possible, it's about having convictions that you're willing to fight for, and a vision of the country that inspires people. In theory you can do that from both the Center and the Left, but at the present moment the progressive wing of the party are almost the only ones doing so - and that needs to change. (Notice that I didn't say 'progressives' in my previous post - I said 'fighting Dems'). What current Democratic leadership is doing isn't strategic compromise - it's foolishly ceding ground to fascism with nothing to show for it, out of mistaken belief that fascist criminals will meet you halfway. It's like thinking that if you're nice to the guy claiming to be the 'wallet inspector', you'll get your wallet back sooner. Part of the reason that MAGA won was that they had a vision of the country that inspired their base - a fascist vision sure, but 'Make American Great Again' worked because Trump voters could project whatever it was they thought that made America 'great'. What the current Democratic leadership is projecting to the country is that they're too feckless and weak to stand up to fascism. 'We can't fight for you because we're in the minority' is objectively terrible messaging that borders on Vichy style complicity. There's a reason that in my hometown of Warren, MI over 10,000 crammed into a High School to a Bernie Sanders rally when it's not an election year. Bernie is speaking to people's actual concerns and desire for real change - progressive economic policies are popular with the American people, and Bernie is an expert at marketing them in a way that makes them seem pragmatic and reasonable. Restoring the rule of law, No Oligarchs No Kings, and protecting popular social programs like Social Security and Medicaid that are a life and death issue for tens of millions of Americans that Dems can leverage to produce a 'rally around the flag' effect when %60 of the country is living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford a $400 emergency without going into debt. "Trump is a puppet for billionaire oligarchs that are waging economic warfare against you and your family" is not only truthful, it's more unifying than running on abstract, vacuous ideals like an 'opportunity economy '. Kamala ran on 'protecting democracy', and it didn't work (keep in mind I'm writing this as someone who canvassed for her, and desperately tried to help her win). The idea that national unity comes from the Democratic Party becoming Republicans-lite is a losing strategy. Future Dems need to run on 'here's how we're going to make your lives better.' Own the fact that they're the party of FDR. Be proud of it, damnit. Offer Americans a second New Deal that will be transformative for the %60 of the country that's living paycheck to paycheck. Messaging needs to shift from "we can't get any legislation passed" to "we're not going to get everything we want due to Trump and his corrupt cronies blocking aid for you and your family, but we're going to fight like hell for it."

Every single Democrat who capitulated on this spending bill needs to be tossed out of Congress, and replaced by fighting Dems who are willing to stand up to fascism. Jeffries and Schumer are content to be the controlled opposition - leadership of the House and Senate needs to be wrenched away from them. We need to begin building a coalition around a viable alternative for both chambers - whether that's AOC, Chris Murphy,or someone else. No more Vichy Democrats in Congress - the stakes are too high to cede any more ground to the criminals who are doing a hostile takeover of our country. 'The Treacherous Ten' :

Representative Al Green, who was tossed out of the State Of The Union for disrupting Trump's hideous lies about Medicaid, showing more courage and humanity than anyone else in the chamber that day. We need to be demanding much more of our legislatures - this shouldn't be the exception. https://youtu.be/Xn1Mtn0RiLY?si=8En71Um-QeVg1qmD

Update: 9000 people (!!!) showed up to the event in my hometown of Warren, MI. (While I was there my guess was maybe two or three thousand in attendance). Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and UAW president Shawn Fain spoke before Bernie. The entire event was highly energetic and incredibly well organized. Would highly recommend attending one of these events if you have the opportunity. Great opportunity for face-to-face solidarity with people from your community.

I'm writing this from a Bernie rally in Michigan right now! Probably a good 2000-3000 people here. I've been handing out phone banking flyers 🙂 (Bernie hasn't arrived yet).

The MAGA (ie Russian) propaganda on this topic is the modern equivalent of claiming that 'Poland invaded Nazi Germany'. Continue to call this out whenever you see it.

How about everyone who's paid into Social Security for decades only to have our money from our paychecks literally STOLEN from us when Elon / Trump axes Social Security.

That's like claiming that what the Nazis did was justified because they won a plurality of Reichstag seats in the 1932 election. The 'vast majority' of Americans did NOT vote for this - Trump didn't even win a majority of the vote, he eeked out a thin plurality of just 31.8% of eligible voters, compared to Harris's %30.8. %36 of the country did not Vote - far more than voted for Orange Shitler. Stop spreading disinformation. Democracy doesn't mean that if you win an election you get to rule by decree like a king. We have Constitutional checks and balances for a reason. If you want to live under a monarchy, there's plenty of countries in the Middle East that you could emigrate to. Enough with the gaslighting.

I'm planning on handing these out at the Bernie Sanders rally that's happening near my house this weekend. I'd encourage anyone who's planning on attending a rally or protest to do the same.

I'm encouraging everyone I know to flood the phonelines of House Minority leader Hakeem Jefferies and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Until we can replace these unimaginative cowards with leaders that have the spine to fight like our lives are depending on it, the next best thing we can do is a sustained public pressure campaign against the Democratic leadership to do their damned jobs and act like an actual resistance party. Below is a script you can use: Hakeem Jefferies (202) 225-5936 Chuck Schumer (202) 224-6542 ____________________________ Hi, my name is [name], and I’m a longtime Democratic voter from [state and city]. I'm calling to urge [Representative Jeffries / Senator Schumer] to use his position of leadership within the Democratic Party to denounce Trump's unconstitutional power grab as a COUP in direct and uncompromising language. The Democratic Party needs to communicate to the American people that Trump's regime is a puppet of Vladimir Putin and billionaire oligarchs, drawing out the parallels between Trump's regime and Vichy [vee-shee] France during World War 2. I don't want to hear what the Democratic Party can't do because it's in the minority - I want to hear a bold vision for how it plans to resist Trump's authoritarian power grab, that doesn't place all of its hopes on midterm elections that are nearly two years away. At the very least, I expect [Representative Jeffries / Senator Schumer] to rally Democrats to: - Vote NO on every Trump nominee and appointee - Weaponize procedure: demand quorum calls, block unanimous consent, and slow everything down. - Make Republicans' lives hell: force endless votes, filibuster, and grind things to a halt. In short, the Democratic Party must abandon 'business as usual' and act as a true opposition party before it's too late. Thank you for you time and consideration.

No, they won't. At least most of them won't, until it's too late. Waiting for a mass exodus of Trump voters to grow a conscience is a fool's errand, when they've had countless opportunities to do so over the better part of a decade. Most will continue to believe that it's undocumented immigrants and the Democrats who are ruining their lives when Trump is taking away their Social Security and Veteran's benefits. Or they'll still consider Trump the 'lesser of two evils' when he starts a war with Canada or abandons NATO to ally the US with Putin. The vast majority of people who collaborated with the Nazis never took any personal responsibility for their political choices. It was the next generation after the war who began the painful process of grappling with Germany's past. By and large these 'little Nazis' were okay with what Hitler was doing, right up until they were the ones who were paying for it with their lives. But by then it was too late. It won't be any different with most MAGAs. First they came for the undocumented immigrants. And I did not speak out because I was not an immigrant. Then they came for trans people. And I did not speak out because I was not trans. Then they came for federal workers. And I did not speak out because I was not a federal worker. Then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak out for me.

Public pushback is having its intended effect in making it slower and more difficult for Trump to fulfill his fascist agenda - so KEEP FIGHTING! Public pressure was never going to completely stop Trump's fascist agenda, but it can gum up the gears and buy us more time. Even authoritarian regimes need some level of public support in order to carry out their plans - not because they give a shit about the public, but because logistically their agenda requires cooperation from state and local governments and agencies. But we need to be doing more - encourage everyone you know who's not a MAGAt to flood their reps with phone calls, and tell them not to cooperate with Trump's regime in any way shape or form. Pressure your local reps to hold a town hall. Attend protests. Withhold your money from corporations such as Amazon and Target that are collaborating with Trump's fascist regime. Stay informed by following organizations like 50501 and Indivisible, and be willing to have uncomfortable conversations with friends and acquaintances who don't normally follow politics. In short - stop doomscrolling and find a way to integrate civic participation into your life. The Orange Shit Stain had the gall to think dismantling our democracy would be effortless, that we'd just sit back and allow him to destroy our lives without a fight - let's show him how wrong he is.

Getting a lot of 'Nazi Germany had to invade Poland to defend itself' vibes from the people here defending Trump's fascist regime. I'd say it was disappointing if that wasn't the reason I took a long hiatus from the Politics subforum in the first place. I'd encourage everyone else to find a sustainable form of civic engagement beyond just posting on Forums and social media in the upcoming weeks and months. (Note that doom scrolling is not a valid form of civic engagement). Find a group like 50501 or a local chapter or Indivisible to connect with. Don't waste your time trying to 'save' MAGA Cultists from their delusions - all the 'reasonable' ones have left by this point. Now's the time where we build the infrastructure for when conditions get much worse, and the streets become flooded with angry, desperate people. Should that happen, it would be much better if there's an organized nonviolent civil resistance to absorb these folks, and keep the resistance nonviolent. (Note that nonviolent doesn't mean 'nonconfrontational'. It means leveraging the fact that nonviolent civil resistance is much more strategically effective in resisting authoritarianism than violent insurrection).

My sense is that the Post I linked is using strategic steelmanning / a Motte-and-bailey reversal, in order to reach people who are incapable of arriving at this incredibly fucking obvious point otherwise. I don't have a problem with offering an olive branch to conservatives to dump America's Hitler, if that's a building blocking in saving us from fascism. (I've shouting from the rooftops about the Orange Shit Stain for the better part of a decade, and I hate that I've consistently been proven correct). But otherwise I completely agree with your point.

Proud of my home state for showing up to the state capital yesterday. The fact that Trump is threatening protesters is indicative to me that they're getting under his skin.

Hit the nail on the fucking head with this take. Trump is what happens when you give someone with the ego development and impulse control of an immature child the keys to the country.

Germany has much better parade floats than we do - my fellow Americans, we need to step up our game.

In regards to Vaush, he's not a tankie like Hasan Piker, is more pragmatic with his takes than much of the online Left, is willing to speak to men's issues - but otherwise I'd agree with this take. Just know you're getting some insightful political analysis mixed with overt bias and a healthy dose of hyperbole.