#federal presidential police

[robertreich]

How Trump is Following Hitler's Playbook

You’ve heard Trump’s promise:

TRUMP: I’m going to be a dictator for one day.

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

In a previous video, I laid out the defining traits of fascism and how MAGA Republicans embody them. But how could Trump — or someone like him — actually turn America into a fascist state? Here’s how in five steps.

Step 1: Use threats of violence to gain power

Hitler and Mussolini relied on their vigilante militias to intimidate voters and local officials. We watched Trump try to do the same in 2020.

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.

Republican election officials testified to the threats they faced when they refused Trump’s demands to falsify the election results.

RAFFENSPERGER: My email, my cell phone was doxxed.

RUSTY BOWERS: They have had video panel trucks with videos of me proclaiming me to be a pedophile.

GABRIEL STERLING: A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason.

If the next election is close, threats to voters and election officials could be enough to sabotage it.

Step 2: Consolidate power

After taking office, a would-be fascist must turn every arm of government into a tool of the party. One of Hitler’s first steps was to take over the civil service, purging it of non-Nazis.

In October of 2020, Trump issued his own executive order that would have enabled him to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists. He never got to act on it, but he’s now promising to apply it to the entire civil service.

That’s become the centerpiece of something called Project 2025, a presidential agenda assembled by MAGA Republicans, that would, as the AP put it, “dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.”

Step 3: Establish a police state

Hitler used the imaginary threat of “the poison of foreign races” to justify taking control of the military and police, placing both under his top general, and granting law-enforcement powers to his civilian militias.

Now Trump is using the same language to claim he needs similar powers to deal with immigrants.

Trump plans to deploy troops within the U.S. to conduct immigration raids and round up what he estimates to be 18 million people who would be placed in mass-detention camps while their fate is decided.

And even though crime is actually down across the nation, Trump is citing an imaginary crime wave to justify sending troops into blue cities and states against the will of governors and mayors.

Trump insiders say he plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to have the military crush civilian protests. We saw a glimpse of that in 2020, when Trump deployed the National Guard against peaceful protesters outside the White House.

And with promises to pardon January 6 criminals and stop prosecutions of right-wing domestic terrorists, Trump would empower groups like the Proud Boys to act as MAGA enforcers.

Step 4: Jail the opposition

In classic dictatorial fashion, Trump is now openly threatening to prosecute his opponents.

TRUMP: if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business.

And he’s looking to remake the Justice Department into a tool for his personal vendettas.

TRUMP: As we completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, we will also launch sweeping civil rights investigations into Marxist local district attorneys.

In the model of Hitler and Mussolini, Trump describes his opponents as subhuman.

TRUMP: …the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country…

Step 5: Undermine the free press

As Hitler well understood, a fascist needs to control the flow of information. Trump has been attacking the press for years.

And he’s threatening to punish news outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

He has helped to reduce trust in the media to such a historic low that his supporters now view him as their most trusted source of information.

Within a democracy, we may often have leaders we don’t like. But we have the power to change them — at the ballot box and through public pressure. Once fascism takes hold, those freedoms are gone and can’t easily be won back.

We must recognize the threat of fascism when it appears, and do everything in our power to stop it.

#youtube #videos #fascism #Donald Trump #election #video #politics

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday will honor Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 killing helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement, and his mother with a national monument across two states.

Till, 14 and visiting from Chicago, was beaten, shot and mutilated in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 28, 1955, four days after a 21-year-old white woman accused him of whistling at her. His body was dumped in a river.

The violent killing put a spotlight on the U.S. civil rights cause after his mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, held an open-casket funeral and a photo of her son's badly disfigured body appeared in Black media.

The national monument designation across 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares) and three sites marks a forceful new effort by the President to memorialize the country's bloody racial history even as Republicans in some states push limits on how that past is taught.

"America is changing, America is making progress," said the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., 84, a cousin of Till's who was with the boy on the night he was abducted at gunpoint from the relatives' house they were staying at in Mississippi.

"I've seen a lot of changes over the years and I try to tell young people that they happen, but they happen very slow," Parker said on Monday in a telephone interview as he traveled from Chicago to Washington to attend the signing ceremony at the White House as one of approximately 60 guests.

Tuesday marks the 82nd anniversary of Till's birth in 1941. One of the monument sites is the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Till's funeral took place.

The other selected sites are in Mississippi: Graball Landing, close to where Till's body is believed to be have been recovered; and Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, where two white men who later confessed to Till's killing were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Signs erected at Graball Landing since 2008 to commemorate Till's killing have been repeatedly defaced by gunfire.

Now that site and the others will be considered federal property, receiving about $180,000 a year in funding from the National Park Service. Any future vandalism would be investigated by federal law enforcement rather than local police, according to Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.

Other such monuments include the Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty and the laboratory of inventor Thomas Edison.

Biden, an 80-year-old Democrat, will likely need strong support from Black voters to secure a second term in the 2024 presidential election.

He screened a film recounting the lynching, "Till," at the White House in February. Last March, he signed into law a bipartisan bill named for Till that for the first time made lynching a federal hate crime.

A Republican field led by former President Donald Trump has made conservative views on race and other contentious issues of history a part of their platform, including banning books and fighting efforts to teach school children accounts of the country's past that they regard as ideologically inflected or unpatriotic.

"This is an amazing, teachable moment to talk about the importance of this story as an American story that everybody can share in now, particularly at a time when people are trying to rewrite history," said Christopher Benson, president of the non-profit organization the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute in Summit, Illinois.

“We have a memorial now that is not erasable. It can't be banned and it can't be censored, and we think that's a very important thing.”

#us politics #news #reuters #2023 #biden administration #president joe biden #Emmett Till #national monuments #Mississippi #Illinois #Mamie Till-Bradley #civil rights movement #Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. #Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ #Graball Landing #Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse #Patrick Weems #Emmett Till Interpretive Center #Christopher Benson #Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute #racism #white supremacists #white supremacy #lynching

[queersatanic]

The issue is not that the United States of America needs a "better president"; the issue is that the conservative project for more than 40 years has made it such that anybody conservatives elect will achieve roughly the same policy goals regardless.

Despite the emotional reaction, no presidential election loss is actually especially damaging to conservatives because they have captured the federal courts, the state legislatures and governorships, gerrymandered the districts, and created dual power structures outside of government including media, mutual aid, and entertainment e.g. there is absolutely no leftist equivalent to the suburban evangelical church in terms of organizing. All of this is in addition to their power and class solidarity as capitalists backed up by ideologically reactionary police forces, an all-volunteer military, and right-wing militias heavily overlapping the other two.

Donald Trump has more power as president than Joe Biden because any politician has more power to do conservative things when so many levers of power are already controlled by conservatives.

Conservativism requires doing all of this because right-wing ideas are extraordinarily unpopular, and the right is willing to exercise power to make it so that popular will is irrelevant. That's the whole point of what they do everywhere.

Imagine a reverse world where ideologically New Deal Democrats routinely lost the popular vote for presidency but still regularly won the elections, cities had extra the representation compared to rural populations and kept throwing likely Republican voters off the ballot, and the Supreme Court stacked with leftists ruled something like landlording was illegal, union membership was mandatory, or healthcare was a guaranteed right. It's inconceivable that conservatives would go along with it or keep telling people, "This is why it's more important than ever to VOTE."

One last non-hypothetical example: Richard Nixon didn't sign the EPA into law because the drunken bigot had a soft spot in his heart for the environment. He did it because the law came across his desk with unanimous support from the Senate and 95 percent support from the House, and both of those only supported it in those margins because people demanded something be done.

Nixon was horrible, and he had plenty of agency to act terribly within his sphere of power, but he was made to do something he didn't want to do because of the tireless work of many, many people over decades, and very little of that work was in the field of electoralism.

#us politics #electoralism

[genderqueerpositivity]

We have presidential candidates calling for federal abortion bans and gender affirming care bans on the national stage now. After Roe, both of these are fully achievable goals for the Republican party. If not during this election cycle, perhaps the next one; Roe was the law of the land for 50 years--they know how to be patient.

I was thinking about the 2008 election the other day, and how much brighter back then things felt about the future of LGBTQ rights.

Were things absolutely great then? Hell no. But I still believed that "love wins". I could still picture a better future for the LGBTQ community in this country; at a minimum I could imagine a future where queer people are just simply left alone.

These days? I catch myself daydreaming about a future where the institution of American Christianity has been dismantled in much the same way as we call for the abolition of prisons and police. And I find myself wondering if perhaps the United States shouldn't be united anymore, and what our everyday lives would look like in that future.

And I wish we could just skip forward to a time where the threat of fascism has passed. Because I really don't want to see the death and suffering that it brings.

#republican debate #christian fascism #christofascism #politics #abortion rights #trans rights #news #gop debate

[zoethebitch]

Last thing I am going to say on the matter. Until recently Mexico was in this same situation, with no federal protections for abortion rights and it being left up to the states. In 2020 there were mass protests. Thousands marched thru Mexico city. They brought hammers, bats, molotov cocktails. There was violence. There were fires. There were clashes with police and counter protestors and graffiti and homemade bombs at the presidential palace.

The next year abortion was decriminalized nationwide

Joe Biden btw supported the Mexico City Policy banning US funding for any foreign NGO's that even discuss abortion in their family planning services, up until 2020

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil's Bolsonaro, Facing Investigations, Hid at Hungarian Embassy

On Feb. 8, Brazil’s federal police confiscated former President Jair Bolsonaro’s passport and arrested a pair of his former aides on accusations that they had plotted a coup after Mr. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 presidential election.

Four days later, Mr. Bolsonaro was at the entrance to the Hungarian Embassy in Brazil, waiting to be let in, according to the embassy’s security-camera footage, which was obtained by The New York Times.

The former president appeared to stay at the embassy for the next two days, the footage showed, accompanied by two security guards and waited on by the Hungarian ambassador and staff members. Mr. Bolsonaro, a target of various criminal investigations, cannot be arrested at a foreign embassy that welcomes him, because they are legally off-limits to domestic authorities.

The stay at the embassy suggests that the former president was seeking to leverage his friendship with a fellow far-right leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, into an attempt to evade the Brazilian justice system as he faces criminal investigations at home.

Continue reading.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #hungary #jair bolsonaro #democracy #unqueued because this is just so freaking funny

[scifiseries]

An officer of the Brazilian Federal Police wielding a drone jammer during the presidential inauguration (01/01/2023)

#scifiseries #scifi #cyberpunk

[tammyoshanter]

I am seeing posts bullying and even telling others to kill themselves because they plan to vote for Biden, despite Biden's blatant endorsement of Isreal. I've even seen people saying things like "even as a non-American, I know you guys have a Socialist party. Vote for that" as if that's an option. Personally, and I am certain several of my other fellow Americans feel this way as well, I would LOVE to cast my vote to the Socialist party. But living in America, that's just not possible. We do not have the luxury of voting for the people we want to. We live under a government that has spent decades dividing the nation so that the two-party system is seen as the only viable form of democracy to the American people, while simultaneously meddling in world affairs and overthrowing small socialist nations with capitalist coups and then forcing their economies to tank just to show the American people just how bad the big bad S is. And we have slurped it up. As someone who has had leftist ideals for more than a decade, I have only within the past few years felt I could use that label because even I was afraid of the capitalist's boogeyman. A majority of the people I know wouldn't dare consider socialism or even leftism a good, citizen-friendly political system. And so, they are going to vote on the two running for office, which is looking to be Biden and Trump right now. Yes, Biden is a racist pedophile with very a questionable ability to cognitively navigate a presidency, and who also supports a full-on genocide. I would not want to vote for Biden in a million years. He's a shit guy, and has been for his whole career and likely before that too. Trump, however, is significantly more alarming. Trump is the person Netanyahu is drooling over to win the election, and let me tell you why. If you haven't, please do your research on Project 2025. If Trump or another Republican wins the primary, the Republican's plan includes a very alarming, and blatantly fascist playbook. The most notable pages include placing the entire executive branch under direct presidential control (eliminating the independence of the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and other agencies), further militarizing the police, cracking down on immigration (some are predicting our own genocide, beginning with our management of the US/Mexico border), placing a nationwide ban on abortion and undesirable media, targeting LGBTIQIA and other marginalized communities, and ultimately destroying the wall between church and state to create a Christian nationalist government. They are not being subtle about it; you can read the manifesto here. America, a leading world power with an obese military and other friends in low places, is set to become very fascist if the Republicans win. This could ultimately change the course of world politics as many other countries within the West are increasingly leaning fascist. Americans are not going to suddenly discover the third party and vote for it. They will be participating in the two party system. We have no choice to do so as well, or it may be decades before we get it turned back around. By then it will certainly be far too late for Palestine and all the other lives that will be lost along the way. Don't even get me started on climate change. The stakes are immense. Americans, It is your right to choose not to vote, or to vote for a third party during this primary. But this will be a slap to the face of POC, immigrants, LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, the working class, and several other targeted groups, of which there will be many. Bullying people for trying to prevent this is not going to put you on the side of history you want it to. When I vote for Biden, I will absolutely be thinking about how much I detest his stance on Isreal and the rest of his presidency and personality to boot. But I will be hoping against all hope this action is able to curb the right before they place us all in chains, if they'll have us alive at all.

#i rant #apologies guys but CAN WE PLEASE #I'm not trying to have my life or the lives of others cut shorter than they already have been #this is truly life or death #politics #american politics #us politics #biden #trump #fascism #project 2025 #isreal #palestine #free palestine #free gaza #genocide #please suggest other tags if this is found to be lacking

[wilwheaton]

every accusation is a confession

Found this on Reddit:

Republican Ralph Shortey, Donald Trump's Oklahoma campaign chair and former Oklahoma state senator, was indicted on four counts of human trafficking and child pornography. He plead guilty to child sex trafficking.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-s-oklahoma-campaign-chair-plead-guilt-child-sex-trafficking-n822461?fbclid=IwAR142W77Q5Dan71BsxC_5uH8h1BBA4EGyqP_VMsrx7lSvoPX9Njjvt0oHK0

Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was indicted on federal charges of structuring bank withdrawals after prosecutors alleged Hastert had molested at least four boys as young as 14 and attempted to compensate his victims and subsequently conceal the transactions. Hastert eventually admitted that he sexually abused the boys whom he had coached decades earlier, and was sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/us/dennis-hastert-released.html

Republican Tim Nolan, chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in Kentucky, pled guilty to child sex trafficking and on February 11, 2018 he was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/05/03/former-judge-tim-nolan-could-sentenced-today-more-drama-could-get-way/577947002/

Republican congressman Mark Foley, in charge of the congressional caucus dealing with exploited children and predominant anti-gay politician, caught sexually harassing 16 year old page boys working under him.

https://www.cc.com/video/u1k1hb/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-headlines-foley-erect

Republican Pennsylvania State Senator, Mike Folmer, arrested and convicted of child pornography charges.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Folmer

Republican Minnesota State Representative Jim Knoblach Drops Out Of Race After Daughter Says He Molested Her For More Than Ten Years 22 Sep 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/22/lawmaker-quits-race-after-daughter-says-he-molested-her-more-than-decade/?utm_term=.8ac8527c7f43

Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/sops/flyer.jsf?personId=28587

Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

http://www.lanternproject.org.uk/library/child-abuse-arrests-and-court-cases/child-abuse-arrests-trials-and-proceedings/ex-county-commissioner-admits-sexual-abuse-of-girl/

Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

http://www.poconorecord.com/article/20120426/NEWS90/204260334

Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_Misla_Aldarondo

Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Giordano

Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

http://archive.easyreadernews.com/archives/news2001/0621/rb%20Shortridge.php

Republican Senator Strom Thurmond, a notable racist, had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strom_Thurmond

Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/nyregion/embroiled-first-selectman-takes-leave.html

Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/25/us/teen-ager-in-ohio-testifies-to-sex-with-a-congressman.html

Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/04/24/gop-activist-admits-to-child-porn/5af2adf0-bec8-4a10-b061-014de679422a/?utm_term=.d7ebcbf4f92b

Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=437

Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

https://www.westword.com/news/randy-ankeney-suit-that-could-free-thousands-of-prisoners-headed-to-state-supreme-court-6054115

Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Crane

Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/02/opinion/journal-beverly-russell-s-prayers.html

Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bauman

Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

http://www.njherald.com/article/20060510/ARTICLE/305109971

Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

https://www.arktimes.com/TheHoglawyer/archives/2007/08/28/the-latest-republican-sex-scandals-plural---more-of-the-same

Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/06/us/politics-the-senate-maine-candidate-again-faces-1990-child-sex-accusation.html

Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

http://www.thedp.com/article/2004/01/brother_stephen_convicted_of_soliciting_sex

Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

https://www.houstonpress.com/news/jon-matthews-conservative-talk-show-host-and-sex-offender-pulled-from-kpfts-prison-show-6740755

Republican anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

https://culteducation.com/group/1255-false-memories/6514-man-in-notorious-sex-case-finishes-term.html

Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

https://www.semissourian.com/story/57773.html

Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

https://www.arktimes.com/TheHoglawyer/archives/2007/08/28/the-latest-republican-sex-scandals-plural---more-of-the-same

Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

http://www.chattanoogan.com/2002/6/21/23202/Tennessee-Legislator-Commits-Suicide.aspx

24 pages more here - https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/28/2028057/-Republican-Sexual-Predators-Abusers-and-Enablers-Pt-24

#republicans are garbage #fuck these fascists

[rhubarbes]

An officer of the Brazilian Federal Police wielding a drone jammer during the presidential inauguration (01/01/2023)

[reasonsforhope]

Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday for leading a far-reaching plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.

A second Oath Keepers member, Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida contingent of the group, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The sentences are the first handed down in over a decade for seditious conspiracy.

“What we absolutely cannot have is a group of citizens who – because they did not like the outcome of an election, who did not believe the law was followed as it should be – foment revolution,” District Judge Amit Mehta said before handing down the sentence. “That is what you did.” ...

Mehta said Rhodes, 58, has expressed no remorse and continues to be a threat...

Earlier on Thursday, Mehta ruled that Rhodes’ actions amounted to domestic terrorism.

“He was the one giving the orders,” Mehta said. “He was the one organizing the teams that day. He was the reason they were in fact in Washington DC. Oath Keepers wouldn’t have been there but for Stewart Rhodes, I don’t think anyone contends otherwise. He was the one who gave the order to go, and they went.”

Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, DC, jury in November in a historic criminal trial that was a test of the Justice Department’s ability to hold January 6 rioters accountable and validated prosecutors’ arguments that the breach of the Capitol was a grave threat to American democracy.

The seditious conspiracy charge has rarely been brought in the century and a half that the statute and its forerunners have been on the books...

US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who testified earlier this week about his experience on January 6, told CNN that Donald Trump should be “next.”

“It is a step towards full accountability,” Dunn said. “[Stewart Rhodes's] lawyers argued that Donald Trump is the root of the problem, and I totally agree. Let’s get him next.” ...

CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem said the sentencing should have a “chilling effect on these groups,” especially as the presidential election season begins.

“This tough sentence is going to make the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, all these organizations, it’s going to make them more difficult for them to recruit and, as important, for them to raise money,” Kayyem said...

Rhodes, who was accused of leading dozens other individuals in a coordinated plot that culminated in the January 6 siege, was also found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding and tampering with documents.

Of those that Rhodes led, 22 have already been convicted of various federal crimes by a jury or guilty plea. Eight, including Rhodes’ codefendant Meggs, were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

-via CNN, 5/25/23

#oath keepers #proud boys #stewart rhodes #sedition #seditious conspiracy #january 6 #coup attempt #trump insurrection #insurrection #united states #us politics #criminal justice #right wing extremism #good news #hope

[the-badger-mole]

Reaching for Hope

These last few months have been filled with the most horrifying stories and images coming out of Palestine, DRC, Sudan, Yemen, and too many other places around the world. We, in the US, have seen our president- our political leaders- roll over and not only allow the atrocities to continue, but to actually financially support and arm the perpetrators, despite the majority of us screaming for them to stop. To me, there is little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans at this point. Both parties are bought and paid for by the same people. As a new presidential election is coming up, I can't in good conscious vote Democrat. Not after what I've seen. Not as long as they refuse to hear us when we tell them we don't want Genocide Joe Biden or any of his cabinet to run.

But what is the solution?

I hate the feeling of helplessness I feel. I hate watching the horrors being carried out with my tax dollars. I hate that our "leaders" are more concerned with keeping the money from groups like AIPAC than actually representing the people who voted for them. They have put my finger on the trigger and they won't let me let go.

I'm trying to figure out how to make my voice heard. I've reached out to my representatives. I've done what I can to amplify voices that need to be heard more than mine. I can't claim any special effort in following BDS boycotts because the truth is, these aren't brands I have a whole lot of intentional contact with in the first place. As for Starbucks and McDonald's, I don't like either place so, cutting them off took very little for my part. I do encourage you to avoid all of these businesses, though. I don't know what else to do.

I will not vote for Joe Biden if he runs again. I will do my best to find down ballot candidates who's values are more in line with mine, but I will not give my support to a man who sees the atrocities being committed in Palestine and gives billions and weapons to the people committing these crimes against humanity. If the DNC is smart, they will be actively looking for candidates who don't openly support genocide, but let's face it, we ALL know how smart the DNC is. So, barring some drastic change, barring the DNC running a candidate who isn't on the take from AIPAC, who will actually pull support from Israel as they try to wipe out an entire culture for the sake of oil, I will be voting third party. I'm considering voting for Claudia De la Cruz of the PSL party, but there's nearly a year left, so I'm open to shopping around.

I know there are those that will say that pulling votes away from Biden is essentially voting for Trump. I know that there are those that will say that if the Republicans take the office again, they'll gut our rights. To that, I say, a vote for Trump is a vote for Trump and a vote for Biden is a vote for Biden. If the DNC can't come up with a better candidate and a better reason to vote for them than the same fear mongering tactics they've been using for years, then Trump is the DNC's fault. What has the Democratic party done to ensure our rights? What protections for voting rights have they passed at a federal level? What protections for education? For bodily autonomy? How do we have FOURTEEN BILLION to spare for freakin ISRAEL, but nothing for public schools? Nothing for student loan relief? Nothing for public health? Police reform? What good is the Democratic party if their only real platform is "Vote Democrat because we're not that guy"? If your conscious tells you to vote for Biden in November, so be it. As for me, I can't look at the man without seeing the blood of innocent men, women and children dripping off of him.

#getting political again #free palestine #free drc #anti murdering people for oil and cobalt #anti colonialism #anti capitalism #anti democrat #anti republican #they are the same #one's just wearing a mister rogers sweater #vote third party #the two party system is dead

[anarchotahdigism]

Reminder that Michael Prysner, the husband of Abby Martin (herself a prominent Putin apologist who has organized with Nazis) is a US Army "interrogation officer" (torturer) who worked (tortured people) in Iraq for years before finding his supposed principles. Michael Prysner is a senior and prominent PSL organizer.

PSL is the same group that lied to radicals on the ground at the Tacoma action and prevented protesters from acting to stop the military loading of arms shipments to the Israeli occupation. As a result, nearly a full shipment of ammunition and materiel was loaded.

PSL is the same group that worked with police to allow Zionists to pass their "protest" of a Zionist fundraising gala which met to raise funds for the occupation.

PSL is the same group that swoops protests to gather signatures for petitions, peace police, and report radical actions to the police.

PSL's presidential candidate's stance on masking is the eugenicist position of "we don't require masks because if the federal government won't, with all its power, how and why can or should we?" PSL has been messaging prominent Palestinian activist accounts asking them to platform their presidential candidate as an alternative to Genocide Joe, seeing yet another opportunity for power. They care nothing for stopping genocide, only for gathering more power to themselves for their perpetual camapign to make America socialist and thus somehow Good. They will not and do not support radical acts of liberation; they are craven authoritarians who think that America can simply be reformed through voting and acting under their control.

PSL is red fash and cannot and should not be trusted. Any action they are involved in is suspect and extremely dangerous.

#anarchism #anticapitalism #antifascism #fuck tankies #fuck PSL #anarchotahdigism #mordantivore #covid #wear a mask #genocide #ableism #death to america #eugenics #us politics #free palestine

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A Florida Republican thinks the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law doesn’t go far enough and wants to expand it.

The state’s anti-LGBTQ+ “Parental Rights in Education Law,” which was signed into law last year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), bans the state’s schools from teaching about LGBTQ+ history and issues in grades K­­–3 and restricts the teaching of those issues “in a manner that is not age-appropriate” up to grade 12.

Earlier this week, state Rep. Adam Anderson (R) filed House Bill 1223, which would expand the law to ban “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” in pre-K through the eighth grade. It would also expand the law to apply to private and charter schools as well as public schools, and requires all public schools to acknowledge that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait and that it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”

The bill would also require teachers to call students by pronouns that align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

In a statement, Anderson said that the bill “promotes parental rights, transparency, and state standards in Florida schools. It requires that lessons for Florida’s students are age-appropriate, focused on education, and free from sexualization and indoctrination.”

Equality Florida Public Policy Director Jon Harris Maurer responded to the bill in a statement on Tuesday.

“Don’t Say LGBTQ policies have already resulted in sweeping censorship, book banning, rainbow Safe Space stickers being peeled from classroom windows, districts refusing to recognize LGBTQ History Month, and LGBTQ families preparing to leave the state altogether,” Maurer said. “This legislation is about a fake moral panic, cooked up by Governor DeSantis to demonize LGBTQ people for his own political career.”

“Governor DeSantis and the lawmakers following him are hellbent on policing language, curriculum, and culture,” Maurer continued. “Free states don’t ban books or people.”

“The DeSantis regime isn’t satisfied with a hostile takeover of traditional public schools,” he said of the bill’s expansion to include private and charter schools. “They envision a future where LGBTQ families have no school choice to find dignity or respect.”

It’s widely assumed that Gov. DeSantis will run for President on his right-wing education platform. Presidential candidate Nikki Haley has said that Florida’s law doesn’t go far enough and Donald Trump suggested changing federal law to punish any teachers that discuss trans identity in the classroom.

Numerous medical and mental health studies and associations have found hat affirming the gender identities of trans youth reduces their mental anguish and suicidality.

#us politics #news #lgbtq nation #lgbtqia+ rights #lgbtqia+ #lgbtqia+ representation #florida #gov. ron desantis #don't say gay bill #parental rights in education #adam anderson #florida legislature #Florida house of representatives #House Bill 1223 #Equality Florida #Jon Harris Maurer #censorship #book burning #book bans #fake moral panic #education #education system #2023 #fascism #conservatives #gop #republicans #gop policy #gop platform

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Anatomy of a coup plot: how Brazil’s Bolsonaro tried to cling to power

For months before Brazil’s most recent presidential election, hints and warnings mounted that then-president Jair Bolsonaro was plotting a coup to stay in power.

An explosive federal police investigation this week revealed just how close Latin America’s largest nation came to a democratic rupture.

Documents released by police and the country’s supreme court on Thursday allege that military officers and political allies of the former president in 2022 developed a detailed plot to overturn the results of the election, which Bolsonaro lost to leftwing leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Senior military leaders would have deployed “troops on the ground”, police said, as part of the scheme. The coup leaders would have arrested judicial and congressional leaders, sought to discredit military officers opposed to the coup, and finally enshrined Bolsonaro’s right to stay in power.

The plot was developed in the run-up to the October 2022 election, but was formalised shortly after Lula’s victory with a draft decree outlining the plans.

Continue reading.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #democracy #jair bolsonaro #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[beardedmrbean]

A mayor was shot dead at a restaurant in Mexico on Saturday, the regional prosecutor's office said, the latest politically related killing in the country plagued by violence and organized crime.

Guillermo Torres, 39, and his 14-year-old son were attacked at a restaurant in Morelia, the capital of western Michoacan state, the prosecutor's office said in a statement. His son survived.

He was elected mayor of Michoacan's Churumuco municipality as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 2022, but recently quit the party and publically voiced sympathy for the ruling Morena, according to local media.

Torres is the latest politician to be murdered in Mexico in the run-up to the presidential elections on June 2, in which 20,000 local and federal positions and the entire Congress will be voted on.

Two mayoral candidates were murdered on February 26: Miguel Angel Zavala Reyes and Armando Perez Luna of the Morena and National Action Party, respectively.

Last month, prosecutors in southern Mexico said that mayoral candidate

Tomás Morales was killed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero.

Between June 4, 2023, and March 26 this year, 50 people have been murdered in "episodes of electoral violence", 26 of them aiming for popular seats, according to a report by the Laboratorio Electoral think tank.

Mexico's drug cartels have often focused assassination attempts on mayors and mayoral candidates, in a bid to control local police or extort money from municipal governments.

Michoacan state, Mexico's main avocado-producing region, is the scene of constant fighting between organized crime groups, including the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Last month, a state police officer was reportedly decapitated and her two bodyguards were killed in a highway attack in Michoacan.

Also in March, three farmers were killed by a bomb apparently planted in Michoacan. That came just days after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged that an improvised explosive device killed at least four soldiers in what he called a "trap" likely set by a cartel in Michoacan.

Killings and abductions are daily occurrences in Mexico, where nearly 450,000 people have been murdered since 2006 in a spiral of drug-related violence, according to official data.

#nunyas news #thanks obama