Pressure on Senators •is working•.
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@stepheneb @inthehands I never liked, and never listened to, the NRA.
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@inthehands I don’t want platitudes. I want action. Klobuchar disgusts me. She can’t even bring herself to say that ICE should be abolished. I want a real leader to stand up somewhere, unite the resistance, and get stuff done. This is beyond normal times and normal niceties like voting against extra funding to DHS.
@amyshark @inthehands the situation we're in requires many avenues of resistance, and none of them are completely without value. Discouraging people from calling their senators doesn't inherently encourage them to do other things that might work a little better. Everyone is at a different stage of growth out of the capitalist hell we were raised in, and I imagine finding out that their call did nothing will give people better ideas more than giving up before they even try it will
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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
Hasn’t hurt that ICE pissed off the NRA -
I said nothing of the kind. I’ve been crocheting frog hats for PDX protests. I’m a law prof helping my students brainstorm & process.
My point is not to waste time on dead avenues & false hopes. Schumer & Jeffries aren’t answers. Congress isn’t the solution. We need a national leader - a modern John Lewis, MLK, whoever - & national strikes to do economic damage & start bringing attention to our voices.
But, thanks for your kind response.
@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.
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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?
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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.
1/
“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.” -- Audre Lorde
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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.”)
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@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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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.❞
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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.
1/
@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.
