I keep coming back to what Kevin Kruse said here: the Trump regime is trying to get an ICE officer killed.

@sortius @inthehands You’re not missing anything beyond an anecdote about earmuffs and a tacit dismissal of your POV because you don’t live here (which isn’t really much of a counter argument).

But I do and I absolutely agree with the person that doesn’t live here, who can see things more clearly IMO.

If an ICE agent gets killed or not only tweaks the existing situation at the margins. They can make that happen themselves or fabricate the situation as needed, frankly.

@inthehands oh, more than a couple.

@inthehands They came close with that gun nut getting murdered on stage, but didn't quite get their Horst Wessel moment. That's what they're gunning for.

I wonder what their Reichstag Fire will be?

@yohan @apophis

Indeed, but I’ll bet they aren’t here specifically to get killed so they can be right-wing meme fodder

@sortius @inthehands There isn’t some escalating rule book here, where if A happens, then B happens, it all tips over and it’s game over.

You have a regime of power hungry opportunists who will seize or fabricate any situation needed to further entrench and enrich themselves. We’ve already tipped over; it’s just a matter of degree and whether or not it’s reversible, and to what degree, if at all.

Anyone that has lived elsewhere will be familiar with what’s going on here.

@inthehands One of the scary things is that a bunch of the ICE goons are absolutely True Believers in their mission, and they have already convinced themselves they are going up against the worst of the worst. So they'd probably be horrifyingly okay with giving their life for the cause. They think they'll be remembered as a martyred hero. They think the crackdown following their death will be righteous.

When Trump sends them, they are on a mission from God.

@brad

They milked Kirk for all they could, but the problem was he was murdered by a fellow right-winger, and he wasn’t a federal official. That doesn’t create enough political and popular support to allow martial law or similar.

@wrosecrans

I think that’s all exactly right. I just don’t think they believe that their boss’s boss is •trying• to get them killed.

@yohan @apophis

No, I did in the OP

@inthehands reminds me of this Onion headline

@inthehands they already openly want us dead.

If the """"opposition"""" continues to refuse to use the non-violent leverage they already have, eventually provoking a violent overreaction may be the only way to get out of this

@madcannedtuna

Ha, The Onion is great, but that headline for this situation kind of misses the mark: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115860687777099579

@inthehands
I think some of them understand this. They use it to justify their violence.

@inthehands It's just like in Andor.

@inthehands Those weren't goons if they knew (or cared)

@inthehands Not only do they need an ICE officer to get killed - eventually most of those that have become ICE officers will be rounded up and imprisoned themselves.

They are the unruly chaos that any fascist wannabe-dictator initially relies on to create the disruption that is used as cause to seize more power. However, at some point those in power become scared of no longer being able to even control them and eventually crack down on the very group they created (usually as a story swung as "we've dealt with the extremist corruption that's grown in this organisation, look moderate population, we are on your side")

@inthehands
I seem to remember Trump going on about how no sitting president was ever voted out during war times. This must have been in leading up to his first term and in context of him serving not just one or even two consecutive terms.

It stuck with me because it wasn't the usual incoherent ramblings, but like a moment of mad clarity.

Ever since, I've had the theory that he's working towards just that: a war, foreign or domestic, that he thinks will be the leverage needed to stay in office undisputed.