Hot for a civil war? Oh, indeed the bastards are, and the most corrupt bastard of the lot, the relative Jabba the Hut does not acknowledge, is the one most eager to provoke it. Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance on all the Democrat-run cities that will not truckle to me, he cries.
His minions are all busily lying for him, round the clock because of course they are.
Kash Patel, who disgraces an organisation that was once run by J. Edgar Hoover, has just said that Chicago's streets are overrun at present by "over 110,000 gang members. THat's right. You heard me right."
He's being quoted to that effect on Gateway Pundit, and even though that trashcan website is on his side and trying to make him sound, and look, good, Hoft apparently cannot find, anywhere, a picture of Patel that DOESN'T show crazy eyes and a baffled, hunted expression.
"Hot for a civil war? Oh, indeed the bastards are"
`
*pretends to have manners*
I'm afraid that I am not entirely prepared to agree with you here, Sir.
In an actual Civil War, the blue states would secede from the Union, and would therefore not be bound by its laws. They would be able to oppose their persecutors openly and actively, instead of being hobbled by antiquated notions of "bipartisanship" and "civility", up to and including shooting back.
They'd almost certainly withhold the tax dollars with which they've been propping up the red states for DECADES.
There's at least a non-zero possibility that Canada and/or Mexico (and perhaps others) would come to the aid of "Bluelandia".
We've seen how the red hats are completely unable to cope with things like consequences for their actions, mild disapproval on social media, and people who they don't like existing; what do you think they'd do if we started shooting back?
Nay, nay, civil war is the last thing these bastards want.
I'll tell you what - no matter 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 you may think of the church, even the Catholic church, Father Michael Pfleger is the level best. High quality human right there.
It appears that he would be a good person no matter what his profession. The fact that he is a "good one" and a priest seems like a 2x test, not a "because of"
IDK, maybe not funny but I saw a Halloween lawn display today and wondered if anyone will put an ICE officer out as a boogyman on their lawn this year? Maybe with a hockey mask like Jason and a "bloody" machete and a pirate sign that says "abandon hope all yee who enter here?"
"his squealing to troops last week at the generals’ He-Man No Fat Chicks Convention about how they should use the city for a training ground because it’s all “radical-left Democrats,” and the way Trump’s [sic] masked goons have already been making citizens more unsafe and hurting the state’s tax and tourism revenue."
* This is an unnecessary smear of the military's top brass. I'd stake my life on if a poll was taken of those forced to attend, very few would say that being there made any difference on how they plan to continue in command. I seriously doubt that any of them feel more virulent, more war fighting-like, after being harangued by Kegbreath and the Fulvous Fuckwad on how changing the name to the Dept of War will instill more fear into those who might want to do the country dirty, how making the soldiers be clean-shaven will make them tougher, how giving trans soldiers an Other Than Honorable discharge will build esprit de corps, how women have no place in the military -- while a number of the "conventioneers" were, indeed, female --, how the Corrupt Coral Coward is the greatest Commander-in-Chief in history....
* "because it’s all “radical-left Democrats,”
"because it’s all “RADICAL-LEFT Democrats,” FIFY
* It's not just Chicago and the state of Illinois suffering a loss of tourism; the entire nation, under the sound guidance of the Halloween Orange Hemorrhoid, has seen to a dramatic loss of tourist dollars. Whether out of fear, protests against the new policies put in place, or the added cost of a $250 Visa Integrity Fee tourism is down. (I imagine that any family of four who wants to visit the US is thrilled by the idea of forking over a grand just so they can enter the country added to the expenses of airfare, lodging, food, transportation once in the US, overpriced souvenirs....)
-----
"And there’s sure already been a whole lot of nonsense, from the ghastly (warrantless!) military raid on an entire apartment building last week with agents zip-tying children and putting them in a moving van"
Here's an Evil Plan for the next Dem Administration: Require all ICE agents to be bilingual; prohibit ICE agents from carrying weapons of any kind; only allow ICE to detain immigrants ordered removed by a court or already arrested for a criminal offense; require ICE to use police as armed escorts to detain any person deemed dangerous; require ICE agents to identify themselves on demand; and allocate half the budget of ICE to public service announcements debunking misinformation about immigrants.
It may not give you a justice boner, but the fact is, the judge hadn't been able to read the entire submission, and unlike in Portland, the troops hadn't actually arrived/been called up yet AND there was a controlling precedent from the appeals court okaying a similar federalization in a sister district (LA). There's still some time for her to consider things. She isn't bound by Ninth Circuit precedent and doesn't have to move fast to make factual distinctions like Judge Immergut did to respect precedent but not get overturned immediately and still make sure the Oregon guard stood down.
I fully expect there will be a TRO issued, attached to a well-reasoned opinion that distinguishes the Ninth Circuit opinion, most likely on the facts as well as the law, at the end of the hearing tomorrow. She wants to do this right. The troops are not yet on our doorstep and she wants to keep it that way and wants to make sure her opinion is as rock-solid as possible.
We'll see. Her considered response might give you a 'majesty of the law' boner, but it might also be the futile wheezing of another institutional guardrail as it's crushed under the heel of raw fascist power.
Treating bad faith legal shenanigans from a fascist regime as if they were normal legal actions from a government operating in the before times might be the best possible response in a difficult situation, or it might be impotent theatre staged to convince the actors themselves as the men with guns storm through the door. It might be that the government's essential position, which doesn't take 500 pages to elucidate, (that there is an emergency requiring federalization or deployment of the national guard) is of such glaring absurdity that the only proper response is to state exactly how absurd it is, and to immediately find for Illinois, while perhaps adding sanctions for the federal lawyers for abusing the court system. If the government's position, developed in a 10,000 page filing, had been that they believed that feral cats in the state of Illinois posed such a grave threat to public safety that the federal government felt obligated to federalize and deploy the NG, what should the proper response of the judge have been? Yeah, whatever that would be is what should have been done here.
I suppose if you think we're still in the before times, or that we can get through a fascist interlude to the after times by pretending the fascists are just like any are other party standing before the court, then sure, the judge's response is understandable, maybe even optimal. I myself don't think the pretense of normality obviously serves a purpose at this point, or is likely to do more than briefly delay the next move in the fascist playbook. While a dramatic identification of absurdity and condemnation of bad faith, judicial decorum be damned, might just be, together with other judicial and civic demonstrations of resistance, enough to shock people into a realisation of what we're dealing with, to get the frog to jump out of the water.
Hon, the courts are just about the only institution still holding the line against the fascists, SCOTUS excepted.
In fact, she's trying to SCOTUS-proof her opinion, or, if she draws a hell panel like Judge Frimpong did in LA, provide the basis for the other judges on the Seventh Circuit to meet en banc like the DC Circuit did on a couple of occasions of their own accord to override a hell panel's stupid decisions. A federal district judge can't shortchange the record. They're the ones who are eyes and ears. They hold the hearings. They see the witnesses and read the record and have the attorneys from the government standing in front of them lying their asses off. They have to capture all that and create a record so they can use the power of the state without getting overturned. If she half-asses it, she gives even Pam Bondi enough evidence to undo all her work.
Hon, you're faith that the courts will ultimately stop fascist power that sneers at and ignores courts that rule against them is touching.
I don't agree that the courts are 'holding the line' against fascism, they're slowing it down, not more. The courts don't have a mechananism to recognize the government as fascist, since this is new territory for everyone. They treat its bad faith and presentation of absurd arguments and evidence as something deserving of engagement, where any other party doing that would be refused consideration by the court. And of course, 'the courts' themselves are to a significant degree captured by the fascists.
Historically there's little evidence that fascism that has gained power is stopped by legal action and court findings. But yes, the exercise of normal court procedures can be helpful, alongside other kinds of resistance. My argument is basically that that normal court procedures should not extend to rewarding fascist bad faith behavior before the court and presentation of absurdities in evidence and argumentation, that such things are not deserving of normal court consideration, and that the normal presumption of governmental good faith should be abandoned when it is abused, that the damage from normalization of fascist propaganda outweighs the gains from the performancel of judicial normality.
The lower courts are not giving the federal government deference anymore. The feds have lost the presumption of regularity they've enjoyed for decades, because the DOJ lies to judges. The judges are learning as they go how to hold the administration's feet to the fire with the tools they have available to them, and since Congress is doing fuck-all, they're the only ones doing any damn thing to stop or even slow fascism down.
Judge Perry issued a TRO today in Chicago declaring the government had not shown there was any credible basis to believe there was a rebellion in Chicago, and refused to stay her order while the government appealed.
Sorry, but I think Illinois and local authorities should be playing a much tougher game. Investigations? Why not arrests? If a protester does something illegal, do they start an investigation?
The legislature should pass laws mandating no masks, IDs worn, cars used by ICE registered with the city or state etc etc. Traffic stops to check that ICE is in compliance. Monitoring of ICE activity. If ICE is undertaking undercover work, they should be required to coordinate with state and local anyway, everything else is public immigration activity. And about a hundred other things.
I didn't say anything about protesters or protesting, so I'm not sure what your point is. I'm glad you and others are protesting, I hope you don't get arrested or shot.
My comment was regarding state and local authorities. It's not a comment I just cooked up out of nothing, there are plenty of writers and other commenters saying such things. A good presentation of this view imo is the blogger Christopher Armitage.
Sir dwells in a pit of pheek.
Hot for a civil war? Oh, indeed the bastards are, and the most corrupt bastard of the lot, the relative Jabba the Hut does not acknowledge, is the one most eager to provoke it. Vengeance, vengeance, vengeance on all the Democrat-run cities that will not truckle to me, he cries.
His minions are all busily lying for him, round the clock because of course they are.
Kash Patel, who disgraces an organisation that was once run by J. Edgar Hoover, has just said that Chicago's streets are overrun at present by "over 110,000 gang members. THat's right. You heard me right."
He's being quoted to that effect on Gateway Pundit, and even though that trashcan website is on his side and trying to make him sound, and look, good, Hoft apparently cannot find, anywhere, a picture of Patel that DOESN'T show crazy eyes and a baffled, hunted expression.
"Hot for a civil war? Oh, indeed the bastards are"
`
*pretends to have manners*
I'm afraid that I am not entirely prepared to agree with you here, Sir.
In an actual Civil War, the blue states would secede from the Union, and would therefore not be bound by its laws. They would be able to oppose their persecutors openly and actively, instead of being hobbled by antiquated notions of "bipartisanship" and "civility", up to and including shooting back.
They'd almost certainly withhold the tax dollars with which they've been propping up the red states for DECADES.
There's at least a non-zero possibility that Canada and/or Mexico (and perhaps others) would come to the aid of "Bluelandia".
We've seen how the red hats are completely unable to cope with things like consequences for their actions, mild disapproval on social media, and people who they don't like existing; what do you think they'd do if we started shooting back?
Nay, nay, civil war is the last thing these bastards want.
They want genocide.
i mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxsQrZsqX0c
just come to chicago to sing!
I read it as "JOY, NICE".
Ta, Marcie. [ Redacted ][ Redacted ] etc.
"I [obscenity] in the [obscenity] of your [obscenity]." -- Ernest Hemingway
I'll tell you what - no matter 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 you may think of the church, even the Catholic church, Father Michael Pfleger is the level best. High quality human right there.
I found his word choice interesting, particularly "when the church stands with the people".
It reminded me of The Troubles in Ireland, which we may be on the verge of here.
We live in such fucked up times that I find it refreshing to be reminded that poverty is violence. No snark.
It appears that he would be a good person no matter what his profession. The fact that he is a "good one" and a priest seems like a 2x test, not a "because of"
IDK, maybe not funny but I saw a Halloween lawn display today and wondered if anyone will put an ICE officer out as a boogyman on their lawn this year? Maybe with a hockey mask like Jason and a "bloody" machete and a pirate sign that says "abandon hope all yee who enter here?"
I love Father Pfleger, he loves his parish and community and walks the walk.
He is the real thing. If only we could clone him...
Not to give away any marketing ideas but wouldn't "JOINICE™" be snappier?
YVAN NEHT NIOJ
Joy! Nice!
Father Pfleger has been fighting the good fight for a LONG time now.
Authoritarians always call it “help.”
They invade your city, gas your citizens, and still expect a thank-you note.
Chicago doesn’t need saving from itself. It needs saving from those who confuse control with care.
Blessed be the ones still filming, still shouting, still refusing to mistake obedience for peace.
"his squealing to troops last week at the generals’ He-Man No Fat Chicks Convention about how they should use the city for a training ground because it’s all “radical-left Democrats,” and the way Trump’s [sic] masked goons have already been making citizens more unsafe and hurting the state’s tax and tourism revenue."
* This is an unnecessary smear of the military's top brass. I'd stake my life on if a poll was taken of those forced to attend, very few would say that being there made any difference on how they plan to continue in command. I seriously doubt that any of them feel more virulent, more war fighting-like, after being harangued by Kegbreath and the Fulvous Fuckwad on how changing the name to the Dept of War will instill more fear into those who might want to do the country dirty, how making the soldiers be clean-shaven will make them tougher, how giving trans soldiers an Other Than Honorable discharge will build esprit de corps, how women have no place in the military -- while a number of the "conventioneers" were, indeed, female --, how the Corrupt Coral Coward is the greatest Commander-in-Chief in history....
* "because it’s all “radical-left Democrats,”
"because it’s all “RADICAL-LEFT Democrats,” FIFY
* It's not just Chicago and the state of Illinois suffering a loss of tourism; the entire nation, under the sound guidance of the Halloween Orange Hemorrhoid, has seen to a dramatic loss of tourist dollars. Whether out of fear, protests against the new policies put in place, or the added cost of a $250 Visa Integrity Fee tourism is down. (I imagine that any family of four who wants to visit the US is thrilled by the idea of forking over a grand just so they can enter the country added to the expenses of airfare, lodging, food, transportation once in the US, overpriced souvenirs....)
-----
"And there’s sure already been a whole lot of nonsense, from the ghastly (warrantless!) military raid on an entire apartment building last week with agents zip-tying children and putting them in a moving van"
Please see cartoon #3 at https://counterpoint.substack.com/p/bad-bunny-edition
fnord
Here's an Evil Plan for the next Dem Administration: Require all ICE agents to be bilingual; prohibit ICE agents from carrying weapons of any kind; only allow ICE to detain immigrants ordered removed by a court or already arrested for a criminal offense; require ICE to use police as armed escorts to detain any person deemed dangerous; require ICE agents to identify themselves on demand; and allocate half the budget of ICE to public service announcements debunking misinformation about immigrants.
Define their area of responsibility as anything extending 3 inches from the actual border of America ... airports and ports of entry do not count.
How about fire them all and cancel their budget? Trump did it ti USAID.
Something I thought of adding, give USAID ten times whatever budget ICE receives.
The judge is a disappointment.
It may not give you a justice boner, but the fact is, the judge hadn't been able to read the entire submission, and unlike in Portland, the troops hadn't actually arrived/been called up yet AND there was a controlling precedent from the appeals court okaying a similar federalization in a sister district (LA). There's still some time for her to consider things. She isn't bound by Ninth Circuit precedent and doesn't have to move fast to make factual distinctions like Judge Immergut did to respect precedent but not get overturned immediately and still make sure the Oregon guard stood down.
I fully expect there will be a TRO issued, attached to a well-reasoned opinion that distinguishes the Ninth Circuit opinion, most likely on the facts as well as the law, at the end of the hearing tomorrow. She wants to do this right. The troops are not yet on our doorstep and she wants to keep it that way and wants to make sure her opinion is as rock-solid as possible.
We'll see. Her considered response might give you a 'majesty of the law' boner, but it might also be the futile wheezing of another institutional guardrail as it's crushed under the heel of raw fascist power.
Treating bad faith legal shenanigans from a fascist regime as if they were normal legal actions from a government operating in the before times might be the best possible response in a difficult situation, or it might be impotent theatre staged to convince the actors themselves as the men with guns storm through the door. It might be that the government's essential position, which doesn't take 500 pages to elucidate, (that there is an emergency requiring federalization or deployment of the national guard) is of such glaring absurdity that the only proper response is to state exactly how absurd it is, and to immediately find for Illinois, while perhaps adding sanctions for the federal lawyers for abusing the court system. If the government's position, developed in a 10,000 page filing, had been that they believed that feral cats in the state of Illinois posed such a grave threat to public safety that the federal government felt obligated to federalize and deploy the NG, what should the proper response of the judge have been? Yeah, whatever that would be is what should have been done here.
I suppose if you think we're still in the before times, or that we can get through a fascist interlude to the after times by pretending the fascists are just like any are other party standing before the court, then sure, the judge's response is understandable, maybe even optimal. I myself don't think the pretense of normality obviously serves a purpose at this point, or is likely to do more than briefly delay the next move in the fascist playbook. While a dramatic identification of absurdity and condemnation of bad faith, judicial decorum be damned, might just be, together with other judicial and civic demonstrations of resistance, enough to shock people into a realisation of what we're dealing with, to get the frog to jump out of the water.
ARE YOU GUYZES STILL TALKING ABOUT BONERS IN THERE??
Hon, the courts are just about the only institution still holding the line against the fascists, SCOTUS excepted.
In fact, she's trying to SCOTUS-proof her opinion, or, if she draws a hell panel like Judge Frimpong did in LA, provide the basis for the other judges on the Seventh Circuit to meet en banc like the DC Circuit did on a couple of occasions of their own accord to override a hell panel's stupid decisions. A federal district judge can't shortchange the record. They're the ones who are eyes and ears. They hold the hearings. They see the witnesses and read the record and have the attorneys from the government standing in front of them lying their asses off. They have to capture all that and create a record so they can use the power of the state without getting overturned. If she half-asses it, she gives even Pam Bondi enough evidence to undo all her work.
Let her cook.
Hon, you're faith that the courts will ultimately stop fascist power that sneers at and ignores courts that rule against them is touching.
I don't agree that the courts are 'holding the line' against fascism, they're slowing it down, not more. The courts don't have a mechananism to recognize the government as fascist, since this is new territory for everyone. They treat its bad faith and presentation of absurd arguments and evidence as something deserving of engagement, where any other party doing that would be refused consideration by the court. And of course, 'the courts' themselves are to a significant degree captured by the fascists.
Historically there's little evidence that fascism that has gained power is stopped by legal action and court findings. But yes, the exercise of normal court procedures can be helpful, alongside other kinds of resistance. My argument is basically that that normal court procedures should not extend to rewarding fascist bad faith behavior before the court and presentation of absurdities in evidence and argumentation, that such things are not deserving of normal court consideration, and that the normal presumption of governmental good faith should be abandoned when it is abused, that the damage from normalization of fascist propaganda outweighs the gains from the performancel of judicial normality.
The lower courts are not giving the federal government deference anymore. The feds have lost the presumption of regularity they've enjoyed for decades, because the DOJ lies to judges. The judges are learning as they go how to hold the administration's feet to the fire with the tools they have available to them, and since Congress is doing fuck-all, they're the only ones doing any damn thing to stop or even slow fascism down.
Judge Perry issued a TRO today in Chicago declaring the government had not shown there was any credible basis to believe there was a rebellion in Chicago, and refused to stay her order while the government appealed.
What would you have her do?
Sorry, but I think Illinois and local authorities should be playing a much tougher game. Investigations? Why not arrests? If a protester does something illegal, do they start an investigation?
The legislature should pass laws mandating no masks, IDs worn, cars used by ICE registered with the city or state etc etc. Traffic stops to check that ICE is in compliance. Monitoring of ICE activity. If ICE is undertaking undercover work, they should be required to coordinate with state and local anyway, everything else is public immigration activity. And about a hundred other things.
i don't know. here in IL we show up and maybe get arrested.
i'm proud to maybe get arrested.
what are you doing?
I didn't say anything about protesters or protesting, so I'm not sure what your point is. I'm glad you and others are protesting, I hope you don't get arrested or shot.
My comment was regarding state and local authorities. It's not a comment I just cooked up out of nothing, there are plenty of writers and other commenters saying such things. A good presentation of this view imo is the blogger Christopher Armitage.
https://substack.com/@chrisarmitage1?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1ceahj
It is very fitting that ICE be undone by the need to poop. I guess you can’t run an army from Twitter.