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Racist Trump Dumbfuck Can't Explain Whiteness (But Yer Ol' Uncle Ogre Can!)

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The Opinionated Ogre is a Stay-at-Home parent first, foul-mouthed hater of fascist Republicans second. He’s been making the most horrible people in the country miserable for over 15 years, and the hate he feels for American Nazis is eternal and without limits. He plans to stop torturing right-wing trash the day the last fascist dies. So, you know, never. Please help support this potty-mouthed newsletter for just $5/month or $50/year (Almost 17% less!)

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One of the things I’ve learned about white nationalists is that if you let them talk, they will expose just how fucking stupid they are. You really don’t have to be witty or insightful or ask deep, probing questions. They do all the heavy lifting because, ultimately, these peak racist white men are fucking imbeciles. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be white nationalists in the first place.

We saw this happen last week on national TV as Senator Chris Murphy (D-Hero) asked a few simple questions and let Jeremy Carl, a Trump nominee, eviscerate himself.

Trigger warning: Watching Carl crash and burn is so cringey and embarrassing, it’s hard to watch.

It is pretty funny watching Sen. Murphy and the people behind him start laughing, though.

I haven’t written about this in a long time, but if you ever have the chance, ask a dumbfuck white nationalist or some other nitwit pounding their chest about “white pride” and “white identity” blablabla to explain it. Explain what the fuck they’re so proud about. It really is hilarious to watch them flail about. It’s like asking a dog to explain 2+2. It should be really simple. Basic stuff. But they can’t. Ever.

Dogs have an excuse, of course. They’re dogs. Cute. Man’s Best Friend. Not mentally equipped to do math. Can’t speak.

Racist white men, though? Marginally smarter than dogs. A lot less cute. No one’s best friend. Not mentally equipped to do much of anything except be a precious little snowflake. Can, unfortunately, speak and they never EVER shut the fuck up.

Still, white pride and white identity are the core of literally everything they do. It’s the foundation of their temple of hate and violence. You’d think they would be able to explain it in granular detail and at great length. Instead, they humiliate themselves every single time.

I know this because I stumbled across this phenomenon maybe 15-17 years ago on Facebook. This was during my “Who the fuck are these assholes?” phase, back when I was trying to learn what motivated the American right. It turned out to be way less complicated than I thought. It’s racism and misogyny, that’s it. Nothing else. But I didn’t know that at the time.

Still, I started poking around right-wing Facebook. This was back before Facebook was taken over by right-wing propaganda, so I had to go find it. But I did, and I found several groups filled with patriotic, ‘Murika-lovin’ white people who were just so darned packed with white pride and love for whiteness.

I asked the simplest of questions: What is it about whiteness that you’re proud of?

I quickly discovered what Sen. Murphy showed the nation: These racist motherfuckers had no goddamn idea what whiteness was. None whatsoever. I alternated between laughing and being really mad. How the fuck do you masturbate over the color of your skin all the time without being able to explain why? Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?! How do you not know what white pride is?!

That wasn’t entirely true, though. They didn’t know what whiteness was, but they sure as fuck were eager to tell me what whiteness wasn’t.

Not one conversation I had failed to talk about Black Pride and Hispanic Heritage Month. Why does B.E.T. exist? When do we get a White Pride Month?! On and on and on about this group and that group and everything and everyone else EXCEPT whiteness.

They really could never tell me about whiteness by itself. They could only talk about it in reference to other groups, groups they despised. You can see the hapless dimwit Carl struggle the same exact way. He cannot explain white culture without referencing Black culture or Asian culture as a reference point.

Here’s the Big Secret1 why, and, frankly, I doubt Carl and most racist dipshits even understand this: Whiteness is, and always has been, a culture of exclusion. Whiteness exists to define outgroups in order to preserve the power of whoever we decide is “white.” It’s a photographic negative. It only exists in relation to what it isn’t.

It amuses me greatly that Carl talks about the Irish as being a part of his precious white identity and white culture because it wasn’t that long ago that the Irish were considered “not white.” Not only were they “not white,” they were quite literally considered equal to Blacks.

Ye Olde Racism was not fucking subtle.

This is the difficulty racist shitheels like Carl face when spewing their nonsense. The core of their belief, as Sen. Murphy says, is that white culture is superior. That being white is better. But the only reason these knuckledragging assholes can give is “White is better because it means I’m not Black/Latino/Asian/Arabic/A Dirty Jew.”

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Saying that out loud, of course, sounds racist because it is racist. So they can’t really say that. They WANT to say it, but they can’t because racists always have to cloak themselves in victimhood. Announcing to the world that you’re superior and everyone you hate is inferior, so that’s why you should be in power, makes it exceptionally difficult to maintain the perpetual fiction you’re a martyr. “Boo hoo! Woe is me! Why can’t all these lesser races see that I’m their genetic master?!” is not a winning message.

Some of the more clever racist shitweasels tried to claim that white people invented everything. Accomplished everything. White men got us to the Moon blablabla. See? That’s why white people are the best!

That’s always fun because I politely ask them if white Russians really celebrate white Americans landing on the Moon. How about the British? The Swedish? How about the white Australians? Do they walk about bragging about how white people landed on the Moon? Or do they talk about Americans landing on the Moon and take no specific pride in it other than maybe, “Cool, the human race did that!”

The same goes for almost any invention, discovery, or achievement. No one except racist dingbats says “white people did that!” They talk about the country the person is from. National pride? Sure. White pride? Completely artificial.

Then comes the whining about Black pride and Asian pride and Latino pride and whine whine whine bitch bitch bitch. And again, if you cannot define your culture without referencing or contrasting someone else, you do not have a culture. Black culture is quite distinct. If you’ve ever watched a Black pride event, they don’t talk about anyone else but Black people and Black history. They don’t need to talk about anyone else. Same for Latinos and Asians, etc., etc.

Go to a white pride event, and all it’s about is how glad they all are not to be something other than white. And usually country music, which isn’t really white. It’s “borrowed” just like most white music. The most important element of any white pride event, of course, is crying big sobby tears about how your precious “white culture” is under attack. You know, the culture you can’t really define? But it’s 100% being destroyed! For sure!

Jon Stewart highlighted how ridiculous the whole white culture is being erased thing is last week:

Yeah, how tragic for Lee Brice and all the white people in America who can’t drink a beer, go fishing, and punch a trans kid in the face. My heart fucking bleeds for their suffering. Won’t someone think of their culture before it’s gone forever?!

Whiteness was always a construct. It was never anything but a schackle to put Those People in bondage to The Privileged. It’s why racists are so terrified of a future without white supremacy and white privilege. A world not designed to cater to them is a world where their mediocrity will no longer be hidden. Having to compete on a level playing field against people you’ve been taught are inferior and discovering you’re not actually special would be devastating. Better to burn it all down than allow that to happen.

That’s not going to happen, of course. The regime is going to fall, and their dreams of a Fourth Reich and permanent white power will die when Donald Trump and Stephen Miller (among so many others) flee the country.

Maybe someday, white people will develop an honest-to-goodness culture of their own. But that won’t happen until they stop defining themselves by what they aren’t. And that won’t happen until they stop allowing racism and misogyny be the animating forces of who they are.

Or maybe we’ll just stop pretending whiteness is real. That “white identity” even exists outside of racism and hate. God knows, fucking idiots like Jeremy Carl can’t explain it to themselves, so why the fuck should the rest of us bother listening to them? In the meantime, whenever you come across this trash online, just ask them to explain what they love so much about their whiteness and enjoy the show. Watching the handful of surviving brain cells malfunction is always entertaining. I promise you.

I write to help you cope with the fear and anger threatening to overwhelm you every day. If this newsletter gets you through these dark times, please consider becoming a contributing supporter for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!

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There are only 259 days until the midterms, and the regime is panicking. They’re afraid of us. Keep making them afraid every single day. Remember, you are never alone. We beat the fascists once. We will fucking do it again.

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It’s not a secret at all, we just don’t generally talk about it because it Makes White People Sad.

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DGA51
3 hours ago
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Central Pennsyltucky
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Rigging Elections, Trump Style

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Kristi Noem’s Arizona Remarks Signal Trump Team’s Election Control Strategy

Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s portfolio has nothing to do with elections, but in Arizona last week she spoke words revealing the Trump administration’s bold intent to rig the 2026 and 2028 elections, which if successful means ending our liberties. Noem said:

“When it gets to Election Day, we’ve been proactive to make sure that we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country.”

Lots of luck trying to find her words on the front page of newspapers or the network news shows, however. The excuses for not reporting this are simple: It’s unclear what she meant. It’s not news because it’s not new, just new phrasing. And since elections are not part of Noem’s portfolio her words aren’t significant.

On Friday Trump delivered further evidence of his foul intentions in an outrageously inappropriate speech to troops at Fort Bragg where he appeared beside a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate.

“You have to vote for us,” he declared.

Fortunately, most of the soldiers remained silent, as they are supposed to. The light applause came from civilians who support Trump and his efforts to politicize our military. News coverage of this was greater than of Noem’s remarks, but still far from robust.

But bad news judgment aside, you should be alarmed at what Noem said. Let me explain the reasons.

Noem’s minions and defenders argue that by “right people” she means citizens and nothing more. That defense is beyond weak because non-citizen voting is extremely rare no matter how often Trump and his acolytes spread his lies.

The Heritage Foundation, source of Trump’s Project 2025 wrecking ball playbook, found only 24 instances from 2003 to 2023. That’s 24 votes out of billions for president, Senate and House over two decades. Bupkis.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian promoting organization with a solid reputation for being principled, denounced this lie just this month in clear terms: Trump’s Claims About Noncitizens Voting Are False. We Can Prove It.

Noem’s second point, about electing “the right leaders,” is harder to defend.

In normal times her remark would be treated as just urging votes for her party or her party segment. But that doesn’t work because the Trump administration considers any vote not for him and his chosen candidates to be illegitimate.

Dictator Donald reigns as the president of Red states and the punisher of Blue. He withholds Congressionally appropriated federal funds from Blue states and cities. He sends armed troops and masked ICE agents to occupy Blue zones. Trump and his cabinet constantly refer to “real Americans,” hoping to stigmatize those who stand up for freedom, integrity, and the rule of law as well as the educated and competent.

There’s no whitewashing Noem’s second part. Trump continues to lie that the 2020 election was stolen. His longtime adviser Steve Bannon said ICE agents will “surround” polling places this year. And as this MS Now report shows, Bannon is not alone in wanting ICE to intimidate voters who aren’t part of the MAGA cult.

Muddying Clear Waters

The most generous interpretation of Noem’s comments would note that she was speaking in Arizona about the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act (H.R. 22/H.R. 8281). The so-called Save America Act is Trump’s effort  to restrict voting to people who support him and limit voting by anyone who favors other candidates for office. But since her position has zip to do with elections why is she speaking on this? And why is she speaking in what defenders have to say are less than clear terms?

The answer: muddying clear waters is a Trumpian conman game, a way to convey messages without being—he thinks—accountable.

Even if you accept that lame excuse, and I don’t, you should be alarmed at Noem’s efforts to divide Americans and pit us against one another. That’s how early-stage dictatorships work, before they get to the inevitable stage of mass purging of loyalists (like Noem) to ensure struct obedience to Dear Leader.

Following the first of many loyalist purges expect mass arrests of critics and opponents, holding people incommunicado without access to the courts (already being done to those swept up by ICE). Eventually despots turn to firing squads or their murderous equivalents, to maintain their illegitimate power. Think about Putin’s agents using African frog poison to kill opposition leader Victor Navalny and the ayatollahs executing and massacring many thousands of dissident Iranians.

So long as Trump remains in power his regime intends to rig future elections. Bannon, Noem, and Trump himself make that obvious. Not acting today to protect your and everyone else’s ballots will mean paying a much greater price tomorrow, assuming that, like me, you want to restore our democracy and live in an actual land of the free and the home of the brave.

Frequently Asked Questions About This Story

What did Kristi Noem say about elections in Arizona?

She said officials were being proactive to ensure “the right people” are voting and “electing the right leaders,” a remark that critics argue signals partisan control of elections.

Does Homeland Security oversee elections?

The Department of Homeland Security does not directly administer elections, which are managed by state and local governments.

Is noncitizen voting common in U.S. elections?

Studies from organizations including the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute show documented cases are extremely rare compared to total votes cast.

What is the SAVE Act (H.R. 22 / H.R. 8281)?

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act proposes stricter proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.

Why are critics concerned about voter intimidation?

Statements from political figures about surrounding polling places or deploying enforcement resources have raised concerns about potential voter suppression or intimidation.

Want to know the voter ID rules in your state?

Click on this Ballotpedia link.


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The post Rigging Elections, Trump Style appeared first on DCReport.org.

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DGA51
6 hours ago
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American Muslims Finally Get Their Reward For Supporting Trump: A Knife In The Back In Texas

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I write to help you cope with the fear and anger threatening to overwhelm you every day. If this newsletter gets you through these dark times, please consider becoming a contributing supporter for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!

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Someday, we will get through this, and the regime will have fallen. We will look over the wreckage and the bodies, and people will still be asking, “How? How did this happen?” They will want sanitized answers like “America lost its way” or “We may never really understand. Only history can judge.”

But they won’t get those sanitized answers and the absolution they bring because there will be people absolute fire-breathing assholes just like me, standing there, with receipts.

“You want to know why and how this happened? Let me fucking tell you. A whole lot of extremely stupid fucking people voted their racism instead of their common fucking sense. These extremely stupid fucking people voted for literal white Christian Nationalists despite being the exact people literal white Christian Nationalists want to murder. Why? Because they thought the, and I cannot stress this enough, literal white Christian Nationalists, hated some of the same people THEY hated, so they thought they would be safe. They fucked around and we ALL found out.”

You know the story of how American Latinos fucked around and found out. We’re watching that play out in real time. Now let me tell you the story of American Muslims and what’s almost certainly about to happen to them.

You see, American Muslims, too many of them, thought that they could align themselves with the hatemongers of the Republican Party. It was a completely nonsensical alliance. They heaped scorn on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for something something “Gaza Gaza Gaza” while holding hands with Republicans to punch the LGBTQ community in the face.

There were a few things that made this “alliance” so historically stupid:

  1. Could Biden have done better on Gaza? Maybe. Maybe not. We do not, in fact, control Israel. Netanyahu is a monster and he was always going to do what he’s doing. Biden and Harris were the only obstacles; the only thing holding him back.

    On the other hand, to even suggest Trump would not unleash absolute horror after he spent four years cozying up to Netanyahu and spewing hate at Muslims was to be willfully blind to reality. How has that worked out for Palestinians?

    Gaza facing worst economic collapse ever recorded, UN trade agency warns


    Malnutrition rates reach alarming levels in Gaza, WHO warns


    Israeli assaults make 2025 deadliest year yet for Palestinians


    Oh, and then there was this:

    Clearly, Trump is so much better for Gaza than Biden. But…no. I said back in November of 2024 that American Muslims who sided with Trump had signed the death warrant of Palestinians in Gaza. And so they have. But it was never going to stop with Gaza. They were putting their own necks on the chopping block. They were just too blinded by their own hate to see it.

  2. That brings us to the next part of why this “alliance” with the GOP was insane from the start: Republicans hate Muslims. They spent twenty years waging a literal Holy Crusade in the Middle East, trying to lay waste to Islam. Not Islamic terrorists, but Islam itself. If you don’t recall, the Bush regime was very enthusiastic about this “clash of civilizations.”

    The Republican-controlled federal government persecuted Muslims in this country in ways that seem almost quaint now. Illegal domestic surveillance. Spying on houses of worship. Paying people to inform and then disappearing and torturing anyone they grabbed. Later, they would be shocked and stunned to discover the information was garbage.

    All while this was going on, right-wing media spread Islamophobia on a scale that would have made Jim Crow-era racists blush. Hate crimes spiked. Children were bullied. Women were assaulted. Homes were vandalized. Mosques were burned. But, hey, that was so long ago! I’m sure Republicans have gotten over all of that, right?

    No, they have not. Which brings us to the backstabbing part of the article:

What?! No fucking way! The Republican Party is going after Muslims?! The same Republican Party whose center of gravity is white Christian Nationalism is targeting American Muslims and whipping up fear and anger against a religious minority?! But how? Why? What could they possibly gain from stabbing their “allies” in the back after they rushed to embrace Donald Trump in the 2024 election (or at least stay home and not vote)?

Now, let’s be clear, there are not a lot of Muslims in the United States. There are, at most, 4.5 million. Maybe. They shifted hard to the right, but at least half of them still did not vote to slit their own throats. But an awful lot of them did. Palestinians paid a steep price for their stupidity, and now they’re going to pay as well.

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Here’s the thing: The shift in Texas is being portrayed as a response to the border “calming down.” That’s not entirely true. There are still hundreds of thousands of people crossing the border. Not nearly as many as two years ago, yes, but it’s hard to trust any numbers coming from the regime at this point. It’s definitely down, but how much for real? We can’t tell for certain. But that’s not the point. It could be double and Republicans would still be targeting Muslims.

These are the actual reasons for the shift in rhetoric:

  1. The regime has been in power for over a year. It’s important to understand that the overwhelming majority of the hysteria over the border was manufactured by right-wing media and the GOP itself. It was designed to terrify racist white Americans with stories of hordes of dangerous, diseased, drug-dealing immigrants coming to rape their white women and steal both their jobs and all of their government welfare at the same time!

    But with the regime in power, it won’t do to keep fearmongering over immigrants swarming the border. If that were still happening, it would mean the regime is a failure. None may dare say such a thing! So, no more hysteria over the border allowed.

  2. Texas is a border state, but I promise you, the message will go out all across the country: Islamophobia is in for 2026. Bashing Latino immigrants is wildly unpopular now because of Stephen Miller’s Gestapo. With the midterms barreling toward the doomed GOP at 90 MPH, they are desperate to talk about anything else. But! As I’ve mentioned and as we all know, the GOP is a white Christian Nationalist party. They are filthy fucking fascists. Racism and bigotry are all they know.

    They could lean into the trans thing again, but the 2025 off-year elections showed that attacking trans kids has lost its magic as a campaign issue. Just ask the Republican gubernatorial candidate for Virginia. I live here, and I don’t even remember her name. Chances are you don’t, either. She didn’t just lose after running a rabidly transphobic campaign; she was demolished in one of the worst routs Virginia has seen in over 30 years.1

    So…can’t talk about trans kids. Can’t talk about immigrants. Maybe talk about Black people? DO NOT TALK ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE. What about Muslims? We can always bash them, right? People are still afraid of terroism and we kind of want to go to war with Iran, don’t we?

    Yeah…that’s it! That’s the ticket! Roll out the Muslim-bashing!

It’s Fascism 101. There must always be a new threat (even if it’s an old one). There must always be a new out-group. There must always be someone to fear and hate. For over a decade, that out-group was Muslims. The hate never really stopped. It was just put on the back burner to simmer while trans kids and Latino immigrants got their turn in the frying pan of white Christian Nationalism rage. But now Muslims are getting their turn again.

They thought if they voted their hate, they would be welcomed into the coalition of bigots. After all, they hate the LGBTQ community, too! And even though the GOP professes to love Israel, we can all see the raging antisemitism roiling just under the surface. Aren’t we all brothers-in-arms against the insidious Jew menace?

Just like millions of Latinos voting Republican in hopes of earning their way into the good graces of the American right wing, millions of Muslims are about learn that same harsh lesson: You cannot join the Nazis if you are not a white Christian. They will not accept you. They will NEVER accept you. You will always be used for your vote and then weaponized to scare white people into voting against you when it’s more convenient for you to be the villain. And when they have the power to dispose of you, you will be scooped up and put into a concentration camp as an “Enemy of the State.”

I can’t imagine for a second why American Muslims thought it wouldn’t go this way. Why they thought Republicans would ever, in a million years, bring them into the fold. Why the rabidly xenophobic monsters of the right wouldn’t turn on them at the first opportunity.

But here we are, at the opening stages of the next phase of Republican fearmongering. By November, jihadists will be behind every corner. The border will be overrun with secret Islamic terrorists. Every mosque will be an undercover meeting place for ISIS.

I sure hope voting your bigotry was worth setting your communities on fire. Looks like 2026 is gonna be a rough year for you.

I hope you feel better informed about the world and ready to kick fascists in the teeth to protect it. This newsletter exists because of you, so please consider becoming a supporting subscriber today for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!

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There are only 262 days until the midterms, and the regime is panicking. They’re afraid of us. Keep making them afraid every single day. Remember, you are never alone. We beat the fascists once. We will fucking do it again.

1

Only 2009 inches 2025 out. Hmmmm…now why would Republicans have a wave election the year after America’s first Black president was elected? I’m sure racism had nothing to do with it.

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DGA51
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Minneapolis showed us why Trump and his fascists will lose

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Trump’s Stupidity Czar, Tom Homan, announced today that the “surge” in Minneapolis is over. It lasted just over two months. The Department of Homeland Security sent more than 3,000 agents from the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, five times as many as the number of police in Minneapolis. They murdered two U.S. citizens and terrorized the entire city. They claim to have arrested 4,000 immigrants, but DHS has refused to issue a list of the arrestees, so that number is probably a lie.

Was what they called “Operation Metro Surge” a success for Trump? By any measure, no. Trump’s poll numbers plummeted since last November, before the surge began. He is underwater on every issue he cares about, starting with the issue he believes put him in the White House, immigration. He has lost the support of people who flipped from Joe Biden to Trump between 2020 and 2024. He has lost the support of Latinos. He has lost the support of people between 18 and 35. He lost the support of young white men. He has even lost among so-called “low information” voters, people who don’t pay much attention to politics and do not vote regularly.

All so he could arrest 4,000 immigrants he claims are in this country illegally. That is a very, very high price.

The problem with fascism is that it always ends up where it starts, because fascists don’t have any new ideas. They are inflexible. They think because they have power, they can just keep doing what they’re doing. The leaders Trump appointed to run DHS and ICE and Border Patrol are just like him. Trump wants what he wants when he wants it, he wants it the way he wants it, that is his beginning, and it’s where he ends up. ICE and Border Patrol didn’t change anything after the murder of Renee Good by one of their agents because they thought they didn’t have to. They were the ones with the power, and they were going to keep doing things their way, no matter what happened.

This led directly to the murder of Alex Pretti a few weeks later. It led to increased resistance by the citizens of Minneapolis. Ultimately, it led to where Tom Homan ended up today, two weeks after Trump sent him to Minneapolis to try to salvage things. Instead, he announced that ICE and Border Patrol are leaving.

For fascists, flexibility is failure. If something isn’t working, they just keep doing things the same way they started. Look at what happened with Trump and his obsession with Greenland. He said right from the beginning that he would make Greenland part of the United States no “matter what it takes.” Denmark and Greenland stood up to him. The European Union stood up to him. Several European nations deployed troops to Greenland. Trump kept making the same idiotic statements, the same demands, until finally at Davos, he had to back down.

Kristi Noem and DHS could have done the whole thing differently. They could have sent ICE and Border Patrol agents to Minneapolis and sought to work with local and state police to identify those they called “the worst of the worst” and arrested them. But that is not the way fascists work. They thought we’re in charge, so we’re doing things our way.

When the citizens of Minneapolis rebelled and resisted peacefully by following ICE patrols and reporting to each other where the patrols were going and showing up in numbers greater than the number of agents carrying out the patrols, Noem and Bongino and the rest of ICE and Border Patrol commanders just kept up the same tactics. When it turned out that immigrants were staying off the streets and keeping their children out of school to avoid arrests, ICE kept to the same tactics. When citizens of Minneapolis pitched in and brought food to immigrants so they could continue hiding, ICE kept to the same tactics. When two citizens who were peacefully resisting were murdered, ICE didn’t change what they were doing. Noem and Trump and Miller doubled down.

Trump and his fascists refused to change their tactics because fascists don’t do that. They just keep pushing. Trump could have studied history to see what happened to Hitler and the Nazis in World War II. They murdered civilians wholesale. They bombed civilians in Great Britain. They took and occupied way more territory than they had the forces to hold. When the U.S. and Allied forces started moving successfully against Hitler, he kept doing what he had been doing. Hitler didn’t change. Fascists were inflexible, predictable.

Trump could have paid attention to what has happened in Ukraine. Putin attacked a much weaker country with a much smaller army. They managed to take some land, but when Ukraine pushed back forcefully and cleverly, the Russians got stalled. So, Putin started bombing and killing civilians, and he just kept doing what he was doing. Putin was inflexible. He had no new ideas. He and his fascist forces are in the same place they were three years ago.

Trump is in the same place he was three months ago. The only difference between Trump and Putin is that the citizens of Minneapolis didn’t fight back with guns and artillery. Instead, Trump has been defeated on the battlefield of Minneapolis by an army of peaceful civilians using their will, their cohesiveness, their cellphones, their whistles and their flexibility. When ICE moved from one neighborhood to another, the citizens of Minneapolis moved right along with them.

Minneapolis made it as difficult as possible for ICE and Border Patrol to do their jobs. They posted photos and videos showing the world what ICE was doing – beating people, throwing women to the ground, arresting little children, separating parents from their children, gassing and beating and even killing peaceful civilians.

It worked. Trump’s numbers began to take a beating. Everything his people said to the press was a lie. Good and Pretti were not “urban terrorists.” They were peaceful protesters. When Trump’s lawyers went into court and told lies, they were found out and admonished by judges, who began to ban some of the tactics ICE was using, such as using tear gas and pepper spray on peaceful protesters.

What is Trump having his fascist forces do now? They are readying assaults into red states like Kentucky and Tennessee, where local and state police are signing cooperation and partnership agreements. But not everyone in Tennessee and Kentucky and Louisiana is MAGA. There are pro-immigrant organizations everywhere. There are lawyers who can file the same sorts of lawsuits that worked in Minneapolis and Chicago.

When Trump’s fascists encounter resistance in other states, they will keep doing what they do, because they don’t have any new ideas. They are inflexible because Trump is inflexible. He thinks that because he has power, he can do things any way he wants.

The citizens of Minneapolis proved that fascism didn’t work in their streets. Citizens in other cities in other states have been watching. Trump’s fascists will keep making mistakes because they don’t have any other way of doing things. More people will be killed. Trump is under 40 percent in some polls, and his numbers will continue to go even lower than they are now.

This is an election year. More than 50 Republicans have already announced they are retiring from Congress. There will be more. Trump’s fascist gerrymandering tactic isn’t working. Fifteen state legislatures that were once safely Republican are now up for grabs. What he is doing in the streets of America to immigrants and to American citizens is not working, and it’s not popular. Minneapolis showed us that.

MAGA or no MAGA, this is not a fascist country. Trump is going to turn some red states blue in November. He’s going to push and push and push with his stupid tactics on immigration, and he’s going to push and push and push with his stupid tariffs, and prices are going to keep going up, and he is going to continue to shed support, and he’s going to lose both houses of Congress in November.

Fascism doesn’t work. Trump’s refusal to learn this is going to cost him dearly.

They’re going down, and I’m going to be there to write about every stumble. I would really appreciate your support. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

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DGA51
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Halloween for cowards

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Want to protect officers — and our democracy? Ban masks - Los Angeles Times
Masked and ready for wilding

Here are two things that definitely don’t belong together: guns and masks.

You know who wears a mask and uses a gun? Bank robbers and kidnappers and rapists. They don’t want to be identified because they are committing crimes. If their actions are seen by witnesses or recorded by security cameras, their faces are evidence, not only of their identity, but of their crimes.

Why do ICE and Border Patrol agents want to conceal their identities? We’re told that it’s because they don’t want to be doxxed. It’s said that if their faces are visible, they can be identified, and they could be harassed online or physically attacked. But that is complete and utter bullshit. Ordinary citizens don’t have access to facial recognition technology, so even if their faces were visible, ICE agents would be unlikely to be identified.

Local police officers who work in the same cities as ICE agents aren’t masked. In fact, not only are their faces visible, but they also wear badges showing their names and police ID numbers. In fact, most states require police officers to give their identities and badge numbers verbally if asked. National Guard soldiers who have been federally mobilized and assigned over the past year to patrol the streets in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Portland, and Chicago have not worn masks, and they have name tags on their uniforms.

So, the cops and the soldiers aren’t afraid of showing their faces and wearing badges with their names. What’s going on with ICE and Border Patrol?

It’s all macho nonsense, intimidation, and the coverup of crimes and violations of law enforcement as they carry out arrests of immigrants and even citizens who have been swept up in their tactics of terror.

They’re cowards, and their leaders are protecting them by indulging their fear of being identified. Cops and soldiers aren’t afraid of being identified as they go about their assignments on the streets of American cities. Wearing name tags and other identifying insignia that might subject them to harassment from the public goes with the territory. They are not secret agents. They are public officials paid by the taxpayers to carry out legitimate duties that include protecting the public from criminals, ensuring that drivers of automobiles follow the law and do not endanger the public by speeding or driving recklessly, and assisting people who are in distress from medical emergencies or who have suffered accidents.

They’re proud of what they do. They’re proud of their uniforms, which by custom and law make them identifiable to the public they serve. The military issues face coverings such as balaclavas to soldiers to be worn in extreme temperatures for warmth or at night to camouflage exposed skin that would be visible to the enemy using night vision devices. Even when they are captured, soldiers are told that they can reveal their name, rank, and serial number.

What are the names and ranks and serial numbers of the ICE and Border Patrol agents who have been wilding through the streets of Minneapolis and other cities? We don’t know. A Republican congressman appeared on CNBC recently and answered the question of why ICE agents are masked and don’t wear identifying badges this way: “They’re known, obviously, to their supervisors,” he replied, apparently expecting that his answer would make sense to someone. But it doesn’t matter if supervisors of ICE and Border Patrol agents know the identities of the agents under them, because the supervisors are not identified, either.

This country has never had a uniformed secret police force in its history. The idea of masked and unidentified law enforcement agents was manufactured by Trump administration officials such as Stephen Miller to terrorize not only the immigrants they are tasked with finding and arresting, but the population of citizens in the cities where their sweeps are being carried out. It isn’t likely that if their identities are known, they would be liable to charges of violating the law, because the Trump Department of Justice would never bring charges against them. What they’re afraid of is being sued for violating people’s civil rights.

Well, cops who break the law or violate police procedure are sued every day. They know when they sign up to be police officers that they are civilly liable for their actions.

What masks and anonymity do for ICE and Border Patrol agents is to put them beyond the reach of the law and the courts. Masks and the absence of identifying badges and name tags are violations of the Constitution’s provisions against unreasonable searches and seizures and guarantee of the protections of due process of law.

ICE needs to be abolished, but short of that, Democrats should stand by their demands that ICE and Border Patrol agents must be banned from wearing masks and must wear badges with their names and identifying numbers. If they want to enforce the law, they must first abide by the law.

What horrors are next? Who knows at this point, but when they happen, I’ll be there to report on them. I need your support to do this. Please consider buying a subscription. I will truly appreciate it.

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DGA51
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What masks and anonymity do for ICE and Border Patrol agents is to put them beyond the reach of the law and the courts.
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Florida’s Strict Liability Rule for Dog Bites: What it Means for Victims

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Florida’s strict liability rule can sound simple: the owner pays when a dog bites. In real life, it is easy for victims to get pushed into delays, low offers, or unfair blame. Knowing what ‘strict’ covers helps you protect your health and your claim. 

It also helps you speak clearly to doctors, insurers, and witnesses, and keeps you from accepting blame in a conversation that feels casual but gets recorded. Here are five ways Florida’s strict liability rule works. 

1.Strict liability focuses on the bite, not the dog’s past

Under Florida dog bite laws, the owner can be responsible even if the dog has never bitten anyone before. You usually do not have to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous. The case often turns on whether a bite happened and whether you were lawfully on the property. Be sure to take photos of the wound, the scene, and any torn clothing.

2.Whether you had permission to be on the property is crucial

Strict liability hinges on where you were and why you were there. If you were in a public place, the rule is straightforward. If you were on private property, your right to be there matters. 

Guests, delivery workers, and people doing business usually qualify. Trespassing arguments can derail claims, so write down why you were there, who invited you, and the time.

3.Warning signs and shared fault can shrink or erase what you recover

Florida’s dog bite statute has a “Bad Dog” sign carveout for the owner’s property, with exceptions for children under six years and for cases tied to the owner’s negligence. Even when strict liability applies, your actions can still reduce damages through comparative fault. 

Florida dog bite laws can bar recovery in many negligence actions if you are found more than 50% at fault. Do not aim to guess fault in the moment. Be sure to stick to facts, and avoid lines like ‘I shouldn’t have touched the dog.’

4.Damages are not just the ER bill

A bite can mean stitches, infection care, scar treatment, and follow-ups. It can also mean missed work, disrupted sleep, and anxiety. Strict liability is about damages suffered, so documentation drives value. Be sure to keep every receipt, and track pain days and limits, like trouble driving or lifting. Ask your doctor to note restrictions in writing.

5.The filing window is short, so act with urgency

You have two years to sue for negligence in Florida. This makes early evidence even more important because memories fade and records get harder to pull. Report the bite to animal control, get contact information for witnesses, and request the incident report. If an insurer calls, you can listen, but you do not need to rush into a recorded statement on day one.

Endnote

Strict liability can make Florida dog bite cases clearer, but it does not make them effortless. Evidence and timing still drive results. Focus on care first, then preserve proof while details are fresh. If you need advice, a Florida attorney can review your facts and deadlines.

Photo: Ivan Babydov via Pexels.


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The post Florida’s Strict Liability Rule for Dog Bites: What it Means for Victims appeared first on DCReport.org.

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