#trump must go to jail

[whatthehelloh]

"Hit list": Trump grand jurors face violent threats after names and addresses shared on QAnon forums

Experts warn of "chilling effect that personal targeting can have on jurors, on voters, on elected officials"

Users on far-right online forums are publishing private information about members of the Georgia grand jury that indicted former president Donald Trump and 18 of his allies in a sweeping criminal case focused on alleged 2020 election interference earlier this month, leading to jurors receiving threats online.

The Fulton County Sheriff's office announced last week that they were working on tracking down where the threats were coming from and were coordinating with "law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty."

After the release of the indictment and the grand jurors' names, users on far-right message boards began sharing their addresses, identities, social media accounts and other information targeting the jurors, according to Media Matters.

"It's a serious problem," Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told Salon. "These grand jurors' names and other personal information have been linked on dangerous sites, in particular 4chan. That's where multiple terrorist manifestos have been posted and the site is filled with white supremacists and other extremists."

On a forum that has served as a hub for "Q," the central figure of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a user shared the names of the jurors alongside their addresses. Meanwhile, on another platform where the QAnon conspiracy theory originated, a user appeared to make a veiled threat about following these individuals to their residences and photographic their faces, Media Matters found.

Some users also made explicit threats aimed at the jurors on these message boards. One user referred to the grand jurors' names as a "hit list," prompting another user to reply with, "Based. Godspeed anons, you have all the long range rifles in the world."

In addition to facing online harassment, jurors are at risk of several other dangers — varying from receiving menacing phone calls to having people show up at their houses to swatting and even receiving death threats, Beirich said.

"We've seen this in other cases where people have been targeted by far-right figures," she added. "Their families can also be targeted. It can be a dangerous and scary situation. We can never forget the two poll workers in Georgia that Trump targeted and who had to go into hiding afterward."

After Trump posted on his social media website Truth Social that authorities were going "after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!" — Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan research group founded by Dan Jones, a former FBI investigator and staffer for the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed out that Trump supporters were employing the term "rigger" as a substitute for a racial slur in their online posts.

"There is a lot of anger out there on the part of pro-Trump actors and given the harassment that is faced by public officials lately, the same could happen here," Beirich said. "It's unfortunate Georgia law doesn't provide any protections. These people are doing their civil duty; they shouldn't have to face this."

Under Georgia law, the names of grand jurors are included on indictments – a practice aimed at promoting transparency. However, this approach has come under scrutiny given the continuing threats following the recent indictment of Trump and 18 co-defendants.

The only way Georgia or any other state would change the current practice is if there is a widespread outcry over the harassment or if there is actual violence that takes place, said Donald Haider-Markel, a University of Kansas political science professor who studies domestic extremism.

"Much like election workers after the 2020 election, we may begin to see more efforts from potential jurors to ask for an excuse not to serve on a [grand jury], which could also incite a change in the law," he added.

Verbal attacks and harassment have been common for a long time on the extreme right and left, Haider-Markel explained. He pointed to the example of "wanted" posters targeting doctors who perform abortions by the anti-abortion movement since the 1980s.

Individuals would go as far as disclosing the addresses, phone numbers, car descriptions, and license plates of abortion clinic workers, he said.

"This practice won't influence the way most people behave, but it only takes one true believer to use the information to harass and potentially use violence against the target and/or their family members," Haider-Markel said.

The same tactics have been employed by environmental and animal rights activists against those they believe are threatening the environment or exploiting animals, he continued. The Unabomber, for example, selected targets for his mailing campaign in the same manner, going after executives and researchers.

"Many observers believe that these practices have led to violence against abortion clinic workers and that these practices have led to individuals leaving the field," Haider-Markel said. "Certainly, there are plenty of stories about election workers that have left the field since 2020 because of the harassment and threats they faced."

These message boards have even gone as far as targeting two NBC News reporters who wrote about the grand jury incident. They had their own supposed addresses posted online, according to the Advance Democracy's latest report, Reuters found.

The group also identified posts containing aggressive language targeting Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who brought state racketeering and conspiracy charges against Trump and his allies.

Trump himself has gone after the DA and accused her of prosecutorial misconduct. He also criticized her time in office, asserting that she had been excessively lenient on crime allowing Atlanta "to become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world."

"He makes everything worse because he just doesn't seem to care what effect his words have in inciting his followers," Beirich said. "That has been true since his 2016 campaign. I'm sure Willis is facing a deluge of threats and will need protection."

His verbal attacks against Willis come as no surprise though as the former president has a habit of denigrating prosecutors who are investigating him.

Trump has used Truth Social to harass Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, New York's Attorney General Letitia James and special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against him.

In a post against Bragg, he warned that there would be "death and destruction" if he was indicted. Shortly after his threat, the Manhattan DA's office received a death threat letter with suspicious powder, which was later determined non-hazardous, with the letter saying: "ALVIN: I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

In other posts, Trump has called Smith "deranged" and accused him of taking away his First Amendment Rights. The former president even called for U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan's recusal, saying he was calling for the move "on very powerful grounds."

Chutkan is the federal judge overseeing the criminal case of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Washington DC.

Last week, a Texas woman was arrested and charged with threatening to kill Chutkan, The Associated Press reported. Abigail Jo Shry called the federal courthouse in Washington and left a threatening message.

"You are in our sights, we want to kill you," the documents said.

Despite public officials receiving such threats, the former president has continued his attacks. In some social media posts, he has even warned "If you go after me, I'm coming after you!"

"It's important not to underestimate the chilling effect that personal targeting and online harassment can have on jurors, on voters, on elected officials [and] on community members," Lindsay Schubiner, director of programs at Western States Center — an anti-extremism watchdog, told Salon. "And the publication of personal details, especially physical locations, is a huge risk factor for potential violence."

Schubiner pointed to the examples of mass shooters, who were active in online hate forums prior to their crimes. There's also a "big risk" for the translation of online harassment into direct physical violence, she added.

"Trump's words and his actions have normalized bigotry and harassment, and even political violence for a long time," Schubiner said. "From the beginning of his campaign, he opened the door to normalizing overt bigotry in politics and opened the door for bigoted and anti-democracy groups like the Proud Boys, like the Oath Keepers, to play a much more prominent role in our political system."

Read on salon.com

[smitethestate]

So in terms of what we need to look out for first with the new Trump presidency, I think the first threat to a huge number of people is going to be mass deportation efforts.

One thing to consider about Trump and Project 2025 is that Trump's first priorities will be himself, his money, his power, and his ego. He doesn't care about anyone or anything but himself. He doesn't care about Project 2025. So what comes first will be about his image and what the people who can bribe him the most want.

Immigration is a huge thing with him, tied up in his ego and his racism. All immigrants, even those who have gained US citizenship, are at risk.

If you are an immigrant or have loved ones who are, look up organizations like the Immigrant Defense Project. Find immigrant defense lawyers in your area. Know your rights and which of them will be stripped when he invokes the Alien Enemies Act on 1798. The ACLU and other human rights orgs will be fighting him every step of the way, but prepare for anything. He will be giving ICE a lot more power. He says he won't tag in the military for this but don't believe a word he says, ever.

For the rest of us, if you're looking to help, you can join or revive local groups that work to alert people to ICE arrests and move to intervene. Forming crowds around arrest vehicles has worked many times to stop arrests from happening. That rules.

If you can't or don't want to join an org, get in touch with your immigrant neighbors, coworkers, etc. Start chatting with them, let them know you want them to stay and you're available to help. We must be in community with our migrant neighbors to effectively help them.

Start thinking about what you're willing to do. All the way to do you have an attic or other hidden space in your home where you can hide people? Are you willing and prepared to be arrested? Defying the government puts you at risk of imprisonment, and you need to be prepared for what that means, both in a practical sense and mentally/emotionally.

Speak with your partners, roommates, friends, and comrades about this. Know who is at the most risk to be arrested and what they will likely experience in prison. For example, BIPOC and disabled people are at a much higher risk when dealing with police and ICE agents. Under no circumstances would I recommend trans women/transfemme folks risk jail or prison time. Be prepared to risk sustaining psychological trauma. Draw and maintain the boundaries you need around any activism, resistance, or revolutionary activity.

I'll go more in depth on what migrants have to expect during the first 100 days of the second Trump term in a later post.

Please add more ideas and resources below if you have them, or make your own post and alert me so I can boost.

[simply-ivanka]

This packs a punch.

“In his speech in Arizona endorsing Trump, Kennedy said:

“The DNC deployed aligned judges to throw me and other candidates off the ballot and to throw President Trump in jail. It ran a sham primary that was rigged to prevent any serious challenge to President Biden. Then, when a predictably bungled debate performance precipitated the palace coup against President Biden, the same shadowy DNC operatives appointed his successor, also without an election. They installed a candidate who was so unpopular with voters that she dropped out in 2020 without winning a single delegate,” Kennedy said.

“My uncle and my father both relished debate. They prided themselves on their capacity to go toe-to-toe with any opponent in the battle over ideas. They would be astonished to learn of a Democratic Party presidential nominee who, like Vice President Harris, has not appeared in a single interview or unscripted encounter with voters for 35 days. This is profoundly undemocratic. How are people to choose when they don’t know whom they are choosing, and how must this look to the rest of the world?”

[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.

[duchess-of-mandalore]

Star Wars, friends. I know this is not why you follow me, but please make this my most shared post.

You are here.

We're living the lead-up to Revenge of the Sith, and it scares me so much a) it feels like there is so little we can do, and b) young people are acting as if there is nothing we can do.

If you don't know what's going on, I need you to wake up and get engaged.

I have two history degrees. My whole life I've always been the person saying, "When people say, 'This is the most important election ever," it just shows how little they know about history.'"

So please believe me when I tell you that THIS is the most important election (cycle, not just presidential race) that you will likely ever be a part of.

Trump is not Hitler. He's too stupid to be Hitler.

But our democracy only held together in 2020 because of a few people like Mike Pence who were willing to stand up against Trump when it was truly the last line of defense. I know that's hard for some of you to hear, but whatever you think of his beliefs, Pence showed he has integrity and stands by the Constitution.

There will be no Mike Pences this time around. Trump will not make the mistake of surrounding himself with those who are not fully committed to him.

Trump is a convicted felon. He is running to avoid his convictions and likely jail time more than anything else. If he wins, he will be able to pardon himself of his federal crimes, but he's going to keep acting like Donald Trump. If he's still alive in 2028, do you think he will leave the White House peacefully and just submit to further cases against him?

Please watch John Oliver's recent expose on Project 2025 and Trump's Second Term. It is linked in a comment below.

Trump and his administration are already putting in place plans for sweeping reforms that truly will make America look like The Handmaid's Tale. Presidents usually will push for more when they're in their second term because they don't have to worry about another election campaign, but this is different. This is about dismantling the democratic system so that it only benefits the most radical conservatives and Christians.

Christians, I am one of you. I was raised Evangelical (capital E meaning politically motivated culture warrior), and I am still evangelical (lower-case e, referring to theological beliefs). This is not the posture of Christ-followers. There is no good that comes from state-mandated religion, which both coerces people to claim that they are believers for social and cultural clout AND waters down the true religious fervor of the church because most people are only nominal believers.

There is NOTHING about Christian Nationalism that is in the best interest of Christians or in the best interest of the neighbors Christians are called to sacrificially love. If you need a reminder of who your neighbor is, read Luke 10:25-37.

Please start talking with your friends. Young people, please register to vote and bring your friends to do the same.

I know so many of you are disillusioned. I am too. Things that are going on in Palestine and Ukraine and so many other places make it very hard to vote for people with "D"s behind their names (especially after the recent presidential debate).

But punishing Joe Biden is not the revenge you want to pursue here. Are you unhappy with him giving Israel $12.5 billion? I am too, but do you think that number won't be repeated multiple times under Trump? Again, I was raised Evangelical. A staple of (politically-focused) Evangelicalism is that Christians (and thus America) must support (the modern state of) Israel no matter what because they have a hyper-literal understanding of the verse where God tells Abraham that he will bless those who bless him (including his descendants who became Israel).

Do not underestimate the importance of that view in their ideology. Nearly every member of my biological family has shunned me for suggesting that this is not a blanket endorsement of every action the modern state of Israel takes.

Trump is a criminal running for president to save his skin. He supports Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel who is now himself wanted for war crimes. Trump has aligned himself with the authoritarian leaders/dictators of Hungary, China, North Korea, and Russia. He is open about his love for Russian president Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime and stands against Ukraine's democracy and national sovereignty.

This is what happened before World War I and World War II.

I know this isn't what you follow me for.

But George Lucas was showing the dangers of authoritarianism. He shows that democracy is hard. It's frustrating trying to negotiate with people you disagree with vehemently. It may seem like nothing gets done.

Go and watch the Naboo picnic scene. Go and do it. And after chuckling at all the funny memes it's given us, let me tell you why it scares me so much.

Because Padme laughs.

Anakin tells her who he is, and she laughs.

She passes it off as a joke, or as flirting, or maybe even as just the ignorant views of a boy who views life as far more black and white than she knows it to be.

But the alternative to all of that frustrating democracy, all that gridlock in the Senate, all those choices and compromises you have to make in order to benefit the people at all ... the alternative is a dictator who says, "I will make all the decisions for us."

That's why there are people who applaud Palpatine. That's why we as viewers see Bail and Padme as the reasonable ones and think it's crazy that anyone would applaud, but they do.

The applaud because Palpatine says, "You don't have to be frustrated anymore. You don't have to be worried about those who disagree with you anymore." Safety and security and ease are powerful temptations when you live in a polarized society, and Palpatine offers them all of those things.

That's why many people applaud Trump, too.

There were also people who applauded Palpatine who did see the danger of what he was doing. But they applauded because it was easier to do so. He had already amassed power because they didn't stand up to him before. They applaud him now because standing against him now would have dire consequences they wouldn't have faced if they had stood against him before.

So vote. And get your friends to vote.

If there is any part of you that believes Star Wars has important things to tell us about real life, then I need you to fan that flame into a fire.

Otherwise, you won't be living in the prequels anymore. You will be living in the time of the Empire.

Vote.

[0w0tsuki]

One thing this recent bile that's been spewed at me is just how reactionary the "Transandrophobia" movement is.

Oh hey look it's everyone's favorite transandro bro looking to coddle the dude who called me a "Deranged Hysterical Screeching Wailing Pro Cop Pro Eugenics Victim Racist Ableist Cunt Bitch" because I said "hey don't lie about my friend being a fascist who who wants to genocide nonvoters. No where in her post did she say that where did you even get that?"

The post that's supposedly downplaying transmascs anxiety specifically

Like the most hostility your from this is an irritation at the notion that this is the end of all life forever for trans people. No where is she attempting to downplay the risk. The summary of her statement is "Things are tough. They've been tough before. Don't lose hope and let others control you. There are options even in seemingly hopeless situations and maybe don't kill yourself a". A statement which doesn't call any group out in particular because it's addressed to ALL trans people who are concerned about the election and their hormone access.

And this is the sentiment I've seen from all the trans girls who have been talking about it. Nowhere have I seen transfems attempt to use this as a way to belittle AFABs specifically for being afraid cause guess what? WE'RE SCARED TOO. These posts are an address to a giant of doomerism about the elections that "I'm going to die because Trump is going to take away my hormones and Death before Detransition".

For a group who so commonly accuses trans women being self obsessed and wanting every discourse to be about us, they are incapable of even considering that we might address our own in this. Not only can they not conceive the notion that these are positivity posts meant to elicit hope, they are convinced that we are using this to attack and belittle them specifically. Because in their mind ONLY AFAB people are expressing concerns about being jailed for being trans. Cause it's not like, you know, this is all about an election where the PROGRESSIVES candidate had a history with throwing trans women in men's prisons. What do trans women have to fear of prisons? For a group whose half of their rhetoric is "it's not all about you" they are unable to even fathom that they are not the only ones scared of going to jail for being trans.

You can't even argue this is a straw man because that would imply that there's some fringe Transfem legitimately arguing this that they are using as representative of us as a whole. It can't be a straw man because that would require the physical material of straw to construct it from. They are reverse engineering what our opinion must be from their preconceived notions of us. They are boxing at shadows.

That's why there's no "Unity" with these guys. For all the big game they talk about it they don't WANT unity with us. What they WANT is a bitch to yell at and take the blame whenever something goes wrong in their community. They WANT their whipping girl. I am surely convinced that even if there were no "beaddels", that trans women just shut up about their own oppression forever, these dudes would still be out here twisting the most banal positivity posts aimed at the wider community by trans women, and finding ways to spin it as us attacking them specifically.

[thurisazsalail]

Millions of votes are uncounted. YOU can do something about it!

Take less than 10 minutes to register your protest.

Tell the White House to investigate election fraud. There is a sample statement in this post.

Bitching on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter will not help. If you are an American who is old enough to vote, please take the 10 minutes to do this. Post it on your Facebook, Twitter, whatever you have.

Bomb threats called into 32 polling places

Ballot boxes burned in Vancouver WA and Portland OR; hundreds of ballots damaged, casters unable to be contacted. The city had issued a request for anyone who dropped off their ballots after the previous collection time to come forward.

Ballots declined for spurious, questionable reasons, like physical signatures not matching the shitty electronic pad ones.

These 4000+ were in Pennsylvania alone.

An unprecedented number of mail-in ballots were denied, in fact.

Major disasters along the SE means entire CITIES displaced, and someone can only vote at their polling places. With documents. So what happened to thousands of people who don't have ANYTHING? And what happened with polling places that do not exist? Entire TOWNS that don't exist? "Record numbers" DID vote in NC, but there are *other places?* What happens to people who don't have transportation? Many states do NOT have protected days off for voting. Many places do not HAVE transportation to polling places.

y'all, there was a dude not far from me who went after people at a polling place with a fucking machete. cops did something right and took his ass to jail. motherfucker went after a 70 year old?? wow u r so brave

Voter intimidation has been rampant. People here in Tampa FL were wearing piles of Trump merch while voting, which btw is illegal, but of course they weren't turned away in a red county. And some of the cops here are KNOWN white rights members so who tf you going to call.

KNOWN Russian propaganda, such as the vote fraud video "in Georgia" was rampant and convincing people to not vote or that voting polls were rigged

Don't have energy to come up with your own writing? Think like a high school essay. Include some specific bullet points.

You MUST put your REAL NAME and ADDRESS (or temporary/registered address, whatever you have.) This shows that you are a REAL PERSON and not some fucking bot. Yes, you need to do this EVERY TIME you contact a government official, or you will not be counted.

Include both investigation reasons AND recount reasons. Weird shit like bomb threats and Russian propaganda should trigger an investigation.

I shouldn't have to tell you this but keep the fucking anger out of it. Do NOT make ANY veiled, passive aggressive, or even potential threat to ANYONE. jfc.

"I urge you to investigate the 2024 election on grounds of (reason, like Russian propaganda influence) and (reason, like bomb threats preventing us from exercising civil rights.) Domestic terrorists have burned ballot boxes, attacked voters at polls, and intimidated voters. An unprecented number of ballots have been thrown out or called into question for reasons such as signature mismatch, which is not something a ballot counter should know anyways. Those ballots must be cured, the caster not simply notified of an issue through e-mail. I am greatly concerned that foreign influence has especially changed the nature of our elections. This is a matter of national security. It determines who owns weapons and who can use our nuclear codes, while calling into question the integrity of the American people. I urge the United States Government to demand an investigation into these issues and to ensure that everyone has been counted. Thank you."

I'm not saying "wahhh, wahhhhh, my guy didn't win!!1" I'm not demanding election investigation because I didn't Like the Results. I'm demanding an investigation because people's lives were threatened, our civil rights were widely disenfranchised, and we cannot have a clear idea of who REALLY won (regardless of who) until we remedy this national issue.

This is a matter of national security. Now act like it.

original post @sunnys-aesthetic ; tumblr won't allow Blazing.

[philosophicalconservatism]

Response To Post On Trump Conviction.

fralexion

No one Is above. The law. Not even people in my own party. Not even people like Trump, who have lived their whole lives throwing money at everything to hide their crime. Republicans are free to prosecute Clinton if they suspect her of breaking the law. They've spent decades trying to do so and gotten nowhere, but maybe one day they'll come up with actual evidence that holds up in court. If they do, I'd accept the outcome.

Philosophicalconservatism

If what holds up in court is the standard then O.J. Simpson was an innocent man. We must abide by the verdict of a court, but we need not accept the verdict (its accuracy). Yes, no one is above the law, but no one is below the law either. Just because you believe that someone has flouted the law in the past doesn't mean that you get to rectify that by pursuing asinine charges. When you do that, YOU are disrespecting the law. How you get the man matters. Now if this was the classified documents case it would be completely different.

Trump was prosecuted for not listing hush money paid to a mistress as campaign financing. Really? Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton failed to properly disclose money spent for research on her political opponent; research that would later help to compile the Steele Dossier. That was unquestionably campaign financing (unlike hush money to a mistress). The appropriate federal body saw fit to go after Hillary for this offense (unlike Trump, which it did not see as an offender). It then gave Clinton a slap on the wrist. In Trump's case however a politically motivated local district attorney decides to pursue charges on the state level that the feds had no interest in; and for jail time. That is not justice.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

The U.S. Supreme Court heard Donald Trump’s immunity claim in his federal criminal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election Thursday, and the conservative majority is likely going to give Donald Trump what he wants: a delay of the trial until after the election. If Trump wins again, the conservatives have essentially signaled that they would be open to blanket immunity for him against any future criminal charges.   The fact that Supreme Court justices are suggesting that the president is above the law proves why the court must be reformed. Four of the justices—Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch—even went so far as to suggest that special counsel Jack Smith’s entire prosecution is unconstitutional, and they reinforced Trump’s argument that the president is immune. Kavanaugh even told Michael Dreeben, a lawyer from Smith’s office, that it’s a “serious constitutional question whether a criminal statute can apply to the president’s criminal acts.”

That would be the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card for the chief executive, rubber stamped by the highest court of the land. It’s worth remembering that Thomas refused to recuse himself from this—and most of the Trump election interference cases—despite the fact that his wife, Ginni Thomas, was deeply involved in Trump’s coup attempt. When she testified to the Jan. 6 special congressional committee, she maintained that the election was stolen.  His failure to recuse himself comes after a new ethics code has supposedly been enforced, saying that “a Justice should disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the Justice’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, that is, where an unbiased and reasonable person who is aware of all relevant circumstances would doubt that the Justice could fairly discharge his or her duties.” So much for that suggestion from Chief Justice John Roberts. His code has no teeth, which is yet another reason why ethics reform—and indeed court reform and expansion—is essential. 

Joan McCarter writes in Daily Kos that the Trump v. United States "immunity" case is a good reason to reform and expand SCOTUS.

[buzzybee26]

Chainsaw Man is to shounen manga fans what The Boys (the show) is to Western superhero fans

It's pretty easy to miss the point of both due to the culture surrounding them and as a result they both get a lot praise and hate from people who don't really understand what's going on.

Chainsaw Man gets this in its depiction of Denji's hypersexuality and how it is used to manipulate and abuse him, with a lot of people taking it as a fantasy and either writing the series off because of it or taking a "god I wish that were me" kind of approach to it. Denji is very much a victim of various forms of sexual abuse and the manga expects the reader to be able to figure this out because it is incredibly obvious, but due to general perception around male victims of sexual assault as well as tropes within shounen manga surrounding perverted male characters, this is often overlooked. The result of this is people glorifying abusers like Makima and Himeno whilst others look down on Denji as a figure similar to Mineta from my Hero or Kazuya from Rent a Girlfriend. I remember before I watched and read Chainsaw Man that someone told it's just about a guy who wants to touch boobs and I stayed away from it for a while, but having now read it, that is very incorrect.

Meanwhile, The Boys gets this misunderstanding in its politics. The show is pretty obviously a big satire of right wing politics (and a lot of other things as well, but I don't have energy for that), and yet it has a pretty big right wing audience who firmly believe that it upholds their beliefs. People genuinely watch this show and think Homelander is the protagonist. I've even seen people who haven't watched The Boys actively avoiding it due to its far right audience, dismissing it as something that must glorify those beliefs in order to have that audience. If you actually watch the show, it's pretty easy to see that this is not the case, and yet this audience still exists because the show trusts you to figure out who they're making fun of.

I'm comparing the two for two reasons. The first is that I believe these misunderstandings come from a similar place in the culture surrounding their respective mediums and genres (shounen manga and western superheros). The second is that both pieces of media actually do a very good job depicting this misunderstanding within their contents.

Denji is consistently abused by older women around him and the story acknowledges this, but the characters kind of don't in a lot of cases. The best example I can think of is when the gang just lets a drunk Himeno carry him back to her apartment and then Power being surprised that they didn't have sex. Bear in mind that Himeno is in her mid twenties and Denji is sixteen. The only person who mentions how strange this is is Himeno herself and even then she brushes it off as her being relieved that she isn't going to jail. This being a potential case of abuse towards Denji gets very little mention and the consequences of that abuse for Denji are written off by the characters. There's also early dialogue between Aki and Makima where Aki focuses on Denji's sexual tendencies to insult him, missing how Makima is using those tendencies to manipulate him. This is mirrored by the real life people reading this manga that I talked about earlier.

The Boys is a much simpler case here (also I'm tired and want to finish writing this). Homelander, despite being a massive cunt, is still gaining a large following within the the world of the Boys. It mirrors how figures like Trump gain their followings, obviously, but it's also reflective of real life fans of The Boys who back Homelander and think he is the protagonist.

In truth, I just wanted to rant about some seemingly controversial pieces of media that I love, but I do think the specific ways that people misunderstand these series is very interesting. The contents of these misunderstandings is very different, but the ways they come about and their depictions within their respective pieces of media ring very similar to me.

[mysharona1987]

I know there must have been bigger public downfalls in American history… but Rudy is certainly a contender, right? One day movies and documentaries will be made about him.

Crazy to think he could have ended his run as mayor after 9/11, gotten tenure at any college he wanted, written some more books, done the speech tours and generally done well for himself and been well thought of by the American public.

Now he’s either going to drink himself to death or go to jail for the rest of his life.

Why trusting Donald Trump is not a good life choice, guys.

[uboat53]

Hey look, Biden pardoned his son and the media is going wall-to-wall in its coverage. Yeah, this is exactly what's wrong with our country right now. SHORT RANT (TM)?

WHAT HAPPENED?

So, for those who missed it, President Biden has officially pardoned his son Hunter. Media coverage of this is wall-to-wall today, it's the front page story on every single national news website. But, of course, that's not the whole story here or I wouldn't be calling it "what's wrong with our country".

Obviously it's getting reported as unequal justice, but let's look at what led to it in the first place. As reported at the time, the firearms charges that he was charged with and convicted of are charges that are almost never charged if they are the only ones that can be proven. In other words, far from being unequally pardoned of common crimes, the younger Biden is being pardoned of crimes that no ordinary person would have been charged with in the first place.

Let's face it, Biden wouldn't have needed a pardon if his dad hadn't been president. I'm a father myself and, if my kid was facing jail time as a result of something I did and I had the power to undo that, I'd undo it without a second thought and who cares about the consequences. Good luck finding a headline or even a full article in the American media today that provides all of that detail.

THE COVERAGE

The most responsible coverage reports this in the context of how it will provide an example for Trump to point to about how justice in this country is unequal/political, which, sure? Of course, that coverage (1) doesn't mention the context that I described above and (2) largely ignores Trump's own massive politicization of justice for the benefit of himself and his cronies.

The less responsible coverage, FOX News for example, simply reports it as an outrage the likes of which has never happened in American history and provides no other context whatsoever. As I said, I expect this from FOX, but the issue is how much this particular framing has leeched out into the broader media ecosystem because we've all forgotten the lessons of 2016 in which we should have learned that FOX and right-wing media in general must largely be tuned out if you want to report accurate news.

WHY IT'S A PROBLEM

Look, I'm all for being outraged that Biden is doing something like this, but are you only outraged at Biden? Where was this outrage when Trump pardoned major political supporters, campaign staff, and political advisors? Where was the outrage when he pardoned 7 Congressmen who had supported him politically? Where was the outrage when he pardoned wealthy individuals who had paid tens of thousands of dollars for those pardons? Where was the outrage when he promised to issue a blanket pardon to those who attempted to overthrow our Constitution and our democracy on January 6th, 2021? Where was the outrage when he talked about pardoning HIMSELF for the myriad of crimes that he has committed and been charged with?

If we're going to talk about unequal justice, let's talk about unequal justice, but at this point it seems like there is more outrage for people who take actions that might feed into Trump's misguided narratives than there is for Trump himself.

When Democrats talk about a double standard, this is it; Democrats are held to an impossible standard of perfection because any perceived misstep might give fuel to Trump's outrageous lies while Trump himself is able to do just about anything with only the barest of peeps. It's a double-standard that's guaranteed to make even the most perfect Democrat look as bad as Trump to the casual observer even as he wallows in corruption, bigotry, and criminality.

That's what's wrong with our country right now, we can't accurately get across the scale of atrociousness that Trump commits on a daily basis because we're too focused on making sure that those opposing him meet an impossible standard of purity before we're willing to even look at him. No problem can be fixed until the person who needs to fix it can put a name to the problem and describe it and the American media seems to be committed to making sure that we are never able to understand where the problem actually lies and what it actually is.

Until that changes, be prepared for American politics to sink deeper and deeper into the muck and mire of Trumpian corruption.

[mariacallous]

Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that Donald Trump’s recent comments imagining a violent scene with guns aimed at former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney should eliminate him in the race for the White House.

“This must be disqualifying,” she told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin. “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”

The Democratic nominee for president’s remarks come a day after Trump dreamed up a violent scenario for Cheney, a Republican who’s endorsed Harris and appeared with her on the campaign trail.

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” the Republican presidential nominee told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson during an appearance in Arizona.

Trump’s remarks, Harris said Friday, are indicative of how he plans to treat his political opponents if he wins the presidency next week.

“Rep. Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country above party,” Harris said. “Trump is increasingly, however, someone who considers his political opponents the enemy, is permanently out for revenge and is increasingly unstable and unhinged. His enemies list has grown longer, his rhetoric has grown more extreme and he is even less focused than before on the needs and concerns and challenges facing the American people.”

Trump has made over 100 public threats to “investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived opponents,” NPR reported last week. Most notably, he suggested last month that members of the “radical left” represent “an enemy within” that he’d confront with military force if elected.

Trump has mocked concerns about him imprisoning his political enemies.

“It’s unbelievable. Did you see ‘Donald Trump wants to put us in jail,’” he said in North Carolina on Wednesday, parroting the alarm.

“Donald Trump is going to go after some of the scum that you see back there,” he continued, gesturing to the press pit at his rally. “They’re so dishonest. ‘Donald Trump is doing terrible things. He wants to put us in prison.’ That’s what they’ve been trying to do to me for three years — they got this story mixed up.”

[dosthoeyevsky]

You Cant Free Palestine if You're In Jail or Dead.

(An open letter to every American on the internet, from a random Australian who has studied US politics basically against her will and is so, so tired.)

I don't like talking about US politics. I'm not American, so in theory, I shouldn't have to talk about it if I don't want to. But life isn't fair, no matter how little I want to care about USAmerican politics, it's going to affect the policies my country makes, and that every other country in the world makes. In a perfect world, this wouldn't happen. But this is not a perfect world, and we must be pragmatic.

At the end of the day, the one thing I cannot afford to ignore at any cost is the fact that I simply give a shit about my fellow human beings. We are a social species. We must help each other to survive, no matter where in the world we are. I care about people in my native Australia being able to access affordable housing and food, and climate change-proofing our infrastructure. I care about people in Bangladesh fighting for workers rights. I care about people in China who advocate for freedom of information. I care about Americans whose public infrastructure is crumbling under climate change events like hurricanes Helene and Milton as we speak, and I care about civilians in Palestine and Ukraine currently trying to survive the ultimate horror that is militarized violence.

(For any other non-Americans reading, I apologise for how US-centric most of the following spiel is about to get. But the election's in like two weeks, and I feel like I can't express this any other way right now.)

Many of us care about these things. Since October 7th of last year, millions of people around the world, many of them American, have been protesting, donating, advocating, for ceasefire and an end to the systemic termination of human civilian lives in Gaza. And as the 2024 US Election draws near, both major political party candidates are being scrutinized (rightly) for their support of the Israeli Defense Forces, who are conducting this bombardment and deliberately targeting and killing civilians.

I have heard many fellow progressives denounce democratic candidate Kamala Harris for not openly calling for a ceasefire, and I understand why.

However.

Her opponent is Donald Fucking Trump.

It's been eight years since the 2016 election. A lot of people who were young then are now eligible to vote (by the way, if you haven't already, check your voter registration and make sure you also have the option to vote by mail at the ready in case you can't access a polling station on election day.) And if that's you, and you've only become eligible to vote in the last eight years or so, you need to be very keenly aware of something.

You don't get a third option. It's Harris or Trump.*

Because of how the US electoral system works, third party candidates basically cannot win because of how ingrained the two party system has become over the past couple hundred years and change. No third party candidate is going to gather the numbers behind them to beat out Donald Trump and his army of worshipers, and definitely not in the next two weeks.

This means if Harris does not win, Trump will.

This might not make an immediate difference in Palestine for the first few days of either administration, but it's going to make a massive difference for the actual millions of Americans currently undertaking activism once he's elected.

To sum up, the fight for Palestine (or at least the fight to stop funding the military) has much greater odds of winning with Kamala Harris in the white house than trump, and if you care about that fight at all, you have to vote for her.

To be clear, I know she's not a christian** leftist, and she won't immediately stop funding the war, but under her administration, you will be able to fight for the ceasefire and your own rights much more effectively and in greater numbers than you ever will be able to with Trump in the white house.

Project 2025 is very fucking real and you should know that if you care about Palestine, him taking office will not only speed up the rate at which the genocide happens, but will also utterly tank your ability as a collective to fight against it and for any other progressive cause, for that matter, ever again.

Many of the activists fighting for Palestine on US soil right now are BIPoC, women, queer, trans, disabled, or any combination of the above. Roe vs Wade has already been overturned on a federal level by judges appointed during the Trump administration, and most of the anti-trans legislation currently metastasizing is doing so under republican-led state governments aligned with Trump.

If you're in jail (or dead) for trying to access abortion or birth control, you can't help free Palestine.

If you're in jail (or dead) for trying to access trans-related healthcare, you can't help free Palestine.

If you're overworked, over-indebted, or slowly dying because of a lack of healthcare coverage that could support you if you become (or are) permanently or temporarily disabled, you can't help free Palestine.

If you're over-indebted, unhoused, or dead because where you live hasn't funded the infrastructure it needs to survive climate change events like hurricanes, deep freezes, wildfires, droughts, and heatwaves, you can't help free Palestine.

As the above linked video states, if you are a US citizen, you are one degree of separation from someone who is going to get their quality of life drastically negatively impacted by a second Trump administration. And every person affected by those policies is one less person able to fight to stop the US government from aiding and abetting actual, literal war crimes.

I understand that Harris won't immediately end all suffering upon election. But unlike Trump, she actually values the lives of human beings who aren't cishet white men ready to fork over their livelihoods and lick boots. She has a vested interest in improving the immediate quality of life for American citizens, and if your immediate quality of life is improved, you will be much better able to fight to stop the US government from funding the systemic slaughter of civilians in Gaza.

So if you give a shit about Gaza, or worker's rights, or healthcare, or equality, or climate change, you need to vote for Harris. Even though she doesn't adhere to all progressive ideals. Hell, even though it already looks like everything is about to go to hell in a proverbial handbasket.

Think of it like this, right. Everyone in the world is on a plane right now, and the plane is crashing. The USA and Palestine are sitting right next to each other. The oxygen masks drop from the ceiling and dangle overhead.

When you get on a plane, the instructions say to put your own oxygen mask on and then assist others. This will increase your odds of surviving the crash. What the USA should do, is put on its own oxygen mask, because it will enable them to assist Palestine with theirs. By petulantly refusing to vote for Harris because "everything's already fucked", not only are you not going to be able to meaningfully help Palestine, you're drastically lowering your own odds of survival.

To add insult to injury, and to extend the metaphor for plane crashes as unfolding world issues, in the case of the extremely pressing issue of climate change, the US is not just seated next to Palestine, it is, in fact, flying the fucking plane.

If you Americans don't get your shit together and put on your oxygen mask by voting Harris, not only does your quality of life get flushed down the toilet, so does ours. Maybe not by patriarchal religious oligarchy, but by the rising tides, heavier droughts, encroaching famines, harsher storms, that will inevitably get worse under Trump because unlike Harris, Trump has a vested interest in funding the industries that keep the world's greatest polluters in business.

And let me be clear, to every American with progressive leanings who doesn't want to vote- if Trump wins, and your rights are stripped away, and the war goes on, and everyone else in the world drowns, it's your fucking fault, and I will haunt you. I hope my words certainly haunt you.

This isn't about making the most ideologically pure choice. This is about making the practical choice that gives you the greatest odds of survival, because survival means you can keep being activists.

So be practical, for fuck's sake.

*I hate to burst the bubble of every progressive idealist out there, but you are not organising a glorious leftist revolution that somehow steamrolls the entire US political institution in the next two weeks. That takes money and frankly firepower that most of you are unwilling and unable to organise. Even if it does, it will just be January 6th again but with a leftist coat of paint on it. And violent revolutions don't result in better quality of life long term for civilians if you don't have a plan in place for an ethical government to replace the previous one. I've known enough young leftists both online and off to know that that's not happening anytime soon either.

** This is a reference to this person on the reality TV show Trading Spouses, who, frankly, a lot of people on this website resemble when engaging in discourse. A lot of you ascribe to a set of leftist ideals driven by unreachable standards of moral conformity, personal disgust, and pride in personal moral purity that is functionally just oppressive evangelical christianity but with progressive gay window dressing. Before you open my askbox to scream incoherently into it, know now that no matter what, I'm going to delete it. You are wasting your time. Stop your portland polycule commune cult-tier bullshit where all activism begins and ends with hurling verbal abuse at anyone you disagree with. That's not activism. Stop threatening people with doxxing and death threats over fandom headcanons you deem "non-progressive" and do something useful. Join a mutual aid group. Better yet, vote for the person who isn't going to put you in jail for taking birth control or being trans.

[anti-encomiums]

Gaetz statement is hilarious.

I had and excellent meeting - fuuuuuck!

I appreciate their thoughtful feedback - they said no.

The incredible support of so many - but some of them have daughters.

The momentum was strong - but it was downhill.

A distraction... - there's only enough room for one convicted sex offender on the team.

The critical work of the trump/ Vance transition - from a democracy to a total shitting mess.

Needlessly protracted Washington scuffle - I might go to jail.

I'll be withdrawing my name - and adding it to a sex offenders register.

trump's DOJ must be in place on day 1 - he's giving the job to MTG who can't even count to 1.

I am fully committed - trump says he'll pardon me.

I will forever be honored - I'm going to work for Faux Newz.

He will save America - with trickle down (it's a common problem for elderly men).

[qqueenofhades]

As much as I love hearing trump getting more charges and would love nothing more than him to get sent to prison, I fear that when he eventually goes to trial, they’re will be some crazy maga nut who could watch him kill their mother and would still claim he’s innocent.

Honestly, I am... not totally sure what y'all want me to say here? I get the fear, believe me, but also, after every Trump indictment, just like clockwork, a lot of Gloomy the Doom Men pop up to pre-emptively insist that it doesn't mean anything, it won't go anywhere, he won't actually be punished, etc. I'm not saying this is that, but it does happen every time, and I just... don't know what I'm supposed to do about it? Is this part of the whole "The System Doesn't Work and Therefore We Are Justified in Not Participating" thing that the online leftists habitually do, or what? Honest question. First it was he'll get re-elected, then it was he will never leave power, then it was the Republicans will win in 2022, then it was he will never get indicted, etc. The goalposts keep shifting so any progress we do make on holding him to account (which is far more than has ever happened to any other American president, including actual war criminal George W. Bush) somehow is "meaningless" and I just?? Don't get it??

First of all, jury selection is a thing, and aims to weed out those who, in this case, are either too vehemently against Trump or too vehemently for him. They want the exact sort of mushy middle voter of which there are far too many in this country, who can be persuaded one way or the other but doesn't have ironclad previous biases. Also, they must have done a good job selecting jurors so far, given that all the grand juries have returned indictments, and at least one of them (the one in NY) had someone who was a fan of conservative talk radio/right wing politics. So if by this you mean one rogue juror will preclude a guilty conviction, that is something that can actually be planned for and prepared, and as I said, all the grand juries seated to hear evidence against Trump so far have returned indictments.

Also, this case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is an Obama appointee and has been willing to sentence J6 defendants harshly in the past. She is widely regarded as competent, fair, and firm, and will not grant any of the bullshit delays that Aileen Cannon the Trump-stooge judge will bend over backward to find for him in the Mar-a-Lago docs case in Florida. So there's a strong possibility this one goes to trial before May 2024, and the judge in this case is neither a Trump judge or a slobbering Trump partisan: indeed, quite the opposite. So I don't think we can assume that she will be so incompetent as to not manage her own trial and/or jury.

Anyway, yes. We don't know what will happen, but similar to the Espionage Act charges he got hit with last time (themselves meriting of a stiff prison sentence) Trump is facing yet more high-level felony charges that come with serious jail time. So how about for now, we don't automatically assume that what will be the most watched and covered trial in a generation will fall apart because of a simple and easily avoidable mistake that even I, a non-lawyer, know how to fix, much less a team of extremely experienced prosecutors who know this has to be absolutely fucking watertight and then some? It will be better on your mental health for the long run and arguably also much more accurate.