bsky.app/profile/jooc...

Possibly in the middle of invading 2 countries, the US being the 2nd one?

@lazytato.bsky.social

They don't have anywhere near the number of personell Russia has, which is what...3 million or more?

Laughing nervously in Canadian

I have seen alot of presidential misuse of power, but always trusted the democratic system, until now. I'm actually worried.

More $$ than the US marines.

And our poor children lost funding for food and medical care.

And ICE only answers to the executive branch. Trump now has his own army that agrees with him and will carry out his plans

Yes! ICE will also have a bigger budget than what Israel spends on their military.

Curious as to how many ICE contractors are going to be getting mega-yachts over the next few years.

Eventually they won’t be “Immigration and Customs Enforcement”. When they run out of brown people to persecute they will become the internal security force that reports only to the administration with no oversight. When they run out of other people to “catch” they will run prison camps

Cough cough ICE is in the middle of invading the USA. No one is safe.

Most of the J6 criminals are employed now by ICE

I was born in L.A. too.

The new ICE funding is ridiculous but it is not larger than Russia’s military which is over $100B annually. ICE will get up to $150B over 5 years which is roughly $30B per year. However ICE is now more than the FBI at $10B and it is now the largest fed law enforcement agency in US history.

I really have my doubts that they can scale up as easily as they think. Buildings, weapons, OK. Headcount is a lot harder to scale up. How many people willing and able to work for them aren't already? If you're a xenophobic small-business owner, do you change careers to go round up moms and kids?

If the economy tanks, like if you have some gilded era isolationist trade policy, for example, suddenly a bunch of angry unemployed people have a lot more time on their hands to throw on a brown shirt and carry a torch.

This just came across my timeline. Probably makes the case against defeatism better than I can. bsky.app/profile/john...

They'll certainly try to direct it that way. I'm dubious. "You used to have a dead-end job in the car battery factory, but now you can torture the taco vendor. The sky's the limit! Thank you, President Trump!" Even if desperation pushes people to awful decisions, they're awful decisions.

Yep, but it certainly worked in 1933 in Germany.

Sorry I orphaned your reply. I hate the inability to edit (and could argue it's mildly ableist!) Based on the chart linked above I noted 50%+ GNP growth from 1933 to 38. And acknowledged a good bit of that was military. Hard to believe all of it could be. Your reply: bsky.app/profile/cjbu...

My meta point is, at no point was the German public thinking, "Gosh, the Nazis crashed the so-so Weimar economy they inherited, but..." Though I confess my ignorance of the Brownshirts. Weren't they pretty marginal by the mid-30s?

The Night of the Long Knives was in 1934 after Hitler started getting flack from average German voters for their violence and chaos. AFAIK they were pretty strong up to that point.

Extending what you alluded to... It's like if Hilter tanked the economy through stupidity and 70% of Germans knew it. It's harder to blame the Other when everyone knows you did it. Actually had to look it up -- here's the GNP trend in interwar Germany: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

practically speaking, all of these things don't matter when it comes to the choices people make. so far, they've chosen to do nothing to stop the descent towards hell, and if they do not stand now, they will slide further and further

no additional citing of facts will shift this. people only respect action and tangible influence, so the ugliest person in the world that can establish a oligarchy in less than a year with barely any resistance has more leverage than everybody pointing out that he's doing it

"Barely any resistance"?

all these people "stand opposed to him" by trying to vote in a process that they are doomed to lose in a game that he will always win because the game doesn't make any sense and he doesn't have to play by its rules

Then I guess magical god-emperor Trump has gotten the best of us and there's nothing to be done for the rest of his 974-year life. Ah well. Nice talking.

yeah that's pretty much the position everybody is taking right now if only we could do literally anything else

he has already figured out years ago that there is no reason to play by the rules and he wins because everybody else keeps playing by them. oh, we can't charge him with anything because he touched base and the base is labeled "president" because the court he's bribing said so

the long awaited hitler citation in an argument: hitler won by the rules, but he wasn't playing by those rules either. principled but toothless posturing will not stop a tyrant. they will never stop a tyrant

people keep expecting him to destroy himself. but this isn't a tree falling over in a forest, this is a bomb that grows larger every day and will crush everything within its blast radius with its final act

The badness of the decision doesn't seem to play any major part in preventing people from taking that decision historically speaking

I think that’s the big thing. When you have basic human empathy and generally respect human life, it’s hard to wrap your head around the concept that some humans are evil enough to torture or abuse other humans just for fun.

Sure. And also there's a big difference between the abstract of "I support President Trump through thick and thin!" and leaving what you're doing to take a job of fighting through protestors to kidnap the woman selling tamales. Anyway still be wary of course, just dubious they can scale up so fast

the unfortunate reality is that one bad decision can end numerous good decisions within a setting where good relies entirely on bad not suddenly happening

It plays a huge role in a lot of people's decisions! But there's a selection bias because it's those who took the awful branch that we spend time talking about. Those who tacitly support awfulness at little cost to self -- a right-winger who manages his small business -- are numerous but overlooked.

people talk about the ones who took the awful branch more because they're the ones who end up killing everybody who opposed them early on, and of course the bias is going to be towards the people who lived and had more awful history to build up while the ones who didn't get quiet monuments

We can fight their headcount by sharing the living hell out of this Know Your Rights resource. We’re scared AF but you can still use your privilege to help build a safety network. Washington immigration Solidarity Network’s Know Your Rights fliers in a buncha languages: waisn.org/kyrice

DHS will soon be looking for MORE people to become ICE officers and I am sure there be plenty of people who would apply for these jobs.

Soon the USA will become the United States of Russia.

At this rate, in a few months.

And Chinas

I think it’s still slightly behind China, but honestly at that point it doesn’t really matter.

Guess where you will work if you want to eat, feed your family, or get Medicaid in the near future? Those ICE jobs are government jobs, not private sector jobs. Shrink the government much? Not sure how the elderly or kids will handle that assignment.

open.substack.com/pub/growingu...

ICE will probably be fortifying DC before the midterms. Trump can’t take the investigations if democrats did become majority.

SS redoux en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzs...

It’s 3x the Marine Corps budget, and half the Navy’s. They have zero blue water ships or nukes to maintain.

ICE is Russia's army in America, now. We are literally under attack by Russia and its assets, which include our own government and its leadership. Thank goodness we freely handed them the keys over a cup of tea. This IS the bloodless coup.

I'm just hoping they stay out of my country. Although if they do come, I'm pretty sure we'd be willing to use them to expand what we refer to as "the Geneva Checklist".

Trump's new budget for his own Gestapo secret police ICE is larger than the 2022 and 2023 Russian military budget. Russia was (and is) at war. Masked unidentified paramilitary forces are detaining kidnapping deporting denying due process in America and we funded it more than Russia's military

First immigration detainees arrive at Florida center in the Everglades ground.news/article/trum...

True

ICE is currently invading my home town of LA so that tracks.

I think with that budget they’re going to be invading everyone’s home town soon. They’re now the third biggest paramilitary organization on earth behind the US and Chinese armies.

With what though ? Is there some equivalently large untapped set of freaks who want this work?

Come live in rural Texas for a day and I’ll show you an untapped set of freaks who would jump at the chance to act out The Purge on liberals and Latinos.

Do they not already have jobs tho

I'm thinking of these posts bsky.app/profile/goli...

There are people who want work. Many won’t be freaks when they sign on. Not completely. The job will change them.

I'm thinking of this thread bsky.app/profile/goli...

Hiring 10 mil people takes a long time

yes, actually. they've been building this group for years. that's why vance is there, he's with them

Is Vance 50000 people. I have this in mind bsky.app/profile/goli...

the assumption is that they will need 50000 people when they can just drop in on any given area that isn't prepared to provide 50000 people's worth of immediate resistance against them ICE isn't being built to fight a war, they're being built as a terrorist force

between continued ICE budget increases and online radicalization, they're going to push for a major recruitment campaign from the burgeoning online trash pile they've been cultivating, and then move to pressure any major points of resistance in the country

I understand that's what they're going to try to do

Yep. Told my friend to expect them to become part of our everyday lives: ICE at the grocery, cruising your neighborhood, in your favorite restaurant; they’ll be EVERYWHERE.

They’ll hire all of the people who have lost their jobs, or now need to have a job to qualify for health benefits.

That would make them the largest paramilitary Armies are military

Every town in America will soon have a gang of lawless thugs roaming the streets with the clear and explicit knowledge that the President will pardon them of any crime that even makes it to trial and conviction. I cannot state more clearly that this is not hyperbole. I’m going shopping while I can.

And maybe after you do that, share the living hell out of this Know Your Rights resource to your friends. We’re scared AF but you can still use your privilege to help build a safety network. Washington immigration Solidarity Network’s Know Your Rights fliers in a buncha languages: waisn.org/kyrice

And filled with Proud Boys and J6ers.

No Army on Earth at the moment is large enough to fully control the US. Too large. You'd need 10 million soldiers.

How many illegal immigrants actually exist in this country? They'll be moving on to minorities who are legal citizens. This sickening.

Known Nazi and trump advisor Laura Loomer already said they had 65 million targets. I'll give you one guess what the total Hispanic population of the US is.

The US and Chinese armies are not paramilitaries, obviously.

10,000 people isn’t a lot spread out across a country as large as ours. Of course they’ll be concentrating in certain areas, mainly cities or metros, and even then they’re going to need the cooperation of local lawn law-enforcement. Now would be an excellent time to pressure them not to cooperate.

So what you’re saying is that unless the US military decided to save disobey their commander in chief OR china comes and saves us… Yep. This isnt good.

Plus the military has a much longer tradition of being independent of the political process and answering to the Constitution rather than the commander in chief. DHS/ICE are much more politically motivated.

“Homeland” was never a good sign. Ffs. This is so not good.

well, the thing is, sometimes you can't wait for somebody to save you

I am disabled and just rode a scooter around a store after visiting my cardiologist. I’m unsure how much fight I’ve got left in me at this point. It’s a miracle I’ve made it this far. And here we are. I wonder how long til they come after those of us on SSDI.

Just blue states and blue cities

No, it's going to be in red/purple states and cities too. The only difference is our state and local government will be right alongside them. Disclaimer that police departments in blue cities tend to be fascist fucks so they won't help. Shout out to the like one police chief who's taking a stand.

Sickening

Literally the start of the civil war.

I really think that began with the death of Heather Heyer

This is a step toward racist dictatorship & Civil War II, but with a far bigger, stronger Confederate Army than last time.

Only numbers truly matter

What does this mean?

Welp, it was nice knowing you all, cause I'm a dead man walkin'

They'll come face to face with my guns if they enter my property. Bring it on nazis.

I think they will be invading the blue states and cities. Make sure people stay in line.

Oh totally, but living in Houston I worry about it too. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis would just love an excuse to deploy the National Guard on protestors.

Yes. I think any "liberal pockets" in red states are at huge risk, as well as blue states across the country.

Think Russian-FSB-on-palantir-steroids.Their aim is not deportation. It is dictatorship.So, yes, ICE in everyone’s town. The MAGA Rs have been sold the idea that authoritarianism is the way to save our country and humanity.We cannot expose them if they WANT it.We have to find everyone that doesn’t.

ICE is set out to be a paramilitary group, but nobody would ever think the US or Chinese militaries would be paramilitary. Beyond that, I'ma assume it is true, so long as I haven't yet seen the budgets for either of those.

Feels like we're living in a flip version of V for vendetta and jfc I want off this ride..

We’re living in the prequel to your generic dystopian novel of choice.

Accurate assessment

how is Ukraine fighting them off?

with violence

Time to raid the skunkworks facilities.

Jc Frias | A now-viral video shows ICE agents trying to detain Haitian immigrants—and being pushed back. This isn’t just about one arrest. This is... | Instagram share.google/SXOFtPkjariT...

and that's before the %1500 budget increase.

I saw someone covering his face while doing work, in order to protect his lungs. Maybe more ppl need to take their respiratory health seriously, & they too need to wear masks. (Link is for source for pic) www.urmc.rochester.edu/MediaLibrari...

Sorry the pic fell off; face masks are important for those doing landscaping (possibly other work too). Be sure to protect yourselves, & share the message. 😊

I have a question as a local LA resident. Why aren’t the Latinos rising up…I mean if they grabbed my sister, my mom or dad…even best buddies…I’d be outraged.

The scary LA gang members don't seem to be rising up

The LAPD are actually supporting ICE.

I bet, same goals: Clean Up & Homogenize even when some LE resemble the people they're rounding up and would never be accepted by the people they're working for, just used

why arent you "rising up"? why dont you ask them, since you live there?

I don’t live there. I was asking the guy who does.

The immigrants ICE keeps grabbing are law abiding people and are getting swarmed with overwhelming numbers when they get snatched. Zero attention is being paid to the immigrants with guns and who will fight back. (i.e. the people ICE actually went after under Biden and Obama)

But some of these young Latinos have to know some of those being dragged off. They need to start fighting back, imo before it’s too late. The government has already deemed them criminals and last on the caste rung.

Is there some legal reason the local law enforcement doesn’t confront ICE?

They’re probably mostly in favor of what they’re doing.

they're either buddies, or if there's jurisdiction toe stepping happening, they can't meaningfully push back against a group that outweighs them, especially if the president makes a show of force by sending the national guard

a two bit spineless cop isn't going to stick their neck out in front of the president in any given situation

The same reason why local law enforcement doesn't investigate a lot of domestic violence cases.

I certainly don't want ICE doing the same horrible crap to humans in TX but it sure makes you wonder why they aren't. Could it be because its a RED state???

100% yes. Texas has an "immigrant problem" as much as LA and is right on the border but they're deliberately targeting blue states to break morale

LA is a targeted experiment for what's going to hit the rest of the country post Big Bad Bill

Keep strong LA

God couldn't destroy LA in January. Some flesh lump in a suit doesn't stand a fucking chance.

yep—the rest of us are about to find out what that's like

With that budget, they can empty half of LA and let their rich friends "buy" all the land...

The Nosferatu of U.S. immigration policy 🧛‍♂️🇺🇸 bsky.app/profile/ched...

Frankly I’m scared as hell. We know bsky isn’t secure, but nevertheless I just felt like sharing the Washington immigration solidarity network’s Know Your Rights fliers that I found in a buncha languages. waisn.org/kyrice

It’s bigger than the military budget of both Russia & China AND the 8 next largest military budgets in the world, COMBINED. Yet the GOP says, Americans must “sacrifice” bc the country is $37 TRILLION in debt— btw, thanks to them bc the American people sure as hell don’t control the U.S. budget.

bsky.app/profile/chri...