joshuafaile.bsky.social
(he/him)
Neurodivergent Social Democrat in Maine working to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive society.
Economist by training, Spanish-English-American by birth, and antifascist by moral imperative.
We must act now before it is too late.
4,380 posts
1,695 followers
1,458 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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Sorry, not following? Katie Miller, Stephen Miller’s wife (and rumoured to be a new addition to Musk’s harem), was born in Florida, and is of Jewish descent.
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When Ezra Klein is calling you out as full of shite, you really need to start rethinking your life choices, because there is absolutely no reason to take anything you say seriously.
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* They
It’s been a long weekend.
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If the shoot at Maxine Waters all hell is going to break loose on these fascists.
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I, for one, am heartened by the fact that he intends to work to crackdown on “illegal crime”.
I have long thought law enforcement spends far too much time and resources fighting legal crime.
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My god, how can he be paid to write something this demonstratively stupid?
She was the first woman to lead a major military operation in the United States, commanding 150 African-American Union soldiers in a successful *amphibious* raid to rescue 700 slaves during the Civil War.
Boggles the mind.
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This is also unprecedented, even if they had tried to invoke the Insurrection Act. IA invocations have all been geographically tied; even Lincoln declared the IA to be in effect in the southern states rebelling. This is national and sets a dangerous precedent. 3/
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You don't work this out after you deploy troops IF you are competent and/or acting in good faith!
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Nonviolent resistance is the way to depose this regime.
We can’t capitulate, we can’t supplicate, we can’t become passive bystanders.
We must fight.
But we must do it in a way that shows the blind ambition, brutality, and malfeasance of the regime to all.
That is how hearts are won.
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Most of the restraints are structural—they can’t simply do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whomever they want… yet.
As someone that has lived in two countries under absolute authoritarian rule, I can say with confidence we are not there yet.
But we are on the way, and we must fight.
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But the fabricated crisis is the pretext.
That is the point I am making. It’s not the people’s fault, nor should we submit ourselves to the regime’s actions.
But it is still trying to create a pretext for further escalation because there are still *some* restraints to what they can do.
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As of right now, *legally*, the NG can pass out water and do paperwork (and even that will have restrictions).
Will the regime respect that lawful restraint based on not invoking the Insurrection Act?
I hope so, but I would not be surprised if they don’t.
This entire affair is a trial balloon.
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Indeed. But in the case of the Trump regime, they’re currently retrained by external entities that still require some sort of legal rational. Without it, they still struggle to get the buy-in they need from various entities to actual carry out their desired actions.
That may not always be the case.
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That said, I absolutely agree that it’s wholly misguided to say we should just allow the regime to do what they want, as if that as *ever* restrained or moderated authoritarians.
Fascists especially only respect force, so passivity or supplication is like a gazelle stopping and bowing to a cheetah.
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Absolutely understand what you mean, and the pretext is definitely not needed to justify the behaviour to the regime itself (or even its supporters).
But it is still needed in order to both fabricate legitimacy of the acts and get required buy-in to carry them out.
I speak to this in this thread.
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The Trump regime still often needs “cover” to gain buy-in and support from various entities in order to carry out actions, especially when the legality is dubious or they’re obviously unconstitutional.
They haven’t yet reached the point where they can act completely without restraint.
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It’s also important to note the aspiring fascist regime hasn’t completely subsumed the government yet.
The courts are still acting to restrain them. The public hasn’t been fully dominated into submission. State governments are still resisting. Public & private institutions are still fighting back.
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We made a follow up complaint but it has lead to nothing.
These underhanded tactics from the RNC have been spreading out to even relative minor municipal elections for a few cycles now.
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The same happened with an illegal website and campaign contributions for the Bangor election last year and numerous complaints to the state election commission resulted in only a public rebuke, with 2 of the 3 candidates that were party to the violations being elected and now sitting in office.
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No worries—it’s been a few long days for everyone, so typos are inevitable.
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Good substitutions, we may be able turn things around yet. We just need to steady our defence and press more aggressively. Once we pull one back I reckon their heads will fall and we’ll be able to create chances at will. Their keeper is mentally weak and their manager is inept.
Up the people!
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This is also what actual insurrection looks like.
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Federalising and deploying NG as the Trump regime is currently doing is unconstitutional and highly problematic. It is unequivocally an escalation of hostilities.
But deploying active duty Marines is not only unconstitutional and escalatory, it is frighteningly dangerous and brazenly authoritarian.
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Active duty Marine units will contain far fewer individuals from the state in which they are being deployed, which tends to create a psychological separation from the populace they will be policing.
They are also trained for warfare, not peacekeeping, and will be quick to shoot, not deescalate. +
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Federalised NG from the state of deployment will be comprised largely of residents and community members of that state, some even from the city in which they are being deployed.
They will have been trained for peacekeeping and show more prudence and restraint as they operate in their home. +
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Federalising and deploying NG as the Trump regime is currently doing is unconstitutional and highly problematic. It is unequivocally an escalation of hostilities.
But deploying active duty Marines is not only unconstitutional and escalatory, it is frighteningly dangerous and brazenly authoritarian.
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Active duty Marine units will contain far fewer individuals from the state in which they are being deployed, which tends to create a psychological separation from the populace they will be policing.
They are also trained for warfare, not peacekeeping, and will be quick to shoot, not deescalate. +
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Federalised NG from the state of deployment will be comprised largely of residents and community members of that state, some even from the city in which they are being deployed.
They will have been trained for peacekeeping and show more prudence and restraint as they operate in their home. +
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Also, to be clear, whilst deploying active duty US Marines to carry out police action in a US city is similar to federalising National Guard troops to do the same (as once federalised, the NG is functionally federal military) from a legal standpoint, it is *very* different in practice. +
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Putting active duty United States Marines on the streets of an American city is, in fact, a violation of both the Constitution and Posse Comitatus.