I keep coming back to what Kevin Kruse said here: the Trump regime is trying to get an ICE officer killed. That’s the pretext they desperately want.
https://bsky.app/profile/kevinmkruse.bsky.social/post/3m7ofznbtsk2v
well, it's win/win for them regarding this, isn't it? it's not like you're fine if you don't resist and screwed if you do…
@inthehands Yes, that would be much, much more useful to them, preferably one with the right color wife and kids.
sure they get it, some of them would probably love to be a martyr, they're being groomed you don't die until someone speaks your name for the last time (i've heard this creepy saying repeatedly over the last few years, have you noticed?)
PLUS
1 or 2 lives lost out of millions of Nazis is, to them, a small price to pay for the rest of them to buy the right to slaughter us wholesale because they don't really believe they'll be the 1, it will be their buddy over there...
They are absolutely cannon fodder and appear so smirkingly clueless. At least the rest of us fully understand this regime wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire, just throw gasoline. Those thugs seem completely oblivious. They are getting to live out their violent fantasies, so maybe they're fine with it?
@inthehands yes. That sounds plausible. I can see that. Get some useful sacrifice killed and then massive crackdown involving major forces. Again, I think I can almost hear the tramp of jackboots.
@inthehands Not only do they need an ICE officer to get killed - eventually most of those that have become ICE officers will be rounded up and imprisoned themselves.
They are the unruly chaos that any fascist wannabe-dictator initially relies on to create the disruption that is used as cause to seize more power. However, at some point those in power become scared of no longer being able to even control them and eventually crack down on the very group they created (usually as a story swung as "we've dealt with the extremist corruption that's grown in this organisation, look moderate population, we are on your side")
@inthehands Those weren't goons if they knew (or cared)
@inthehands It's just like in Andor.
@inthehands One of the scary things is that a bunch of the ICE goons are absolutely True Believers in their mission, and they have already convinced themselves they are going up against the worst of the worst. So they'd probably be horrifyingly okay with giving their life for the cause. They think they'll be remembered as a martyred hero. They think the crackdown following their death will be righteous.
When Trump sends them, they are on a mission from God.
I think that’s all exactly right. I just don’t think they believe that their boss’s boss is •trying• to get them killed.
@inthehands They came close with that gun nut getting murdered on stage, but didn't quite get their Horst Wessel moment. That's what they're gunning for.
I wonder what their Reichstag Fire will be?
They milked Kirk for all they could, but the problem was he was murdered by a fellow right-winger, and he wasn’t a federal official. That doesn’t create enough political and popular support to allow martial law or similar.
@inthehands oh, more than a couple.
@inthehands surely the leopards won't eat THEIR face?
@inthehands Very plausible. Especially since that's the same script as Jan6. Then it eventually became clear the idea was to see Pence or Pelosi or, hell, any old Congresscritter or recognizable name killed. That would open the way to declaring martial law (or facsimile thereof using some pet agency?).
@inthehands yes, well, a pretext is only accomplishing anything to the extent there's anyone convinced by it
for example, moderates in positions of power
at some point, with the administration's habit of killing people, even the most nihilistic moderate is going to have trouble feeling like the people fighting back are the ones escalating
@ireneista
Yes, that is the bind they find themselves in now. They need an ICE agent killed fast.
Grim stuff.
They need a Horst Wessel . And they may write a song about him, too.
@inthehands you do get they don't need "pretext"? They've already gained total control
@sortius
No they have not. This is a dangerously false and wrongheaded throwaway reply.
@inthehands dude, you're playing it like it's February 1933, you're at January 1939... it's too late to talk about not giving them pretext.
You're just collaborating your way to oblivion
@sortius
Written for someone else, but also for you:
@inthehands not really keen to read it after your previous reply
@sortius Lastly, mostly for others reading the replies because I am probably about to block you for your obnoxiousness:
@sortius@infosec.exchange Already blocked him, but just one more to close out the thread, in case anybody else from halfway around the world wants to splain my city to me:
@inthehands mate, you're the obnoxious one.
Your country has fallen and you're talking about pretext. They shot someone in broad daylight in front of cameras and witnesses.
They do not care, and you're the problem, along with everyone sitting there saying "let's put on frog suits"
They are doing everything they can to make it happen: the endless escalations, the recklessness, the shoddy training, the quotas, the sense of impunity, the masks, the bounty hunters, the right-wing camera crews following them like ducklings, the redoubling of provocations after ICE murdered Good: what does it point to except baiting, a total non-concern for the lives of ICE officers, a wish to get at least one of them shot on camera?
@inthehands
“a wish to get at least one of them shot on camera”
They need another martyr or two or three. It worked so well with Kirk, but only for a little while.
Renee Good is a crisis for the Trump regime: not because they care about her life, but because ICE murdering her makes ICE look bad. They’ve been telling all these stories about all the imaginary violence ICE officers face. In their minds, it’s the people on the streets who were supposed to lose their cool first. Now they’re falling over themselves to make that happen.
We just want ICE gone, but their bosses want them dead. And no, I’m sure they do not understand this.
@inthehands That was cold blooded Murder, plain and simple, if that wasn't evident enough in all the videos and sreenshots online, it should be. They have been told that Trump will have their back, he's shown he could. Would he now? I'm sure they are dumb enough to believe he cares about them.
This is the problem: I’m sure they’ll see the regime having their back when they commit murder and assume that’s to protect them — when really it’s to put them in the crosshairs.
@inthehands Maybe cosplaying #Noem doxxed him on purpose? The more I think about it the more I find it plausible!
That particular point that the people who hired these agents are quite happy to see them die as an excuse to escalate violence even more killing even more people is a good one. One that has to be stressed over and over, especially to the agents on the street.
Your bosses are trying to get you killed and you’re stupid enough to try to provoke people. It’s insane
I’m sure having to post a lot of links to this one:
https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/115860687777099579
People are getting really confused about this. When I say “pretext,” I don’t mean for individual ICE officers. I mean that the Trump regime still (!!) does not have enough popular support and political cover to cross certain lines. They finding themselves genuinely stymied by federal courts and State govs, Congress is getting less (not more!) quiescent, they’re finding themselves unable to control the press, and popular support is collapsing.
Saying “the situation is already extremely dire” is true and important. Saying “they’ve already achieved total authoritarian control” is wrong, dangerous, and an invitation to give up when we most need people active.
Please see also this reply from @miss_rodent, which does an excellent job of summing up the situation:
https://girlcock.club/@miss_rodent/115872136801271349
OK so violence against ICE is off the table. What about tranquilizer darts?
@inthehands We are still in the 'Consolidating power' phase, which means that consolidation *can* still fail, and their base fragmenting over things like the pedophile president's attempts to cover up the epstein files matter; he has not taken full control, and the more loyalists he loses, the harder it becomes for him to actually finish consolidating power.
@inthehands It also doesn't help that they've already kidnapped many of "the worst" criminal immigrants, and more and more they're kidnapping perfectly normal people - oftentimes who are completely legally here, working jobs, paying taxes, whatever. It's becoming harder to paint everyone as some dangerous gang member when they're like ... A person who cleans houses and missed a paperwork filing deadline one time 10 years ago.
@inthehands if they did understand they wouldn't care. Fascists are eager to die for the fatherland
@benny
I genuinely wonder about whether that’s the case. I’m not sure it isn’t, but I’m not sure it is.
@inthehands probably depends on the individual thug. You have cowards and fanatics
@inthehands
I think some of them understand this. They use it to justify their violence.
