Originally published at: Prairieland ‘Antifa’ Activists Sentenced to Decades in Prison on ‘Terrorism’ Charges - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Federal judges in Fort Worth handed down maximum sentences to eight people charged in connection with a July 2025 demonstration outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center that devolved into vandalism and the shooting of a police officer. Benjamin Song was sentenced to 100 years in prison and Maricela Rueda to 70. Savanna Batten,…
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Warranted on individual facts or not, this country (and indeed most others) has a long history of inflicting maximal punishment on defendants deemed part of the Left whilst tolerating or even endorsing similar actions when committed by those on the Right.
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the actions of ICE and the federal government over the past year have proved the righteousness of their actions
It also proves the Second Amendment is a joke.
Our government is incapable of supporting the right to bear arms against a malicious, violent, illegal, corrupt administration.
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I do not know the circumstances around this case, but I did watch the J6ers with my own god damned eyes. Compare and contrast MAGA justice at work.
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For vandalism and shooting a cop, I’m ok with big sentences as this type of action harms the effort to oppose ICE/CBP and the Trump admin more generally.
Now let’s talk about those violent people from 6 January 2021 who walk free and pardoned.
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Last week, some defendants were reassigned to the district’s chief judge, Reed O’Connor. At sentencing, he reportedly called the events of July 4 not a protest, but an “assault on Democracy.” He described the case as sending a message to “anyone who shares a similar ideology,” the defendants’ committee said.
The First Assignment of Error, which the 5th Circuit, and then perhaps the Republican Supreme Court—no doubt with some very twisted logic—will promptly ignore.
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I’ve been pretty clear in my position that these people crossed all kinds of red lines for protest: Bringing weapons, launching tons of fireworks at the facility, blatant damage to property, opening fire instead of surrendering when confronted by the cop, fleeing, destroying evidence, concealing suspects. It was a shitshow of stupidity begging for them all to get charged and convicted.
But these sentences are an absolute travesty.
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You mean like attacking the Capitol and trying to overturn an election? Just a “childish prank” or “youthful indiscretion”. Nothing to see here, move along.
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What are there prospects on appeal? I’m guessing they will hit the Fifth Circuit at some point.
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Honestly, these sentences are so ludicrous that even the Fifth Circuit might order resentencing. I would not count on it, but they might.
Next Dem president will need to commute a bunch of these sentences.
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And calling it “an absolute travesty” doesn’t even come close. These draconian sentences wouldn’t even be meted out in Russia or China. We’ve fallen so far so fast it’s nose-bleed inducing.
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I didn’t say it was a partial travesty. This is Pittman and O’Connor, obviously in close coordination, performatively going apeshit against enemies of the Reich.
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Guilt first, sentence last.
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This is so much more than ETTD. Scary, really. More like Stalin & Mother Russia.
But you cannot bring weapons to a protest. It justifies almost every action/reaction by law enforcement.
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Elections will not fix this. We are beyond the fascism event horizon. What happens going forward is already written by the patterns and scripts of history when it’s happened before.
Pulte is up next: there will be no mid-terms.
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This is delusional. Seek help.
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Ho won’t stop escalating his auditioning for KKKristofascist SKKKOTUS until he’s dead and buried and Jones might as well wear her hood on the bench. The rest of the Trump kkklowns are almost as bad…and the Bush and Reagan appointees on that bench might be called a little better, but that’s like winning an award for smartest kid on the short bus. This is the “make an example of them” they’ve been waiting for. I doubt it gets anything but short shrift.
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Relax, Francis.
Although I WILL stand by the opinion that Pulte is clearing house in preparation for the attempt to ramp up to a batshit national emergency declaration. They don’t want anyone near it who can leak or raise the alarm.
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Divine Intervention: Putie falls out a 5th floor window and Trump chokes out on a double cheeseburger - you know, like Mama Cass. Or he drowns in the grand reopening of his Reflecting Pool.
You’re not all wrong. Midterms becoming one of those turning points in history.
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Firing a bunch of people who know all kinds of classified information and where the bodies are buried is usually a great way of getting them talking on background and off the record.
Pulte is there to do a smash and grab for (i) intel dirt that can be weaponized against any of trump’s opponents, and (ii) anything – which they fervently believe to exist – showing election interference against trump. Tasks for which the prior Krishna cult kook was apparently insufficiently capable of carrying out, a la the Atlanta elections search warrant fiasco that appears to have petered out into nothing.
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