Originally published at: Trump Crackdown on ‘Terrorist’ Left Notches a Victory in Texas - TPM – Talking Points Memo
President Trump won a key victory on Friday in a case that tested his efforts to stage explicitly political terrorism prosecutions of activists who oppose him. A Texas jury found eight members of a supposed North Texas “Antifa cell” guilty of material support for terrorism over a July incident in which the group staged a…
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The material support for terrorism charges are gross overreaches, but they’re mostly going to stick on appeal because it’s a shitty statute. And Mark Pittman is a Fox News brained MAGA asshole through and through.
That said, these people were morons who were definitely asking for it. That was no peaceful protest.
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Contrast this against:
During a Univision town hall in October 2024, President Donald Trump described the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as “a day of love.” He used this phrase to describe the large gathering of his supporters in Washington, D.C., and to downplay the violence that occurred when some of them stormed the Capitol. During the town hall, Trump claimed that “nothing [was] done wrong” by his supporters, calling them “patriots” and a “tiny percentage” who walked down to the Capitol.
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Another move right out of the ascendant dictatorship playbook: Manufactured enemies. Be sure that any number of trumpians believe that Antifa exists and meets on the 2nd Thur of every month.
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citing Charlie Kirk’s killing as a justification
Charlie Kirk opposed war with Iran.
Would his killing by the government be justified then, Republicans?
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Prairieland was much smaller than J6, but the comparison is otherwise fairly reasonable. Most of the participants were not planning for violence, but it was organized in advance and some of those organizers were definitely planning for shit to hit the fan. Some of those J6 defendants were also hit with terrorism enhancements.
Imagine if a bunch of right-wing dipshits held a heavily-armed protest against trans kids or whatever, featuring copious amounts of fireworks and deliberate property damage against their target, then some of them pulled out assault rifles and opened fire when the cops showed up, then a bunch of them started destroying evidence and helping each other avoid arrest. I would fully expect those people to be arrested, charged, and convicted.
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Before I go to sleep, I always check to make sure that there is no Antifa terrorist cell under the bed. So far, so good, but I’ll check again tonight.
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Well I would love to see feces spread all over his tacky gold office, do you think he would be OK with that?
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Metaphorically, the feces is the tacky gold.
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Well, he may have then, way back in the past. But once Trump sent in the bombers and missiles, might Saint Charlie have become a Believer, like everybody else in Trump’s orbit?
Since he’s now gone to his final reward, anything can be attributed to him.
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But his quote saying that a few deaths were OK to protect the 2nd Amendment is well established, and quite ironic. Good riddance to the fascist.
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In a different scenario, I am still waiting for the first real test of the Castle Doctrine or state Stand Your Ground laws where masked ICE agents break down the door of someone’s residence without properly identifying themselves and with no judicial warrant (their normal MO), and get shot and killed by the resident for their trespass. I would expect the person protecting their 4th Amendment rights to be regarded as a hero by a vast majority of Americans, no matter what a brown nosing Trumped-up judge has to say about it.
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“Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization that has been allowed to flourish in Democrat-led cities — not under President Trump,” Bondi said.
Of course not under Chiselin’ Trump, because he’s a member of the truly terrorist organization Profa.
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Yes, but would they ever survive the onslaught of the other ICE ‘officers’ along on the same raid to be able to go to trial?
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Well he got indicted for that shit before trump won the fucking election and pardoned all his people. That’s not a systemic problem, it’s a constitutional problem.
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I have to point this out every time:
“One zine seized was titled The satanic death cult is real. The zine is an essay analyzing the films Hereditary and Midsommar.” (The Guardian)
So . . . go ahead and read the essay. It is film criticism. You know, artsy type stuff talking about a couple of movies.
It does NOT talk about organizing, creating terrorist cells, attacking the government (or anyone), Or even like, “here is how we are organizing the Satanic Death Cult, please everyone come and join us, we’re planning to link up and then go attack the U.S, government immediately!!11!111!!!”
If anything, it is quite the polar opposite of that.
She starts out with an extended discussion of Ursula Le Guin’s essay “All Happy Families” about Tolstoy’s famous line, "“All happy families are alike; unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way.”
Le Guin, in case you do not recall, is a beloved and celebrated American science fiction author.
The author then moves to a discussion her own extremely dysfunctional family and the impact of that on her own life, before moving on to connect these ideas to the two movies that are the subject of the essay.
Her point that “satanic death cults are real” (which, despite the use of the term “real” is in fact a metaphorical one) is not that there are literal such organizations existing but rather that families are prone to reenacting the violence and abuse that we typically associate with fantastical “satanic death cults” and in that sense they are “real”.
Regardless, she is not encouraging the organization or creation or joining of such cults but rather deploring the end result of families that recapitulate this particular evil pattern.
She also mentions communism a few times - mostly in the sense that the communal groups portrayed in the film are not actually communist.
Not exactly the most rousing call to grab your weapons, band together, and rise up to start the revolution.
Nevertheless because it includes the words “Satanic”, “Death”, and “Cult” in the title we will continue to farm it for outrage . . . .
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What ever happened to truth? Every asshole has an opinion he or she wants us to rally around. Maybe we should be teaching the importance of facts and the foolishness of opinions.
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This article is a mess
It’s a valid question I suppose. And irrelevant. But to get at an answer, look at the quality of person they are hiring and the level of training they are given. You are assuming that these people constitute a superior force, at least in numbers, and that they have the stones to come back after taking heavy casualties. Anyone firing on these invaders would be wise to immediately call 9/11 and tell authorities that they just repelled a home invasion, and get the local police there. In my own case, here is how that would play out. ICE sends it’s normal gaggle of 5 goons to my door, refuses to identify themselves, won’t show a warrant, then attempt to break the door. As they enter, they are met by me, holding a Mossberg shotgun loaded with 3 inch magnums of #4 buckshot (that’s 40 pellets of 0.24 caliber lead balls). At the cylinder choke setting and a range of 10 feet, that creates a deadly cloud that will kill or wound everyone standing at the threshold. The onslaught is mine. None of them are going to make it into the house. Then, I call my local sheriff (who is a Democrat) who will arrive with backup. I can tell by your question that you, like ICE, don’t imagine this scenario.