Tim Lesle

The president didn't bother to make the case for war in a marathon State of the Union address and then he fucked off to his sweaty gilded country club so he could literally phone in an unconstitutional war.

Every single Democrat needs to be screaming about this at full volume.

JD Vance should just stay home, it's really too much trouble to let him out into the world

Agent: These guys were all threatening us yesterday with hand guns.
...
Agent: *Hand* guns, like threatening to shoot us.

Reporter: You mean like with hand symbols?

A: Pulling them out, trying to engage us.

R: Pulling out literal guns?

A: No. Making... assuming we were going to do something.

Just think about the amazing Epstein scoops the new CBS Evening News contributors will have just by interviewing each other.

Steve Levitsky, the co-author of How Democracies Die, on the dangerous place we have reached as Trump escalates:

“Orbán doesn’t arrest journalists,” he said. “And in Hungary if you walk the streets of Budapest or other Hungarian cities, you will not find heavily armed masked men abducting people."

a lot of Democratic officials have asked the protesters to be careful to not "give Trump what he wants" and I think it's fair to ask them to do likewise

I am just gonna say it, these guys are completely emasculated by the knowledge that they have been out-organized by a group that is significantly made up of women, and all the bullshit call of duty nonsense is cope for their wounded egos bsky.app/profile/jeet...

From September…

"The temperature in Minneapolis is dangerously high. There is an urgent need for the federal agents deployed to the city to step back and take a breath before more Americans are hurt or killed. [Highlighted]: Those protesting the Trump administration have an equal obligation to avoid violence.

This is from the NYT masthead editorial about the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The highlighted line invalidates not just the editorial, but the very idea of newspaper editorials crafted by the consensus of a board. Better to publish nothing at all than to publish a line like this.

“de-escalate tensions” is a phrase institutions use to normalize existing power arrangements by pretending they’re concerned about public safety.

Old thread but same theme. The core underlying problem of our time is federal government lies.

If you believe the wildly false statements of Gregory Bovino, each shooting by ICE agents is justified.

And ICE agents may believe Bovino!

That's why the media failures are so hugely consequential.

This was murder. Pretti did not initiate the confrontation. He didn’t strike them. He didn’t brandish his gun. They tackled him, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him.

And he didn’t. He tried to help a woman who’d just been assaulted. There was nothing rash, stupid, or radical about what he did. He showed kindness. And they killed him for it.

This should be the baseline energy expected from every elected Democrat in the country going forward.

Alex Pretti was a colleague at the VA. We hired him to recruit for our trial. He became an ICU nurse- I lover working with him. He was a good kind person who lived to help and these fuckers executed him.

White. Hot. Rage.

The federal government is executing American citizens in the middle of the street for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech.

This is tyranny. No free people can accept this kind of government. We need to bring an end to the Trump regime.

Bellingcat is gold standard. Read entire thread

"A video of the shooting appears to show that a gun was taken from the man BEFORE THE FIRST shot was fired."

"At least 10 shots being heard in total. Most of them are fired after a brief delay, when the man is already lying motionless on the ground."

This random online comment from 2018 remains one of the last half-century's most important works of political commentary. crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l...

“Everyone should be allowed to carry a gun for their safety but the government can murder you in the street if you have a gun” is an incredible endpoint for the conservative moment

We have been told for nearly 30 years that America needed to tolerate mass shootings because the broad availability of guns would help us defend ourselves from an overreaching federal government. That day has come. The people who said this are supporting the federal agents. Many have joined them.

From this moment forward (and before, but clearly now):

-If you work for ICE.
-If you vote for money for ICE.

You are complicit. This is the gestapo. You're on the wrong side. You can't pretend not to know.

I am trying not to post on these events in this state of mind but: I hope people understand what the observers are doing is brave and dangerous.

Imagine if the sports section of this paper ran headlines like “Team Wins”

You read things like this and you can only hope that when the time comes, if it comes, when it is your community's turn to be tested, that you acquit yourselves half as well.

Ted DeCorso (letter #3) was my conductor at the Fairbanks Youth Symphony. Really great guy!

An email starting with “for your consideration: Nuremberg”

This studio awards-season email is really matching the current mood in a way I’m not sure they intended.

r/Minneapolis If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, that's it for me. I've spent the last week checking on my neighbors, engaging with my city, my local police, everyone. I've supported my friends and family, made sure they knew they weren't alone in their feelings of hopelessness, powerlessness. I've called and emailed my representatives, demanding answers, demanding action. I've just been overcome with this overwhelming, almost primal need to care for and support my community. If Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, and soldiers take to our streets, then that tears it for me. My son just turned 1yr. I've done my best to be a helper, so that I can still be around to support him and spend time with him. But if I have to STAND OUTSIDE in the FREEZING COLD and get the SHIT KICKED OUT OF ME by the people who are supposed to be protecting me, if I have to do that to fight for goodness, and righteousness, and justice, then that's what I'm gonna fucking do. I'm going to do it because this is not the future I want for my son. If you've been out on the streets, and you're tired, and you're hurting, don't worry. Rest when you need to. Because I know my home and I know my neighbors. When you need to rest, two more will replace you. I will be one of them. This is my home. Minneapolis is not going to quit. Minnesota is not going to quit. And FUCK EVERYONE who tries to come in here and take from us the PRIDE, LOVE, and COMMUNITY we've built. As long as I can stand, I'm going to plant my two feet between the oppressors and the home I love. I love you all. L'etoile du Nord.

Posts from Minneapolis residents read like they'll be read in voiceover in a Ken Burns-like doc one day

the people of MN have been murdered, brutalized and kidnapped for weeks now and have remained *amazingly* peaceful in the face of it. lecturing citizens to not “take the bait” etc is pretty disrespectful after a point and avoids the real question: how long are they supposed to take this, undefended?

I gave him an A, because, basically, unemployment is down. I do all the grocery shopping for my house, and I see prices have gone down. Gas is down. So I’m really excited about that.

I feel like it's the job of the interviewer here to point out that unemployment and prices have both risen since he came back to office

The letter from Bill and Hillary Clinton to James Comer explaining their refusal to testify in his Epstein investigation is really remarkable, not like any letter of this genre I've seen. It's signed by them, not a lawyer, and the arguments are not legal ones. Reprinted from their X account: