randy r. potts
@thephatic.bsky.social
3.7K followers 1.7K following 590 posts
journo, editor, photog; Hromadske, TVPWorld, New Yorker, AJE, VQR, et al Tulsa / DC / mieszkam w Warszawie DM for Signal
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Reposted by randy r. potts
paleofuture.bsky.social
I just checked and this is real. It's on Border Patrol's official Instagram (I don't see it on Facebook) and is being celebrated by Nazis on Twitter, as you can see in the screenshot.

The clip is just 13 seconds long too, so it's a very intentional thing. We've got a Nazi government.
Twitter account: Uncensored @HmanQuotes1945: Official border patrol Facebook page is posting with the banned lyrics of Michael Jackson's song.
"Jew me sue me... Kick me k*ke me."
Epic
Reposted by randy r. potts
ymatusik.bsky.social
A Tajik citizen married to a German gets denied asylum in Germany and is forced by immigration authorities to return to Tajikistan to apply for a family reunification visa. A few months after his return, he was abducted, tortured and killed by Tajik security services

freedomforeurasia.org/2729-2/
Return from Germany Ends in Tajik Man's Torture and Death - Freedom For Eurasia
Freedom For Eurasia condemns the decision of German authorities to force the 29-year-old Tajik citizen Rahmonov Saidazam to return to Tajikistan whiсh resulted in his violent death at the hands of the...
freedomforeurasia.org
thephatic.bsky.social
not sure if exactly this has ever happened before in US history?
johnpfaff.bsky.social
To be clear:

LA County has declared a state of emergency BECAUSE OF the federal government.

The Feds, LA County is (correctly) saying, have CAUSED the emergency.

This is a striking political moment of internal collapse. Local govts feeling compelled to protect their ppl from … their own govt.
Los Angeles County declares state of emergency over immigration raids
Los Angeles County officials voted on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency over ongoing federal immigration raids.
abcnews.go.com
thephatic.bsky.social
main thing about these people is they don't taste their food; they live lives completely divorced from their senses; the only fleeting moments of pleasure they experience is in causing other people pain - that's it - that's why they stay alive
thephatic.bsky.social
when I was 14 in Tulsa I worked banquets for these people, we'd set the tables, they looked just like this, the rooms had all these flags, and everyone would get a dainty cup of really bad chocolate mousse, so bad that when we'd clear the plates only a few bites of mousse would be missing from each
thephatic.bsky.social
vibe in this room is Old Shriner / Basement / Lost Cause
text from Guardian: US president Donald Trump (speaks alongside US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, US vice-president JD Vance and US secretary of state Marco Rubio during a meeting with Argentina president Javier Milei on Tuesday at the White House. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

in the photo, Vance, Trump, Rubio with Trump looking confused like maybe it's his birthday and he's not sure
Reposted by randy r. potts
hurricanexyz.bsky.social
Fun fact: in chapter nineteen of the Second Treatise, John Locke writes that when the legislative power is usurped from that body in which the People have placed it, and exercised instead by a person or body not authorized to do so by the People, government is dissolved
mikeblack114.bsky.social
Congress no longer holds the power of the purse, the executive can just do whatever they want with federal monies
thephatic.bsky.social
I think the only two I like are London's Sea Wolf and those few dispatches from sea in Dracula. But then, I've never read Moby Dick, so who can say.
thephatic.bsky.social
during Watergate we had a US media willing to not just report the facts but to *emphasize their importance* to the public; more recently when NYT decided "Biden too old" it went full court press, showing that it knows how to do this - but - NYT hasn't done anything remotely similar since J20
chrismurphyct.bsky.social
6/ Sure the House isn't here so Rs don't have to explain why they want premiums to go up and why they want to fund Trump's corruption.

But also because they don't want to swear in member-elect Adelita Grijalva. Since she would be the deciding vote to RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES.
Reposted by randy r. potts
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
People rightly complain that a lot of TV dramas are "copaganda," but those shows have set some expectations in the general public about how law enforcement is supposed to act. Lean into that.
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
I need a montage of famous cops in movies and TV shows flashing their badges and announcing their names, followed by a stream of masked ICE guys refusing to give theirs.
a woman is getting out of a car with the nbc logo on the bottom
ALT: a woman is getting out of a car with the nbc logo on the bottom
media.tenor.com
thephatic.bsky.social
being a hated minority truly does help solve Orwell's dilemma of how to see the thing right before your nose
adambonin.bsky.social
This line from Mamdani's father just really struck me. Great profile:

“I was an Indian in Uganda. I was a Muslim in India. And I was all of these things in New York City,” Mahmood Mamdani explained to his son. And “to be a minority is also to see the truth of the place amidst the promise of it.”
jamellebouie.net
we’ll see how his mayoral tenure shakes out but i am convinced that Mamdani has the juice. not just the charisma to win an election but the temperament to govern and the measured pragmatism of someone who genuinely believes what they’re saying and wants to accomplish real things.
thephatic.bsky.social
Trump wanted black bloc to show up on J6 as well -
sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com
one of the reasons they're so mad at "no kings" is that they thought they were going to get a different kind of protest. they *want* the black bloc to be out there fighting with the cops. those are the images they've been trying to generate from "go." instead--

newrepublic.com/article/2016...
MAGA Rage at “No Kings” Boils Over—and It Quickly Backfires on Trump
As Trump allies smear the coming protests, a good writer on MAGA skewers the absurdity of these attacks on large swaths of Americans—and explains why our best recourse will be to turn out in force.
newrepublic.com
Reposted by randy r. potts
nathantankus.bsky.social
Note that the people who typically participate in Black blocs know this. Contrary to the impression of tons of liberals,people generally do Black blocs strategically. David Graeber discusses this quite a lot in "Direct Action An Ethnography". There is a direct line to inflatable frogs from Ya Basta!
THIRD EXAMPLE: STREET PARTY
Direct action aims to confront what it sees as an unjust or illegitimate form of
authority in a way that, in its very internal structure, suggests a viable alternative
to it. Actually, the same is probably true, in some sense, of protest in generaL The
result, as we've seen, is that it's often difficult to determine how much any given
action should be seen as primarily a performance meant to make an impression
on an outside audience, and how much it is better seen as a collective ritual meant
to educate, inspire, entertain, and transform the sense of possibilities of the participants themselves. Certainly, there is always a little of both. But some types of
action lean much more heavily towards one than towards the other.
If picket lines lean very much in the first direction-they are primarily about
communicating a message of defiance to specific opponents, and convincing a
broader audience to act in solidarity-street parties might be said to represent
the opposite extreme. While they are certainly intended to make a political statement or achieve a political end, they are also designed to afford participants every
possible opportunity to enjoy themselves. lhat element of pleasure-above all,
of collective, social pleasure-is really the main point. Even insofar as those taking part in a street party are trying to impress an audience, they are doing so in
such a way as to blur the boundaries, not to draw lines in the sand. Onlookers are
offered a show, with music and jugglers and clowns. The ideal is for the pleasure
of the experience to become infectious, so that the audience spontaneously finds
itself drawn in, to either mentally or, better, physically enter the festivaL
This element of pleasure is considered a crucial to what makes new forms of
protest new-almost as much as principles of self-organization and autonomy. In activist circles that year, Ya Basta! had something of the quality ofa Next
Big Thing. Probably, this was most of all for their spectacularly innovative tactics:
members of the group were famous for covering themselves in all sorts of elaborate padding, made from everything from foam rubber sheeting to rubber ducky
flotation devices, combining it with helmets and plastic shields, so one looked
like some kind of futuristic Greek hoplite, then topping the whole thing with gas
masks and white chemical protective suits. The idea is that, so suited up, there's
relatively little the cops can do that will actually hurt you. Of course, you are rendered so clumsy there's probably not that much you could do to hurt anyone else;
but that's kind of the point. Its exponents claim the tactic is rooted in a new philosophy of civil disobedience. Where the old-fashioned, masochistic, Gandhian
approach encourages activists to hold out their willingness to let the police beat
them up as a sign of moral superiority, the "white overalls" proposed an ethos of
protection: as long as you refuse to harm others, it is completely legitimate to take
whatever measures necessary to avoid harm to yourself The costume also makes
one look rather ridiculous, but that's kind of the point too. Ya Basta! columns would often play on it by, for instance, attacking police lines with balloons or water pistols. What really impressed a lot of activists in America, though, was that
such groups had a real social base.
Reposted by randy r. potts
thephatic.bsky.social
IF YOU WON'T BOW TO THE KING,
NO PAYCHECK SHALL YE GET!
atrupar.com
Bessent: "No Kings means no paychecks. No paychecks and no government."
Reposted by randy r. potts
paleofuture.bsky.social
Border Patrol “attempted to arrest a plumber working inside a Logan Heights home but left empty-handed after the homeowner refused them entry.

The homeowner told agents she would not allow them inside because the warrant they presented did not include her address and lacked a judge's signature.”
Federal immigration operations target San Diego neighborhoods, sparking community resistance
Federal immigration agents conducted operations in Logan Heights and Southeast San Diego on Friday, with community members capturing footage of the enforcement actions.
www.10news.com
thephatic.bsky.social
IF YOU WON'T BOW TO THE KING,
NO PAYCHECK SHALL YE GET!
atrupar.com
Bessent: "No Kings means no paychecks. No paychecks and no government."
thephatic.bsky.social
alt text:
Ori Goldberg
How could a human being not be happy to see parents and spouses and children reunited with loved ones after two years of hell? How could a human being not be crushed seeing Palestinians sifting through the lunar rubble with their bare hands, looking for the lowliest remains?
thephatic.bsky.social
via @origoldberg.bsky.social; sadly I have so many people I once called friends who can only accept half of this equation
Reposted by randy r. potts
mollyknight.bsky.social
Whistling when ICE is about to kidnap someone for no reason is incredibly effective. They know what they are doing is wrong and will scatter in the wind when too many witnesses gather.
FORM A CROWD
STAY LOUD
PROTECT EACH OTHER
CODE I:
ICE NEARBY
BLOW QUICKLY IN A BROKEN RHYTHM:
PRE-PRE-PRE!
→ ALERTS THE COMMUNITY THAT ICE AGENTS ARE IN THE AREA.
ROGERS PARK WHISTLE PROTOCOLS
WHY A WHISTLE? ON THE STREETS
• A SIMPLE TOOL FOR FAST ALERTS.
• LOUD.
RECOGNIZABLE.
IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.
• OUR VOICES ARE
STRONGER TOGETHER.
WHISTLES GUIDE
PEOPLE TO:
• FOLLOW ICE CARAVANS
• CATCH UP WITH THE CROWD
• ALERT NEIGHBORS
TO JOIN IN
NOISE = VISIBILITY.
CODE 2:
CODE RED
BLOW THREE LONG BLASTS:
PREEEE-PREEEE-PREEEE!
→ ICE IS DETAINING SOMEONE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
DON'T STAY SILENT. STAY NONVIOLENT.
WHY IT WORKS
• INSTANT ALERT
SYSTEM
• FASTER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA
• TURNS SILENCE INTO COMMUNITY
ACTION
ORIGINAL FLYER CREATED BY:
WHAT YOU CAN DO
• WEAR YOUR WHISTLE AROUND YOUR NECK
TEACH FAMILY
EIGHBORS TH
CODES
• USE IT WHEN ICE IS
SPOTTED
• PROTECT EACH OTHER, ALWAYS
TOGETHER, WE KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE.
FORM A CROWD, STAY LOUD.
THIS FLYER DISTRIBUTED BY:
PROTECT RP
• @PROTECTRP_
thephatic.bsky.social
I personally much prefer Anna Karenina, but then I personally wouldn't rec Tolstoy at all? Leskov, Goncharov, Chekhov, Gogol, all much better.
thephatic.bsky.social
it took Putin between 5-10 years to truly bend the Russian Duma over like this
johnlk.bsky.social
This is the fucking Prussian constitutional crisis. If you let them fund the military without Congressional authorization you've just given up on constitutional government. Congress is a dead letter.
Reposted by randy r. potts
marbleliberal.bsky.social
Who owns the army is THE constitutional question of the 17th century
jim0novak.bsky.social
The U.S. Constitution's Army Clause (Article I, Section 8) requires that congressional appropriations to raise and support armies must be for a term no longer than two years.

They feared standing armies.

The Founders were more radical anti-fascists than common knowledge would expect.
thephatic.bsky.social
this has Russ Vought's fingerprints all over it - the executive, grabbing that purse
samhalpert.bsky.social
Dems floated a narrow bill to fund the military, which can’t move because the House isn’t in session. Meanwhile, DoD is now going to spend funds not appropriated by Congress to ensure military paychecks continue.

POTUS now both commands and provisions the military. Unconstitutional and SO dangerous
The Office of Management and Budget sent a notification to Congress about their intent to use research and development funds to pay members of the military, two sources with direct knowledge tell NBC News.
A spokesperson for the OMB confirmed to NBC
News that it plans to use the research and development funds and that there are two years' worth of funds available within the Department of Defense.
Reposted by randy r. potts
thephatic.bsky.social
"you're gonna get the dog" is such colorful, vivid imagery but in the absolute worst way
nathankalmoe.bsky.social
“He told the officers that he was born in CA. After objecting to being taken into custody & saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, an officer can be heard on the video saying, ‘We’re gonna put you in cuffs or you’re gonna get the dog.’ Miranda was then struck from behind.”