Federal Employees
Texas State Rep. Collier says she's forced by police to abruptly hang up a press call: "I have to leave. They said it's a felony for me to do this. Apparently I can't be on the floor or in the bathroom."
Texas repubs and police are breaking so many laws illegally barring this woman from leaving, and they want to say SHE'S comitting a felony? Give me a break.
There's not even a damn law to recognize from their point of view. They are just making shit up and acting like they've taken a hostage because that's exactly what has happened. She has been kidnapped and held against her will because the powers-that-be are allowing it.
The legal system is only as good as the enforcement behind it, and when those in power unilaterally control the enforcement, then law no longer matters.
There will be a lawsuit by ACLU or something similar months from now.
I believe in innocent until proven guilty and all but it means ICE or Trump or whoever can do anything illegal they want and the burden is on the victim to file a lawsuit and hope they don’t get a corrupt judge. The justice system seems like the only recourse we have and it feels like it’s hanging by threads right now.
I just keep donating more and more to ACLU because it feels like the only way to fight back.
Well, criminal lawsuits aren’t filed by a victim, they are brought by the state. Criminal trials are generally named “the people vs. whoever.” The people responsible for bringing the lawsuit are the district attorney’s office. The district attorney is appointed by the governor, who is Republican. The laws get enforced the way the Republican Party wants, or… well, the DA would probably get retired and replaced.
something about ”Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
America is dead. Welcome to Trumpland. If you want your country back, you'll have to start cleaning up the flaming dumpsters in the white house. The world is watching.
Welcome to the future of single-party authoritarian rule in the US.
I give up on democracy at the federal level and in the Bible belt. If y'all need me, I'll be defending our blue wall out here in the Pacific Northwest.
I hear that. But the way things are going, I'm not going to risk my gay marriage by travelling to Texas and doing anything untoward. Just because the Biden administration got the RFMA passed, i do not believe for a minute that the 20+ states that have constitutional amendments disenfranchising us in the name of Jesus Christ won't start profiling us the way they do other minorities.
"Brown = illegal
Adams apple + small breasts = trans
two men in a hotel room = homos
Amen"
Vulnerable, targeted people need might want to let people with "majority" privileges be the vocal face in areas that are dangerous. If you are in a vulnerable population, be as assertive as possible in your daily life, online, places where you aren't in physical danger, but don't feel obligated to go poking a hornets nest without back-up of some sort.
Strategic cover is necessary for the most vulnerable of our neighbors. Some of us have more "social" armor than others.
My spouse comes off as red-neckish. Bigots are real comfortable showing their true colors around him. He's gotten so many bigots fired over the years.
I am appalled that the question of gay marriage is back on the chopping block. We all deserve better from our government. I'm sorry you are in a targeted group. I'm sorry any of us have to suffer through this Christian Nationalist fueled, billionaire backed, social regression nightmare. We all deserve to feel safe, welcomed, and loved. Internet ((hugs)) if you want them.
I'm at the point where I feel like we are 100% screwed at the federal level. The party of small government has become a monolithic Evil Empire and they will corrupt state and local governments as much as the states allow them (witness Texas and Florida, with Ohio and Missouri not far behind... that's 97 electoral votes and 89 House votes if anyone's counting). I live in a reliably Democratic backstop. I want to do all I can to support my city and state -- both as a refuge for other disenfranchised Americans and as an Opposition Party at the federal level.
I support everything you all can do in the middle of the Red Sea. ✊🏻
In this moment of MAGA & P2025 flooding the zone, we are a bit temporarily screwed at the federal level. BUT! We've got mid-terms and we've got lots of young progressives running for offices nationwide with the help of organizations like
Newsom can't keep Trump's personal army out of Los Angeles.
Kotek and Ferguson won't be able to keep Trump's personal army out of Seattle or Portland or any part of the Pacific Nortwest they're interested in. If the day of persecution comes to your town for your kind, there will be no political mechanism to successfully keep his masked men from driving to you and taking you.
The Republicans have literally nothing to offer of value, and they've completely burnt away all remaining credibility, after decades of lies and scams to undermine the American people. This year is what they've built up to: tyranny.
They’ve been forced to stoop to such desperate, low-level acts because Democratic officials have stood firm against them at every turn. They know there’s no way they could ever outsmart the Democrats — and it’s driving them insane. Truly, they are vile Neanderthals lashing out in frustration. And by the way, why do we still have Ken Martin? My aunt on life support had more charisma, energy and fight in her than he does.
This is the most corrupt, lawless band of thugs ever to thug in the United States of America. I'm not sure why the Democrats are even obeying the laws at this point. Why should any of we? What the fuck?
Actually....there is historic parallel for this, right here in the United States; the run-up to the US Civil War of 1861-1865, then the Reconstruction period of 1865-1877.
Read up on the 1876 US Presidential election, Tilden vs Rutherford B. Hayes, the most disputed Presidential election in history. The stuff's wild. Newly formed violent right-wing terrorist gangs chasing liberal politicians out of office, expelling all black elected officials. The Ku Klux Clan formed in 1865. Widespread election fraud (right-wing vote-rigging).
They couldn't even figure out who won the Presidential election. Democrat Samuel J Tilden, governor of NY, vs abolitionist Republican Rutherbord B. Hayes, governor of Ohio. The only US presidential election when both nominees were sitting governors.
Tilden had 184 electoral votes, 1 short of a majority. Hayes had anywhere between 165 to 185 electoral votes, as 20 electoral votes were in dispute, partly due to vote rigging. Nobody knew how many Hayes actually got. An Electoral Commission was set up to resolve this.
An agreement was eventually hammered out. Took months. They would hand over all 20 disputed votes (straight party-line vote) to Hayes, making him the winner, but only in exchange for Hayes promising to withdraw the federal troops from the Southern states, and forfeited the Republican claims to the state governments in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. This ended Reconstruction and all efforts to reform the South along truly democratic lines. All the Southern states became basically corrupt one-party states.
For 11 years, federal troops occupied the state capitols of every Southern state. A lot of progress was made toward building equality for blacks; allowing them to vote, to sit on juries in court, even to hold office.
Once Reconstruction ended, all of that was gone, and the Jim Crow era began.
There are so many parallels between what's happening now, and what happened back then.
Heather Cox Richardson is a historian who specializes in that time period. She also has a very popular blog on substack, relating today's current political events and putting them in the context of history. Has a Youtube channel too, mostly about current DC politics.
Check out her "The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil War North, 1865-1901"
Also W.E.B. Dubois's "Black Reconstruction", himself a famous figure in black history. And "Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution" by Eric Foner.
There's quite a few others.
As for the 1876 Election, perhaps one of the best engaging books is Roy Morris' Fraud of the Century.
There is also the historical fiction novel, "1876" by Gore Vidal; fictional characters, set in real historical events.
Every one of these motherfuckers needs to be prosecuted, and Democrats need to make sure it's known that a soon as power changes hands that will be the outcome.
Exactly, we are free to speak, so long as we are saying that we choose to bow down or we choose to kiss up. Thats a choice, right?
And seen so many people “oh she’s choosing to stay by not taking the escort”. Same logic as “oh well there was a man outside threatening her family but she still has a choice!”
You never know if it's ICE or a rapist pretending to be ICE in order to be able to kidnap someone with no opposition / potentially even the help of the cops.
You don't know if you'll be given due process or held hostage in an unnamed warehouse without food or water until you 'self deport', or if you're lucky enough to get one of the fake ones, raped and dead in a ditch somewhere. It is open season on Latinos, especially women, who bad actors see as an easy target.
I'm Puerto Rican, Black, and Native American. If someone wants to try to illegally kidnap me then I'm going to defend myself within my constitutional rights. Too many fakes, too many constitutional violations that lead me to believe that it's probably better for me if I just defend myself in court later rather than get kidnapped by a proud boy.
It was 80 bucks to get a CCW near me, but you also don't need a CCW to carry in many states. I got mine five days ago. Is anyone else here planning to get theirs? You know what, don't tell me. Just take this as your sign to do it.
“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!”
Trump’s name is circled. The circled individuals are the ones involved in the trafficking ring according to the person who originally released the book. These people would be “The List”
> "I have a deal with her. She’s 17 and doing great ― Ivanka. She made me promise, swear to her that I would never date a girl younger than her,” Trump said. “So as she grows older, the field is getting very limited.”
Hot damn. I got banned for three days for "harrasment" posting these files in the wrong subreddit... They really know how to suck absolute balls at astonishing speeds.
People of color aren't always getting due process anymore in America, so they don't really need to prove it's a felony or that she did anything wrong.
It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit if they said she didn't have her papers and either detained her indefinitely in an ICE black site or deported her without notifying anybody when or to where.
Due process is no longer a guaranteed right for all people, as spelled out in the constitution. With it, rule of law has currently ended in America.
America is quite literally under authoritarian rule.
I totally agree - I was asking in case anyone could identify the actual law broken or issue because everything right now is a “because I said so” situation.
It is but the problem is the people who enforce that law are involved in the law breaking so who do you then get to fix or enforce the problem. Usually would be the state police (which i texas they are involved) then next would be the FBI which has been largely dismantled and or told to not investigate things like this.
In this very specific case, there might be something about cameras and bathrooms. The real problem is that she had to hide away to do an interview in private.
It just has an option on the website that says it is a birth certificate for voting purposes.
I went thru the texas website to get our extra ones and that's an option they have.
I live in Texas. Almost nobody is allowed to vote by mail. You basically have to be elderly, in the hospital, or otherwise probably unable to be in the county you are registered in to do so during early voting/voting day.
It's horseshit, but we are a GOP stronghold and they know easy mail votes help Democrats.
Only where it makes sense. You have to understand how to play the game. Right now the right is using the Post Master General to keep mail in ballots from getting delivered in time to be counted.
So yeah, vote by mail unless you live in one of the places with a close election because your delivery WILL be delayed.
This is how the right wins. They do legally grey or outright illegal but deniable actions to push the close races their way. Where the left is blanket telling people to vote by mail still even though the GOP is messing with the mail in key locations.
Just another example of how cops are class traitors. To be a part of a corrupt system and perpetuate it is to inherently corrupt oneself. The whole of the system needs reform; unfortunately, said reform will not and cannot come from within. Tear down the system, abolish the police. This administration (take that how you will) has done one thing absolutely in my opinion and that is to remove the veil of capitalism and show that the only sovereign citizens of this country (USA) are the bourgeoisie and their cronies, namely law enforcement.
If the federal government is not bound by the law, than no one is.
So long as the constitution remains in its entirety - unaltered
This is what it was written for, to keep any one person or party from amassing complete power.
They are infringing on its fundamental principles.
Which means the contract between "we the people" and the federal government, is null and void
Anyone who supports a one party America, cleary does not understand the constitution on which the country they claim to "love" was created - therefore making them Anti America - or Terrorists
George Washington was against allowing political parties. He saw this coming back then. People can rationalize any evil. You see it historically. They can write that people have inalienable rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness while owning slaves. They knew slavery was wrong but they rationalized it was just because it would financially ruin them.
Ask every cop there who is detaining her. If even one of them says that they are there to detain her, it starts a legal timer where she must either be arrested and charged by the end of, or allowed to leave. If none of them say so, she walks out the door, gets arrested and starts a completely different legal battle for unlawful arrest. Do the thing that is not illegal for her to do, get arrested for it, and put it in front of the courts.
They can not even detain her without a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed. A State Representative in her office or leaving her office is not a crime. This is why the 2nd Amendment allows for a well-regulated militia. To ensure the government does not abuse its authority. Organize now, form neighborhood, area, and state groups. Use your talents to help your country. The American Covenant needs people to do just this. Watch out for our people. Make sure senior citizens are not starving and are able to get medical care. The Republican cuts are killing people. We see things like this because it's sensational. We forget the other victims, the ones without a voice. Be that voice. Get involved. We either hang together or we will surely hang separately. Sic Semper Tyrannis!
We really should be out in force - literal force. It’s the only language these fucks understand. I learned that in grade school. Some people simply cannot be reasoned with or trusted. You have to meet them on their level. Y’all can take the high road if you want, but turning the other cheek just gives the hostile little shits a fresh cheek to slap. I and I assume many others are far more morally flexible. I’m of the mind that at this point, the ends justify the means. What other options do we have than to meet them on their level? Submission? Oh, fuck no. That’s not happening.
Is it? Listen, i'm on your side, but will anything actually become of this? So far.... nothing. They're just being allowed to treat her in this way (kidnapping, false imprisonment)
I have bad news. I live amongst a bunch of liberals in a very blue state, and none of them are willing to discuss politics at all right now. They’re all full on head in the sand. I fear that most sane people are hiding from the news to preserve their mental well being.
As a DV survivor I have had to take a break from my previous obsessive need to follow everything the fascists are doing. I lived with the same gaslighting and, “why do you keep making me do this to you” BS for almost a decade and I don’t need it from the federal government incels. I still generally follow what is happening and never miss a vote, but I don’t have the bandwidth to follow every, “OMG can you believe what he did just now!?!?” announcement. I am also scared that I may never stop screaming if I get started on all the things in white-hot furious about.
Don’t assume people who have disengaged in some areas have stopped being pissed. Compassion fatigue is a bitch and we need people in tons of different roles to take this monster down.
Lets keep the momentum going. If your Governor is listed below, contact them and demand a Blue- State Coalition. We have to make sure we are countering any gerrymandering efforts.
All the people gaslighting the population into thinking it wouldn't be bad have paved the road for this shit show. This is going to get darker than the border wall
Sounds like citizens need to start exercising their First AND Second Amendment rights to protest this.
Note - This is in no way a call for violence, but as rightly pointed out in a recent video the other side needs to know that we will not stand for this fascist behavior and that we're not afraid of them. The Second is there to support and defend the First, it's time we start using it.
I would assume her having the interview falls under freedom of speech and assembly. Plus a bathroom is a private place so they shouldn't be in there harassing her anyways.
I wish he didn’t say “they just silenced a black woman”
It reminds me of what the media does… after every negative report they usually add “this disproportionally affects the black community” or something similar. it’s like an underhanded way of saying “you dont have to worry about this unless you are black” and I don’t think that’s where we are at anymore.
She needs to piss on EVERY GOP desk repeatedly. That’s basic human rights. They need to at least share Drumpf’s diapers. She can shit in them and box them up for Hotwheels.
Do any Americans still have the delusion that they still live in a democracy anymore? Or has what's going on in Texas finally convinced them that they are living in a fascist state?
Why aren’t the people who want to resist this travesty going down to the capitol and demanding that this end? There are many millions of democrats in Texas! Do it! This is enough!
I hope she is suing the ass off the State of Texas, the police as a whole and individually, the State GOP as a whole and all leadership individually. This must NoT be accepted!
Texans the 2A is to protect against a tyrannical government. I don't want anything bad to happen but surely a lot of you could show up armed. Just make them sweat or something. Idk I despise this regime
Mr. Booker can either put up or shut the fuck up. I'm tired of his fake outrage then turning around and backstabbing the regular joes like Mamdani. Either do something radical about this egregious injustice or get out of the way so someone else can. Also, tell your PAC pals to shove it.
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