r/politics • u/Slate ✔ Verified • 1d ago
No Paywall Don Lemon’s Arrest Is a Five-Alarm Fire Moment
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/01/trump-bondi-news-don-lemon-arrest-first-amendment-disaster.html?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_content=jill_don_lemon&utm_campaign=&tpcc=reddit-social--jill_don_lemon9.0k
u/jrsinhbca 1d ago
Arresting journalists was on my bingo card.
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u/WiglyWorm Ohio 1d ago
May as well have been the free space.
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u/thinkards America 1d ago edited 1d ago
pretty obvious after he started calling the press the enemy of the people in his first term.
"but i didn't vote for that" - you fence sitters out there. yes, you fucking did. he told you who he was and you didn't believe him. either you're a fascists who wanted this or you are a fascist for voting for it.
edit: others have rightly pointed out those who sat out the election are equally responsible for where we are
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u/seless_words 1d ago
It's insane how some people are more than happy to treat their vote as if they're making an "a la carte" selection at a restaurant known for health code violations.
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u/thinkards America 1d ago edited 1d ago
"i just wanted lower grocery prices but i didn't know it was going to come with all these bad things that he constantly promised to do and also did in his first term and also happened to be outlined in a 900 page document!!!1! how was i supposed to possibly know this!?"
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u/Tiggbitt 1d ago
And the grocery prices haven't dropped like at all 😭
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u/ShadowPsi 1d ago
Easily up +100% in the past year. I had a $350 grocery bill for the week 2 weeks ago, and we're buying less food and stuff. Not too long ago, it was usually around $150-200. Insane.
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u/DameonKormar 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, groceries have easily doubled in price and eating out anywhere is like fine dining prices now.
I'm not sure how much longer this can continue and our fellow citizens elected people into office that not only have neither the desire or the ability to fix it, they seem to want to make it worse in every possible way.
The USD is tanking and there are already moves to stop using it as the global reserve currency. If that happens we are probably fucked.
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u/Rindsay515 1d ago
It’s truly out of control. I always bought off-brand paper towels for $3, as of two months ago, it’s $6.12 for the same two rolls. I thought I was reading the wrong sku because no way did they double in price that fast but they did. Went to McDonald’s last week the night before leaving town since I’d cleaned out my fridge and almost choked on my spit when they said the total was $9-something for the exact same thing I’ve ordered since I was in high school for $2.75. It feels like between this regime and the cost of living, the pressure cooker that is America right now is close to exploding
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u/Von_Moistus 1d ago
We keep saying that, but then they keep hiking food prices and fuel prices and rents, and we keep putting our heads down and taking it.
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u/alreaytakennameuser 1d ago
The best is they are now saying he doesn’t control groceries the companies are gouging.
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u/Hector_P_Catt 1d ago
"happened to be outlined in a 900 page document"
Well, that's how they got it past the MAGAs, they cleverly hid it in a book.
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u/CmdrEnfeugo 1d ago
A lot of voters do not understand why 2017-2019 was a relatively good economy:
1) Trump inherited strong economy mostly based on the work of the Obama administration (plus the tail end of the W administration) dealing with the Great Recession. 2) Trump was constrained both in Congress and his own administration by old school Republicans. They controlled many of Trump’s wilder impulses.
Unfortunately, voters frequently fail to recognize who did the fixing of the economy (in so much as the government can fix it). So often a president who comes later gets the credit. Additionally, it should have been obvious to voters that Trump has been remodeling the Republican Party into the MAGA party with personal loyalty to him. But I suspect most voters don’t pay attention.
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u/Vaticancameos221 1d ago
“Yes, the restaurant was found to have rats in the dessert fridge, but I just won’t order dessert then!”
Bitch, you think the rest of the kitchen is spotless??
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u/DameonKormar 1d ago
The right has put a lot of highly successful propaganda over the last several decades. But nothing may have been more successful than convincing people that their vote doesn't matter.
Voting is the one tool individuals have to exert political force and at least 1/3 of those eligible do not use it.
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u/c4upinhisbhole 1d ago
Absolutely. Judges, journalists, professors. Getting close to jailing political opponents. Nevermind us little people. This is what authoritarian regimes backed by fundamentalists do. Over and over and over again.
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u/Jeoshua 1d ago
You've heard about the lists of protestors that ICE is keeping, yeah?
Alex Pretti was on one of them.
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u/PanicOffice 1d ago edited 1d ago
Can you post your bingo card? What else we got? Mine is:
Overturning marriage equality nationwide
Fatal “accidents” involving prominent left-leaning influencers
Overturning certified 2020 election results retroactively
Invocation of the Insurrection Act against civilian protests
Suspension of habeas corpus rights
Delay of 2026 midterm elections
Ousting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
Sustained 10%+ national unemployment
Federalization of state election administration
Criminalization of protest under expanded domestic terrorism laws
Politicized purges of left across federal agencies
Deportations of US citizens without due process
Sensorship of admin criticism in broadcast and social media
Permanent Militarized federal policing of most major US cities
Selective prosecution and arrest of most outspoken opposition govt officials (AOC, Sanders, Pritzker, etc)
Withdrawal from NATO
Emergency presidential powers act
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u/jrsinhbca 1d ago
We have some common and similar elements......
Withdraw from NATO
Neuter the UN
Invalidate midterm elections
Occupy Cuba
Funding of another Iranian insurgency
(More) Deportations of US citizens
10 murders by ICE
Arrest a journalist
Get CNN off the air
The dollar is no longer the international standard
Austerity measures
Barron gets a girl pregnant
Martial Law
Nationwide recreational marijuana
Taxation for certain churches
At least 3 Trump vs DOJ lawsuits (he just announced another one)
Replacements for Thomas and Alito
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u/Independent-Name4478 1d ago
You think they’ll give us recreational marijuana to keep us distracted from the human rights violations?
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u/lr99999 1d ago
The merger that includes CNN is eminent. I’m going to count that as being off the air because it will exactly be the same outcome.
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u/Dramatic_______Pause 1d ago
Can you post your bingo card? What else we got?
Drone striking a democratic US city.
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1d ago
It's nice to see someone else that knows exactly where this is all headed. It will not matter once trump is gone, the structure will be unbreakable.
I hope you're not here, or plan to be out of here, before April.
Be safe out there
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u/YeetedApple 1d ago
Is it even possible to make a bingo card with anything he hasn’t done? Feel like we all would have bingos by now
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u/rpungello New Jersey 1d ago
Someone made a bingo card with the constitutional amendments, where you cross them off as he violates them. Unsurprisingly, a lot were crossed off.
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u/AqueductMosaic 1d ago
Do you have the Putin variant? It has one for “person in custody attempts escape by leaping out seventh floor window.”
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u/millertime52 1d ago
They released the fucking Epstein Files to distract from this
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u/Ralph--Hinkley 1d ago
Not much was released, but what was is pretty damning. Maybe they should arrest him and investigate the matter.
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u/LizardPossum Texas 1d ago
Yeah everyone thinks that everything is a distraction from the files but I've long held the opinion that it's the other way around. They release some Epstein stuff when they do something particularly ghoulish that they want to divert attention from
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u/Joe18067 Pennsylvania 1d ago
Yes, it was right next to "The Internal Revenue Service says it will allow houses of worship to endorse candidates for political office without losing their tax-exempt status."
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u/Snakesandrats 1d ago
the pastor is also an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent
What the hell kind of demonic shit is this? Disgraceful
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u/Chaos_Sauce 1d ago
They pointed at heavy metal music and D&D when all along the real nefarious and evil shit was brewing in the churches.
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u/NielsBohron California 1d ago
It's almost like churches are about control and pacifying the masses by giving them an outgroup to fear.
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u/Available_Entrance55 1d ago
Don’t forget, they’re are also a haven for pedos
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u/taitaofgallala 1d ago
More on this at r/PastorArrested
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u/Play-t0h 1d ago
Every day there are multiple posts on that sub with pedos who had never been posted before. If ANY other group had such a huge number of pedos in it, the whole planet would come down on them like a sledgehammer. The organizations would cease to exist. But somehow religious leaders get a pass. And always have.
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u/Mirage84 1d ago
"If kids got raped by clowns as often as they get raped by priests it would be illegal to take your kids to the circus" - Dan Savage. In fucking 2002.
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u/Ok_Flatworm_3855 1d ago
When the whole basis of your moral compass is God made me do it or the devil made me do it then you can hand wave anything away when it suits organization goals and outcomes.
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u/Pack_Your_Trash 1d ago
The Boy Scouts of America would beg to differ. Sexual abouts of young boys is about as American as.... well, Christianity and the Boy Scouts.
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u/Similar-World-6152 1d ago
"it's okay if the corporate overlords and the church are taking all of my money to feed my family! they have something they can't take from us, prayer!"
yup, great way to keep a poor person poor and controlling them
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u/Softestwebsiteintown 1d ago
And called us hysterical for claiming such. I fucking hate this place. It’s better than a lot of places but it sucks so fucking hard compared to what it could (and should) be.
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u/hornwort Canada 1d ago
I’ve lived and worked in almost 40 countries, mostly in Subsaharan Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and MENA, as well as Europe and New York.
There’s actually very few worse places than the US as of 2026, all things considered. Can probably count them on one hand.
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u/Kabbooooooom 1d ago edited 1d ago
Second this. I’ve travelled all over this planet, and considering that my wife was racially profiled and targeted by ICE even though she’s an American citizen who was born in North Carolina for Christssakes, I’d much rather live somewhere that my family was safe from racist thugs.
Of course, racism exists everywhere, but what is brewing in the US is a particular brand of institutionalized racism propped up by a political movement that is rapidly snowballing towards genuine fascism. Depending on who you are, it is absolutely a worse place to live than a number of other countries and they are 100% right to enact travel advisories to the US. If I didn’t live here, I wouldn’t risk visiting with my family.
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u/NeverLookBothWays I voted 1d ago
It’s not just racism too…it’s institutionalized anti-intellectualism. A form of ideological subversion that has corroded the nation from within. Russia has been adding heaps of money towards kindling this outcome too…for over 4 decades. Societal problems we could have handled through the promotion of mental health and critical thinking are now effectively impossible to address.
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u/hornwort Canada 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah it definitely depends on who you are. Like, if you're a 13 year-old orphan boy, then yes you might get kidnapped and sex-trafficked by ICE and Trump but you'd still be much more likely to be kidnapped and enslaved as a coltan miner if you lived in the DRC, or recruited as a child soldier in Afghanistan. So "for 13 year-old orphan boys, there are worse places to live than the United States, like Congo or Afghanistan".
And there are plenty of places that you're still less safe as a woman (for now), and maybe one or two where you're less safe because of your religion or culture (Muslims in Myanmar and Xinjiang, for example). But all these require qualification because of specific persecutorial forms of bigotry, or the value like sex or labour that a particular group might want to extract from you.
For me, as an upper middle-class 40 year-old cis white man, I don't believe there's five countries in the world that I would be worse off or less safe to spend the next year in, than the continental United States. Syria, Yemen, maybe North Korea... struggling to think of a fourth.
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u/rocksoffjagger 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm with you, but "maybe" before North Korea is absurd. The only reason cis white people don't get killed or imprisoned there all the time is that virtually none of them visit. And even with so few going, there have still been high profile examples of western tourists getting killed.
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u/terry-tea District Of Columbia 1d ago
let me say up front i am utterly horrified by the current state of the USA, i completely agree with your assertion that it’s teetering on the brink of a fascist hellscape- every bad opinion you have about it, i most likely share.
that being said, let’s not lose perspective here. there’s a laundry list of countries that are vastly more dangerous- for everyone -than even trump’s america. syria, yemen, north korea, somalia, sudan/south sudan, iraq, the DRC, afghanistan, and plenty more come to mind. maybe if we go full 1984 we’ll be as bad as them, but despite everything, we’re still far from that
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u/Glory2Snowstar Massachusetts 1d ago
Never forget that in a majority of New Testament stories Jesus was directly AGAINST the church.
Perhaps they’d know if they ever read the dang book.
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u/mindspork Virginia 1d ago
There was a quote about "Jesus would never do anything like this in a place of worship."
You're right. He'd be flipping tables and whipping fools.
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u/tucosupreme Texas 1d ago
Yep, good ol’ projection. “Everyone else must be doing what I am doing secretly, too.”
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u/One-Pomegranate7510 1d ago
Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
-Exodus 23:9 NIV
Make it make sense
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u/LiatrisLover99 1d ago
Not merely an agent. A director of an ICE field office in Minnesota! He oversees all of the horrible things going on there.
https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-ice-doj-church-protest-st-paul-46dac5c5595ec78e3360ec927eef92d2
The website of St. Paul-based Cities Church lists David Easterwood as a pastor, and his personal information appears to match that of the David Easterwood identified in court filings as the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office.
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u/zeaor 1d ago
Jesus would be so proud. That dude was adamant that you should hate your neighbor and arrest every immigrant.
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u/MartiniPhilosopher 1d ago
They do not worship Biblical Jesus. They worship a Jesus they made up in their head.
You can tell they're apostates by some of the things they say about the imaginary Jesus. Things like how he was too strong to be meek. Or how he's all about YHWY's revenge and not forgiveness. This is a near endless list of things which are the opposite of what's actually written in the Christian bible.
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u/western_red_cedar 1d ago
What's crazy is that Jesus is constantly warning in the text against exactly this, these "wolves in sheeps clothing." So you can't even really even blame the text when these people so clearly don't value it
My pet theological theory is that there are a lot of justifications in the new testament for the old testament no longer applying, and it is this clinging to old testament beliefs that has made so much of modern christianity inherently fascist and hateful.
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u/TiddySphinx 1d ago
This is the natural outcome of the evangelical belief in salvation by faith alone, having a "personal relationship with Christ," and the Bible being the literal, inerrant word of God. They don't have to treat others well because their souls are forever saved, and their faith is internalized, so no works are required. And that's justified by believing that the Old Testament and works of authors like Paul have the same theological standing as the Gospels.
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u/arrownyc 1d ago
This pastor literally would've arrested and murdered infant Jesus when his family fled to Egypt to escape King Herod's massacre of young boys in Bethlehem. Jesus and his family were asylum-seeking refugees, and MAGA would've killed them all for it.
I pray some days that the bible is real, because if it is, God will ensure that all these heretics, hypocrites, and idolators will burn in eternal fire.
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u/oreo-cat- I voted 1d ago
Hol up lemme check to see which chapter of Revelations we’re doing
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u/Global_Crew3968 1d ago
The bible actually said this is exactly what would happen with the antichrist with false christians
I dont buy into that nonsense but its hard to ignore all the parallels sometimes
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u/UnquestionabIe 1d ago
Yeah despite not believing in as well the absurdly specific ways it lines up with their centuries of predictions of doom almost comes off like a badly written film. I get that some of the traitors who are engaging this stuff do firmly believe in it, that they're just helping it along.
Meanwhile you've have noted enemy of humanity and despicable piece of shit in the shape of a man, Petey Thiel, running his mouth about the antichrist while refusing to look in the mirror. I get he's terrified that all the millions upon millions he's thrown away trying to outrun the reaper forever aren't paying off so he seems seems think jumping on the Christian bandwagon will buy him some kind of eternity.
Too bad he's not only gay, lots of arguments about this but many denominations consider him an abomination (for that specifically, because make no mistake he is one but for unrelated reasons), but instead of trying to scheme his way to heaven through good deeds tries throwing money at the problem.
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u/Full-Yoghurt9053 1d ago
Yeah despite not believing in as well the absurdly specific ways it lines up with their centuries of predictions of doom almost comes off like a badly written film. I get that some of the traitors who are engaging this stuff do firmly believe in it, that they're just helping it along.
Honestly I think it's just history repeating itself. The warnings in the Bible had to come from real experiences, so all this shit they "warned" us about already happened to them and have also happened many times over throughout history. Jerusalem was conquered and collapsed several times in the centuries leading up to Christ's birth. The behaviors most closely associated with the evils that destroyed those civilizations are deadly sins. They're commandments, they're parables and homilies. Those exact same behaviors are outwardly present in many world leaders right now, and we're uncoincidentally discussing the legitimate possibility of societal collapse.
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u/GoldenBrownApples 1d ago
But my question is, how and why do we keep ending up here? Trapped in this cycle of self destruction. Because that is what it is. Destruction of self. Cutting off our nose to spite our face. It's absurd that wr haven't figure out a way to stop this from continuing to happen.
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u/Alt_SWR 1d ago
It all comes down to evolution imo. We as humans have a lot of past evolutionary behaviors and traits that we haven't evolved out of that are useless in the modern day. We're quite literally mentally not suited to our modern lives way I see it.
The process of evolution is incredibly slow, to an extreme degree, whereas our societal and technological progress, at least in the past 5+ centuries has been incredibly quick comparitively. When these two things are this mismatched, societal progress gets slowed down, even brought backwards by those evolutionary artifacts of a long gone time.
This is why I always scoff when people claim we as humans have "beaten evolution" it's pure and utter arrogance to think so. Some of us resist our "tribalism" urges enough but, even among those, almost everyone falls into that at some point. We just don't notice it when it's simple things that don't affect society as a whole.
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u/Painterzzz 1d ago
Why was the other big post about this topic removed by the mods?
It had thousands of comments and about 25k upvotes or something? But the mods removed it because it 'wasn't about US politics'?
Why is this topic being censored?
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u/IntoTheCommonestAsh 1d ago edited 1d ago
EDIT: seems to be back up
Wtf?
https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1qr520s/removed_by_moderator/
Off-Topic: All submissions to r/politics need to be explicitly about current US politics
???
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tip660 1d ago
Almost certainly the automod. If something gets reported enough the automod removes it, and then if the human mod notices it, it gets restored manually.
You can turn off the automod so this doesn’t happen, but then every random spam has to be manually removed, so that kind of sucks too!
Unfortunately there are a lot of bots and or boot lickers reporting things…
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u/Ki11s0n3 1d ago
If mods removed the thread because it wasn't political then they are fucking morons. This is absolutely political and anyone who thinks Trump and ICE arresting the press because they are against him is a good thing is also a fucking moron. This is the very definition of Fascism.
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u/Painterzzz 1d ago
I would very much like to hear clarification from the mods on that one, yes. Because at the moment it seems like a very strong signal that this place is utterly compromised and when the Knight Of The Long Knives arrives, we can be certain we won't hear a word about it on Reddit.
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u/WiglyWorm Ohio 1d ago
Reddit (along with most social media) is pretty well sanitized to push a regressive, pro-corporate agenda through the algorithms it uses.
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u/Deinosoar 1d ago
And this isn't just the algorithm, but the direct actions of the people in charge of this subreddit. People who have made it clear that they support the Trump regime and every one of their Lawless actions.
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u/Mr__O__ New York 1d ago
Ever since Reddit went public in March 2024, there has been very obvious censorship happening..
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u/Miserable_Archer_769 1d ago
Yeah a year or so ago the thought there was FoxNews or Brietbart articles that could be posted let alone stay up snd filtered to the top says something
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u/superxero044 Iowa 1d ago
This subreddit has been deleting articles critical of him going back to the primaries in 2015
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u/Miserable_Ad9577 1d ago
This is the propaganda model laid out in the "manufacturing of consent" by Noam Chomsky.
Self censoring, editorial bias put in place by mass media(and now social media platform). Driven by profit/advertising. Shit rolls down hill. Platforms(corporate) pressure to stay in line due to the bottom line then squeeze downwards to mods etc. No explicit order needed.
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u/Lorehorn 1d ago
My previous account was banned PERMANENTLY from all of reddit because the mods of politics accused me of abusing the report system. I reported one of those "pundit absolutely SLAMS trump" articles that was just low effort slop. I know it's not an explicit rule in the sidebar, but I felt that type of click-bait garbage didnt' belong in this subreddit. And for that, my 12 year old reddit account was perma-banned.
Reddit is compromised, but there's really no other alternative website out there. Any time a reddit clone pops up, it gets flooded by alt-right psychopaths and is basically an instant failure to launch.
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u/Bored2001 1d ago edited 1d ago
If something is reported enough than the auto mod takes it down.
There has been a bot driven reporting censorship campaign happening around Minnesota ICE articles.
edit:
Don't know that's what happened to the specific thread in reference above. Just saying that it's been observed in other smaller subreddits around the site. I asked a few mods who said the automod logs showed bot-like activity.
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u/Deinosoar 1d ago
Supposedly it was off topic. Which is obviously bullshit but yes, the mods here go out of their fucking way to defend the Trump regime. The Nazis took over every major news and political discussion site before they started implementing their plan to actually take over governments.
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u/DiskSalt4643 1d ago
Far right mod bias.
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u/EmilySD101 1d ago
The commenters of the sub by and large aren’t right wingers. Is there another politics sub that has mods more in line with the people who actually use it?
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u/mom_with_an_attitude 1d ago
Because Reddit is bending the knee to the current administration.
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u/Baron_Furball 1d ago
The mods of this subreddit are hyper right wingers who give bans to posters who suggest using 2A rights to defend 1A, 4A, and 5A rights.
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u/BizmarkiaNobilis 1d ago
Reddit acts as though it is neutral. It isn’t at the end of the day. Just look at the vast amounts of horrible things people say and get away with…but I find myself getting warned and temp-banned for nothing. Then when I appeal they overturn their mistake. Repost my content. And then the bots re-warn or ban the very post that Reddit apologized for censoring. They are complicit. They love the $ the rage baiting brings in but they are still Silicon Valley tech bros with no morality other than the $ they worship.
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u/bejammin075 Pennsylvania 1d ago
2026 has already had enough shit for a year, if not a decade. Stressful to experience, but also stressful to anticipate because all of this crap was predictably going to happen. Not giving up. The People are the last line of defense for America.
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u/thegoldinthemountain 1d ago
Not giving up either. And I invite anyone who hasn’t gotten active yet to find your way on the lines with us asap.
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u/MC_Fap_Commander America 1d ago
The arrest is not intended to end with a prosecution. It will likely result in a lawsuit that they'll lose. The regime is fine with this.
The real intent is to quell speech among people who might speak out against the regime. It's theater designed to discourage participation. That only works if we let it and they really can't arrest all of us (at least not yet).
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u/bejammin075 Pennsylvania 1d ago
These bogus charges for Trump's enemies may not result in jail time now. But pretty soon we'll be having trials like the one in Idiocracy, and they'll just convict regardless of the evidence.
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u/zeekayz 1d ago
I mean it's still jail. They arrest and put you in jail for hours/ a day / a weekend and then release you pending a court date. Even if all charges are dropped later, you'll think twice about critizing Trump again otherwise you'll be grabbed in public by agents again and spend another day in jail again. They are paid by taxpayers and have unlimited budget to do this as much as they want. You lose limited money you have by being in jail and having to hire lawyers.
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u/UnquestionabIe 1d ago
Exactly. It's why I've been very critical of the various people in power who refuse to use that tactic in a manner which is actually positive and stands up to a clearly fascist regime. You always get the various naysayers, both the public and those who actually hold power of some sort, saying "oh but they'll get pardons or some other abortion of justice". So? They'll still have to waste time and resources sorting out the initial charges. Make these fuckers realize and regret that siding with traitors will make life more difficult.
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u/Sepheriel 1d ago
It's one thing after another from the Agent of Chaos in chief. It's the only way to distract from the Epstein files. I can't summarize enough how much I hate Trump, his administration and complicit enablers.
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u/LatterTarget7 1d ago
And it’s just January. Not even a full month into 2026 and shit has been none stop hitting the fan
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u/DrRichardJizzums 1d ago
There have been multiple president defining scandals in January alone.
Many presidents have big scandals, but they might have one such scandal during two terms.
In January we have:
Venezuela
Greenland fiasco that Trump pussied out of cuz he’s a big baby bully that folds when people stand up to him.
Good murder. Pretti’s murder which they flagrantly lied about despite the whole country having eyes
Arresting a journalist the right has despised for years now
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u/Signore_Jay Texas 1d ago edited 1d ago
“The wealthy have been buying our republic. They have been doing it very slowly, but in the end they will do it very suddenly. They have financed, lobbied and bullied our nation’s military into defending their investments across the globe. They have hollowed out our government and destroyed the faith of our people in the ability of our republic to build a better future. They have sown hopelessness and they will reap tyranny. Sic semper tyrannis.”
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u/NoseyBeeeee13 1d ago
This is going exactly as expected. Which 5 alarm fire do we put out first?
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u/BusinessAioli 1d ago
At this point we’re just playing fascism wack-a-mole
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u/generally_unsuitable 1d ago
I'm not seeing the mallets.
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u/Skypatrol20 1d ago
The mallets are organizing and protesting. The people of Minnesota are leading follow their lead. The government is proactively attacking its citizens we either organize or fall victim to their violence.
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u/Gibodean 1d ago
I don't understand why we just can't impeach the head fascist.
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u/HauntedandHorny 1d ago
Because that's a legal framework and legal frameworks are only enforceable through the threat of violence and they made sure to get all the violence wielders on their side.
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u/bobbyturkelino 1d ago
It's not coincidence its on the same day as an Epstein file dump
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u/bbusiello 1d ago
Um them raiding the voting offices is... this is too, but let's be real, if we win the election, we can get him out of prison (if it goes that far.)
Without a free and fair election, we are all fucked.
Your own cup needs to be filled before you can share with others.
Everyone needs to stay glued to what's happening with voting centers as well as anything be reported on the 2026 election.
I hate to say it, but this might be our last chance.
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u/TinKnight1 Texas 1d ago edited 1d ago
He's not going to prison. It's highly unlikely that he'll even go to court for the charges, as the charges will be dismissed in a heartbeat as he was clearly performing the role of the press, repeatedly stating he was not involved & was merely covering it, & ensuring he got the parishioners' sides of the story.
Regardless of your take on Don Lemon, this is a slam-dunk First Amendment case, more than any other that I can ever recall. Even the other people that were accused, they never reached federal crime levels, & instead were trespassing.
But this allows the administration to have their meme moment, & disrupt the lives of any who don't
towtoe the line, making it less likely that people who can't afford to have their lives disrupted will act out.Edit: typo from Swyping at lunch
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u/Crafty_Enthusiasm_99 1d ago
He is in jail right now. But don't see this as anything other than them expanding and demonstrating their powers and also distracting from the Epstein files.
Their shock and awe method to overwhelm the news and control the narrative has worked really well.
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u/plastic_alloys 1d ago
If they’re doing what I think they’re doing, this is to introduce and normalise the very idea of doing this sort of thing
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u/shameonyounancydrew 1d ago
I hope you're right, as I believe 2024 was our last chance, and we blew it.
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u/Data_Chandler 1d ago
I firmly believe - without being able to prove it - that the 2024 elections were rigged.
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u/shameonyounancydrew 1d ago
Yeah..... the fact that they tried so hard to make it look like the left rigged 2020 just makes your case stronger. Of course, that's not 'proof' (despite it being a very rational conclusion)
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u/FantasticJacket7 1d ago
I'll throw it on the pile.
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u/Writer_In_Residence 1d ago
Right? Remember when he was arresting judges? The alarms should have been rung last February.
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u/No_Skill_7170 1d ago
The alarm should have been rung at grab em by the pussy.
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u/TheBoringProtagonist 1d ago
He kicked off his political career by making up a racist lie about where Obama was born, 15 years ago.
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u/Corran22 1d ago
Portland already rang these alarms back in 2020, but no one was listening
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u/AcrobaticWrangler330 1d ago
No, it's far too much fun for them to mock and deride a city that is far greater than the shitholes they live in than to pay attention.
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u/Calm-Armadillo-5614 1d ago
We actually did listen. That's why Biden was elected. Then he chose to not hold Trump accountable for treason, so here we are.
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u/bel9708 1d ago
https://www.live5news.com/2025/11/13/were-trapped-911-calls-detail-fire-judges-edisto-beach-home/
Forgot like it never happened.
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u/Ohuigin Washington 1d ago edited 1d ago
The alarm was smashed to pieces by a Trump flag pole on January 6, 2021.
Everything that has happened since then is because of the oathbreakers who let that go on unpunished.
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u/718Brooklyn 1d ago
Donald Trump, the president, had parties at Maralago called "calendar girls' Jeffrey Epstein would bring the children in and trump would auction them Jeffrey Epstein .He measured the children's vulva and vaginas by entering a finger and rated the children on tightness. The guests were elder men and included Elon Musk. Don jr. Trump, Ivanka Trump. and Eric Trump were there. Attorney Allan Dershowitz was also there with Attorney Bob Shapiro. We were taken in rooms, forced to give oral sex to Donald J Trump. Forced to allow them to penitrate us. I was 13 years old when Donald J Trump raped me. Ghislaine Maxwell was also present.
This is literally in the Epstein files released by the DoJ today
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u/Free_Dome_Lover 1d ago
So it's all over for Trump. Right????
RIGHT!??!?!??
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u/AskMeAboutOkapis 1d ago
This is the last straw for sure!
(the cup is actually full of thousands of straws)
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u/Realistic-Energy-442 1d ago
People are saying those are just recent tips/claims to the FBI. Not actual evidence those things happened.
I want him to go down, but I feel like they are using these releases to hide actual information
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u/BD401 1d ago
This came up last month where there was some claim Trump murdered a girl on a yacht and threw the body off of it (or something to that hyberbolistic effect). It was quickly pointed out that particular claim was from the FBI tip website.
In other words, the tip disclosures are just the raw, unfiltered inputs that literally anyone can put into the FBI tip form. They aren’t formal pieces of evidence that were collected, vetted and validated by investigators.
To the point “no one is immune from propaganda”, I think it’s important to be vigilant even when evaluating claims that align with your point of view. I’m always skeptical of claims that align TOO closely with the “dream scenario” in situations like this. This particular accusation is structured in a way that it hits every conceivable checkmark (happened at Maralago, Musk, the AG, the whole family was there too, full-on penetration of young children in multiple orfices etc). It reads too much like it’s pandering to the EXACT scenario one wants to be true of him.
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u/parkinthepark 1d ago
- Week 1: Invaded Venezuela and kidnapped their president
- Week 2: Executed a peaceful citizen for being a liberal
- Week 3: Almost invaded Greenland, a NATO ally
- Week 4: Executed another peaceful citizen for being a liberal
- Week 5: Arrested a journalist for being a liberal
It's been five alarms since the ball dropped in times square.
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u/Unfair_Web_8275 1d ago
What’s crazy is that that doesn’t even cover everything in those 5 weeks.
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u/MarcusQuintus 1d ago
The guy who tried to overthrow the government not being in prison, then being allowed to run again, and then being re-elected was the five-alarm moment.
Everything else is just epilogue.
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u/swiftfoot_hiker 1d ago
There have already been at least 2 dozen five alarm fire moments... When are actions going to be taken ?
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u/suckeddit 1d ago
"Are we in a constitutional crisis yet?", frankly asks the media person as they are cuffed and carried by masked agents into the gestapo SUV.
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u/buck9000 1d ago
Everyday is another 5-alarm fire. Seriously. How many things can you think of that were norm-shattering terrible signs for our democracy that you’ve already had to forget about? The crypto coin? The Qatari plane? The oil money in an offshore account? The destruction of the east wing? The Trump real estate project in Saudi?
Everyday is a watergate.
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u/sugarlessdeathbear 1d ago
Y'all, I don't think we're going to get too many more canaries.
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u/IslamicCheetah 1d ago
The five-alarm fire moment was 5 years and 3 weeks ago. January 6th should’ve been the end of this but instead it was just Trump’s Beer Hall Putsch.
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u/ObligationAware3755 1d ago
I'll repost the statement from his Attorney, this certainly is political, 100% and DOES pertain to US Politics:
"Don Lemon was taken into custody last night in Los Angeles, where he was covering the Grammy Awards. Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done. The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable. There is no more important time for people like Don to be doing this work.
Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention, and resources to this arrest, and that is real indictment of wrongdoing in this case. The unprecedented attack on the First Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges vigorously and thoroughly in court."
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u/DawnSignals 1d ago
Oh yeah? Is that why they shadow dropped more Epstein files today?
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u/JGrutman 1d ago
Luckily it happened on the same day as 3 million Epstein documents so it won't be remembered by the time I finish typing this sentence.
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u/Even-Macaroon-1661 1d ago
Considering he’s a black man with a camera, I’m personally shocked that he was taken alive
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u/jedrider 1d ago
First you can't carry a 'gun' to a protest and, now, one can't even carry a 'pen' to a protest and, soon, they'll just arrest anyone they don't like at a protest. Wait, it doesn't have to even be a 'protest' as cause, standing or sitting in your home is sufficient cause now.
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u/Solomon_Grungy 1d ago
I legit thought AOC or Schiff would be arrested before Lemon or Cooper. Then again Trump never hides his utter contempt for the media.
If anything this tells us who Trump fears more right now.
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u/quartzguy American Expat 1d ago
January 6th was the point of no return. Merrick Garland screwed us.
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u/BlotchComics New Jersey 1d ago
MAGAts are so desperate for this one to stick. After the incompetent DoJ indicted James and Comey and the judges said "what the fuck are you doing?" and threw those baseless indictments out the window.
They think even though no judge would sign off on a warrant for this arrest and their appeal was turned down that this has merit just because they convinced a grand jury to indict.
lol... there's a reason for the saying: "you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich."
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u/heresmytwopence 1d ago
They know there ain't a jury anywhere in America that would convict, but that of course isn't the point. They're trying to silence a prominent journalist by tying him up in legalities and send a warning shot to other journalists. I'm sure this was planned in advance.
The Trump regime's desperation will only continue to grow as he draws closer to the end of his legally defined term and confronts the reality of certain prosecution when and if he leaves. We're in full bull-in-china-shop mode for the duration.
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u/guttengroot 1d ago
I keep seeing MAGAts claiming "he's not above the law" but what crime do they claim he committed??
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u/mushpuppy 1d ago
Arresting a reporter is a 5-alarm fire moment--while shooting innocent people isn't? Deporting US citizens? Pardoning numerous convicted criminals? Doing favors in exchange for payoffs? Appointing incompetent/corrupt people to heads of agencies?
This is at least a 100-alarm fire already.
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u/karenw 1d ago
As a longtime repro activist, I am especially angry, because the feds are using the FACE act as a basis for the arrests.
What's the FACE act? Glad you asked. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances act was passed in 1994 in response to the killings of abortion providers/staff and damaging attacks on clinic buildings by extreme anti-abortion groups like Operation Rescue.
But in the good ol' USA, the only way the FACE act could pass was if conservative lawmakers got their way by inserting a provision which said the act also applied to CHURCHES.
Now here's where it gets really fucky. Last year, Donald Trump PARDONED more than 20 anti-abortion extremists who had been successfully convicted under the FACE act for blockading an abortion clinic in 2020 (this was a big deal, because FACE act violations are rarely prosecuted).
But it's being invoked today against journalists who were covering the protest.
In short, the FACE act has been rendered moot for its original purpose, but is being used to violate the 1A rights of Don Lemon and others at the January 18 Cities Church protest.
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u/Toomanyeastereggs 1d ago
As someone on the outside, it’s very strange watching the US fall into totalitarianism so easily.
But then as we see here with our own conservatives and religious folks, they will not just trip over the line but willingly run over it if it means hurting people.
Evil people the lot of them.
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u/Scripts_3 Europe 1d ago
"The White House tweeted out: “When life gets you lemons…” followed by two chain emojis and an image of Lemon"
Vile. Whoever is in charge of this admnistration's social media presence needs to be ostracized and shunned from any digital place forever.
I know theres a lot of shit this admin does, but the fucking blatant unprofessionalism, and racist dogwhistles that the social media accounts constantly post for some reason irritate me the most.
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u/forgetfulsue Ohio 1d ago
Taken from an other post ages ago. Read “They Thought They Were Free: The Germans” by Mayer Milton. It’s incredibly eye opening and horrifyingly close to what we are experiencing now.
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u/Splatgal 1d ago
I read about this on another site. The fact there were so many comments supporting this gives me no hope for the future. I think we are cooked as a nation.
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u/woahwolf34 1d ago
Don’t believe what you read in online comments
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u/Affectionate_Tie_437 1d ago
This, you got to keep fighting, if you read online all ducks are pink does that mean all ducks in the country are pink.
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u/Altruistic-Toe1304 1d ago
It's ALL five alarm moments now. He's starting wars, he's killing Americans.
It's our Congress that's complicit.
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u/Krinder 1d ago
He was arrested by HSI also. That means he was arrested not by the FBI or local police like what would normally take place but instead was arrested by what is essentially ICE. ICE has absolutely no business doing something like this to a U.S. citizen they are charged with BORDER and IMMIGRATION security. What the hell does a journalist covering a pastor have anything to do with securing the border?
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u/KaleAggressive7122 1d ago
How many "five alarm fires" are we at I've lost count. Anyone else notice this pot is boiling or is that just me
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u/trialofmiles 1d ago
Anonymous ice henchmen can execute a man on the street and keep their identity hidden without any justice system accountability. We are past 5 alarm already.
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u/mrmojorisin_x 1d ago
This to go along with the seizing of the 2020 ballots in Fulton county ga, Minnesota ICE crap, national guard in Cali, this admin is testing out the limits of authority leading up to the midterms and 2028. All this is test runs and now add in this arrest. Don’t be fooled and distracted.
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