American Politics from 2019 on

[L'Emmerdeur]

Round up the sealife and deep fry it!!

The brave feds already tried shooting pepper spray inside an inflatable costume. I suppose boiling oil might prove more effective.

Last week, a federal agent was filmed shooting pepper spray directly into the air vent of Todd’s inflatable frog costume.

“I don’t want to see anyone treated inhumanely and to see this happen to my community members, my friends, my family, my neighbors,” Todd said Thursday.

The Telegraph‘s sensationalist reporting emphasized since-deleted comments on social media, including one in which Todd self-identified as a “little gay nonbinary toad and proud Antifa terrorist.”

The president last month signed an executive order claiming he had the authority to designate antifa—which is not an organization—as a domestic terrorist group. The term is a portmanteau of anti-fascist and refers to the ideology held by individuals and groups who oppose authoritarianism.

[source]

[Tero]

L.A. County Declares State of Emergency Over Immigration Raids
The move would allow county officials to provide financial aid to those affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

[L'Emmerdeur]

How do people wind up like this?

Leaders of Young Republican groups throughout the country worried what would happen if their Telegram chat ever got leaked, but they kept typing anyway.

They referred to Black people as monkeys and “the watermelon people” and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies and driving them to suicide and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n—ga” and “n—guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times in the chat. Bobby Walker, the vice chair of the New York State Young Republicans at the time, referred to rape as “epic.” Peter Giunta, who at the time was chair of the same organization, wrote in a message sent in June that “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.”

“Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic,” Joe Maligno, who previously identified himself as the general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans, wrote back.

“I’m ready to watch people burn now,” Annie Kaykaty, New York’s national committee member, said.

The exchange is part of a trove of Telegram chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than seven months of messages among Young Republican leaders in New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. The chat offers an unfiltered look at how a new generation of GOP activists talk when they think no one is listening.

The 2,900 pages of chats, shared among a dozen millennial and Gen Z Republicans between early January and mid-August, chronicle their campaign to seize control of the national Young Republican organization on a hardline pro-Donald Trump platform. Many of the chat members already work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state senator.

Together, the messages reveal a culture where racist, antisemitic and violent rhetoric circulate freely…

From Facebook

Living outside the MAGA bubble, you naturally have it backwards. The real scumbags are the people who scraped this vitriolic twaddle up and reported on it. Won't somebody think of the children?

Vice President JD Vance faulted "scumbag" reporters for leaking text messages from leaders of Young Republican groups that praised Adolf Hitler, used the N-word, joked about putting political opponents in gas chambers, and praised rape.

...

"We're not going to allow the worst moment in a 21-year-old group chat to ruin a kid's life for the rest of time. That's just not okay."

Vance accused Politico's report of "canceling kids."

"We're all going to have to say, you know what? No, no, no. We're not doing this," he remarked. "And if I have to be the person who carries that message forward, I'm fine with it."

[source]

[Sean Hayden]

—meh, young men hurling obscenities at the prevailing zeitgeist is hardly new or particularly troubling. It’s troubling, yes, but not particularly so relative to being a young man in general.

JD’s mistake is not understanding his role. He should condemn the behavior and let any consequences stand, we can understand without approval.

[JimC]

—meh, young men hurling obscenities at the prevailing zeitgeist is hardly new or particularly troubling. It’s troubling, yes, but not particularly so relative to being a young man in general.

JD’s mistake is not understanding his role. He should condemn the behavior and let any consequences stand, we can understand without approval.

Condemning this behaviour would be the thin edge of the wedge for JD. He is forced to show absolutist beliefs in MAGA, and in rejection of any liberal sentiments.

[Sean Hayden]

Right, screw that guy.