*whispers* the demand to abolish the IRS has been incredibly successful in preventing the IRS from doing its job pic.twitter.com/Txdc9ZOjX3
— overton window mover (@SeanMcElwee) June 25, 2018
The Washington Post, yesterday:
It started as a candlelight vigil for immigrant children who had been separated from their parents while crossing into the United States. A few dozen demonstrators gathered in front of the nondescript Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in southwest Portland on June 17.
After the candles were blown out, some of the demonstrators decided to stay, stumbling onto a more effective form of protest with a simple line of reasoning: ICE cannot deport people if immigration judges, lawyers and litigants cannot physically enter its facilities.
A week later, the number of people outside the facility has ballooned, blockading the government building around the clock with their bodies, hastily scrawled poster board signs and a tandem bicycle. By Monday morning, a Federal Protective Services spokesman told The Washington Post, the only people inside the facility were government officials making sure the doors were securely locked.
Occupy Ice PDX was born. Buoyed by their success, organizers spread the word to like-minded people in other immigration hubs.
“We invite the rest of the country to join this movement, to gather and occupy your local ICE facility until it’s shut down,” one message said. “Bring candles, signs, noisemakers and tents. Most importantly, bring yourself. Even if you can only come down for a day, for an hour, your presence is important and needed. It takes ALL of us working together to stop this machine of terror.”…
It’s riling up the racists already:
America is heading in the direction of another Harpers Ferry. After that comes Ft. Sumter. https://t.co/5PmwlwcdSQ
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) June 24, 2018
A religious fanatic will do something marvelously stupid & ineffective that is at least correct in identifying structural injustice, followed by a bunch of racist plutocrats doing something treasonous & destructive in order to preserve said monstrous injustice in perpetuity? https://t.co/MREQm4gyox
— The Mall Krampus???? (@cakotz) June 25, 2018
Fair Economist
This looks pretty effective to me.
EBT
https://twitter.com/DavidWright_CNN/status/1011718157717921792 Flake’s seat is blue.
Major Major Major Major
Cool, more slogans we can get mad at our leaders for not repeating.
Chip Daniels
I notice how they are harping on the “there’s gonna be violence if you don’t stop resisting!”.
As if there isn’t already. As if people of color aren’t already highly experienced in handling the outcome of violence, both state sponsored an private. As if abortion doctors aren’t already experienced in wearing bulletproof vests and hiding behind security barriers. As if immigrants from Mexico aren’t already experienced in mob and criminal violence.
It is the Steve Kings and Jim Hofts, those soft handed paunchy desk jockeys who are talking about something they can’t comprehend and are wholly unprepared for.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
If these ideas catch on with the base and the wider public, then our political leaders will have to adopt them as well.
lollipopguild
“There’s going to be violence if everyone does not kneel before King Trump!”
JDM
Steve doesn’t seem to realize where his side stands in his above analogy. Harper’s Ferry was the action against racists; firing on Ft. Sumter was the action of racists.
GxB
Evil prevails when good people do nothing. Change for the better only comes when good people stop being “reasonable”. I remind myself this as I stare daggers into Pelosi and Schumer. Granted, as leaders, their roles and the words they must use are hamstrung to an extent; but I recall a guy a few years back challenging his fellow citizens to make him lead. The usual idiots screeched while many of his cheerleaders missed his point and nothing much got done.
We no longer have that luxury.
Mary G
MOOD:
Nicole
I read both Pelosi and Schumer’s statements and I can’t find it in myself to get angry at them about it. They both point out it’s what Trump does (Pelosi more strongly than Schumer). And, had they come out with some firebrand statement, or even a lukewarm support of Maxine, the media would have spun it as DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP ENDORSE VIOLENCE. You know they would have. And that would have been the news cycle for the next week and there goes any attention for the kids who will never see their parents again. The media is wired for the GOP. At this point, Schumer and Pelosi are best off keeping their heads down and the focus off themselves. Harder for Schumer than Pelosi, I imagine, as he likes to be on the teevee.
Which is not to say the public shaming should not continue; it should. But this is one movement better off driven by the people lower down the political food chain. It’s better that it be grassroots.
That said, I’d love to see them Pelosi say something like, “Oh, yes, incivility is a terrible problem. President Obama dealt with it for eight years, although he, of course, knew enough not to violate ethics by tweeting about it from an official government address. For example, I’m not tweeting about Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ father’s racist tweets in reference to me. Because, while it’s incredibly uncivil of him to have done, tweeting about it on my official government Twitter handle is a violation of ethics. You know what else is a violation of ethics? Separating children from their parents.”
I get why they’re not stepping into this, but I do wish they were better at changing the conversation.
Barbara
Funny, I don’t remember Steve King and his fellow travelers being riled up about the armed occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge facilities on the other side of Oregon. Or Clive Bundy’s actual threats to DOI employees. Rand Paul and Steve King and company all think that the threat of resistance will be on their side, that they will never be seen as the oppressors that need to be thrown off.
I just can’t comment too much about this, but I do think it is imperative that those on our side maintain non-violent discipline, for their own safety, of course, but also for the safety and well-being of those they are trying to help and protect. Those are very vulnerable people.
Barbara
@Nicole: I feel the same way that you do. They made relatively balanced statements and I think those statements are commensurate with their respective roles. We need to focus on what’s central and important.
Matt McIrvin
@Nicole: My town’s mayor said something similar on Facebook. I like the guy, I understand why he said what he said, but I don’t have to agree with it.
kindness
It seems to me Twitter has become more of an elementary school bathroom wall where for some reason they hang up a bunch of magic markers. There are pearls on Twitter but much of it is dumb & children’s insults. I mean, I just wish the people that spend time on it up’ed their game (& grade point writing ability). I pulled up Steve King’s twitter rant and read the comments and oh shit, we are doing a crappy job educating our citizens.
Nicole
@Matt McIrvin: Of course you don’t. You’re not the mayor; you’re in a better position than he to publicly be uncivil. As am I. It’s our responsibility as private citizens to keep the pressure on.
Nicole
@Barbara: You’re right. A lot of time and money and effort is going to be spent on trying to distract us.
khead
If America is heading to Harpers Ferry I hope it is on a weekday. Because traffic is already batshit crazy on US 340 on a summer weekend.
Omnes Omnibus
@Nicole:
Changing the conversation is not their job.
Tokyokie
@JDM:
And then the racists got their asses kicked and their major cities reduced to rubble.
HumboldtBlue
@Tokyokie:
And they got their asses handed to them by a bunch of fresh-off-the-boat immigrants who swelled into Union ranks along with some 200,000 former slaves.
HumboldtBlue
@Omnes Omnibus:
Did you read my response to your Harry Kane comment about Spurs?
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
@khead: That made me LOL.
Neophema
ICE = Gestapo with training wheels
trnc
I’m not for abolishing ICE just because it is currently run by assholes any more then I’m for abolishing the DOJ or EPA. I’m for electing the kind of leaders who will appoint administrators who will make sure the mission of their respective agencies are carried out properly.
“Libruls want open borders” is the new lazy bullshit from magats. Obviously, they can’t point to a single bill that would abolish ICE or the border patrol. Let’s not play into wingnut bullshit.
Stan
About 30% of the US Army in the civil war was composed of black troops (not all former slaves, but a majority were) and immigrants.
Funny how the all-white, all-native side got their asses kicked isn’t it? It’s almost like diversity really is a strength.