Politics & Stuff

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ICE Prosecutor in Dallas Runs White Supremacist X Account

The Observer has identified the operator of ‘GlomarResponder,’ an overtly racist social media account, as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden.

https://prospect.org/justice/2025-02-20-ice-prosecutor-in-dallas-runs-white-supremacist-x-account/

Fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began to spread the day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated for the second time. Posts on social media and Reddit claimed that ICE had already been spotted in the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff, where Latino immigrants began to settle in large numbers in the 1970s and have profoundly shaped the culture of the vibrant community.

That same Tuesday morning, an X account with over 17,000 followers named GlomarResponder made an ominous post. “Yeah, I’m in a courthouse wating [sic] on warrants,” GlomarResponder wrote. “Turns out there’s a lot of bitch work to be done to make mass deportations happen.” One day prior, GlomarResponder had posted that he “Can confirm all of those,” regarding a list of cities where ICE was expected to begin deportation operations the next day. “May have a betting pool to see who can guess which one I’m at on any particular day, based on the news,” GlomarResponder wrote.

These were but the latest posts that GlomarResponder has made over the years that suggest the operator of the account is an ICE employee. GlomarResponder has also routinely expressed blatantly racist and anti-immigrant views. Through an extensive review of GlomarResponder’s X posts, publicly available documents, and other social media profiles and posts, the Texas Observer has identified the operator of GlomarResponder as James “Jim” Joseph Rodden, a 44-year-old who works as an assistant chief counsel for ICE in the Dallas area. Rodden represents the agency in immigration court hearings where judges decide whether an individual is removed from the country.

Since GlomarResponder was first created in 2012, the account has posted hateful, xenophobic, and pro-fascist content. “America is a White nation, founded by Whites. … Our country should favor us,” GlomarResponder wrote last month. “All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb fuck,” the account posted in September of last year. “Freedom of association hasn’t existed in this country since 1964 at the absolute latest,” GlomarResponder wrote four months prior, further clarifying the post was referring to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in a reply to a comment. “I’m not a commie, I’m a fascist,” GlomarResponder posted a couple weeks later. “Fascists solve communist problems. Get your insults right, retard.”

In August, GlomarResponder posted: “‘Migrants’ are all criminals.” Two months later, GlomarResponder shared an image that reads: “It is our holy duty to guard against the foreign hordes.” Some GlomarResponder posts evoke anti-immigrant violence: “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders,” the account posted in March 2024. “Yet. Give it a few more weeks at this level of invasion, and that will be the moderate position.” And in January: “My WWII vet grandfather didn’t get a chance to kill asians, so he volunteered for Korea. He’d be asking for a short term job with ICE kicking doors and swinging a baton.”

Rodden’s ICE employment is confirmed by federal court records, background interviews, and Observer courtroom visits.

A resident of Frisco, Rodden has previously lived in Pennsylvania, Northern Virginia, and North Carolina, according to county voter registration, private data broker sites, and property records. Rodden attended Penn State and Wake Forest University law school. A James J. Rodden possesses a license to practice law in Washington, D.C., which allows representation of ICE in Texas immigration court and was granted within a year of Rodden’s graduation from Wake Forest. In court filings, Rodden has claimed to have worked in federal government for a number of years prior to his ICE job. What appears to be his LinkedIn lists prior employment as a U.S. Border Patrol agent, a United States Marine Corps armorer, and a litigation clinic student at a federal public defender’s office. The Marine Corps confirmed Rodden’s service and final rank of corporal, and the Federal Public Defender’s office in Greensboro, North Carolina, confirmed his prior employment. The Border Patrol’s parent agency declined to confirm Rodden’s prior employment and denied a public records request, citing privacy and national security concerns.

The evidence that Rodden operates the GlomarResponder account includes an overwhelming number of biographical details that GlomarResponder has shared over years that align with information about Rodden, including employment history, locations lived, characteristics of a spouse, involvement in a lawsuit against the federal government, height and fashion preferences, penchants for specific phrasing, and a variety of specific interests and hobbies. The Observer confirmed these details about Rodden through other social media profiles, public records, private data broker sites, open-source investigative tools, interviews, and attendance of court hearings in which Rodden was representing ICE.

Rodden did not respond to multiple Observer requests for comment, which detailed the findings of this story, sent to his ICE email address. A call to a phone number associated with Rodden reached a man who declined to confirm his identity before hanging up. When approached in a public hallway outside the Dallas immigration court and asked to confirm receipt of the emailed requests, Rodden said only to “call [his] press office.”

James Rodden approaches a courtroom at the Dallas immigration court in Dallas in February.

An ICE spokesperson declined to confirm Rodden’s employment, and the agency declined to release personnel records for Rodden without his written permission. The spokesperson wrote in an email: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not comment on the substance of this article pending further investigation, to include whether the owner of the referenced ‘X’ account is a current employee. Notwithstanding, ICE holds its employees to the highest standards of professionalism and takes seriously all allegations of inappropriate conduct.”

IN NOVEMBER 2021, A GROUP OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES filed a class action lawsuit, styled James Joseph Rodden, et al. v. Dr. Anthony Fauci, over the federal employee vaccine mandate that required all federal workers to receive the COVID vaccine to keep their jobs. Per the lawsuit, Rodden was an “Assistant Chief Counsel at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” a position the Observer was able to confirm Rodden still occupies by attending Dallas immigration court and noting his name on a schedule circulated by the Dallas ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where attorneys are generally referred to as assistant chief counsels.

On September 6, 2023, GlomarResponder wrote: “I’m party to a lawsuit where preventing transmission was the justification for a shot mandate,” referring to the COVID-19 vaccine. He later lamented, on December 12 that year, that the lawsuit had been vacated.

Lawsuit filings reveal that Rodden took a blood test as part of providing evidence of naturally acquired immunity to COVID, and a briefing submitted on behalf of Rodden and his co-plaintiffs in a similar case argues that the vaccines are “less efficacious than natural immunity in preventing reinfection.”

In posts on X, GlomarResponder has made statements that echo what Rodden asserted in the court filings. In 2023, GlomarResponder wrote that he found out he had had COVID when he “got a blood test for a lawsuit” and that his immunity was found to be “better than that of the multi-shot morons.” In a recent response to a post that described the vaccine mandate as “insane,” GlomarResponder wrote that “some of us not only said so at the time, we sued them over it.”

On January 21 of this year, the same day that GlomarResponder claimed to be waiting for warrants at a courthouse, Rodden was scheduled to be at the immigration courthouse in downtown Dallas, according to a weekly schedule document from ICE. Later that week, the Observer witnessed Rodden working at a deportation hearing, where he was representing the government agency. At this hearing, and another hearing in early February, Rodden wore a three-piece suit, cufflinks, and a watch—items GlomarReponder has posted about wearing—and appeared to be approximately 6'2", corresponding to the height that GlomarResponder has disclosed in posts on X. He also maintained a cleanly shaved head, something GlomarResponder has recommended as “wisdom” to men who are going bald.

During the January court hearing the Observer attended, Rodden repeatedly used his phone at moments that corresponded to times GlomarResponder made posts. At the February hearing, the Observer saw Rodden scrolling through the X app on his phone and drafting a post at 1:14 p.m. The profile photo that appeared while Rodden drafted the post resembled that of GlomarResponder, which posted at 1:15pm.

Over the years, GlomarResponder has also made a number of posts that closely align with the posts of a Facebook account with the profile name Jim Rodden. James Rodden often goes by “Jim,” according to multiple sources, and the Facebook profile has posted in the Wake Forest Law Class of 2012 group, corresponding with education information on the James Rodden LinkedIn profile (which uses the first name “Jim” in the URL). James J. Rodden also appears in the list of 2012 Wake Forest law graduates. GlomarResponder has posted multiple times about Wake Forest and the city where it is located, Winston-Salem.

The Jim Rodden Facebook profile has been tagged in a post by an account appearing to belong to Rodden’s wife, and the Facebook has posted both specific text and uncommon images that align with those posted by GlomarResponder.

On June 8, 2023, GlomarResponder wrote that “They tried to force a needle in my arm, and threatened to take food out of my family’s mouths. I don’t take kindly to threats. I have responded by spending a significant portion of my time and treasure on lawsuits.”

A year prior, the Jim Rodden Facebook account posted: “This is your periodic reminder that anyone who is trying to force a needle into my arm, or my son’s arm, can fuck directly off forever with the ‘my body, my choice’ bullshit.” This post, along with many others, was either deleted or made private after the Observer contacted Rodden for comment.

The Facebook account has posted about opposition to “red flag laws” that can restrict a person’s ability to purchase a gun, used an image depicting the “Appeal to Heaven” flag that has become associated with far-right Christian nationalism for a profile banner photo, posted about the Comedian from the comic book series The Watchmen, shared an image of the Mexican wrestler Blue Demon, used an image of the character Kratos from the video game series God of War as a profile picture, and used multiple images of the insignia for the rank of Corporal in the Marine Corps for various profile pictures. On X, GlomarResponder has also posted critically about red flag laws, repeatedly posted the phrase “Appeal to Heaven,” posted about how he thinks the Comedian is “based,” shared the same image of the wrestler Blue Demon as the Facebook account (within 24 hours), posted about Kratos and the God of War video game series, and posted about how he had attained the rank of Corporal when he left the Marines, which corresponds with the final rank Rodden attained before leaving the Marines.

The Facebook account also features a banner image depicting an M1942 “Frog Skin” camo flag with an atypical cracked-skull Marine Raiders emblem that was updated in November 2023. In July 2024, GlomarResponder posted the same photo. The flag is an uncommon variant that was previously sold on a website called Paid to Raid but is no longer listed among their products. Reverse image searches for the photo of the flag do not turn up any other exact matches outside of Paid to Raid’s webstore.

Left: A screenshot of the M1942 “Frog Skin” camo flag image posted as Jim Rodden’s Facebook banner. Right: A screenshot of GlomarResponder’s post featuring the same M1942 Frogskin Camo Flag image.

The Observer also matched other publicly available information about Rodden with biographical details revealed in GlomarResponder posts. County property records and university documents confirm his prior residence in Northern Virginia and North Carolina and attendance at Penn State, where he participated in marching band according to the LinkedIn profile. This is consistent with GlomarResponder’s posts that the account operator attended Penn State, worked at an office in Northern Virginia, and was in marching band. James Rodden appears in a 2003 Penn State yearbook.

GlomarResponder has also posted repeatedly about being an armorer, serving in the Marines, and working for Border Patrol, which correspond with Rodden’s LinkedIn.

According to the Register of Deeds’ office of Forsyth County, North Carolina—reached by phone—James Rodden got married in August 2009. (Forsyth County is where Wake Forest is located.) His wife’s maiden name, confirmed by the clerk, aligns with public records and private data broker information that help confirm Rodden resides in Frisco.

A Facebook profile sharing his wife’s name made a post in August about a family dog, Freya, in which the account tagged the Jim Rodden Facebook account. The Facebook account has described the dog as a “Working Line German Shepherd,” also referred to generally and by the account as “GSD,” specifically from the Czech lineage of the breed. According to the Facebook and a LinkedIn profile matching her name, as well as publicly available corporate information, Rodden’s wife is a horseback jumper trainer and owner of Clear Round Jumpers. Her Facebook account features posts about an interest in dressage. The account’s profile picture, originally shared in a post by a Collin County horse training facility’s Facebook page that tagged the apparent Facebook of Rodden’s wife, is of a woman with red hair and no visible tattoos.

GlomarResponder has posted that the account operator’s wife is a “hunter / jumper trainer” who is competent at “dressage” and has red hair and no tattoos. The account has also posted several times about having a female dog and training German Shepherds—referring to them as GSDs, positively describing the virtues of the “average working line shep,” and posting that “Czech [GSDs] are also very good dogs.”

On X, GlomarResponder has posted about meeting a spouse at age 27 and getting married before age 30. That aligns with Rodden’s August 2009 marriage record in Forsyth County, North Carolina, where Rodden owned property according to public records. Private data brokers also place his wife at the same North Carolina address as Rodden at this time. “At 28, am I the old guy in the class?,” reads an April 2009 post made by the Jim Rodden Facebook account in the Wake Forest Law Class of 2012 Facebook group.

On Facebook, Jim Rodden has liked and replied to mixed martial arts photos and videos posted by a Frisco MMA gym.

GlomarResponder has claimed to be under consideration for a federal appointment that would require Senate confirmation, which the Observer could not confirm. The account has also suggested that some of its posts may be misrepresentations to purposely mislead those who wish to uncover the operator’s identity.

“If you’re reading my anon Twitter account, some personal details may be misdirection,” GlomarResponder wrote on August 17, 2024.

But the alignment of biographical details, political viewpoints, interests, and the use of the same images across accounts is so specific that open-source intelligence experts who reviewed the Observer’s findings said the evidence linking Rodden to GlomarResponder (and another account, devildog_jim, used for forum posting) is unlikely to be coincidental.

“We asked two of our analysts with more than 20 years of combined experience in open source intelligence to review the identification,” said Bjørn Ihler, founder and CEO of Revontulet, a private counterterrorism intelligence and research company. “They found it to be thorough, well-supported, and worthy of public attention. They agree that the evidence linking James Rodden to the online accounts in question is strong, with significant biographical consistencies spanning over a decade. … The depth of the investigation leaves little room for doubt.”

AN ATTORNEY EXPRESSING RACISM, XENOPHOBIA, and fascist politics would raise questions about their ability to act fairly and impartially in legal proceedings, such as in Rodden’s capacity representing ICE in immigration removal hearings, said Cyrus Mehta, a New York-based immigration attorney with over 30 years of experience.

“A government lawyer who vilifies people that he opposes in court, and puts that out under the radar, would clearly be engaging in conduct that’s prejudicial to the administration of justice,” Mehta said.

Mehta said such conduct could violate the Rules of Professional Conduct for the District of Columbia Bar—which declined to comment for this story—through which James J. Rodden holds his license. According to Mehta, such rules are common in bar associations and have been used to charge and sanction attorneys.

There’s also a rule in the Code of Federal Regulations regarding government attorneys, Mehta noted, that says it’s “in the public interest for an adjudicating official or the board to impose disciplinary sanctions against any practitioner who falls within one or more of the categories enumerated in this section.” One of those categories is “conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice or undermines the integrity of the adjudicative.”

As of publication time, Rodden is still scheduled to represent the government in immigration court.

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Guess What, America? We’ve Been on the Wrong Side All Along!

Today on TAP: Democracies are out. It’s KGB and KKK; now we’re with them all the way!

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2025-02-20-guess-what-america-weve-been-on-the-wrong-side/

 

Despite some notable bumps in the road, it’s fair to characterize American foreign policy since roughly 1933 as pro-democracy. The nearly simultaneous ascent of Franklin Roosevelt here and Adolf Hitler in Germany in that year meant that the basic thrust of U.S. foreign policy would be anti-despotic, even though the arena in which those values underpinned our policy was primarily Europe, and not always even there, as America’s refusal to engage in the Spanish Civil War made lamentably clear.

After 1945, fascism didn’t pose a significant threat to non-Iberian Europe, but the Soviet model of communism surely did, and our alliance with Europe’s democracies was the basis of our foreign policy. The competition with Russia even compelled us to become more democratic at home, as we could hardly win the allegiance of the Global South so long as our domestic South was governed on overtly racist lines.

Generations of American children have been schooled in democratic values, and when the U.S. has appeared to deviate from those values, its domestic critics have invariably contrasted our conduct with those values we profess to uphold. The left has made this point when we’ve (all too frequently) supported right-wing autocrats in the developing world; the right has made this point in opposing communism, though the right usually labels anything even slightly social democratic as communist, too, though social democracy is actually a profoundly democratic condition.

In any event, all that is now old news. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve now changed sides. Democracy is out; autocracy is in, though President Trump has made this switch on what we might term semi- or sub-ideological grounds.

Our official alliance with KGB veteran and critic-assassin Vladimir Putin, at the expense of the people of Ukraine, has so dominated the news of the past 24 hours that we may already be overlooking how completely it fits with the rest of Trump’s emerging foreign policy. There’s Vice President Vance’s embrace in the run-up to Germany’s upcoming elections of the AfD, the xenophobic German party with neo-Nazi roots and a continuing neo-Nazi presence in its ranks. There’s Trump’s obsession with creating conflicts in which America can dominate every other nation (Canada, Ukraine, Europe except Hungary, etc.) whose adherence to democratic norms makes them inherently weak and suspiciously feminized.

For that matter, Trump has continually supported AfD-type social forces here in the USA: the “good people on both sides” at Charlottesville, which meant the Klan; the January 6th insurrectionists; the Proud Boys he told to “stand by”; and, among figures in our history, the Confederate generals whose names he wants to reaffix to the bases of the very army they fought against. Fort Bragg, Fort Bedford Forrest, Fort Putin, Fort Beria, Fort Himmler, here we come.

In terming this Big F---in’ Switch to be semi- or sub-ideological, I mean only that it reflects aspects of Trump’s personality as much as it does a forthright preference for intolerant, anti-liberal autocracy. The current heads of government whom Trump admires are all autocrats—Putin, Xi, Korea’s Kim Jong Un—who violently suppress their critics. And just as Putin is to be admired for ordering the murder of his leading domestic opponents, so Volodymyr Zelensky is to be reviled for having rebuffed Trump’s request to concoct some criminal allegations against the Biden family. Whereas the violent suppression that Xi engages in can be called upon by Chinese leaders because it’s hardwired into the kind of one-party rule that characterizes Leninist (though now semi-capitalist) China, the violent suppression that Trump has as his ideal is not hardwired into the American system. Rather, it’s an aspect of his insecure, narcissistic, thuggish personality, which sees every situation that involves him as one that he must win, preferably by humiliating and harming the loser. His is a personality that is inherently constrained by the laws and norms of liberal democracy, and freed by their being supplanted by autocratic rule.

So much, then, for America as the city on a hill, as the last best hope of humankind, as the anchor, however imperfect and intermittent, of an alliance of democracies. We are now the shithole country that has emerged, fully formed, from the mind of Donald Trump.

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 Trump was recruited by KGB with codename 'Krasnov', claims ex-Soviet spy

A former Soviet intelligence officer has claimed Donald Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987 and given the codename “Krasnov”.

The bombshell allegation was made by Alnur Mussayev, a former Kazakh intelligence chief, in a Facebook post. The 71-year-old, who previously headed Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, said he had served in the 6th Directorate of the KGB in Moscow, which was responsible for counter-intelligence support within the economy.

One of the directorate’s primary objectives, he claimed, was “recruiting businessmen from capitalist countries.” According to Mussayev, Trump, then a 40-year-old New York real estate developer, was one of those recruits. "In 1987, our directorate recruited Donald Trump under the pseudonym Krasnov,” he wrote.

Today, the personal file of resident ‘Krasnov’ has been removed from the FSB. It is being privately managed by one of Putin’s close associates,” he alleged. His allegations come amid years of speculation over Trump’s ties to Russia, dating back to his first visit to Moscow in 1987.

At the time, Trump, then a rising star in the New York property market, travelled to the Soviet Union to explore the possibility of building a hotel in the capital. Soviet officials reportedly facilitated the trip, raising questions among intelligence analysts about whether it was a routine business opportunity or something more scandalous.

Several years ago a report highlighted how, in 1985, the KGB had updated a secret personality questionnaire distributed among its officers, detailing how to identify and recruit Western figures. The document, according to intelligence sources, instructed agents to target “prominent figures in the West” with the aim of “drawing them into some form of collaboration with us… as an agent, or confidential or special or unofficial contact.”

Mussayev’s claim appears to suggest that Trump may have been one such target. Despite years of scrutiny, Trump has vehemently denied having any improper ties to Russia or colluding with President Vladimir Putin.

However, some US officials have repeatedly raised concerns about his close relationship with the Kremlin leader, particularly during his first term in office. Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Trump’s White House communications director in 2017, added to the intrigue during a recent episode of The Rest Is Politics: US podcast.

He suggested that Trump’s deference to Putin has puzzled many of his former senior officials. “I think there is a mysterious ‘hold’ on the president,” he said. Scaramucci did not elaborate on what that ‘hold’ might be but suggested that several former Trump administration officials, including H.R. McMaster, James Mattis, and John Kelly— had also struggled to understand Trump’s affinity for Putin. “I don’t know why it’s like this,” he said. “McMaster couldn’t figure it out, Mattis couldn’t figure it out, Kelly couldn’t figure it out.”

AP Press

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Jonathan Pie - The Art of The Deal

 

 

 

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Musk off his tits on ket and coke and CPAC. This is the twat that wants to put a silicon chip in your brain

 

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[KEVINAA 129]

Later today at 5am UTC will be exactly 3 years since RUSSIA attacked Ukraine on 24 February 2022 was the first reports on Russia invading Ukraine.

Be on high alert in Europe. At any moment it would fireworks again.

3 year anniversary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine_(24_February_–_7_April_2022)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine

Edited February 23 by KEVINAA

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The strategists

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London yesterday

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2 hours ago, Vesper said:

London yesterday

Saw that 😃

Tesla shares have also dropped 9%

Sooner he fucks off to Mars the better

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"A woman is like a child": MAGA quickly turns its sights on stripping Republican women of power

Conservative women believe complicity will save them. But an emboldened far-right is gunning for their rights

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/26/a-woman-is-like-a-child-maga-quickly-turns-its-sights-on-stripping-women-of-power/

For decades, the anti-abortion movement has aggressively promoted women into visible leadership roles. It's for cynical reasons, namely, to bat off entirely accurate accusations that the movement is misogynist. Never mind that there have always been women who are eager to police the bodies and behavior of other women. Enough people are credulous or at least disingenuous enough to think that "I'm a woman, which means I can't hate other women" is an actual argument. For ambitious women who wanted to climb the ranks of Republican politics, anti-feminism has long been the steadiest of ladders. The propaganda value of their gender outweighed their party's larger hostility to women in leadership. 

But now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and Donald Trump is back in the White House, many on the right feel they no longer need to hide the naked sexism fueling their movement or put up with the annoyance of women in even token leadership positions. As Kiera Butler at Mother Jones reports, the anti-abortion movement is embroiled in an escalating civil war right now over these issues. Male leaders of the Christian right have been swarming Kristan Hawkins, the 39-year-old head of a "student" anti-abortion group, demanding her ejection from the movement. It started after she objected to Republican legislators introducing bills to charge women who get abortions with murder, an extreme move she fears will backfire on the movement. But mostly it was about growing male anger on the Christian right that women are allowed leadership positions at all. 

"Removed [sic] this woman from public service," declared influential Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon, part of the "TheoBros" movement that includes the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's church. Soon other TheoBros jumped in, declaring "We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion," arguing that women's suffrage was a mistake, and accusing Hawkins of emasculating her husband by being "busy jet-setting."

Forty-five percent of female voters backed Trump in 2024, despite his overt misogyny. Most, no doubt, believed that complicity would protect them and that the attacks would be centered on other women. But while the GOP certainly wants to strip liberal and feminist women of their rights, male MAGA leaders are showing increasing interest in bringing Republican women to heel, both culturally and through the force of law. After all, they are more likely to live and work with Republican women. If they want to feel the full flowering of male domination, it's Republican women they need to see submitting. 

Webbon and the TheoBros have been clamoring more loudly in recent months about their wish to strip women, especially their own wives, of the right to vote. "You won't let women vote? Well, our society doesn't let five-year-olds vote," Webbon explained in a May podcast. He added that "a woman is like a child" and that "God has appointed men to protect them." As Sarah Stankorb at the New Republic documented, there has been growing support in Christian nationalist circles "for the repeal of the 19th Amendment and support a 'household vote' system in which men vote on behalf of their families." Hegseth's former sister-in-law reports she heard him echo similar sentiments. 

This isn't mere idle chatter, either. House Republicans passed a bill (which stalled in the Senate) this session to require citizens to have a passport or birth certificate matching their name to vote. This would be a back-door ban on voting for any woman who took her husband's last name and doesn't have a passport, an estimated 69 million women. It would also disproportionately affect Republican women, who are more likely to be married, more likely to have changed their name and less likely to have a passport. 

Similarly, there's been a slowly rising volume on the right of talk about banning no-fault divorce, fueled by Republicans like Vice President JD Vance saying it's too easy for women — even those in abusive marriages — to leave their marriages. Legislators in red states are filing more bills to do so, and while it's unlikely any will pass soon, the goal is to create more momentum for an eventual ban. This would affect Republican women more because, as with abortion bans, only red states would even consider such laws. It's also true that red states have higher divorce rates than blue states, because sexist cultural mores lead to more unhappy marriages. But rather than treating their wives better, MAGA men are looking at making it illegal for their wives to leave them. 

There have been recent visceral examples of how the increasingly bold sexism on the right is impacting women, especially in Republican circles. Last week, D.C. police opened an investigation into Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., over allegations he beat a 27-year-old woman, not his wife, he is allegedly dating. The police report indicates the woman said Mills "grabbed her, shoved her, and pushed her out of the door," and the officers saw "bruises on her arm, which appeared fresh." Police also report that the victim let them hear Mills on the phone "instruct her to lie about the origin of her bruises." He denies the allegation. 

The situation took a darker turn Tuesday, when NBC News reported that Trump-appointed U.S. attorney Ed Martin, who has mostly been focused on firing prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases, did not sign an arrest warrant for Mills. This could destroy the case, since federal involvement is usually required when suspects are members of Congress. Martin hasn't explained his reasoning, but it's also well-documented that his boss, Trump, has long argued that "fortunately" men of a certain class have enjoyed the right to commit violence against women. But it's a privilege Trump reserves only for his friends. When immigrants or working-class men of color are accused of such crimes — even if they are shown to be innocent — Trump calls for extreme punishment, including the death penalty. 

Less terrifying but still disturbing is the tabloid-esque drama regarding MAGA billionaire Elon Musk and women who have (or say they have, with evidence) children with him. Right-wing influencer Ashley St. Claire sued Musk this week for proof of paternity, citing text messages from him such as "I knock you up again," even though, she says, he barely bothers to visit with the existing child. Even more disturbing, Canadian singer Grimes — whose children with Musk have been legally acknowledged — took to X to beg him, "Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis. I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention.”

Feminist writer Moira Donegan wrote on Bluesky that the right-wing woman "believes that sexual and reproductive service to right wing men will earn her their protection, affection, and material support. She is wrong." Instead, Donegan wrote, "it is a core belief of the right wing man that no woman, however compliant, has any claim on him that he must respect."

To be sure, it's not just conservative women who are at risk at the hands of an increasingly misogynist MAGA movement. That much was illustrated in a distressing incident in Idaho, where three men accosted a woman who spoke out at a town hall, dragging her fighting out of the room while the local sheriff cheered them on. They were later revealed to be security guards, but it appears that wasn't clear at the time — and it's certainly questionable that violence was necessary because a woman was heckling Republican officials at a public event. Abortion, the Associated Press reported, appears to have played a triggering role in the display of violence. "One lawmaker mentioned legislation that he said protected doctors from 'being forced to do abortions,'" to which audience members shot back “women are dying" and "doctors are leaving our state!” 

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f7pgoy3mor2635sjc7ka6qsa/post/3livlzjxxhc2u

That footage is viscerally shocking, but crucially, Republican women are fools if they think that treatment will only be reserved for Democratic women. On the contrary, because Republican women tend to be in closer proximity to Republican men, they're far more likely to be on the receiving end of anger over talkback or other perceived insubordination. 

[Vesper 30,232]

THIS is the level of batshit crazy that is infecting the US.

An American friend of mine's mother received this text from a Trumper MAGAt long-time friend of hers (verbatim, with the original typos):

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“The future is going Tobe great and things are going to improve drasticallygor the better!

You are going To be amazed at the improvement that is going to happen with God leading and directing the uncovering of what has occurred over the years.

Uncovering stupid spending of billions of dollars and some people that are dead are still receiving social security benefits!

Ilnow your distatste for the conservative party but the media is leading you astray by spreading their lies. I do a lot of research.

My sister and my oldest daughter are NBC CBS and the other news media outlets and I am saddened.

God’s Word says “ my. people perish for lack of knowledge”.

I am going to boldly tell you something that you will reject but it is the truth and the prophets of today are 100% in agreement.

President Trump is God’s annointed one to lead this nation back to a Christian nation and respected by the other nations.

He has a cabinet that is appointed by God and all are on the same page and united. God also says “touch not my annointed”.

God is still on the throne and HE is in charge.

I will ask you one question to dwell on “why did Jesus shed HIS BLOOD on CALVERY’S CROSS”?

Jesus is Lord and King. HE is going to return to receive those that are HIS but not those that are not.

I am a born again and saved Jesus is my LORD and SSVIOUR.

I am through preaching but not testifying to my relationship with Jesus Christ and what happened at the CROSS and Jesus rise from the dead on the 3rd day. And how it has affected mankind.

I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and LORD many years ago and I can face each day because Jesus is ALIVE.

The Holy Spirit lives with in my heart. I am so blessed!!

I will always love you even if we have different views but I love Jesus more than anyone or anything.

Heaven is my Home when my life ends here on earth. Yes I am a Jesus “freak”but I share that label with many.

April will probably be our trip to Atascosa.

It should be spring weather by that time.

Yes life is going to change for the better with God at the helm - in spite of those attempting to stop HIS going forward. Satan is defeated!

Those interfering will be judged.

Just so you understand I am not above sinning - but repenting erases the sin.

All sin and come short of the Glory of God.

I am in that group.

❤️❤️🫂🫂🙏🙏”

 

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[Fulham Broadway 17,335]

17 minutes ago, Vesper said:

THIS is the level of batshit crazy that is infecting the US.

An American friend of mine's mother received this text from a Trumper MAGAt long-time friend of hers (verbatim, with the original typos):

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

“The future is going Tobe great and things are going to improve drasticallygor the better!

You are going To be amazed at the improvement that is going to happen with God leading and directing the uncovering of what has occurred over the years.

Uncovering stupid spending of billions of dollars and some people that are dead are still receiving social security benefits!

Ilnow your distatste for the conservative party but the media is leading you astray by spreading their lies. I do a lot of research.

My sister and my oldest daughter are NBC CBS and the other news media outlets and I am saddened.

God’s Word says “ my. people perish for lack of knowledge”.

I am going to boldly tell you something that you will reject but it is the truth and the prophets of today are 100% in agreement.

President Trump is God’s annointed one to lead this nation back to a Christian nation and respected by the other nations.

He has a cabinet that is appointed by God and all are on the same page and united. God also says “touch not my annointed”.

God is still on the throne and HE is in charge.

I will ask you one question to dwell on “why did Jesus shed HIS BLOOD on CALVERY’S CROSS”?

Jesus is Lord and King. HE is going to return to receive those that are HIS but not those that are not.

I am a born again and saved Jesus is my LORD and SSVIOUR.

I am through preaching but not testifying to my relationship with Jesus Christ and what happened at the CROSS and Jesus rise from the dead on the 3rd day. And how it has affected mankind.

I accepted Jesus as my Saviour and LORD many years ago and I can face each day because Jesus is ALIVE.

The Holy Spirit lives with in my heart. I am so blessed!!

I will always love you even if we have different views but I love Jesus more than anyone or anything.

Heaven is my Home when my life ends here on earth. Yes I am a Jesus “freak”but I share that label with many.

April will probably be our trip to Atascosa.

It should be spring weather by that time.

Yes life is going to change for the better with God at the helm - in spite of those attempting to stop HIS going forward. Satan is defeated!

Those interfering will be judged.

Just so you understand I am not above sinning - but repenting erases the sin.

All sin and come short of the Glory of God.

I am in that group.

❤️❤️🫂🫂🙏🙏”

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Mentalist. Remember when Trump said ''I love the uneducated'' ?

[Fulham Broadway 17,335]

22 hours ago, Vesper said:

"A woman is like a child": MAGA quickly turns its sights on stripping Republican women of power

Conservative women believe complicity will save them. But an emboldened far-right is gunning for their rights

https://www.salon.com/2025/02/26/a-woman-is-like-a-child-maga-quickly-turns-its-sights-on-stripping-women-of-power/

For decades, the anti-abortion movement has aggressively promoted women into visible leadership roles. It's for cynical reasons, namely, to bat off entirely accurate accusations that the movement is misogynist. Never mind that there have always been women who are eager to police the bodies and behavior of other women. Enough people are credulous or at least disingenuous enough to think that "I'm a woman, which means I can't hate other women" is an actual argument. For ambitious women who wanted to climb the ranks of Republican politics, anti-feminism has long been the steadiest of ladders. The propaganda value of their gender outweighed their party's larger hostility to women in leadership. 

But now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned and Donald Trump is back in the White House, many on the right feel they no longer need to hide the naked sexism fueling their movement or put up with the annoyance of women in even token leadership positions. As Kiera Butler at Mother Jones reports, the anti-abortion movement is embroiled in an escalating civil war right now over these issues. Male leaders of the Christian right have been swarming Kristan Hawkins, the 39-year-old head of a "student" anti-abortion group, demanding her ejection from the movement. It started after she objected to Republican legislators introducing bills to charge women who get abortions with murder, an extreme move she fears will backfire on the movement. But mostly it was about growing male anger on the Christian right that women are allowed leadership positions at all. 

"Removed [sic] this woman from public service," declared influential Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon, part of the "TheoBros" movement that includes the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's church. Soon other TheoBros jumped in, declaring "We need Christian men leading the fight against abortion," arguing that women's suffrage was a mistake, and accusing Hawkins of emasculating her husband by being "busy jet-setting."

Forty-five percent of female voters backed Trump in 2024, despite his overt misogyny. Most, no doubt, believed that complicity would protect them and that the attacks would be centered on other women. But while the GOP certainly wants to strip liberal and feminist women of their rights, male MAGA leaders are showing increasing interest in bringing Republican women to heel, both culturally and through the force of law. After all, they are more likely to live and work with Republican women. If they want to feel the full flowering of male domination, it's Republican women they need to see submitting. 

Webbon and the TheoBros have been clamoring more loudly in recent months about their wish to strip women, especially their own wives, of the right to vote. "You won't let women vote? Well, our society doesn't let five-year-olds vote," Webbon explained in a May podcast. He added that "a woman is like a child" and that "God has appointed men to protect them." As Sarah Stankorb at the New Republic documented, there has been growing support in Christian nationalist circles "for the repeal of the 19th Amendment and support a 'household vote' system in which men vote on behalf of their families." Hegseth's former sister-in-law reports she heard him echo similar sentiments. 

This isn't mere idle chatter, either. House Republicans passed a bill (which stalled in the Senate) this session to require citizens to have a passport or birth certificate matching their name to vote. This would be a back-door ban on voting for any woman who took her husband's last name and doesn't have a passport, an estimated 69 million women. It would also disproportionately affect Republican women, who are more likely to be married, more likely to have changed their name and less likely to have a passport. 

Similarly, there's been a slowly rising volume on the right of talk about banning no-fault divorce, fueled by Republicans like Vice President JD Vance saying it's too easy for women — even those in abusive marriages — to leave their marriages. Legislators in red states are filing more bills to do so, and while it's unlikely any will pass soon, the goal is to create more momentum for an eventual ban. This would affect Republican women more because, as with abortion bans, only red states would even consider such laws. It's also true that red states have higher divorce rates than blue states, because sexist cultural mores lead to more unhappy marriages. But rather than treating their wives better, MAGA men are looking at making it illegal for their wives to leave them. 

There have been recent visceral examples of how the increasingly bold sexism on the right is impacting women, especially in Republican circles. Last week, D.C. police opened an investigation into Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., over allegations he beat a 27-year-old woman, not his wife, he is allegedly dating. The police report indicates the woman said Mills "grabbed her, shoved her, and pushed her out of the door," and the officers saw "bruises on her arm, which appeared fresh." Police also report that the victim let them hear Mills on the phone "instruct her to lie about the origin of her bruises." He denies the allegation. 

The situation took a darker turn Tuesday, when NBC News reported that Trump-appointed U.S. attorney Ed Martin, who has mostly been focused on firing prosecutors who worked on January 6 cases, did not sign an arrest warrant for Mills. This could destroy the case, since federal involvement is usually required when suspects are members of Congress. Martin hasn't explained his reasoning, but it's also well-documented that his boss, Trump, has long argued that "fortunately" men of a certain class have enjoyed the right to commit violence against women. But it's a privilege Trump reserves only for his friends. When immigrants or working-class men of color are accused of such crimes — even if they are shown to be innocent — Trump calls for extreme punishment, including the death penalty. 

Less terrifying but still disturbing is the tabloid-esque drama regarding MAGA billionaire Elon Musk and women who have (or say they have, with evidence) children with him. Right-wing influencer Ashley St. Claire sued Musk this week for proof of paternity, citing text messages from him such as "I knock you up again," even though, she says, he barely bothers to visit with the existing child. Even more disturbing, Canadian singer Grimes — whose children with Musk have been legally acknowledged — took to X to beg him, "Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis. I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention.”

Feminist writer Moira Donegan wrote on Bluesky that the right-wing woman "believes that sexual and reproductive service to right wing men will earn her their protection, affection, and material support. She is wrong." Instead, Donegan wrote, "it is a core belief of the right wing man that no woman, however compliant, has any claim on him that he must respect."

To be sure, it's not just conservative women who are at risk at the hands of an increasingly misogynist MAGA movement. That much was illustrated in a distressing incident in Idaho, where three men accosted a woman who spoke out at a town hall, dragging her fighting out of the room while the local sheriff cheered them on. They were later revealed to be security guards, but it appears that wasn't clear at the time — and it's certainly questionable that violence was necessary because a woman was heckling Republican officials at a public event. Abortion, the Associated Press reported, appears to have played a triggering role in the display of violence. "One lawmaker mentioned legislation that he said protected doctors from 'being forced to do abortions,'" to which audience members shot back “women are dying" and "doctors are leaving our state!” 

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:f7pgoy3mor2635sjc7ka6qsa/post/3livlzjxxhc2u

That footage is viscerally shocking, but crucially, Republican women are fools if they think that treatment will only be reserved for Democratic women. On the contrary, because Republican women tend to be in closer proximity to Republican men, they're far more likely to be on the receiving end of anger over talkback or other perceived insubordination. 

No surprise that Musk and Trump are misogynists.

And today the felon and rapist released and flew by private jet to Florida the other rapists and traffickers the Tate brothers

[Vesper 30,232]

https://bsky.app/profile/bamjcasta.bsky.social/post/3lj5567kfus2a

[Vesper 30,232]

She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this

Ryleigh Cooper is normally more focused on motherhood than politics. Then came DOGE.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/27/fired-federal-worker-trump-voter/

 

BALDWIN, Mich. — Ryleigh Cooper exhaled as she slid onto the couch after nine hours of work for the U.S. Forest Service, still covered in the blue paint she used to mark trees for local loggers. Then she got the text.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” her union leader wrote.

It was the second Thursday in February, and a historic White House purge aimed at federal workers like Cooper was sweeping the country. But the headlines felt far away from her life in rural Michigan. She figured her job, with paychecks totaling about $40,000 a year, would be safe from the cost-cutting campaign led by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.

Besides, motherhood was her most pressing concern. Cooper, 24, and her husband were trying to get pregnant, but the doctor said that IVF might be their best chance. Trump had promised to make it free. That is what she thought about in the voting booth.

Now she was staring at her phone, learning that probationary workers in the Forest Service were the next to be fired by his administration. Cooper was likely to be one of them, her union head told her.

Her eyes watered. She knew it wasn’t personal. Every day brought new rumors of cuts, and her performance evaluation from last fall found her “fully successful” — the highest possible score.

She reminded herself that she had done everything right: graduated college with a 3.5 GPA, finished her first semester of work toward a master’s degree in forestry with a 4.0, rescued two dogs and two cats from the local shelter, chosen a man who held her on the shower floor when she found out she had endometriosis, a condition that can lead to infertility, and told her, “It’s okay, there is more than one way to be a parent.”

She thought about the Facebook posts she had seen a few days earlier.

“It’s February 3,” her grandmother posted, “and we’re going in the right direction.”

“Any government employee who is afraid of transparency,” wrote the man who taught her AP government class in high school, “is a criminal!”

Cooper knew the people in her life meant well, but she wanted her future to be different from theirs. She had grown up watching her family struggle as her mother lost one job, then another, then another. She was just a few months shy of her graduate degree and close to a promotion that could nearly double her salary. Even $50,000 or $60,000 a year, she thought, could help get her a house a few counties over, with better schools.

For now, she and her husband lived in Baldwin, a village of about 1,000 people where the high school track is made of cracked concrete and weeds. They had purchased their home because it was cheap, less than $150,000, and close to their families, who could help with child care.

It takes three minutes to drive past Baldwin’s one post office, one bar and one bowling alley, which also serves pancakes and omelets for breakfast. The median household income is about $23,000, according to the most recent American Community Survey, putting it among the poorest towns in Michigan.

In the winter, locals ice fish from shanties warmed by propane heaters and drive snowmobiles to bars. In the summer, they drive lawn mowers to gas stations, though Cooper said she would never do that.

Most people in Baldwin like Trump; more than 62 percent in Lake County, which includes the town, voted for him in November and in 2020. But people don’t talk about it. Politics here, at least until recently, felt removed from everyday worries.

Now it was in her living room, as she turned to her husband and burst into tears. “I think I’m getting fired,” she said.

Getting fired meant she would no longer have health insurance, including the 12 weeks of paid maternity leave that was a guaranteed benefit of her federal service. Also gone would be the promotion that would allow her to plan for the kids she so badly wanted to have.

She wondered if Trump was going to break his promise to make IVF free, and if it would even matter if he did.

Her husband sat beside her and squeezed her hand, still processing. Together they had been counting. Sixteen days until they could try again. Twenty-eight until she could take her next test.

After she was sexually assaulted at 16, Cooper had sworn she would never be caught unprepared. But here she was. Betrayed by her body, which would not cooperate. Betrayed by her family, who supported firing federal workers like her. And, perhaps most painfully, betrayed by herself.

Cooper did not want to think about what happened three months prior but her mind went there anyway. To the voting booth in Baldwin’s town hall, where she filled out every part of the ballot before turning to the box that said “Presidential.” She recalled staring at it for 15 minutes.

She did not want to vote for Trump. Cooper hated what he said about women and hated how he treated them. Her family always said the women who accused the president of sexual assault had either made it up or deserved it. Cooper heard them and kept her own experience a secret, thinking that they might feel the same way about her.

She voted for Joe Biden in 2020, her first time casting a ballot in a presidential election. But life felt more complicated these days. Her mortgage was too expensive, groceries were nearly $400 a month, and one single cycle of IVF could cost more than 10 percent of her annual household income.

Trump, at a campaign stop an hour and a half south of her, had promised to make IVF free. She knew that from a video clip she saw on TikTok. And she had believed him.

She also believed him when he said that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican administration that suggested mass cuts to the federal workforce, was not his plan.

So Cooper filled in the bubble next to his name, thinking of the daughter she wanted. She planned to name her Charlotte.

The days after she got the text passed quickly. A call from the district ranger, who is in charge of the Forest Service in Baldwin, telling her to pack up her things. A box of printed performance reviews and tree identification books and a framed picture from her wedding last fall under a willow tree. A text from her co-worker who brought candy to refill the jar at her desk but arrived to find it, and her, gone.

Four days after Trump fired her, Cooper was in bed with her husband. She picked up her phone and saw the news.

There was a new executive order to expand access to IVF. She read the White House fact sheet, which talked about Trump’s request for policy recommendations to reduce costs of the service.

But it still wasn’t free, and she was out of a job and out of a plan.

“Delivering on promises for American families,” read the White House’s announcement.

“That’s bulls---”, she recalled thinking, and put down her phone.

 

The Ultimate "Leopards Ate My Face" Rendition

[NikkiCFC 8,339]

On 24/02/2025 at 00:23, KEVINAA said:

Be on high alert in Europe. At any moment it would fireworks again 

We already died from your previous alert about Chernobyl 🥱

[Fulham Broadway 17,335]

Bezos is censoring and not allowing 'certain points of view' in the Washington Post. So funny watching the billionaires rimming Trump.

How's that free speech going ?

[bluesman2610 1,422]

Things just keep going from bad to worse in North America we are having elections and projections are showing the PC( Progressive  Conservative/Republican) candidate Pierre Poilievre leading. Which means we will give up all our sovereignty to be in good with the United States.