Good morning! We’ve got three more days of this perfect weather, and the universe very kindly made two of them a weekend. These are the days that out-of-towners don’t know exist here. Go hang out at a street-end park. Look for mushrooms in the arboretum. (But only eat them if you know what you’re doing!) Lock down a grill at Golden Gardens at an absurdly early hour, and text everyone you know.
But before all that, let’s stock up on the news so you can put it out of your mind for a few days.
Tesla Tax: We’re in the last few days of our state legislative session, and Dems came up with a delightful new way to help close our budget shortfall: a tax on Elon Musk. Oooobviously it doesn’t call him out by name. Instead, it specifically taxes the companies that made “windfall profits” from our state’s “cap and trade” style system for car manufacturers. (It’s way easier for companies to accrue emissions credit when they never made combustion engines in the first place.) State Republicans are calling it a targeted attack on Tesla; the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, said the data on our car-emission credits shows “one outlier” (Tesla) who is “very profitable,” and has built up most of the credits under the state’s program. “I don’t care who the CEO is,” Fitzgibbon said. I do. He’s been profiting off of American taxpayers for a decade, and he’s now literally the richest man in the world. Let’s get him.
Flip Flop: But in a good way. As of yesterday, eight international students at UW and Seattle U had gotten their legal status back. The reversals seemed to happen out of the blue—not as the result of a judge’s order. It’s a huge relief for the students, but one of the students’ lawyers reminded the Seattle Times that even though they’ve regained their status, there is “still plenty of damage” done by the administration to these students—including damage to their reputations and disruption of their studies. “[The government] might just be trying to brush it under the rug,” another lawyer warned. The Trump administration not taking responsibility for their actions? Never.
FBI Arrests Judge: This can’t be good. Kash Patel, the director of the FBI, tweeted and then deleted a post on X saying that they’d arrested Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan for obstructing the ICE arrest of an immigrant in her court (ally). According to local reports, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was in Dugan’s courtroom for a pre-trial conference last week, for three misdemeanor counts of battery. When ICE arrived with an arrest warrant for him, Dugan took Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to a side door in the courtroom, directed them down a private hallway, and into a public area. He didn’t evade arrest for long—ICE pursued him on foot and arrested him shortly after. CNN reports that Dugan’s in federal custody, waiting for her first appearance.
Target on ActBlue: Trump is siccing his administration on the main fundraising platform used by Democratic campaigns, and liberal and progressive orgs. In a memo to the AG and the treasury yesterday, he claimed that ActBlue is facilitating “illegal ‘straw donor’ and foreign contributions in American elections.” This is all part of an explicit effort by Trump and Republicans in Congress to undermine Democrats’ and the left’s ability to campaign, and it’s already spooking organizations around the country that depend on this infrastructure.
LOL DOGE: Elon really is the punchline that keeps on giving. A new report from a nonprofit organization that studies the federal workforce called the Partnership for Public Service came up with a rough estimate of the cost of DOGE’s firings, re-hirings, lost productivity, and paid leave of thousands of workers. The total? Upward of $135 billion this fiscal year. What did Elon say he was ultimately saving the American taxpayers? $150 billion. Thanks for shaving that $15 billion off, bro. Looking forward to that $440 DOGE dividend check.
Superintendent Reykdal Showed the Fuck Up: Yesterday was the Trump administration’s deadline for K-12 schools to certify that they would not implement DEI programs, dangling the threat of their federal funding. In return, Washington state Superintendent Chris Reykdal told him where to shove it. “We will not sign additional certifications that lack authority, lack clarity, or are an assault on the autonomy of states and local school districts,” he wrote when the order first came down earlier this month. “We’re not going to walk away from teaching authentic history or supporting our students with disabilities or any of our DEI and equity work,” he told the Seattle Times yesterday. And we’re in good company: We’re joined by 18 other states who have refused to certify. Who’re the bootlickers? New Hampshire got an extra special shout-out from the Secretary of Ed for not just certifying that they wouldn’t do the “illegal DEI,” but building a whole website to tout each district’s certification. Ew.
Tomorrow is Indie Bookstore Day, and Seattle takes it seriously. Starting tomorrow, you’ve got 10 days to hit all 29 participating local lit shops. If you fill your passport, you get a 25 percent one-time discount at every store.
Parents Bill of Rights Heads to Ferg: The state Democrats’ version of the so-called Parents Bill of Rights is headed to the governor’s desk. The new bill actually adheres to state law by eliminating language that grants parents access to their child’s school-based medical and mental health records—protecting vulnerable kids like LGBTQ students. State Republicans threw a proper fit over the bill. One even delayed the vote by just standing up and yelling a lot. But it ultimately passed on party lines.
Remember George Santos? The 36-year-old gay Republican who lied his way to Congress and was then kicked out of it less than a year in? The disgraced New York representative and sunglass icon was sentenced today to 87 months in prison. Last year, he pleaded guilty to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of nearly a dozen people, including his family members, to fund his (totally made up) winning campaign. At the time, he agreed to pay roughly $580,000 in penalties, and today, the judge decided what kind of prison time is going to be tacked onto that. His attorneys thought two years is reasonable, but prosecutors pushed for seven because he “remains unrepentant.” I’m guessing plugging his $100 Cameo profile right before sentencing probably didn’t help. Neither did calling them a “cabal of pedophiles.”
Festival News: It’s been a weird year for festivals. Capitol Hill Block Party is down to two days, and Day In Day Out announced that they’re taking 2025 off, but Modest Mouse won’t be deterred: they’re starting their very own music festival at Remlinger Farms. Called the Psychic Salamander Festival, it’s co-presented by the Seattle Theatre Group and will run on September 13 and 14. They even have a lineup already: Both nights will be headlined by Modest Mouse, but before that, you can see The Flaming Lips, Courtney Barnett, Built to Spill, the Vaudevillian and Mattress, Sleater-Kinney, Yo La Tengo, Friko, and Sun Atoms. Single-day tickets are $125, or you can go for the whole weekend for $225.
Here’s a little La Lom to ease you into Friday. And speaking of Remlinger Farms, they’ll be there next month!
It’s important to hear how AG Pam Bondi is portraying/spinning this:
https://youtu.be/pHXo18bFo64?t=82
If you want to trigger tensora, which everyone is trying and obviously is fun, you have to make Nazi – Israeli comparisons, the Nazi – Trump regime is too easy and doesn’t trigger.
Try comparing expansionist Zionism to Adolf’s eastward expansion or the dehumanization and denial of Palestinians as a people similar Nazi ideas about certain races in Nazi occupied countries.
@41: “Criminals have a right to due process.”
While no one here had disputed that point, it appears Judge Dugan herself may have violated Flores-Ruiz’ due-process rights, by helping him to leave her courtroom before his case was called. He was captured by federal agents shortly after she escorted him out of her courtroom, so he might never face trial on his assault/DV charges. Great work, that. (His alleged victims, who were present in her court when she helped him to leave, won’t get their day in court either, but this is the Stranger, which has nothing but the most abject contempt for the very idea of justice for crime victims.)
“ICE has repeatedly violated people’s rights”
Well, if you say so, and if it’s relevant here. ICE captured Flores-Ruiz’, so if Judge Dugan’s intervention was supposed to keep him out of federal custody, then she failed completely.
“The judge appears to be concerned for his rights”
Why do you say that? The federal criminal complaint against her (URL @26) merely says she was agitated at the news federal agents had arrived outside her courtroom:
‘The courtroom deputy reported that the clerk then got up and talked with Judge DUGAN. Judge DUGAN became visibly angry, commented that the situation was “absurd,” left the bench, and entered chamber.’
‘Witnesses uniformly reported that Judge DUGAN was visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor.’
@44: My comment @1 didn’t distinguish between types of federal warrants, because the law Judge Dugan allegedly violated, 18 USC 1071, doesn’t distinguish between them either, as the federal Justice Manual notes:
‘The warrant must, of course, be issued “under the provisions of any law of the United States.”‘ (https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-1829-harboring-18-usc-1071-first-element-federal-warrant)
I think shipping people off to a foreign labor camp without trial counts as a violation of people’s constitutional rights and any entity who does so without seeking to redress it does not deserve anyone’s compliance or respect, but i am not a lawyer. I am just an average American citizen living through history and I do not like the direction our country is headed. If you’re ok with what’s happening that’s unfortunate but whatever, you’re entitled to your shitty opinions just as I am entitled to mine, and I will always support anyone who stands up to this disgusting violation of our country’s principles.
@54: While you did a great job of not addressing any of the details of what actually happened, let alone explain the relevance of those details to your stated concerns, it appears that in this case, ICE was executing a legitimate federal warrant against a person who had already been deported once in the past, and had no record of requesting or receiving permission to return here. Again from the link @26:
‘A review of Flores-Ruiz’s Alien Registration File (“A-File”) indicated that Flores-Ruiz is a native and citizen of Mexico and that Flores-Ruiz had been issued an I-860 Notice and Order of Expedited Removal by United States Border Patrol Agents on January 16, 2013, and that Flores-Ruiz was thereafter removed to Mexico through the Nogales, Arizona, Port of Entry. There is no evidence in the A-File or DHS indices indicating that Flores-Ruiz sought or obtained permission to return to the United States.’
If you want to make a case against, “shipping people off to a foreign labor camp without trial,” then I suggest you find instances of that to oppose. Here, I merely note anything which sounds like, “let’s violate our own laws, so low-rent illegals will not face justice for domestic violence,” might not sway public opinion in the direction you seem to want.
https://youtube.com/shorts/RtasvSt7N8U?si=rG-FfubNTHpUTIU1
@33, Who decides what justice and injustice are? Humans. So what is just today, may be unjust tomorrow. All it takes is whatever humans have authority to change the definitions, to meet and make the change.
Unless there is a higher standard of justice and injustice that is universal and applicable to all humans, in all societies, at all points in history. If that’s the case, and something can’t come from nothing, where did that universal standard of what is just and unjust come from? Where is it codified?
@54, What if the “trial” and other due process requirements have already been completed, and a deportation order has been entered. Is it then lawful to ship them out of the country? Aka Deport them?
I am not saying that is the case with everyone who was shipped out to El Salvador, I am just asking what your legal/constitutional objections would be, if they have exhausted their due process within the U.S., under U.S. immigration law and the Constitution.
Good for the kid who returned fire, saving himself and his buddies, from further injury or death.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/gunfight-at-seattle-gas-station-wounds-teen/
“…and something can’t come from nothing, where did that universal standard of what is just and unjust come from?”
Alright idiot, I’ve had far more than enough of this sophomorically pointless, quasi-philosophical nonsense that you’ve been subjecting us to for the past decade to justify every morally fucking repugnant belief that you post here.
Everything comes from nothing. Every single subatomic particle that has and ever will exist in the known universe, every molecular structure and neurological transmission that contributes to any and every nonsensical thought you, and I, and every other contributor to this and every other dumb blog in every habitable ecosystem that has ever existed and ever will exist, and typed out on a keyboard or whatever medium extraterrestrial species use to facilitate their interplanetary communications and political debates, was ultimately conceived and generated as a result of one infinitesimally small, but incomprehensibly powerful generation of unknown and unknowable origin, and before that large, fateful bang, for all we and all that the most brilliant astrophysicists, cosmologists and cosmetologists that have ever lived know, there was nothing.
There. So unless you’ve got something by way of evidence to present in terms of what precipitated the origin of the universe, you’re never allowed to post this stupid bullshit here ever again.
Also, you’re a dumb idiot.
@60. I was questioning where the absolute morality that commenters are suggesting human laws are subject to comes from.
If morality is solely what humans decide it is, then there is nothing wrong with what Trump is doing. He is just redefining morality and the social order to suit a Nietzschian will to power. Without absolute morality the only criteria to judge him on is whether he succeeds in asserting his power to get what he wants. In such a construct, there isn’t moral and immoral, just winners and losers.
I don’t believe that, and neither do you. You make moral statements here all the time. Something is right, wrong, a good idea, or a bad one. You don’t state things as, “I prefer,” which is really all one can say if there isn’t a moral standard out there by which actions and policies are good or bad, better or worse, etc.
@60: Mercy! A side of Socrates we never knew.
Not going to address specific comments. ICE agents show up with an ADMINISTRATIVE warrant, not a judicial warrant. BIg difference. The Judge told them to show their warrant to the Senior Judge, so said judge could tell them what public areas they had access to. The Judge then rightly showed the defendant and attorney the side door. I say rightly because courthouses have to be safe spaces for our justice system to work. If you disagree with this, here’s why. If you were assaulted and the only witness to the crime was an undocumented person, would you want them to testify against your assailant, or would you want them to refuse to avoid ICE? It’s that simple.
As to the arrest, the proper response if the Feds didn’t like her response would have been to file a complaint against her in the judicial review process. That said, arresting her has made her a hero.
she’s
no Luigi
but Thedjt
Maladministration
along with tS’s Reich-wing
Contingency’d have ya Believing
it to Be so.
the
Coup
is Nearly
Accomplished
Time to
Pick a
Side.
whoa!
another Missive (to
Me!) from Bernie:
Sisters and Brothers:
[‘omg!’ the fascists cry!
Socialists! KKKomminiss!’]
In unprecedented times, we have to act in unprecedented ways. And, with your support, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. Our grassroots political revolution is aggressively taking on Trump and the Oligarchy — and we’re making real progress.
Over the last eight weeks, I have been to 11 states — Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, California, Utah, Idaho, and Montana — held 17 rallies and spoken to over 250,000 people. Most of these rallies were held in districts that are represented by Republican Members of Congress.
Interestingly, many of the people who showed up at these rallies were Independents or Republicans. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accompanied me at a number of these “Fighting Oligarchy” events and did a fantastic job.
Next weekend, I will be doing a May Day celebration with Pennsylvania trade unionists in Philadelphia and several town meetings in Pennsylvania.
But I want you to know
that we’re not just parachuting
into communities for great rallies.
We’re doing something more.
We are working hard to build a sustainable, progressive grassroots infrastructure — focusing on marginal congressional districts that have Republican Members of Congress.
We’ve already hired local organizers in Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, with more to come. These organizers are building grassroots coalitions with great success.
They are already putting together well-attended town meetings where community members come together to discuss local concerns.
Over 500 folks were out in Michigan last week and 350 attended a meeting in Wisconsin. They are also organizing door-to-door canvassing, setting up phone-banks and engaging in social media activities.
We’re not going to let the Republican Representatives,
who prefer to hide from their constituents,
escape their responsibilities.
Further, as you may know, we’ve just issued a call for progressives throughout the country to run for office — from school board, to city council, to state legislature, to the U.S. Congress. The response has been extraordinary.
Over 5,000 people,
from virtually every state in the country,
have expressed an interest in getting involved politically.
Some are interested in running as progressive Democrats, others as Independents. We’ll be doing a Zoom call with many of them in the very near future in order to begin providing them with the guidance that new candidates often need.
Not surprisingly, the Establishment has taken note of what we’re doing. Republicans, including Trump and Musk, tried to downplay the size of our rallies.
According to Musk,
those who attended were mostly
“paid organizers.” Really? That’s just another lie.
While members of the Democratic Establishment have occasionally applauded our efforts on the road, a number of them and their corporate media backers are becoming increasingly nervous.
They warn their followers that progressives
shouldn’t be taken too seriously, that we
are “far left,” “extreme” and “out of
touch” with American society.
According to these politicians, analysts,
media pundits and wealthy campaign
donors, the future of the Democratic
Party lies in “moderation.”
We shouldn’t be talking about oligarchy.
We shouldn’t be talking about massive
income and wealth inequality.
We shouldn’t be talking about the
unprecedented concentration
of corporate ownership
that exists.
We shouldn’t
be talking about the need
to build the trade union movement.
We shouldn’t be talking about a corrupt
campaign finance system that allows
billionaires in both parties to
control the political process.
We shouldn’t be talking about
corporate control of the media.
According to
these leaders of
the Democratic Establishment,
the path forward is to continue doing
exactly what they have been doing for the last 10 years.
In other words, tell the world how bad Donald Trump is while continuing to defend a rigged and corrupt economic and political system that makes the rich richer, while working families fall further and further behind.
Well. We disagree. Of course we will continue, day after day, to lead the way in exposing Trump’s lies, his kleptocratic behavior which enriches himself and his family, his disastrous economic policies which benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else,
his authoritarianism and contempt for the Constitution, his foreign policy which is alienating us from long-time friends and allies. We will do all that — and more. But that is not enough.
From one end of our country to the other — in red states, blue states, purple states — working families, the younger generation, seniors, and the poor are desperately looking for a new and bold vision for America’s future.
THE STATUS QUO
IS NOT WORKING AND
CANNOT CONTINUE TO BE DEFENDED.
Simply stated, in the richest country on Earth, where our productive capabilities are exploding with new technologies, every man, woman and child can and should have a decent standard of living. This is not radical “utopian thinking.” This is not “far left.”
This is what we can and should be achieving.
This is what we should be fighting for.
What is “radical” and “unthinkable” is that in year 2025, in the United States of America, 60% of our people live paycheck to paycheck and we have some of the highest rates of childhood and senior poverty of any major country.
What is “radical” is that we have more income and wealthy inequality than ever before and that, unbelievably, one man (Musk) owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of households.
What is “radical” is that we are the only major country not to guarantee health care for all or have paid family and medical leave.
What is “radical” is that 800,000 Americans are homeless and that over 20 million households spend over half of their limited incomes for housing.
What is “radical” is that we are spending close to one trillion a year on the military, and many billions in weaponry for an extremist Netanyahu government in Israel that has waged a horrific, illegal and immoral war against the people of Gaza.
What is “radical” is that
our democracy is being undermined
not just by Trump, but by billionaire campaign contributors.
The American people desperately want this
country to move forward in a new direction:
economically, politically, socially
and environmentally.
And we should be enormously proud
that we’re helping to shape that path.
But, let’s be clear. The road for-
ward will not be easy.
We are taking on the Oligarchs
and their unlimited wealth, corporate
America and the media they own. We are
taking on Trump and the Republican Party.
And we’re taking on the fossilized section
of the Democratic Party which cannot
shake loose from their top-down pol-
itics, their wealthy campaign donors
and their super-PACs.
In this pivotal moment in American and world history, when the stakes are so high for our country and the entire planet, we should not underestimate the difficult challenges that we face. But that should not make us pessimistic.
If we stand together,
we have the power to create
a government and an economy that
works for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires.
As Nelson Mandela,
one of the great liberation
leaders in modern history reminded us:
“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
Let’s do it.
In Solidarity,
–by Senator Bernie Sanders
Independent, from Vermont
April 27, 2025.
@63: “ICE agents show up with an ADMINISTRATIVE warrant, not a judicial warrant. BIg difference.”
How so? Judge Dugan claimed there was a difference, but as I quoted @53 above, one of the federal laws she’s now accused of violating does not distinguish between the two types of warrants.
“The Judge told them to show their warrant to the Senior Judge, so said judge could tell them what public areas they had access to.”
No, she already knew they had access to the very public hallway outside of her public courtroom. Hence, they waited in the hallway for the suspect to complete his time in her court.
“The Judge then rightly showed the defendant and attorney the side door. I say rightly because courthouses have to be safe spaces for our justice system to work.”
Actually, Judge Dugan wrongly denied him due process, by allowing him to leave her courtroom without first facing charges for the multiple assaults (including domestic violence) he’d allegedly committed. So her actions prevented our justice system from working, both within her courtroom, and in the hallway outside it.
“If you were assaulted and the only witness to the crime was an undocumented person, would you want them to testify against your assailant, or would you want them to refuse to avoid ICE?”
Um, did you read anything about what actually happened? It was the undocumented person who was accused of assault, but not tried for it, due to the judge’s violation of due process. So the persons he allegedly assaulted will not get justice, because the suspect was swiftly caught by ICE anyway. If Judge Dugan had allowed the suspect due process, then ICE could have served their warrant afterwards. You’re getting this completely backwards — and worse, from the point of view of the Stranger, you’re showing concern for a victim of a crime (albeit a completely hypothetical one).
“As to the arrest, the proper response if the Feds didn’t like her response would have been to file a complaint against her in the judicial review process.”
Actually, since she allegedly obstructed federal agents in their work, the feds have file two criminal complaints against her, which is completely proper. (Yes, you are correct, she may well have also committed some serious violations of her state’s laws and professional code of legal conduct, but those are state matters, not federal ones.)
“That said, arresting her has made her a hero.”
To you, maybe. To everyone else, she’s just a really ineffectual criminal, who violated the trust the local citizens had placed in her. You’re free to admire that all you want.
Judge Hannah is overweight, not pleasing to the eyes, and is from Wisconsin. She will be forgotten as fast as the Lesbian Bishop that attempted to shame Trump at the inauguration. As for Luigi, that ship sailed when the girls found out he liked boys.
Here’s
MY Hero:
“While members of the Democratic Establishment have occasionally applauded our efforts on the road, a number of them and their corporate media backers are becoming increasingly nervous.
They warn their followers that progressives
shouldn’t be taken too seriously, that we
are “far left,” “extreme” and “out of
touch” with American society.
According to these politicians, analysts,
media pundits and wealthy campaign
donors, the future of the Democratic
Party lies in “moderation.”
We shouldn’t be talking about oligarchy.
We shouldn’t be talking about massive
income and wealth inequality.
We shouldn’t be talking about the
unprecedented concentration
of corporate ownership
that exists.
We shouldn’t
be talking about the need
to build the trade union movement.
We shouldn’t be talking about a corrupt
campaign finance system that allows
billionaires in both parties to
control the political process.
We shouldn’t be talking about
corporate control of the media.
According to
these leaders of
the Democratic Establishment,
the path forward is to continue doing
exactly what they have been doing for the last 10 years.
In other words, tell the world how bad Donald Trump is while continuing to defend a rigged and corrupt economic and political system that makes the rich richer, while working families fall further and further behind.
Well. We disagree. Of course we will continue, day after day, to lead the way in exposing Trump’s lies, his kleptocratic behavior which enriches himself and his family, his disastrous economic policies which benefit the rich at the expense of everyone else,
his authoritarianism and contempt for the Constitution, his foreign policy which is alienating us from long-time friends and allies. We will do all that — and more. But that is not enough.
From one end of our country to the other — in red states, blue states, purple states — working families, the younger generation, seniors, and the poor are desperately looking for a new and bold vision for America’s future.
THE STATUS QUO
IS NOT WORKING AND
CANNOT CONTINUE TO BE DEFENDED.
Simply stated, in the richest country on Earth, where our productive capabilities are exploding with new technologies, every man, woman and child can and should have a decent standard of living. This is not radical “utopian thinking.” This is not “far left.”
This is what we can and should be achieving.
This is what we should be fighting for.”
–Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders
offering us a Way and a Vision
for getting Us outta this
Fascist Takeover.
BRAVO, Bernie.
“THE STATUS QUO
IS NOT WORKING AND
CANNOT CONTINUE TO BE DEFENDED.”
and yet,
they Insist
that This is
The Best we
can fucking DO.
They Like it
THIS Way:
they’re
Lying
to Us.
@64:
“she’s
no Luigi
but Thedjt
Maladministration
along with tS’s Reich-wing
Contingency’d have ya Believing
it to Be so.”
“To
everyone
else, she’s just
a really ineffectual criminal,
who violated the trust the local citizens had placed in her.”
–@the Wormtongue
thnx,
wormmy.
It’s
Time
to Pick
your Side.
Who
‘needs’
a silly ‘Trial’:
Judge Hannah’s
obviously a Criminal.
bought and
paid for by
thedjts of
the USA.
@71: Her denial of due process to a defendant in her courtroom does not justify any denial of due process to her.
I’m looking forward to her speedy and public trial, and also to the Stranger’s twisting/ignoring of it, as it unsparingly reveals her completely un-admirable, not-heroic behaviors. I hope she’s also subject to discipline for violating professional ethics — and quite possibly a few laws — in her state, as well.
@70: Did I just “pick a side” emphatically enough for your liking? Do tell.
(Also, you never quite got around to telling us if you agreed with my “violate the trust” statement or not…)
@18: “When I learned about the civil rights era I was taught that the lawbreakers were the heroes and the government were the bad guys.”
Then you should have paid much more attention in class. There were earlier attempts at a civil rights movement in the decades of Jim Crow, but thanks to these little things we now call “state-sponsored terrorism” and “extrajudicial killing,” when the local legal system could no longer brutalize the activists into silence, white male community leaders would just trade their daytime police uniforms and mayoral suits for white robes, and simply go terrorize and/or kill the activists.
What changed? The federal government started sending in armed soldiers (Little Rock) and armed FBI agents by the score (LBJ), the latter specifically to KneeKap the Klan. Voting Rights were protected aggressively by the feds as well. The South’s traditional racist power structures were thus trapped by Dr. King’s revolt from below, and squeezed hard by the feds prosecuting them from above. That pincer pressure finally caused them to crack.
So, it was local governments which were the bad guys, and federal agents who were the good guys, with local lawbreakers (Klansmen and Civil Rights protesters) on both sides. Interestingly, in the case of Judge Dugan, I agree with this federal-state analogy.
@67, 70, 71
from:
Public Notice:
Arresting judges
is a 5-alarm escalation
What
would you say
if you saw it in another country?
Her arrest was conducted with maximum fanfare and designed to terrorize not just Dugan, but anyone else who might not want to assist the administration in its lawless and vicious deportation efforts.
Attorney General Pam Bondi made that evident when she went on Fox to call the judiciary “deranged” and to say that the arrest of Dugan was “sending a very strong message today” and that “we will come after you and we will prosecute you.”
It’s not just that Dugan was arrested, but also how she was arrested. The whole point was to cause a scene. She was arrested Friday morning in the parking lot of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, complete with handcuffs.
There’s no allegation she was a flight risk or was attempting to evade arrest, but the FBI still forced a sitting judge to do a perp walk at her place of work.
–by Lisa Needham; Apr 28, 2025
oodles More:
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-bondi-arresting-judges-hannah-dugan
‘“Fire”?
WHAT “fire”!?
this is All very much
by-the-Book & quite Proper.’
yeah but what else might we
Expect from our (non-)
Resident fascist?
@75: “Her arrest was conducted with maximum fanfare and designed to terrorize not just Dugan,”
I’d be curious to know if survivors of Oklahoma City, 9/11, 7/7, and 10/7 would agree with this use of “terrorize,” but who cares about the actual victims of real terrorist violence?
But, yes, it’s good to see you agree with what I wrote @1: “When the FEDS arrive WITH A WARRANT, do not play cute games with them.” (And it took you only a couple of days and dozen other comments! You’re really upping your game!)
“…but anyone else who might not want to assist the administration…”
How was Dugan asked “to assist” the ICE and FBI agents? They clearly told her they would wait in the public hallway outside her courtroom, and serve their warrant only after the defendant was done in her court.
“… lawless and vicious deportation efforts.”
What evidence have we that these ICE and FBI agents were acting lawlessly? For the feds to prove their case in court against Dugan, they will have to show the warrant was valid.
“She was arrested Friday morning in the parking lot of the Milwaukee County Courthouse, complete with handcuffs.”
So, arresting her in secret would have been better? Maybe taking her from her home in the middle of the night? Would that have been less “fascist” for you?
And also, when she let the defendant leave her court in a manner to evade ICE and FBI agents, I thought she was engaging in civil disobedience. If that was the case, wouldn’t she want her arrest for it to be as public as possible? That’s the point of civil disobedience, to show everyone you’re breaking an unjust law, correct?
I was going to ask the defenders of due process here about Dugan having a defendant to leave her court without any legal procedure of any kind whatsoever, but apparently her completely ignoring due process is just fine with all of you. (Who’s on the “fascist” side here, again?)
@75: Whoops, that was such great big pile o’ stupid, at least one nugget of risible ignorance escaped my grasp:
“There’s no allegation she was a flight risk or was attempting to evade arrest,”
OK, I’m going to type this slowly: she was arrested for having allowed a suspect “to evade arrest.” Therefore, she was herself treated as a flight risk. (If you need that dumbed down any further, please go ask someone else.)