Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[btlcryct]

We've moved onto the arrest the judges phase for going against the emperor's wishes.

From CNN:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Milwaukee County Circuit judge Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media, accusing her of helping an undocumented immigrant avoid arrest.

Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with obstruction, Patel said in a quickly deleted post on X.

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department and FBI for comment.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

[gondrin]

So, in another moment in the clusterfuck that is Hegseth, who should absolutely be sacked and jailed, his chief of staff is now no longer. So, in a period of 2 weeks, there have been 4 people either fired or relocated due to Hegseth's fuckup. And yes, it is his fuckup since he shouldn't be allowing Signal for any official business of any kind seeing as he is the Defense Secretary and is in charge of all of that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he...0f0e5a57&ei=22

Joe Kasper is out as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, the fourth top official to be fired or reassigned in the last week amid political turmoil at the Pentagon.

Kasper will continue to work on special projects at the Pentagon, according to a Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

The unrest at the pinnacle of the military’s leadership is highly unusual. Hegseth has been the focus of a Pentagon Inspector General’s review of his handling of sensitive military information via the commercial app Signal.

Kasper, who worked in the first Trump administration, had previously been chief of staff to Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr. Hunter had been convicted of misusing campaign funds and was later pardoned by Trump.

Kasper was sworn in as Hegseth’s chief of staff in late January. In early April, he touted the deportation of alleged Venezuelan and MS-13 gang members to El Salvador as a “successful counterterrorism mission.”

In late March, Kasper was among senior Pentagon officials who vowed to crack down on leaks. He issued a memo warning that those suspected of disclosing sensitive information could be subject to lie detector tests. That announcement followed news that Elon Musk, who leads the administration's effort to cut government spending, was due to receive a briefing at the Pentagon on China.

According to his LinkedIn, the former chief of staff’s past experiences include four years at the Ervin Graves lobbying firm; one-year stints at Homeland Security, the Air Force and Navy; and about a decade as a Congressional staffer.

The Pentagon has been rocked by turnover in recent weeks.

Two aides to Hegseth were placed on administrative leave last week as part of an investigation into unauthorized leaks of information. The Pentagon did not disclose specifics of the alleged offense by Dan Caldwell or Darin Selnick because the matter is under investigation, according to USA TODAY.

The suspensions come after Hegseth disclosed operational details of the Pentagon’s air strikes on Houthi militants March 15. Hegseth discussed the attack’s timing with senior Trump administration officials on the encrypted commercial app Signal. That chat had mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic magazine.

Hegseth has denied releasing sensitive information. But several current and former military officials have told USA TODAY that the information Hegseth disclosed, the timing of attacks, is among the most closely guarded national security information.

Ousters following news of the Signal chat leak come even as Hegseth’s tenure has been marked by the purging of senior officials linked to Biden-era diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the U.S. military’s representative to NATO, was fired in early April. Hegseth dismissed Chatfield, former president of the Naval War College and a Navy pilot, “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement then.

In February, Hegseth, who has derided diversity efforts because he says they weaken the military, fired a series of senior officers, including the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. C.Q. Brown.

Hegseth then announced that he is replacing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife.

"We thank them for their service and dedication to our country," Hegseth said in a statement.

WhiskeyLeaks continues to fallout.

[NineSpine]

In both cases, there were decades of escalating violence preceding the non-violence movements.

And there couldn't be. They were separate parties. If you're losing elections because the vote is split between multiple parties, that's how electoral systems work.

That has nothing to do with what happened after the elections, once Hitler seized power (because the Nazis didn't win the election.

Also, the Nazis went from 2.6% of the popular vote in 1928 to 18.3% in 1930 to 37% in July 1932 to 43.9% in March 1933. That's not "because other parties were bickering", that's a massive population shift supporting the Nazi Reich over just 4 years, before they seized full control.

Parties form coalitions in parliamentary systems all the time. They even coordinate to avoid competing against each other. In fact, this even happens in the US. I live in NY and the Working Families Party runs its own candidates in safe elections, but avoids challenging Democrats where it could help Republicans. In fact, the WFP mostly puts Democrats on the WFP ballot line.

There were a lot of factors that went into why the Nazis seized power, and many of them are too specific to extrapolate from, but the reality is they encountered little to no political resistance, and since their path to power was paved politically, political resistance could have stopped them. The other parties functionally normalized the Nazis by capitulating to them over and over again.

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Start a Democrats messed up the elections megathread. Probably will be a great success like your section 230 thread.

The only person who isn't talking about anything related to Trump right now is you. You are the one derailing. Block me if you don't want to see my posts. I won't miss you.

[gondrin]

We've moved onto the arrest the judges phase for going against the emperor's wishes.

From CNN:

They are going to have a hard time basically keeping this Judge in jail for very long, if at all seeing as a Judge is in charge of their courtroom and can direct anyone who is in it to go out any door they feel like and stop pretty much anyone for entering the courtroom when they are in session.

[NED funded]

So, in another moment in the clusterfuck that is Hegseth, who should absolutely be sacked and jailed, his chief of staff is now no longer. So, in a period of 2 weeks, there have been 4 people either fired or relocated due to Hegseth's fuckup. And yes, it is his fuckup since he shouldn't be allowing Signal for any official business of any kind seeing as he is the Defense Secretary and is in charge of all of that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he...0f0e5a57&ei=22



WhiskeyLeaks continues to fallout.

Did you see that they leaked that he is getting increasingly frustrated about the leaks

WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was rattled.

Word had leaked that he was planning a classified briefing for Elon Musk on China, a revelation that infuriated President Trump and raised alarms inside the Pentagon given Musk’s business ties to Beijing.

“I’ll hook you up to a f—ing polygraph!” Hegseth shouted at Adm. Christopher Grady, the then-acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to two people familiar with the exchange. Hegseth demanded proof that Grady hadn’t leaked news of the March 21 briefing.

Grady was never subjected to a polygraph, and Hegseth would go on to accuse a number of other people for the leak, including Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, the Joint Staff director, whom Hegseth also threatened with a polygraph test.

He is crashing out and even his own people dont respect him. This would be very funny if this wasnt the DOD we were talking about

https://www.wsj.com/politics/nationa...hare_permalink

[Mazza]

They are going to have a hard time basically keeping this Judge in jail for very long, if at all seeing as a Judge is in charge of their courtroom and can direct anyone who is in it to go out any door they feel like and stop pretty much anyone for entering the courtroom when they are in session.

Under normal circumstances, yes. So what if another judge rules "This arrest makes no sense, let her go at once" and the FBI just... doesn't?

I do not envy people living in the US at the moment :-/

[Shpriest]

Yeah that's totally normal, no fascism at all here.

[Edge-]

So, this is Signalgate 3.0? Using a personal computer to bypass the Pentagon's security protocols, to use Signal.

is he addicted to signal?

this is the behavior of an addict...

oh right he is an alcoholic that is not doing anything to try to recover from his alcoholism that actually explains everything quite perfectly!

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We've moved onto the arrest the judges phase for going against the emperor's wishes.

From CNN:

I wonder if @tehdang will find reasonable justification to argue that while this is a terrible mistake this isn't part of a campaign of terror being carried out by this administration or anything.

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So, in another moment in the clusterfuck that is Hegseth, who should absolutely be sacked and jailed, his chief of staff is now no longer. So, in a period of 2 weeks, there have been 4 people either fired or relocated due to Hegseth's fuckup. And yes, it is his fuckup since he shouldn't be allowing Signal for any official business of any kind seeing as he is the Defense Secretary and is in charge of all of that.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/he...0f0e5a57&ei=22



WhiskeyLeaks continues to fallout.

so the donald's game of "fire/replace everyone around me by having them take the blame for my mistakes" has arrived in the pentagon with his alcoholic secretary of defense

this is the leadership senate republicans voted for

[Doomcookie]

Now imagine how pathetically bad at politics the Democrats have to be to be unable to sell that.

But really it’s more like “vote for us because we might institute some granular means tested tax break for some home buyers, and also we will gaslight you about Joe Biden’s mental fitness!”

Or, how incredibly stupid American voters are for not listening when it is told directly to their faces.

[gondrin]

Under normal circumstances, yes. So what if another judge rules "This arrest makes no sense, let her go at once" and the FBI just... doesn't?

I do not envy people living in the US at the moment :-/

Well, the FBI themselves don't have any holding facilities. They have to use either one of the local jails, one of the county jails, one of the state jails or one of the federal facilities. The warden or prison personnel there would be required to release the Judge or they can be forcefully drug into court under contempt charges by deputized US Marshalls that would work for that court.

Fun Fact: Those deputized Marshalls wouldn't come under the authority of the Executive Branch as they would fall under the Courts Jurisdiction.

So while they wouldn't want them released, they wouldn't have a say in the matter. The FBI isn't like the local police station that has their own jails. Like most federal police, they don't actually have any holding facilities of any kind. They have to use either local, county, state or, if there is one nearby, federal.

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so the donald's game of "fire/replace everyone around me by having them take the blame for my mistakes" has arrived in the pentagon with his alcoholic secretary of defense

this is the leadership senate republicans voted for

Remember, during his first administration, they had to hold job fairs at the White House because they couldn't keep anyone for more than a couple of months either through them quitting or getting fired.

You know, a place MOST people actively try to work at because of the prestige it brought during a normal Presidency had to hold an actual job fair because they couldn't find anyone to work there.

[Breccia]

We've moved onto the arrest the judges phase for going against the emperor's wishes.

From CNN:

I'll add WaPo but the story is going around.

Worth noting:

Patel announced the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in a post on the social media platform X, which he deleted moments after posting. The post accused Dugan of “intentionally misdirecting” federal agents who arrived at the courthouse to detain an immigrant who was set to appear before her in an unrelated proceeding.

“Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since,” Patel wrote. “But the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”

Court records surrounding Dugan’s arrest were not immediately available Friday morning. The FBI declined to comment on why Patel had deleted his post announcing Dugan’s arrest.

If it was a good, legal, moral, ethical, completely above-board arrest...why delete the post?

The judge is accused of lying to the FBI about a suspected undocumented immigrant's location. Not refusing to answer, which is legal, but lying to law enforcement. I'll just say it, because I'm not a hypocritcal "it's only okay when our side does it" crower like @tehdang is, and I'm also not a supporter of violent terrorism like he is, but don't lie to law enforcement, don't obstruct justice, that's things Trump has objectively done on record by the way. And he was never brought to trial for it. So, kind of hypocritcal to arrest the judge for it...but, yes, if the judge did in fact lie to the FBI, which we do not know, but in that case, by all means, pursue legal remedy.

I do not take the word of Trump that this is what happened. I will accept the word of 12 jurors, because this is America.

Now that aside, arresting a judge is no small matter. I assume there was an arrest warrant? If not, then we are getting further into dictator territory. And no, I don't think this will scare judges into following Trump's orders. I think they'll be understandably angry that checks and balances are being threatened and I think they'll use their knowledge of the law to be more careful next times.

I'll wait for more facts before passing judgement, because again not a hypocrite or terrorist supporter, but from what we objectively know so far, this is following the dictator playbook. The fact that the FBI is ashamed of the arrest is evidence of innocence, not guilt.

[Edge-]

In some rare good news - https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-h...lth-initiative

The Trump administration is restoring financial support for a landmark study of women's health, an official said Thursday, reversing a defunding decision that shocked medical researchers.

"These studies represent critical contributions to our better understanding of women's health," said a statement from Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The decision was made because the National Institutes of Health, which funds the Women's Health Initiative, or WHI, has "initially exceeded its internal targets for contract reductions," Nixon said. "We are now working to fully restore funding to these essential research efforts."

The Trump administration has demanded that all federal health agencies cut their spending on contracts by at least 35%, undergo massive layoffs and terminate hundreds of research grants.

"NIH remains deeply committed to advancing public health through rigorous gold standard research and we are taking immediate steps to ensure the continuity of these studies," Nixon added.

The news came a day after NPR reported on the plan to cut the project's funding.

Of course the pointless, unnecessary chaos is still harmful, but at least one piece of good funding will be restored.

It continues to seem like nobody in the White House actually knows what's being cut or is going on.

[Breccia]

Of course the pointless, unnecessary chaos is still harmful

Indeed. It's like saying "okay fine, we won't shut down Social Security or the IRS. We'll just fire most of the staff and close the website. When people complain the departments aren't working, then we'll shut them down."

[NED funded]

In some rare good news - https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-h...lth-initiative



Of course the pointless, unnecessary chaos is still harmful, but at least one piece of good funding will be restored.

It continues to seem like nobody in the White House actually knows what's being cut or is going on.

Its worth pointing out that these agencies which fund research represent a tiny percentage of the budget and even if you were to cut all of it would not be enough to cover for the tax cuts. Glad to see where the priorities are at

[NineSpine]

Or, how incredibly stupid American voters are for not listening when it is told directly to their faces.

Whose job is it to get those voters to vote for them?

[Mayhem]

What should Democrats be doing then? Outside of fighting everything in court and making it known they will keep doing so, not much will stop republicans right now. I don't think pulling a matt Murdoch here and forsaking the law to pull vigilante stuff is the play, personally, as I don't think America is that far gone.

There is a reason republicans have started demonizing judges, because it's the one thing that works to delay and hinder unconditional actions.

No, if the president ignores the law, the obvious answer is to fight him in court, duh.

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Its fascinating to me that you guys dont realize the internal contradictions. If this was Europe the president wouldnt be ignoring court orders. Bc the courts would be on their side all the time. This shows a perfectly functional government

If this was in Europe, the president wouldn't be able to do this shit because it would require an actual war for them to have this kind of power.

[NED funded]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...tions-00309407

It looks like the Trump administration has given up on trying to deport international students for traffic violations and dismissed charges. They didnt do this willingly btw. They had to be rebuffed in the courts

Its nice to see that Republicans fail to grasp the things that make america succesful.

[Edge-]

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...tions-00309407

It looks like the Trump administration has given up on trying to deport international students for traffic violations and dismissed charges. They didnt do this willingly btw. They had to be rebuffed in the courts

Its nice to see that Republicans fail to grasp the things that make america succesful.

they were already successful in their campaign of terror against foreign students who expressed wrongthink, that's all that matters.

i wonder how marco rubio will defend this reversal given that he's been an attack dog talking about dangerous and awful all these college students are for doing things like expressing protected first amendment speech and shit

[Mayhem]

It wasn't politicking that took out the Nazi Reich. Politicking did nothing to prevent their rise to and securing of power.

No, because right at the beginning the other parties were outlawed and put in concentration camps, but let's ignore that minor detail.

Even before the last "free election", in march 33 the communist party was more or less crushed. Socialists and Nazis were fighting in the streets. Merely two weeks after the election laws were put in place to silence what remained of the opposition. Four months after the election the NSDAP was the sole legal party.

Right now the Democrats should be fighting not waiting.

And those Germans chose to keep themselves safe while, at best, turning their heads away from those who weren't just fearing death and prison, but actively being hunted and dragged off.

Which is already happening right now in the USA. People are already being dragged to prison or even being sent to death camps outside the USA (and Auschwitz, I'll note, is in Poland, not Germany).

That's hardly comparable.

My point is that you can't wait for politicians to save you. It won't happen. It practically can't happen, outside of an election, given how the USA's systems work. The American people need to fix this. Move fast and break things. Swinging a protest sign and chanting isn't going to do anything; protests work with businesses because you directly interfere with that business via the protest. A lack of "awareness" isn't the problem, it's a lack of "action". Which doesn't mean marching, it means throwing wrenches into the systems of government by whatever means necessary. You can't break fascism by playing by the rules; they make the rules, and will use them against you.

I am not saying people should wait for politicians, I am saying the fucking politicians shouldn't wait. Right now the democrats are playing by the rules and you absolve them of any responsibility and instead want the citizens to take the lead. Sorry but that makes no fucking sense.

The next chance the Democratic Party has to meaningfully affect anything is the 2026 midterms. And even then, it's reliant on the voters to do any of it. This is down to the masses, not the leadership.

You can't at the same time compare the current republican administration with the beginnings of a fascist takeover and expect them to run free and fair elections. Sorry to say this but if their goal is to remain in power then the voters are out of the equation already.

[Nymrohd]

https://apnews.com/article/trump-par...7cf52d5a606d19

Blue lives matter. But not as much as loyalists getting the Trump lift.