That would explain Bovino’s Nazi uniform, Noem’s cowgirl hat and rodeo buckle, and Hegseth’s tough guy kettle bell swings with his tough guy tats on display. They’re always in costume and performing.
Absolutely. Fascist cosplay FTW.
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” - TFG, 2016
Donald Trump: ‘I Could … Shoot Somebody, And I Wouldn’t Lose Any Voters’ : The Two-Way : NPR
The New York Times has suddenly remembered how to use active voice in headlines.
Here’s the domestic terrorist at work, honoring the life and death of a Vietnam vet whom he cared for in 2024.
Judge orders Trump administration officials to preserve evidence from shooting
A federal judge in Minnesota has blocked the Trump administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to today’s fatal shooting of Pretti.
The ruling comes after Minnesota state officials filed a lawsuit in Minnesota’s U.S. District Court against officials with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies seeking a temporary restraining order that would prohibit federal officials from destroying evidence.
[you might have to scroll down the page to find the above quoted material]
In keeping with Trump’s pattern of having embarrassing tweets from his past coming back to haunt him, in May 2025, Trump tweeted this:
I’m waiting for the NRA to comment on this resurfaced tweet.
The Nazi version. Cal it NUSA.
It saddens me but surprise? No. They are the people who’ve seen the J6 insurrection, believe it was peaceful tourists, and voted the instigator back into power less than four years later. It’s not all of the public but it’s been enough of them I feel heartsick about the future of this country. More and more I am seeing no path ahead that is not bloody
I wasn’t able to find a free access copy to the original research but here’s a journalistic summary.
So there’s a relatively newly termed concept in psychology called symbolic strength. When people repeat things that they know are wrong, they’re of the mindset that anything but total adherence to their cause, to their group, to their conspiracy theory or belief, is weakness. They are showing what they consider to be strength - symbolic strength - by doubling down on the thing that’s wrong to show their loyalty/faith to whatever group or belief they identify with. The authors didn’t really make the comparison but it’s really pretty similar to the mindset you learn as a religious person, only applied to other sorts of non-reality. Things that contraindicate your belief are a test. It’s weakness to give in and lose your faith. You show your faith is strong by asserting your untrue beliefs in the face of contrary evidence.
There’s an aspect of escalation of commitment in it too. When people supported Trump and he started doing some heinous shit, they decided - do I defend him, or do I admit I supported an incompetent, evil asshole? Most of them chose to support him rather than admit they were wrong. So when he does something even worse, do you admit you were wrong in the first place AND you were wrong to double down and support him again, or do you just double down a second time? And when he does a 4th even more horrible thing, or a 40th, or a 400th, you’re in even deeper. Do you admit that you were wrong in the first place and wrong when you doubled down FOUR HUNDRED MORE TIMES, or do you just keep showing your symbolic strength, never admit you were wrong, and double down again for the 401st time?
At this point a significant portion of a lot of people’s identity is deluding themselves that Donald Trump is worthy of their support and their worship and their commitment and if they were to admit that wasn’t true, and that they were conned, and that they supported evil this whole time, their whole identities could collapse, as well as their social group. Most of them are not capable of that level of personal growth.
It’s the sunk cost fallacy written in blood. So long as it’s not their blood why would they change?
I should add that this situation most likely means that the most effective tool we have to deradicalize these people is to give them an off-ramp where they can save face and not admit they were wrong and stop supporting the fascism, and promises that they can be reintegrated with a new social circle should they commit heresy against their current one. Maybe something along the lines of “oh sure it was reasonable to support Trump when you did it, but he’s clearly gone senile so no one can blame you for supporting him before when he’s obviously senile now, and we’re willing to take you back as long as you stop supporting him now” or something along those lines.
But I won’t do it. I will not give them that kindness. I will not lie to alleviate the growing pain that might ease their transition to becoming less evil. I realize that it’s probably counterproductive, but fuck every single one of these pieces of human garbage that chose to make everything worse in the hopes that the people they hate got a little more hurt than they themselves did.
Besides, the Right has been constantly pandered to for decades, and it never, ever works. I seen no reason to think sucking up to them will suddenly have the opposite effect it has since before any of us were born.
I normally don’t watch people saying shit on social media, but feed this guy’s righteous anger right into my fucking veins.
These goons are enjoying themselves. At the end of this video, one of them calls out ‘It’s like the call of duty, so cool huh?’.
I just now learned about the Rosenstrasse protests. As late as 1943, there were still thousands of Jewish men living openly in Berlin, mostly those who were married to non-Jewish women and who worked in munitions plants. In January of that year, Hitler and Goebbels decided to have them arrested and deported as well, an action which was executed in late February.
In spite of a media blackout and threats to execute protestors, there were mass protests against this action, largely spearheaded by the wives of the arrested men.
Several weeks later, the Nazis relented and Goebbels had the men released, and subsequently ordered the release of all Jewish men in mixed marriages who were imprisoned in the concentration camps.
If unarmed German women in a world without social media were capable of making LITERAL NAZIS back down, we can do it too.
As I follow the events in Minneapolis from afar, I am reminded of situations from protests against Putin. These protests took place about 10-20 years ago, and today they are no longer possible. What is now called “left-wing terrorists” in the US was called “foreign agents” under Putin. The processes are similar, except that under Putin, the shooting was not so obvious; people were arrested and nothing more was heard from them. There were also no videos back then, especially in Russia, where they were not so widespread. To me, it looks as if Trump, Miller & Co. have learned from the fascists how to keep their people under control. At first, people are outraged by the behavior of the fascist thugs and murderers. The outrage subsides the more often these situations are repeated. People resign themselves, and the fascists take over completely. This could also be seen in Latin America and with the German Nazis. There will be more deaths, obviously murders during protests. I could imagine that Trump is working towards a civil war, so that he can apply emergency laws, cancel the elections, and remain in power. In my view, he is clearly pursuing a strategy. In his sick mind, he sees himself as ruler of the whole world. Lawlessness, cruelty, and violence will be essential elements of society. There are followers who thrive in this society, and there are the resigned who have learned to remain silent and close their eyes. The land of the free and brave will change.
There is no “cancel the elections” button that the president or the federal government has the ability to press, and pretending that there is only serves to legitimize the idea and discourage people from resisting.
Yes indeed, an arbitrary postponement of the election by the president would constitute a direct violation of the US Constitution. The president however does not have much respect for the constitution. I am not sure whether he will find a way to circumvent it.