Mastodawn

See, this — •this• — is what ICE+CBP are actually for under this regime. •This• is why they got a budget the size of Russia’s entire military.

It’s nothing to do with immigration. It’s about the would-be dictator having his own private military that:

- can be deployed domestically
- at will
- unbeholden to the UCMJ etc
- or disciplined military culture
- or any accountability whatsoever
- with unpredictably violent behavior
- applied indiscriminately
- to anyone
- so that the entire population is terrified of it

…because for them, the problem with Jan 6 was that the coup wasn’t violent enough and didn’t have enough weapons.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/04/steve-bannon-ice-immigration-agents-polling-sites-midterm-elections

Steve Bannon calls for immigration agents at polling sites during midterms

Ex-Trump adviser adds to elections officials’ concern about potential interference from Trump administration in voting

The Guardian

Paul Cantrell Feb 5

This budget battle over DHS that’s happening in the Senate now — it’s not about accountability or guard rails. It’s about whether a force like this should exist at all in the USA.

@inthehands unfortunately, the dems "demands" are both mild, inadequate AND will be largely ignored by the gestapo and unenforced by House.

Colorblind Cowboy Feb 5

@faraiwe @inthehands While I agree, a threat to their ability to get elected might just be the one thing to move them.

@colorblindcowboy @inthehands I refute your argument by the following

Samuel Smith Feb 5

@inthehands the Department of Homeland Security must not - cannot! - exist in a free country. We either rid the USA of the DHS, ICE, and the institutions that spawned them, or we lose what's left of freedom in our own country.

@inthehands And the “leaders” of both parties seem to agree that it should.

Jeremy Kahn Feb 5

Jesus.

Paul Cantrell Feb 5

@trochee
That is the correct reaction, yes.

Jeremy Kahn Feb 5

Also, this guy makes Pontius Pilate look like a mensch

Alexander Karn Feb 5

💯

Perfectly said.

KanaMauna Feb 5

It is a crime for the media to not constantly describe Bannon as "Epstein's best bud"

Cedar Fen Farm Cedar Fen Farm Feb 5

Sounds like treason to me.

Wayne Werner Feb 5

@inthehands this surprises nobody who has a passing view of world history 😮‍💨

Toni Aittoniemi Feb 5

@inthehands What will it take for Americans to overthrow this fascist regime?

There is no question what is happening. It’s a coup. In broad daylight. 🤷‍♂️

Misja van Laatum Feb 5

@gimulnautti @inthehands it would be a coup if nobody wanted it. Don't forget that a sizable portion of the population is completely ok with this 😕

@misjavanlaatum
> don't forget that m a sizable portion of the population is completely ok with this

I'm not convinced of that. Most USAmericans have been marinating in a stew of nonsense on DataFarming platforms for more than a decade, breaking down our ability to do collective sense-making;

https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/were-getting-the-social-media-crisis

I suspect what people are ok with is a world that has been pulled over their eyes to blind them from the truth, to paraphrase Morpheus in The Matrix.

@gimulnautti @inthehands

We're getting the social media crisis wrong

The bigger problem isn't disinformation. It's degraded democratic publics

Programmable Mutter

Misja van Laatum Feb 5

@strypey @gimulnautti @inthehands yeah, you make a good point. Let's definitely not underestimate the role big tech plays in this...

@misjavanlaatum
> Let's definitely not underestimate the role big tech plays in this

Indeed, and as Farrell says in the piece I linked, it's not just a problem of mis/disinformation; unfacts presented as facts. Those platforms feed our subconscious worldbuilding heuristics a persistent false sense of the world, against which factual claims are evaluated, and everyone is being fed a subtly different false sense. Eroding our capacity for social consensus-finding.

@gimulnautti @inthehands

(1/?)

Me:
> eroding our capacity for social consensus-finding

This got me thinking about why the word 'moderator' describes the curator of a communication channel.

There's a habit to mentally substitute 'censor' when we think about that role, even for those who approve of it. But the work of moderation isn't primarily about deciding whether this or that post/ user account is welcome in the channel. That's a means to an end.

#SocialMedia #moderation

@misjavanlaatum @gimulnautti @inthehands

(2/?)

As the name implies, a moderator's core role is to prevent the social environment of the channel they moderate from being warped, by people on the extremes of any given issue.

The goal isn't primarily to eliminate discussion of extreme positions, or people who hold them (although in some cases that's necessary). But to ensure that when extreme positions are discussed, they're understood in that context; as positions that are considered extreme (at least for now) in that community.

(3/?)

What a good moderator is seeking to do is to prevent people pushing extreme views from exploiting a popularity bias. By posting so often, whenever the topic they're extreme on comes up, that they create the false impression that their position is accepted - or even dominant - among people in the channel. Getting more people to accept their view without careful scrutiny because it seems widely held.

(4/4)

This is a big part of how DataFarming platforms nudge people. Not just by presenting nuggets of mis/disinformation, but by flooding the channel with them. Either because they're paid to, or The Algorithms find it increases engagement.

It's not necessary to get everyone to believe specific nonsense. If you can just give them the impression that many people do (eg that they support Big Tech, or what Orange Stalin's administration is doing, or whatever), that can still shape their actions.

@gimulnautti @inthehands

"do something"

If you're not an American and are saying "do something", then here is what you, as not an American, should be doing: The exact same thing you think Americans should be doing. Talk to _your_ government, politicians, and neighbors about organizing, boycotting, and putting truth on blast. If you're not willing to do that then you, and your government, are already on track for the same situation to play out locally.

@gimulnautti @inthehands

If you're an American and are saying "why isn't anyone doing something" then you, as an American, are exactly why no one is doing anything. After J6 there is no excuse for not being aware of the mechanisms in play for doing something and why those levers aren't being pulled. Just as there is no mechanism to "cancel elections" there is also only one official mechanism to change elected officials prior the next election.

To everyone else telling others to "do something": ask yourself what you think someone should be doing. If it involves a work strike, much less action through force, then what you're really saying asking is for someone, but not you of course, to paint a target on their back and risk everything while you do nothing.

No nation is an island (even literal island nations have boats) and any belief that only Americans can get America out of this problem is an extension of a rugged individualism.

The Orange Theme Feb 5

@inthehands Steve Bannon is a little bitch.

@inthehands Yes. Each point has always been his intention and the plan. Heritage/Russ Vought didn’t architect a $70 billion behemoth, and Dump didn’t pardon all the J6’ers, so they’d stand around DC in a fucking cosplay circle jerk. Dump said he was going to do all of this a year and a half ago (actually before that). Bannon, Dump and others have been telegraphing their plans for the Nov “election” MN people showed us all how to organize - we need to break free of our denial. Fast

Kristaps Liepins Feb 5

@inthehands If anyone still thinks they'll get free and fair elections, they're sorly mistaken. The time for democracy im the USA is officially over. I wouldn't call a oligarchy sponsored 2 party system much of a democracy anyway.

Eleanor Saitta Feb 5

@inthehands
And, to be clear, who have a face rec system for quickly identifying people and a copy of all national voting rolls so they know how people are registered. While also trying to make sure so there's no way to vote except in person so no one can dodge the goons, and if they can, no early voting and fewer polling sites, so all they have to do is pull folks off the street and hold them for a few hours somewhere and then release them without charges after the polls close.

So the Russian agent Bannon comes open again.

For those who disbelieve the gameplan, reaad the Latest disclosures from EPSTEIN FILES.

Read and understand how Putin gained and has kept full controll to this day in Russia.

Consider why trump has so many conversations with his leader and mentor.

The orange painted one was compromised during his on Invitation by Russian Gov, all costs paid visit in 1987.

All actions filmed.....

the land of the now unfree is proxy ruled by Putin

The fascist should be prosecuted for this violation of the constitution and the civil rights of US citizens.

Yep.
The only "military" branch under exclusive sole control of the executive branch.

Deborah Preuss, pcc 🇨🇦Feb 5

@inthehands @ethniccanuck should we start calling them "brown shirts"?

David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)Feb 5

As I recall from reading the US constitution (many years ago now), the manner in which members of congress and electoral college electors are chosen is entirely up to the state. There is no legal requirement that they be conducted by elections at all. This was left there to allow slave-owning states to hold elections in which slaves were disenfranchised and kept to allow states to disenfranchise voters at a whim by making felons ineligible to vote.

But this could also be used in a positive way. For example, there is nothing stopping a state from passing a law that says that, if a federal agent comes within a 500 M radius of a polling station, for any purpose except to cast a vote and leave, then all votes cast in that polling station for any candidate from the same party as the current holder of the presidency, are discarded. And if this happens more than, say, fifty times in a single election, all candidates from that party are disqualified from the ballot. Such a law would effectively say that any attempt at election tampering or intimidation by the executive branch automatically causes the party in control of that branch to lose the election statewide.

EndicottRoad59 Feb 5

@inthehands Mr Bannon, STFU.