soup5h ago
Ben Werdmuller
What ICE is doing in US airports today, it will be doing at US polling places in November. These photos aren’t funny or incongruous; they should be giving us nightmares. This has to end now.
1:21pmWeb
Show threadClaraBlackInk7h ago

@ben The polls thing is part of it but...

Its easier to disappear people at airports. No one knows each other, everyone is anxiously in transit and airplanes are on standby to traffick.

People aren't concerned enough about now. This moment. This cruelty.

Its different than a community with neighbors and a sense of shared pride and community.

Show threadRightSprung will not comply7h ago

@ben

This is totally a practice run

Show threadderptron2h ago

@rightsprung @ben I think you're wrong, but we'll see.

My guess is they disband the TSA and put CBP/ICE in charge of all airports.

We're going whole hog Nazi here. This isn't "practice".

That's my assessment anyway. I hope you're right, but I think you're wrong.

Show threadnicky7h ago
@ben precisely. My sister said ice with their military vehicles are a common site where she lives in the greater boston area. I said they’re prepping you for martial law and to accept the lie that it’s normal and that they’re keeping you safe.
Show threadKierkethumbs up convincingly2h ago
@skoombidoombis @ben and being a barrier between her and voting
Show threadSoftspeak6h ago

@ben

Trump will try to scare brown people away from the election booths, but we will rise the to the occasion. We will not be intimidated, in fact it will be...

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Show threadWaka/Joewaka6h ago
@ben ICE's presence in airports needs to be resisted as it has been in the streets.
Show threadWaka/Joewaka5h ago
@ben As a practical matter, people of many political stripes fly. Even a Kool-Aid drinking MAGA person showing up at an airport must think having ICE instead of TSA employees is a stupid way of doing this.
Show threadMs. Que Banh4h ago

@JoeAce967
Unfortunately, that's not the case. I saw several news vids of travelers being interviewed at various US airports where ICE was sent. There was several MAGA interviewed & almost all of them said that they don't have a problem with ICE in airports, that ICE is helping make the airports safer & that ICE aren't a threat because they're just standing around & talking to each other.

You can't cure some MAGA loyalists.

@ben

Show threadsix_grandfathers_mountain2h ago

@PhoenixSerenity @JoeAce967 @ben
RE
#MAGA folks say...#ICE is helping make the #airports safer...just standing around & talking to each other

#WOKE folks say #Trump is making a distraction because he stopped pay for the #TSA

Stuart Stevens of the Lincoln Project says, (45sec point) ...

"an incoherent mind at work..."

@Isnotgood
Thx 4 orig Ben boost

#MSNOW Tue Mar 24 2026

Show threadSicSemperTyrannis5h ago
@ben agreed
Show threaduncomfortably numb5h ago
@ben I agree with you.
I have a friend who has a theory that having ICE at airports is good, because then the clueless white people will become uncomfortable and begin to understand how people of color have been feeling.
Show threadcognitively accessible math4h ago
@freyjfreyj @ben It might not "be good,' but that could be a good side effect.
I think the goal was for people to feel *safer* -- these folks will protect them from those foreigners at the airport!!!
but honestly I don't think they know the posture to do that.
Show threadcognitively accessible math2h ago
@freyjfreyj @ben
I *hope* that people have seen other sources of truth and copaganda just doesn't work as well, so being in the presence of a whole bunch of heavily armed people doesn't make them feel safe.
Show threadCourt Cantrell does not comply2h ago
@geonz @freyjfreyj @ben I'm flying to Europe this summer, and the thought of L'ICE in my hair at the airport is nothing less than terrifying.
Show threadcognitively accessible math2h ago
@courtcan @freyjfreyj @ben yea.... I feel that. They're sayin' anybody who has to fly should be taking pictures of unmasked agents but I don't think I could be that brave
Show threadWokebloke for Democracy4h ago
@freyjfreyj @ben
Also, my understanding is that ICE agents cannot wear masks in the airports and are subject to being photographed and their images posted.
Show threadTanek Rune4h ago
@dougiec3 @freyjfreyj @ben
Isn't it interesting how much better behaved they are in the airports without their masks than they've been on the streets? (At least according to the recorded images/videos - it's easier to delete the ones that paint them in a bad light too)
Show threadWokebloke for Democracy1h ago
@Cassandra_Complex @freyjfreyj @ben
They apparently have to work solo in airports where they are used to working as armed gangs in the streets.
Show threadTanek Rune1h ago
@dougiec3 @freyjfreyj @ben
Funny, there's a lot of photos of them just standing about chatting with each other.
Show threadderptron2h ago
@freyjfreyj @ben I hate to break it to you, but your friend is an idiot.
Show threadstony kark4h ago
@ben @msbw it ends when you, personally (with a few thousand friends), end it. So many americans claim not to like any of this, but never enough to actually do anything about it. You have to DO something.
Show thread🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)3h ago

@stonykark I agree, but that's a lot easier to say than to do.

And folx *are* doing something. Millions of us are protesting, aiding the communities that ICE is attacking, posting to keep the stories alive, donating to causes that are fighting our government, doing mutual aid, filming and tracking ICE, voting, and a million other ways of resisting.

Everyone has a different threshold for "well, I guess this is worth dying for now". Usually that threshold is when they have no other option left.

@ben @msbw

Show threadCourt Cantrell does not comply2h ago

@alice Yes, all of this! 🤘🤘🤘✌️🖖💜

@stonykark @ben @msbw

Show threadstony kark1h ago
@alice @ben @msbw you can't tweet your way out of a concentration camp
Show thread🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄)1h ago

@stonykark what are you doing to help?

I've voted against this administration at every step, I'm a member of multiple activist groups, I host community events, hand out defense whistles and active reporter instructions, shut down fascist websites, admin/moderate two Fedi communities, do suicide-prevention outreach, teach folx about security and data privacy, and still drag myself out of bed to toot about cats and post my nudes for yall's entertainment.

Saying "you need to do more" to folx suffering under a dictatorship is even less useful than standing by watching it.

@ben @msbw

Show threadstony kark51m ago
@alice @ben @msbw I live in the oil rich part of canada so the things I've done to help (left tech, became a paramedic, got my gun license) are going to be different from what you need to do. I need to protect my community from america, whereas you need to overthrow your government and hang every nazi bastard. I tried just watching, it ate me up inside for years. Doing things is absolutely fucking terrifying, but for me it's a little less scary to get my hands dirty.
Show threadBebadefabo3h ago
@ben document the ice agents without their masks now so we can cross reference their atrocities when they put the masks back on
Show threadSharon 🤦🏾‍♀️ Persists3h ago
@[email protected]://toot.community/@SharonCrockett/116280953733978402
Show threadLily Star3h ago

@ben Congress, who has the literal power to end it now, arent doing anything at all, because they are complicit.
Dems are controlled opposition, doing just enough to provide the illusion of resistance.

So what do you suggest?

Show threadHeathen 🐈2h ago
@starlily @ben
90 day general strike.
Show threadgrrl_aex3h ago

@ben

November, December, and January next year will be the most historic months this nation has ever seen, including the civil war era.

Why? Because the republic will either be preserved --or it will fall.

Gonna be a eventful, historic year anyway it goes.

Show threadNazo2h ago
@kitkat_blue @ben I'm wondering if we'll even be allowed to have that. They're doing every single thing they can ramping up more and more to try to stop the vote. I'm expecting them to try to come up with some way to actually cancel it somehow. Yes that's completely unconstitutional, but a man who committed treason against the United States of America by leading a violent coup against Congress itself running for president is unconstitutional, so... Yeah...
Show threadgrrl_aex1h ago

@nazokiyoubinbou @ben

I feel it's pretty clear by now that none of these people are planning to go anywhere or allow their present power to be reduced, IF they can help it.

"If". That's where the rest of us come in... 😜

Show threadNazo1h ago

@kitkat_blue @ben Agreed, but their methods are... I don't want to say the word "sneaky" but incremental and just barely slow enough that people apparently have time to integrate them into their lives first before realizing that they just gave away another fundamental right that should have been a final line in the sand.

It won't be just all of a sudden Trump announcing tomorrow there will be no vote. They'll work their way up a bit at a time until November and then somehow make it "ok."

Show threadKristy2h ago
@ben we've had so many elections in the past 10 years which could have prevented this had people shown up to vote AND used their vote strategically. People couldn't be bothered to do that. This is the police state their idiocy brought down on us. I don't expect them to save us now and the people who have been doing the right thing are exhausted. We could end this if voters would get their heads out of their asses and make a plan to show up in November. History tells us how that will go.
Show threadHeathen 🐈2h ago

@effariwhy @ben
When districts are so gerrymandered that black and Latino voters have to walk walk miles to get to the nearest polling place, people get an hour off to vote but could wait 8 hours in line to cast their ballots, and voter rolls are purged routinely by Republican governors...

There are major structural hurdles put in place to keep people from voting, and I think calling people stupid and acting as if it's an individual choice ignores that.

If you want to make sure people vote, help them get there. Offer to drive people, or watch their kids so they can wait in line. Volunteer to be a poll worker. Do something constructive instead of calling people stupid.

Show threadKristy11m ago
@heathen_cat getting to the polls was not an issue for those who fucked us over with their apathy or need to use their vote to punish the Democrats with a Jill Stein vote or whatever indirect Trump vote via third party they thought was cute. Miss me with your attempt to bring people who had genuine issues getting to the polls into this. Their situation was made even worse for future elections by those I'm talking about.
Show threadHeathen 🐈2h ago
@ben
They don't even have to get inside the perimeter of the polling place, they can sit outside that with LRADs pointed, turn them on/up if the line of people waiting to vote isn't white enough for their liking.
Show threadKiwiTB1h ago
@ben it's not going to end as Americans simply can't be bothered to do so. They'll gladly take themselves and the world with them rather than do anything to stop this.
Show threadDarwin Woodka1h ago

@ben

Well some of them are funny

Show threadhumourmetom1h ago
@ben If Americans don't think they're gong to be "scrutinized" by Trump's personal ICE army at polling stations, they're more naive than even he imagines.
Show threadxs4me237m ago

@ben

Exactly…