"Lander — literally & aesthetically the city’s accountant — assaulted the officers in the sense that a bully might accuse you of having gotten in the way of his fist."
- @pbump
#law #Trump #BradLander #ICE #Gestapo #MafiaState #RevengePolitics #fascism #AmericanAutocracy
But this isn’t what #ICE looks like when it’s “out of control.” It’s what ICE looks like when it’s in control—when it’s doing the job that it has been asked to do. That job, more or less, is to be the chief enforcement arm of #US #fascism.
And that’s why the agency should be torn down—& why abolishing ICE must be part of the platform of any politician who identifies as a progressive or leftist in this country.
On the surface, Cuomo’s response is just about hitting the required beats. This is bad, it has to end—yes, all true. But there’s one phrase that jumps out: “out of control.”
The implication is that #ICE has somehow slipped the bonds of respectability & is rampaging around with no supervision. Nobody’s minding the store! Everything’s chaos! Where are the rule followers!?
Abolishing #ICE Is the Bare Minimum
ICE agents aren’t out of control. They are performing their designed role as #fascism’s #StormTroopers.
by Jack Mirkinson
You have probably seen the video of ICE agents violently arresting #NYC comptroller & mayoral candidate #BradLander.
#law #Trump #Gestapo #MafiaState #AmericanAutocracy
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/abolish-ice-brad-lander/
#Democratic Leader #HakeemJeffries stmnt:
“#NYC Comptroller #BradLander did not #assault anyone. The #Trump admin & #MAGA #Republicans continue to #lie to the American people in the face of clear #video #evidence that contradicts their #FarRight #propaganda.
#law #immigration #DueProcess #propaganda #censorship #transparency #TargetedArrests #RevengePolitics #ICE #HSI #DHS #Gestapo #NaziState #WhiteSupremacy #authoritarianism #MafiaState #AmericanAutocracy
https://jeffries.house.gov/2025/06/17/leader-jeffries-statement-on-the-arrest-of-comptroller-brad-lander/
“I have never seen such open corruption in any modern government anywhere,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University and an expert on authoritarian regimes who co-authored the book How Democracies Die.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/17/trump-crypto-memecoin-corruption
How has the US slumped so low? One thing though, it has been more ‘creative' than that of Mafia states such as Russia.
#Trump #Corruption #MemeCoin #Theft #Bribery #MafiaState #USA
Daphne Caruana Galizia, do not forget
Harassed by the Maltese state and murdered by people paid by those who were embarrassed by her exposure of widespread criminality, incompetence and corruption within the state.
A short piece by her son, detailing the venality of the Maltese state and its politicians.
#Malta #Corruption #MafiaState #Galizia #Collapse #RuleOfLaw #Journalism #FinancialTimes #Bravery
…Citing news media reports, #Harvard’s amended complaint said that the #Trump admin had convened a group of senior officials to brainstorm additional ways to punish Harvard, even after Judge Burroughs issued an order on May 23 banning #DHS’s initial plan.
#vendetta #RevengePolitics #MafiaState #law #AcademicFreedom #immigration #InternationalStudents #StudentVisas #AbuseOfPower
But despite his tough rhetoric, #Trump has sparked controversy by pardoning a growing number of convicted #DrugDealers, including this week's move to grant clemency to Larry Hoover, 74, who was serving multiple life sentences in federal #prison for #crimes linked to his role leading the #Chicago-based #GangsterDisciples.
#Trump #pardons #DrugKingpins even as he escalates #US #DrugWar rhetoric
Trump has long called for escalating the US drug war against Mexican #cartels & wants tougher penalties for dealers selling #fentanyl & other street #drugs in American communities. "I am ready for it, the death penalty, if you deal drugs," Trump said during a meeting with state governors in Feb, where he said dealers are too often treated with a "slap on the wrist."
#criminal #law #MafiaState
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/31/nx-s1-5415939/trump-pardons-drug-kingpins-even-as-he-escalates-the-u-s-drug-war
On Feb. 5, #Trump’s #DOJ said it was closing the investigation into the diary. Ms. Fago & Ms. Walczak were not charged, nor was anyone from #ProjectVeritas.
In the meantime, a #pardon application was submitted on Mr. Walczak’s behalf. It suggested that Donald Trump Jr., as well as Ms. Guilfoyle & other Trump allies, supported his clemency.
Kurlander & Harris would later plead #guilty, admitting to conspiring to steal, transport & sell the diary to #ProjectVeritas. Ms. Harris was sentenced to one month in prison. Mr. Kurlander is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
When #Trump won the presidency for a second time, it offered hope to Project Veritas, Ms. Fago & Mr. Walczak.
…The scrutiny of the diary matter continued when #Biden took office.
In Nov 2021, investigators obtained a search warrant related to a Project Veritas official that sought information about “potential co-conspirators,” including communications with Ms. Fago, Ms. Walczak, Mr. Kurlander, Ms. Harris and others “about obtaining, transporting, transferring, disseminating or otherwise disposing of Ashley Biden’s stolen property.”
#Trump #criminal #law #USpol #MafiaState #plutocracy #kleptocracy
The #DOJ during #Trump’s first term opened an investigation into the matter after a representative of the #Biden family reported to federal authorities before the 2020 election that several of Ms. Biden’s personal items had been stolen in a burglary.
Ms. Fago & other family members spent election night 2020 at a White House watch party. After Trump lost, they were invited back the next month to attend a White House Christmas party.
The #FBI did not retrieve the diary [because it was stolen FFS]. Instead, Kurlander & Harris entered negotiations to provide it to #ProjectVeritas, a #Trump-allied undercover *media* group [foumd in a court to not be media] that had been tipped to the diary’s existence by Stephanie Walczak, Ms. Fago’s daughter.
“So I go back there, I start reading through it, & there was just unbelievable stuff,” Wren recalled last year on a podcast. “I contacted the campaign attorneys, & then that campaign attorneys said, ‘Be very careful, don’t take possession of this.’ They wrote up a whole memo & then they contacted the FBI & said, ‘You need to come pick this up immediately.’”
#Trump #criminal #law #USpol #MafiaState #plutocracy #kleptocracy
Kurlander & Harris brought Ms. Biden’s diary to a September 2020 fund-raiser at Ms. Fago’s home in the exclusive Admirals Cove community of Jupiter, FL. The featured guests were #Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. & the younger Trump’s girlfriend at the time, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
At the fund-raiser, the diary was shown to Caroline Wren, the campaign finance consultant who helped organize the event.
#VonDerLeyen, in a separate social media post on Sunday, said that she had a “good call” with #Trump & had conveyed that the EU needed extra time to reach a trade deal. She said that talks would advance “swiftly & decisively.”
“The EU & the US share the world’s most consequential & close trade relationship,” she wrote.
That lawsuit targets the Department of Homeland Security for what the states say are sweeping new requirements on federal grant programs that force states to reroute their own police resources to federal #immigration enforcement — or risk losing billions of dollars in #funding for #disaster relief & #emergency preparation.
