What’s up dipshits! Trying something new. It didn’t feel right and I’m already sorry. Let’s brush that off and do some news.
The DHS is collecting info on activists and attempting to tie them to a foreign power: including Brace Belden of TrueAnon, which is fuckin’ funny! It’s also a really scary way to actually treat “antifa” as a terrorist organization just like Trump said he would.
Jonathan Swan interviewed Trump for Axios and it was really funny: and after nearly four years of Trump in office, he may have actually figured out a fairly effective way to treat Trump when asking him tough questions.
The Trump administration is considering unilateral coronavirus relief: as the Congress stalemate rages on, Donald Trump is now considering utilizing executive action.
Pretty dope stuff, right? No? You’re not into this? Aw man. Keep reading anyway.
DHS
The DHS is Trying to Tie Antifa to Foreign Powers
Trump wants to designate antifa as a terrorist organization. We’ve covered that before in all of its ugly buffoonery so you likely know the details: antifa isn’t really an organization, this seems like an attempt to stop people from protesting and treat protestors extrajudicially, and it’s all around a weird fascist move. However, there has been a big development.
Kenny Klips Comes Through
Writing for The Nation, Ken Klippenstein acquired a DHS intelligence report that targets activists considered by the agency to be “antifa.” That alone is bad enough but the real scoop is that they’re attempting to tie them to foreign powers.
The report is called “The Syrian Conflict and its Nexus to the U.S.-based Antifascist Movement.” In it, numerous Americans are mentioned, including their personal information like “Social Security Numbers, home addresses, social media accounts.”
One of the names on the list is Brace Belden, a cohost of the left-wing podcast TrueAnon. We’re big fans of the podcast which makes this very funny to us although it is also significantly disturbing.
Typically, it’s frowned upon (legally or at the very least by established norms) for intelligence agencies to spy on Americans. However, that isn’t the case if it is believed that American is acting on behalf of a foreign power.
The Big Bad Implications
If US intelligence agents are able to implicate you with a foreign power, your rights are quickly whisked away. This is exactly what we feared when Trump said he’d designate antifa as a terrorist organization: warrantless searches and surveillance operations that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.
In this case, the DHS is loosely defining antifa as anyone with left-wing ideologies. They’re then identifying anyone who would fit the criteria that traveled to Syria in order to fight alongside Kurdish troops. Keep in mind, this means they were literally fighting against ISIS but are still being subject to similar intelligence reporting that we’d see with actual terrorists.
This report ultimately attempts to establish a connection between antifa and “Kurdish democratic federalism teachings and ideology.” Kurds are pretty cool so uh, maybe?
However, the report also concludes that none of the individuals described were actually acting on behalf of a foreign group save for one person. Nonetheless, we should be concerned about an effort to establish links between “antifa” and foreign powers.
Bottom line: it’s very unfortunate that writing this almost certainly got us on a list, too, but what’re you gonna do? Let’s end on a positive note by quoting Belden’s reaction to this nonsense: “I am not now nor have I ever been a member of any antifa organization. The US government has been spying on and smearing communists for 100 years, but they usually have the decency not to call a Red an anarchist!”
TRUMPOCALYPSE
Jonathan Swan’s Interview With Trump is Very Funny
Interviewing Trump is always a trainwreck. He’s a charismatic idiot who can weasel his way through any question you throw at him—or at least, to his fans, it feels like he can get through any question. To anyone who already hates his guts, though, it’s apparent just how much of a raging dumbass Trump is. That may be why so many have struggled to properly interview him.
Just Follow Up!
Jonathan Swan did two important things. First, he asked follow-up questions and sometimes even fact checked Trump on the fly. A tiny bit of homework and you’re able to poke holes in everything Trump says. Second, he laughed at Trump, which clearly pissed him off and made it difficult for him to find a stone to step on.
Interviewers don’t always do this. In fact, the first time we saw something like this was a Fox News host just a few weeks ago: Chris Wallace. Many broadcast journalists tend to either let Trump chaos-bait them and throw out a bunch of nonsense, or they even lose their cool, or otherwise fail to actually press the president in a meaningful way.
It has been almost four years of Trump. Why is someone just now figuring out that asking basic questions like “how” or “why” or pointing out that something isn’t true are all effective methods of tackling Trump’s style?
This is probably one of the funniest Trump moments we’ve ever seen:
Go check the whole interview out.
Bottom line: we’re not talking about this because Trump being a moron is news. We’re talking about it because it highlights a problem that may have more longevity: the failures of a profit-driven media that can’t hold a maniac accountable because making themselves the drama gets even more clicks.
CORONAVIRUS
Trump is Considering Unilateral Coronavirus Relief Action
With Congress in a stalemate, Trump is considering going down the executive action route to provide the next phase of coronavirus relief.
Don’t Be Fooled
Democrats have obviously put forth a plan, and while it may not go far enough in our eyes, it’s certainly going further than anything Republicans are proposing. It’s a good thing that Democrats are putting their feet down this time around.
While Trump may be threatening to use executive orders to get some shit done, no one really knows what that would look like. If we had to guess, it would likely involve protections for folks who need to pay their mortgages or rents. It may also have something to do with unemployment benefits.
We’d like to remind you that the main reason this is all being stalled is because Republicans want to cut the expanded $600 a week unemployment bonuses to $200. Republicans think that extra money to help Americans from drowning in debt or losing their homes also disincentivizes them from working. They believe this because they are demons.
Bottom line: while we’re happy to see Democrats using their political power effectively for once, that’s only one part of the equation. It’s also important that they control the narrative to the best of their ability, and that means aggressively getting out there to say, “Republicans WANT you to be poor, otherwise, they would continue something we’ve successfully done since this pandemic began.” Knock ‘em while they’re down.
BREADCRUMBS
Where the News Gets “Fun!”
“Massive Beirut blast kills more than 70, injures thousands.”If you somehow missed this, it’s a good use of your time to read up on the region and why, beyond the obvious reasons, this was so devastating.
“Karen Bass eulogized Communist Party USA leader.” Some are treating this like a huge story that may put Bass out of the running for Biden’s VP, but if you ask us, being a friend with a communist in a country like America should probably be fine.
“Seth Rogen: ‘I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel.’”We feel that, Seth. Also if you see any articles claiming he apologized for this, we’ll save some time: that’s bullshit, according to Rogen himself.
“Democrats warn GOP: Don’t fill a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020 or we’ll retaliate.”And this time we mean it, for real okay!
“Kamala Harris releases former aid from mysterious NDA after settlement deal.”The NDA was signed in exchange for $34,900 in taxpayer money, which is just below the threshold for which it would have had to be reported to higher ups. Not much to say other than that’s pretty weird, huh?
“Congress put the brakes on Cuba relief to protect front-line Democrat.” Read it. This was a political calculation made that very well may continue a lot of suffering in Cuba.
Lastly, Rashida Tlaib won her primary last night. Good. Bigger news is that Cori Bush seems to have won her race in Missouri, which is ridiculous considering Bush was down by 20 points when she ran in 2018. We stayed up to see the results of this race and we’re so very glad we did. This is amazing, holy shit, pure elation.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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