"Trump signs executive order to classify illicit fentanyl as weapon of mass destruction"
Colin Powell at the UN 2.0: Marco Rubio shakes a bottle as he makes a case for invading #Venezuela. Probably just a Poland Spring water bottle. 🙄
https://us.cnn.com/2025/12/15/politics/fentanyl-weapon-of-mass-destruction-trump
“For Israel, The Terrorist Attack At Bondi Is An Opportunity To Push For War With Iran”
by The Dissident on Substack
“Israel Hayom, the mouthpiece of Israel lobbyist and pro-Iran war hawk Miriam #Adelson, published an article quoting an anonymous ‘Israeli security official’ who claimed -without evidence- that ‘there is no doubt that the direction and infrastructure for the attack originated in Tehran’.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/the307/p/for-israel-the-terrorist-attack-at
#Press #Bondi #Massacre #Pretext #Israel #War #Iran #Netanyahu
“Trump administration switches from murdering fishermen to piracy”
by Ricky And Council Estate Media on Substack
“Modern imperialism is essentially looting a country while pretending you’re spreading democracy and liberating people. If you claim the US concerns in Venezuela amount to promoting democracy, you deserve nothing but contempt”
https://open.substack.com/pub/councilestatemedia/p/trump-administration-switches-from
#Press #US #Venezuela #Imperialism #Piracy #Oil #RegimeChange #War #Maduro #Provocation #Drugs #Pretext #Lies #HandsOffVenezuela
"#antifa is neither a #terrorist network nor a major source of organized lethal #violence."
It is however a convenient phantom boogey-man that #Trump's #authoritarian administration can use as #pretext to justify its #police-state abuses. A reminder here that "antifa" is short for "anti-fascist." Meanwhile, anti-antifa is long for "#FASCIST."
___
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/11/20/why-the-trump-administrations-comparison-of-antifa-to-hamas-isis-and-ms-13-makes-no-sense/
It's looking more and more likely that the #USA is going to #war with #Venezuela, and soon. The #USSGeraldFord is there, #Maduro has been asked to leave the country for #Russia or #Cuba, and #Trump has been presented with a menu for #strike options.
We all know by now that the #pretext is #BS. Maduro's not a #DrugTrafficking kingpin, and most Venezuelans oppose US #intervention. This is a war for #oil and #minerals, and for #MarcoRubio and his petty #gusano grudges. It could still be stopped.
“The U.S. Isn’t Even Bothering With Its Usual Lies to Sell Its Regime Change War in Venezuela”
by Séamus Malekafzali in The Intercept @theintercept@journa.host @TheIntercept@flipboard.com
“The days of justifying American military intervention anywhere in the world are on their way out”
https://theintercept.com/2025/10/22/trump-venezuela-boat-war-justification/
#Press #US #Trump #Venezuela #RegimeChange #War #Oil #Caribbean #Maduro #Drugs #ExtraJudicial #Execution #Pretext #Lies #Invasion
“The Israeli media is reporting on a ‘secret clause’ in the Gaza ceasefire deal that no one is talking about”
by Qassam Muadd in Mondoweiss
@palestine
@israel @yemen @lebanon
“[..] a ‘secret clause’ [..] that would allow Israel to resume the war. Palestinians worry this is the pretext #Netanyahu needs to get out of completing the deal”
Letters from an American – October 8, 2025 – Heather Cox Richardson
Letters from an American October 8, 2025
By Heather Cox Richardson, Oct 08, 2025
Yesterday, journalists observed members of the Texas National Guard at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, Illinois, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. This morning, the Defense Department announced the federal activation of about 200 soldiers from the Texas National Guard and about 300 from the Illinois National Guard, saying they would be protecting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal agents “who are performing federal functions, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.”
The statement said the National Guard soldiers “are under federal command and control in a Title 10 status.” The section of the legal code to which the announcement pointed was the one permitting the president to call into federal service members of the National Guard whenever the U.S. is invaded or in danger of invasion by a foreign nation, there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government, or the president cannot execute the laws of the United States with the power of regular law enforcement.
It is this power under Title 10 that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller yesterday claimed was “plenary,” or absolute. The idea that exceptions to the rule of law reveal who is really in charge of the government was central to the political philosophy of German political theorist Carl Schmitt, who joined the Nazis and whose work is increasingly popular among the radical right in the U.S. these days. Since taking office in January, Trump has declared at least eight national emergencies that the administration has used to justify the use of emergency powers.
As J.V. Last of The Bulwark laid out clearly last night, there is no crisis in Chicago that makes it necessary for the administration to send in National Guard troops. Last points out that any instability in Chicago has been caused by the administration’s surge of federal agents into the city, where they shot and killed Chicago resident Silverio Villegas González; raided and ransacked an apartment building, leaving residents—including U.S. citizens and children—bound outside for hours; shot an unarmed woman, Marimar Martinez; and aimed a weapon at a resident who was simply recording what the agent was doing, In each case, the government initially insisted the federal agents either were under attack or were rounding up “the worst of the worst,” but subsequent information has showed the federal agents were the aggressors in each situation.
Federal agents have held journalists, who are now suing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for the use of “extreme force” against them, and pummeled them with tear gas and pepper spray. As Last notes, local police chief Thomas Mills has testified that the “use of chemical agents by federal agents at the ICE facility in Broadview has often been arbitrary and indiscriminate. At times it is used when the crowd is as small as ten people.”
Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker warned that the administration is deliberately trying to “cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at them. Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city.”
As Joseph Nunn of the Brennan Center explained earlier this year, the Insurrection Act brings together a number of laws Congress passed between 1792 and 1871. They make up sections 251 through 255 in Title 10 of the United States Code. Together, they suspend the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits the U.S. military from taking part in civilian law enforcement.
The Insurrection Act permits the president to deploy troops to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
Courtney Kube, Katherine Doyle, Carol E. Lee, and Garrett Haake of NBC News report today that White House officials, led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have been having increasingly serious discussions about having Trump invoke the act.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: October 8, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson
#2025 #America #Chicago #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #HeatherCoxRichardson #History #Illinois #InsurrectionAct #JBPritzker #Legal #LettersFromAnAmerican #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Nazis #Opinion #Politics #Pretext #Resistance #Science #Substack #TexasNationalGuard #TheBulwark #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #UrbanChaos
#Trump is mainly searching any possible #pretext to #send to #jail his #opponents and get them off office (civil servants,..) The exact same happened to #Navalny This is supposed to be difficult/impossible in a real #democracy.. He is #not a #democrat, meaning he does NOT believe in #democracy
#Trump is mainly searching any possible #pretext to #send to #jail his #opponents and get them off office (civil servants,..)
The exact same happened to #Navalny
This is supposed to be difficult/impossible in a real #democracy..
He is #not a #democrat, meaning he does NOT believe in #democracy
Ignoring Court Ruling, #Trump Sends Troops to #PortlandOR to Break Imagined #Antifa “Siege”
Trump’s order to send the Oregon #NationalGuard to Portland appeared to surprise #Pentagon officials.
by Nick Turse, September 29, 2025
Excerpt: "Recent protests in Portland have been muted and focused on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building located outside the city’s downtown area. In court this month, a Portland police official said federal officers were 'instigating' confrontations with protesters outside the ICE facility. Several demonstrators have been charged with assault. Others have been charged with crimes like arson and resisting arrest.
"Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the #BrennanCenter’s liberty and national security program, said there was no cause for Trump’s order. 'Under law and tradition, the military should be used to quell civil unrest only in the most extreme circumstances where state and local authorities are overwhelmed and have asked for help. The situation in Portland comes nowhere close to the level of disorder that has historically prompted states to request assistance from the federal military, which is why local authorities haven’t made such a request,' she told The Intercept. 'Throwing out the term ‘#DomesticTerrorism’ doesn’t change matters. Domestic terrorism is a crime that is prosecuted by civilian authorities. Some protesters in Portland have been charged with misdemeanors, but none have been charged with #terrorism.'
"Trump’s Portland announcement appeared to surprise #Pentagon officials, who offered no information even a day after Trump issued his order on Truth Social. 'We stand ready to mobilize U.S. military personnel in support of #DHS operations in Portland at the President’s direction,' chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told The Intercept. 'The Department will provide information and updates as they become available.' The Intercept never received any updates.
"The National Guard also appeared to have been kept in the dark. At this time, we do not have any additional information,' a spokesperson told The Intercept on Sunday. On Monday, Northern Command — which will oversee the Portland deployment — still had no details to offer. 'We don’t have any [sic] to provide in addition to the OSW statement,' a spokesperson told The Intercept.
"Trump has long expressed animus toward Portland, stretching back to his first term, when he called it a 'beehive of terrorists.' In 2020, federal agents wearing camouflage were deployed in the city, in the wake of #protests over the police killing of #GeorgeFloyd. Then-Gov. #KateBrown described it as a 'blatant abuse of power' and said it was designed to distract citizens from Trump’s bungled handling of the #Covid19 pandemic.
Trump’s new Portland order follows a series of #authoritarian actions that have pushed the nation ever closer to a genuine police state. Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order claiming to designate #antifa — a loose-knit #AntiFascist movement — as a 'domestic terror organization.' On Thursday, he issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which directs the Justice Department and elements of the Intelligence Community and national security establishment to target 'anti-fascism … movements' and 'domestic terrorist organizations.' Such enemies, according to Trump, not only espouse 'anti-Americanism' and 'support for the overthrow of the United States Government,' but also are typified by advocacy of opinions protected by the #FirstAmendment including '#AntiCapitalism,' 'anti-Christianity,' and 'hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.'
“ 'President Trump’s order mobilizing federal law enforcement to investigate perceived opponents of his administration turns reality on its head,' said Federico Borello, acting executive director of #HumanRightsWatch. 'It fabricates a nonexistent plot as a #pretext to suppress speech and ideas across the U.S. political spectrum.' "
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/09/29/trump-portland-troops-antifa/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/VSSp1
#USPol #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #ChristoFascism #PDX #Oregon
#LA #DC Leaders Brief #Chicago Counterparts on Coming #Trump Crackdown How 2 prep by #activists from cities already invaded share #bestpractices. discussed what they wished they had done differently when #federalagents from various #DHS #ICE #FBI #police descended on their neighborhoods, snatching #immigrant #workers, provoking local populations into larger #protests & showdowns, & building #pretext 4 #trump 2 send in #NationalGuard #martiallaw https://www.thebulwark.com/p/chicago-trump-ice-crackdown-activists-organizers-call-exclusive #democracy #civilliberties
If you’re not listening to this podcast yet, now it’s the time to start. It’s complicated. Both the name of the podcast, and the reality of today.
#ThOIvertonWindow #NefariousActs #Pretext
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-complicated/id1434320092?i=1000722068416
#Trump and the #GOP have been licking their lips, looking for a #pretext to declare #MarshallLaw, and now that they've got it they will never EVER let it go. The #invasion of #California will continue...
___
Gavin #Newsom formally requests Trump administration return #NationalGuard control to California - Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/gavin-newsom-requests-donald-trump-return-national-guard-control-california-2082565
SF Police Commission goes ahead with the ban on #pretext stops approved a year ago after the SF Police Officers Association declares an "impasse" in meet and confer negotiations. https://missionlocal.org/2024/02/sf-police-commission-restricts-pretext-stops-union-objections/
SF Police Commission goes ahead with the ban on #pretext stops approved a year ago after the SF Police Officers Association declares an "impasse" in meet and confer negotiations. https://missionlocal.org/2024/02/sf-police-commission-restricts-pretext-stops-union-objections/
Presented without comment: photo of a Russian combatant captured by the ZSU's 25th Airborne Brigade.
Ungaria RESPINGE legea europeană referitoare la mass-media: Nu am luptat împotriva comuniştilor pentru ca Bruxelles-ul să CONTROLEZE presa https://bit.ly/46KwzIe #1984 #înăspreștenormele #adevărataintenție #afecteazănegativ #ComitetulEuropean #Comunişti #dispute #eurodeputații #GeorgeOrwell #grupdeexperți #Lege #lumeorwelliană #MassMedia #ParlamentulEuropean #platformeleonline #pretext #protejăriilibertățiipresei #romanuldistopic #serviciimassmedia #SocietateaCivilă #spațiuleuropean
In a memo last yr, the US StateDept wrote that #Putin & the Russian #propaganda apparatus were #exploiting the historical memory of the #Soviet fight against #Nazi Germany to fabricate a #pretext for the #invasion of #Ukraine.
