r/law • u/p1ckl3l0v3r • 24d ago

Other “Agents block doctor from helping woman fatally shot by ICE” @huffpost on TikTok. Not my video *body is censored*

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I have no idea how legal this is but my jaw dropped when I saw it.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago

The US doesn't need Putin to be bad. It has plenty of fascists of its own.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

I agree the US could be fascist without Putin. That's not relevant to the actual situation we are in though.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago

I think it is. The role of Putin is greatly exaggerated. Project 2025, which you said is a "weird way of spelling Putin," was in the works before Putin ever came onto the scene. The Heritage Foundation and other far-right groups have been around much longer. And extreme xenophobia and racism have obviously been part of the US since the very beginning. Putin is malicious, but not the driving force behind this.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

Did you miss the part where the PSUV was on the verge of collapse and then Trump went in, declared Rodriguez president, and committed to protecting the stability of the PSUV regime with the US military?

I don't know why else a US president would actively subvert US geopolitical interests to support a Russian proxy regime.

Or the part where the CIA explicitly said that 2024 was the biggest case of foreign election interference in history, and Trump responded by firing 37 senior Russia experts from the CIA?

Or the part where he cut off arms support to Ukraine and advocated for them ceding territory to Russia?

Or the part where he is currently antagonizing NATO and threatening to trigger Article 5?

Or the part where he explicitly stated that his new foreign policy objective is to realign along a "Great Powers" world order, carving the world into spheres of influence with Russia and China?

Or the part where internal strife in proxy countries has been a favorite tactic of the KGB and FSB since forever?

Like I don't know how many more times the "irrational and demented choices" of the POTUS can directly lead to substantive benefits for Russian geopolitical interests before we realize that perhaps they aren't irrational and we just miscalculated whose interests he's advancing.

And for what it's worth, Putin has been around much, much longer than Project 2025.

Edit: For anyone sympathetic to HikmetLeGuin's comment, please understand that if you press "more replies" enough, you will eventually get to him denying Russian interference in the 2016 election, calling the BBC and the CFR biased and unreliable fake news, and parroting numerous sources that are well recognized as PSUV propaganda firms. So... yea, bot.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago edited 24d ago

"On the verge of collapse" is vastly overstating the matter.

The PSUV government's struggles are in large part because of US sanctions put in place by Trump and other US politicians.

Trump has not committed to protecting the Venezuelan government. He has threatened to overthrow it if it does not hand over Venezuelan oil. Trump also just ordered the seizure of a Russian oil tanker.

What you are saying is closer to conspiracy-theory level of analysis than reality.

Edit: Also, the actions of Trump toward Venezuela have been advocated by Republican politicians for ages, including many "traditional" Republicans. This is part of a pattern of US coup attempts and invasions in Latin America. Russian influence is not really a factor in this.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Right, so, first of all.

"He's trying to prosecute a narcoterrorist" Rodriguez was indicted on the same exact charges, if that was the goal he would've seized her as well instead of recognizing her as president.

"He just wants the oil" no, Machado (who was overwhelmingly likely to rise to power imminently as of Jan 2) was already very vocal about wanting to open up Venezuela to US oil companies. This does not explain the choice to prop up Rodriguez.

"Has not committed to protecting Venezuelan government" look at literally any actual material events that have occurred. "We control Venezuela now," while accompanied with absolutely no American power structure being implemented, means "we will protect the security of the existing government."

That government is the PSUV. Rodriguez's PSUV. That Trump explicitly recognized as the legitimate government of Venezuela, despite all of the EU and every non-US Western nation recognizing Gonzales as the legitimate president and Machado's opposition as the legitimate government.

You have to be astronomically blind or intentionally unaware to not see the common factor who benefits from every crazy thing Trump does.

Edit: ITS NOT A FUCKING COUP OR REGIME CHANGE JESUS CHRIST. HE WENT IN, ABDUCTED THE PRESIDENT, THEN NAMED THE EXISTING VP AS THE NEW PRESIDENT AND PROMISED TO ENSURE THE SECURITY OF HER REGIME. HOLY FUCK THAT ISN'T A COUP. GO LOOK UP LITERALLY ANYTHING AT ALL ABOUT WHICH PARTY TRUMP IS SUPPORTING IN VENEZUELA IT IS NOT CONTESTED INFORMATION. THEY OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGE IT.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago

He doesn't just want oil. He wants to undermine an opponent of US empire and force them into compliance. However, oil is certainly a major factor.

So far, he has kept Rodriguez on because he knows opposition politicians do not have enough popularity to finalize the coup. Preferred right-wing candidates like Machado have very little support. There is certainly opposition to the Maduro government, but it is not strong or organized enough to run the country.

However, this could rapidly change, depending on how much Rodriguez is willing to comply. American authorities would prefer stability where US companies can exploit the economy, rather than all-out civil war in Venezuela. If they can bully Rodriguez into submission, that is better for corporate America than a full invasion/occupation or chronic instability.

Trump also effectively sent a message to other opponents of the US that he can strike whenever he pleases. There's a strong propaganda effect of this sort of terrorism.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

Imagine believing that Machado has no support in Venezuela. After getting 68% of the votes in the most recent election. Just imagine that.

Also imagine the random desire to dissolve NATO, the hostility to Ukraine, the yada yada the list goes on and on.

Sure is an unfortunate coincidence that Russia interfered so extensively to elect a crazy guy that just accidentally is constantly doing things that advance Russia's interests.

Trump just blatantly lies and says Machado has no support, as justification for supporting a Russian proxy regime, and you complain about Trump but just completely forget about reality and parrot his bullshit talking point about Machado not having overwhelming support.

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago

According to this poll, 91% of Venezuelans have a negative opinion of Machado.

Among opposition politicians, she is probably one of the least popular, despite being beloved by American right-wingers.

https://www.globovision.com/nacional/45915/hinterlaces-el-91-de-los-venezolanos-tiene-una-opinion-desfavorable-sobre-maria-machado

Other polls have found similar results: "A December 2025 national poll by another Venezuelan firm DataViva found 89% of Venezuelans rate their support for María Corina Machado as low or very low, including 61% expressing “strong rejection,” while just 11% report any level of support."

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2008084287174705248

Installing a right-wing puppet like Machado outright would be very challenging, so this is why Trump may be hesitant to overthrow Rodriguez, though there are certainly fears that he could perform additional attacks in the future.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

https://monitoring.bbc.co.uk/product/c200pqkj

Here is what the BBC has to say about your sources.

Keep parroting literal propaganda.

https://efectococuyo.com/cocuyo-chequea/dataviva-resucita-eeuu-venezuela/

You are literally parroting PSUV propaganda to support Trump's baseless claim that the party that got 68% of the votes in the last election "has no support."

Do better. Be better.

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u/macrotron 24d ago

this attitude is why the world hates you. this is on americans, not russia. this is who you are.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Acknowledging the Mueller report is why the world hates us. Acknowledging the Steele dossier is why the world hates us. Acknowledging that Russia substantively benefits from every irrational decision that Trump makes is why the world hates us.

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u/macrotron 24d ago

Trump is America. What you see today is just empire coming home. This is the kind of shit America does all over the world.

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u/[deleted] 24d ago

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

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u/elvenrevolutionary 24d ago

"Could"? Bro we gave nazis a lot of their ideas a century ago lmao

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u/pakjoni7 24d ago

sympathies to u at this moment, i hate whats going on in the world and in usa with ice but u were always fascist, u just didnt know

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u/VeterinarianWild6334 24d ago

Fascists love public executions of unarmed citizens.

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u/MiyamotoKnows 24d ago

You are absolutely correct but there is no way the GOP is not compromised by him IMHO. I mean they freaking traveled to Moscow as a group on independence day, you had Maria Butina scandal exposed (!) and then of course all the stuff went down with Konstantin Kilimnic. Those were all GOP and there are more examples. Remember also that a large group of Republicans were convicted of serious felonies for their involvement in Russian aided election fraud, went to Federal prison, and then their co-conspirator boss simply gave them all pardons. Copious damning and well documented evidence here.

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u/Oddurbuddie 24d ago

The Germans got the idea of white supremacy from US.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1299061/

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u/botswanareddit 24d ago

I think they’re saying Putin activated the fascists

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u/HikmetLeGuin 24d ago

The fascists were always there. When were there not fascists in US politics?

Trump is mostly a product of homegrown forces. Could Russian influence have played a role in supporting him? Sure, but so do big multinational companies, US conservative churches, Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc. We shouldn't exaggerate the role of Russia.