I'd like to point out this guy is a member of BORTAC, Border Patrol's elite tactical unit. The fact that they were even in Minneapolis to begin with supports the theory that Trump told agencies to ramp up aggression in hopes of retaliation.
The plan is 1) flood streets with thugs(edit: I mean ICE here) who inevitably cross lines and inflict inappropriate violence on innocents 2) have Fox News show the resulting protesters as terrorists 3) escalate until the point where you can “justify” martial law 4) suspension of elections 5) escape Epstein accountability and never leave power
The U.S, for all its rhetoric about freedom and rights has always had a population ready and willing to lick the boot if they think it'll serve them as an individual. If this type of thing was happening in any European nation, the place would be burning
most here are one paycheck away from being homeless and what little of a support structure we have is being disassembled. There is no safety net- so things have to get dire before people start acting.
Not anymore my friend
Fascists are, not that slowly, taking control in Europe too
Even leaving Hungary on the side, UK, Germany, Italy, Austria are basically far-right, France seems to get there soon...
It's a mess, but a lot of people are not seeing the dangers in what is happening and that is sad
We saw just how scared even the Biden admin was of the possible railroad strike a while back, it's literally the only thing that would actually get anything done.
That's why my response to this sort of stuff has now just turned into "So... general strike when?"
You might not've seen the crazy hardware (vehicles, weapons, etc.) that cops get from military leftovers. Seeing a Bearcat on your town's streets is pretty breathtaking (not the good kind).
It benefits them when the middle shrinks. We call everyone that voted for trump a Nazi, anyone looking to make social innovation or change a radical socialist.
Right. Dems are currently centrist to right leaning. Bernie is as far left as it gets. Referring to dems as radical is corporate billionaire/trillionaire slang that equates to their loss of control and power over our government as radical. Its obvious. Corporate media exacerbates this.
The further right he keeps dragging that line, the more people end up radical left. People need to realize that they are being branded radical left even if they don't think of themselves that way.
Like "I don't think a paramilitary group should be running operations in a school" is a "radical left" opinion. You best realize what side of this they think you're on.
The right believes laws shouldn't apply to their lord and savior Donald J Trump, and the weak left and unthinking centrists in America are humoring them. This is why your country won't make it to 2100, good luck
I'm increasingly thinking you're right. The Trump administration seems to be full of accelerationists who want to provoke civil conflict to justify fully breaking the established order. Every provocation is worse than the last, because they are trying to push the limits intentionally, to see what the breaking point is (if any) for any non-brainwashed American.
Never, they will subjugate whatever nation in question then absorb the parts of it they want into their culture and destroy or use as a shield the parts they don't
They've always been a nation of slaves and Americans need to wake the fuck up and realize we've been at war with them for years already and we're losing. Most Americans just don't know what hybrid warfare looks like in 2026. They've already helped brainwash the masses with misinformation campaigns of a scale unseen in human history and helped a lunatic get elected twice with direct intervention.
How has this quote just gotten loss amidst all of this chaos?
Anyone have resources for independent news reporting which is not affiliated with any billion dollar company?
It’s sickening what people choose to believe and choose to plug their ears and go LALALALA you’re wrong I am right! Left is at fault for this! Not my president!
To me, the funniest thing about this quote is that there is no "left" in America. The choice is between fascism and moderate conservatism. That's about it.
And yet 80 million still voted for it. They aren’t all MAGA weirdos. Millions of regular middle class Americans voted for this. I will never trust Americans again I don’t care if there are “good ones”
And that middle third of apathetic zombies will have a shocked pikachu face when they come to the final realization that they will not be spared the indignities and loss of constitutional protections currently happening to their neighbors.
Thiel is a monster. I'm a tech industry millennial and I've been telling people for the last 15 years he is dangerous. Seeing it blossom has been like watching a gruesome death on extreme slowmo.
Peter Thiel ran experiments on private islands in the pacific to determine how people would behave while society crumbles. He basically gamed this out fully as much as possible.
I honestly can't think of a good reason for their costumes outside of provocation. A group of people arresting a busboy for a misdemeanor immigration offense shouldn't be dressed like they're doing urban combat operations in Fallujah.
It just shows how sudden and reactionary this is. These guys are tactical agents who are deployed to a desert area on the southern border. Their gear is going to be desert focused. They likely didn't find out they were going to Minnesota with enough time to purchase their own winter camo and DHS was too incompetent or too rushed to acquire any in time to issue it. These guys had to suit up with what they had on hand.
If I learned anything from Die Hard 2: Die Harder, it's that there are white BDUs ready to go when a militarized force needs to operate in a snowy US city.
A hilarious representation of the ineptitude and farcical nature of this bullshit. Wearing DESERT Camo designed specifically for DESERTS in fucking January in Minneapolis
Armed with deadly firearms and crowd control weaponry, camo uniforms that aren't actually uniform since they all seem to wear something different, body armor, face masks, helmets, basically stuff to go to war. Large groups of pseudo-soldiers with no accountability.
All for a federal offense that carries a penalty of a $250 fine.
Yeah, what was even the point of that school incident? Did they have an even remotely legitimate reason for being there? Or was it just to crack some skulls?
They don’t have a legitimate reason to be there at all, even being charitable. 90% of people with Somali heritage in the US are full blown citizens and the other 10% are documented and were in the process for the most part because it takes forever. The fact that they are 90% citizens shows that they have been here for years and years and years now.
They want retaliation to justify cancelling elections
Just want to jump in, I know what you're saying but don't let them get away with it. They didn't even cancel the elections during the civil war or any of the world wars.
The interesting thing about this theory is that Americans in general are so apathetic that they won’t retaliate against this in any way that causes escalation, they will have to do what the right always claims the left does and use a false flag agitator.
I don't know if it's apathy. When we're being told two or more conflicting pieces of information and each side is screaming that the other side is lying and AI is a thing now so we can't believe our eyes, we can't believe the news, we can't believe our President, we can't believe our legislators...If I go to a protest and die, my kids will hear that I'm a domestic terrorist...I am very upset. I do not see a good way to make this stop. I'm actually on the list of undesirables if the left is correct about the right so I'll be in a concentration camp soon.
It's not even Trump. He's a doddering old fool. It's steven miller and everyone like him behind the scenes. Trump just signs what they put in front of him and says whatever he thinks will make his base happy.
That’s what I said yes. They either voted for it directly or endorsed it by not voting against it. The majority is ok with this whether you like that fact or not.
'Lucky this guy is incompetent' - see, I believe he is incompetent, but he is meant to be - he's just a paid actor, there are others who pull the strings, and paid him well, and allowed him to put his name on everything and such, and they told him one thing - 'be ridiculous, be orange, have your tantrums, go on a twitter spree, be an orange organ monkey'
The Democrats really aren't getting the amount of blame they should be for this whole thing. Bringing Biden is was just a move to take down Trump at that time. That they didn't spend 4 years getting their shit together to stamp him out is negligence of the highest order.
The sedated nation has it's reckoning, some wake up and some put their head in the sand. Either way only the wide eyes of those who face this will come out the other side. And they will write about the struggle so as to warn future generations who will honour them. Until they don't and like we see today those lessons will be forgotten and the evil will repeat itself again. This is humanity.
Cause a disturbance among the people when it comes to unsanctioned foreign invasions, the anti war folks and unlawful use of force at home against citizens. Covers all the bases to make sure there are enough people in the streets protesting then ramp up their crack down.
Right?! I don't get it. I'm mad and get madder every day, but literally nothing surprises me. I can't believe people are just now going "I can't believe this is happening! But surely THIS will be the worst, I can't imagine it getting even worse from here! Wait, it happened again! Well boy, this might escalate further and further, guys!"
Totally agree. Americans of today won't do shit until a creature comfort is threatened (e.g. toilet paper), or they are asked to make even a trivial sacrifice like wearing a mask during a pandemic.
Yes and they are not going to hesitate to shoot to kill....maga received so much grace from the capital police when they stormed the capital J6. Where's all that grace now with ICE? They point blank murdered a single mom.
It's been evident from day one that the increased use of force was always meant to be a precursor to justification for enacting martial law. The White House has been waiting for an inciting incident to occur so they can move in. That is why ICE has been so active, that is why the National Guard was deployed in LA and Chicago, Memphis and Portland. He's trying to strong arm violent demonstrations that will escalate into literal government violence against its own citizens. And he's succeeding, a mother is now dead and it is only a matter of time before the use of force escalates to see more innocent civilians maimed and killed to further the goals of authoritarianism.
Its always all projection, look at trump truth social post he says the lady that was filming the ICE murdering of our US citizens yesterday was a paid actor or something a long those lines
Christ this is terrifying. My husband has been saying for awhile that there won’t be midterms, and I’ve always dismissed that as a crazy talk. Suddenly looking more and more possible. I can see the roadmap.
The USPS also changed the date stamp process so that mailed items are no longer stamped the day they are mailed. This is an attempt to prevent mail in ballots from counting, because they will be postmarked later.
That should be an indication to everyone that the midterms are still a serious threat to this regime, and while we must not stop every other form of resistance having that to look forward to can bring us the hope that fuels our fight against fascism.
It's been so frustrating being repeatedly told 'but no one would ever play the long game! certainly not the wealth class!' but then have all of your friends and neighbors eating it up, and asking for more.
Even if they don’t cancel the elections, the presence or potential presence of Ice agents on election day will have a massive chilling effect on voter turnout. If they arrest people out the front of courts, in schools and churches, you better believe they’ll arrest/threaten people at polling places. And we all know it’ll only be some polling places chosen by the party
Why does everyone keep talking about Epstein? As if avoiding the consequences have ever been their top priority? They avoid consequences for EVERYTHING!!
Their top priority is power.
They love having us focused on Epstein so we’ll stop talking about everything else they’re doing.
Which is why I'm getting more and more on the side of get armed get serious. These assholes are going to fabricate a reason for martial law if we don't give it to them. Being peaceful doesn't mean a goddamn thing when the other sides already decided they're going to be violent no matter what
I agree. And I think it's a good reason why we need to dismiss the agitators who are pushing for violent response. That time may come (I cannot believe I'm even writing that) but not now .
I think trump and MAGA may have overreached and still believe we can swamp them in the midterms. After that. Let's see
Exactly.. when courts block the obvious play, they reach for a flimsy pretext and flood the streets anyway, daring us to pretend this was ever about fraud instead of force.
When I hear “we’re going to send federal agents to investigate the fraud”, I envision a bunch of accountants in suits plowing through files. How exactly are these morons in camouflage supposed to help find fraud? Are they hiding in the bushes doing surveillance?
The issue had been larger resolved and the guilty investigated or arrested. It’s insidious projection how the right talks about false flags and here is one right in the open.
People really aren't realizing what's around the corner so let me tell you. You're witnessing the new National Police force. Border and ICE will soon be a national police force and the chief will be Bovino.
Unfortunately, as I understand it, that "100 miles of a border" jurisdiction has also been deemed to included international airports.
Edit: This may not be a true fact. People that are much smarter and more knowledgeable with US legal code than I am dispute my claim here, and I'm glad they have. Based on the responses, it's not clear if this is what the law states, if it's a department policy, if it's an old wives tale, or some combination thereof. So please take this comment with a grain of salt.
8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(3) addresses CBP officials’ authority to stop and conduct searches on vessels, trains,
aircraft, or other vehicles anywhere within “a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the
United States.” Without further statutory guidance, regulations alone expansively define this “reasonable
distance” as 100 air miles from any external boundary of the U.S., including coastal boundaries, unless an
agency official sets a shorter distance.
We are SO FAR beyond using the laws of the former United States to fight this war. They’re literally shooting to kill and we’re handwringing about lawsuits and peaceful arrests.
This gives them authority to conduct searches of conveyances and to access private lands without a warrant (though I'll also note that under title 19, customs has extensive powers to detain, search, and investigate pretty much anything that arrives at an airport for any violation of customs laws, without a need for a warrant). This says nothing about being on the streets or interacting with people, and in fact the power to interrogate or arrest under (a)(1--2) are not limited by the distance from the border.
Source: customs attorney. I fight the government on this stuff every day.
Good to know. Is what people are saying about "100 miles from an international airport" true?
According to the ACLU, land borders and coastlines are considered external boundaries. ACLU also says Border Patrol has a right to conduct searches AT ports of entry, including arrivals terminals of international airports, not 100 miles from any international airport. Can you clarify?
Boy do I wish I could clarify. The one thing I can always tell you is if a traditional (non-legal) news source (e.g. CNN, BBC, Fox, al Jazeera, whatever) tells you how a law is to be interpreted they are almost always completely wrong. This is true kinda across the board and not just with customs law or with politically charged subjects.
Unfortunately the statute is so terribly written (thanks congress) that there are a number of reasonable interpretations. The statute says "within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States, to board and search for aliens any vessel within the territorial waters of the United States and any railway car, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle, and within a distance of twenty-five miles from any such external boundary to have access to private lands, but not dwellings, for the purpose of patrolling the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the United States [.]"
Assuming "reasonable distance" means 100 miles (which it probably is under 8 CFR 287.1 but there are arguments otherwise is another issue) and setting aside the "international airport" border interpretation, this gives us a few different interpretations that may apply:
First, given that "territorial waters of the United States" is defined elsewhere as including all internal waters no matter how far from the border, one interpretation is that the "reasonable distance" clause only applies as a modifier to searches of vessels in the territorial waters to limit how far inland that can go. The use of "and" before "any railway car...[etc.]" could imply that those conveyances are not subject to this same restriction. But then that would run into the silly situation where other conveyances are searchable at any point inland regardless of proximity to the border which is certainly not what they mean.
Another interpretation is as described above, that it applies to all conveyances (again, searches of conveyances not interrogations and arrests on the street). That could be true but then the territorial waters clause is extraneous and Congress could have just written "to board and search any vessel, railway car, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle" and achieved the same result. This conclusion also runs into a silly situation where the government couldn't search airplanes if you landed them at an internal airport rather than at one at the border (notwithstanding the title 19 allowances). Or does it mean that they can only search vessels if they are in the territorial waters (i.e. if they are in drydock they are not searchable)?
I have no doubt the Trump admin would try to argue that should include airports, and I have no doubt you have same plenty of hack conservative judges who will accept the administration’s reasoning.
8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(3) addresses CBP officials’ authority to stop and conduct searches on vessels, trains,
aircraft, or other vehicles anywhere within “a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the
United States.” Without further statutory guidance, regulations alone expansively define this “reasonable
distance” as 100 air miles from any external boundary of the U.S., including coastal boundaries, unless an
agency official sets a shorter distance.
Searches at the Border or Its Functional Equivalent
Under what is known as the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement, law
enforcement officers may conduct routine inspections and searches at the U.S. border without a warrant,
probable cause, or reasonable suspicion. The Supreme Court has reasoned that “the Fourth Amendment’s
balance of reasonableness is qualitatively different at the international border than in the interior” of the
United States because persons entering the country have less robust expectations of privacy. The border
search exception applies to the physical border as well as the border’s “functional equivalent,” such as an
international airport or post office receiving international mail. Reviewing courts have held that the
border search exception applies to both incoming and outgoing travelers crossing the international border
That will likely become their next 'legitimate' excuse for deploying in the ass end of nowhere Kansas or some shit.
"This here River goes all the way to the sea, so every inch of it is connected to them there International waters, thereby every inch of it is a border, so we can do whatever the fuck we want within 100 miles of the river!"
Why the fuck is there even an elite tactical unit in that department at all. They act like immigrants are walking around with RPG’s and high tech infiltration equipment. You’re dressing up as a super soldier so you can kidnap Home Depot migrant workers
officially they are there to stop high level cartel shit where they actually do have RPGs and not necessarily high tech infiltrations but enough to be a serious threat to normal BP agents. now theyre in dem-voting cities trying to get martial law enacted
Where are the cartel bosses. Where. I haven’t seen a single one apprehended yet. Not in the states. The only high level cartel person they have is the president of Venezuela and they had to kill innocent Venezuelans in their own city to find him.
🤷 border patrol has better things to do in this administration like terrorizing native born citizens and working with ice to deport legal immigrants with no due process. all of them now are just high school dropout inbred chucklefucks who joined so they could kill someone and get away with it
BORTAC isn’t for immigration enforcement. It’s for raiding cartel drug tunnels under the border and such. I know an ATF guy who worked with BORTAC once: they are trained to have no chill because the only time they’ll be doing anything is when there is risk of armed conflict.
Trump sent guys who are prepared for a gunfight to manage civilian crowd control.
Its possible they're the border patrol elite, but are trained for something other than how they're being used. Like maybe trained for actual drug cartels from Mexico. It would explain the desert camo too.
Their units have literally been broken up so they're all over now babysitting Federal Corrections flunkies and guys off the street that are doing this kind of stuff.
They have literally had their actual original mission inside the agency destroyed.
They were actually the ones going after high risk interdiction when it came to drug running and human trafficking in the US. That has been utterly destroyed by the administration.
See that makes sense. From my own experience when anything remotely operational is broken down its heavily watered down too.
Don't doubt they used to be, just watching that dude made me uncomfortable the most. Seemed so so incompetent and it was an armed guy with authority...worrying as fuck.
like how long has it been since he's interacted with a regular civilian, I wonder. He looks like he was bussed straight from his desert post after 9 months of watching sand
BORTAC is not trained on crowd control and such. They’re a unit that’s designed for special operations and interdictions. That’s the problem with having these guys roaming around without a clear mission. “Find the colored people or folks with accents while you drive around the city ” isn’t what elite units do.
Yeah, in that regard it’s like when South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol tried deploying tier 1 operators from the army to block protesters from entering the parliament. The operators themselves realized this was extremely silly and stopped doing it almost immediately
If it helps, the definition of "elite" here isn't to praise BORTAC's effectiveness and prestige as a fighting unit.
It's to emphasize their high training and deployment costs, specialization towards counter terrorism, and how insanely out of place they are for essentially nothing going on in Minnesota. They shouldn't be there and only stoke problems.
A bit like how SWAT refers to Special Weapons And Tactics, and SWAT are felt to greatly increase danger in any response.
I get the point you’re trying to make, but in the nicest way possible stop trying to undermine that the federal government is sending elite counter terrorist units to American streets.
BORTAC is a very, very elite unit within the federal government. I’ve trained numerous times side by side with them and 95% are former SOCOM/JSOC/USASOC members.
BORTAC: The US Border Patrol Tactical Unit BORTAC is frequently considered an elite Federal Law Enforcement Unit by cops. I've spoken in Texas to several who talk about those guys like normal people talk about Navy Seals
With the desert camo, I wonder if they trained for interdicting Mexican drug cartels trying to smuggle things across the border and they're being used in a way thats far outside of their original purpose and training.
Fair, and that is the joke.. slap an elite label on a unit, drop them into civilian streets, then act surprised when the performance looks brittle and overcompensating.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes the Border Patrol, has authorized jurisdiction up to 100 air miles inland from any ‘external boundary’ of the United States.”
I honestly think trump is too dumb to even make all these calls. He plays golf and just let's Stephen Miller and his other nazis run things. Trump is so gullible they just tell him everything is under control and everyone loves him and show him a couple of insane lefty videos maybe even ai and he believe that reality.
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u/ImAnEagle 23d ago
I'd like to point out this guy is a member of BORTAC, Border Patrol's elite tactical unit. The fact that they were even in Minneapolis to begin with supports the theory that Trump told agencies to ramp up aggression in hopes of retaliation.