I've always felt as long as flabbyassolini came into politics, he has ordered personal threats against political and regular enemies which is far more effective than threatening primary. Why else would people switch their votes almost instantly like they do and stay imprisoned in the repulseklan party.
Did schroomer get creditable death threats? These people are so scared they can't even go to law enforcement of the government. I think there needs to be an outside lawyer firm willing to protect politicians threatened by shitfaces regime. Easier said than done obviously.
Shooting of Israeli embassy staffers underscores US ‘era of violent populism’
"MAGA death threats drive Trump agenda - Violent Threats Against Members of Congress Spiked as Senate Considered Trump’s Nominees"
Rachel Leingang
This is the latest act of violence in a string of incidents that have affected Jewish, Arab and Muslim communities
Sat 24 May 2025 01.32 AEST
People attend a candlelight vigil for Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington DC on Thursday. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
The killing of two staff of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC comes as the war in Gaza has splintered the American body politic alongside the ongoing rise in political violence.
A shooter, identified as Elias Rodriguez, shot the two people, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday after they left an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. Rodriguez reportedly chanted “free, free Palestine” while being detained by security.
But an uptick in violence is not uniquely associated with the war in Gaza. It’s a feature of this “era of violent populism”, said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats. Between assassination attempts on Donald Trump, ongoing threats of violence against a wide swath of government officials including judges, and an arson attack against the Pennsylvania governor, Wednesday’s shooting was not one that happened in isolation.
“This is a chronic illness in our country,” Pape said. “This is not a set of isolated events.”
People who commit acts of political violence often believe they will be celebrated by some portion of the public that supports the same goals, he said. The alleged killer’s supposed manifesto nods at this.
“They think about how they want to be perceived and what they want the news to be saying about them afterwards,”said Liliana Mason, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. “And it’s a very kind of self-oriented set of motivations.”
“We know that this guy screamed Free Palestine. He probably thought that he was doing something political. But also, there are plenty of people who think we should free Palestine, who are not going to go murder a couple people.”
A small portion of the pro-Palestinian movement has formally embraced the language of armed resistance, but the vast majority of those protesting against the war have been non-violent.
In the day since the shooting, condemnations have come from all sides of the political spectrum, including from politicians who have opposed US involvement in the war and joined pro-Palestinian protests. It also sparked a debate over the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Israel political violence, in part because it remains unclear what the perpetrator knew about his victims.
“My heart breaks for the loved ones of the victims of last night’s attack in DC,” said Rashida Tlaib, a congresswoman who is Palestinian American. “Nobody deserves such terrible violence. Everyone in our communities deserves to live in safety and in peace.”
Trump offered condolences to the loved ones of the couple killed in the attack. “These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Jews in the US have said it is another example of the menace they are facing as people protest against the war. Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania whose residence was the target of an antisemitic arson earlier this year, said he was “heartbroken and horrified” by the attack. “May their memories be a blessing and a call to action for each of us,” he wrote on social media.
A writer in the conservative Jewish publication Commentary wrote that Jewish institutions would quickly work to increase security and that “Jews will be arming ourselves”.
Pape’s surveys have tracked a growing acceptance of using violence to achieve political goals across the political spectrum.
A poll he conducted in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League in spring 2023, before the Gaza war began, found that Americans who are highly antisemitic were three times more likely to support violence to achieve political aims than the general population. (The Anti-Defamation League is known for tracking antisemitism, but its methods have come under scrutiny for conflating antisemitism and anti-Zionism.)
But the killings also show that the US is a “tinderbox” and that political violence is a slippery slope, said Pape. People tend to compartmentalize political violence – if there’s an act of violence against Jews, it’s only a Jewish issue, the thinking goes, he said. But violence tends to beget more violence, and more acceptance of violence.
His surveys in 2024 found increasing support for violence against Trump alongside support for violence in favor of Trump, stemming in part from a belief that the electoral and political systems won’t address their grievances.
“The more political violence there is against Trump, the more there will be political violence against Democratic leaders like Josh Shapiro,” Pape said. “The more there’s political violence against Josh Shapiro, the more there will be antisemitic political violence. These are not compartmentalized issues.”
Meanwhile, it’s not only those in the Jewish and Palestinian communities who are being affected, but also those who have taken part in demonstrations associated with the war in Gaza.
Police have used force against protesters on campuses and off, seeking to quash the mass movements that have sprung up around the globe. Thousands of students have been arrested, suspended, kicked out of colleges, lost financial aid, had their degrees withheld. Others who were in the US on visas have seen their immigration threatened and face deportation.
The killings in Washington will probably lead to further crackdowns by the Trump administration on the pro-Palestinian cause. Pape’s most recent survey, earlier this month, showed 39% of Democrats agreed that using force was justified to remove Trump from office and that only 44% of Republicans opposed Trump using the US military to stop protests.
“We can sleepwalk into martial law pretty easily,” Pape warned.
Donald Trump’s ‘chilling effect’ on free speech and dissent is threatening US democracy
"MAGA death threats drive Trump agenda - Violent Threats Against Members of Congress Spiked as Senate Considered Trump’s Nominees"
See also:
Narcissist and Solipsist, why not both - Trump isn’t a narcissist – he’s a solipsist. And it means a few simple things [...]“This is from when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt,” he told us, as I recall. “It says that Alexander was the child of Amen, the god of all the gods, the one who was so great that even to this day we say his name at the end of prayers.” “Why would Alexander make that claim?” I asked. “Because” he said, “it’s a lot easier to seize and hold power when people think you have a connection to their idea of divinity.” While modern Hebrew scholars may disagree about why “amen” ends our prayers, it was a lesson for me that I’ve kept in mind ever since. Beware of leaders asserting connections to divinity, particularly if they’re grasping for political or financial power. P - Trump is now openly encouraging his followers to think of him as divine or, at least, divinely inspired. And this isn’t a new pitch, it’s just getting a new round of attention." https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=176214195
Published: March 27, 2025 4.30am AEDT
Author Dafydd Townley Teaching Fellow in US politics and international security, University of Portsmouth
Disclosure statement...
The second Donald Trump administration has already sent shockwaves through the political establishment on both sides of the Atlantic. Overseas, the focus has been on the administration’s apparent dismantling of the post-war international order and Trump’s apparent pivot away from America’s traditional allies towards a warmer relationship with Russia and Vladimir Putin. But within the United States itself, the greatest concerns are associated with administration actions that, for many, suggest a deliberate destruction of American democracy.
Such fears in the US are not isolated to the political elites, but are shared by citizens across the entire nation. But what is also emerging is a concerted assault on people’s ability to push back – or even complain – about some of the measures being introduced by Trump 2.0. This will inevitably result in what is often called a “chilling effect” .. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/publications/the-concept-of-chilling-effect, where it becomes too hard – or too dangerous – to voice dissent.
Many of Trump’s policies – the mass deportations, the wholesale sacking of public servants by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), the decision to revoke birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants – have been challenged in the courts. The Trump administration is now embroiled in a range of legal challenges. It is here that Trump’s disdain for a legal system that has temporarily blocked the wishes of the president has emerged.
[Insert: [...]Senators may not have confirmed Hegseth at gunpoint—but may have at the threat of a gun being pointed at them. P - In the few short weeks since the cabinet confirmation battles closed, the Trump administration has issued a litany of illegal and unconstitutional orders, claimed extraordinary powers to seize and deport people without due process, to round up residents and deport them based on their speech, to deny some infants birthright citizenship, to retaliate against law firms and universities based on speech, to dismantle federal agencies and fire watchdogs and commissioners whose jobs are protected by law. The list goes on. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have hardly protested. Some are likely on board with all Trump’s actions and nominees. Others may simply fear political retribution. But if the level of threats against members of Congress holds steady, it will be hard to ignore the degree to which violence, or the threat of it, is keeping Trump’s agenda rolling. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=176235700]
Chilling effect
Judicial decisions calling for the administration to reverse or pause some of these policies have been greeted by Trump and some of his senior colleagues (including Musk and the vice-president J.D.Vance), with noisy complaints at judicial interference in government. Even, in some cases, calls for the impeachment of judges who rule against the government.
Not only did the administration ignore the court’s ruling that suspended the forced expulsion of Venezuelans to El Salvador, some of whom were in the US legally, but Trump attacked the judge on social media calling him a corrupt “radical left lunatic” and called for his impeachment.
This stirred the chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Glover Roberts Jr., to intervene. He reminded the president that America doesn’t settle its disputes, saying that the “normal appellate review process exists for that purpose”. Later, Tom Homan, Trump’s chief adviser on immigration issues, told ABC News that the administration would abide by court rulings on the matter.
The pressure being brought to bear on America’s legal system has not stopped at the judiciary. Trump has recently targeted some of America’s biggest and most powerful law firms, seemingly for no other reason than their acting for clients who have opposed his administration.
On March 25, Trump signed an executive order targeting Jenner & Block .. https://www.ft.com/content/4f1aca93-62b5-419f-9182-a3a10bbe77c6 , one of whose partners, Andrew Weissmann, worked with special prosecutor Robert Mueller on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The executive order calls for the firms to be blacklisted from government work and for their employees to have any security clearances removed, for them to be barred from any federal government contracts and refused access to federal government buildings. A death warrant for the firm in other words.
This follows the news that the head of the prestigious law firm Paul Weiss, Brad Karp, had signed a deal with the White House committing to providing millions of dollars worth of pro-bono legal work for causes nominated by the president. He’s also agreed to stop using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, which had been faced with a similar fate.
of the White House press pool, sidelining major media outlets.
These actions mark a significant downgrading of press freedom in America. They are undermining the role of independent journalism in their key function of holding power to account. By restricting access and silencing critical voices, his administration has raised concerns over transparency and the free flow of information in the domestic media landscapes.
Dissent: student activists protest the arrest of Columbia university graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil. EPA-EFE/Sarah Yenesel
Universities have traditionally been bastions of independent thought. We saw that with the massive protests against US policy towards Israel and Palestine which have roiled campuses during the conflict in Gaza. But universities are also seen by many in the administration as a hotbed of “woke” activism. Accordingly Trump 2.0 has fixed its sights on one of the most prominent US universities: Columbia.
Citing what it says is a repeated failure to protect students from antisemitic harassment, the administration cancelled US$400m (£310 million) of federal contracts with the university. Columbia caved in to the pressure moments before the administration’s deadline passed. It agreed to overhaul its disciplinary procedures and “review” its regional studies programmes, starting with those covering the Middle East.
Columbia’s academic staff are horrified. They are launching legal action against the government, alleging that “the Trump administration is coercing Columbia University to do its bidding and regulate speech and expression on campus”.
Democracy in peril
Why is this all so worrying? The legal system, the media and universities are the pillars of US democratic freedoms. The Trump administration’s undermining of these institutions is a blatant attempt to impose an authoritarian rule by bypassing any counterbalance to executive power. And the US Supreme Court has ruled that he is almost entirely immune from prosecution while doing it.
The checks and balances system of government in the US was designed to ensure that no single branch could dominate the political process. But partisan loyalty, and loyalty to Trump over the party, now outweighs constitutional responsibility for the majority of those within the Republican Party.
[Felt it was Orwell in the first three sentences - "Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake." Guess it felt like that because we are experiencing it today more than we ever have before. It really is spot on isn't it .. Project 2025: The right-wing wish list for Trump's second term Related: Project 2025 Would Destroy the U.S. System of Checks and Balances and Create an Imperial Presidency [...]· Yarvin: “Until this “unitary executive” is so much “more powerful” than the present office that the President considers both the judicial and legislative branches purely ceremonial and advisory — with the same level of actual sovereignty as Charles III today — the “unitary executive” will not work.” “A Conversation About Monarchy”, Gray Mirror, March 12, 2024 https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=176213833]
American democracy is under threat. Not from the external existential threats it faced over the past century such as communism and Islamic fundamentalism, but from within its own system. Those Americans who are terrified about this threat are trying to fight back, but Trump’s assault on dissent is so chilling that this is becoming increasingly dangerous.
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