Two days after an ICE agent shot and killed Renée Good in Minneapolis, Rep. Roger Williams issued an ultimatum to the Trump administration’s critics in Minnesota and beyond.
“People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation. “And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be protected.”
That’s a pretty clear encapsulation of MAGA-world’s views on dissent these days. You aren’t supposed to protest. You aren’t supposed to “yell at” or “challenge” the militarized federal agents occupying your city. And anyone who wants to be “protected” should probably just stay “in their homes.” Williams isn’t some fringe backbencher; he’s a seven-term congressman who chairs the House Small Business Committee. He is announcing de facto government policy.
For nearly a year, President Donald Trump and his allies have been engaged in an escalating assault on the First Amendment. The administration has systematically targeted or threatened many of Trump’s most prominent critics: massive law firms, Jimmy Kimmel, even, at one point, Elon Musk. But it’s worth keeping in mind that some of the earliest victims of the president’s second-term war on speech were far less powerful.
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I’m a white dude who admittedly has t been very vocal.
Time to do some singing exercises and warm up the old pipes.
Demonstrating/Protesting is the peaceful compromise to the violent alternative. You want us to stop? Okay.
“People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation. "And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way. And the people that are staying in their homes or doing the right thing need to be protected.”
Motherfucker is your ass really trying to give people a stay at home order?
I agree, let’s escalate!
“People need to quit demonstrating, quit yelling at law enforcement, challenging law enforcement, and begin to get civil,” the Texas Republican told NewsNation.
Protests getting you down, lil’ Rog? Going on too long? Getting too loud? Drawing attention you find irritating? Pulling in fence-sitters who don’t want to get murdered by no-name thugs with guns and badges? People who actually know and love the Constitution and don’t like you shitting on it? Neighbors using your repression to build strong communities for themselves and loudly bringing attention to your murderous ethos to spite you? Protesters not giving into your incitements to riot? Taking too long for an excuse to declare martial law? Don’t want to lose your fascist party’s power in the midterms?
Glad to hear it! Thanks for letting us know how frightened you are that we might actually get the word to people you want to keep safely in your bubble until you’re ready to strip them of everything they hold dear, too, and keep you from building a totalitarian state from the ruins of the democracy you’re trying to destroy.
In fact, THANK YOU, lil’ Rog. For validating the protests with your public acknowledgement without even the slightest idea that “sit down and shut up” is a nonsensical response for anyone interested in knowing WHY people are not doing just that. You personally may still have a grade school mindset, but many of us who have to work for a living are well capable of looking past the superficial, and find you nothing more than a scared, inconvenienced liar desperate to retain power.
“And until we do that, I guess we’re going to have it this way.”
I goddamn well hope so, you pedophile defending piece of shit. That and more.
We really should stop showing up. Stop showing up to work. Stop showing up to buy things. Stop showing up to sign up for the military. Stop reproducing.
Join or create your work union and organize strikes in all workplaces. Bring the entire american economy to a standstill for a day to start with. Organize strike funds for those in need. Demand the dissolution of ICE and this government. They only care about money and the economy, so hit em where it hurts and spread the word, cause only together a strike works. Look at the nurses in New York City
I’ve been saying this for years. All we need to do is just stay at home for a few days. Really put the fear of God into these rich fucks.
Just the entire Eastern seaboard will do.
In just one day of sitting around not buying anything they’ll lose countless billions.
And that’s where you have to hit them, in the pocket. The one place they fear the most.
Someone should go to one of these protests with a copy of the constitution - preferably in a scroll of some kind - so that when an ICE rapist comes up to them, said agent will tear it away in a fit of anger. Photographers need to be ready to see ICE shredding the constitution physically (to drive home the message they’re doing it in general).
Lol they don’t give a fuck about the constitution, this is now an era of might makes right to them and they will keep doing worse things until something stops them.
I just meant how it would look on the news. Might spur a few more people sitting at home into action.
MAGA Rep Roger Williams, TX, got it.
Or we could all just be a bunch of “tourist” visiting a city - just like all the “tourist” that “just visited” the capitol on January 6th 2021.
I have seriously been thinking about taking all my PTO and getting a bus to just stand in front of the white house protesting. No plan, no organizing, just a hope that I could get people to join me. I’d probably lose my job though.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Get fucked Roger.
They don’t need to make a new law to fuck with your freedoms even more.
That old piece of paper will not protect you.
They are only using the law of violence monopoly.
“Well, you see, the first amendment prevents congress from passing laws, but under the unitary executive principle, the president doesn’t need authority via congress to suppress free speech” — Stephen Miller, probably.
Clarence Thomas definitely.
petition the Government
If money is speech then bricks can be petitions.
Congress shall make no law…
Or else, what?
And I’m sure they will argue that since it says ‘shall’ and not ‘must’ then it’s just a suggestion.
In government parlance, “will”, “shall”, and “must” are all mandatory actions. In other words, Congress is explicitly forbidden from making a law that limits freedom of speech.
However, it doesn’t seem this administration puts much stock in following the law.
Or else the law is challenged and the supreme court strikes it down. Except we all know how that will go
We could exercise our 2nd amendment right and start killing Nazis again.
Sugar in a gas tank is very effective at neutralizing a vehicle. They can’t get there if they can’t drive, because they are fat and out of shape.
It’s actually not that effective. A car can drive for dozens if not hundreds of miles with sugar in the tank. Most of the sugar would get picked up by the fuel filter, and the small amount that gets through would probably not be enough to brick an engine. It’d drive like shit after a while, and they’d have to swap out the fuel filter, but the car would still drive.
Bleach any better? It rusts the gas tank
Yeah. Better to use Portland cement.
Might need to organize a little to make that anywhere near effective, instead of simply lighting any one of the powder kegs these fucknuts’re endlessly sandbagging everywhere they can… 🤌🏼🤷🏼♂️
They’re hoping that this issue goes to the SC
Wait til lil’ Rog figures out that he and the rest of the House have legislated themselves out of power: when actual power is concentrated in the executive with the judicial to backdate the executive’s blank check now and then, who needs legislative at all?
Also, just for those few who are not already aware, this near-total concentration of power in the executive is a key feature of fascism.
All it takes is the supreme court to interpret it in the most braindead way possible for that right to be gone.
Eh, he didn’t make a law. Just a loud complaint. Totally free speech. I agree that he should get fucked though.
I really wish some court would rule that “political statements from office carry outsized consequences for the electorate by way of latitude within their authority, and so carry a similar weight as law thereby violating the 1st”. I really want this legal equivalence because this kind of grandstanding has got to stop. But with the SCOTUS we have right now, I may as well be petitioning from the surface of Mars. One day, perhaps.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
-Frank Wilhoit
Well yeah, by its roots, conservatism is about not rocking the boat. Those who keep their mouths shut are not targetted. My mom kinda has that mindset of just following the authority no matter what. She would be more on the right if it weren’t for my father tempering her.
It’s bully tactics. Bullies push and push and push with plausible deniability, then when they get a reaction they play the victim.
It’s not just a kids’ problem. It happens all the time in adult life too. Someone can do the most rotten shit to you, but as long as they don’t swear, you’re the bad guy when you finally lose it on them.
Fuck these bullies. Grow the fuck up you pieces of shit.
I’m not super happy with this but the only way I ever got bullies to stop was when I hurt them bad enough they didn’t want it to happen again
This is actually a good sign. It’s proof that the demonstration is working. The people that need to be are beginning to become exasperated with the situation.
Press on, press harder. They will do more violence before this is over, but they must be given no ground. No safe haven. They must never feel as though they’ve secured any small victory.
“Just submit to our will! Trust us.”
If the Americans had the same amount of holiday and paid vacation time as the 1st World European countries, there would be larger and more frequent protests. Especially now! Roger can F-OFF! ICE is not law enforcement, just a bunch of fucking uneducated thugs that would burn the US Constitution,
Get civil? You first.
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