US Politics Thread

[mancity2012_eamo]

You can always tell when the post has been written for him. No random capitalisation or grammar/spelling errors.

Anyway, I've just learned that in Minnesota the Democrats have (had) a one vote majority in the Senate, and the House of Reps was tied. Which leads to obvious speculation that this attack could have been carried out with the intention of giving both Chambers to the GOP.

What’s the bets the culprit won’t be taken alive, so we’ll never know the truth of it.

Just a hunch I have.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Perspective.

Google "A history of social and political violence in the United Kingdom since Pitt The Younger."
Google "A history of social and political violence in the United States since the Boston Massacre of 1770."

Of course people are making things worse by their language, and that is also literally NOTHING NEW either. Just like Trump and his weird insistence that everything is either the best ever if he likes it, or the worst ever if he doesn't, this obsessive anti-historical insistence that EVERYTHING is worse than it has ever been sounds like a script right out of the Kremlin.

And when some leftist 60's throwbacks bomb a meeting of "Smith County Republicans" next week killing 20 because they are all Nazis and Fascists we'll all know where to look to assign blame, right?

Perspective.

Two politicians and their spouses have been attacked today in an obvious politically motivated way.

Why not concentrate on that rather than bringing glorified whataboutery?

Just a thought.

 

[SkyBlueFlux]

The police have already said they have a manifesto with a list of targets, some elected, some not. It's fine to speculate, but I'd hope this theory has been tested against the procedure in MN for special elections in cases were an elected rep suddenly dies? Does the governor in MN have the power to appoint a replacement until a special election?

I found these but it doesn't say. Not to worry we'll have the whole story soon.

Office of the State Of Minnesota Secretary of State

Office of the State Of Minnesota Secretary of State

sos.mn.gov

Sec. 204D.17 MN Statutes

204D.17 STATE SENATOR; STATE REPRESENTATIVE; VACANCY IN OFFICE; SPECIAL ELECTION.​

Subdivision 1.​

A vacancy in the office of state senator or state representative shall be filled for the unexpired term by special election upon the writ of the governor as provided in sections 204D.17 to 204D.27; except that if the legislature will not be in session before the expiration of the vacant term no special election is required.

Subd. 2.​

Two or more vacancies may be filled at the same special election and the candidates may be nominated at the same special primary. Any special primary or special election held pursuant to sections 204D.17 to 204D.27 may be held on the same day as any other election.

Yes - sticking just to the facts - they have confirmed it is politically motivated.

No, we don't know what the objective was and probably too early to come to any conclusions as we don't have enough information. I've seen other people online already claiming the assassin was a liberal who was targeting more right wing Democrats who might vote with the GOP on certain issues.

I find that hard to believe (one of those Occam's Razor situations - the most prosaic explanation is just that this guy didn't like Dems) but we can't rule it out.

Given the sensitivity of the situation in the US, it's better to reserve judgment until we know more.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Mass 'not my king' protests expected to be the big story today, counteracting Trump's Dumb Fuck Tank parade.

The assassin has certainly drowned those out.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Perspective.

Google "A history of social and political violence in the United Kingdom since Pitt The Younger."
Google "A history of social and political violence in the United States since the Boston Massacre of 1770."

Of course people are making things worse by their language, and that is also literally NOTHING NEW either. Just like Trump and his weird insistence that everything is either the best ever if he likes it, or the worst ever if he doesn't, this obsessive anti-historical insistence that EVERYTHING is worse than it has ever been sounds like a script right out of the Kremlin.

And when some leftist 60's throwbacks bomb a meeting of "Smith County Republicans" next week killing 20 because they are all Nazis and Fascists we'll all know where to look to assign blame, right?

“Independents”. God how I hate the intellectual pessimism and moral cowardice of “independents” sometimes.

 

[Username Required]

Perspective.

Two politicians and their spouses have been attacked today in an obvious politically motivated way.

Why not concentrate on that rather than bringing glorified whataboutery?

Just a thought.

Other people can read my posts other than you and Foggy.

 

[Username Required]

Forgot to post this:

DHS Memo Warned Of Attacks Like Minnesota Shootings

A confidential Trump DHS memo obtained by ABC News last year warned about the risk of attacks like the targeted shootings of Minnesota Democrats.

www.mediaite.com

The attack comes a little over a year after ABC News obtained a DHS memo sounding the alarm on these sorts of attacks:

Threats to high-profile officials are on the rise, and would-be attackers seeking to cause harm or fear are increasingly trying to hit them where they live – literally – according to a new federal intelligence bulletin.

A concerning “recent uptick” in personal residences targeted has left well-known people in both the public and private sector, their families and their staff “vulnerable to attack” in their own homes – and comes at a moment already marked by historic partisan tensions and volatility, analysts at the Department of Homeland Security said in a briefing memo issued on March 11.

The confidential memo, obtained by ABC News, details how threat actors, espousing a range of ideologies and promoting these attacks online, have moved beyond more traditional targets to those with less robust security measures – like home addresses. The pivot has posed “multiple challenges” for law enforcement working to detect and disrupt insidious plots.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Perspective.

Two politicians and their spouses have been attacked today in an obvious politically motivated way.

Why not concentrate on that rather than bringing glorified whataboutery?

Just a thought.

Then you have to confront the fruits of the tree of belief you’ve made your home under. Some people can do it, other people can’t.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Former Fox News talking head with a drinking problem turns out to be an absolute disaster at running the DoD.

I'm shocked!!!

 

[Username Required]

Attacking the judiciary is a problem. From last year.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/8093

Cornyn, Coons, Colleagues’ Bill to Protect State and Local Judges Passes Senate | Senator Cornyn

News WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Chris Coons (D-DE), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) released the following statements after their Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, which would establish a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center...

www.cornyn.senate.gov

June 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that would create a new resource center to provide threat monitoring and training for judges and personnel in state and local courts in response to a rising number of threats to the judiciary.

The Senate late Wednesday unanimously passed the bipartisan Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act, legislation that lawmakers argued was necessary to help protect the safety of judges and others who work in state courthouses nationwide.

Threats to federal judges have more than doubled in 'alarming' spike, US Marshals director says

Federal judges targeted by threats have more than doubled over the last three years amid a surge in violent and harassing messages directed at public officials around the country.

apnews.com

On and on and on, even assassination attempts on members of SCOTUS, and harassment outside their houses. However, who is number one in making it worse than ever? Consistently? Never apologizing? Never dialing it back?

This is from just 2 days ago.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/on-demand/attacks-on-judges-existential-threat/

This episode describes attacks on judges since January 2025, how they differ from past attacks and criticism, the impact of bogus impeachment efforts, and the way forward. Judge Nancy Gertner (Ret.) and Nathan Bruemmer, the Chair of the Rapid Response Committee, reflect on what makes this moment unique, the stakes for judicial independence, and how we can safeguard the integrity of the courts in the face of increasing political pressure.

From last year.

The United States Marshall’s Service reports that serious threats to federal judges have doubled since 2021, a pattern also seen at the state court level. There have been multiple high-profile physical attacks on judges and their families, including homicides, as well a barrage of threats sent directly to judges or posted on social media. In addition, several national studies have noted a drop in the public’s trust and confidence in the courts.

“My life has been threatened several times resulting in two arrests, one conviction, and the purchase of my new gun,” one judge wrote in the comments.

"The attacks on the Judiciary by government figures have normalized the behavior. Two weeks ago, a litigant said I should be killed and my house burnt down with my family in it. Big talk from small people, but still drives up stress levels,” another judge said.

Over half of judges report threats, environment affecting mental health - The National Judicial College

Founded in 1963, The National Judicial College is the nation’s leading provider of judicial education. Our mission remains as relevant as ever.

www.judges.org

WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said on Thursday attacks by Republican President Donald Trump and his allies on judges were "not random" and seemed "designed to intimidate the judiciary."

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked Trump in March for urging the impeachment of a federal judge, laying bare tensions between the country's executive and the judiciary as Trump's sweeping assertions of power encounter judicial obstacles.

US Supreme Court Justice Jackson criticizes Trump's attacks on judges

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said attacks by President Donald Trump and his allies on judges were "not random" and seemed "designed to intimidate the judiciary."

www.reuters.com

 

[Blue Maverick]

Surprised it took so long for these shootings I sadly expect many more, Newsom needs to be careful,

 

[Username Required]

Surprised it took so long for these shootings I sadly expect many more, Newsom needs to be careful,

Everyone needs to be careful.

Remember this? From 2017.

A gunman opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball team practicing on a suburban Virginia field Wednesday, critically wounding Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise and shooting four other people as horrified legislators and staffers scrambled for cover amid a barrage of bullets.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The 66-year-old Illinois man who opened fire early Wednesday on members of Congress practicing for a charity baseball game had raged against President Trump and once singled out House Majority Whip Steve Scalise

On Wednesday morning, South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan said he was leaving practice early when the man he believes was the gunman asked him if the players were Democrats or Republicans.

"I told him they were Republicans, he said 'OK, thanks,' and turned around," Duncan told reporters. "I got in the car and left."

'It's time to destroy Trump & Co.': Scalise shooter raged on Facebook

James Hodgkinson, who shot Rep. Scalise and four others, had a lengthy record of arrests.

www.usatoday.com

The annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity is a long-standing bipartisan tradition where members of the United States Congress are divided into teams by political affiliation to compete in a friendly baseball match. On June 14, 2017, in Alexandria, Virginia, however, the fun was quickly replaced with terror as shots rang out during the Republican practice.

The assailant, James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old man from Belleville, Illinois, approached the field armed with a 7.62mm caliber SKS rifle and a 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun. He began shooting at the players and others present, leading to a chaotic and dangerous situation. Hodgkinson, who had a history of expressing vehement anti-Republican views on social media, appeared to have specifically targeted the Republican members of Congress.

June 14, 2017: The Congressional Baseball Game Changes Forever - This Day of History

The annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity is a long-standing bipartisan tradition where members of the United States Congress are divided into teams by political affiliation to compete in a friendly baseball match. On June 14, 2017, in Alexandria, Virginia, however, the fun was quickly...

thisdayofhistory.com

 

[Username Required]

Remember this?

President Donald Trump bashed federal judges as "monsters" who want the United States "to go to hell" in an all-caps Memorial Day message published on Truth Social.

In an attack focused on illegal immigration, the president accused U.S. judges suffering from "an ideology that is sick" of having been "on a mission to keep murderers, drug dealers, rapists, gang members, and released prisoners from all over the world" in the country over the last four years.

Donald Trump attacks judges in all-caps Memorial Day message: "MONSTERS"

President Donald Trump has accused federal judges of wanting the U.S. to "go to hell."

www.newsweek.com

I can imagine a religiously-motivated radical Abolitionist accusing SCOTUS of being a "monster" that wanted America "to go to hell" after Dred Scott

- the United States Supreme Court decided 7–2 against Scott, finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States -

but this is from a President, in 2025, a man who posts that judges have the conscience object to keep foreign-born murderers, rapists and drug dealers from...justice?

All part of a judicial conspiracy (literally) of monsters to permit evil-doers to victimize Americans to such a degree the entire country will "go to hell", and as "hell" is the worst thing imaginable (you wish you were only in a Lake of Fire for all eternity) then it follows that these judges (monsters) must be the worst people imaginable to will the end, right?

 

[Vic]

When Biden dod stuff like this, we usedd to call ot a stutter or a gaffe. But i guess a guy in q long monologue mistaking space for moon is now....



BIG LIE!!!!!!!


We caught them in a big one. The biggest lie ever.. i know im being clarkied now. Y'all cant be thos desperate.

@Username Required cam you please provide the thread with REAL administration scandals and misdeeds?

We need help here!

Excuse me if we in the UK don't fully grasp every bit of US / Trump nonsense.

Are you defending the Army Secretary for meaning to say "a colonel astronaut on the Space Station" but misspeaking and saying "a soldier on the moon"? And pleading the excuse that a man in his 80s sometimes made a gaffe?

 

[Vic]

Perspective.

Google "A history of social and political violence in the United Kingdom since Pitt The Younger."
Google "A history of social and political violence in the United States since the Boston Massacre of 1770."

Of course people are making things worse by their language, and that is also literally NOTHING NEW either. Just like Trump and his weird insistence that everything is either the best ever if he likes it, or the worst ever if he doesn't, this obsessive anti-historical insistence that EVERYTHING is worse than it has ever been sounds like a script right out of the Kremlin.

And when some leftist 60's throwbacks bomb a meeting of "Smith County Republicans" next week killing 20 because they are all Nazis and Fascists we'll all know where to look to assign blame, right?

Weird is as weird does.

 

[The blue phantom]

He's trying his best is @Username Required that it's no big deal. The more you try and convince folk it's nothing to do with Trump the more you look ridiculous

 

[Username Required]

Attacking elected officials or judges or D.A.s has to be a red-line. It's totally out-of-hand. Since 2016 Trump has been "heightening the contradictions in the developing correlation of forces", so he's useful for that I suppose, to me he's some sort of stress-test.

The Constitution guarantees to the several states a republican form of government. That form of government is predicted on the consent of the governed who actualize their will through democratic elections for the purpose of creating a legislative body, an executive, and indirectly a judiciary all of which, ultimately, must be of the people, by the people, for the people. This shit has to stop.

Actually literally attacking elected officials and the judiciary, within and without the states, I don't care who's at it, it must stop, zero tolerance.

In my own state I hope Michelle Wu, Elizabeth Warren and Maura Healy have proper security. One of my neighbors works for the state police and I'll be having a few regular Saturday night beers with him starting about 6pm so I'm going to ask him if he knows anything / can he comment.

 

[Username Required]

He's trying his best is @Username Required that it's no big deal. The more you try and convince folk it's nothing to do with Trump the more you look ridiculous

Oh well. I'm sorry I failed to convince you that these murders / political assassinations are both no big deal and nothing to do with Trump. I'll try to do better for you and the rest of the rubber room.

 

[Vic]

He's trying his best is @Username Required that it's no big deal. The more you try and convince folk it's nothing to do with Trump the more you look ridiculous

Did you actually understand what his last post meant? Well done, sir.

 

[Username Required]

So the assassin has been identified.

Julio Rosas with TheBlaze shared a copy of a notarized appointment signed by Walz shows Vance Luther Boelter was named to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board as a business member.

“I’m told by a police source in Minnesota the suspect in the shootings of MN state lawmakers is Vance Luther Boelter. It appears it is the same Boelter who was appointed to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board in 2019 by Gov. Tim Walz. He appointed to the Governor’s Workforce Development Council in 2016 by then-Gov. Mark Dayton.”

BREAKING: Suspect ID’d in Killing of Minnesota Democrats As Former Tim Walz Board Appointee

Democratic State House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were shot and killed on Saturday, allegedly by a man appointed by Walz.

www.mediaite.com

Two people familiar with the matter identified the suspect being sought as 57-year-old Vance Boelter.

“When we did a search of the vehicle, there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials. We immediately made alerts to the state. We took action on alerting them and providing security where necessary,” said Bruley.

State Patrol Col. Christina Bogojevic asked people “out of an abundance of caution” not to attend any of the “No Kings” protests that were scheduled for across the state on Saturday.

Bogojevic said authorities didn’t have any direct evidence that the protests would be targeted, but said the suspect had some “No Kings” flyers in their car. Organizers announced that all of the protests across the state were canceled.

Authorities still searching for suspect in shooting of 2 Minnesota state lawmakers

Authorities are searching for a 57-year-old man suspected of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers, officials tell The Associated Press.

apnews.com

This is MN so I'm guessing no death penalty.