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This mother@#*&^ing guy.
I want to be REAL clear about what he's doing rhetorically here, because we're going to see a whole lot more of it before this year is done. 1/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095516276592641
I want to be REAL clear about what he's doing rhetorically here, because we're going to see a whole lot more of it before this year is done. 1/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095516276592641
First, "our men and women in uniform," lumping DHS in together with the military and police, trying to appropriate the respect that Americans still have toward the latter. 2/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095516276592641
Then the claim that they're "patriots."
Patriots respect the Constitution. DHS officers clearly don't. They're not patriots, they're authoritarian, nationalist thugs. If they were patriots, they'd quit rather than follow illegal orders. 3/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095516276592641
Patriots respect the Constitution. DHS officers clearly don't. They're not patriots, they're authoritarian, nationalist thugs. If they were patriots, they'd quit rather than follow illegal orders. 3/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095516276592641
And the orders ARE illegal. These snatch squads in Portland inherently, flagrantly violate the 4th, 5th, 10th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, and the way they're being employed violates the First. 4/ https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/
Second, "Here's what I saw in Portland." OMG ONOZ
Here's what I see: No blood. No tear gas. No batons. No bullets. No violence.
What I see is impertinence. Disrespect. A challenge to authority. This is what Wolf sees and finds unacceptable. 5/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095525122453504
Here's what I see: No blood. No tear gas. No batons. No bullets. No violence.
What I see is impertinence. Disrespect. A challenge to authority. This is what Wolf sees and finds unacceptable. 5/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095525122453504
He's trying to redefine dissent as an act of violence against the state. The crime here isn't even the damage to property. It's the challenge to the social order, which CERTAIN PEOPLE don't know their place in. 6/
Wolf and DHS did far more damage to the dignity and sanctity of that federal courthouse and the people who work in it when they sent snatch squads out to round up protesters and unconstitutionally detained them inside it than the protesters did with their graffiti. 7/
"Violent anarchists." He's not talking about DHS officers conducting extrajudicial abductions of U.S. citizens. He's talking about citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest. 8/ https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1284095535067136002?s=19
The "violence" is their refusal to be silent. The "anarchy" is their refusal to respect an increasingly illegitimate authority.
Damage to property—and, more important, damage to authority—is being called "violence," while damage to people's bodies and liberties is not. 9/
Damage to property—and, more important, damage to authority—is being called "violence," while damage to people's bodies and liberties is not. 9/
These statements are acts of rhetorical acrobatics worthy of the Moscow Circus.
They should not be taken literally, but they should be taken very seriously. They're how this administration is going to justify ending America as we were taught to understand and revere it. /end
They should not be taken literally, but they should be taken very seriously. They're how this administration is going to justify ending America as we were taught to understand and revere it. /end
One last thought on what Wolf is calling "anarchy," from one T. Jefferson:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights … "
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights … "
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it … "
This, per Wolf, is "anarchy," while gangs of goons claiming powers not lawfully granted to them snatching citizens off the streets and hauling them off in unmarked vans to be detained without charge are "patriots."
