They are the baddies


Department of Homeland Security agents are proud of their mission, which is to carry out mass deportations.

They might as well start wearing death’s heads on their belt buckles, except that would ruin their camouflage.

The swamp is just getting thicker and denser. Will we ever be able to get rid of it?

Comments

  1. stuffin says

    I said during Trump’s first term he wasn’t draining the swamp; he was adding his type of creatures to it. Today the swamp is overflowing with all kinds of vile Trump critters. See Kristi Noem, Marco Rubeo and the like.

  2. birgerjohansson says

    I am reminded of the guy who published Der Sturmer, I think he was named Streicher. He got hanged in the end. Fancy that.

  3. lasius says

    I am amazed that I still haven’t heard of a case where the ICE agents were shot in self defense. I am sure those must exist.

  4. moonbat52 says

    Resisting a kidnapper is not a crime (yet). Resisting ICE is. If ICE declares the kidnappers (who target the right people) to be independent contractors, then resisting a kidnapper could be a crime. Resisting is a reaction that isn’t necessarily thought out, so it will be common. Crime, hence, will increase. More crime means more power for ICE. Lather, rinse, repeat.

  5. raven says

    They are just getting started.
    The recently passed GOP funding bill increases ICE’s budget by over 10-fold.

    Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” gives ICE unprecedented funds to ramp up mass deportation campaign
    By Camilo Montoya-Galvez July 9, 2025 / 2:32 PM EDT / CBS News

    Overall, the Republican-led Congress set aside roughly $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security efforts through the legislation, including $75 billion in extra funding for ICE, making it by far the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.
    and
    The law gives ICE $45 billion to expand its already sprawling detention system over the next four years, letting officials use the money to hold both single adults and families with children facing deportation.

    This is a huge amount of money.

    When you have built a paramilitary group of thugs, you can and will use it. What governments can do, they will do.

  6. raven says

    “If you’ve wondered what you would have done if you’d lived in Nazi Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, it’s what you are doing right now.”

    I’m sure everyone has seen this quote by now.
    It is an old quote from years ago.

    It also describes the time we live in.

    If we fight back, we might well win or lose anyway. We are now the majority.
    If we don’t fight back, we are guaranteed to lose.

    I’ve decided to do what I can.
    It isn’t much. Sternly worded posts on the internet, including Freethoughtblogs.
    I’ve been to 4 protest demonstrations by now.
    Donating money to my Progressive causes as usual.
    Boycotting right wingnut companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and Amazon.
    I will never buy satellite launch services from SpaceX or a Tesla car.

    It isn’t much but ironically, it is more than some Democratic party elected Representatives and Senators.

  7. says

    I don’t remember where I got my last pair of camo pants from, but it wasn’t Walmart. And I’m neither ICE nor a criminal…

  8. vinnievidivici says

    Gleeful. ICE and many other branches of Law Enforcement are gleeful that they can now be awful to their fellow humans. (Aye, there may be the rub. “Fellow humans….”)

    The thing is, the cops who are so, so happy to do the bidding of awful people have always been awful too, but had to restrain themselves. Well, the restraints are off! “Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war!”

  9. says

    I think it not at all coincidental that ICE raids look like anti-superhero-enforcement activities from HBO’s Watchmen… with all of the icky context referenced therein. Sorry, guys, taking inspiration for your appearance from a comic book doesn’t help your credibility.

  10. christoph says

    @ Jaws, # 11: Also, check out the “Punisher” tattoos on some of these masked tough guy wannabes.

  11. grandolddeity says

    There are a couple of old slogans we can dust off and repurpose: No Means No, Just Say No. These malcontents will NOT stop unless stopped. The first step is to “emphatically” “say” NO! Most of the chickens stop there.

  12. raven says

    There will be blood in the street thanks to ICE and their co enforcers.
    Which now include the US Army National Guard and the US Marines.

    The GOP fascists are determined to provoke a reaction so they can arrest, injure, and kill their opposing US citizens.

    Two days ago, there was a short but serious confrontation in San Francisco between ICE and protesters. A confrontation that was almost entirely ignored by the Mainstream Media.

    Video: ICE agents drive SUV through protesters at S.F. immigration court
    Immigration agents clashed with protesters, who were trying to stop an arrest, in San Francisco’s most violent ICE encounter of 2025

    by Frankie Solinsky Duryea July 8, 2025, 1:29 pm Mission Local

    Federal immigration agents clashed with around 20 protestors outside the San Francisco’s immigration courthouse on Tuesday morning, trying to stop them from blocking the building’s entrance with their bodies and bikes.

    Agents used pepper spray, shoved people to the ground, and, in one instance, brandished a rifle. A black SUV carrying a detained immigrant sped through half a dozen protesters crowded near its front. A woman holding onto its hood was thrown off.

    There is already blood in the streets thanks to the ICE goons, DHS, and Trump.

    In the demonstrations in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, the LA police were firing tear gas and so called less lethal ammunition at the protesters.
    There were videos of people being clubbed and hit by steel cored rubber bullets.
    I saw one woman on the ground who had been hit in the head. Unconscious and bleeding heavily. She apparently didn’t die but she could have.

    The only question now is how much blood in the streets and is any of it going to be mine.

  13. beholder says

    FIRE UP THE DEPORTATION PLANES!

    It would be a real shame if someone or several someones keep calling in fake bomb threats for those specific planes so they can never leave the ground.

  14. John Morales says

    In the news: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/10/california-bishop-mass-immigration

    Alberto Rojas, the San Bernardino bishop who leads more than 1.5 million Catholics in southern California, has formally excused parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend mass following immigration detentions on two parish properties in the diocese.

    The dispensation is a move usually reserved for extenuating circumstances, such as the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. But Rojas says it is necessary because of the fear of being apprehended and possibly deported that has gripped communities, including Catholic churches.

    “There is a real fear gripping many in our parish communities that if they venture out into any kind of public setting they will be arrested by immigration officers,” said Rojas in a statement on Wednesday.

    “Sadly, that includes attending Mass. The recent apprehension of individuals at two of our Catholic parishes has only intensified that fear. I want our immigrant communities to know that their Church stands with them and walks with them through this trying time.”

    — also in the news

    Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil seeks $20m in damages from Trump administration

  15. says

    Low techs at the wheel
    No-one needs anyone
    They don’t even just pretend
    I’m afraid of Americans
    I’m afraid of the world
    I’m afraid I can’t help it
    I’m afraid I can’t

  16. Robbo says

    @8, christoph

    that 700% sounds like a huge increase. all i see when i google the stats, is percent increases in attacks.

    an increase from 1 to 7 is a 700% increase, but only an increase of 6 attacks.

    an increase from 1000 to 7000 is a 700% increase, an increase of 6000 attacks.

    fox news reported this:

    “DHS recorded 10 assault events from Jan. 21, 2024, to June 30, 2024. From the day after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year until Monday, the department recorded 79 assault events, representing a 690% increase year over year. ”

    news outlets, by not telling the actual number of attacks, are twisting statistics to make the problem seem worse.

    70 extra attacks is a problem.

    but the bigger problem is how many protestors have been attacked by federal agents?

    certainly it’s more than the number of agents attacked.

  17. says

    And meanwhile, they’re also forgetting the opening scene-setting of the HBO Watchmen adaptation, let alone that every Caucasian in this nation is descended from immigrants (most of whom didn’t have “papers”)…

    But a little hypocrisy and ignorance justifying the use of armed force and terror tactics never hurt anyone, did it? Or at least not anyone who actually matters?

  18. StevoR says

    Baddies is an understatement and putting it too mildly.

    Meme seen on fb :

    Remember how proud we were in elementary school when they taught us that America was the melting pot and people came from allover the world for a better life? Yeah, me too.

    threads . com / @its_ tonialexis </.Blockquote>

    Much the same applies to Oz albeit our anti-refugee polcieis go back to the Howard era.

    (See Tampa “Children Overboard”” – an already sinking boat.)

  19. John Morales says

    Jaws, ahem.

    See, you wrote “let alone that every [X] in this nation is descended from immigrants”, where X may be anyone of a set of immigrants.

    The complement to the set of indigenous people, no?

    So. I notice you single out “Caucasian”.

    (What about meso- and south- Americans, then? Islanders?)

  20. John Morales says

    Re: “Remember how proud we were in elementary school when they taught us that America was the melting pot and people came from allover the world for a better life? Yeah, me too.”

    That has to have been written by an USAnian.

    (And Meta thanks you for your custom. The ads and other influence via the feed that they served you during your visit made a bit of money for them, and only took 2/3 of your screen! And you provide data)

  21. silvrhalide says

    @11 TBH, I was thinking more in terms of V for Vendetta. Although the condescending paternalism and misogyny in it are enough to make you gag.

    @7 I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of a t-shirt with that printed on the front at work. Technically, it doesn’t violate the Hatch Act, so there really isn’t much my bosses or their bosses can say about it. Since the current regime is already gunning for pretty much all federal employees (with the exception of the military and ICE), being silent and compliant really doesn’t gain you anything anyway. Sometimes the little things are all you can do.

    @ 17

    It would be a real shame if someone or several someones keep calling in fake bomb threats for those specific planes so they can never leave the ground.

    Bomb threats shut down airports not specific planes, you moron. They also do things like delay medical flights, such as organ transport and affect the people employed there. Not everyone is a permanent employee–plenty of pilots are at will workers or independent contractors, as are the support staff. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.

    Why are you still here? No one is impressed with your fake tough guy BS.

  22. rietpluim says

    @lasius #4 – I had the same thought. How long before ICE attempts to kidnap somebody who happens to be armed and opens fire at them? Though ICE may deserve everything that will be coming, I fear that Trump will use it as an excuse to start a civil war.

  23. says

    I worry Trump’s going to manufacture an excuse to start a civil war without us needing to do anything remotely violent. I intend to do what I can without violence, but that’s eventually going to hit a limit.

  24. beholder says

    @26 silvrhalide

    Bomb threats shut down airports not specific planes, you moron.

    They can shut down both, yes.

    They also do things like delay medical flights, such as organ transport and affect the people employed there. Not everyone is a permanent employee–plenty of pilots are at will workers or independent contractors, as are the support staff. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid.

    Ooh, scary. If someone gets paid for fascism as a day job, does that make it permissible?

    Y’know, fight back against the fascists, but don’t be inconvenient about it. After all, the trains must still run on time.

    Why are you still here?

    You should ask yourself the same question. Why am I still here? I suppose it’s because I can still reach a handful of people who read the comments but don’t post anything.

    I’ve decided to do what I can. It isn’t much.

  25. John Morales says

    The proposition that airport workers are getting paid for fascism as a day job is remarkably idiotic, beholder.

    I’ve decided to do what I can. It isn’t much.

    It’s worse than that; it’s counter-factual and ridiculous.
    People have to sort out your noise from the actual signal.

    (But it does amuse, ofttimes)

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