THREAD: As President Trump visited Philadelphia for the #TrumpTownHall on ABC today, protesters led by @RefuseFascism took to the streets to demand "Trump/Pence Out Now!"
One protester dressed as a police officer with a pig mask on went around to cops not wearing masks and whistled at them, gesturing to put on their mask.
Remarkably, some cops complied with the fake cop dressed as a pig's commands.
A handful of Trump supporters showed up as well.
Protesters came over to them and argued, but one woman wearing a bikini and a Trump mask rolled around on the ground with an American flag under her, and then stuffed it into the bikini bottom before adding a Trump-esc red tie.
"Speak their language!" one protester said while handing out squeaky pig toys with the antifascist triple-arrow symbol and "ACAB" written on them.
Police used bicycles to separate the Trump supporters from everyone else. Protesters squeezed their pig-squeezy toys to mock the cops as they did so.
A Trump supporter got inside the circle of anti-Trump activists. They pushed him out, but he came back in.
The group then built a human barrier to keep him out.
He ran around the circle but couldn't get back in as they chanted "Together, stay tight! We'll do this every night!"
I entered the Trump side to try to film some of the arguments being had over the barriers. It was so loud that it was incredibly hard to hear, but here you'll see Trump supporter v Biden supporter on Biden tax plan.
They disagree on whether it'll raise taxes outside wealthy.
The protesters were taught by a speaker how to sign "Fuck Trump" in American Sign Language.
An African American Trump supporter with a "Keep America Great" argued with protesters across the barrier.
Her hat was stolen off her head. Police pulled her back when she tried to recover it.
"Don't give back her fucking hat!" an activist with a megaphone told her comrades.
A pair of women embraced eachother as two anti-gay activists showed up with signs reading "Trump, Make America Great Again: Ban Homo Marriage!" and "Jesus or Hellfire."
The police separated them from everyone else, and activists accused the Philly PD of "Protecting hate speech."
"God is going to burn you in hell, anarchists. You dumb anarchists."
"Say something about this man," a protester showed him a picture of Jeffrey Epstein.
"Jeffrey's in hell."
"So's Donald Trump, that's where he's gonna fucking go."
"No, no, no. Donald Trump's in Philly."
"It's called history, not herstory, ok?" said one of the 'Christian' protesters. "Trump is a man. Jesus was a man. Moses was a man. It's a man's world, girls."
"Your woman would be happy if you would help her submit. You feminists are a bunch of baby-killing whores."
The group ended their rally (ahead of a march through the city) with a pledge from @RefuseFascism.
VIDEO THREAD: Armed gun rights activists rallied at the Virginia State Capitol on Monday to protest proposed gun measures under new Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger.
The Virginia Kekoas militia wore "Boogaloo" style attire for the first time publicly since 2023.
"All the rights, for all the people, all the time" explained the group's leader, who goes by ICE (which is not a reference to the agency of the same name). "We're just going back to our heritage, where we started."
"Things are a little bit more serious this year," explained the Kekoas member who goes by Sasquatch. "This is our unofficial battle cry!"
"I swear I'm not a swinger," he clarified, referencing the pineapples on his Hawaiian shirt.
2) "I'm generally a pretty liberal person, but when I saw videos of ICE jumping out of unmarked vehicles and nabbing people off the street, that's when I bought my first AR15," one attendee of the gun rally explained.
"We're facing tyranny right now, and I want to be prepared if that stuff comes to my neighborhood."
"Tyrannical government, whatever your take on it, that's the point of these bad boys right here," Virginia Kekoas militia member call-sign cross responded to that position, slapping the butt of his rifle.
3) The Virginia Capitol lawn was closed off to attendees carrying firearms, splitting the crowd into those carrying and not.
A man dressed as George Washington attempted to argue with police that his musket is "not a firearm" but was not allowed to pass.
VIDEO THREAD: Pardoned January 6er Jake Lang attempted to hold an anti-Muslim "Crusader March" in Minneapolis today where he was swarmed with hundreds of counter-protesters.
Scuffles broke out, and one of his members sprayed mace around the crowd.
2) Amidst "Feels like -7 F" degree temperatures, protesters sprayed Lang and his crew with water guns as well as silly string while drowning him out with music over a loudspeaker.
Lang apparently was prepared to leave, but couldn't find a path as protesters continued to physically challenge him and his group.
"Let them leave!" some protesters yelled.
3) Lang, who fought police with a baseball bat at the Capitol on January 6, was struck with a wooden stick by a counter-protester.
He grabbed it, briefly holding it up in triumph and keeping control of it until it was grabbed out of his hands.
VIDEO THREAD: Federal agents deployed tear gas, mace, and sting balls against a growing crowd at the scene Wednesday night in Minneapolis following a shooting by ICE.
Some protesters shot fireworks and threw snowballs at the agents, many of whom carried rifles.
2) Agents moved fast while trying to evade the crowd. In one case, the feds got into the bed of a truck, dropped pepper spray and had to get out to grab it before a firework was thrown at them, for which they threw tear gas in return.
3) The scale of the conflict was enormous, spanning a few blocks in each direction from the shooting, lasting a couple hours.
Protesters exchanged fireworks and tear gas on one side of the shooting scene as others engaged with police on the opposite side.
VIDEO THREAD: Pardoned January 6er Jake Lang held a "Crusader" rally outside AIPAC Sunday afternoon, throwing (chocolate) gold coins at attendees dressed as politicians and suggesting "their Jewish money" has caused a "brownification of America."
A couple counter-protesters including former elected official Patricia Eugenio demonstrated against Lang and his group.
FOOTAGE FOR DOCUMENTARY, NEWS PURPOSES ONLY.
2) Ivan Raiklin, an advocate for the January 6er's, confronted Lang at the podium.
While maintaining a cordial tone, he said Lang has "got it all wrong" by focusing on immutable attributes rather than "deep state traitors" "based on their actions, and actions alone."
3) Lang and Raiklin jokingly wrestled for the mic before Raiklin suggested that "You're about a block away from your employer, right? FBI Washington Field office?"
"Says the guy who never got indicted for January 6!" Lang replied.
DOCUMENT THREAD: Four members of the pro-Palestine, left-wing "Turtle Island Liberation Front" have been arrested in an alleged bomb plot after being exposed to at least one FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS) and one Undercover Employee (UCE).
2) The FBI begins their summary of probable cause by saying that their PAID informant (CHS) "has been a reliable source of information since in or around August 2021."
They say the informant was given a handwritten bomb plot titled "OPERATION MIDNIGHT SUN” in November by defendants, but do not detail any conservations that led up to this occurring.
They do not describe how long the group had been exposed to this CHS prior to their alleged escalation into bomb plotting.
3) The group allegedly planned on extensive steps to conceal their participation in the plan, including encasing their phones in bricks before submerging them into water, and using black bloc clothing, which they wrote down and handed to a federal informant in an 8-page document.
The criminal complaint against Brian Cole Jr has been released, detailing the government’s evidence that this Virginia man is the January 5, 2021 pipe bomber.
The evidence basically amounts to three categories:
-Cell phone pings allegedly placing him at the scene
-Purchases over the prior more than a year of materials consistent with the devices
-A vehicle allegedly matching his leaving the area on that night
Notably, while government sources have reportedly characterized Cole as “anarchist,” this criminal complaint does not characterize any evidence related to ideological background or motive.
I also find it notable that the FBI places some of the relevant purchases which they allege were components for the pipe bombs as early as 2019.
While some components were purchased in November 2020 (post election) this timeline would seem to imply he was working on such a device *prior* to the 2020 election being disputed.