BernardoVerda 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1055)

• On the post: The GOP Is Way Too Fucking Excited About Using US Troops On American Protestors

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2025 @ 12:29pm

  Unfortunately for your "argument", we have in fact seen the videos. I've seen them on social media; I've seen them on newswire services; I've seen them on Canadian, British, French, Australian and German mainstream media. At least one of those journalists (Australian) was deliberately targeted and shot on camera , clearly with no legitimate reason or excuse, and another journalist (British) was hospitalized to have a "less-than lethal" round extracted from his thigh -- again, despite there plainly being no valid reason to open fire when he was struck. It's quite clear to uninvolved observers that Alice Fraser's wry comment, quoted at the top of the article, was succinctly correct:

  • "So let’s just clarify: this is arguably unlawful deployment of military force to enforce peace on peaceful protests over illegal arrests of illegal immigrants."

  . Let me also note that this whole mess strongly reminds me of the coverage a few years ago, when Trump was fomenting a similar situation. I had acquaintances who lived and/or worked within a few blocks of one of the alleged "war zones" that Trump sent in armed enforcement to "restore order" -- my friends weren't worried about "the antifa" at all, but were definitely affected by, and much more worried about, the ill-disciplined, recklessly and arbitrarily violent "law enforcement" forces who were supposedly "restoring order".

• On the post: Lindsey Graham Thinks It Should Be Illegal To Identify ICE Agents

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2025 @ 11:56am

  "You’re putting an awful lot of trust in the idea that the leopards won’t eat your face when they’re hungry and yours is the only face around."

  It's worse than that. There's no safety in numbers here. What our dearest (and densest) authoritarianism advocate is overlooking, is that chosen victims aren't necessarily "the only one around" but merely any expedient or convenient one, that happens to be ready to hand at the moment. And without any concern for (or even lip service to) due process, in the end that means pretty much anybody that somebody else wants gone, out of the way, or simply doesn't like, is only another victim-in-waiting that just hasn't been taken down yet.

• On the post: Trump Orders 2000 National Guard Troops To California To Shut Down Anti-ICE Protests

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2025 @ 05:53pm

  Um, yes... That's precisely why I put "misunderstanding" in quotation marks.

• On the post: Trump Orders 2000 National Guard Troops To California To Shut Down Anti-ICE Protests

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2025 @ 02:39pm

  And here I always thought that Democrats were opposed to an Insurrection.

  Oddly enough, that is exactly what these protestors are doing -- opposing an insurrection. You seem to be a rather confused about which side is the side that is openly ignoring the nation's constitution, flagrantly breaking plain law left and right, and resorting to armed, organized mass violence to support its conduct of blatantly illegal actions to suppress free speech, civil rights, and to repress demands to comply with those laws and that constitution. It's all happening in plain view, so there's no excuse for "misunderstanding" all this.

• On the post: ‘Journalist’ For Right Wing Propaganda Outlet OAN Fired For Accidentally Almost Doing Honest Journalism

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2025 @ 11:31am

  In fairness, it makes perfectly good sense either way.

• On the post: What’s Left Of CBS Just Can’t Stop Kissing Donald Trump’s Ass

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2025 @ 03:04pm

  Unfortunately, an great -- and ever increasing -- proportion of Canadian mass media is actually owned by corporate American interests.

• On the post: Trump, Republicans Have Fucked This Nation So Hard We’ve Created A New Class Of Refugees

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 30 May, 2025 @ 01:39pm

  That makes for a rather nice condensation of the classic A. R. Moxon quote.

• On the post: Trump, Republicans Have Fucked This Nation So Hard We’ve Created A New Class Of Refugees

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 30 May, 2025 @ 12:43pm

  Deranged and clueless

  "... hundreds of thousands of individuals fled California and New York..." "... exactly how the Federal system experiment is supposed to work... "

  Do you have any idea how utterly deranged (not to mention clueless) it is to equate entirely voluntary migration to literally fleeing explicit threats of vigilante violence and increasingly authoritarian government-legislated repression? And then to further claim that this descent into a combination of mob rule and text-book government oppression is a good and desirable thing? I thought Americans had this thing they were so proud of, called the American Constitution, and that it even includes something they call The Bill Of Rights... I guess I must be confusing America with some other, actually democratic nation.

• On the post: Trump, Republicans Have Fucked This Nation So Hard We’ve Created A New Class Of Refugees

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 30 May, 2025 @ 12:20pm

  I saw a story just yesterday, about Texas law enforcement officers using the Flock license-plate reader network to locate a woman -- known to be no longer in the State of Texas -- who'd left the state to obtain an abortion. That this woman was believed to have obtained an abortion, contrary to current Texas abortion law, was the explicit justification given in the license-plate tracking request form.

• On the post: From Defenders To Skeptics: The Sharp Decline In Young Americans’ Support For Free Speech

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 28 May, 2025 @ 02:08pm

  Lovely theory. But it doesn't actually work that way. For example, look at the now common bowdlerizing of Mark twain's Huckleberry Finn over the N-word — despite the fact that in that novel Twain was patently employing the N-word to make and illustrate a case against racism. (And at the time, a great many people objected quite fiercely to the "progressive" messages conveyed by that novel.) It's not hard to find other examples of well-meaning "progressive" censorship of "slurs" and words that progressives find problematic and objectionable. (And not just in literature -- remember the hullabaloo over "master" and "slave" circuits in electronics and computer harddrives?) So it’s entirely possible -- in today's social-political environment I would argue "likely" -- that a “liberal” or “progressive” government would indeed ban “slurs”, without exercising reasonable consideration of context and nuance.

• On the post: From Defenders To Skeptics: The Sharp Decline In Young Americans’ Support For Free Speech

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 28 May, 2025 @ 01:57pm

  Look what's been happening for a couple of decades now, with bowdlerizing Huckleberry Finn over the N-word -- despite the fact that in this novel Mark Twain was patently employing the N-word to make and illustrate a case against racism. I have to concede that yes indeed, it's entirely possible that a "liberal" or "progressive" government would ban "slurs".

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 06:01pm

  And there have already been incidents of people impersonating ICE "officers -- there have already been people arrested and charged with impersonating ICE officers.

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 05:57pm

  Or showing up at the government office for the final ceremony to officially confirm the granting of their American citizenship .

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 03:45pm

  Since his appointment as acting head of ICE, the number of ICE officers found guilty of blatant Constitutional violations has skyrocketed by 827%.

  That statistic is so ludicrously low, you should be embarrassed. I would be amazed and astounded if the percentage of legitimate ICE arrests since January exceeds the low single digits. (In fact, I'd bet that the significant digits are entirely below the decimal point.)

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 03:38pm

  The "assaults" are bystanders demanding "where's your warrant?" and pointing deadly cellphones cameras at them while they're kidnapping grad students or moms shopping with their children.

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 03:27pm

  Well, you know... ICE has been sweeping up so many "illegals" and "well, we'll pretend that they're illegals", that there's bound to be a handful of dubious characters in the bunch. Not many though; the actual criminals are relatively unlikely to be working in sweatshops, registered with various agencies, or attending appointments with government officials overseeing their green card application.

• On the post: ICE Boss Thinks Journalists Shouldn’t Be Asking About Masked Officers Disappearing People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 21 May, 2025 @ 03:21pm

  That would be a more impressive comment if there was any evidence that ICE is arresting actual "gang bangers" rather than peaceful, productive, law-abiding family members -- who not incidentally are frequently in the middle of the legal processes required to recognize and/or confirm them as legitimate residents of the country. Worse, we're seeing them get "poached" by ICE "agents when attending official meetings with government officials as part of the formal legal process of becoming legally recognized residents. There are documented cases of applicants that have already been cleared as non-criminal applicants and have received or presented whatever formal documents they need as legal residents of the USA, only to have those documents arbitrarily "invalidated" without any pretense of due process or arbitrarily deemed "fake" without the slightest attempt to actually check their validity. And to your other claim: oddly enough, we're seeing stories that American citizens (who according to you are "on the side of ICE enforcement") are somehow getting arrested for interfering with ICE "officers" attempts to arrest their neighbors without showing ID or a legitimate judicial warrant (or even a non-judicial "administrative" warrant). That's right; American citizens are so "on the side of ICE" that ICE squads have had to call local police forces to "protect" them from the surrounding neighborhood moms and teenage girls (some literally with infants in arms) and arrest them for interfering (by standing between and asking simple questions like "Do you have a warrant? Where's your warrant?) If we're hearing about this even in Canada and the UK, and even non-English speaking countries, what's your excuse for such rank ignorance? (NB. Relying on Fox "News" is not a credible excuse.)

• On the post: RFK Jr. Finally Says Something Sensible: ‘Don’t Take Medical Advice From Me’

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 16 May, 2025 @ 02:18pm

  "Don't sue me for the harm I'm causing."

  RFK Jr has made a very public career out of giving medical advice, very bad medical advice -- loudly and at length, unashamedly, repentantly, and willfully disregarding all evidence against his claims. RFK has written many books, not only to dispense his medical recommendations but to smear those who disagree with him. He's founded global organizations dedicated to promoting that unfounded, fact-adverse advice as far and wide as possible, RFK Jr and his pet organizations have produced and promoted "documentaries" to convince parents to follow his dangerous medical advice. And now he expects people to take him seriously when he says "Don't take medical advice from me"? What he's really saying is "Don't sue me when my advice causes harm."

• On the post: RFK Jr.’s Measles Policy: Deaths Are Expected And It’s The Victim’s Fault

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 09 May, 2025 @ 03:30pm

  But adventures like that aren't "child raising", just "the fun parts".

• On the post: Judge To ICE: No, You Can’t Actually Kidnap Students For Writing Op-Eds

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 09 May, 2025 @ 03:25pm

  So. Ice is now officially the gestapo.

  Just the street-level enforcement wing. Intelligence functions will largely be handled by DOGE.

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