Please do not waste your time listening to, reading, or analyzing what Tom Homan actually said this morning.
-
Honestly, I’ve been expecting the “mission accomplished” banner since the day they murdered Alex Pretti. Maybe they were hoping for an ICE officer to be shot in retaliation so they could go for martial law, but a few days later when that hadn’t happened and the country was still seething, the writing was on the wall.
If I’m guessing, I expect them to go hard on strategies that are much less visible: snatching people from jails instead of streets, mass detention camps that nobody can see inside, that sort of thing. They need to sustain the terror, but they can’t afford to keep looking so bad in videos while they do it.
-
Hold on to this:
Operation Metro Surge was a catastrophic failure for the Trump regime. Yes, as a terrorist operation, it succeeded: they meant to hurt and terrorize black and Brown people and the whole opposition, and they succeeded at that. But in doing so they lost their credibility, they lost the support of mushy institutions and politicians, they lost much of the popular support a would-be authoritarian needs to consolidate power.
And they lost it because we stood up to them.
3/
@inthehands Yet another loss for the
. -
Hold on to this:
Operation Metro Surge was a catastrophic failure for the Trump regime. Yes, as a terrorist operation, it succeeded: they meant to hurt and terrorize black and Brown people and the whole opposition, and they succeeded at that. But in doing so they lost their credibility, they lost the support of mushy institutions and politicians, they lost much of the popular support a would-be authoritarian needs to consolidate power.
And they lost it because we stood up to them.
3/
@inthehands
Yes. Organizing matters. -
R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
-
If I’m guessing, I expect them to go hard on strategies that are much less visible: snatching people from jails instead of streets, mass detention camps that nobody can see inside, that sort of thing. They need to sustain the terror, but they can’t afford to keep looking so bad in videos while they do it.
@inthehands
YES.
We need to be taking our surveillance to the next level.
I am thinking that we have creativity and competence on our side. Like, can a roomba get into a detention camp? -
R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
-
If I’m guessing, I expect them to go hard on strategies that are much less visible: snatching people from jails instead of streets, mass detention camps that nobody can see inside, that sort of thing. They need to sustain the terror, but they can’t afford to keep looking so bad in videos while they do it.
@inthehands If they follow proj 2025 (which they have been), those camps are soon to be filling up with LGBTQ and people with "mental" problems. They've stuck to that document since day one of this admin and been successfully following it, these are the next steps.
Not enough resistance for them to slow down.
And, frankly, the resistance needs to be more diverse. Everyone needs to cancel all their subscriptions, move off of their media (meta, xitter, linkedin, google, etc.) and do everything they can to take away the revenue streams of those who built this fascist empire. Any support for one of them is a vote for their policies. Standing in the streets does nothing to hurt them. It does however hurt all the local businesses. And, I suspect, that is exactly what they want.
-
If I’m guessing, I expect them to go hard on strategies that are much less visible: snatching people from jails instead of streets, mass detention camps that nobody can see inside, that sort of thing. They need to sustain the terror, but they can’t afford to keep looking so bad in videos while they do it.
@inthehands as in the news yesterday that they are sneakily opening ICE offices all around the country. Going into more a stealthier mode.
-
@inthehands
YES.
We need to be taking our surveillance to the next level.
I am thinking that we have creativity and competence on our side. Like, can a roomba get into a detention camp?@geonz @inthehands Micro-drones.
-
@inthehands If they follow proj 2025 (which they have been), those camps are soon to be filling up with LGBTQ and people with "mental" problems. They've stuck to that document since day one of this admin and been successfully following it, these are the next steps.
Not enough resistance for them to slow down.
And, frankly, the resistance needs to be more diverse. Everyone needs to cancel all their subscriptions, move off of their media (meta, xitter, linkedin, google, etc.) and do everything they can to take away the revenue streams of those who built this fascist empire. Any support for one of them is a vote for their policies. Standing in the streets does nothing to hurt them. It does however hurt all the local businesses. And, I suspect, that is exactly what they want.
@retech
> Standing in the streets does nothing to hurt them.No, wrong — and dangerously wrong. Visible opposition is what made the MSP invasion a failure for them. The murders, the kidnapping, horrible video after horrible video have direly eroded the popular support they need to consolidate power. Until they reach North Korea / Iran levels of total control over all the workings of society, an authoritarian does still need support. And the Trump regime has substantially less now than they did when the invasion started.
-
Hold on to this:
Operation Metro Surge was a catastrophic failure for the Trump regime. Yes, as a terrorist operation, it succeeded: they meant to hurt and terrorize black and Brown people and the whole opposition, and they succeeded at that. But in doing so they lost their credibility, they lost the support of mushy institutions and politicians, they lost much of the popular support a would-be authoritarian needs to consolidate power.
And they lost it because we stood up to them.
3/
They might have terrorized everyone, but they also made all of us incredibly angry
-
@retech
> Standing in the streets does nothing to hurt them.No, wrong — and dangerously wrong. Visible opposition is what made the MSP invasion a failure for them. The murders, the kidnapping, horrible video after horrible video have direly eroded the popular support they need to consolidate power. Until they reach North Korea / Iran levels of total control over all the workings of society, an authoritarian does still need support. And the Trump regime has substantially less now than they did when the invasion started.
Only half wrong. We need visible opposition AND mass withdrawal from all the big tech and big finance "transaction tax generation/surveillance machines".
-
@retech
> Standing in the streets does nothing to hurt them.No, wrong — and dangerously wrong. Visible opposition is what made the MSP invasion a failure for them. The murders, the kidnapping, horrible video after horrible video have direly eroded the popular support they need to consolidate power. Until they reach North Korea / Iran levels of total control over all the workings of society, an authoritarian does still need support. And the Trump regime has substantially less now than they did when the invasion started.
@inthehands I did not say to stop being in the streets. I just said it's not hurting them. They didn't need popular support to get the funding they wanted. They did not need popular support to bash down doors. It's not stopped by losing popular support, it just made them refine tactics.
I'm not sure how this is not already at the levels we fear. No one is actually slowing them down, they're just better and more refined at what they do.
We, the people, certainly need to see one another and know we stand together, but I've seen nothing to show that standing together in the streets is slowing them down in any way. Cutting their funding includes not using their sources of revenew. They got in office because their direct supporters (the 758 billionaires in this country) paid for them to be there.
-
@inthehands
When I read the report about Homan's statements, my immediate thought was that he wants to divide the resistance and the solidarity community, because many people are naturally tired and want to believe that the paramilitary troops will withdraw when the demonstrations subside, while others assume that he is a liar.
I think it's a trap, but I'm far away.@elala @inthehands can we acknowledge that Obama brought us Tom Homen? Or is this going to be another comforting blindspot for one of our tribes?
-
If I’m guessing, I expect them to go hard on strategies that are much less visible: snatching people from jails instead of streets, mass detention camps that nobody can see inside, that sort of thing. They need to sustain the terror, but they can’t afford to keep looking so bad in videos while they do it.
This is not a retreat, it is a regrouping.
So glad to see that you know this.
We can not let our guard down. Not now, not for the next 80 years.
-
R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
-
@inthehands I did not say to stop being in the streets. I just said it's not hurting them. They didn't need popular support to get the funding they wanted. They did not need popular support to bash down doors. It's not stopped by losing popular support, it just made them refine tactics.
I'm not sure how this is not already at the levels we fear. No one is actually slowing them down, they're just better and more refined at what they do.
We, the people, certainly need to see one another and know we stand together, but I've seen nothing to show that standing together in the streets is slowing them down in any way. Cutting their funding includes not using their sources of revenew. They got in office because their direct supporters (the 758 billionaires in this country) paid for them to be there.
@retech You've missed all the videos of agents retreating and even giving up trying to arrest someone because of the crowds confronting them?
It is almost a certainty that observers have raised the alarm that gives targeted people time to find safety.
And it is people standing toe to toe with them that have brought multiple legal judgments down on them, making it absolutely clear the regime is breaking the law with impunity.
1/2
-
@inthehands I did not say to stop being in the streets. I just said it's not hurting them. They didn't need popular support to get the funding they wanted. They did not need popular support to bash down doors. It's not stopped by losing popular support, it just made them refine tactics.
I'm not sure how this is not already at the levels we fear. No one is actually slowing them down, they're just better and more refined at what they do.
We, the people, certainly need to see one another and know we stand together, but I've seen nothing to show that standing together in the streets is slowing them down in any way. Cutting their funding includes not using their sources of revenew. They got in office because their direct supporters (the 758 billionaires in this country) paid for them to be there.
Standing in the streets has certainly awakened many people around the world, sends encouragement to those are being targeted and did actually result in a rebuke of the government's actions by ICE by some on the right. It has served an invaluable purpose.
But this is an attack on many fronts and the frontline will soon be everywhere. We need to adopt every tactic we can, so yes, stop feeding their machine. Stop supporting the people who are enabling him. Don't wait until they are at your door,
-
@retech You've missed all the videos of agents retreating and even giving up trying to arrest someone because of the crowds confronting them?
It is almost a certainty that observers have raised the alarm that gives targeted people time to find safety.
And it is people standing toe to toe with them that have brought multiple legal judgments down on them, making it absolutely clear the regime is breaking the law with impunity.
1/2
@retech Not to mention that morale among DHS agents is absolutely in the shitter, and that is 100% because they have been made crystal clear on how poor their image is to the public.
They get evicted from hotels. Barred from renting vehicles. Good old Bovino got tossed out of a Vegas bar.
It all adds up. Money isn't everything. 2/2
-
@retech Not to mention that morale among DHS agents is absolutely in the shitter, and that is 100% because they have been made crystal clear on how poor their image is to the public.
They get evicted from hotels. Barred from renting vehicles. Good old Bovino got tossed out of a Vegas bar.
It all adds up. Money isn't everything. 2/2
@solitha @inthehands I guess I missed all the videos of them no longer identifying as agents, wearing street clothes and abducting folks. Or the battering rams on doors. Or this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-29/us-spends-hundreds-of-millions-on-warehouses-for-ice-detention-centersPerhaps posting on facebook is working.
-
@inthehands
YES.
We need to be taking our surveillance to the next level.
I am thinking that we have creativity and competence on our side. Like, can a roomba get into a detention camp?@geonz @inthehands That’s….actually genius.
The ICE watch I belong to got a good tip from a hotel’s cleaning crew (not a roomba) about certain guests at the hotel. Very helpful when tracking vehicles!
I’m thinking too that if detention centers have deliveries of things like laundry and cleaning supplies, those lists (or even just the number of deliveries) could give insight as to how well detainees are being cared for.
-
From where I sit, I don’t think it’s a trap. It’s been clear for a while that they’re digging themselves deeper in a hole the longer they keep doing what they’ve been doing, and that they’re going to need to declare “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” so they can switch to some different awful thing.
However, this is very much a “don’t let your guard down” moment. They’re gearing up for some different horrible thing. They’re not disappearing.
elala@nrw.social (@elala@nrw.social)
@inthehands@hachyderm.io When I read the report about Homan's statements, my immediate thought was that he wants to divide the resistance and the solidarity community, because many people are naturally tired and want to believe that the paramilitary troops will withdraw when the demonstrations subside, while others assume that he is a liar. I think it's a trap, but I'm far away.
NRW.social (nrw.social)
@inthehands I think they're going to sit back and plan how to assault the election. They consider all this civil violence a "theatre of combat", so all these people are considered to have training/experience now.
I have no doubt they're going to put a couple guys a lot of polling stations as a powder keg and just start throwing lit matches.
-
@solitha @inthehands I guess I missed all the videos of them no longer identifying as agents, wearing street clothes and abducting folks. Or the battering rams on doors. Or this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-01-29/us-spends-hundreds-of-millions-on-warehouses-for-ice-detention-centersPerhaps posting on facebook is working.
@retech Yes, we are in an arms race. They've changed tactics.
And guess what? We found out. Because they're being watched. Because people are out there and being alert. And because that open outrage actually makes the media pay attention.
People are rallying against those warehouses, forcing their local gov'ts to refuse approvals. The new offices? Building management can decide the risk is not worth the rent.
