Joe DiCola
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joedicola.bsky.social
Joe DiCola
@joedicola.bsky.social
380 followers 700 following 1.5K posts
Civil Rights, philosophy, anticapitalism, abolition. NLG forever.

Personal opinions and no legal advice. I think taking fascism seriously requires us to actively change. What we’ve been doing led to this.
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joedicola.bsky.social
what’s up with Michael Wolff emailing Epstein in the mode of earnest consigliere?
Screenshot of a video the New York Times posted on TikTok. Shows an email thread with Wolff and Epstein from December 2015. It starts with Wolff tipping Epstein off that Trump may he asked about him at a debate. Epstein responds, “if we were able to craft an answer for him what do you think it should be?” Wolf’s reply copied below: Re: Heads Up December 2015 Importance: High Michael Wolff to jeffrey E. <jeevacation@gmail.com> 12/16/2015 4:26:32 PM I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. of course, it is possible that, when asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime.
November 14, 2025 at 2:35 AM
joedicola.bsky.social
they went to Broadview
The DHS helicopter flew west to Broadview and is circling the ICE detention facility - and the protesters - there
October 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
I keep being reminded of the drone buzz in the background of every video from Gaza
Screen shot of a DHS helicopter’s path through Chicago so far today hovering over Humboldt Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Square..
October 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
Compare this with AG Kwame Raoul’s January 2025 Trust Act guidance for law enforcement: illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/Page-Attachm...
Screenshot of linked memo: …individuals held by local authorities must be viewed as requests, not obligations. ® State law dictates whether local law enforcement can comply with those requests. It is important to note, however, that the TRUST Act does not prohibit any state or local law enforcement official from "otherwise executing that official's duties in investigating violations of criminal law," including by cooperating in such criminal investigations with federal law enforcement partners in order to ensure public safety.' In Illinois, local law enforcement generally cannot assist in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law. The Illinois TRUST Act states that a "law enforcement agency or official may not participate, support, or assist in any capacity with an immigration agent's enforcemen operations."Iº It further specifies that local law enforcement: • May not transfer any person into an immigration agent's custody; • May not give any immigration agent access, including by telephone, to any individual who is in the law enforcement agency's custody; • May not permit immigration agents' use of agency facilities or equipment, including the use of electronic databases not available to the public, for any investigative or immigration enforcement purpose; and • May not otherwise render collateral assistance to federal immigration agents, including by coordinating an arrest in a courthouse or other public facility, transporting any individuals, establishing a security or traffic perimeter, or providing other on-site support."
October 11, 2025 at 2:06 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
Millions of people in 2020 demanded a stop to 1100+ murders by police every year. Millions around the world have marched and been beaten and expelled and deported for Palestine.

There are activated, organized, dedicated people who have been risking themselves to stop pipeline construction and
Excerpt from linked piece by Greg Sargent: “Miller plainly believes there's a latent majority out in the country that can be sleepwalked into authoritarianism. If Democrats sit this debate out, Miller has calculated, Trump's deceptions can flood public information spaces, persuading low-info, low-attention voters that his autocratic encroachments constitute a proportional response to the civic unrest he keeps propagandizing about.” excerpt continued: “for. But in the nascent Pritzker-Newsom understanding, assuming this will all take care of itself-that voters will resist Trump-Miller agitprop without prompting-is insufficient. We've learned, hearteningly, that majorities seem to harbor a deep attachment to liberal rights and liberties, one that instinctively recoils at masked kidnappings, at hypermilitarized vehicles on urban boulevards, at the trappings of totalitarian dictatorship. But this must be activated.That takes conflict and controversy— powerful imagery and language that rivets attention. It's not clear many Democrats understand this. Some Democrats have confided to reporters that the see this topic as…”
October 8, 2025 at 7:53 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
he’s off the bench
Tommy Lee Jones as U.S. Marshall Sam Gerard in The Fugitive (1993) giving his “search every outhouse, warehouse, henhouse, and doghouse” speech
September 12, 2025 at 5:09 AM
joedicola.bsky.social
lol
screenshot from the QT’d article with the sentence opener, “Mr. Emanuel, who is broadly disliked” highlighted just another nice closeup of this funny and true way to start a sentence
September 12, 2025 at 2:23 AM
joedicola.bsky.social
Here is the the Supreme Court’s most recent discussion of what constitutes incitement - for whatever it may be worth. Counterman v. Colorado. Some may be surprised to learn that self-censorship being bad is something even SCOTUS acknowledges. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22p...
8 COUNTERMAN v. COLORADO Opinion of the Court standard for criminal libel). That rule is based on fear of "self-censorship"-the worry that without such a subjective mental-state requirement, the uncertainties and expense of litigation will deter speakers from making even truthful statements. Sullivan, 376 U.S., at 279. The First Amend-ment, we have concluded, "requires that we protect some falsehood in order to protect speech that matters." Gertz,418 U.S., at 341. The same idea arises in the law respecting obscenity and incitement to unlawful conduct. Like threats, incitement inheres in particular words used in particular contexts: Its harm can arise even when a clueless speaker fails to grasp his expression's nature and consequence. But still, the First Amendment precludes punishment, whether civil or criminal, unless the speaker's words were "intended" (not just likely) to produce imminent disorder. Hess v. Indiana, 414 U.S. 105, 109 (1973) (per curiam); see Brandenburg, 395 U.S., at 447; NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886, 927-929 (1982). That rule helps prevent a law from deterring "mere advocacy" of illegal acts—a kind of speech falling within the First Amendment's core. Bran-denburg, 395 U.S., at 449. And for a similar reason, the First Amendment demands proof of a defendant's mindset to make out an obscenity case. Obscenity is obscenity, whatever the purveyor's mental state. But we have repeatedly recognized that punishment depends on a "vital element of scienter"-often described as the defendant's awareness of "the character and nature" of the materials he distributed. Hamling v. United States, 418 U. S. 87, 122-123 (1974); see Elonis, 575 U.S., at 739 (reiterating Ham-ling). The rationale should by now be familiar. Yes, "ob-scene speech and writings are not protected." Smith v. Cal-ifornia, 361 U.S. 147, 152 (1959). But punishing their distribution without regard to scienter would "have the collateral effect of inhibiting" protected expression. (Continued) Given "the ambiguities inherent in the definition of obscenity, the First Amendment "requires proof of scienter to avoid the hazard of self-censorship." Mishkin, 383 U. S., at 511.4
September 11, 2025 at 2:51 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
From Fascism and Big Business (1936) by Daniel Guérin. Before this he explained how the capitalist class was not a monolith re: Hitler and Mussolini. On this page he’s talking the industrialists and bourgeoisie who found the fascists distasteful nevertheless underestimated them and made their peace
Photo of book page. 32 FASCISM AND BIG BUSINESS should be its state; light industry feared this development. But-the point cannot be too strongly underlined- the capitalist groups in light industry put up no serious resistance to fascism. They did not want its triumph, its totali-tarian" dictatorship, but they did nothing effective to block its progress. Why not? First, because fascism was a "na-tional" movement, that is to say, in the service of the owning class and deserving, by this token, the sympathy, or at least the tolerance, of all property owners. Again, because they did not think a "totalitarian" fascist dictatorship was possible. They saw fascism as just one more political move-ment, which they could manipulate and even make use of. And so in both countries, "liberal" politicians closely connected to the light industry groups temporized with fascism. Faithful to their customary tactics of "industrial peace" and political jockeying, they imagined that, once it was housebroken and parliamentarized, fascism would serve as a useful counterweight to the forces of the prole-tariat. They succeeded only in putting it into the saddle. And on that day when fascism, to their amazement, had become a considerable political force in its own right, a popular movement which could no longer be checked without the use of armed force, light industry and its liberal politicians put class loyalty ahead of the conflict of interests. They were loath to shed the blood of "patriots." They resigned themselves to the triumph of fascism. The entire capitalist class united to put fascism into power. This should be a warning to those anti-fascists who think they can rely not on themselves but on "left-wing capitalism," on the "liberal" bourgeoisie to block fascism's road to power. We shall see in detail, first in Italy and then in Germany-according to the scheme of this book-what the various capitalist groups thought of fascism.
September 11, 2025 at 2:45 AM
joedicola.bsky.social
There’s a perfect combination of facts and arguments the Supreme Court majority could not conceivably reject, even if it conflicts with their political agenda.
Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown. Charlie believes in good faith. Lucy does not, but she knows Charlie does, and she will go on to clerk for a federalist society judge before becoming a partner at Kirkland
September 8, 2025 at 4:22 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
There’s no messaging out of this. Was just moments ago nauseated by a polling analyst’s assurances that disaffected liberals will “come home” to the party and vote Democrat. Home to this?

There’s really no better time to attain values beyond (D) = Home.
Yoav Gallant tweet 12/12/24: • 12/12/24 Thank you to my friend, Senator @CoryBooker for hosting an important discussion on the powerful alliance between Israel and the United States, which translated into unprecedented support during the 7-front war. We discussed the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead - Show more 960 t> 457 679 l,1 2M
July 29, 2025 at 8:05 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
Hey, for a lot of reasons, don’t be like Mark Corrigan
Screenshot of British sitcom Peep Show and comedian David Mitchell as Mark Corrigan, who when asked what he would’ve done in France during the war - would he join the resistance says, “It would have been a terribly difficult time but I would probably have kept my head down”
July 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
Almost a year ago. What a horrifying pariah state we live in that all of the supporters of this are still going on TV supporting it.

And the position of the U.S. bar is that international law is not real. The ICC, ICJ, UN, none of those lawyers are serious or real.

www.cair.com/press_releas...
ABC News, July 24, 2024. Headline and still video image of genocidal monster Netanyahu addressing Congress to multiple standing ovations last summer. abcnews.go.com Netanyahu calls on Congress to give bipartisan support to Israel "Give us the tools faster and we'll finish the job faster," he said Wednesday. By Lauren Peller, Allison Pecorin, Ivan Pereira, Shannon K. Kingston and Anne Flaherty July 24, 2024, 2:52 PM Netanyahu speaks to Congress amid political tensions over war in GazaThe Israeli Prime Minister's speech came as he has so far rejected President Joe Biden's proposal for a cease-fire that would free the hostages Hamas still holds -- as part of a regional peace plan. Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/netanyahu-speaks-congress-amid-political-tensions-us-israel-war-gaza/story%3fid=112227122 Photo of Netanyahu smiling as he gets a standing ovation for his genocide, as Christofascist freakshow Speaker Mike Johnson leans over the podium to say something to him, probably about how neat it is to be two of the worst men to ever live.
June 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
truly the best city in the world
Slightly rectangular sign for the Red Line Lake stop, large white L over the word Lake in classic Helvetica typeface on a gray background. The sign has someone’s tag carved into it and in the top right corner, a square paper note with a typed message on it, pictured next. Close up of the square, typed paper note, with a perforated edge at the bottom, attached to the Lake stop sign: “you have more in common with those who are homeless than with any billionaire. it is mathematically impossible to earn a billion dollars in a human lifetime through any normal wage...will you wake up today? or continue on like you didn't see this? safe travels, fellow train rider.”
June 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
The image on the left is not the police. It has never been the police. When forming opinions about the police, as an adult, at the very least know they are the guys on the right.

Busytown PD seem so reasonable and benevolent! The actual cops will kill you and get a challenge coin for it.
“Keeping Order in Busytown.” Huckle Cat writing tickets and doing quaint friendly police stuff, generally related to minor traffic enforcement. Keeping Order in Busytown Police officers do many different things during a busy day. This police officer is telling these drivers when to stop and when to go. Police officers take good care of lost children until their mothe come to get them. NO PARKING Sometimes people park their cars where they are not supposed to. Police officers put parking tickets on those cars. The owners must then pay money to the town. That is called a fine. Riot cops in LA with batons out; helmets on, shooting munitions at protesters.
June 9, 2025 at 2:26 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
The Dude, Donny, and Walter at the bowling alley bar in Big Lebowski, Walter is gesticulating with his cigarette for emphasis: SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT THE THROUGH LINE FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET TO BLM TO 'DEFUND THE POLICE TO RIVER TO THE SEA, TO ANTI-ZIONIST PROTESTERS AT LEAST IT'S AN ETHOS
June 6, 2025 at 11:14 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
I’m just gonna go all in that this is boring and played out. Imagine how long it would take you to read each search result for: “when Trump got covid” or just “Trump Covid twitter”

Not going for dour and joyless. Just curious when/how this mode, like baroque or rococo, will ever go out of fashion
Screenshot of a bluesky post: this is a day for those of us who have spent the last six months terminally online. this is for us and honestly, we deserve it. June 5, 2025 at 2:42 PM & Everybody can reply
June 6, 2025 at 12:02 AM
joedicola.bsky.social
see like whatever this is. Idk whatever. None of this makes contact with the part of my brain that’s like ah this is a joke, it either is or isn’t funny. They’re all still there! Like remember how the actual DHS also tweets shitposts post-irony 4chan meme stuff? Couldn’t Noem have posted this joke?
Screenshot of a bluesky post: Three men sit in a cell in El Salvador. The first asks the second why he has been imprisoned. He replies, "Because I criticized Elon Musk." The first man responds, "But I am here for praising Musk!" They ask the third man who has been sitting quietly in the back. He answers, "I AM Elon Musk"
June 5, 2025 at 11:30 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
“maximize executive branch dominance”

I just don’t know that I could sanitize and corporatize the fascist agenda any better. The only thing missing is “…and cut waste to improve efficiency.”

Trump is just executive branch maxxing. Dominance pilled.
Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.... • 44m NEW: The charges against Rep. Lamonica Mclver escalate a confrontation between the political branches at a time when President Trump is seeking to maaximize executive branch dominance.
May 20, 2025 at 1:20 AM
joedicola.bsky.social
that time is heuh for one more yeuh
Album cover of I, Jonathan. Pictured: Jonathan Richman, a curly haired and sprite like goofy bard, pictured from the shoulders up, smiling in a T-shirt with wide blue and white stripes
May 15, 2025 at 4:25 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
All due respect (sincere) but how is this first sentence remotely true?
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social We made a deliberate choice as a nation, until now, not to have a police state. We siloed off federal data and put in place laws, regulations, policies and internal norms to prevent the federal government from putting together everything it knows about you into one place. Trump is ending all that. Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social • 7m The U.S. Postal Service has quietly begun assisting Trump's 'mass deportation' effort, sources and records show www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... of the U.S. Postal Servic stal Inspection Service, a little-known police and inve mail agency, recently joined a Department of Homel force geared toward finding, detaining and deportin migration officials to loc: ed immigrants, said the people, who spoke on the c for fear of professional reprisals. jally, according to two pe tained by The Washingto officials are seeking photographs of the outside of el as — an Inspection Service program known as "mai he Trump administration'? as to the postal investigation agency's broad surveill luding Postal Service online account data, package information, credit card data and financial material
April 29, 2025 at 10:26 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
Does this one really fall under the space lasers category? What if the pic was (sorry) Hegseth shirtless with Nazi tattoos on display? They really announced this and timed it thusly

“That’s what the insurrection act is for” pre 1/6. The gulags. Not enough to claim certainty, but this was a threat
Mike Rothschild post Mike Rothschild @rothschildmd.bsky.social Good news from CNN, that DOD and DHS are not going to recommend Trump invoke the Insurrection Act to deal with the border. This should hopefully put a pin in those "Trump is going to declare martial law on 4/20 for Hitler's birthday" conspiracy theories. www.cnn.com/2025/04/18/p... For now, Pentagon and DHS won't recommend that Trump invoke the Insurrection Act | CNN Politics Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will not recommend... (a www enn com
April 20, 2025 at 5:48 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
“I’m not a movement guy”

First reaction was yeah dude we know but got to the end and - again I’m not absolving Brooks for his role manufacturing consent for like everything up until this moment - but this recognition that movement people exist & have modeled something good, you don’t see that a lot
“I'm really not a movement guy. I don't naturally march in demonstrations or attend rallies that I'm not covering as a journalist. But this is what America needs right now. Trump is shackling the greatest institutions in American life. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”
April 17, 2025 at 11:34 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
youtu.be/buKOvM4bv-A?...
The cover of Hi, How Are You - The Unfinished Album - Sept 83. Daniel Johnston. Cover is plain white with the text handwritten in heavy black. The center and focus is a thick black line drawing of a froglike alien with eye stalls like a snail, sitting squat, mouth open in an oval asking you personally how you are. This is actually a screenshot of YouTube so the title of the linked rise and grind anthem “Big Business Monkey” is included in the image. “Big business monkey Nothing's funny Big business monkey Everything's money He sold cheeseburgers with that cashier's smile He runs his house like a burger king manager And the only jokes he knows are the ones that'll put you down Big business monkey He'll take over the world And you can have it now But you can't take it with you And everything you cling to Will rot And everything you do Will be forgot By everyone you ever tried to Impress”
April 17, 2025 at 2:05 PM
joedicola.bsky.social
Without evidence, for no reason, attributing wise and institution-preserving motives to a Republican hack, a totally corrupt person with so much singular responsibility for all of this,
Exhibit Four Million Six:
a screenshotted text of Roberts-whispering, where we assume of course that he’s a wizard, or if not that at least a pure statesman, like let’s get a Rogers and Hammerstein musical about this guy’s institutional prudence stat, sorry here’s the post: “It seems like Roberts was trying to avert a Rubicon moment by delivering the only legally possible conclusion in the Abrego Garcia case in a sort of soft-pedaled way that allowed Trump to save face & claim a partial win while "graciously" complying. That has obviously backfired.”
April 15, 2025 at 12:02 AM