Trump STUNS the country with BOMBSHELL announcement

We've got a wholly unexpected. announcement from the Department of. Justice. They've just said that they're. expanding federal death penalty. protocols to include firing squads with. the explicit goal of and I'm quoting the. DOJ memo here, streamlining internal. processes to expedite death penalty. cases. Quote, today the Department of. Justice acted to restore its solemn duty. to seek, obtain, and implement lawful. capital sentences, clearing the way for. the Department to carry out executions. once death sentenced inmates have. exhausted their appeals. Among the. actions taken are re-adopting the lethal. injection protocol utilized during the.

first Trump administration, expanding. the protocol to include additional. manners of execution such as the firing. squad, and streamlining internal. processes to expedite death penalty. cases. In other words, they want to be. able to kill people faster and in more. ways. And look, I think this is one of. those issues where the debate often gets. muddled by a false choice. As far as the. method of execution is concerned, lethal. injection versus firing squad, I. genuinely don't think there's much of a. meaningful difference. I know that might. sound counter intuitive, so let me.

explain here. Both methods end a human. life. Whether that life ends via a drug. cocktail or via a bullet is to me. largely beside the point. If anything, there is a credible argument that firing. squads are more reliable and cause less. suffering than botched lethal. injections, which have a disturbing. history of going horrifyingly wrong. So, if we're debating the method, we're. already in the wrong conversation. My. beef, and it's a big one here, is not. how the government kills people, it's. that the government is killing innocent. people. Since 1973, more than 200 people.

have been exonerated and freed from. death row in the United States. Over 200. people who were strapped to a gurney or. sitting in a cell waiting to be executed. and were innocent. And here's the ratio. that should haunt every single person. who supports capital punishment. For. every eight people executed in this. country, one person on death row has. been exonerated. One in eight. And a. 2014 study published in the Proceedings. of the National Academy of Sciences. estimated that at least 4.1% of everyone.

sentenced to death is likely innocent. That's not a rounding error. That is a. systemic catastrophe. And here's where. it gets even more damning. This system. doesn't make its errors randomly. It. makes them in one direction consistently. against the same people. African. Americans make up 13% of the US. population, but 41% of people on death. row. More than half of those people, 53. and a half percent of all death row. exonerates are black. Official. misconduct was present in 87% of cases. involving black death row exonerates. compared to just 67% for white.

exonerates. And when black defendants. are wrongfully convicted and eventually. proven innocent, it takes them on. average 4 and a half years longer to be. cleared than their white counterparts. So, we have a system that kills innocent. people, does so disproportionately based. on race, and takes longer to correct its. own mistakes the darker your skin is. And this administration's response to. that reality is to expand it and speed. it up? That is the conversation that we. should be having, not lethal injection. versus firing squad. That is a.

distraction in my opinion. The question. is, why is any administration, let alone. this one, in a rush to execute more. people faster when the system has. already proven repeatedly that it kills. innocent people and treats brown and. black defendants as inherently more. disposable. And I'll tell you why. It's. because this isn't about justice. This. is about the performance of toughness. This White House revels, and I mean. revels, in perceived cruelty. It is. their entire brand. It's not incidental, it is the point. In fact, here's Pete.

Hegseth literally yesterday putting as. much on full display. >> I've heard you talk a lot about bombing. people and places. And when you give. these orders to carry out this extreme. level of violence, what's going through. your mind and your body? Do you have. like an adrenaline rush? Are you scared? Do you feel like you're on a power trip? Just walk us through and paint us a. picture of what it feels like mentally. and physically. >> It's a very TMZ question. Um my only. thought process is to ensure that our.

warfighters have everything they need to. be successful, defeat and destroy the. enemy, and they come home. Uh and that. they I want them to feel empowered. to have every authority they need within. our rules and within our law to bring. maximum violence to the enemy because. war is violent. Uh war. requires doing difficult things, but I. want our people to feel empowered so. it's our guys that come home and their. guys that do not. >> Beyond Hexeth's tough guy action hero. stick, consider too what this. administration did to migrants. They.

rounded up hundreds of people, many of. them asylum seekers with legal. protections, and flew them to a supermax. mega prison in El Salvador. That was. CICOT, a facility that Human Rights. Watch has documented as a site of. systematic torture and sexual violence, based in many cases on nothing more than. tattoos. One Venezuelan asylum seeker. was deported because he had tattoos on. each forearm that said "Mom" and "Dad". That was the evidence. They literally. shipped a man to a torture prison. because he loved his parents. And it. gets worse. They admitted, in a court.

filing mind you, that they deported. Kilmer Braulio Garcia, who is a Maryland. man with legal protected status, to that. same prison. They literally conceded. that it was a quote "administrative. error" that he was there. And then, despite direct court orders demanding. that they bring him back, they initially. refused because the cruelty wasn't a. bug, it was the feature. It is the plan. Even Joe Rogan called that horrific. This administration paid $6 million of. your taxpayer money to El Salvador to. house migrants in a facility where they. are being tortured. Let me just make.

sure that lands. The US government is. outsourcing human rights abuses to a. foreign prison and paying for the. privilege. But here's what I want you to understand. here. And this really is the crux of it. This tough guy routine, this carnival of. cruelty, is simply them compensating. It. is the loudest, most theatrical. over-correction imaginable from a White. House that is itself populated by. criminals. Not alleged criminals, not. accused criminals, criminals. Let's just. do a quick tour. ProPublica reported.

that more than a dozen Trump officials, including two cabinet secretaries, sold. off stock before liberation day tanked. the market. That's what inside. information looks like when it's being. used for personal financial gain. And. that's to say nothing of all the people. right now getting rich by taking. positions 5 minutes before Trump makes. some massive announcement that impacts. the market. Here's the opening paragraph. of just one article about this situation. from the Guardian. 16 bets made $100,000. each accurately predicting the timing of. the US air strikes against Iran on 27th.

of February. Later, a single user would. make over 550,000 after betting that. Ayatollah Khamenei would topple just. moments before his assassination by. Israeli forces. On April 7th, right. before Donald Trump announced a. temporary ceasefire with Iran, traders. bet 950 million dollars that oil prices. would come down. They did. And if you. think that this administration is going. to investigate any of those people, well, I've got a Trump University. diploma with your name on it. And then. there is Elon Musk, the unelected. billionaire who is essentially running.

cabinet meetings and sitting in the Oval. Office while simultaneously holding. billions of dollars in government. contracts, including a reported $9.5. billion from the Department of Defense. alone. They gutted the SEC by nearly 20%. in staffing. They installed a loyalist. to run the Office of Government Ethics, stacked every oversight body with people. whose entire job is to look the other. way. They didn't just commit potential. crimes, they dismantled the mechanism. that would hold them accountable for it. And then, then they want to point a. finger at people on death row and talk.

about law and order? So look, I want to be precise here. I'm. not saying that everybody on death row. is innocent. I'm not saying that the. death penalty has no supporters with. legitimate philosophical views. I am. saying that this specific administration. expanding this specific penalty at this. specific speed with all the evidence we. have about wrongful convictions, about. racial disparities, about innocent. people being killed, and doing so in the. service of a brand image rather than any. coherent theory on justice is obscene. These are not serious people doing.

serious governance. They are fraudsters. and grifters and insider traders. People. who have spent decades gaming systems. for personal enrichment now cos playing. as these hard-nosed law and order folks. They want firing squads for death row. inmates while we're tracking. suspiciously timed trades made minutes. before class of classified military. announcements. They want to expedite. executions while cabinet secretaries are. dumping stock ahead of market crashes. they helped engineer. The tough guy act. is not real. It never is with these.

people. The cruelty is a costume, something to show the base something. while they quietly pick everybody's. pockets from the inside. And frankly, I. have zero confidence that an. administration this corrupt, this. cavalier about due process, this openly. contemptuous of courts and oversight and. basic accountability has any interest in. making sure that the people they're now. rushing toward execution are actually. guilty. Why would they? They can't even. deport the right people. They openly. admitted to sending an innocent man to a. torture prison and then shrugged at the. court order telling them to fix it. So,

my problem isn't the firing squad. My. problem is that this White House is full. of the kind of people who should. probably be more worried about their own. legal exposure than about clearing the. path to execute more Americans faster. Before you go, I'm very excited to. announce that I've written a new book. titled The Day After: How to Wield Power. in a Post-Trump World. The book explores. what is, in my opinion, the single most. important theme that we're dealing with. in politics today and moving forward, power. Specifically, how Republicans. abuse it and how Democrats refuse to.

wield it. This book explains how we got. here and more importantly, how we should. finally wield power if we're lucky. enough to get it back. It is the. blueprint for progressives who want to. do far more than just restore the status. quo. Please pre-order today by following. the link on this screen. You can grab. yours from any of the major retailers. like Amazon and Barnes & Noble or scroll. down on the page and get a copy from an. independent bookstore closest to you. Thanks so much for supporting. independent media.