A federal judge on Monday said she was “furious” with the Trump administration’s move over the weekend to cut down at least 430 trees from a Washington, DC, public golf course that President Donald Trump is seeking to renovate.

US District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing a legal challenge to Trump’s plans to overhaul the East Potomac Golf Course, put a tentative hold on any further tree removal and is holding an emergency hearing Monday, in which she told Justice Department attorneys they had lost “credibility” with her because they gave less than a day’s notice before cutting down the trees.

“More than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed with the government,” Reyes said. When a DOJ attorney said they had done their “best” to give her and the plaintiffs a heads-up, the judge said, her voice raised, “No, you did your absolute worst.”

“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Reyes also said.

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[–] 9 points 2 hours ago* (1 child)

The whole raison d'être of this regime is to tear down and destroy everything people value, partly to demoralize and for their own feeling of power, but especially destroying the democratic system to make way for the techno-fascist oligarchs' takeover of the government.

BUT the people can take advantage of this situation and co-opt their tearing down of the neoliberal order, to replace it with democratic socialism instead. It can happen.

Check this video from Literate Machine on how (it also has a link to the written version in the description if you prefer to read instead of watch)

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  • [–] 5 points 3 hours ago

    I wish there were Ents.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 hours ago (1 child)

    TREE LAW

    TREE LAW

    TREE LAW

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  • [–] 22 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

    And they get away with it by doing first and get scolded after and laugh it off as no punishment for them.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 hours ago

    There’s this golf course that used to be Trump Links that I drive past once in a while. It’s “Bally Links” now, but it’s ugly AF. No trees. I think it was landfill that got converted, they probably can’t grow anything with deep roots there because plastic and toxic waste under it. Soon as I saw this article this is the golf dump I thought of.

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  • [–] 16 points 6 hours ago (1 child)

    430 trumps should be chopped down to restore the balance.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 hours ago

    Trump cares nothing for the world beyond what he wants. He would kill billions of us without ever feeling bad. What are some old trees to him?

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  • [–] 18 points 12 hours ago (1 child)

    Golf is a skin disease on the Earth. IT should be banned, or at least highly restricted to mitigate the environmental damage it causes.

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  • [–] 182 points 1 day ago (25 children)

    I would LOVE if the thing that brought Trump down was Tree Law. It won’t happen but everything is so ridiculous thee could just be a chance

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  • [–] 38 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tree_Riot

    The Pine Tree Riot was an act of resistance to British royal authority undertaken by American colonists in Weare, New Hampshire, on April 14, 1772, placing it among the disputes between Crown and colonists that culminated in the American Revolution.

    In 1722, under the Broad Arrow Policy it became illegal to cut down white pine trees larger than 12 inches in diameter in New Hampshire in order to reserve them for use as Royal Navy masts. This law was not strictly enforced until 1766, when Governor John Wentworth began enforcing it.

    On April 13, 1772, Sheriff Benjamin Whiting and Deputy John Quigley discovered a sawmill in Weare, New Hampshire, violating this law. They arrested the leader, Ebenezer Mudgett, and released him on bail. The next day, Mudgett and twenty men attacked the Sheriff and Deputy at the Quimby Inn, beating them nearly to death with large rods and sending them out of town on horseback. Some credit this incident with inspiring the Boston Tea Party, which significantly contributed to the start of the American Revolutionary War.

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    [–] 69 points 1 day ago (10 children)

    If you look closely, you can see a long trail of “furious” Judges in the wake left behind this gelatinous coward fascist everywhere he goes. And if you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that not one of them ever did a thing about it-

    Thus proving, the words of judges are irrelevant to one who is above the law. Therefore there’s is only one language that speaks to such a person…

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  • [–] 35 points 21 hours ago* (5 children)

    And that's just a flat-out lie. Judges, more than any other single group of people, have slowed Trump's roll in every direction.

    One wonders why you're so quick to give Trump's dishonest flunkies a pass in order to come down harder on the judge who is trying to uphold the law -- not just in spite of him, but in spite of the shit she'll inevitably get for it.

    As the golf course renovation is already being litigated, his lackeys were supposed to notify her prior to ANY tree removal, but did not. She's just trying to save the trees that are left after the fact, but you can only talk shit about her, and the other honest judges we still have that are doing their best to keep whatever rule of law we have left.

    Not a single negative word about them in your comment, only shit for the judge still doing her job when right and left the administration is coming down hard on anyone that opposes them. Ilhan Omar's home just got raided today. A Wisconsin immigration judge went to jail and lost her job for objecting to ICE. Anyone who crosses him gets his followers sicced on him. And those are just off the top of my head. But this lady is still doing her job in spite of that.

    Stop giving that fat orange tumor a pass by coming down on the perceived weakness of any opposition. They're doing what they can, and they're doing more than you are by talking shit about anything good anyone does to slow him down.

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  • [–] 16 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

    Unironically the one time capital punishment makes sense

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  • [–] 9 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

    I mean if like that, but I prefer him to suffer in a jail cell, stripped of all his ill gained profits. It will drive him insane. I will savor every minute.

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  • [–] 14 points 18 hours ago

    America, this is what you voted for with your apathy.

    Put the fucker down, or shut up.

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  • [–] 42 points 1 day ago (8 children)

    she told Justice Department attorneys they had lost “credibility” with her

    This inJustice Department had any credibility with her?

    Why? It is run by donnie's personal lawyer, FFS. And before that, it was Pam Blondi.

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    [–] 31 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Should have sanctioned harder the first time they killed trees after an injunction. They took that as permission and killed 10 times as many this time and feel indignant that the judge has any opinions about that. Fascinating how they claim no one has any idea how much it will cost. Have you ever hired a contractor to do that much work with a dollar sign and a question mark on the estimate? I know I can't do contracts without firm quotes as a government employee.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 day ago

    Wow I can't wait for nothing to happen to anyone.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Furious enough to apply meaningful consequences (i.e. JAIL for CONTEMPT)?

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    [–] 16 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    I dont know, Hold someone accountable. Use the contempt ability, put people in jail. You can be mad and stomp your feet like a 3 year old all you want, how about actions.

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    [–] 9 points 23 hours ago

    She demanded that two National Park Service officials appear at the virtual hearing, which lasted more than three hours, to testify about how the plans to remove the trees came to be. The project came out of an October 5 meeting, one of the officials testified, during which the official was told to carry out a seven-year-old proposal seeking to restore the course’s “cultural” heritage.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 day ago
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