#characteristicsoffascism — Public Fediverse posts

#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams

One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”

by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026

"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.

"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance

#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams

One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”

by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026

"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.

"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance

#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams

One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”

by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026

"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.

"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance

#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams

One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”

by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026

"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.

"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance

#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#Anthropic Building a #PreCrime System to Surveil #AntiAI #Dissenters, Investigation Shows | Common Dreams

One legal expert said that as AI companies “become more hated, there’s more pressure on them to over-disclose knowing that some of the people they identify for law enforcement shouldn’t be targeted.”

by Brad Reed, September 9, 2026

"The American Prospect on Wednesday published an investigation revealing that top artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is building a predictive surveillance system aimed at tracking activists who are opposed to advanced AI development.

"The Prospect found that Anthropic last month issued a job posting seeking an intelligence specialist to “identify, assess, track, and investigate global threats including geopolitical instability, terrorism, crime, activism, nation-state targeting of the AI sector.”

Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/anthropic-pre-crime-surveillance

#PreCrime #ThoughtCrime #AIResistance #ResistanceIsFertile #AISucks #CriminalizingDissent #TheResistance #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #HumanIntelligence #TechFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

[Alleged] #Christian Employers Can Now Discriminate Against #TransPeople

A settlement with the Christian Employers Alliance blocks the EEOC from ever investigating the group’s members for gender identity discrimination.

Bryce Covert
September 1 2026

Excerpt: "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with protecting workers from illegal discrimination, inked an unprecedented settlement with a conservative Christian employer association that could have long-term, wide-ranging consequences.

"The lawsuit that led to the settlement was in reaction to #EEOC guidance issued under the Biden administration and after a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that Title VII protects against gender identity discrimination.
In the settlement, reached on August 18, the EEOC pledged to not pursue any claims of gender identity-based discrimination against the #ChristianEmployersAlliance — and made the pledge in perpetuity.

"The EEOC provides free investigation into complaints of discrimination and, in some cases, will bring lawsuits on behalf of employees at no cost to the plaintiffs.

"Now, however, anyone who works for a company with membership in the Christian Employers Alliance who believes they suffered gender identity-based discrimination won’t be able to avail themselves of the EEOC’s process.

"The settlement also contains an unusual provision: It applies not just to the more than 20,000 employers that are already members in the Christian Employers Alliance, but also to any future members, so long as they are members at the time that any claimed discrimination occurred.

"That means that any employer that decides to sign up for Christian Employers Alliance membership will get the benefit of blanket protection from the EEOC against all claims of #GenderIdentity discrimination, such as harassing someone for being #nonbinary or firing them for coming out as #trans .

" 'I am not aware of any settlement that just creates in perpetuity a freedom from investigation, 'said Karla Gilbride, a former EEOC general counsel under President Joe Biden who is now at the American Civil Liberties Union. 'I’ve never seen an organization get a settlement that allows protection to future members in this way.'

"The settlement will stay in place even if #AndreaLucas, the current Republican chair of the EEOC, is replaced with a Democratic chair under a future Democratic president. (The Christian Employers Alliance declined to comment, and the EEOC did not respond to an inquiry.)"

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/09/01/christian-employers-settlement-gender-discrimination-eeoc/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/FnMei

#WWJD #LoveOneAnother #USPol #GBLTQRights #HumanRights #TransRightsAreHumanRights #HumanRightsViolations #ChristoFascism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Trump Goes After Anonymous Email Provider in Italy. The Real Target Is Free Speech in the U.S.

Trump designated an Italian web-hosting provider as a foreign “terror” group. It could take #antifascist sites in the U.S. offline.

Matt Sledge
August 28 2026

"In the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the left, the U.S. government’s designation of a popular antifascist webhosting provider as a terror group could shutter a swath of radical websites in the U.S.

"Secretary of State #MarcoRubio and Treasury Secretary #ScottBessent announced Wednesday that they were targeting the Italy-based A/I Collective with terror sanctions. Federal law gives the Treasury Department broad discretion to apply the terror label to foreign groups.

"A wide array of #anarchist, antifascist, and #FarLeft groups in the U.S. and abroad use the privacy-minded collective’s offerings, including an anonymous email service and its popular noblogs.org blogging platform.

"The practice of designating an internet platform and service provider as a terror group — rather than those pursuing violence themselves — has 'huge' implications for the future free speech on the internet, warned Jillian York, the director of international freedom of expression at the #ElectronicFrontierFoundation.

" 'They are going after the messenger,' York said. 'I don’t think that the members of the group would necessarily condone the actions of the people that they hosted. What they do condone is the freedom to host, the ability to be anonymous, the ability to be private.'

"The A/I Collective told The Intercept that it is exploring its legal options to fight the sanctions, which block U.S. citizens and companies from providing the group with financial support.

"In an unsigned statement, the group said that it denies the U.S. government’s allegations.

" '#Antifascism and #anticapitalism are not #terrorism ,' the group said. '#Protesting is not terrorism. And everyone has the right to speak out and to struggle for #humanity.' " [And #MotherEarth ! ]

Source:
https://theintercept.com/2026/08/28/trump-antifa-terrorist-websites-free-speech/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/4ETk2

#FreeSpeech #AutisticiInventati #Solidarity #USPol #WorldPol #SolidarityWithAutisticiInventati #FreedomOfExpression #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#Whistleblower Says #Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on #VotingByMail

A report detailed “grave concerns” that a new system being rushed into use by the U.S. Postal Service could imperil millions of mail ballots ahead of the midterm elections.

Chris Cameron
By Chris Cameron
Reporting from Washington
Sept. 1, 2026

Excerpt: "A U.S. Postal Service official has alleged that the agency is moving forward with a 'secretive, rushed' effort to carry out President Trump’s order exerting federal control over mail voting, despite a court order blocking those plans.

"The official filed a whistle-blower report, published on Tuesday morning by the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, asserting that the 'risky and haphazard' implementation of Mr. Trump’s order could lead to a 'catastrophic failure' in the mail ballot system ahead of this year’s #MidtermElections. The report said that the agency had planned to complete the new digital system overseeing mail ballots by Sept. 1.

" 'Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,' the official said in the report, which was prepared with the assistance of #WhistleblowerAid, a nonprofit group that represents people seeking to expose potential lawbreaking.

Speaking to reporters by phone on Monday, Mr. Blumenthal said of the report that 'the main takeaway for me is that the Postal Service has designed a system to disenfranchise millions of Americans. One-third of all Americans cast their ballots by mail, and the #USPS puts all of their votes at risk.'

"A Postal Service official declined to comment on the record."

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/us/politics/whistle-blower-voting-by-mail.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/IJg8U

#USPol #Elections2026 #Fascism #USElections #Trump #StealingElections #VoterSupression #TrumpIsAFascist #VoterDisenfranchisement #CharacteristicsOfFascism

HT
@bruces

A single signature by #Trump can remove you from the #internet

by di Stefania Maurizi, 31 August 2026

Excerpt: " 'Designating a collective that has been active for over twenty years in the European civil and digital rights movement—and has always operated openly—as a terrorist organization is part of the technological war that the United States is waging against anyone who asserts autonomy over digital networks and infrastructure...' "

https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2026/08/29/autistici-inventati-trump-terrorists-news/8491452/

#AutisticiInventati #USPol #WorldPol #ItalyPol #Censorship #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Trumpistan #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Postal Service Rule Could Bar Millions From #VotingByMail

A judge temporarily blocked the agency from refusing to deliver ballots in #noncompliant states, which could disproportionately affect #Democrats and many battleground elections.

By Reid J. Epstein, Aug. 30, 2026

Excerpt: "Voting by mail would become much more difficult, if not impossible, for tens of millions of Americans if the #USPostalService is allowed to implement a restrictive rule governing mail voting that President Trump has demanded.

"The effects would likely be greater for #DemocraticVoters, who vote by mail in higher numbers than #Republicans, and in states where mail voting is universal or nearly so. #MailVoting may not happen at all in states that resist the #Trump administration’s demands for #VoterData .

"The rule would particularly affect people in #rural areas and #OlderVoters, who tend to cast ballots by mail in greater numbers. It could also deeply affect states where some of the most competitive races for House, Senate and governor will determine control of Congress and state governments.

" #Michigan, where 37 percent of votes were cast by mail in 2022, would be one epicenter, with hard-fought statewide contests and multiple battleground House races. #California, which mails ballots to all voters, is expected to be central to Democratic efforts to win a majority in the House.

"The rule is being challenged in several lawsuits, and it is on hold temporarily following a federal judge’s ruling on Thursday. The administration is appealing. Even if the Postal Service is permitted to proceed, it is unclear that it would have time to implement the plan ahead of an election that is fewer than 70 days away.

"For instance, the rule requires states to upload a list of voters to a federal mail ballot portal that is not yet online. Nearly two dozen Democratic-led states and #WashingtonDC , have sued to block the proposed rule and said they will not comply with it.

"If the agency were to move ahead, state and local officials would shoulder enormous costs in what would need to be a herculean effort to prepare election offices and educate voters in time for the midterm elections in November.

"The most dramatic aspect of the proposed rule is a plan to deny services for election mail entirely in states that do not turn over #VoterData, which federal officials say they want to use to identify noncitizens on state #VoterRolls. The policy would upend mail voting in any state that does not comply, but the effects would be measurably greater in the smaller number of states that rely heavily on mail voting.

"More than one in three Democrats voted by mail in 2024, compared with about one in four Republicans, according to estimates by the States United Democracy Center, which examined voting data in 32 states where it was available.

" 'It’s not that complicated,' said Marc Elias, the Democratic election lawyer, who said the new policy was a blatant effort to disenfranchise Democrats. 'The administration knows that Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans. Donald Trump has demonized voting by mail and made that differential even greater.' "

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/us/politics/mail-voting-trump-midterms-supreme-court.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/3A3nw

#USPol #Elections2026 #VoterDisenfranchisement #VoterIntimidation #Fascists #CharacteristicsOfFascism #LiteracyTests

Republican nominee for #Maine governor says he wants #ICEAgents at #Polling places in the state

The Maine Democratic Party criticized the idea as likely illegal and an attempt to intimidate voters.

by PATRICK WHITTLE and MATT BROWN,
August 26, 2026

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — "Maine’s Republican nominee for governor recently told a crowd of supporters that he would ask a top Department of Homeland Security official to send U.S. Marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places in the state for this fall’s midterm elections, according to audio obtained by The Associated Press.

"During an Aug. 20 event in Arundel, Bobby Charles told a group of supporters that he would ask #TomHoman, the White House #BorderCzar, to send federal agents to polling places in the weeks before #ElectionDay. The audio was first reported by the Bangor Daily News.

" 'Here’s my secret,; Charles told members of a Maine Young Republicans chapter. 'I have a friend named Tom Homan. Tom and I used to get on Fox all the time together. Tom’s an awesome guy.'

" 'I’m going to ask Tom, I’m going to actually — three or four weeks before the election, maybe three — I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and #USMarshals to be at our voting booths,' Charles said, according to the audio."

Read more:
https://www.bostonherald.com/2026/08/26/bobby-charles-ice-at-polling-places/

#MainePol #USPol #Elections2026 #VoterIntimidation #ICEOutOfMaine #ICEOut #DefundICE #CapitalPolice #CapitolPolice #PanEm #Fascists #BobbyCharles #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#LawrenceBritt 's #CharacteristicsOfFascism number 14 - #FraudulentElections

"Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections."

Supreme Court Allows Trump to Pursue Mail Voting Limits, for Now

The administration asked the court to clear the way for President Trump’s order that creates “state citizenship lists” and directs the Postal Service to decide who gets a mail-in ballot.

By Abbie VanSickle and Ann E. Marimow
Aug. 24, 2026

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/us/politics/supreme-court-trump-mail-ballots.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/vDt6r

#USPol #USElections #Elections2026 #Fascism #VoterDisenfranchisement

Pentagon Spokesperson Admits There’s a Secret Blacklist of Journalists

When pressed about the Iran war, a CENTCOM press official threatened to put an Intercept reporter on a “list of people to disregard.”

Nick Turse, August 24 2026

Excerpt: "Under self-styled #WarSecretary #PeteHegseth, the U.S. military has mounted the most aggressive assault on #PressFreedom in memory, from an effort to outlaw 'unauthorized' questions from reporters to imposing unconstitutional restrictions on journalists’ access to the Pentagon. Hegseth has compared reporters to 'Pharisees,' who in the Bible call Jesus’s teachings into question, while the secretary’s minions regularly hurl insults at reporters. This is part of a broader war on press freedoms by the #TrumpAdministration, that includes demonizing #journalists; filing so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation, or #SLAPPs, to intimidate and silence criticism through expensive legal proceedings; and employing grand jury subpoenas and search warrants to intimidate reporters.

" 'Threatening journalists with placement on a #blacklist in retaliation for reporting the government doesn’t like is as #unconstitutional as it gets,' said Seth Stern, the director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation. 'This should put to rest the Pentagon’s prior claims that it’s anti-press policies — like its infamous requirement that reporters sign pledges to only print authorized information — are somehow content neutral.'

"Allee revealed the existence of the blacklist after this reporter was left on hold for more than two hours and complained about a long-standing lack of transparency by the command. In calls earlier that morning, Maj. Emma Thompson, #CENTCOM ’s media operations chief, repeatedly refused to answer questions about Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East, disparate U.S. casualty counts, and medical evacuation flights: 'Nothing for you,' 'Don’t have anything for you,' 'No comment.' Thompson then hung up on this reporter mid-question.

#TheIntercept called back multiple times until Allee picked up the phone. 'They’re not going to answer your call if you just keep calling and calling,' he told this reporter."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/08/24/pentagon-military-journalist-blacklist-press-media/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/uPwYW

#USPol #Censorship #SiliencingDissent #SilencingThePress #NoComment #Orwellian #MinistryOfTruth #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Older #StudentLoan borrowers are at risk of losing a chunk of their #SocialSecurity. There's a new bill to prevent that.

Story by Ayelet Sheffey, August 17, 2026

"Student-loan borrowers could lose their Social Security checks if they fall behind on their loan payments. Democratic lawmakers want to put an end to that practice.

"On Monday, Sens. #BernieSanders, #ElizabethWarren, and #EdMarkey introduced a bill to prevent older student-loan borrowers and borrowers with disabilities from facing Social Security garnishment if they default on their payments.

"A fact sheet of the legislation reviewed by Business Insider said that the bill would prohibit the Treasury from seizing Social Security payments, including Social Security Disability Insurance, and protect those borrowers from 'unnecessary forced collections.'

"Sanders said in a statement that 'in the richest country in the history of the world, no senior should have their Social Security payments taken away from them to pay back student debt.'

" 'This is especially true when seniors throughout the country already cannot afford the skyrocketing price of healthcare, prescription drugs, groceries and housing,' Sanders said. "Congress must pass this legislation.'

"The legislation comes as student-loan defaults are at a record high. Over 9 million borrowers were in default as of March, according to the latest Education Department data, which happens when a borrower has missed payments for 270 days.

"The New York Federal Reserve's latest household debt report showed that student-loan delinquencies stood at 10.6% in the second quarter of 2026 — up from 10.3% in the first quarter. Pre-pandemic delinquency rates were around 11%, and researchers said the latest data showed that delinquency is stabilizing. Yet researchers said that number could rise again due to the elimination of the Biden-era SAVE repayment plan, which gave borrowers affordable payments and a shorter timeline to debt relief."

Read more:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/older-student-loan-borrowers-are-at-risk-of-losing-a-chunk-of-their-social-security-there-s-a-new-bill-to-prevent-that/ar-AA2ahcsA?

#SAVEPlan #StudentLoans #USPol #TrumpSucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism

What’s Happening in #Kansas Should Alarm Us All

by M. Gessen, August 13, 2026

Excerpt: "Some of the words or expressions in this article may at first blush seem hyperbolic. One of them is ' #fascism. ' That’s how #SiobhanKirschstein characterized the process when we met in Lawrence, Kan., in July: 'It was #SoftFascism.' It was. Fascism usually begins with redefining the nation by excluding certain groups, which are branded threats to national health and unity. The #Trump administration has fixated on two groups most of all — #immigrants and #TransPeople — in just this way, smearing us (I am a member of both groups) as predatory, sick, at once subhuman and terrifyingly powerful. Even before Donald Trump was elected for the second time, more than half the states had considered or passed legislation limiting the rights of trans people. The process has intensified in the last year and a half, and the law enacted in Kansas in February is one of the most restrictive pieces of anti-trans legislation passed in any state so far."

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/13/opinion/kansas-anti-trans-laws-drivers-license.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/M45LM

#USPol #AntiTransLegislation #SB244 #BathroomLaws #Transgender #AntiTransLaws #DrivingWhileTrans #CharacteristicsOfFascism #TransRightsAreHumanRights

#US Manufactured Crimes and Spied on Peaceful #Protesters During #Minneapolis Metro Surge, New Court Filing Reveals

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 14, 2026

MINNEAPOLIS -- "While #Dakotas were praying at a #SacredSpring for those held in federal detention at the #WhippleBuilding in Minneapolis -- the U.S. government was spying on, and stalking, the #WhippleWatchers, a new court document reveals.

"The government is refusing to release all of its documents on its surveillance of those watching the Whipple building. The Whipple building is on the site of a former concentration camp, where Dakota and Ho Chunk were imprisoned, suffered and died.

" 'The government admits withholding at least five #ProjectWhippleShield #ROIs (Reports of Investigation) from the initial disclosures,' the court filing states.

"In the current case, the court document for discovery filed yesterday describes how the U.S. government spied on and tracked peaceful protesters during the #resistance to #OperationMetroSurge.

"Not only were peaceful protesters spied on, #stalked and #doxxed, but the #surveillance was carried out to #ManufactureCrimes when none existed, states the court document filed by a defense attorney for one of the government's targets."

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/08/us-manufactured-crimes-and-spied-on.html

#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent
#CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

Documents show federal surveillance operation in #Minnesota targeted #progressive groups, #unions

By TIM SULLIVAN and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Updated 11:02 PM EDT, August 13, 2026

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — "Federal agents launched a sweeping undercover surveillance operation earlier this year targeting progressive organizations, labor unions and other groups protesting the immigration crackdown then raging through Minneapolis, according to court documents filed Thursday.

"The program, dubbed #OperationPuppetMaster, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping 'violent opportunists and agitators.' The documents were filed in a case involving 15 people charged by federal prosecutors in June with impeding the crackdown, accusing them of conspiring against the federal government through a range of actions, from throwing ice chunks to setting up blockades.

"The government documents were released Thursday in connection with a motion from a defense lawyer in the case, #KevinRiach, who requested that officials disclose more material collected during the investigations.

"The reality, according to government documents revealed in court motions, was Department of Homeland Security officers infiltrating meetings in churches, schools and parks that were often simply discussions of constitutionally protected protests.

"A statement from the department said Homeland Security Investigations doesn’t comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods. The statement referred questions to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, which didn’t immediately respond to an after-hours email from The Associated Press."

https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-immigration-enforcement-progressive-groups-investigated-5e6e554e79980553c3a02ca199593a7d

#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent
#CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

‘Outrageous’: #Trump Officials Investigated #LeftWing Groups After #AlexPretti Killing in #Minneapolis

One #FirstAmendment advocacy group called the investigation a “disturbing, invasive, and utterly unjustifiable attack on freedom of expression and political dissent.”

Julia Conley
Aug 13, 2026

"The Trump administration began the probe under the auspices of investigating whether the groups had provided 'help and money,' as the Times reported, to people who had participated in protests across the #MinneapolisSaintPaul area, where tens of thousands of residents rallied against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) and defended their neighbors from immigration raids last winter.

"Newly released government documents, which were uncovered after an attorney filed a motion with the federal District Court in Minnesota demanding information about the DHS investigation, show that the agency characterized the protesters who opposed ICE as 'violent opportunists and agitators.'

"The investigation included #DHS’ use of administrative subpoenas to obtain financial records from #SunriseMovement, Communications Workers of America [ #CWA ], and the #SEIU, scrutinizing what the agency called 'domestic terrorist financing.' "

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-left-wing

#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

Posting again for others. My #Facebook account was suspended today. They wanted me to submit a photo ID, but my hubby, who also had his account suspended, told me that didn't change anything. This is #Fascism and #FaceSurveillance at it's highest form. If you're still on FB and get suspended, download your archive and maybe make an announcement on #Instagram (mine was still working).

#BigBrother #ZuckSucks #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #TechBros #SurveillanceState

Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left

#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant

by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026

"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.

" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.

Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."

Read more:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-war-antifa-protesters-prison-1235607065/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I

#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#FlockCameras Can Track Every Car in America. #Police Love Them. Citizens Don’t.

In Texas, there’s one thing liberals and conservatives agree on: They don’t want cameras trained on their cars.

By Fernando Alfonso III and Kashmir Hill
Aug. 10, 2026

Excerpt: "A #Texas officer used Flock’s cameras to track a woman across state lines who was suspected of self-administering an abortion. Officers across the country have abused their access to Flock’s cameras, including to track romantic partners, resulting in discipline and termination. #LosAngeles and #DaytonOH , among other cities, recently suspended their contracts with Flock to prevent immigration authorities from accessing data from the cameras. Dayton resorted to covering the cameras with trash bags. In cities like Houston, Oakland, Calif., and Grand Junction, Colo., residents have taken matters into their own hands, with police reports and surveillance footage documenting Flock cameras being cut down, splattered with paint and even shot.

"Flock’s pitch is simple: It can help the police find stolen cars, locate wanted people and solve crimes. One license-plate reader led to the arrest in Florida of a man who had threatened a mass shooting in Louisiana; another helped police find the man eventually convicted in an assassination attempt against Donald J. Trump.

"But as its cameras have spread, so has the opposition. Americans are accustomed to surveillance cameras. They put them on their doorbells and tolerate them on street corners, offices and restaurants. What sets Flock’s cameras apart is that they are connected, creating a vast, searchable national network — often surprising residents who didn’t realize their local governments had signed up for them and raising fears of #BigBrother style surveillance. And they are hard to miss once you start noticing them."

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/10/us/flock-cameras-can-track-every-car-in-america-police-love-them-citizens-dont.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/3PnB8

#USPol #ACAB #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #Orwellian #PoliceState #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Fast forward to 2026...

#EFF - Lawmakers Must Act Now to Prevent #ArmedPoliceDrones

By Matthew Guariglia
June 26, 2026

"This is not science fiction. It’s not premature. If towns, cities, states, or the federal government want to act to rein in the emergence of armed police drones and robots, we have precious little time. In the absence of substantial regulation around when and how domestic law enforcement in the United States can deploy force using drones, the companies that markets technology to law enforcement have been moving. It’s past time concerned people take notice. Cities should not procure weaponized drones or robots, and multi-purpose drones and robots should be restricted from causing harm.

"Since 2021, EFF has been advocating against the use of armed robots or drones by law enforcement. This call has become more urgent as companies are moving in to take advantage of the lax regulatory landscape.

"This month, two disturbing developments raised concerns that we might be on the verge of a larger trend of drone militarization. The first is that the CEO of Skydio, one of the most prolific vendors of police drones in the United States, signaled that the company has a more permissive attitude toward arming their drones in some contexts than many people expected. When asked on a podcast about the public perception that the company had restrictions around letting the military arm their drones, CEO Adam Bry said, 'This is an area where I’ve gotten some things wrong. We said some things previously that led folks externally and internally to believe that, for example, we would prevent the military from putting weapons on our drones […] It’s very easy to sit back in a Silicon Valley office and think that we’re very smart, that we know the technology, and the idea of using it for X, Y, or Z thing seems evil or bad, so we’re going to write a policy or ban people from doing it. I think that’s ultimately misguided.'

"Simply put: he is signaling that #Skydio will not implement restrictions on their customers’ use of their devices.

"Bry was specifically asked about the military arming drones but the question reveals a disturbing truth: whether police arm drones domestically is currently based more on the internal ethical commitments of companies than it is any laws created by elected officials. Combining Skydio’s huge amount of police contracts, including supplying entire fleets for Drone as First Responders ( #DFR ) programs, and the tendency of military technologies like #surveillance aerostats to get redeployed on U.S. soil, creates a real recipe for the emergence of armed police drones."

Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/lawmakers-must-act-now-prevent-armed-police-drones

#SurveillanceState #DefundICE #DefundDHS #ArmedPoliceDrones #PoliceDrones
#ACAB #RoboCops #PredatorUAVs #PredatorDrones #UAVs #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #WeaponizedDrones #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity
#CompliantTechnologies #CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol

Drones have been on my radar screen (pun intended) for quite a few years...

Don’t Let Police Arm Autonomous or Remote-Controlled Robots and Drones

By Matthew Guariglia
July 16, 2021

"It’s no longer science fiction or unreasonable paranoia. Now, it needs to be said: No, police must not be arming land-based robots or aerial drones. That’s true whether these mobile devices are remote controlled by a person or autonomously controlled by artificial intelligence, and whether the weapons are maximally lethal (like bullets) or less lethal (like tear gas). [Or #ElectricShockGloves !]

"Police currently deploy many different kinds of moving and task-performing technologies. These include flying drones, remote control bomb-defusing robots, and autonomous patrol robots. While these different devices serve different functions and operate differently, none of them--absolutely none of them--should be armed with any kind of weapon.

"Mission creep is very real. Time and time again, technologies given to police to use only in the most extreme circumstances make their way onto streets during protests or to respond to petty crime. For example, cell site simulators (often called ' #Stingrays ') were developed for use in foreign battlefields, brought home in the name of fighting 'terrorism,' then used by law enforcement to catch immigrants and a man who stole $57 worth of food. Likewise, police have targeted #BLM #protesters with #FaceSurveillance and #AmazonRing doorbell cameras.

"Today, scientists are developing an #AI enhanced #AutonomousDrone, designed to find people during natural disasters by locating their screams. How long until police use this technology to find protesters shouting chants? What if these autonomous drones were armed? We need a clear red line now: no armed police drones, period.

"There are already law enforcement robots and drones of all shapes, sizes, and levels of autonomy patrolling the United States as we speak. From autonomous #Knightscope robots prowling for 'suspicious behavior' and collecting images of license plates [ #FlockCameras ] and phone identifying information, to #BostonDynamic robotic dogs accompanying police on calls in New York or checking the temperature of unhoused people in Honolulu, to #PredatorSurveillanceDrones flying over BLM protests in #Minneapolis.

"We are moving quickly towards arming such robots and letting autonomous artificial intelligence determine whether or not to pull the trigger."

Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/dont-let-police-arm-autonomous-or-remote-controlled-robots-and-drones

#ICESucks #SurveillanceState #DefundICE #DefundDHS #ArmedPoliceDrones #PoliceDrones
#ACAB #RoboCops #PredatorUAVs #PredatorDrones #UAVs #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #WeaponizedDrones #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity
#CompliantTechnologies #CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol

#EFF Says Lawmakers Have “Precious Little Time” to Stop #ArmedPoliceDrones, and the Skydio Reversal Is Why

Haye Kesteloo · Editor-in-Chief June 29, 2026

Excerpt: "Federal law governs shooting at drones, not drones shooting at people

"The regulatory gap EFF is pointing at is real and lopsided. Federal law is clear and well-tested on one direction of force: firing at a drone is a felony. As DroneXL reported this month, a man who fired a BB gun at a Lee County Sheriff’s Office drone is facing charges under 18 U.S.C. § 32, which treats a drone as an aircraft and carries up to 20 years in prison. The statute dates to 1956 and has been applied to drone cases for years.

"There is no equivalent body of law running the other way. No federal statute defines when a law enforcement drone may deploy force against a person, what counts as proportionate, or who is liable when a less-lethal effect injures a bystander. San Francisco became the first city to ban police from using deadly force via robot back in 2022, but EFF argues a single-city policy covering only robots, not drones, is not enough. A workable rule, the group says, has to cover both categories and explicitly prohibit any body harm. The asymmetry is the whole problem: the person on the ground who shoots at a police drone faces two decades in federal prison, while the drone that might one day deploy force against that person operates in a legal vacuum."

https://dronexl.co/2026/06/29/eff-armed-police-drones-skydio-legal-gap/

#PoliceDrones #ArmedPoliceDrones #ACAB #RoboCops #PredatorUAVs #PredatorDrones #UAVs #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #WeaponizedDrones #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Oh great... Now we're in the #THX1138 phase of #Fascism!

#ICE #ElectricShockGloves Spark Alarm as $20M Plan Lets Officers Deliver Silent Pain by a Button

The device's own maker bars its use on children, pregnant women, the elderly, or as punishment

By Jim Manzon
Published 12 August 2026, 8:00 AM BST

"The product is called the G.L.O.V.E., short for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter. It looks and works like a standard patrol glove until an officer flips a switch that activates its electrical mode.

"The glove must touch a person's bare skin to deliver its jolt. The manufacturer says the shock usually forces compliance within seconds. Unlike a stun gun, it carries no barbs or projectiles, so it leaves little visible evidence behind."

[...]

"Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, deputy project director on policing at the American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU), said the public should have no confidence the devices will be used appropriately. She questioned why civil immigration enforcement needs shock tools, and warned that people being shocked may get no notice."

Learn more:
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ice-shock-gloves-civil-rights-concerns-1813689

#ICESucks #DefundICE #DefundDHS #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity #CompliantTechnologies #CharacteristicsOfFascism #ACAB #USPol

Um, looks like #USGovt is looking to imprison more folks -- #shoplifters! Like, parents who can't afford food for their kids because of #TrumpsWar ! #Homeless folks, #veterans , #protestors -- they are all on the *list* too!

Congress Might Give ICE the Power to Go After Shoplifters

A bill intended to halt the supposed threat of “organized retail crime” would put ICE in charge of the federal response.

by Sam Biddle
August 7 2026, 7:17 a.m. ET

"To counter the purported national scourge of 'organized retail crime,' a bill moving through Congress would deliver the Department of Homeland Security unprecedented policing powers, granting even more authority to what experts say is an already lawless ICE."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/08/07/congress-ice-shoplifting-theft-surveillance/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/gMIHt

#USPol #DetentionCenters #HungerGames #DefundICE #DefundDHS #WarOnIran #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #CORCA #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

She protested #ICERaids. Then agents showed up at her door

by Meg Anderson, August 3, 2026

"Early one morning this June, #TreasureThoreson was drinking coffee on her couch in #Minneapolis when she heard a knock at the front door.

" 'I go and I see a woman standing there in office clothes, but with a Homeland Security vest over the top. And I see six more agents standing in my front yard,' Thoreson told NPR. "She said, 'We have a warrant for your arrest, for conspiracy.' "

"Thoreson, a special education teacher, was still in her pajamas. The agent let her change clothes and hug her partner goodbye before taking her into custody.

"The government charged Thoreson and 14 others with engaging in a conspiracy to impede federal agents — a conspiracy it says culminated in the use of blockades outside the Whipple Federal Building, which served as ICE's headquarters during the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota this past winter.

"The government cited meetings and conversations on the encrypted messaging app #Signal as evidence. At the advice of her lawyer, Thoreson declined to comment on the specifics of the indictment.

An increasing trend

"The charges against Thoreson are part of an escalating trend. NPR reviewed court records from the last five years to examine how the federal government is wielding one specific charge: conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which can carry a sentence of up to six years in federal prison.

"The statute, which dates back to the Civil War, has historically been used infrequently. But since President #Trump took office last year, the Justice Department has charged more than three dozen people in at least 10 cases. All of them involve people protesting federal immigration enforcement.

The government has also indicted nearly 50 people on #conspiracy charges in #Michigan, #Texas and #Minnesota using different legal statutes."

Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/03/nx-s1-5886263/ice-dhs-immigration-enforcement-conspiracy-arrests

#USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #CriminalizingDissent #SilencingDissent #ICESucks #DefundICE #TrumpSucks #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

I'm not much of a beer drinker these days, but I would encourage everyone who does, and who has access to #MinocquaBrewing, BUY THEIR BEER!!! And donate to their legal fund!

US brewery punished for promising free beer when Trump dies

Carsen Holaday
Thursday 30 July 2026

"- The Wisconsin Department of Revenue is set to revoke the alcohol permit for Minocqua Brewing Company by 4 August.

- Owner #KirkBangstad, a liberal activist, claims the move is politically motivated due to his outspoken #AntiTrump stance.

- The brewery previously garnered attention for social media posts suggesting free beer would be offered upon the death of a prominent political figure.

- Bangstad plans to challenge the decision, urging supporters to donate to a legal defence fund to fight the state.

- The Department of Revenue confirmed the revocation notices for two brewery locations and an alcohol beverage warehouse, stating the business can operate during the appeal process until 4 August. "

Read more:
https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/wisconsin-brewery-alcohol-permit-trump-free-beer-b3024000.html

Link to defense fund:
https://buy.stripe.com/7sYbIT1S090709RbpZ97G00

#TrumpSucks #USPol #Wisconsin #Illinois #DrinkUp #Cheers #Resistance #CharacteristicsOfFascism

So, I've been downloading #GBLTQ resources and historical documents (including #QueerTalk, a radio show on #WMPG hosted by one of my first friends after I moved to #Maine). Why am I doing this? Because I don't trust #Trump and fiends to be in charge of public university archives. I'll be uploading those precious digital records to the @internetarchive soon. So grateful IA are there to be an independent repository of #History and #Culture! 📚 🎧 🎥

#PreservingCulture #PreservingHistory #InternetArchive #FundingCuts #MemoryHole #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #LGBTQ #QueerHistory

#ICE Arrests Surge at #Airports, Opening New Front in Deportation Drive

Federal agents are arresting spouses of Americans, tech workers and others whose visas have expired, including many who have active applications to stay in the country.

By Hamed Aleaziz and Miriam Jordan
July 28, 2026

Excerpt: "The Trump administration has begun arresting foreign citizens with expired U.S. visas as they travel through airports, including spouses of Americans, according to documents obtained by The New York Times and interviews with immigration lawyers — a tactic that opens up a vast new pool of people for deportation.

"Immigration agents in plain clothes have whisked away targets at check-in counters and arrival gates, with enforcement actions in at least 15 airports in recent weeks. Some of the arrests have occurred quietly, while others have happened as angry fellow passengers filmed the encounters.

"The recent arrests appear to be an expansion of an arrangement between the Transportation Security Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Times reported in December that ICE officers were arresting people with deportation orders at airports with the help of information provided by airlines to the T.S.A.

"Now, through a review of #HomelandSecurity Department documents and interviews with lawyers for more than 25 people from more than a dozen countries recently detained at airports, The Times has learned that the program apparently now includes people with expired visas — a much larger group.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants and visitors overstay visas each year. Many with expired visas occupy a legal gray area, as they are awaiting #VisaExtensions or #GreenCards and have been issued work permits. Such individuals were not prioritized for deportation in the past unless they had committed crimes, and they were rarely detained while waiting for visa extensions or green cards. But that has changed under President #Trump, whose administration has undertaken a campaign of mass deportation and views all visa overstays as illegal.

" 'This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport,' a spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department said in a statement. The agency did not confirm the expansion of the program.

"The department, which oversees ICE, has not disclosed how many people have been detained at airports as overstays under the new initiative. The arrests come during a period in which the White House has pushed ICE for more arrests across the country, and Homeland Security Secretary #MarkwayneMullin has pledged to turn 'up the heat on the streets.' To that end, the administration has set a target of 2,000 immigration arrests a day, roughly double the pace from earlier this year.

"Interviews with more than a dozen immigration attorneys, advocacy organizations and an airline employee reveal a broad cross-section of targets: an engineer awaiting a work-visa extension, several newlyweds married to U.S. citizens, and a former au pair.

"Footage of encounters between travelers and ICE officers have flooded social media. In one widely circulated video, Chantal Morales Rojas, a 27-year-old from Ecuador, was detained by plainclothes officers as she boarded a Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to Oakland, Calif., on July 20. She had been spending the weekend with the family for whom she had worked as an au pair, according to the family."

Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/us/ice-arrests-airports-visa-overstay.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/brvNl

#ICESucks #USPol #WorldPol #Fascism #DefundCBP #DefundICE #TSA #TrumpSucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity

Oh yes. Abusing the system by paying for an #education and then paying into #SocialSecurity when they become wage earners?!! WTF!

"Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said: 'For decades, foreign students have been admitted into the US indefinitely, allowing thousands to abuse our immigration system by perpetually enrolling in courses to avoid having to leave the US.' "

#Trump administration tightens visa rules for foreign students

Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czdmp87rpv1o

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/JxT20

#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #WorldPol #TrumpSucks #TrumpAbusesTheSystem

Yeah, I can think of two criminals that should be put away for a loooong time... One is #TrumpSucks, the other is #RJKJr! You were right @justbob , they want to lock up #Homeless people and a lot of other folks!

Trump’s actions signal a move toward institutionalizing people with disabilities, advocates warn

By ANNIE MA
Updated 12:12 AM EDT, July 1, 2026

Excerpt: "Meanwhile, following a #WhiteHouse push to police #homelessness, the Department of Justice released guidance that lowered the barrier to institutionalizing any person with a disability. "

https://apnews.com/article/trump-rfk-disability-autism-special-education-institutionalize-c6f064dcf4a1185d23cc5693f4b2df69?

#USPol #Disabilities #Unhoused #PrivatePrisons #Institutions #CharacteristicsOfFascism

When The #TwilightZone Imagined #Fascism in #America in a 1963 Episode Starring #DennisHopper

in History, Television | March 25th, 2025

"Watch through The Twilight Zone, and you’ll find yourself spotting no end of familiar faces: Julie Newmar, Burt Reynolds, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Montgomery, William Shatner, even Buster Keaton. The 1963 episode 'He’s Alive' is at least doubly notable in that respect, featuring as it does a young (but in acting sensibility, almost fully formed) Dennis Hopper as Peter Vollmer, a ne’er-do-well made into an aspiring dictator by none other than Adolf Hitler. Played by Curt Conway, a specialist in doctors, judges, and other authority figures, the undead Führer offers his young disciple instructions like the above, from an early scene before his identity is revealed.

"'How do you move a mob, Mr. Vollmer? How do you excite them? How do you make them feel as one with you?' Hitler asks. The answer, which he then provides, is first to join them: 'When you speak to them, speak to them as if you were a member of the mob. Speak to them in their language, on their level. Make their hate your hate. If they are poor, talk to them of poverty. If they are afraid, talk to them of their fears. And if they are angry, Mr. Vollmer… if they are angry, give them objects for their anger. But most of all, the thing that is most of the essence, Mr. Vollmer, is that you make this mob an extension of yourself.'

"If accused of scapegoating minorities, he should address the throng thus: 'Should I tell you who are the minorities? Should I tell you? We! We are the minorities.' Soon, we see Peter in full neo-Nazi gear delivering just such a harangue, thoroughly Hopper-ized in diction, to a modestly attended rally. How could these ordinary-looking attendees be a minority? 'Because patriotism is a minority. Because love of country is the minority. Because to live in a free, white America seems to be of a minority opinion!'

"Though hardly artful, this rhetoric eventually makes him into a popular figure, albeit one whose rise is cut short when he turns to conspiracy to accelerate his rise to power.

"And what of the spirit of Hitler? 'Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare?' Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling asks in his episode-closing monologue. 'Any place, every place where there’s #hate, where there’s prejudice, where there’s #bigotry.' It was against such broad social phenomena that Serling so often used his scripts to argue, and with 'He’s Alive,' he made use of an unusually vivid ideological example.

"A veteran of the Second World War, which had ended less than twenty years earlier, Serling surely had even fresher memories of the threat of Hitler than did the general American public — and understood even more clearly what could happen if those memories were to fade away."

Source:
https://www.openculture.com/2025/03/when-the-twilight-zone-imagined-fascism-in-america-in-a-1963-episode-starring-dennis-hopper.html#google_vignette

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05LaTuuKPlI

#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #WorldPol #Twitler
#TheBalladOfTheLittleMan #LittleManWithin

From #LawrenceBritt's #CharacteristicsOfFascism published in 2003 (based on #UmbertoEcco's list)

5. Rampant #Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation.

#AntiProtestLaws: #Alabama #SB247 – #AntiProtest Bill

Note: SB 247 went into effect on October 1, 2025

Latest Update: March 27, 2025

The #ACLU of Alabama opposes this.

"Summary:

Background: Senate Bill 247 prohibits protestors from organizing at or near a residence or a place of employment and using sound systems during protests at these locations. It also prohibits protestors from blocking entrances and exits to roads, places of employment, and residences. A “residence” is vaguely defined in the bill as any building that someone uses to live in while “place of employment” has no listed definition at all. The Governor’s mansion, for instance, would likely fall under the requirements for residences. Organizers could even be barred from protesting when they choose to organize in proximity to apartments or other residential areas. SB 247 would also permit municipalities to author and pass ordinances that limit the time or noise level of a protest that occurs in a residential area.

Our Position: We oppose SB 247. The ACLU of Alabama is committed to protecting First Amendment rights. That includes defending the right to protest for individuals across the state of Alabama. Senate Bill 247 attempts to exempt public officials from hearing the grievances of Alabamians, often expressed through protest when constituents are unable to inspire action in the State House. If SB 247 passes, it would add limitations on where protesters can organize and would violate the First Amendment rights of Alabamians."

Source:
https://www.aclualabama.org/legislation/sb-247-anti-protest-bill/

Link to Bill Status:
https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/files/pdf/SearchableInstruments/2025RS/SB247-int.pdf

#AlabamaLaw #CriminalizingDissent
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #Clampdown #CriminalizingProtest
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol

#ICE Is Expanding Across the US at Breakneck Speed. Here’s Where It’s Going Next

ICE plans to lease offices throughout the US as part of a secret, monthslong expansion campaign. WIRED is publishing dozens of these locations.

February 10, 2026

Excerpt: "As of January, ICE’s expansion is heavily concentrated in a few key states. #Texas has at least 9 leasing projects underway. In #Harlingen, located near the US border with Mexico, a lease has been awarded at 222 East Van Buren, in the same building as the city’s Department of Labor–aligned outpost. (ICE has already detained dozens of Harlingen-area residents.) In the #Woodlands, a district near #Houston, ICE appears poised to move into an office building at 1780 Hughes Landing Boulevard, blocks away from a Primrose preschool. In #ElPaso, ICE is moving into the Epicenter Office Community, a large campus of buildings right off Interstate 10 near many local health providers and other businesses. In #SanAntonio, ICE is considering a move into a building located at 15727 Anthem Parkway, near apartment buildings, dozens of restaurants, and the Methodist Hospital Landmark. In #EaglePass, ICE appears to be looking at a move into a building at 3381 US Highway 277, where at least one government office—the Drug Enforcement Administration—is already located.

"A Trump administration official recently told WIRED that #California and #NewYork are 'next' for the type of fraud investigation that culminated in 3,000 ICE agents in Minneapolis. At least seven leasing projects are underway in California. In #Sacramento, ICE has installed security features at the John E. Moss building ahead of further expansion. The location is already the site of a Justice Department immigration court. In Irvine, a city in Orange County located an hour’s drive from #LosAngeles, ICE is moving into offices on 2020 Main Street, located right next to the airport and a childcare agency. In #VanNuys, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, ICE is expanding its offices at the James C. Corman federal building that also has offices for the IRS and Health and Human Services. Further expansion of ICE offices is also underway throughout the state, in federal buildings in Los Angeles, at San Diego’s Edward J. Schwartz Courthouse and federal building, and in Santa Ana’s federal building. The #SantaAna federal building is located within blocks of a church, the stadium for one of the nation's top high school football programs, and many government services.

"In New York and #NewJersey, ICE is expanding its physical footprint rapidly. In #RoselandNJ, less than an hour’s drive from New York City, ICE is moving into a building at 5 Becker Farm Road. The building is located near the Roseland Child Development Center. In #WoodburyNY, a hamlet in #LongIsland, ICE is moving into offices located at 88 Froehlich Farm Boulevard, near an expedited passport center. In #NewWindsor, New York, a town within driving distance of New York City along the Hudson River known for the Storm King Art Center, ICE is moving into offices at 843 Union Avenue. All three of these locations are within an hour and a half from a warehouse in #ChesterNY, that DHS is pursuing as an immigrant detention center.

"The same pattern plays out in dozens of other cities across the US. ICE’s expansion includes not just its own preexisting space—or sharing an office with other government agencies—but also situates its agents near sensitive civilian locations.

"That often includes places of worship. In #Hyattsville, Maryland, ICE is expanding its offices at the Metro 1 building on 6505 Belcrest Road, which sits a few blocks from a Lutheran church. In #Tennessee, OPLA is planning to move into the #Nashville House office building, a business center in the city near multiple churches. The #OneCityCenter building in #PortlandME, where ICE plans to expand its offices, is within walking distance to at least six churches, a mosque, one synagogue, and a Salvation Army adult rehab center. [Good to know. We'll be there protesting!]

"Several planned ICE office spaces are located near schools and early-childhood care centers. ICE is poised to move into a building on 1000 Westlakes Drive in the #Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, suburb of #Berwyn; the Hillside Elementary School is about a mile away. In #Hartford, Connecticut, OPLA is poised to expand existing ICE office space in the Abraham A. Ribicoff federal building, which sits two blocks from the Betances elementary school. Back in Tennessee, ICE is ready to move into offices at 5904 Ridgeway Center Parkway in Memphis, in a building near the private all-girls Hutchison School. In the #ColumbusOH, suburb of #Westerville, OPLA appears ready to move into a small office building at 774 Park Meadow, near the Oakstone Academy High School. In #MeridianID ICE is moving into the Portico at Meridian Center, which is located near the Spalding STEM Academy high school. And in #OakbrookIL, a suburb of #Chicago, ICE is moving into the Oakbrook Gateway, an office building located near both a Bright Horizons daycare center and a hospice center.

"Many other planned locations are near hospitals and medical offices. In #YorkPA, ICE’s OPLA division has leased space at Yorktowne Medical, a facility with multiple medical offices. In #ColumbiaSC, ICE is poised to move into offices at 1441 Main Street, which sits blocks away from the Prisma Health Baptist Hospital. In #NaplesFL, ICE is poised to move into offices at 75 Vineyards Boulevard, close to Physicians Regional Pine Ridge campus hospital.

"Other locations appear to be strategically situated near buildings that ICE either currently uses or could use to detain immigrants. The #Hyattsville location is about an hour and a half from a warehouse DHS recently purchased that ICE has said will be used to detain immigrants, as is a second office marked for OPLA use in #CockeysvilleMD.

"Among the many ICE leasing projects underway in Florida is Research Commons, a building located in #Orlando at 12249 Science Drive that’s less than 25 minutes away from another warehouse identified by the Post as a potential large-scale detention center. The York, #Pennsylvania, location is also an hour and 20 minutes away from a warehouse recently purchased by ICE for nearly $90 million that a Republican congressman said will be used as a processing and immigrant detention facility.

"In Alexandria, Louisiana, ICE is moving into a building on 1201 3rd Street, located right in the city’s historic downtown center and a 16-minute drive from the Alexandria Staging Facility, where immigrants have been detained, transferred, and then deported.

"#AlexandriaLA has emerged as a key location for ICE’s activities in the state and around the country, and an investigation from The Guardian alleged a pattern of abuse and alleged due process violations at the Alexandria facility that’s operated as a deportation 'hub.'

"This is just a sampling of the dozens and dozens of lease locations in the process of being awarded to ICE in every single GSA leasing region, which spans the entire country and US territories. ICE agents and officers will share buildings with doctors, restaurants, and businesses. They’ll expand existing offices and move in with unrelated government agencies—at 801 Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for example, they’ll share space with the DMV."

Read more:
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-expansion-across-us-at-heres-where-its-going-next/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/BQfRW

#USPol #DefundICE #DefundDHS #BorderPatrol #MurderPatrol #DetentionCenters #ICERaids #Terrorism #ICESucks #TrumpSucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism

“De Facto #Dictatorship”: Democrats Confront #ICE, #CBP Officials on Brutal Tactics

#DemocracyNow, February 11, 2026

"House Democrats grilled the heads of ICE, CBP and USCIS at a hearing Tuesday over their role in the Trump administration’s brutal campaign to carry out #MassDeportations. 'These three directors are responsible for what we are seeing around the country, whether it’s in detention, whether it’s in the streets or even in the courts,' says Illinois Congressmember #DeliaRamirez, who is calling for her fellow Democrats to suspend funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans agree to their demands to rein in federal immigration agents. We play excerpts from Ramirez and other representatives’ remarks about the killings of U.S. citizens #ReneeGood and #AlexPretti in Minneapolis, the deaths of #immigrants in ICE custody and the fear and terror experienced by civilians confronted daily by masked federal agents. 'This is more than #authoritarianism. This is a de facto dictatorship,' says Texas Congressmember #AlGreen, who also spoke at the hearing."

Read / watch / listen:
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/2/11/ice_congress

#USPol #DefundICE #DefundDHS #BorderPatrol #MurderPatrol #DetentionCenters #ICERaids #Terrorism #ViewerSupportedNews #ICESucks #TrumpSucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism

WTF!!! #Immigration Agents Deploy to #NewOrleans and #TwinCities, Seeking to Arrest Thousands

#DemocracyNow, Dec 04, 2025

"The Trump administration deployed federal Border Patrol agents across immigrant communities in the New Orleans area Wednesday, calling it '#OperationCatahoulaCrunch.' Gregory Bovino, a senior #BorderPatrol official who has been the face of President Trump’s #MassDeportation campaign, was seen patrolling the city’s #FrenchQuarter. A New Orleans resident told the Associated Press he watched agents arresting men outside a #HomeImprovementStore. The Trump administration says it’s seeking to arrest 5,000 people during the surge. It comes as Immigration and Customs agents have begun a mass arrest campaign in #Minnesota targeting #SomaliAmerican communities in the Minneapolis- #SaintPaul region. The raids follow a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday in which Trump called Somalis 'garbage.' Trump then doubled down on his racist rhetoric Wednesday."

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/4/headlines/immigration_agents_deploy_to_new_orleans_and_twin_cities_seeking_to_arrest_thousands

#USPol #ViewerSupportedNews #ICESucks #ICERaids #MurderPatrol #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

Proud owner of a number of #Anarchist books -- starting with #AbbieHoffman's #StealThisBook and #PrairieFire - The politics of revolutionary anti-imperialism (#WeatherUnderground, 1974). Also a proud subscriber to #InTheseTimes 'zine, and frequent #Antifa stickerer! I've never hid what I believe in -- I'm not about to start now! #Resist!

The Feds Want to Make It Illegal to Even Possess an #Anarchist #Zine

#DanielSanchez is facing federal charges for what #FreeSpeech advocates say is a clear attack on the #FirstAmendment.

by Seth Stern, November 23 2025

Excerpt: "Federal prosecutors have filed a new indictment in response to a July 4 noise demonstration outside the #PrairielandICE #DetentionFacility in #AlvaradoTX, during which a police officer was shot.

"There are numerous problems with the indictment, but perhaps the most glaring is its inclusion of charges against a Dallas #artist who wasn’t even at the protest. Daniel 'Des' Sanchez is accused of transporting a box that contained '#Antifa materials' after the incident, supposedly to conceal evidence against his wife, Maricela Rueda, who was there.

"But the boxed materials aren’t Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, or whatever #MAGA officials claim 'Antifa' uses to wage its imaginary war on America. As prosecutors laid out in the July criminal complaint that led to the indictment, they were zines and pamphlets. Some contain controversial ideas — one was titled '#InsurrectionaryAnarchy' — but they’re fully constitutionally protected free speech. The case demonstrates the administration’s intensifying efforts to criminalize left-wing #activists after Donald Trump announced in September that he was designating 'Antifa' as a 'major terrorist organization' — a legal designation that doesn’t exist for domestic groups — following the killing of Charlie Kirk.

"Sanchez was first indicted in October on charges of 'corruptly concealing a document or record' as a standalone case, but the new indictment merges his charges with those against the other defendants, likely in hopes of burying the First Amendment problems with the case against him under prosecutors’ claims about the alleged shooting.

"It’s an escalation of a familiar tactic. In 2023, Georgia prosecutors listed #ZineDistribution as part of the #conspiracy charges against 61 #StopCopCity protesters in a sprawling #RICO indictment that didn’t bother to explain how each individual defendant was involved in any actual crime. I wrote back then about my concern that this wasn’t just sloppy overreach, but also a blueprint for censorship. Those fears have now been validated by Sanchez’s prosecution solely for possessing similar literature."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/23/prairieland-ice-antifa-zines-criminalize-protest-journalism/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/KEoxE

#AntiFascism #Resistance #Antifa #Movements #USPol
#WorldPol #Authoritarianism #Dictatorship #Disobey
#Resistance #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#MarcoRubio Wants to Imprison You on Terror Charges for Supporting #NaziPunchers

The #Trump administration moved to designate #antifa groups abroad as foreign terrorists — setting up the prosecution of their U.S. allies.

by Matt Sledge, November 15 2025

"Hungarian Prime Minister #ViktorOrbán’s government launched a continentwide manhunt when a group of European antifascists attacked a #NeoNazi rally three years ago.

"Orbán, though, showed no such appetite for cracking down on the annual #fascist rally, which this February drew attendees sporting SS patches, #swastikas, and the '#Totenkopf' death’s head symbol — all under the watchful eye of Hungarian police.

"The aggressive response to antifascist activists, compared to the kid-gloves treatment of neo-Nazi demonstrators, has roiled European politics for years.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the fray, inserting the U.S. into the debate by declaring the antifascist group that attacked the 2023 rally a terrorist organization.

"Though the designation is aimed at foreign groups, Rubio said that he was acting in accordance with President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, or #NSPM7, regarding purported 'domestic' terrorists.

"The terror designation will cut off the small #AntifaOst group, and three others designated by Rubio on Thursday, from raising funds in the U.S. It could also imperil American #antifascist groups with civil and criminal allegations of 'material support' for terrorism, a civil rights lawyer warned.

" 'The clever way to go about it for them is to designate some foreign organization, because a foreign organization can be designated and there is almost no #DueProcess,' said Shane Kadidal, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Then, you go after the U.S. groups for supposedly coordinating their political messages with the messages of the foreign groups.'

"Rubio’s announcement follows on the heels of one from Trump in September that he was designating antifa a 'major terrorist organization,' which has no basis in law. The foreign terrorist organization designations, however, entail significant legal consequences.

"Under a 2010 ruling from the Supreme Court, domestic groups can face '#MaterialSupport' charges for providing nonviolent support to designated foreign terrorist organizations.

"Kadidal said the Trump administration could essentially try to use the foreign terrorist designations as a workaround to target domestic antifascists with 'material support' charges. Key questions such as whether domestic activists had knowledge and intent to coordinate with foreign groups can be left for a jury to decide based on circumstantial evidence, he said.

" 'That is one of those things that makes this so dangerous,' he said. 'The jury may just decide, ‘Yeah, whatever you have alleged about this coordination of messaging is true, because these are bad people in front of me.'

" 'Juries do this thing all the time. They jump to conclusions.' "

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/11/15/antifa-terrorist-rubio-nazi-material-support

Archived version:
archive.ph/LjT5S

#USPol #WorldPol #Fascism #Terrorists #NDAA #ExpandedPowers #AntiFascism #PunchANazi #Hungary #Orwell #NineteenEightyFour #IndefiniteDetentionClause #CharacteristicsOfFascism

[Podcast] The return of Erik Prince - The comeback of America’s most infamous mercenary

Nov 1st 2025

"Erik Prince, America’s most infamous mercenary, is back.

"Mr Prince rose to prominence during the war on terror as the founder of #Blackwater, a private military company. The firm earned over a billion dollars providing armed personnel to various branches of the US government before becoming implicated in a number of scandals. In 2007 its contractors killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a nine-year-old child. The massacre made Mr Prince the face of the Iraq fiasco. He sold the company and disappeared from the public eye.

"But in recent months Mr Prince has reemerged. He has popped up in some of the most dangerous, contested places in the world, from Ukraine to Haiti to the DRC. They are places the Trump administration is interested in too.

"For the Weekend Intelligence the Economist’s Africa Correspondent, Tom Gardner, flew to Cape Town to meet with Prince, the mercenary in CEO’s clothing. Prince is defiant after his years in the political wilderness. And he’s spying some big opportunities. The global mercenary business is on the brink of a new boom. States, across Africa and beyond, are fracturing. The international system is fraying. With UN peacekeepers drawing down, from Mali to Congo to Lebanon, mercenaries of different stripes can expect to fill the void."

Read more / listen:
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2025/11/01/the-return-of-erik-prince

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/YYhBY

#Blackwater
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism
#ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism
#Fascism #Trump #ChristoFascist
#CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #Activists #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent
#CrackdownOnProtests #AntiProtestLaws #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #Academi #TripleCanopy #SilencingDissent #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal

Ring cameras are about to get increasingly chummy with law enforcement

Amazon’s Ring partners with company whose tech has reportedly been used by ICE.

Scharon Harding – Oct 17, 2025

"Law enforcement agencies will soon have easier access to footage captured by Amazon’s Ring smart cameras. In a partnership announced this week, Amazon will allow approximately 5,000 local law enforcement agencies to request access to Ring camera footage via surveillance platforms from Flock Safety. Ring’s cooperation with law enforcement and the reported use of Flock technologies by federal agencies, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has resurfaced privacy concerns that have followed the devices for years.

"According to Flock’s announcement, its Ring partnership allows local law enforcement members to use Flock software 'to send a direct post in the Ring Neighbors app with details about the investigation and request voluntary assistance.' Requests must include 'specific location and timeframe of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what is being investigated,' and users can look at the requests anonymously, Flock said.

" 'Any footage a Ring customer chooses to submit will be securely packaged by Flock and shared directly with the requesting local public safety agency through the FlockOS or Flock Nova platform,' the announcement reads.

"Flock said its local law enforcement users will gain access to Ring Community Requests in 'the coming months.' "

Read more:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/10/ring-cameras-are-about-to-get-increasingly-chummy-with-law-enforcement/

#BigBrother #BigBrotherIsWatching #USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully #SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism

#Chicago judge questions Trump official over #ICE agents' use of force

By Diana Novak Jones and Joseph Ax
Mon, October 20, 2025

Excerpt: "A federal judge in Chicago on Monday grilled U.S. immigration officials about federal agents' use of tear gas and other forceful tactics against protesters as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown in the city.

"U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has repeatedly expressed concern that federal agents were violating her October 9 order requiring them to wear visible #identification and limiting their use of anti-riot weapons such as #PepperBalls and #TearGas. On Friday, Ellis ordered federal officers who have body cameras to turn them on while conducting immigration enforcement activity and during interactions with the public.

"At Monday's hearing, Ellis also said she would allow the plaintiffs in the case - protesters, journalists and clergy members who sued the Trump administration alleging they were deliberately brutalized during peaceful demonstrations - to question several officials under oath, including Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official.

"In granting the plaintiffs' request, Ellis made it clear the litigation is limited to the tactics used by field agents, not the president's stated rationale.

" 'I don't think that it matters what the administration's objectives are or what goals they have or what ideology is pushing this enforcement action,' she said. 'This lawsuit...is all about how our ICE officials and #CBP officials are enforcing the laws.'

"Clashes between protesters and federal agents, particularly #BorderPatrol agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, have increased since Trump launched the crackdown in early September.

"Trump also ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to the Chicago area, part of the Republican president's extraordinary campaign to send military personnel to Democratic-run cities purportedly to fight crime. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deployment, but the Justice Department has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the troops to proceed.

"Separately, a federal appeals court on Monday cleared the way for hundreds of Guard soldiers to deploy to Portland, Oregon, despite the objections of the Democratic mayor and governor there."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/chicago-judge-questions-trump-official-211559155.html

#USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully
#SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism #ICE #MurderPatrol

#ICE boosts weapons spending 700%

A Popular Information investigation reveals tens of millions in new ICE spending on #guns, #ChemicalWeapons, and explosives.

Judd Legum
Oct 20, 2025

Excerpt: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sharply increased its spending on weapons in 2025, according to an analysis of federal government contracting data by Popular Information. Records from the Federal Procurement Data System reveal that ICE has increased spending on 'small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing' by 700% compared to 2024 levels.

"New spending in the small arms category from January 20, 2025, the day Trump was inaugurated, through October 18, totaled $71,515,762. Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and 'guided missile warheads and explosive components.'

"On September 29, 2025, ICE made a $9,098,590 purchase from #GeisseleAutomatics, which sells #SemiAutomatic and #AutomaticRifles. The total spending by ICE in the small arms category between January 20 and October 18, 2024, was $9,715,843."

https://popular.info/p/ice-boosts-weapons-spending-700

#USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully
#SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism

'No end to uncertainty': #SupremeCourt’s next case could hand #Trump unprecedented power

by Alexander Willis, September 10, 2025

"An impending case before the Supreme Court could end up granting President Donald Trump 'sweeping fiscal authority' that has historically been held exclusively by Congress, a precedent that, once set, could expand the power of the executive branch indefinitely.

"That case is related to Trump’s tariffs, which were ruled illegal and blocked by a federal court last month. Trump fought for the Supreme Court to take up the matter, a wish that was ultimately granted on Tuesday after the court agreed to hear the Trump administration’s case in November.

"Now, on the eve of that case being taken up and decided upon, one commentator is sounding the alarm that the court’s decision could end up undoing the American system as imagined by the framers of the Constitution."

Read more:
https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-2673979738/

#USPol #SCOTUS #SCOTUSIsCompromised #authoritarianism #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

It started with this...

March 2025, ‘More than brick and mortar:' DC begins removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ plaza near the White House

By ASHRAF KHALIL and JACQUELYN MARTIN
Updated 5:57 PM EDT, March 10, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — "Starlette Thomas remembers coming down almost daily to the intersection of 16th and H streets, to protest police brutality and systemic racial iniquities during the summer of 2020.

"On Monday, the 45-year old Bowie, Maryland resident returned to the site of those protests to mourn the end of Black Lives Matter Plaza.

" 'I needed to be here today. I can’t just let this go away,' Thomas said, as jackhammers began tearing into the giant yellow letters in the street. Thomas discretely secured a chunk of pavement and said holding it made her feel conflicted.

" 'To walk away with a piece of that, it means it’s not gone,' she said. 'It’s more than brick and mortar.'

"Crews started work Monday to remove the large yellow '#BlackLivesMatter' painted on the street one block from the White House. D.C. Mayor #MurielBowser announced the change last week in response to pressure from Republicans in Congress. The work is expected to take about six weeks and the words will be replaced by an unspecified set of city-sponsored murals.

"The painting of those words was an act of government-sponsored defiance during President Donald Trump’s first term. The removal amounts to a public acknowledgement of just how vulnerable the District of Columbia is now that Trump is back in the White House and Republicans control both houses of Congress.

"Bowser, a Democrat, ordered the painting and renamed the intersection #BlackLivesMatterPlaza in June 2020. It came after days of chaotic protests at that location following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer; Bowser had clashed with #Trump over her handling of the protests.

"But now Bowser has little power to fend off encroachments on D.C.'s limited autonomy. Bowser said last week on X that, 'The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but now we can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference. The devastating impacts of the federal job cuts must be our number one concern.' "

https://apnews.com/article/black-lives-matter-white-house-trump-bowser-f130daeb762e438fc8eddd3dd4da7982

#WashingtonDC #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#FascismInTheUSA #USPol #FloridaPol #TrumpIsAFascist #TrumpIsABully #Racism #ErasingHistory

#PensacolaFL will comply with state mandate to remove #BLM logo, but requests #FDOT help

Story by Jim Little, August 26, 2025

"Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said city workers will not remove the #BlackLivesMatterMural on A Street, but instead requested that FDOT remove the mural.

"Reeves said at his weekly press conference on Aug. 26 that he spoke with FDOT District Three Secretary Tim Smith on Aug. 24 about the demand by FDOT that the mural be removed or otherwise risk state funding.

" 'Given the city of Pensacola's resources, manpower, and that we have to meet a very tight deadline, and the very close proximity that this project in question is to the largest east-west corridor that the state runs, Cervantes Street, we respectfully request that FDOT handle the execution of this mandate,' Reeves said.

"Reeves said the request is not meant to be adversarial to FDOT, and he sent an official written response to the agency before the press conference stating the same thing.

"Reeves said he believes Smith understood the city’s position and expected that the state would remove the mural.

"Smith sent a letter last week on behalf of FDOT demanding that Pensacola remove the '#BlackLivesMatter' mural on North A Street within two weeks or the state will come and remove it. If the city didn't comply, it would also risk losing state #TransportationFunding."

Read more:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/pensacola-will-not-remove-black-lives-matter-mural-as-ordered-says-fdot-will-need-to/ar-AA1LgimB

#DeSantisSucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#FascismInTheUSA #USPol #FloridaPol #TrumpIsAFascist #TrumpIsABully #Racism #ErasingHistory

#Protesters in #SouthFlorida to fight back against state orders to remove #RainbowCrosswalks

Walter Murphy, August 25, 2025

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — "Protesters are expected to hit the streets of South Florida Monday to fight back against state orders to remove rainbow crosswalks in places like #FortLauderdale, #MiamiBeach and #KeyWest.

"Four crosswalks in Fort Lauderdale are in the crosshairs of the Florida Department of Transportation.

"The state recently sent the city a non-compliance letter, demanding the different designs and murals be removed.

" 'It’s an attempt to try to erase the presence of anything to do with the #LGBTQCommunity,' Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said.

"The state sent similar letters to Miami Beach, Key West and #DelrayBeach, citing safety issues, but Trantalis says it has nothing to do with safety.

" 'It could be the gay community this year -- who knows what’s going to be next year,' he said. 'We don’t know where they are going to keep trying to eliminate the diversity of what represents Florida.'

"Two of the crosswalks in Fort Lauderdale on the state’s list are along Breakers Avenue at Terramar and Riomar streets.

"Another one is at East Las Olas Boulevard and Almond Avenue, and the final one is at Sebastian Street along A1A.

"That will be the site of one of two demonstrations against #FDOT’s order set for Monday night.

"Both protests were organized by #EricSwanson, who is better known as #MissBouvèé.

" 'A crosswalk doesn’t define us,' Miss. Bouvèé said. 'It’s the principle of the fact (that) it symbolizes a safe space for us.'

" 'I am outraged by the State of Florida’s decision to forcefully remove #PrideCrosswalks — symbols of love, support, and unity in our communities,' Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Thursday.

" 'These vibrant installations are more than paint on pavement. They reflect the values we hold dear in Miami-Dade: respect, appreciation of fellow neighbors, and the fundamental right to live and love openly,' she said in a statement.

"The warnings to communities across Florida come after last week’s removal of a rainbow-colored crossing marking the 2016 massacre outside the #PulseNightclub in #Orlando, where 49 people were gunned down. It was painted over in the middle of the night by work crews, but has since been restored by a group of demonstrators."

"The issue has been simmering since a July 1 directive from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who gave U.S. governors 60 days to identify what he called safety improvements.

" 'Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,' Duffy said in a statement at the time.

"The Federal Highway Administration said in a statement Friday to The Associated Press that Duffy 'has made every state receiving federal dollars responsible for identifying hazards on their roads.'

:Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday amplified those comments, saying on X: 'We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.'

"A statement from FDOT said the agency has a duty 'to ensure the safety and consistency of public roadways and transportation systems.'

" 'That means ensuring our roadways are not utilized for social, political, or ideological interests,' it said.

Efforts to remove the crosswalks are 'clearly an #AntiLGBTQ push on behalf of both the federal government and the copycat version from the state government,' said Rand Hoch, founder of the Palm Beach County #HumanRights Council.

" 'They’re basically blackmailing municipalities, counties and states by saying if you don’t do this, we’re going to withhold funding,' Hoch said. 'It’s absolutely ridiculous.'

"It is unclear whether other states and communities outside Florida are being ordered to remove rainbow crossings, but Florida is often the vanguard nationwide in fights over what some call the culture wars of politics. Those include battles over the removal of #LibraryBooks deemed inappropriate by #DeSantis and other Republicans.

"In Key West, state transportation officials said that if pavement markings in its historic downtown aren’t removed by Sept. 3, 'the Florida Department of Transportation will remove them by any appropriate method necessary without further notice.' In a letter to Key West’s city manager, federal authorities also threatened the 'immediate withholding' of state funds if it finds 'additional violations.'

"The Aug. 15 letter to Key West leaders said that many local communities in Florida 'immediately began undertaking actions to ensure compliance.' It did not specify how many communities have cooperated or what steps they have taken.

"Miami Beach has also been ordered to remove its rainbow crosswalk on Ocean Drive by the first week of September."

Source:
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2025/08/25/protesters-in-south-florida-to-fight-back-against-state-orders-to-remove-rainbow-crosswalks/

#DeSantisSucks #GBLTQIntolerance #GBLTQErasure #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FascismInTheUSA #USPol #FloridaPol #TrumpIsAFascist #TrumpIsABully

#SupremeCourt Lets #Trump Enact His #Authoritarian Agenda on Its ‘#ShadowDocket’

The right-wing-dominated Supreme Court keeps greenlighting Trump’s most authoritarian actions without even bothering to give us an explanation

By Mike Sacks, July 27, 2025

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/trump-supreme-court-shadow-docket-emergency-agenda-1235394694/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/xAZk2

#USPol #Trump #Authoritarianism #Fascism #NaziRegime #ResistTheRegime #SCOTUS #SCOTUSIsCompromised #ImpeachClarenceThomas #ImpeachBrettKavanaugh #ErikPrince #OligarchCamp #TrumpIsAFascistDictator #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#Skydance deal allows #Trump’s #FCC to “#CensorSpeech” and “#SilenceDissent” on #CBS

FCC now has “never-before-seen controls” over a #newsroom, commissioner warns.

by Ashley Belanger – Jul 25, 2025

Excerpt: "Like many protesting #Colbert's firing, Gomez suggested that the FCC's requirements to approve the Skydance acquisition 'may only be' the 'beginning' of the Trump administration's #censorship and ongoing 'assault on the #FirstAmendment.'

"Notably, the White House issued a rare statement in response to a recent #SouthPark episode Paramount aired, which mockingly depicted Trump seducing Satan. The White House fumed that 'no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.' But Trump (whose current term's ratings are at an all-time low) taking the time to acknowledge the episode drew jokes on social media that South Park may have riled Trump enough to scramble the Paramount acquisition approval. At the very least, the statement shows that Trump still cares what people say about him on TV. Trump has long been considered the US president most obsessed with TV, and critics now fear that he has seized new powers to more effectively block negative coverage."

Read more:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/skydance-deal-allows-trumps-fcc-to-censor-speech-and-silence-dissent-on-cbs/

#Fascism #Authoritarianism #USPol #TrumpSucks #SilencingDissent #SilencingCritics #Censorship #CharacteristicsOfFascism #BrendanCarr