#characteristicsoffascism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #characteristicsoffascism, aggregated by home.social.
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[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 2026Excerpt: "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
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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
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HT
@brucesA 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
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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
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#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, 2026MINNEAPOLIS (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."
#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
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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
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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."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#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, 2026Excerpt: "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."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/3PnB8#USPol #ACAB #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #Orwellian #PoliceState #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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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."
#ICESucks #SurveillanceState #DefundICE #DefundDHS #ArmedPoliceDrones #PoliceDrones
#ACAB #RoboCops #PredatorUAVs #PredatorDrones #UAVs #ICE #SurveillanceState #Fascism #WeaponizedDrones #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity
#CompliantTechnologies #CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol -
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
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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
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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
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#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, 2026Excerpt: "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.htmlArchived version:
https://archive.ph/brvNl#ICESucks #USPol #WorldPol #Fascism #DefundCBP #DefundICE #TSA #TrumpSucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity
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Congress members join protest against #oligarch’s dinner for #Trump thrown by Ellisons
#Paramount #Skydance CEO fetes administration as it weighs $110bn merger with CNN parent #WarnerBros Discovery
Jeremy Barr in Washington
Thu 23 Apr 2026 20.43 EDT"Dozens of protesters, including members of Congress, gathered along the National Mall on Thursday to protest an 'intimate' dinner being held by #ParamountSkydance’s chief executive, #DavidEllison, 'in celebration of the first amendment' and 'honoring the Trump White House and CBS White House correspondents', and attended by Donald Trump.
"Paramount has faced criticism for the dinner, which has been seen by some as illustrative of the cozy relationship between the #Ellisons and the White House – right as the Trump administration is weighing whether to approve the company’s $110bn merger with CNN parent company #WarnerBrosDiscovery ( #WBD ). The dinner comes before Saturday’s White House correspondents’ dinner, which Trump will attend. His defense secretary, #PeteHegseth, is expected to sit at one of the many tables bought by CBS News for the event.
"Earlier Thursday, WBD shareholders voted 'overwhelmingly' to approve the merger, which will still require approval from the Department of Justice and European regulators.
"The US representative Jamie Raskin, who has been vocal in his criticism of the Ellisons’ ownership of CBS News, referred to the event as 'a lavish oligarch’s dinner for Donald Trump'.
" 'We’re gathered here together tonight [because] in the building behind us, David Ellison is hosting a dinner to honor President Trump, a dinner that’s designed to cement the Ellisons to the president in their years-running corrupt merger scheme,' Raskin said."
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/23/david-ellison-trump-dinner-paramount-skydance-cnnArchived version:
https://archive.ph/hQ6Ku#USPol #PowerCorruptionAndLies #CorporateSuckUps #Oligarchy #Fascism #SilencingDissent #SilencingCriticism #OligarchsDinner #Oligarchs4Dinner #EatTheRich #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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I guess all #Goths are #Terrorists?
Wearing #AllBlack at #Protests Makes You Guilty of #Terrorism, Prosecutors Tell Jury
The Prairieland case is a major test of the Trump administration’s push to label “#antifa” protesters as #terrorists.
“They’re here asking you guys to put protesters in prison as terrorists.”
by Matt Sledge
March 12 2026,"Federal agents raiding the home of two alleged #antifa 'operatives' seized a telling piece of evidence, a defense attorney said during closing arguments in a landmark trial Wednesday.
"A printing press.
"That printing press was never presented to jurors. Still, the government has kept it locked away because it hated the #pamphlets and #zines it published, lawyer Blake Burns said.
"Burns represents Elizabeth Soto, one of nine defendants whose fates were in the hands of jurors as deliberations began Thursday. All are accused of roles during or after a late-night noise demonstration outside #PrairielandDetentionCenter, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Dallas that ended with a local police officer wounded by gunfire.
"The case has become a bellwether for the Trump administration’s crackdown on dissent from the left. The government charged people involved with the #AntiICE protest with a slew of charges, including attempted murder and terrorism counts that defense attorneys said are being used to #CriminalizeProtest.
" 'They’re here asking you guys to put protesters in prison as terrorists,' Burns, the defense lawyer, told jurors. 'That’s not happened before. And you are literally the only people in the world who can stop it.'
"During 10 days of testimony in a packed Fort Worth, Texas, courtroom, prosecutors bombarded jurors with images of radical zines printed on the press, anti-government internet memes, drawings of burning cop cars, and a video of an unidentified street brawl between far-left and far-right protesters.
"Prosecutors acknowledged those materials were protected by the #FirstAmendment but said they showed the roughly dozen people who assembled outside the ICE facility were steeped in antifa tactics.
"Eight of nine defendants on trial this month face material support for terrorism charges for wearing '#BlackBloc' clothes at the protest. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have hailed the first-ever use of terrorism charges against alleged antifa members."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/12/antifa-ice-protest-texas-trial-terrorism/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/UFFO9#USPol #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Fascism #Authoritarianism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#PamBondi Admits #DOJ Has a Secret #DomesticTerrorist List
After the DOJ dodged questions for months, Bondi acknowledged in a House Judiciary Committee hearing that she had a list of targets under NPSM-7.
Nick Turse
February 12 2026Excerpt: "A November FBI internal report obtained by The Guardian revealed that there were multiple active FBI investigations related to NSPM-7 in 27 locations. The Intercept revealed on Thursday that the FBI appears to be investigating #ExtinctionRebellionNYC, a climate activism group, in an inquiry that could potentially be related to NSPM-7."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/02/12/pam-bondi-domestic-terror-list-nspm-7/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/OArt2#USPol #NPSM7 #SilencingDissent #Resistance #CriminalizingDissent #Authoritarianism #Fascism #EnvironmentalGroups #ProPalestineGroups #Antifa #ExtinctionRebellion #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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White House Refuses to Rule Out Summary Executions of People on Its Secret #DomesticTerrorist List
The Trump administration ignored questions about whether it would order the killings of those on its #NSPM7 list — even while answering our other queries.
by Nick Turse, December 12 2025, 2:02 p.m.
"Rebecca Ingber, a former State Department lawyer, notes that while the designated terrorist organization label as a targeting authority is 'entirely manufactured,' the administration is relying on it to summarily execute people in the boat strikes, making their application of the terrorist label on the domestic front especially concerning. 'Many of us have warned that there seems to be no legal limiting principle to the Administration’s claims of authority to use force and to kill people,' Ingber, now a law professor at Cardozo Law School in New York, told The Intercept. 'This is one of the many reasons it is so important that Congress push back on the President’s claim that he can simply label transporting drugs an armed attack on the United States and then claim the authority to summarily execute people on that basis.' "
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/12/12/trump-nspm-7-domestic-terrorist-executions-antifa-boat-strikes/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/Y8Zfg#USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DomesticTerrorists #SilencingDissent #Orwellian #MemoryHole #Authoritarianism
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#Maine - Some #LewistonME elected leaders, community members condemn #Trump's attack on #Somali #immigrants
Maine Public | By Ari Snider
Published December 3, 2025"After President Donald Trump called Somali immigrants quote 'garbage' this week, some in Maine's Somali community fear the rhetoric could spark violence.
"During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump said he doesn't want Somali immigrants to be in the U.S. at all.
"It comes as immigration agents are launching an operation in #Minnesota, reportedly targeting the state's large Somali population.
"In Lewiston, Somali interpreter and nonprofit director Ifraax Saciid-Ciise said the president's attacks are jarring.
" 'I find it very hard to believe that president, who is supposed to represent everybody, all the people in the United States, [would] target a group of very vulnerable population here in America,' Saciid-Ciise said.
"She said many in the community worry Trump's words could incite violence or harassment against Somali residents.
" 'It has created a lot of fear,' she said, because people unfamiliar with the Somali community 'may take his words as real, and as a fact, and they may also target the Somali people.'
"Safiya Khalid, who served as the first Somali-American on the Lewiston city council, said in a social media post that she was quote 'deeply offended and disgusted' by the president's attacks, and called on state and local elected leaders to stand up for their Somali constituents.
"Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline called the president's assertion that Somali immigrants contribute nothing to society 'shameful and inaccurate.'
" 'Here, Somali entrepreneurs are business owners and hard workers, creating jobs and strengthening our local economy,' Sheline said in a written statement on Wednesday. 'Their active role within our City has been instrumental in Lewiston's revitalization, making such rhetoric not only cruel but clearly false. We will continue to celebrate the contributions of all immigrants who help build a better America.'
"In a joint letter on Thursday, Democratic state representatives Mana Abdi, Deqa Dhalac, and Yusuf Yusuf also condemned Trump's statements and efforts to roll back legal protections for some Somali immigrants.
" 'The vast majority of people affected by this administration’s immigration policies are law-abiding individuals who are legitimately working to attain citizenship. Many have called #America their home for decades, raising families, contributing to our economy, and strengthening our communities,' they wrote.
Read more / listen:
https://www.mainepublic.org/immigration/2025-12-03/some-lewiston-elected-leaders-community-members-condemn-trumps-attack-on-somali-immigrants#USPol #NewMainers #SomaliAmericans #ICERaids #ICESucks #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#IlhanOmar: #Trump's ‘obsession' is ‘#creepy and unhealthy' as raids expand
Jason K. Morrell
Thu, December 4, 2025 at 7:17 AM EST"Two major federal #immigration operations were underway Wednesday in #Minneapolis and #NewOrleans. They unfolded just as President Donald Trump delivered new attacks on Somali immigrants and on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.
"#CivilRights groups say the timing and rhetoric are escalating fear in immigrant communities already bracing for enforcement actions.
Omar responds to Trump's comments
"Trump on Wednesday launched a new round of criticism aimed at #Somali immigrants, Minnesota's largest immigrant community. He told reporters that 'Somalians should be out of here" and claimed they had "destroyed our country.'
"He said Somalia was 'not even a nation' and that he hoped never to visit, drawing condemnation from Minneapolis officials.
"The president then turned his ire to Omar, who is #SomaliAmerican and a frequent target his attacks. He said, "You have her talking about ‘The constitution provides me with …' Go back to your own country and figure out your constitution.'
"Omar responded, saying, 'Our president's obsession with me and the Somali community really is creepy and unhealthy.'
"She added that her constituents 'are not going to be scapegoated' and 'are here to stay.'
"NBC News reporting indicates federal officials are preparing an enforcement operation in Minnesota that could focus heavily on Somali immigrants living unlawfully in the U.S.
Raids already underway in Minneapolis
"Federal immigration agents began operations in Minneapolis just hours before Trump made the comments. Officials say they are targeting immigrants accused of serious crimes, though advocates warn the sweeps are casting a much wider net.
What's happening in New Orleans
"In #NewOrleans, specifically in #Kenner, a suburb with one of #Louisiana's largest #Hispanic populations, residents saw #BorderPatrol agents in marked and unmarked vehicles driving slowly through neighborhoods, gas stations and big-box store parking lots, according to the Associated Press and NBC News.
"Reporters observed agents stopping at least one man mowing a lawn and surrounding another home where a man climbed onto the roof until officers eventually left. Many agents wore Border Patrol identifiers but had their faces covered.
"A #DHS official said the New Orleans surge is aimed at immigrants accused of crimes including home invasion, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape. The agency has blamed 'sanctuary-style' local policies for allowing some people with ICE detainers to be released from custody.
Fear across immigrant neighborhoods
"The tactics have rattled families across #JeffersonParish and surrounding communities.
"A #Honduran immigrant told Noticias Telemundo he has avoided leaving his home for two weeks.
" 'We've stopped going to work because our fear is that we'll be stopped,' he said."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ilhan-omar-trumps-obsession-creepy-121756009.html
#SanctuaryCities #USPol #ICETerrorism #ICESucks #MurderPatrol #TooManyCreeps #TrumpIsACreep #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Example of a camera hidden in a traffic barrel.
#BorderPatrol #CBP #SurveillanceState #Orwellian #BigBrother #ThoughtCrime #Disappeared #MurderPatrol #Authoritarianism
#CharacteristicsOfFascism -
"Today, predictive surveillance is embedded into America’s roadways. Mass surveillance techniques are also used in a range of other countries, from authoritarian governments such as China to, increasingly, democracies in the U.K. and Europe in the name of national security and public safety."
#BorderPatrol #CBP #SurveillanceState #Orwellian #BigBrother #ThoughtCrime #Disappeared #MurderPatrol #Authoritarianism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Border Patrol monitors US drivers and detains Americans for ‘suspicious’ travel
By Byron Tau, November 20, 2025
Excerpt: "The Border Patrol has for years hidden details of its license plate reader program, trying to keep any mention of the program out of court documents and police reports, former officials say, even going so far as to propose dropping charges rather than risk revealing any details about the placement and use of their covert license plate readers. Readers are often disguised along highways in traffic safety equipment like drums and barrels.
"The Border Patrol has defined its own criteria for which drivers’ behavior should be deemed suspicious or tied to drug or human trafficking, stopping people for anything from driving on backcountry roads, being in a rental car or making short trips to the border region. The agency’s network of cameras now extends along the southern border in Texas, Arizona and California, and also monitors drivers traveling near the U.S.-Canada border.
"And it reaches far into the interior, impacting residents of big metropolitan areas and people driving to and from large cities such as Chicago and Detroit, as well as from Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Houston to and from the Mexican border region. In one example, AP found the agency has placed at least four cameras in the greater Phoenix area over the years, one of which was more than 120 miles (193 kilometers) from the Mexican frontier, beyond the agency’s usual jurisdiction of 100 miles (161 kilometers) from a land or sea border. The AP also identified several camera locations in metropolitan Detroit, as well as one placed near the Michigan-Indiana border to capture traffic headed towards Chicago or Gary, Indiana, or other nearby destinations."
#BorderPatrol #CBP #SurveillanceState #Orwellian #BigBrother #ThoughtCrime #Disappeared #MurderPatrol #Authoritarianism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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[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-princeArchived 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 -
#DOJ Deletes Study Showing #DomesticTerrorists Are Most Often #RightWing
Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Trump administration’s promise to go after the “radical left” a study showing most domestic terrorism is far-right was disappeared.
by Emanuel Maiberg
Sep 16, 2025 at 12:25 PM"The Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States.
The study, which was conducted by the National Institute of Justice and hosted on a DOJ website was available there at least until September 12, 2025, according to an archive of the page saved by the Wayback Machine. Jason Paladino first reported that the study was removed. 404 Media noticed the removal after it was flagged by Daniel Malmer, a PhD student studying online extremism at UNC-Chapel Hill.
" 'The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs is currently reviewing its websites and materials in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance,' reads a message on the page where the study was formerly hosted. 'During this review, some pages and publications will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.' "
Read more [paid members only]:
https://www.404media.co/doj-deletes-study-showing-domestic-terrorists-are-most-often-right-wing/#USPol #Fascism #TrumpIsAFascist #FashPatel #Authoritarianism #MemoryHoled #MemoryHole #404Media #SilencingDissent #Antifa #Resistance
#CharacteristicsOfFascism -
New 'Thought Policing' Bill May Let #Rubio Strip #Passports from #USCitizens Over Political Speech | Common Dreams
Stephen Prager
Sep 13, 2025"#FreeSpeech advocates are sounding the alarm about a bill in the US House of Representatives that they fear could allow Secretary of State #MarcoRubio to strip US citizens of their passports based purely on political speech.
"The bill, introduced by Rep. #BrianMast (R-Fla.), will come up for a hearing on Wednesday. According to The Intercept:
:Mast’s new bill claims to target a narrow set of people. One section grants the secretary of state the power to revoke or refuse to issue passports for people who have been convicted—or merely charged—of material support for terrorism...
"The other section sidesteps the legal process entirely. Rather, the secretary of state would be able to deny passports to people whom they determine 'has knowingly aided, assisted, abetted, or otherwise provided material support to an organization the Secretary has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.'
"Rubio has previously boasted of stripping the visas and green cards from several immigrants based purely on their peaceful expression of #ProPalestine views, describing them as '#Hamas supporters.'
"These include Columbia protest leader #MahmoudKhalil, who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) after Rubio voided his green card; and #RumeysaOzturk, the Tufts student whose visa Rubio revoked after she co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school to divest from #Israel.
"Mast—a former soldier for the #IsraelDefenseForces who once stated that babies were 'not innocent Palestinian civilians' — has previously called for 'kicking terrorist sympathizers out of our country,' speaking about the Trump administration’s attempts to deport Khalil, who was never convicted or even charged with support for a terrorist group.
"Critics have argued that the bill has little reason to exist other than to allow the Secretary of State to unilaterally strip passports from people without them actually having been convicted of a crime."
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/rubio-thought-policing-bill#ThoughtPolice #Orwellian #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #FreeMahmoud #FreeRumeysa #WaterProtectors #FreePalestine #LandDefenders #SilencingDissent #Fasicsm #Authoritarianism
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#CBS caved to #Trump—now he’s seeking punishments for #ABC and #NBC
Trump says ABC and NBC "give me 97% BAD STORIES," urges #FCC to revoke licenses.
Jon Brodkin – Aug 25, 2025
"Fresh off his thorough victory over CBS News, President Trump is taking aim at ABC and NBC.
" 'Why is it that ABC and NBC FAKE NEWS, two of the absolute worst and most biased networks anywhere in the World, aren't paying Millions of Dollars a year in LICENSE FEES,' Trump wrote on Truth Social last night. "They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!!! Crooked '#journalism' should not be rewarded, it should be terminated!!!'
"While Trump's many threats to revoke broadcaster licenses have never led to any actual license revocations, the CBS developments show how he can use the government to influence operations at news organizations. CBS owner #Paramount recently inked a $16 million settlement with Trump and then agreed to install a '#BiasMonitor' in order to gain Federal Communications Commission [#FCC] approval of an $8 billion merger with #Skydance. Now Trump is turning his attention to ABC and NBC."
#PressFreedom #SilencingTheTruth #Censorship #FascismInTheUSA #TrumpIsABully #TrumpIsAMobster #TrumpIsAFascist #Authoritarianism #BigBrother #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol
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House education committee threatens to subpoena #BowdoinCollege over #antisemitism records
Senior #GOP officials on the committee allege that the #Maine liberal arts school failed to comply with repeated requests for documentation regarding disciplinary action taken against those involved with a campus #encampment
Read more [paywall?]: https://jewishinsider.com/2025/06/bowdoin-college-antisemitism-house-education-workforce-committee/
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/Kk8Ab#BrunswickME #ProPalestinian #FreePalestine #MaineResists #USPol #TrumpIsEvil #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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'This Is What #Autocrats Do': Concern Grows Over Single Paragraph Buried Deep in #GOPBill
The provision would force those challenging Trump "to pay up in the form of a posted bond—something many people can't afford to do. That means only the wealthy will be able to even attempt to challenge the most powerful man in the country."
Jon Queally
May 31, 2025"A single paragraph buried deep in a spending bill that passed the GOP-controlled House of Representatives earlier this month is causing growing concern among democracy watchdogs who warn the provision will make it so only the well-to-do would be in a good position to launch legal challenges against a #Trump administration that has shown over and over again its disdain and disregard for oversight or judicial restraint of any kind.
"Coming just about half-way through what President Donald Trump has dubbed the Republican Party's so-called "One #BigBeautifulBill Act"—which progressive critics point out is a giant giveaway to the nation's wealthiest at the expense of the working class and the common good—the language in question is slight, but could have far-reaching impacts.
" 'This is what autocrats do. Consolidate power, increase the penalty for objecting, ultimately making it more difficult—eventually impossible—to challenge them.'
"On Saturday, #HumanRightsWatch (#HRW) noted in a detailed social media thread how the provision 'hasn't gotten nearly enough scrutiny' from lawmakers or the public.
"A recent piece by USA Today columnist Chris Brennan put it this way: 'One paragraph, on pages 562 and 563 of the 1,116-page bill, raised alarms for reasons that have nothing to do with America's budget or safety-net programs or debt. That paragraph invokes a federal rule for civil court procedures, requiring anyone seeking an injunction or temporary restraining order to block an action by the Trump administration to post a financial bond.
" 'Want to challenge Trump? Pay up, the provision said in a way that could make it financially prohibitive for Americans to contest Trump's actions in court.
"HRW details how the provision, if included in the final legislation, 'would make it more expensive to fight Trump's policies in court by invoking a federal rule that effectively punishes anyone willing to stand up against the administration.'
"Anyone seeking a legal action that would involve an injunction request against a presidential order or policy, the group said, would to face a much larger barrier because Republicans would make it so that anyone challenging Trump in court in this way would 'have to pay up in the form of a posted bond—something many people can't afford to do. That means only the wealthy will be able to even attempt to challenge the most powerful man in the country."
Read more / listen to audio:
www.commondreams.org/news/trump-buried-provision#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #AuthoritarianRule #SilencingDissent #Fascism #BigUglyBill #BigUglyFascists
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Because an educated populace might not fall for #fascism and #AuthoritarianRule!
#Trump Finds a New Way to Attack Education: Cutting Aid for #Students Who Are Parents
The Trump administration proposed eliminating #CCAMPIS, a vital child care program for LowerIncome parenting students.
by Jessica Washington, May 28 2025
Original article:
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/28/trump-aid-student-parents-college-child-care/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/0ttW8#TrumpHatesThePoor #TrumpIsDumbingUsDown #MAGA #CharacteristicsOfFascism #LearnToBeASerf #USPol #MadKingTrump #NoKings
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via @kenwhite.bsky.social
"Willing to bet a very large amount that most of that 413% rise in 'assaults' on ICE agents represent unarmed people attacking ICE fists with their faces and boots with their kidneys.
Because these people are lying scum."
#ResistICE #Gestapo #ICESucks #ACAB #CharacteristicsOfFascism #SilencingDissent #PoliceState #Resist #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule
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#Trump Is Building a #GlobalGulag for #Immigrants Captured by #ICE
The U.S. is in talks with 19 nations, including #Libya, #Kosovo, #Rwanda, and #Moldova to accept deportees from other countries.
Nick Turse, Jonah Valdez
May 15 2025,Excerpt: "In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the #GeorgeWBush administration created a worldwide network of secret prisons and torture sites as part of its global war on terror. Its crown jewel, the Guantánamo Bay detention center, was established in January 2002 as a place for the United States to hold so-called enemy combatants.
"The U.S. government chose the U.S. Naval Station Guantánamo Bay because it was seeking a site where neither U.S. nor international law applied — a legal black hole where they could disappear people indefinitely. Over time, Guantánamo became emblematic of gross human rights abuses. “Forever prisoners” of the war on terror are still being held there today. Others caught up in America’s counterterrorism dragnet were detained at torture prisons in Afghanistan and Iraq or kidnapped and 'rendered' to CIA black sites — secret prisons in at least eight countries around the world.
"As the Trump administration has expanded the Bush and #Obama-era terrorism paradigm to cast immigrants and refugees as terrorists and gang members, it has reconceptualized rendition and even pressed Guantánamo Bay into service as a way station for Venezuelan men expelled to El Salvador."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/15/trump-ice-immigrants-deport-prisons-cecot-libya/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/07iRS#SilencingDissent #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule #USPol #WorldPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #ResistICE #PoliceState
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#LawFirms, #universities and now #CivilSociety groups are in #Trump’s sights for #punitive action
By LISA MASCARO
Updated 12:04 AM EDT, April 18, 2025WASHINGTON (AP) — "First the nation’s top law firms. Then its premier universities. Now, President Donald Trump is leaning on the #advocacy groups that underpin U.S. civil society.
"Trump said Thursday that the administration is looking at the tax-exempt status not just of Harvard, but environmental groups and specifically the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or #CREW. It could be a devastating financial blow to the #nonprofit organizations — and his perceived #PoliticalFoes.
"The president’s remarks, during an event at the White House, began to confirm what advocacy groups have been quietly warning: Trump’s campaign of retribution is coming next for them.
" 'It’s supposed to be a charitable organization,' Trump said about CREW, in particular. 'The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that. We’re looking at a lot of things.' "
#CharacteristicsOfFascism
#SilencingDissent #USPol #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule #CriminalizingDissent #EnvironmentalGroups #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #LandIsLife #FightForTheFuture #DefendMotherEarth -
Congressional Analysis: #GOP Tax Gifts to #Rich Would Explode Deficit They Always Complain About
"This bill gives enormous additional tax cuts to wealthy people and corporations, spikes the deficit, and strips healthcare from millions of Americans," said one critic.
Jessica Corbett
May 13, 2025Excerpt: " 'Reckless tax cuts for the top and new corporate loopholes appear to be the big features of this bill, and they're paid for by cutting our healthcare and making American communities more vulnerable to floods, fires, and storms,' she stressed. 'The revenue raisers—which don't stop this from being extremely expensive—seem to be about picking winners and losers, rather than passing rational, consistent policies.' "
https://www.commondreams.org/news/gop-reconciliation-package
#BigUglyBill #Environment #Ethics #TaxBreaksForTheRich #CorporatePolluters #AirIsLife
#WaterIsLife #LandIsLife
#TrumpHatesTheEnvironment
#TrumpHatesThePoor #Corporatocracy #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#SilencingDissent #USPol #HR9495 #StopHR9495 #TaxPackage #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule
#FightForTheFuture -
What’s in Trump’s big bill? Trillions in tax cuts, changes to Medicaid and more
By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO
Updated 8:21 PM EDT, May 13, 2025WASHINGTON (AP) — "#Republicans in Congress are moving with rapid speed to advance President Donald Trump’s big bill of #TaxBreaks, #SpendingCuts and beefed-up border security funding as leaders work to enact many of his campaign promises.
"House committees have been laboring for months to draft the legislation, which Republicans have labeled 'THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,' a nod to Trump himself. Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to approve the package and send it to the Senate by Memorial Day.
"Democrats say they will fight what House party leader #HakeemJeffries calls 'this extreme and toxic bill.' "
https://apnews.com/article/trump-tax-cuts-bill-medicaid-work-requirements-17cbde167f3b434e925a199c3253b8e1#BigUglyBill #Environment #Ethics #StudentLoans #Medicaid #TaxBreaksForTheRich
#CorporatePolluters #AirIsLife
#WaterIsLife #LandIsLife
#MAGADeathCult #TrumpHatesTheEnvironment
#TrumpHatesThePoor
#AntiLife #Greenpeace
#Indivisible #FreePalestine
#CREW #PeaceAndJustice
#Corporatocracy #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #HR9495 #StopHR9495
#TaxPackage #Authoritarianism
#AuthoritarianRule
#FightForTheFuture
#Section112209 -
This is what I sent to Maine Senators Susan Collins and Angus King...
Dear Senator Collins / King, I beg you to vote "no" on Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill." The passing of this will hurt many Mainers, and could impact Maine non-profits (Section 112209). Many Mainers are already struggling to pay their bills, and putting more of a burden on them, while giving tax breaks to the rich is unfair to working and disabled Mainers. Thank you.
#HR9495 #BigBeautifulBill #BigUglyTaxBill #ToxicBill #Environment #Ethics #AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #TrumpHatesTheEnvironment
#TrumpHatesThePoor #CorporatePolluters #Corporatocracy
#CharacteristicsOfFascism
#SilencingDissent #USPol
#HR9495 #TaxPackage
#Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule #StopHR9495 #FightForTheFuture
#Section112209 -
House Republicans look to help Trump strip tax-exempt status of nonprofits he says support terrorism
By ALEXA ST. JOHN and MATTHEW DALY
Updated 1:37 PM EDT, May 13, 2025WASHINGTON (AP) — "A proposal by Republicans in Congress would allow President Donald Trump’s administration to remove the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that it says support #terrorism, creating what some #nonprofits say is an arbitrary standard to financially punish #charities that advocate for issues that don’t align with his agenda.
"Unusual language added Monday to a reconciliation bill from the House Ways and Means Committee — the tax-writing committee — would allow for terminating the tax-exempt status of groups the administration deems 'terrorist supporting organizations.' The language mirrors a bill from the last Congress that passed in the House but did not pass the Senate.
"The definition and criteria for determining whether or how an organization supports terrorism are unclear. The bill also targets nonprofits in other ways, echoing complaints by Trump, who has called the tax-exempt status a 'privilege' that has been 'abused.' Trump has threatened to revoke tax-exempt status for groups that don’t abide by his directives or agree with his views."
[...]
"Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, which represents hundreds of former scientists and regulators, said last month 'we all pay the price' when charitable organizations are silenced based on politics.
"For example, the move to revoke #TaxExempt status could choke off funding for groups that urge greater action to promote clean air, water and land, work to help communities most affected by industrial pollution and advocate for projects and policies to combat #ClimateChange — among other issues.
" 'It threatens the rights, health, and future of every community,' Roos said in a statement.
Last month, Trump said he could target environmental groups and the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington."
#Environment #Ethics #AirIsLife #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #MAGADeathCult #TrumpHatesTheEnvironment #TrumpHatesThePoor #AntiLife #Greenpeace #Indivisible #FreePalestine #CREW #PeaceAndJustice #CorporatePolluters #Corporatocracy #CharacteristicsOfFascism #SilencingDissent #USPol #HR9495 #TaxPackage #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule #StopHR9495 #FightForTheFuture #Section112209
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Only one thing is going to stand in Trump's way — and he knows it | Opinion
by Thom Hartmann, April 28, 2025
"It didn’t happen in some shadowy back alley or under the cover of night.
"It happened in broad daylight — in the heart of an American courthouse.
"Federal agents, acting without even the decency of a signed warrant, stormed into Judge #HannahDugan’s courtroom on Friday morning and dragged her away like a common criminal. No warning. No legal process. No respect for the law she had spent a lifetime upholding.
"But they made sure the cameras were there, so America could see what they were doing. Because this was not about justice. This was about terror.
"This was a warning shot aimed directly at the beating heart of America’s judiciary: 'Fall in line — or you’re next.'
"In that moment, the world’s oldest democracy lurched closer to the edge of #AuthoritarianRule. In that moment, America became a little less free — and a lot more like the nightmare #VladimirPutin always hoped we’d become.
"The FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan last Friday without even having a legal arrest #warrant; this is as outrageous and #PoliceState illegal as an administration can get.
"And #PamBondi’s performance Friday — after her federal agents swarm-raided this county judge — wasn’t staged for the general public.
"The real audience was a very small, select group: America’s judges.
"Their message is very simple: 'P--- us off, judges, and you could end up in prison, too.'
"Trump has already pacified the Article I branch of government — Congress — and now he’s in the process of pacifying the Article III branch, the Judiciary.
"There are only 3 branches to our government: cowing both Congress and the nation’s Judiciary will leave only the president in charge of the entire country under all circumstances in all ways.
"Nothing and nobody else will be able to stop him, short of a military coup (and he’s already decapitated the senior leadership of the military) or unending demonstrations in the streets (demonstrators who may soon face live ammunition).
"That is called dictatorship. Real dictatorship. Vladimir Putin-style dictatorship where you are punished for the smallest deviation from orthodoxy and can find yourself in #prison or sued into #bankruptcy if you dare speak out in public.
"It appears more and more every day that #Putin is Trump’s mentor, if not his handler. Trump is doing everything he can, with help from a South African billionaire, to destroy the historic American infrastructure (which has been an example for the world for 250 years) and turn us into the newest member of the #dictators club, joining Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Hungary, North Korea, and the rest of the #fascist and #authoritarian world.
"To get there, now that they’ve pacified every single Republican member of Congress (most recently, Don Bacon criticized Trump’s schizophrenic tariffs; a day later he started talking about retiring), they only have to seize control of the Judiciary, and then nothing except We The People will stand in their way.
"Nothing. Will. Stand. In. Trump’s. Way. Except We The People. And he knows it.
"Look at the striking parallels between Putin’s strategies and Trump’s actions:
"From installing Trump’s loyalists in the military and the federal police agencies of the Department of Justice and FBI, to his open threats against freedom of the press, to the GOP’s efforts to rig elections and purge voters, Trump’s subversion of US democracy looks eerily familiar.
"He’s taking pages directly from the autocrat’s handbook.
"Trump has openly quoted and praised autocrats like Putin and Hungarian strongman #ViktorOrbán, who has presented his leadership in speeches to the GOP and CPAC as a model of an '#illiberal' state.
"Trump’s not hiding his admiration for dictators; he’s flaunting it. And now he’s putting the final stages of their script into action.
"Trump’s movement toward authoritarianism follows 'a known playbook. It’s unfolded in many other countries,' as journalist Anne Applebaum notes. 'These are democratically elected leaders who characterize themselves or describe themselves as deserving of no opposition. So I am the true Hungarian, or I am the only real American.'
"In a mere matter of weeks into his presidency, Applebaum says, Trump and his allies “have managed to push America into that space somewhere between (no longer) democracy and full-scale autocracy.”
"The speed is shocking, but it shouldn’t be surprising. It only took #Hitler #53Days to completely end democracy in Germany. Others, like Lukashenko, Orbán, Putin, Mussolini, Duterte, El-Sisi, and Erdoğan took longer (none longer than two years), but you could argue that Trump has been working at this project for 9 years now."
#Fascism #TrumpIsABully #USPol #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#ResistAuthoritarianism -
Marco Rubio's hunt for "#AntiChristian bias" is creeping #theocracy
In a new war on federal workers, State Department employees are told to snitch on people with #Pride flags
By Amanda Marcotte
Published April 15, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)Excerpt: "Unsurprisingly, a deeper read of the cable shows that 'anti-Christian bias' is the cover story propped up to justify Rubio's actual assault on freedom of religion at State. He's giving Christian nationalists at the agency a tool to harass and even Rpurge people who don't share their #FarRight beliefs. The definitions of 'anti-Christian bias' throughout add up to outrage that conservative Christians are expected to treat people who believe differently with fairness and decency.
"For instance, the memo asks for reports of 'mistreatment for opposing displays of flags, banners or other paraphernalia,' specifically during Joe Biden's administration. It doesn't take a doctorate in bureaucratese to interpret this. Rubio is seeking stories where conservative Christians were told to mind their own business after objecting to a colleague putting up a #PrideFlag, a #BlackLivesMatter sign or perhaps a religious knickknack from a #NonChristian faith. This might be more comprehensible if, say, any Christians had being told they couldn't wear a cross or have a picture of Jesus on their desk. Instead, what Rubio is suggesting is that Christians have [the right to] prevent other people from having the freedom to express views and positions they dislike — and that it amounts to 'bias' if they can't control what others do or say. "
Read more:
https://www.salon.com/2025/04/15/marco-rubios-hunt-for-anti-christmas-bias-is-creeping-theocracy/#ChristianNationalism #USPol #ChristoFascism #ChurchAndState #AntiGBLTQ #CharacteristicsOfFascism #HeritageFoundation #Project2025 #ChristianCoalition #MoralityPolice #HumanRightsViolations #GBLTQErasure #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #TrumpRegime
-
State by State Pending and recently passed #AntiProtestLaws: #Utah
SB 173: Criminal penalties for protests that disturb legislative or other government meetings
Creates new potential penalties for individuals protesting convenings of the legislature or other meetings of government officials. The law expands "disorderly conduct" to include a person who recklessly causes public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm by making "unreasonable noises" at an official meeting or in a private place that can be heard at an official meeting. "#DisorderlyConduct" also includes obstructing #PedestrianTraffic at an official meeting or refusing to leave an official meeting when asked by law enforcement. The law also increases the penalty for disorderly conduct, such that it is punishable by a $750 fine on the first offense (an infraction), up to 3 months in jail if a person was warned to cease prohibited conduct (Class C misdemeanor), up to 6 months for a second offense (Class B misdemeanor), and up to 1 year for a third offense (Class A misdemeanor). Accordingly, the law could, for example, be used to penalize silent protesters who refuse to leave a legislative committee meeting. An earlier version of the bill explicitly made it unlawful to commit even a "single, loud outburst, absent other disruptive conduct, that does not exceed five seconds in length."
Full text of bill:
https://le.utah.gov/~2020/bills/static/SB0173.htmlStatus: enacted
Introduced 24 Feb 2020; Approved by Senate 5 March 2020; Approved by House 12 March 2020; Signed by Governor 30 March 2020
HB 370: New Penalties for Protests Near #Pipelines, #Roadways, and other #Infrastructure
**Note: This bill was amended prior to its passage, and provisions that would have covered peaceful protest activity were significantly narrowed.** As introduced, the bill would have created new potential criminal liability for protesters in many locations by criminalizing acts that "inhibit" or "impede" critical infrastructure facilities. The bill's original text had a sweeping definition of "critical infrastructure facility" that included highways, bridges, transportation systems, food distribution systems, law enforcement response systems, financial systems, and energy infrastructure including pipelines--whether under construction or operational. The bill created a new felony offense for "inhibiting," or "impeding" the facility, its equipment, or operation, such that protesters who intentionally inhibited or impeded the operation of a roadway or construction of a pipeline could have faced life in prison. Amendments to the bill substantially narrowed the offense, however. The enacted law criminalizes "substantially... inhibiting or impeding" the operation of critical infrastructure only if doing so "causes widespread injury or damage to persons or property." Amendments also narrowed the definition of "critical infrastructure facility," including by removing highways, bridges, transportation systems, food distribution systems, law enforcement response systems, and financial systems from the definition.
Full text here:
https://le.utah.gov/~2023/bills/static/HB0370.htmlStatus: enacted with improvements
Introduced 3 Feb 2023; Approved by House 14 February 2023; Approved by Senate 28 February 2023; Signed by Governor Cox 14 March 2023
Issue(s): Infrastructure, #TrafficInterference
#FirstAmendment #CriminalizingDissent
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #Clampdown #CriminalizingProtest
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #USPol #AntiProtestLaws #PipelineProtests -
#Jewish #ColumbiaUniversityStudents Chain Themselves to #ColumbiaUniversity Fence to Protest #Khalil Detention
"As Jewish students, we grew up learning about the rise of #fascism, learning about how important it is to stand up when you see #injustice in the world," said one #protester.
by Julia Conley, Apr 02, 2025
"'We are here in protest of that to demand that the university tell us which trustees, which members of the university administration, are responsible for this so we can demand immediate consequences for them and hold them accountable for what they've done to our peer,' said the undergraduate student.
"Shea added that Jewish students were leading the protest because 'the attacks on our international students, on students of color, have been so fierce, so dangerous, so disproportionate that we are the only students who can be here right now taking this risk.'"
https://www.commondreams.org/news/columbia-student-protests
#FreeMahmoudKhalil #AlirezaDoroudi #RumeysaOzturk #YunseoChung #KseniyaPetrova #Disappeared #Orwellian #MemoryHole #CharacteristicsOfFascism #ICE
#JewishVoicesForPeace -
Private groups work to identify and report #StudentProtesters for possible #deportation
“Now they’re using tools of the state to actually go after people,” said a Columbia graduate student from South Asia who has been active in protests and spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about losing her visa. “We suddenly feel like we’re being forced to think about our survival.”
By ADAM GELLER, March 29, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — "When a protester was caught on video in January at a New York rally against Israel, only her eyes were visible between a mask and headscarf. But days later, photos of her entire face, along with her name and employer, were circulated online.
"'Months of them hiding their faces went down the drain!' a fledgling technology company boasted in a social media post, claiming its #FacialRecognition tool had identified the woman despite the coverings.
"She was anything but a lone target. The same software was also used to review images taken during months of #ProPalestinian marches at U.S. colleges. A #RightWingJewish group said some people identified with the tool were on a list of names it submitted to President Donald #Trump’s administration, urging that they be deported in accordance with his call for the expulsion of foreign students who participated in 'pro-jihadist' protests.
"Other #ProIsrael groups have enlisted help from supporters on campuses, urging them to report foreign students who participated in protests against the war in #Gaza to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency."
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/trump-foreign-students-campus-gaza-protests-deportation-9e2d4abc1c158454da1f68c01062c9ef
#ICERaids #ICEDetentions #ICEArrests #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #MahmoudKhalil #RumeysaOzturk, #YunseoChung #BadarKhunSuri #MomodouTaal #ResistICE #Fascism #Project2025 #ProjectEsther #Authoritarianism #TurdReich -
#Trump takes aim at foreign-born college students, with 300 visas revoked
Some students have been picked up off the street by immigration agents and held in detention centers, sometimes a thousand miles away from their homes, with little warning
By Daniella Silva, Chloe Atkins, Julia Ainsley and Abigail Williams, March 27, 2025
"Secretary of State #MarcoRubio said Thursday the State Department has revoked 300 or more #StudentVisas, as the White House increasingly targets foreign-born students whose main transgression seems to be #activism.
"Rubio warned that the administration was looking out for 'these lunatics.' Around the country, #scholars have been picked up, in some cases by masked immigration agents, and held in #DetentionCenters, sometimes a thousand miles from their homes with little warning and often with few details about why they were being detained.
"'It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,' Rubio said at a news conference in Guyana, where he was meeting with leaders.
"Many of those rounded up by Trump officials attended or were part of the pro-Palestinian movement that swept college campuses last year, and while the administration hasn’t said publicly why these students are being singled out over others, at least one sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement appeared on lists made by far-right pro-Israel groups as targets for deportation.
"And Trump allies, many in government again, telegraphed for months before he took office that they’d seek to deport students who openly advocated for Hamas or other U.S.-designated terrorist groups or after they participated in an unauthorized campus #protest and were suspended, expelled or jailed.
"The detentions are a signal of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to clamp down on the actions of legal permanent residents, student visa holders and others who live and work legally in the United States, one that threatens to undermine a fundamental American right to #FreeSpeech and to assemble, experts and advocates said."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-administration-takes-aim-immigrant-students-rcna198346?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#USPol #ThoughtPolice #Authoritarianism #Orwellian #CharacteristicsOfFascism #Clampdown #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingActivism #RightToAssemble #FirstAmendment #USPol -
#Wisconsin: What to know about April's #VoterID ballot referendum
By: Emilee Fannon, Mar 27, 2025
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- "Voters will not only have to present a #PhotoID to vote on April 1, but they'll also be asked about adding that requirement to the state constitution.
"It's part of a constitutional amendment that will appear on ballots across the state.
"The ballot referendum asks voters, 'shall section 1m of article III of the constitution be created to require that voters present valid photographic identification verifying their identity in order to vote in any election, subject to exceptions which may be established by law?'
"A 'yes' vote would enshrine Wisconsin's voter requirement in the state constitution, a move that would make it harder for a court to strike down the law or for lawmakers to repeal.
"Voting 'no' would not add the state's voter ID law to the constitution.
"If the ballot measure is approved or rejected, little would change for Wisconsin voters because the existing photo ID law has been on the books for nearly a decade, said Bryna Godar at the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
"However, #Republican lawmakers who authored the amendment say it's designed to protect the law from legal challenges in wake of the state Supreme Court gaining a 4-3 #LiberalMajority in 2023."
Read more:
https://www.cbs58.com/news/what-to-know-about-aprils-voter-id-ballot-referendum
#WisconsinPol #USPol #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #Fascism #Authoritarianism
Are #LiteracyTests Next? #VoterDisenfranchisement #CharacteristicsOfFascism -
#Trump seeks to mandate proof of #citizenship in #VoterRegistration
"Only about half of Americans have a U.S. passport, and only five states currently offer enhanced driver's licenses that show proof of citizenship."
By Jude Joffe-Block, March 26, 20251:09 AM ET
Excerpt: "#VotingRights advocates, however, warn outdated databases can erroneously list naturalized citizens as noncitizens. Past efforts by states to purge noncitizens from voter rolls have sometimes swept up eligible U.S. citizens.
"The executive order also seeks to stop states from counting mail or absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day but received after by withholding funding from states that allow such ballots to be counted.
"Proof of citizenship requirement
"Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump and his allies made baseless claims about the threat of noncitizens voting in large numbers.
"The current federal voter registration form asks registrants to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they are U.S. citizens and eligible to vote, and to provide a driver's license number, state ID number or Social Security number. Those who attempt to vote illegally can face prison time, fines or deportation. Past audits and studies have shown such cases are incredibly rare.
"Yet Republicans have made requiring documentary proof of citizenship a policy priority. The executive order borrows heavily from the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the #SAVEAct, a Republican-backed bill. House Republicans have signaled that they intend to pass it in their chamber but it faces difficult odds in the Senate.
"The executive order shows #Trump isn't waiting for Congress. But legal experts say that he does not have the authority through #ExecutiveOrder to make such changes, and the order conflicts with existing #FederalVotingLaw.
"'It's illegal at many different levels,' said Sean Morales-Doyle, the voting rights director at the #BrennanCenter for Justice, a nonprofit that studies and advocates for voting rights. The order directs the #ElectionAssistanceCommission, a small, independent bipartisan agency, to make various changes, including to the federal #VoterRegistration form, but Morales-Doyle said the president can't tell that commission what to do.
"Requiring documentary proof of #citizenship would radically upend voter registration if such a mandate were to take effect.
"The order is explicit that applies to anyone who uses the federal voter registration form. What is less clear is if the order would also pressure states to require showing proof of citizenship with state registration forms, such as by #WithholdingFunds.
"The order only lists a limited number of ways to prove U.S. citizenship. The options given are a U.S. passport, an ID that complies with the #RealIDAct that shows citizenship or a military ID that shows citizenship. A fourth option is a valid government photo ID that 'indicates that the applicant is a United States citizen or if such identification is otherwise accompanied by proof of United States citizenship,' but does not say if a birth certificate would count."
Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/26/g-s1-55927/trump-voting-citizenship-executive-order#TrumpIsABully #USPol #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #Fascism #Authoritarianism #DictatorInChief
Are #LiteracyTests Next? #VoterDisenfranchisement #CharacteristicsOfFascism #SAVEAct #SAVEAmericaAct -
#PineAndRoses #NewEngland #DSA protests #ICEDetentions
Posted by #MaineDSA and Wes Pelletier | Mar 27, 2025
"Last week, the #MaineCoalitionForPalestine organized a protest of ICE detention of #ColumbiaUniversity student leader #MahmoudKhalil. Since then, ICE has operated as the #Trump Administration’s #SecretPolice, abducting a growing number of immigrant organizers for exercising their right to #FreeSpeech and protesting the U.S.-sponsored #genocide in #Gaza. The list includes #RumeysaOzturk, #YunseoChung, #BadarKhunSuri, #MomodouTaal, #RanjaniSrinivasan, as well as #farmworker organizer #AlfredoJuarezZerefino. Maine DSA member and Portland District 2 City Councilmember #WesPelletier spoke at the Portland Mahmoud Khalil protest and DSA chapters around New England issued a joint declaration reprinted below against the ICE abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk.
New England DSA chapters demand freedom for Rumeysa Ozturk
"Yesterday, ICE agents abducted Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student and pro-Palestine activist at Tufts.
"The kidnapping comes after almost 400 #ICEArrests in Massachusetts, as well as the #doxxing of Ozturk by the pro-Isreal website #CanaryMission.
"ICE’s abductions—of Ozturk, Khalil, and many others—is an unprecedented attack on basic #CivilRights in the name of U.S. Empire, whether those detained are peaceful #PoliticalActivists or undocumented #migrants seeking safety, jobs, and a better life.
"We must stand up against this brazen attack on #Palestine, #FreeSpeech, and the #RightToProtest.
"We must stand in solidarity with our neighbors and communities under attack from Trump, ICE, and all agents of #imperialism.
"Governor Healey, the courts, and the Democratic Party establishment are not coming to save us—we must mobilize, agitate, and organize in our workplaces and campuses to defend working-class rights.
In Solidarity,
#BerkshiresDSA, #BostonDSA, #BostonUniversityYDSA, #CapeCodDSA, #ConnecticutDSA, #MaineDSA, #NortheasternYDSA, #RiverValleyDSA, #SimmonsYDSA, #SouthernNewHampshireDSA, #UpperValleyDSA, #WorcesterDSA"
Source:
https://pineandroses.org/news/new-england-dsa-protests-ice-detentions/
#ResistICE #ResistFascism #Resistance #District13 #District13Resists #Fascism #USPol #Authoritarianism #TurReich #CharacteristicsOfFascism -
Trump Brags He “Brought Back Free Speech” Hours After Calling to Ban “Illegal” Protests
On the same day he floated cutting funding at schools hosting “illegal” protests, Trump took a free speech victory lap.
By Akela Lacy, March 4, 2025
"'You can’t claim to stand for free speech while threatening schools’ funding to silence anti-war students,' said Tariq Habash, a former staffer in president Joe Biden’s Department of Education who resigned over Biden’s handling of the war on Gaza. Habash is now co-founder and director of the advocacy group A New Policy. 'These efforts are not just antidemocratic, they’re illegal and a direct attack on academia, students, and faculty.'"
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/04/trump-joint-congress-address-free-speech-campus-protest-gaza/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/6J9Fl#selection-615.11-615.139
#USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #DOGE #BadDOGE #DOGETargets #SilencingDissent #Censorship #HumanRights #FreeSpeech #ChristoFascists -
Trump talks ‘#FreeSpeech’ while moving to muzzle those he disagrees with
By Kevin Rector
Jan. 26, 2025- As part of a broader rollout of executive orders, President Trump called for an end to government censorship, including on social media.
- Critics said they found the order absurd given Trump’s long record attacking speech and his other actions aimed at curtailing the speech of journalists, government experts, LGBTQ+ people and others."In one of his first acts in office, President Trump issued an executive order promising to end government censorship and restore free speech.
"The order accused the outgoing Biden administration of harassing social media companies and violating the rights of ordinary Americans “under the guise” of combating disinformation online, and said federal resources would no longer be used to “unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”
"The order echoed a recurring theme from Trump’s campaign — that liberals across the federal government are censoring conservative voices to advance their own '#woke' agenda — and immediately resonated with his followers.
"'This order is a critical step to ensure the government cannot dictate what speech is permissible or weaponize private entities to enforce censorship,' said Mark Trammell of the Center for American Liberty, a conservative rights group founded by California attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon, Trump’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. [Oh, but it's OKAY for Trump & crew to censor others?!!]
"However, many others said they found Trump’s order absurd — both because of his long track record of attacking speech he doesn’t like, and because of his new administration’s simultaneous efforts to muzzle people it disagrees with, including #journalists, federal #HealthOfficials, #teachers, #diplomats, #ClimateScientists and the #LGBTQ+ community." [And now they are doing it by cutting FUNDING!!!]
Read more:
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2025-01-26/trump-free-speech-executive-order-critics-respondArchived link:
https://archive.ph/wgiYN
#USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #DOGE #BadDOGE #DOGETargets #SilencingDissent #Censorship #HumanRights #FreeSpeech #ChristoFascists -
Maddow Blog | The scary subtext behind the ‘#PaidProtester’ line from #Trump and #Republicans
Story by Steve Benen, 3/4/2025
"As members of Congress confront angry constituents at #TownHalls nationwide, Republicans are increasingly invested in the idea that the dissatisfied Americans are insincere — and well compensated.
"House Speaker Mike Johnson, for example, declared last week that he’d seen the videos from recent public events, but was confident that in 'many' communities there were 'paid protesters.' The Louisiana Republican, naturally, offered no evidence in support of his claim.
"A few days later, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas held a town hall meeting with constituents that went so badly, the Republican gave up and ended the event early. The senator soon after suggested that he believed his detractors were paid.
"As NBC News reported, Donald Trump took a related message to his social media platform.
"Putting aside the inconvenient fact that the president did not, in reality, win by a 'landslide' — he never did reach 50% of the popular vote — Trump’s rhetoric might sound familiar. There’s a good reason for that.
"As regular readers might recall, it was nearly nine years ago when Trump’s 2016 candidacy inspired protests, at which point he assumed that the people involved couldn’t possibly be sincere in their dislike of him. They were, he said at the time, '#PaidAgitators.'
"After he prevailed on Election Day 2016, there was related anti-Trump activism. Those involved, he said in November 2016, were 'paid protesters.' Months later, after his inauguration, the #activism continued. Trump assured the public once more that these Americans deserved to be ignored — because, he assumed, they were 'paid protesters.'
"The following year, #BrettKavanaugh’s #SupremeCourt nomination inspired another round of progressive activism. The protesters, Trump insisted, were 'paid professionals.'
"For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that #Russia’s Vladimir #Putin has embraced the same tactic. Let’s instead consider the unavoidable bottom line: For Trump and too many in his party, Americans who disagree with them are effectively an impossibility that can only be explained through corrupt schemes and illicit payments.
"Indeed, it’s hardly a stretch to draw a straight line from 'paid protesters' rhetoric to election denialism: Americans who side with Trump and Republicans are real, while Americans who disagree must necessarily be seen as inauthentic.
"For his part, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saw the president’s missive and responded by way of Bluesky. 'We don’t need paid protestors,' the New York Democrat wrote. 'The American people are with us.'"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/maddow-blog-the-scary-subtext-behind-the-paid-protester-line-from-trump-and-republicans/ar-AA1AeFPh
#USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #GOPBaseIsPissedOff #propaganda #TrumpLies #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet