#cronyism — Public Fediverse posts

No-Bid #ICE Contract Went to Former ICE Agents Being Sued for Fabricating Criminal Evidence on the Job

The $73 million deal for assisting with deportations went to a company whose executives are accused of retaliating against a fellow ICE worker.

Sam Biddle, April 17 2025

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement just signed a contract worth $73 million with a firm whose executives are accused of taking part in a scheme to manufacture evidence against a co-worker during their time working at the Department of Homeland Security.

"According to a contract document reviewed by The Intercept, federal contractor #UniversalStrategicAdvisors will provide services pertaining to #ICE’s 'non-detained docket,' a master list of millions of #noncitizens believed to be removable from the United States but not yet in the agency’s custody.

"The contract cites President Donald #Trump’s declaration of a #NationalEmergency on the #USMexicoBorder, an overwhelming glut of potential #deportees, and a shortage of officers to process them all as justification for hiring a private vendor to assist with the collection of biometric data, coordinating removals, and monitoring #immigrant populations.

"The document says that with a fleet of new outsourced employees, ICE can reassign hundreds of officers to tasks that better align with Trump’s recent executive orders aimed at maximizing the agency’s detention and deportation operations. With the contractors onboard, the document says at least 675 ICE officers 'will be able to take all appropriate actions to comply with the EO’s by prioritizing conducting at-large arrests, removals, and detention related activities.'

"A former ICE official, who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned by this plan to further privatize the agency’s operations at the same time as the Trump administration has dramatically slashed its workforce and gutted important oversight bodies like the Office for #CivilRights and #CivilLiberties, as well as the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. 'I certainly take issue with them firing career feds and demolishing whole offices, just to hire contractors to do the same work, many of them who are former ICE employees now retired,' the official said."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/04/17/ice-deportation-contracts-us-advisors/

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

#WorkerRetaliation #ICEDetention #Deportations #HumanRightsAbuses #USPol #WorldPol #Corporatocracy #CorporateFascism #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Cronyism

Ex-Tory Treasurer and major party donor handed lucrative government contract to advise the Post Office | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-donor-post-office-contract-rishi-sunak-b2512826.html

#Cronyism
#Tories
#ToryDonor
#ExToryTreasurer
#PostOffice
#Corruption
#Karim
#Fenchurch
#Hester
#Abbott
#Racism
#PostOfficeScandal
#Horizon
#HorizonScandal
#HorizonITScandal
#Sikka
#NAO
#NationalAuditOffice
#CommunicationsWorkersUnion
#CWU
#Natixis
#IngeniousFilmPartners2
#HMRC
#TaxAvoidance

#Fascist much, #DonTheCon? Must be reading his copy of #MeinKampf again. Britt commentary refers to "14 Characteristics of Fascism" by #LawrenceBritt.

10 alarming things #Trump has promised to do in a second term

by Judd Legum
and Rebecca Crosby
Dec 12, 2023

1. Trump says he will "abuse power" and be a "dictator" on "day one."

2. Trump says #ElectionFraud in 2020 gives him the power to "terminate" the Constitution
[Britt: "Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by #SmearCampaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control #voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections."]

3. Trump says he will issue "full pardons" to #January6 #insurrectionists
[Britt: "Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption"]

4. Trump says he will cut funding to schools that cover subjects he believes are "inappropriate"
[Britt: "Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts"]

5. Trump says he will legally erase trans people and ban them from military service
[Britt: "The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional #gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to #abortion is high, as is #homophobia and anti-#gay legislation."]

6. Trump says he will end birthright citizenship by executive order
[Britt: Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause"]

7. Trump says he will impose a new 10% tax on all imported goods
[Britt: "Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism"]

8. Trump says he will investigate NBC and MSNBC for treason and potentially remove the company from public airwaves
[Britt: "Controlled #MassMedia"]

9. Trump says he will demand anyone convicted of selling drugs get the death penalty
[Britt: "Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment"]

10. Trump says he will order the arrest of all urban homeless and relocate them to federally-run tent cities
[Britt: "Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights"]

Full article:
https://popular.info/p/10-alarming-things-trump-has-promised

#CharacteristicsOfFascism #MAGA #Fascism #History #RabidRight #ChristoFascism #Project2025

Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of #Fascism

[Unattributed, but based on the writings of #UmbertoEco]

"#Historian #LawrenceBritt studied the fascist regimes of #Hitler (Germany), #Mussolini (Italy), #Franco (Spain), #Suharto (Indonesia), and #Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

1. Powerful and Continuing #Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of #patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. #Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of #HumanRights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners.

3. Identification of #Enemies / #Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: #racial, #ethnic or #religious #minorities; #liberals; #communists; #socialists, #terrorists…

4. Supremacy of the #Military
Even when there are widespread #domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

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

6. Controlled #MassMedia
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government #censorship and #secrecy especially in war time, are very common.

7. Obsession with #NationalSecurity
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. #Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

9. Protection of #Corporate Power
The #industrial and business #aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Suppression of #Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor #unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for #Intellectuals and the #Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to #HigherEducation and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other #academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with #Crime and #Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the #police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego #CivilLiberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant #Cronyism and #Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

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

This post is a summary of Fascism, Anyone? by Lawrence W. Britt published in 2003 by Free Inquiry magazine."

https://voxpopulisphere.com/2017/08/23/lawrence-britt-14-characteristics-of-fascism/

#History #Histodon #RabidRight #Antifa #Antifascism #FarRight #Trump #Putin #Russia #MAGA #Project2025 #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DetentionCenters #VoterDisenfranchisement #VoterIDLaws #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent

#MalAdjusted — Its a word they use.

Well, there are some things, many things in fact, in this system that we can say we are proud to be maladjusted to.

Paraphrasing from Dr #MartinLutherKing.

#warCrimes #micimatt #militaryIndustrialComplex #intelligencia #forcedMedia #forcedNews #keynesian #moneyPrinter #corporatism #cronyism #jeffreyEpsteinClass #thinkTanks #freeAssange

Wow…

In case we had any remaining shreds of thought that the #USTreasury and #TheFed had any control over the #moneyPrinter. #Biden has appointed ex-#FederalReserve chairwoman #JanetYellen.

Boy oh boy (— or girl oh girl)

These people cannot be trusted to deliver sound #monetaryPolicy — or #fiscalPolicy for that matter.

#JoinedTheDotsYet? #whyBitcoin

#revolvingDoor #cronyism #economists #soCalledEconomists #complexityTheatre #confidenceTricks #neoFeudalism #cantillonEffect #moneyPrinterGoBrr