#passports — Public Fediverse posts

New Passport Design Featuring Trump's Face Unveiled by State Department #passports #trump #cartoon #trumppassport #gregkearney #kearney

New Passport Design Featuring Trump's Face Unveiled by State Department #passports #trump #cartoon #trumppassport #gregkearney #kearney

Benjamin Parker reports on the State Department's plan to put a photo of Trump on US passports, noting that this "would mark yet another U.S. government property upon which the president has plastered his likeness."

As aspiring dictator-strongmen always do, he wants his image and name everywhere. This immortalizes him, apotheosizes him, keeps the cult alive beyond his mortal life.

#Trump #cult #distator #strongman #passports

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/exclusive-state-dept-finalizing-plan

https://www.europesays.com/videos/6085/ Channel Islanders stopped when returning home as new ETA system introduced | ITV News Channel #alderney #BobMarley #byelection #ChannelIslands #Election #football #guernsey #herm #itv #ItvNews #ItvNewsChannel #ITVNewsInFull #jersey #motorsports #passports #politics #sark #Sport #Travel

This never stops - #ICE agents will be stationed outside #MarineCorps #graduation events in #SouthCarolina. As the U.S. continues to fight the war in #Iran, the Marine Corps has boosted protection measures on bases, requiring everyone to present REAL IDs, #passports or #birthcertificates to access any sites. #civilliberties #democracy #military https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/ice-agents-will-stationed-marine-corps-graduation-events-south-carolin-rcna265941 #democracy #government #politics

@aaron.rupar

"Trump said Sunday that #ICE agents will be sent to #US airports Monday, with border czar Tom “Bag of Cash” Homan leading the effort"

And here it is: the gloves are finally, formally off

#ICE is nothing less than #Trump's personal #Gestapo

To be deployed and unleashed and inflicted upon the #USPublic at Trump's whim for work that has nothing to do with ICE's formal role:

#Immigration and #CustomsEnforcement

The vast majority of airport travelers are *not* new #Immigrants coming into the #UnitedStates for the first time

And #International air travelers have already been vetted at their points of departure for #Identification and #Passports

This a deliberate act of pure political intimidation

This is #DonaldTrump previewing his personal military force in preparation for the upcoming #2026 #PrimaryElections and ICE assignment to #Democrat-district voting polls nationwide

Which Trump and the #Republicans intend to steal by any and all available methods

Period

Full stop

Associated Press: State Department orders nonprofit libraries to stop processing passport applications. “The U.S. State Department has ordered certain public libraries nationwide to cease processing passport applications, disrupting a long-standing service that librarians say their communities have come to rely on and that has run smoothly for years.”

Indiana quietly bans trans residents from changing gender markers on IDs

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/indiana-gender-marker-change-ban

Google's Personal Data Removal Tool Now Covers Government IDs

#Google on Tuesday expanded its "Results about you" tool to let users request the removal of Search results containing government-issued ID numbers -- including driver's licenses, #passports and #SocialSecurity numbers -- adding to the tool's existing ability to flag results that surface phone numbers, email addresses, and home addresses
#privacy #security #ssn #identity #pii

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/10/1828251/googles-personal-data-removal-tool-now-covers-government-ids?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

‘Lolita,’ passports and more famous figures pictured in latest Epstein photo release | PBS News

Editor’s Note: Some of the images from Friday’s release (December 19, 2025) are included in this post. Please ensure respect for the victims in these photos, and documents. –DrWeb

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‘Lolita,’ passports and more famous figures pictured in latest Epstein photo release

Politics Dec 18, 2025 6:09 PM EST

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released another collection of images from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate Thursday, on the eve of the Justice Department’s deadline to release all of its files on his case.

Around 70 photographs come from Epstein’s computer and email accounts, and shed more light on his lifestyle and social circles. The photographs, among 95,000 handed over by Epstein’s estate last week, were provided to the committee without context.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is standing next to a woman whose face has been redacted. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

One image shows former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates standing next to a woman, whose face is redacted. Another shows Noam Chomsky seated next to Epstein on a plane. Several images show a social gathering over a meal and several faces of powerful or public figures, including Epstein. A separate image that appears to be from the same room shows Google co-founder Sergey Brin and New York Times columnist David Brooks, who is a regular contributor to the PBS News Hour. The photos are undated.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, New York Times columnist and PBS News contributor David Brooks is seen seated next to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

A New York Times spokesperson said in a statement, “As a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr. Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is seen smiling. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

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Several images in the new release show Epstein photographed with women whose faces have been redacted. One photograph appears to show three women with Epstein, with an open computer nearby. One of the women has her arm around his shoulder. Another photo shows Epstein seated on a plane, pointing out a window while a woman sits closely beside him. Her face has also been obscured.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender is seated on a plane next to a woman whose face has been redacted. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender is seen with three women whose faces have been redacted. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

Some photos in this batch show closeups of a foot and a neck. In both images, quotes from the book “Lolita” appear to have been written in black pen on the person’s body.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a quote from Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” is seen written on someone’s foot. The book appears in the background. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

In this undated photograph from the personal collection of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a quote from Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” is seen written on someone’s neck. The photo, from Epstein’s estate, was released Thursday by Democrats on the House Ov

Continue/Read Original Article Here: ‘Lolita,’ passports and more famous figures pictured in latest Epstein photo release | PBS News

#Scotus # #TransRights #GayMarriage #LGBTQ #Passports #Cruelty #HumanRights #alt

Thom Hartmann 11/8/25
JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON SCATHING DISSENT AGAINST RIGHT WING TRANS RIGHTS

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

A Nazi-supporting librarian, Allison Davis, Elizabeth Stubbs Davis, and mass book burning in “Origin” film

A pivotal scene of Origin, a 2023 biographical drama film by Ava DuVernay, a Black woman and director known for the historical drama Selma (2014), the documentary entitled 13th (2016), other films. Origin is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and her journey to write this book, takes place in a library in Germany, in 1933. In this post, I’ll talk about that scene, and another, which take place in a library, in this film.

The film shows Allison Davis and Elizabeth Stubbs Davis, a married Black couple, in Berlin, Germany, in 1933, who are studying there. They are looking for books by Erich Maria Remarque, at Germany’s premier library, and find nothing. Elizabeth says she could get lost in these books (and ideas) “forever” and Allison says the library is “beautiful.” They walk through the reading room, past four German patrons, with White skin, and are having a fun time. The librarian asks for their library cards, as they are checking out two books, which seems normal, and they comply. And then she asks for their passports! Again, they comply, and a patron watches them.

The librarian pages through their passports, he asks when Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front will be back in the library. She looks at him, does not answer, and stamps the books. The same patron, as before, looks at them, clearly concerned.She is serving as the enforcer of rules and social norms here.

She does not answer. Instead, she asks for their passports, stamps their books, and they go on their way, as everyone watches them. He looks at her, worryingly, as does his wife, Elizabeth. She slides the books over to them, holds their passports, almost with concern, putting them down on the table. What was to come is that they would witness events that would change the world.

Later in the film, Wilkerson herself goes to a library. A helpful librarian, a White German man, shows her the book she requested, with a list from October 1935, noting a part of the text showing that all of Remarque’s books would be destroyed. Later, she looks on the library stacks. Right after this, it flashes back to the past. As Elizabeth and Allison are on the steps outside the library, a friendly White German man named Erich Kästner overhears they are asking about Remarque but says he couldn’t catch the librarian’s answer. He asks them if they know what is happening in Germany. They don’t.He tells them that “everything is being torn apart.”

Later that night, he brings them to the infamous book burning, likely when the Berlin chapter of the German Student Union made an organized attack on Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sex Research on May 6, 1933. As the Nazis march around and chant, a stack of burning books is shown, and some holding torches. One person shouts about ending the period of “exaggerated Jewish intellectualism,” and people agree wholeheartedly, raising their hands in Nazi salutes, claiming that the German soul can now “breathe again,” and to end “moral corruption.” A truck approaches the stack of burning books, with people taking books out of the back and throwing them onto the fire, all to protect “decency” and “morality.”

In the present, Wilkerson walks into the square where the burning happened and a German woman says there are memorials to nearly everyone victimized by the Nazis, no gate or entry sign, open day and night, standing “to bear witness.” The film flashes back again, showing Germans throwing tens of thousands of books into a fire, burning them to a crisp, as they shout. A German woman in the present says “20,000 books were lost that night,” while Elizabeth and Allison are growing more concerned and horrified. Kästner suggests they leave Germany and go somewhere safe (their home) instead, which they agree with. The film comes back to the present, with audio of someone saying to burn the books of Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Mann, Ernest Glaser, Remarque, Karl Renner, and Kästner. Also, empty bookshelves, where books would be, is displayed, symbolic of all the books that were lost that night.

The German woman also shares a quote by a German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine: “when you burn books, you end up burning men.” All of this makes one thing clear: the strict librarian depicted is aligned with this book burning. Elianna Bernstein, the main protagonist of Bibliophile Princess, would be horrified by all of this, as a person who detested book burning and directly called those who did it monsters. She is right! More than that, the librarian is even more aligned with oppression than Francis Clara Censordoll in Moral Orel, or Cletus Bookbinder in Rocky & Bullwinkle, to give two examples I can think of at this point.

The film also notes that Elizabeth and Allison cut short their advanced studies at the University of Berlin (obviously!) and they began their research for a book which would be entitled Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class in a Southern City. The book, which came out in 1941, would also involve research in collaboration with their White colleagues, Burleigh and Mary R. Gardner, who were Harvard researchers. The book would serve as a major influence on Wilkerson (and others) and her work.

The two librarians noted in the cast list at the end of the film: Nazi Librarian and Berlin Librarian, played by Cristin König and Matthias Miller respectfully. I have highlighted both with yellow boxes for emphasis. The librarian in this film could, possibly, be described as a bit of a spinster, but is more of an anti-social librarian, which Jennifer Snoek-Brown defines as hoarding knowledge, wearing conservative clothing, having poor social skills, is very unfriendly, and “rates the library and its rules above the public.” This librarian is more than that, however: she is an enforcer of Nazi agenda, a footsoldier of oppression, and doesn’t seem to care about that!

I did deeper dive and found the screenplay, which notes even more library scenes, including Wilkerson at the New York Public Library, noting her tenderly pulling a book from the grand shelf. It also shows that the aforementioned library scene was at the Berlin University Library, noting that Allison and Elizabeth were “extremely light-skinned African-Americans who could pass for white on first glance,” and it also depicts them as even more romantic than the film. Interestingly, this screenplay has the librarian as a White man rather than a White woman. I wonder why it was changed. It noes he views them with suspicion, with the screenplay saying he “reviews the passport and card as if it’s a matter of national security”! The librarian almost interrogates Allison, and Elizabeth notes that she, and her husband, work with Dr. Diedrich Westermann. [1]

The screenplay also notes that the librarian places the books on the counter, and waves the next person over. Right after this is their conversation with Kästner, includes more dialogue from Elizabeth than in the film. then the book burning scene happens at the Bebelplatz, with open-bed trucks (unlike covered ones on the film) filled with books, with a crowd of 40,000 people. The screenplay shows more dialogue from a Nazi student organizer, specifically calling out Sigmund Freud, Erich Remarque, Georg Bernhard, Heinrich Mann, Ernst Glaeser, and Kästner. The scene plays out pretty similarly from there as in the film, except that Joseph Goebbels is introduced (in the film he is shown but not named directly), who calls out “intellectual garbage.” The same scene depicting Wilkerson meeting with the White British woman, Nigella, is shown as well. In those ways the film is similar. [2]

The screenplay, like in the film, continues the story of Allison and Elizabeth, noting they fled Germany when Hitler took power, as they had seen “the Nazis burn books and jail teachers,” which gave Allison new insights into the “nature of hate” and inspiring “him to study the process of injustice.” There are other mentions of libraries as well, like Wilkerson researching in a library, a gala at the New York Public Library which Wilkerson attends with her husband, Brett, and another one where she doesn’t. There’s also a “cozy library room” where Bhimrao Ambedkar reads with intensity in 1918. [3]

As it turns out, Kästner did, in real-life, actually attend the book burning. One biography says that he was “among the few authors, perhaps the only, who was present, when the Nazis burned books in Berlin on May 10, 1933, his own included,” but that he was “arrested by the Gestapo in 1934 and 1937 because he used to cross the border regularly to consult his Swiss publisher.”

In terms of the actors, Cristin König and Matthias Miller, they are both very talented. König is known for her roles in many German-language films and TV series since the late 1980s, while this appears to be Miller’s first role in the film, if IMDB is right. While König posted about this role on social media here and here, she never did so with much depth in her posts, even though other posts show her as very anti-Nazi, which is funny considering her character in the film! But, perhaps that was a reason she took the role? I haven’t seen any critical commentary of her role in the film when I searched for this, which is unfortunate, considering her key role!

Apparently a librarian named Kashif Andrew Graham introduced the film in one location and another, Mary Anne, shared her thoughts on the film. The latter did not mention either librarian character. Why?. I don’t understand that at all. How could they miss this? I hope Jennifer Snoek-Brown writes a post on Reel Librarians about these scenes as well, considering it was added to her master list of English-language films back in April 2024. I’d love to see her analysis.

© 2024-2025 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] DuVernay, Ava. “Origin” screenplay, Jun. 25, 2024, accessed on Sept. 9, 2024, pp. 36-38.

[2] Ibid, 38-41.

[3] Ibid, 87. On the previous page, it also describes them as “the couple we followed in Berlin during the Nazi book burning.” For the other mentions, see pages 16, 25, 32-33, and 102.

#AllQuietOnTheWesternFront #BibliophilePrincess #bookBurning #books #CletusBookbinder #femaleLibrarians #JenniferSnoekBrown #maleLibrarians #MoralOrel #Nazis #NYPL #oppression #OriginFilm_ #passports #RockyBullwinkle #teachers #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhiteWomen

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

How Russia prepares its strategic missile plant for eternal war — Dead and wounded everywhere — Russian attack on Dnipro kills at least 18, injures nearly 300 — Council of Europe, Ukraine to sign accord on June 25 to set up Russian aggression tribunal — Europeans oppose following Trump if he pushes Ukraine to cede territory, lift Russia sanctions, poll finds … and more

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/06/wednesday-june-25-2025/

#nixcamp #Liverpool #Birkenhead #UnitedKingdom #borders #passports #visa #residence #swidenning #SlashAndBurn #ShiftingAgriculture #Zomia #SmashTheState #stateless Abolish #KYC #AML #DMCA #facerec remote #biometric identification #frontex

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Zelensky slams Putin’s 3-day truce proposal as ‘manipulation,’ reiterates calls for 30-day unconditional ceasefire — Russia’s military building up at Finland’s border — Drones reportedly strike Russian plant producing parts for missiles, radars — Over 95% of drones used at front line made in Ukraine … and more

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2025/04/tuesday-april-29-2025/

#Canada votes on Monday, 28 April, 2025

#REMINDER This is what you are voting on:

VOTE FOR THE #BANKER, NOT THE WANKER.

#CdnPoli #VOTE #ABC #Elxn45 #Election
#Citizenship #Passports #CriminalLaw #Currency #FederalTaxes #Fisheries #Oceans #ForeignAffairs #Trade #IndigenousLands #IndigenousRights #NationalDefence #OfficialLanguages #PostalServices #VeteransAffairs #Immigration #Agriculture #Transportation #Environment #Federal #ON #QC #NS #NB #MB #BC #PEI #SK #AB #NL #NT #YT #NU

Czechia suspends granting citizenship to Russian nationals | MAMUL.am https://www.byteseu.com/725274/ #a #According #Acquiring #be #bill #cases #citizens #citizenship #Czech #CzechRepublic #Czechia #even #from #if #impossible #in #individuals #message #most #nearly #obtaining #on #passports #pavel #petr #president #prohibiting #renounce #russian #s #signed #the #their #to #until #War #website #will

#Trump Draws Bright Line Between #Sexes. #Executiveorder requires changes to #passports #prisons and other areas of #American life. WSJ gift article. #gender #discrimination #hmanrights #identity #legalresearch https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/donald-trump-gender-ideology-impact-fa30bdc0?st=5w4oCW&mod=djemwhatsnews

#ConvictedFelon and #Hatemonger #DonaldTrump's uses #AntiTrans #Rhetoric At #Rallies to Falsely Target #Cisgender #Olympic #Gold #Medalists.

#InternationalOlympicCommittee #spokesperson #MarkAdams said that #ImaneKhelif is not a #transgender #athlete and added every #person #competing in the #Olympics’ #women’s #competitions #complied with #eligibilityrules, noting Khelif and #LinYuTing are identified as #females on their #passports.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2024/09/14/trumps-anti-trans-rhetoric-at-rallies-falsely-targets-olympic-gold-medalists/

Orient Express to axe UK section after 41 years due to #Brexit

When Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional

But Brexit & 21st-century #biometric checks have killed it off

The company that runs today’s Orient Express , has decided to drop the UK leg because it is now too difficult to cross the border to Calais

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/15/brexit-orient-express-murder-london-folkestone-leg-route-border-delays

#OrientExpress #BrexitIsNotWorking #Brexit #BrexitFail #railways #trains #railroads #passports #border #BrexitLies

Orient Express to axe UK section after 41 years due to #Brexit

When Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional

But Brexit & 21st-century #biometric checks have killed it off

The company that runs today’s Orient Express , has decided to drop the UK leg because it is now too difficult to cross the border to Calais

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/15/brexit-orient-express-murder-london-folkestone-leg-route-border-delays

#OrientExpress #BrexitIsNotWorking #Brexit #BrexitFail #railways #trains #railroads #passports #border #BrexitLies

Orient Express to axe UK section after 41 years due to #Brexit

When Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional

But Brexit & 21st-century #biometric checks have killed it off

The company that runs today’s Orient Express , has decided to drop the UK leg because it is now too difficult to cross the border to Calais

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/15/brexit-orient-express-murder-london-folkestone-leg-route-border-delays

#OrientExpress #BrexitIsNotWorking #Brexit #BrexitFail #railways #trains #railroads #passports #border #BrexitLies

Orient Express to axe UK section after 41 years due to #Brexit

When Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional

But Brexit & 21st-century #biometric checks have killed it off

The company that runs today’s Orient Express , has decided to drop the UK leg because it is now too difficult to cross the border to Calais

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/15/brexit-orient-express-murder-london-folkestone-leg-route-border-delays

#OrientExpress #BrexitIsNotWorking #Brexit #BrexitFail #railways #trains #railroads #passports #border #BrexitLies

Orient Express to axe UK section after 41 years due to #Brexit

When Orient Express began operating in the 19th century, passports were optional

But Brexit & 21st-century #biometric checks have killed it off

The company that runs today’s Orient Express , has decided to drop the UK leg because it is now too difficult to cross the border to Calais

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/apr/15/brexit-orient-express-murder-london-folkestone-leg-route-border-delays

#OrientExpress #BrexitIsNotWorking #Brexit #BrexitFail #railways #trains #railroads #passports #border #BrexitLies