#silencingdissent — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #silencingdissent, aggregated by home.social.
-
#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 -
From 2022: #NSW Police Use #AntProtest Laws to Monitor Tour Groups
by Paul Gregoire & Ugur Nedim,13 Oct 2022
Excerpt: "#SilencingDissent
"Back in 2014, then NSW premier Mike Baird told a NSW mining industry dinner that his government was going to 'crackdown' on those who choose to break the law when they protest. And he singled out '#protesters who unlawfully enter #mining sites.'
"A little over a year later, the Coalition government followed through with the premier’s promise when it passed a series of harsh #AntiProtestLaws, under the Inclosed Lands, Crimes and Law Enforcement Legislation Amendment (Interference) Bill 2016.
"The legislation created the new offence of aggravated unlawful entry on inclosed lands. Section 4B of the #InclosedLand Protection Act 1901 provides that interfering, or attempts to interfere, with the conduct of a business on enclosed land can land a #protester with a fine of up to $5,500.
"Under the provisions of the bill, police were provided with additional powers to stop, search, detain, and seize the property of protesters, as well as being given the power to shutdown a peaceful protest if it is #ObstructingTraffic.
"And the bill also inserted a definition of #mine into section 201 of the #CrimesAct 1900, so that the offence of interfering with a mine includes #coal seam #gas exploration and extraction sites. This offence carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"The #WilpinjongThree
"Bev Smiles, Bruce Hughes and Stephanie Luce are the first people to be up on protesting charges since the laws were changed. In April last year, the three were arrested for protesting outside the #Wilpinjong #CoalMine in #Wollar.
"The three are up on charges of rendering a road belonging to a mine useless and hindering the working equipment belonging to a mine. These are both offences that carry the penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"When the trio appeared at Mudgee Local Court on February 9, the presiding magistrate rejected police claims that the Wollar-Ulan Road, where the defendants were arrested, actually belonged to the mining company.
" 'They have pleaded not guilty, and are awaiting a judgment on the case,' Mr Phillips explained. 'The outcome of that case will be important.” If the three have 'the book thrown at them' then it’s likely to discourage the protesting of coal mines in NSW."
#AustraliaPol #AusPol #CriminalizingProtest #NoMining #CoalMines #UraniumMines #Australia #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #LandBack
-
Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
Since his first inauguration, Trump has been throwing charges at protesters and seeing what sticks. He always failed — until now.
Natasha Lennard, March 17 2026
Excerpt: "It started on President Donald Trump’s very first day in office in 2017. Over 200 #InaugurationDay #protesters were mass arrested and charged with hefty riot and conspiracy felonies for simply being present and wearing black at a rowdy demonstration.
"Since then, the government has sought and failed to convict left-wing activists on thin, unconstitutional claims of collective guilt.
"Just as the J20 prosecutions, as the inauguration cases were known, fell apart, so too did cases accusing dozens of participants in the Atlanta-based #StopCopCity movement of #DomesticTerrorism, #racketeering, and conspiracy.
"It became a pattern of sorts. Prosecutors on both the federal and state level throwing extreme and overreaching charges at leftists, based on infirm theories of collective liability, aiming to paint #antifascist, #AntiRacist movements as criminal terrorist networks. The evidence marshaled in these cases was consistently no more than typical #FirstAmendment-protected activity, like making protest signs, raising bail funds, or being present at a demonstration. The cases drained movement energies and resources.
Again and again, though, they failed."This was the pattern repeated in the malign, overreaching cases against protesters in #FortWorthTX. The #AntiICE activists had mounted a demonstration at a U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement jail in nearby #Alvarado.
There were consistencies with other anti-protest cases. There had been some illegal activity outside the #PrairielandDetentionFacility last July, and a police officer was shot. The government latched onto these circumstances to build its strategy of criminalizing dissent through guilt by association."Even in conservative Texas, I didn’t think a jury would buy the government’s case that these defendants were 'North Texas Antifa Cell operatives' — an organization fabricated whole cloth by the Trump administration — who had orchestrated an elaborate ambush of the ICE facility.
" 'Most people looking at this case are still stuck on the shooting aspect, but the jury decided the shooting was beside the point,' a member of a support group for the defendants told me. 'The verdict is that a normal #NoiseDemo deserves to be called terrorism and people should spend potentially the rest of their lives in prison. The implications of this are obvious, and people should know that the DOJ is going to try this again.' "
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/ice-protester-terrorism-convictions-trump-prairieland/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/uvx92#USPol #DomesticTerrorism #AntiICEProtests #Texas #ResistICE #SilencingDissent #AntiTerrorismLaws
#CriminalizingProtest #Resistance -
#NorthDakota - 'Mask bill' passes Senate
By Dave Thompson
Published April 10, 2025"The state Senate has passed a measure that would prohibit someone from wearing a mask or hood with an intent to hide their identity.
The bill – HB 1226 – applies when people commit crimes or gather in public places during a protest."
Source:
https://news.prairiepublic.org/local-news/2025-04-10/mask-bill-passes-senateFrom #USProtestLawTracker:
North Dakota
HB 1226: New criminal penalties for masked protestersCreates a serious new crime that can cover peaceful protesters who choose to wear a mask. The law makes it a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and $3,000, to wear a mask “with the intent to conceal the identity” of the wearer while “congregating in a public place with other individuals wearing a mask, hood, or other device that covers, hides, or conceals any portion of the individual’s face.” The bill exempts public gatherings to celebrate “Halloween, a masquerade, or other similar celebration,” but does not include exemptions for masks worn during protests, or worn for health, religious, or other reasons. As written, the law can cover a protester wearing a mask to avoid retaliation for their political speech, if there are other individuals in the crowd also wearing a mask—for instance, a medical mask to avoid spreading or contracting a contagious disease.
(See full text of bill here)Status: enacted
Introduced 13 Jan 2025; Approved by House 10 February 2025; Approved by Senate 9 April 2025; Signed by Governor Armstrong 23 April 2025
Issue(s): Face Covering
https://www.icnl.org/usprotestlawtracker/
#AntiProtestLaws #USPol #AntiMaskLaws #ProtestLaws #Project2025 #Authoritarianism #Fascism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingProtest
-
Such violent terrorists... smh!
Photo credit: Zoe MacDonald, Vermont Public
#ResistICE #SilencingDissent
#AntiTerrorismLaws #CriminalizingProtest #Resistance #USPol #VTPol #ACAB -
Will #DomesticTerrorism charges be brought against these #AntiICE #protestors?
#ICE enforcement action leads to #protest, violent clashes in #SouthBurlington, #Vermont
by Derek Brouwer, Liam Elder-Connors, Zoe McDonald, March 12, 2026
"A tense, day-long standoff outside a South Burlington, Vermont house ended Wednesday night with federal immigration agents removing three people inside and a series of violent clashes between police and hundreds of #activists who tried to impede the apprehension.
"It marked the first major confrontation between protesters and federal immigration authorities in Vermont. Federal law enforcement deployed #TearGas and #flashbangs on a normally busy street in the state’s second largest city to disperse the activists who had surrounded their vehicles. Roughly 60 local and state law enforcement officers were also on scene, though the departments sought to distance themselves from ICE’s conduct.
"The incident began when a man fled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who had been surveilling a Dorset Street residence where he was staying.
"According to an ICE affidavit, the subject of the warrant was Deyvi Daniel Corona-Sanchez, a Mexico native who was removed from the United States in 2022, and later illegally reentered the country. In January, Corona-Sanchez was arrested by Middlebury police and charged with drunk driving, the affidavit says.
"Following a multi-vehicle crash, Corona-Sanchez escaped to a house on Dorset Street, authorities said.
"A growing number of protesters and police assembled outside throughout the day as immigration authorities waited for a criminal warrant to enter and arrest him.
"A neighbor, Richard Landsman, said an Ecuadoran family with two children had lived in the house for roughly a year. At one point in the afternoon, people helped a child leave the house; they were driven away.
"When the warrant came through after roughly nine hours, federal agents approached the front door with #TacticalGear and weapons drawn. They were supported by #VermontStatePolice troopers.
"Police wrenched away protesters blocking the front entrance and ICE agents broke down the door. Federal agents removed three people from inside, forcing them into an unmarked car. They attempted to drive off, but protesters linked arms and blocked the street. Confrontations ensued, and the agents eventually managed to drive off by running over a median and exiting via a driveway."
#ResistICE #SilencingDissent #AntiTerrorismLaws #CriminalizingProtest #Resistance #USPol #VTPol #ACAB
-
#Google Fulfilled #ICE Subpoena Demanding #StudentJournalist’s #Bank and #CreditCard Numbers
#AmandlaThomasJohnson didn’t know how much information ICE requested in a subpoena until months later. Google never gave him a chance to fight it.
Jessica Washington. February 10 2026
Excerpt: "Amandla Thomas-Johnson had attended a protest targeting companies that supplied weapons to Israel at a #CornellUniversity job fair in 2024 for all of five minutes, but the action got him banned from campus. When President Donald Trump assumed office and issued a series of executive orders targeting students who protested in support of #Palestinians, Thomas-Johnson and his friend Momodou Taal went into hiding."Google informed Thomas-Johnson via a brief email in April that it had already shared his metadata with the Department of Homeland Security, as The Intercept previously reported. But the full extent of the information the agency sought — including usernames, addresses, itemized list of services, including any IP masking services, telephone or instrument numbers, subscriber numbers or identities, and credit card and bank account numbers — was not previously known.
" 'I’d already seen the subpoena request that Google and Meta had sent to Momodou [Taal], and I knew that he had gotten in touch with a lawyer and the lawyer successfully challenged that,' Thomas-Johnson said. 'I was quite surprised to see that I didn’t have that opportunity.'
"The subpoena provides no justification for why ICE is asking for this information, except that it’s required 'in connection with an investigation or inquiry relating to the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.' In the subpoena, ICE requests that Google not 'disclose the existence of this summons for indefinite period of time.'
Thomas-Johnson, who is British, believes that ICE requested that information to track and eventually detain him — but he had already fled to Geneva, Switzerland, and is now in Dakar, Senegal."The #ElectronicFrontierFoundation, which is representing Thomas-Johnson, and the #ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to Google, #Amazon, #Apple, #Discord, #Meta, #Microsoft, and #Reddit last week calling on tech companies to resist similar subpoenas in the future from #DHS without court intervention. The letter asks the companies to provide users with as much notice as possible before complying with a subpoena to give them the opportunity to fight it, and to resist gag orders that would prevent the #TechCompanies from informing targets that a subpoena was issued.
" 'Your promises to protect the privacy of users are being tested right now. As part of the federal government’s unprecedented campaign to target critics of its conduct and policies, agencies like DHS have repeatedly demanded access to the identities and information of people on your services,' the letter reads.
" 'Based on our own contact with targeted users, we are deeply concerned your companies are failing to challenge unlawful surveillance and defend user privacy and speech.' "
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/02/10/google-ice-subpoena-student-journalist/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/zEa6d
#ResistICE #ResistFascism #USPol #Authoritarianism #Fascism #ICEOut #DefundICE #Orwellian #BigBrother #NineteenEightyFour #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #SilencingDissent #SilencingFreeSpeech #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
🚨 The #GhostFlights: #Deportation Flights #Disappearing Thousands Arrested by #ICE
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Feb. 6, 2026
"We've been tracking the Ghost Flights, disappearing migrants, moms, asylum seekers, and others arrested in Minneapolis, who are quickly grabbed and taken away at a private terminal at Minneapolis international airport.
"The charter airlines are making it harder to track them, but here's what we found: #GlobalX, #Eastern and #Omni based in #TulsaOK, have operated most of these, with Sun Country also operating some of the flights.
"These secretive flights take those arrested to deportation hubs in isolated areas, where they are sent to prison, deported to other countries, or constantly shifted on flights. These secretive hubs are in #DadeCollier in the Florida Everglades; Alexandria in central Louisiana; and Harlingen on the Texas border.
"Those arrested are boarded shackled in chains from their wrists to their feet, and often denied water and food, and abused. While these secretive flights disappear people, their families desperately search for them.
"The flights out of #MesaAZ in the #Phoenix area are deporting hundreds on each flight to #Venezuela. A recent flight out of Mesa deported those arrested to #Russia and #Iran. The past flights show the men were immediately given #Draft notices for military service when they arrived in Russia. Protesters and political #AsylumSeekers face worse.
"As for the chartered airlines, the main contract is held by #CSI in #AlbuquerqueNM, who contracts out the other airlines.
"Yesterday, a Ghost Flight landed in #Guantanamo and then #Haiti. These are #moms, #workers, asylum seekers, #LegalResidents, and most are whisked away and denied due process. More than 2,000 have been deported from #Minneapolis.
"Other major hubs for deportation flights are #ElPaso, #Miami, #SanAntonio, and #TacomaWA. The deportation flights are arriving in every region of the world, the Americas, Asia, and Africa." 😱
Read more (includes flight maps):
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-ghost-flights-deportation-flights.html#ReaderSupportedNews #DefundICE #StopTheDeportations #DefundDHS #BorderPatrol #MurderPatrol #ICESucks #KristiNoemSucks #USPol #SilencingDissent #Disappeared #Orwellian
-
#PrivatePrison Companies Set to Make Billions Reopening #Jails for #ICE
“There’s a private interest behind the #detention and the incarceration of our community,” said an #activist #protesting the facilities.
by Sophie Hurwitz, March 6, 2025
Excerpt: "Late Wednesday afternoon, private prison company CoreCivic announced it would be reopening a notorious family detention center in South Texas, under an amended contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The facility, first built in 2014, will house up to 2,400 people, including children. It had been shut down last year to save costs, after years of reports suggesting poor treatment, including a report of one toddler who died due to a lack of medical care.
"The reopening is part of a trend. CoreCivic isn’t the only company bringing back facilities. We are at the beginning of what looks like a private prison boom, as the groups profit off President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. They are set to make billions. As the Washington Post reported, the GEO Group and CoreCivic stand to benefit in particular from #Trump’s immigration plans—the companies hold at least 16 vacant facilities that can be reopened within months for mass detention and deportation.
"The GEO Group announced in late February that it would be reopening #DelaneyHall in #NewarkNJ, as a “massive” immigration detention center with 1,000 beds. In California, ICE is considering repurposing and reopening the women’s prison #FCIDublin, closed last year due to mass #SexualAbuse, for #ImmigrantDetention. In Baldwin, Michigan, ICE and the GEO Group have expressed interest in reopening #NorthLake Correctional Facility, a former private prison shuttered in 2022. (A Biden administration order directed the Department of Justice to allow contracts with private prison groups to expire.) In #LeavenworthKS, CoreCivic looks likely to partner with ICE to reopen yet another shuttered private prison, documents obtained by the #ACLU revealed.
"As of February 27, ICE held 43,759 detainees, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data-gathering organization. Trump is putting pressure on ICE to increase the number of arrests per day. His administration has already fired one ICE director, ostensibly for not deporting enough people.
"In the communities surrounding these new jails for migrants, activists and politicians are fighting back. In Newark, where the GEO Group stands to make $1.2 billion by reopening Delaney Hall, the immigrant rights organization Make the Road is planning a rally against the jail March 11."
#USPol #TrumpSucks #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBill #PrisonState #SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters #CoreCivic #GEOGroup #ResistICE #Resistance
-
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
-
It's baaaack...! #HR9495
via @fightforthefuture.org
WE NEED CALLS NOW! HR 9495, now known as #Section112209, if passed, would give the #Trump administration unprecedented power in suppressing nonprofits, by allowing the administration the power to strip organizations of their tax exempt status! Call 319-313-7674'We Need Calls Now!' Republicans Slip #Nonprofit Killer Bill Into #TaxPackage
"If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal."
Jake Johnson
May 13, 2025Excerpt: "House Republicans on Monday quietly revived a proposal that would grant the Trump administration broad authority to crush nonprofits it views as part of the political opposition, from environmental justice organizations to news outlets.
"#FightForTheFuture and other advocacy groups called attention to the measure, which was buried in the final pages of the House Ways and Means Committee's draft reconciliation bill, starting on page 380.
"A markup hearing for the legislation is scheduled to take place on Tuesday [5/13] at 2:30 pm ET.
"The proposal would empower the U.S. #TreasuryDepartment to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed material supporters of #terrorism, with only a hollow simulacrum of due process for the accused organizations. It is already illegal for #nonprofits to provide material support for terrorism.
" 'The House is about to hand the Trump administration the ability to strip nonprofits of their 501(c)3 status without any reason or recourse. This is a five-alarm fire for nonprofits nationwide,' said Lia Holland, campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future. 'If the text of last autumn's H.R. 9495 is passed in the budget, any organization with goals that do not line up with #MAGA can be destroyed with a wink from Trump to the Treasury.'
"The measure passed the Republican-controlled House late last year with the support of more than a dozen Democrats, but it never received a vote in the Senate.
" 'This terribly thought-out legislation means that under the current administration, every #environmental, racial justice, #LGBTQ+, #gender #justice, #immigration justice, and—particularly—any anti-#genocide organization throughout the country may be on the chopping block,' said Holland. 'If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal.' "
https://www.commondreams.org/news/nonprofit-killer-bill
#StopHR9495 #HR9495 #SilencingDissent #fascism #USPol #Authoritarianism #AuthoritarianRule
-
#NYU Demands #LawStudents Renounce #Protests or Be Barred from Sitting #FinalExams
By Schuyler Mitchell, May 5, 2025
https://theintercept.com/2025/05/03/nyu-law-students-protests-gaza-palestine-israel/
#SilencingDissent #FreePalestine #FreeSpeech #NYUCapitulates #TrumpIsABully #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliWarCrimes
-
#Australia: Proposed #AntiProtest Laws: Reviewing #Victoria's New Legislation
by lawyer Galbally Parker | Jan 14, 2025
"The proposed anti- protest laws include:
- Banning the flags and symbols of listed terrorist organisations in public, to give Victoria Police more powers and fill in any gaps in Commonwealth anti-Terror legislation. Listed terrorist organisations include #Hamas, Hezbollah and several other groups, including white nationalist and racist violent extremist (NRVE) right-wing groups.
- Banning the use of #FaceMasks at protests, which are being used to conceal identities and shield agitators from crowd-control measures like #capsicum spray. A mask ban in public demonstrations will focus on prohibiting the wearing of face coverings at protests and providing police with the power to require their removal. Exemptions would apply for legitimate health, religious or cultural reasons.
- Banning the use of glue, rope, chains, locks and other dangerous attachment devices that protestors use to cause maximum disruption and endanger others
- Introducing prohibited zones for protest (i.e., where places of worship are situated)The proposed anti-protest laws, if legislated, will give police extensive enforcement powers."
Read more:
https://galballyparker.com.au/proposed-anti-protest-laws-a-review-of-victorias-new-legislation/#ACAB #RightToProtest #AntiMaskLaws #PepperSpray #SilencingDissent #AustraliaAntiProtestLaws
-
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 -
#ICE Got Warrants Under “#FalsePretenses,” Claims #ColumbiaStudent Targeted Over #GazaProtests
The law behind the warrants bars concealment of people in the country illegally, yet the students were legal residents living on campus.
by Shawn Musgrave, March 28 2025
"Earlier this month, while hunting for #ColumbiaUniversity students to deport over their ties to #Gaza protests, the #Trump administration convinced a federal judge to sign off on search warrants for two students’ dorm rooms — then raided the residences with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
"As details about the warrants have emerged, however, so have allegations that federal agents misled the court and secured the warrants under 'false pretenses,' as one of the students whose room was searched, #YunseoChung, claimed in a lawsuit challenging her deportation.
"The warrants were predicated on probable cause that Columbia was 'harboring' students who were in the country illegally, court filings indicate. Chung, however, is a lawful permanent resident, notwithstanding the Trump administration’s efforts to deport her based on her arrest and citation at a Gaza sit-in. She has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old.
"'The basis for this entire operation is constitutionally invalid.'
"'The idea that they went before a federal magistrate judge and said, ‘We have to search Ms. Chung’s residence for evidence of Columbia harboring her’ — that shows they’re willing to lie to a judge,' said Nathan Yaffe, an immigration attorney.
"Yaffe represents both Chung and the other Columbia student who was targeted by the search warrants, #RanjaniSrinivasan, who left the country in mid-March.
"Most of the materials relating to the search warrants remain under seal in federal court, and Columbia declined to comment on them, citing student privacy protections. ICE did not respond to The Intercept’s questions about the warrants.
"'If the government falsified information to get the warrant, that is its own bundle of serious problems,' said Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, an attorney at #HumanRightsFirst who also represents Chung. 'But even if not, the basis for this entire operation is constitutionally invalid.'"
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/28/ice-warrants-columbia-students-gaza-protests/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/ruFDs
#MahmoudKhalil #RumeysaOzturk, #YunseoChung, #BadarKhunSuri #MomodouTaal #ResistICE #Fascism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Project2025 #ProjectEsther #USPol #Authoritarianism #TurdReich #CharacteristicsOfFascism -
The War on #Masks Has Taken on a New Meaning
This time, the masks have nothing to do with #COVID19.
By Henry Grabar
Feb 05, 20254:57 PM"Last month, state legislators in New York introduced a bill that would create a new crime: 'masked harassment.'
"That, the law explains, is when you wear a mask 'for the primary purpose of menacing or threatening violence against another person' or 'placing another person or group of persons in reasonable fear for their physical safety.'
"If that seems like a bit of a niche offense—threatening violence is already a crime, after all—it’s because the language has been watered down to attract political support. It’s a sign of New York Democrats’ cautious new approach over masks in public life, and a retreat from last spring, when anti-Israel protests, on top of a widespread urban crime panic, pushed leaders from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to consider mask bans.
"In its original form, the New York bill would have banned masks at public assemblies entirely. But the outcry from #DisabilityRights advocates, #CriminalJustice reformers, #HealthCareWorkers, and #CivilLiberties groups was swift, and so New York wound up with this bill on 'masked harassment' instead.
"Elsewhere, the pandemic-era leniency on masking in public is over. #NorthCarolina Republicans overrode a gubernatorial veto last summer to once again #BanPublicFaceCoverings, except to stop the spread of contagious diseases. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost dusted off an old law to threaten #StudentProtesters with #felonies. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has asked the state’s Senate to consider a bill to #unmask #protesters this year.
"For Republicans, it’s a chance to kill two birds with one stone. They can strike back against the perceived overreach of pandemic-era #HealthDirectives and make it easier to arrest #demonstrators at the same time.
"In #Ohio and North Carolina, the original statutes were written in the 1950s to stop demonstrations by the #KuKluxKlan, but had been ignored or suspended during the #pandemic and the #GeorgeFloydProtests. Many lawmakers have cited the recent demonstrations in defense of #Gaza as a reason to crack down again. Defending the proposed mask ban in New York, Anti-Defamation League [#ADL] president Jonathan Greenblatt said the demonstrators were using '#KKK tactics' to intimidate Jewish New Yorkers.
"That instinct was bolstered by the sense among many city residents and elected leaders that widespread masking was a factor behind the pandemic-era crime spike. That led to #Philadelphia banning #SkiMasks in parks, on trains, and in public buildings. A more recent, high-profile example came in December with the Midtown Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO #BrianThompson by a #MaskedAssassin, which prompted New York Mayor Eric Adams to call for cab drivers and business owners to ask customers to remove their masks. The new New York bill has won over the liberal Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who endorsed the 'tailored' approach. As the police say: #NoFaceNoCase.
"For what it’s worth, there are too many confounding variables and too little data to be sure if mask-wearing is associated with crime, said Ernesto Lopez at the Council for Criminal Justice, which collects crime reporting statistics from various cities. 'From a theoretical statement it makes sense that could occur, but it has not been demonstrated that’s the case,' he told me.
"But if all that weighed in favor of more mask bans, there was also widespread resistance. Disability advocates mobilized to defend the right to mask; North Carolina had to write a medical exemption into their bill at the insistence of a GOP House member. #PoliceReformers observed that #MaskBans have often been used for pretextual #policing and racial profiling against #BlackAmericans. (#AtlantaGeorgia tabled a mask ban for that reason.)
"What looms largest, as the second Trump administration begins, is the role of protest. As Semafor’s Dave Weigel has noted, masks have become a badge of left-wing protest culture. That’s in part an extension of politicized COVID-era concerns about health and civility, but at this point it is mostly a tactic to preserve anonymity in an era of #FacialRecognition, streaming video, and #doxing. Last year, the anonymous #ProIsrael website the #CanaryMission posted photographs of hundreds of students and faculty at campus protests and posted their names and photos online, labeling some as supporters of terrorism.
"'The concern takes on new urgency as Donald Trump pledges to revoke the visas of pro-Palestine protesters, and the Trump-Musk GOP embraces the naming and shaming of otherwise private citizens. A conservative group called the American Accountability Foundation has begun circulating lists of federal workers, many of them Black, who should be
'targets' for their alleged involvement in #DEI initiatives at work."Clearly, the masked protest does not always sit well with an older generation, many of whom cut their teeth in the protests of the pre-internet age. As Georgetown professor Michael Kazin told the New York Times last year: 'I do think if you are going to demonstrate, and it’s something you feel deeply about, you should be willing to stand up and be counted.'"
Source:
https://slate.com/business/2025/02/mask-bans-new-york-los-angeles-crime-protests-criminalize-face-coverings.html?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
#Fascism #AuthoritarianRule #BigBrother #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #SurveillanceState #SilencingDissent -
#UmbertoEco’s List of the 14 Common Features of #Fascism
in History, Literature, Politics | November 1st, 2024
"While Eco is firm in claiming “There was only one Nazism,” he says, “the fascist game can be played in many forms, and the name of the game does not change.” Eco reduces the qualities of what he calls “Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism” down to 14 “typical” features. “These features,” writes the novelist and semiotician, “cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.”
1. The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
2. The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
3. The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
4. Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
5. Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.”
6. Appeal to social frustration. “One of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.”
7. The obsession with a plot. “Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged.”
8. The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”
9. Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”
10. Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
11. Everybody is educated to become a hero. “In Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”
12. Machismo and weaponry. “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”
13. Selective populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.”
14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html
#DoublePlusUngood #Authoritarianism #Project2025 #TechnoFacism #January6 #CharacteristicsOfFascism #MAGA #ChristoFascism #ChristianCoalition
#ChristianNationalism
#AntiGBLTQLegislation #PressFreedom #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #StopHR9495 -
Alrighty then. I just sent #SenatorAngusKing a follow-up email where I pointed out that the one who will be determining who is a "terrorist" is the Secretary of the Treasury, and that Trump's pick for that (#ScottBessett) is beholden to the #HeritageFoundation and would be pursuing a #Project2025 / #ProjectEsther agenda. We'll see what he says. (Susan Collins just ignored me. What else is new.)
#StopHR9495 #StopS4136 #HR9495 #SilencingDissent #fascism -
So, when even "moderates" like Angus King and [useless] Susan Collins are going to give #HeritageFoundation darling #ScottBessett the right to determine who is a "terrorist" organization, you know we're fucked. Bessett is going to follow the #Project2025 agenda, including #ProjectEsther. I am really, really worried about this slippery slide into full-on #Fascism. And don't forget -- some Democrats voted for #HR9495. We don't need this fascist groove thang! TAKE TO THE STREETS!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q49BjlSOCGE
#StopHR9495 #SilencingDissent #FascistGrooveThang -
Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of vague wording and potential for abuse in #S4136. It all depends on who the Secretary of the Treasury is. In this case, #HeritageFoundation darling #ScottBessett. That can't be good...
"(B) TERRORIST SUPPORTING ORGANIZATION.—For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘terrorist supporting organization’ means any organization which is designated by the Secretary as having provided, during the 3-year period ending on the date of such designation, material support or resources (within the meaning of section 2339B of title 18, United States Code) to an organization described in paragraph (2) (determined after the application of this paragraph to such organization) in excess of a de minimis amount."
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/4136/text
-
Democrats Must Do Everything They Can to Block the Dangerous #NonProfit Bill -- #HR9495
The House passed a bill aimed at giving the government sweeping powers to crush non-profits and attack supporters of #Palestine. Democrats need to stand firmly in its way.
Opinion by Darryl Li
November 23, 2024"While President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t return to office until January 20, Congress is already advancing the most sweeping and dangerous terrorism legislation in a generation, which would give him the power to shut down legitimate civil society groups doing important charitable, community organizing, human rights, and humanitarian work.
"Earlier this week, the House passed HR 9495, an amendment to the tax code that would empower the Treasury Department to unilaterally brand non-profit groups as 'terrorist supporting organizations' and suspend their charitable tax exemption, without giving the groups any due process or access to the evidence against them. The resulting stigma of such a designation would almost certainly be enough to scare off banks, likely depriving these groups of the ability to function altogether.
"The drive to kill non-profits is dangerous no matter who is president, and, in the past few weeks, most House Democrats appear to have woken up to the risks of the legislation. 52 Democrats voted to support the bill as recently as last week, but by the time a subsequent vote came around on Thursday, only 15 voted in favor. But that was still enough to give Republicans the votes they needed to pass the bill. Going forward, the demand from everyone watching this process should be clear: even one Democratic vote is one too many, and Senate Democrats should promise that they will not support the legislation.
"It’s not hard to see the reason behind this sudden attack on non-profits. The bill’s sponsors have made no secret of their desire to smear certain non-profits as instigators of campus protests against Israel as working at the behest of Hamas – a claim for which there is no evidence. Israel’s supporters in Congress and elsewhere have been equally clear about their agenda to crush Palestine human rights advocacy in the United States. Just last month, the Heritage Foundation unveiled 'Project Esther,' a policy blueprint to attack supporters of Palestinian rights in the higher education and profit sectors – essentially an anti-Palestinian Project 2025.
"But the dangers extend far beyond any one issue. Two Republican House committee chairs earlier this year sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding information on 20 groups, from Students for Justice in Palestine (which isn’t even a registered non-profit) to liberal behemoths like the Open Society Foundations and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation."
#StopHR9495 #SilencingDissent #ProjectEsther #Project2025 #Fascism #Authoritarianism #FreePalestine #CeasefireNow #HeritageFoundation #Trump #StudentsForJusticeInPalestine #CivilSociety #HumanRights
-
HT @gwaldby
#HR9495, the so-called “Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act” would allow the U.S. treasury secretary to unilaterally strip any organization determined to be “terrorism-supporting” of its non-profit status.
Tell your U.S. senators that it’s unacceptable to give the executive branch unchecked power to kill social justice organizations protecting constitutional and human rights.
https://action.lakotalaw.org/action/protect-justice-nonprofits
#StopHR9495 #LakotaLawProject #SilencingDissent #WaterProtectors #StandWithStandingRock #CorporateColonialism #Fascism #LakotaPeoplesLawProject #LandBack #NoDAPL #NoMiningWithoutConsent
-
House Approves “#NonprofitKiller” Bill [#HR9495], Most Dangerous Domestic #AntiTerrorism Bill Since #PatriotAct
#DemocracyNow, November 22, 2024
"The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would empower the Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems has provided material support to a terrorist organization. A broad coalition of civil society groups have opposed the bill, warning that it would give the Trump administration sweeping powers to crack down on political opponents. H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, passed the House 219 to 184 largely along party lines, with 15 Democrats supporting the Republican majority.
"'This bill is essentially a civil rights disaster,' says Darryl Li, an anthropologist, lawyer and legal scholar teaching at the University of Chicago. Li, who recently wrote a briefing paper on the anti-Palestinian origins of U.S. terrorism law, says 'anti-Palestinian racism is one of the great bipartisan unifiers in Congress.'"
Read more / watch / listen:
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/22/nonprofit_bill#StopHR9495 #CivilRights #SilencingDissent #ViewerSupportedNews
-
🚨 UPDATE 🚨 Thursday (11/21) is the day! Keep those emails and calls coming! #StopHR9495
"On Monday, the House Rules Committee passed it. Republicans voted for it, Democrats voted against, but Republicans are in charge and dominate the committee, so it passed. It now goes to the House floor, where it will need just a simple majority to pass. That vote is expected Thursday."
-
#HouseGOP Working to Push Through Bill That Would Let #Trump Shut Down #Nonprofits
#DemocracyNow, November 18, 2024
"On Capitol Hill, House #Republicans [and some #Democrats] are attempting once again to ram through #HR9495, a bill that would allow Trump and future presidents to effectively shut down nonprofits by labeling them a '#terrorist-supporting organization.' The measure could target #HumanitarianAid groups, #news outlets, #schools and countless #CivilSociety organizations. #Congress failed to fast-track the bill last week, falling short of a required two-thirds majority despite dozens of Democrats voting in favor along with Republicans. But the next vote, which could happen this week, would likely only require a simple majority.
"A coalition of groups said in a statement, 'This bill was designed to #criminalize organizations and #activists who oppose the U.S.'s unconditional support of #Israel's #genocide of #Palestinians and the slaughter of #LebaneseCivilians.' Signatories to the statement included the Council on American-Islamic Relations and #AmericanMuslimsForPalestine. #Oxfam criticized the bill, saying Trump could use it to silence and censor critics, curb free speech and target political opponents."
#StopHR9495 #USCongress #CrimininalizingDissent #FirstAmendment #WaterProtectors #Protestors #Activists #FreedomOfExpression #PressFreedom #USPolitics #SilencingDissent #FreePalestine #StudentProtestors #FreeSpeech #Clampdown #StopHR9495
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism
#Authoritarianism #ProjectEsther #Project2025 #NDAA #Authoritarianism -
Tell your Representative to Vote NO on #HR9495 to Stop Trump From Attacking #Dissenting Organizations
"Despite the fact that it was already defeated in a floor vote, Republicans in the House have a second chance to pass a bill that would give the incoming #Trump administration unchecked power to shut down any #NonProfit organization that stands in the way of his MAGA agenda.
"Under this legislation, Trump’s Treasury Department could indiscriminately label any non-profit organization – think tanks, #HumanRights groups, #CivilLiberties orgs, #universities, #StudentGroups, even Indivisible Civics – a 'terrorist supporting organization' and strip it of its tax-exempt status. This bill requires no oversight. No due-process. No justification. Trump could use it to shut down any and all #dissent against him.
"This bill is a litmus test for #Democrats as we prepare for the incoming Trump administration: are Democrats going to make it easier for Trump to pursue his #authoritarian agenda or are they going to fight back?
"And we’ll need more Democrats on our side for this second vote – unlike the first, failed vote, which required a 2/3s majority to pass under a suspension of the rules, this vote will require only a simple majority to pass. And 52 Democrats inexplicably voted for this bill last time - that’s not acceptable. (See how your MoC voted at the link below)
"This time, we need all Democrats in the House to vote NO on H.R. 9495 and send a clear message to Trump that they will not just give in to his power grabs. If this bill passes with bipartisan support, there’s a real risk it gets folded into the annual #Defense [#NDAA] bill, which would put it on a glide path through the Senate. We can’t let that happen."
See how your representative voted:
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024458#StopHR9495 #USPolitics #SilencingDissent #FreePalestine
#StudentProtestors #FreeSpeech
#Clampdown #StopHR9495
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism
#Authoritarianism #ProjectEsther #Project2025 -
The Plan to Silence Dissent
Building off a bipartisan push to punish pro-#Palestine protesters, #Trump has a broad crackdown ready to implement—including deportations.by Sophie Hurwitz
November 15, 2024"Donald Trump has made it clear that there are groups he’d like to punish.
"Much attention has been paid to the president-elect’s planned crusades for his next term against #immigrants and #transgender people. But less discussed has been another group on the list: #protesters. Building off the bipartisan crackdown on #AntiWar student dissent last year, Trump has made clear he hopes to discipline, and potentially prosecute, #CivilDisobedience with increased force.
"In May, he promised a group of donors that 'any student that protests, I [will] throw them out of the country.' Trump hoped this would serve as a warning. 'You know, there are a lot of foreign students,” he continued. “As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.”
"This is more than just bluster. Reuters reported that sources said Trump hopes to follow through on the promise on day one of his administration, by signing an executive order prioritizing deporting 'international students who support Palestinian militant group Hamas and have violated the terms of their student visas.'
"In Trump’s first term, 'his instincts were to bring as much federal power as he could to bear on essentially peaceful protests,' Jamie Kalven, founder of Chicago’s Invisible Institute and a journalist who has studied First Amendment law for decades, told me. This time, there will be fewer guardrails. 'It was complicated enough before Trump was elected. Now you’re going to have various #demagogues in Congress and the Trump administration actually bearing down in various ways on universities and on university students, seeing it as the bastion of the #EnemyWithin.'
"Given how it’s been under #Biden, it unfortunately normalizes what Trump is then allowed to do.
"Many of the plans for targeting protesters are taken from tactics employed by Democrats in recent years. For years, #PalestinianRights activists in the US—and Palestinians in the US, whether activists or not—have often been smeared as terrorists and threatened with deportation and imprisonment. In 2023, a wave of protest was met with a #crackdown. The Department of Education pressured schools to stop pro-Palestine student organizing, as Mother Jones reported in September. Dozens of universities across the nation instituted strict new disciplinary codes prohibiting many forms of public assembly. Over 3,600 protesters were arrested."
#SilencingDissent #FreePalestine #StudentProtestors #FreeSpeech #Clampdown #HR9495 #StopHR9495 #CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism #Authoritanism #ProjectEsther #Project2025
-
Japan asks Denmark to extradite anti-whaling activist #PaulWatson
Denmark announced Thursday that it has received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant. Watson, the 73-year-old founder of #SeaShepherd, is facing charges related to a 2010 confrontation with Japanese #whaling ships, raising concerns over his potential extradition and the motivations behind Japan's request.
Issued on: 01/08/2024
"#Denmark's justice ministry said Thursday that it had received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in #Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.
"Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over a 2010 altercation with Japanese whaling ships.
"Watson, who featured in the reality TV series '#WhaleWars', founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (#CPWF), and is known for #DirectAction tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
"'The Ministry of Justice received a formal extradition request regarding Paul Watson from the Japanese authorities yesterday,' the ministry told AFP in an email."
[...]
"'#Japan has a personal vendetta against #PaulWatson, and this so-called offence is the pretext for revenge against a man who defied and therefore humiliated them,' [Francois Zimeray] told AFP.
"He said an extradition to Japan would be a violation of the European Convention on #HumanRights, since 'the country does not respect international standards on fair trials and prisons.'"
#Greenpeace #Ecocide #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest
#CriminalizingDissent
#BiodiversityNecessityDefense
#EarthDefenders #Fascism
#CivilDisobedience #Activism #ClimateActivists #HumanRights #SilencingDissent #Corporatocracy #Article20 #HumanRightsViolations #DefendNature #Japon #SaveOurSeas #FreePaulWatson -
"Militant groups like Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil are using criminal tactics to create mayhem and hold the public and workers to ransom without fear of consequence," Lord Walney said.
Um, #BigCorporations, especially #BigOilAndGas, have been holding THE PLANET and ALL LIFE FORMS to ransom without consequence! Why doesn't the UK (and all the other countries) criminalize ECOCIDE?!!
'Extreme' protest groups face ban under proposal
Harry Farley
May 11, 2024"#Protest groups such as #JustStopOil and #PalestineAction could be banned in a similar way to #terrorist organisations, under a proposal from the government’s adviser on political violence.
"An upcoming report from Lord Walney, which BBC News has seen extracts of, will recommend a new category for proscribing '#ExtremeProtestGroups'.
"It defines these as those which routinely use criminal tactics to try to achieve their aims.
"The sanctions could restrict a group's ability to #fundraise and its #RightToAssembly in the #UK.
"The Home Office said ministers would consider the recommendations."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2qv7425gvwo#FreeSpeech #RightToProtest #CriminalizingDissent #SLAPPs #Fascism
#SLAPPs #CivilDisobedience #Activism #ClimateStrike #FreePalestine #ClimateActivists #HumanRights #SilencingDissent #Corporatocracy #EarthDefenders #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct