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pocketsizedquasar · 4 months

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i want every single white piece of shit on that post calling people fascists or misguided or privileged or stupid for not voting for biden to look a palestinian person whose entire family got killed by biden in the eyes and tell them you think they should vote for biden. tell them you think they're privileged for not voting for biden. look them in the eyes and condescend to them about how much danger they clearly don’t know they’re in.

don't actually do that. don't actually ever speak to a fucking brown person lmao. eat shit actually.

i want every single one of you genocidal freaks to think for two seconds about why you think it's acceptable to tell brown people to vote for the man committing genocide on their fucking families. to tell disabled people to vote for the man committing eugenics based genocide on them at home via covid. (you do realize the largest amount of covid protection rollbacks occurred during biden's presidency right? you do realize a thousand people a week are CURRENTLY dying from covid?)

using the threat of our rights being taken away as a cudgel against Black and Brown and disabled ppl as if the biden admin hasn’t overseen more covid deaths than the trump admin, massive attacks on immigration rights (including the recent immigration proposal increasing mandatory detention and allowing mass deportations), massive attacks on reproductive rights (they knew abt roe v wade for WEEKS. we can bypass congress for genocide & for worsening immigration rights but we can't do anything about abortion?), as if we aren't looking at the current highest levels of homelessness since 2007. and all of that on top of the fact that joe shitstain biden is LITERALLY COMMITTING GENOCIDE.

the audacity. the absolute audacity. of this white bitch going ""vote for them: the most marginalized, the most vulnerable"" BIDEN IS KILLING "THEM." BIDEN IS KILLING US. How dare you speak for us? biden's complete rollback of covid protections have killed more people than trump. biden's admin has utterly abandoned disabled people to die. he is committing a eugenicist genocide against all disabled and immunocompromised people. he is committing a genocide against palestinians. the audacity to call those people "privileged" for refusing to enable THEIR OWN GENOCIDES.

"boohoo we have no choice but to vote for the genocidal fascist or else there'll be fascism!!!" you dumb fuckers we are already living in a fascist state. you don't care about stopping fascism. you don't care about stopping genocide. you care about fascism and genocide not hurting you. if spineless liberals and dems want so badly to beat trump they should put forward a candidate who hasn’t alienated the voter base that let them win the last time, not the candidate that barely won four years ago before reneging on his promises (student loans, environmentalism, etc), killing half a million people from covid, and killing 20,000+ more via colonial genocide.

to every dumbass in those notes going “uwu he isn’t perfect uwu he isn’t my first choice uwu we can't let ~disagreements~ get in the way uwu voting is like public transport <3 voting is like a group project”: ten thousand children are dead. ten thousand children are dead. ten thousand children are dead. biden killed ten thousand children. what the fuck is wrong with you.

i hope you all rot.

#quasartalks #us politics #politics #joe biden #palestine #israel #covid #covid19 #genocide #ableism #racism #jesus fucking christ this is infuriating. this is so fucking infuriating.#the sheer condescension and audacity of these white pieces of shit #i hope every single one of them is haunted for the rest of their lives by Every Single Person who died of covid during the past 4 years #by every single child that Biden and Israel murdered during the past 2 months #i have scarcely been this fucking furious in my life.#i hope you all rot.#i made this post like two days ago and then left it in my drafts for a bit but yeah i’m still just as furious lmao #how dare you tell a people being genocided to support the man doing it #this is rebloggable for now but if people clown i’m throwing hands

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odinsblog · 1 month

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Donald Trump took the stage in Greensboro, N.C. last Saturday calling for rounding up millions of Latinos across America and putting them in mass detention camps as part of “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” Unfortunately, this kind of rhetoric has become so common among the MAGA Republican playlist that it’s tempting to see it as a joke. But that wasn’t just somebody’s racist grandfather running off at the mouth or a standup comedian with bad taste playing to the crowd. My parents and grandparents would have called it a dog whistle, but my generation should know it’s a bullhorn. But whatever you call it, it was calculated, drafted, tested and approved as part of the far-right Project 2025 plan to turn back the clock on civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights and democracy itself. It was the white Christian nationalist agenda on full public display in all its un-American glory and we can’t afford to take it lightly.

Now, if you haven’t heard about Project 2025, don’t feel bad. Most people haven’t. Founded in 2022 by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, it’s an organization led by Trump insiders preparing for one nation under Trump if the twice impeached and four times indicted former president wins the November election and to call them dangerous is an understatement.

What do you think about overhauling federal law enforcement so that the Department of Justice and the FBI, designed to be independent and insulated from political influence, were controlled directly by a newly elected and emboldened President Trump so he could protect his minions from investigation, arrest and prosecution no matter how many laws they broke? Project 2025 loves the idea.

Want to bypass the Senate confirmation process and stop notifying Congress when we sell weapons to foreign governments? Project 2025 does. What about terminating every diversity, equity and inclusion program in the federal government? Project 2025 says right on. What do you think about invoking martial law, using the military as local law enforcement and locking up Trump opponents? Project 2025 calls that progress.

But how do they plan on doing all this? After all, the federal government is more than just one person in the Oval Office. Trump already learned that lesson when federal employees and even some of his own appointees refused to break the law just because he said so.

But Project 2025 has a solution to that roadblock. They call it Schedule F and it’s a plan to fire as many as 50,000 federal employees and replace them with dyed-in-the-wool MAGA fanatics who swear their loyalty not to America or the Constitution but to Donald J. Trump. They’re not even trying to keep it a secret. But why would they?

You see, Project 2025 isn’t confused about who they are. They’re the MAGA Manifesto committed to the unapologetic vision of right-wing nationalism and they don’t care who knows it. Let’s be honest, these guys are attacking President Biden for pushing “racial equity in every area of our national life, including in employment.” Is that supposed to be a bad thing? Are we supposed to think our president should not be fighting for equality and justice?

That’s what Project 2025 says. But that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, they don’t think folks who look like me are real Americans. Neither does Trump.

But they’re not clowns. They’re highly trained, well-funded political operatives dedicated to winning in November and remaking America in their white nationalist image. They’ve spent the past two years putting together a plan to do just that setting the highest stakes imaginable for this election.

(continue reading)

#politics #donald trump #republicans #fair housing act #project 2025 #schedule f #white supremacy #christian nationalism #heritage foundation #a second trump administration will be very very bad #maga manifesto

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whorejolras · 1 month

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this has been sitting in my drafts for months and i'm finally posting it.

it's adding on from this post about Fantine and sex work in les mis. this post ended up being long and more about sex work than Fantine but it does come around i swear.

the way we discuss Fantine is very important, but why?

the way that we talk about Fantine and sex work in les mis - on tumblr, with our friends, in the brick club chat, in articles and in scholarly analysis - directly correlates with the way we treat modern day sex workers and the struggles we face today. notably, the fight for decriminalisation.

i'd argue that Fantine is the most famous of the "dead sex worker" trope. i'd argue she's one of the most famous fictional sex workers. she was just name dropped in the new mean girls movie. everyone knows the story of Fantine the "Miserable Dead Prostitute".

to many people, the book or musical is their first and often only point of reference for sex work, and informs how they treat real life sex workers. many of us interacting in fandom are or will soon be adults with jobs, you could be a childcare worker or a doctor or therapist or any role that makes you a mandatory reporter. and if you hold biases towards sex workers and your patient or the parent of the kid in your class is one, then what.

(you know i had a therapist tell me once that if i had any kids she would "be forced" to report me to the police for "child abuse" on the grounds of my job. that was discrimination and was illegal as i live in one of the four locations in the world with sex work both decriminalised and a protected attribute under discrimination law, but it still happened.)

how people think informs how they vote, and public opinion in turn impacts legislation that actively damages sex workers and puts them in real danger. (criminalisation, the nordic model, "legalisation" also known as licensing, instead of full decriminalisation).

here is a resource put together by NSWP, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects that covers terminology and legal frameworks. I recommend giving the whole thing a read, but if you just want to learn about the difference between the different legal models I'm talking about read from pages 12-14.

full decriminalisation is the safest best practice option for all sex workers. not the nordic model, not select legalisation, full decriminalisation for all workers including those who aren't "legal" citizens.

bringing this back to Fantine. when i search analysis of sex work/"prostitution" in les mis, this is the shit i find.

link 1 | link 2

i don't even know where to start on rebranding "oldest profession" to "oldest form of oppression" and "trafficked and forced into the industry" - the trafficking conflation is a common one. the majority of labour trafficking occurs in industries completely unrelated to sex work, with sex trafficking numbers being grossly overestimated. there are no true numbers because under criminalisation victim/survivors of sex trafficking can't safely seek help for fear of being criminalised. decriminalisation helps everyone.

I will also say that the trafficking narrative is a racist xenophobic one used to target migrant workers, making them more vulnerable to higher rates of police violence, detention and deportation. if you want to get deeper into this I recommend reading Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers.

yet here we see the idea that most of (if not all) sex workers are trafficked or forced, a narrative that removes the agency of sex workers and obscures the reality of labour trafficking. in short, lies which serve to sensationalise and erase real lived experiences, provide publicly-sanctioned excuses for the heavy policing of marginalised communities, and helping no one.

i will quickly say here that you'll never meet anyone who fights as hard for sex trafficking survivors than sex workers and sex worker peer led organisations.

and in the second example, you see how even though they're saying sex work, (so they listened enough to know not to say "prostitute" anymore), but they're still sharing anti-sw beliefs like "selling the body/selling yourself", violent phrasing that denies us not only agency but connection to our bodies, autonomy, and consent.

this is something i'll talk about a lot more in the chapter analysis that i'll get around to finishing and posting one day: but fantine doesn't sell her body to sex work any more than she sells it to the textile factory. how is one form of physical labour "selling your body/yourself" and another isn't? at the end of the day, she still owns her body, just like when i leave a booking i still own my body, just like when i clocked out of my past civilian jobs i still owned my body. we sell labour, we sell services. not ourselves.

noting here that even when discussing exploitation and trafficking, phrasing it as "selling your body" is also gross, still removes the survivors agency and connection to their body, and shows that you're not really a safe ally to survivors at all.

these ideas, that i pulled from the first paragraphs of two of the first analyses of fantine i stumbled across, are the same ones that sex workers around the world argue against when lobbying for full decriminalisation. it's the arguments we have with law makers and councils and saviour organisations and our own families and friends.

i'll talk about this more later but look at how anne hathaway finished playing Fantine and then signed off on a letter and petition against full decriminalisation of sex work and advocated for the nordic model - ensuring that sex workers and trafficking victims alike would be more vulnerable to violent clients and policing.

ironically, the same thing Fantine faces.

so my whole roundabout point is it matters. the way we talk about characters like Fantine matter. this directly impacts how real people treat real sex workers. this directly impacts legislation that directly impacts the lives and safety of sex workers AND survivors of sex trafficking.

just in case i haven't said it enough the safest option for both parties is always complete and full decriminalisation btw 🫶🏻

all links in case they break (sorry for making it longer but i don't trust tumblr with links lol)

tumblr post:

NSWP terminology and legal models source:

screenshot 1:

screenshot 2:

Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers:

anne hathaway article:

#fantine #les mis #les miserables #les mis letters #lm letters #fantine analysis tag #lm letters sw analysis #sw in les mis #lm letters 1.5 #lm letters 1.5.10 #mine #sorry my capitalisation is all over the place #sorry for the wall of text

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mariacallous · 6 months

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Afghan refugees who fled their country to escape from decades of war and terrorism have become the unwitting pawns in a cruel and crude political tussle between Pakistan’s government and the extremist Taliban as their once-close relationship disintegrates amid mutual recrimination.

On Oct. 3, Pakistan’s government announced that mass deportations of illegal immigrants, mostly Afghans, would start on Nov. 1. So far, at least 300,000 Afghans have already been ejected, and more than a million others face the same fate as the expulsions continue.

The bilateral fight appears to center on Kabul’s support for extremists who have wreaked havoc and killed hundreds in Pakistan over the last two years—or at least that is how Islamabad sees it, arguing that it is simply applying its own laws. The Taliban deny accusations that they are behind the uptick of terrorism in Pakistan by affiliates that they protect, train, arm, and direct.

Mass deportations are a sign that Pakistan is “putting its house in order,” said Pakistan’s caretaker minister of interior, Sarfraz Bugti. “Pakistan is the only country hosting four million refugees for the last 40 years and still hosting them,” he said via text. “Whoever wanted to stay in our country must stay legally.” Of the 300,000 Afghans already ejected, none have faced any problems upon returning, he told Foreign Policy. As the Taliban are claiming that Afghanistan is now peaceful, he said, “they should help their countrymen to settle themselves.”

“We are not a cruel state,” he said, adding: “Pakistanis are more important.”

The Taliban—who, since returning to power in August 2021, have been responsible for U.N.-documented arbitrary detentions and killings, as well forcing women and girls out of work and education—have called Pakistan’s deportations “inhumane” and “rushed.” Taliban figures have said that the billions of dollars of international aid they still receive are insufficient to deal with the country’s prior economic and humanitarian crises, let alone a mass influx of penniless refugees.

The expulsions come after earlier efforts by Pakistan, such as trade restrictions, to exert pressure on Kabul to rein in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, whose attacks on military and police present a severe security challenge to the Pakistani state. Acting Prime Minister Anwar ul-Haq Kakar said earlier this month that TTP attacks have risen by 60 percent since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, with 2,267 people killed.

The irony is that Pakistan bankrolled the Taliban throughout their 20-year insurgency following their ouster from power during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Taliban leaders found sanctuary and funding from Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, then-Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated them, as did groups such as al Qaeda and Hamas. But rather than continuing as Islamabad’s proxy, the Taliban have reversed roles, providing safe haven for terrorist and jihadi groups, including the TTP.

“While it’s still too early to draw any conclusions on policy shifts in Islamabad, it appears that the initial excitement about the Taliban’s return to power has now turned into frustration,” said Abdullah Khenjani, a former deputy minister of peace in the previous Afghan government. “Consequently, these traditional [Pakistani state] allies of the Taliban are systematically reassessing their leverage to be prepared for potentially worse scenarios.”

Since the Taliban’s return, around 600,000 Afghans made their way into Pakistan, swelling the number of Afghan refugees in the country to an estimated 3.7 million, with 1.32 million registered with the U.N. High Commission on Refugees. Many face destitution, unable to find work or even send their children to local schools. The situation may be even worse after the deportations: Pakistan is reportedly confiscating most of the refugees’ money on the way out, leaving them in a precarious situation in a country already struggling to create jobs for its people or deal with its own humanitarian crises.

Border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been clogged in recent weeks, as many Afghan refugees preempted the police round-up and began making their way back. Media have reported that some of the undocumented Afghans were born in Pakistan, their parents having fled the uninterrupted conflict at home since the former Soviet Union invaded in 1979. Many of the births were not registered.

Meanwhile, some groups among those being expelled are especially vulnerable. Hundreds of Afghans could face retribution from the Taliban they left the country to escape. Journalists, women, civil and human rights activists, LGBTQ+ advocates, judges, police, former military and government personnel, and Shiite Hazaras have all been targeted by the Taliban, and many escaped to Pakistan, with and without official documents.

Some efforts have been made to help Afghans regarded as vulnerable to Taliban excess if they are returned. Qamar Yousafzai set up the Pakistan-Afghanistan International Federation of Journalists at the National Press Club of Pakistan, in Islamabad, to verify the identities of hundreds of Afghan journalists, issue them with ID cards, and help with housing and health care. He has also interceded for journalists detained by police for a lack of papers. Yet that might not be enough to prevent their deportation.

Amnesty International called for a “halt [to] the continued detentions, deportations, and widespread harassment of Afghan refugees.” If not, it said, “it will be denying thousands of at-risk Afghans, especially women and girls, access to safety, education and livelihood.” The UNHCR and International Organization for Migration, the U.N.’s migration agency, said the forced repatriations had “the potential to result in severe human rights violations, including the separation of families and deportation of minors.”

Once back in Afghanistan, returnees have found the going tough, arriving in a country they hardly know, without resources to restart their lives, many facing a harsh Himalayan winter in camps set up by a Taliban administration ill-equipped to provide for them.

Fariba Faizi, 29, is from the southwestern Afghanistan city of Farah, where she was a journalist with a private radio station. Her mother, Shirin, was a prosecutor for the Farah provincial attorney general’s office, specializing in domestic violence cases. Once the Taliban returned to power, they were both out of their jobs, since women are not permitted to work in the new Afghanistan. They also faced the possibility of detention, beating, rape, and killing.

Along with her family of 10 (parents, siblings, husband, and toddler), Faizi, now eight months pregnant with her second child, moved to Islamabad in April 2022, hoping they’d be safe enough. Once the government announced the deportations, landlords who had been renting to Afghans began to evict them; Faizi’s landlord said he wanted the house back for himself. Her family is now living with friends of Yousafzai, who also arranged charitable support to cover their living costs for six months, she said.

With no work in either Pakistan or Afghanistan, Faizi said, they faced a similar economic situation on either side of the border. In Pakistan, however, the women in the family could at least look for work, she said; their preference would be to stay in Pakistan. As it is, they remain in hiding, afraid of being detained by police and forced over the border once their visas expire.

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luminalunii97 · 10 months

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An Iranian LGBTIQ activist is facing deportation to his home country. The Human Rights Association (IHD) announced on Friday that Elyas Torabiba-Eskandari was detained last Sunday at a Pride parade in Istanbul and taken into deportation custody. After a stay of several hours at the police station in the Beyoğlu district, Torabiba-Eskandari was initially taken to the deportation centre of the Turkish migration authority in Tuzla. In the meantime, he is being held in an identical facility in the border province of Urfa. Elyas Torabiba-Eskandari fled Iran ten years ago together with his mother. According to the IHD, both were victims of state violence, arbitrary detention and torture in their home country. Since their flight in 2013, they have been living in Turkey - however, they do not enjoy full refugee protection there in the sense of the Geneva Convention, but only have so-called conditional refugee status. Nevertheless, a deportation would violate the prohibition of refoulement, i.e. that refugees may not be deported to countries where their lives are in danger. However, the IHD regularly documents deportations of refugees from Turkey to Iran, but also to Syria and Iraq, where their lives are in danger.

LGBTQ+ activists face lethal punishments in Iran. This shouldn't be allowed.

#tw homophobia #tw queerphobia #human rights #politics #lgbtq+#middle east #iran #queer rights #turkyie #turkish politics #refugee crisis #refugee rights

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dresden-syndrome · 29 days

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Political offender classification: Class 2

“Class 2 offense is a societally harmful act which undermines the authority of the East European Socialist Union government and its social and political order.”

“Class 2 offenders are potentially dangerous elements committing stated crimes with a possible deliberate anti-socialist intent.”

Rules:

Can be applied to minors aged 16 and older

Used for most class 1 offenses during martial law

Used for class 1 repeat offenders

May be used for class 3 offenses when the state/region is in a great need of agricultural labor

Mostly used in peacetime

Offenses:

Non-reporting on class 4 crimes

Contribution to class 3 crimes

Illegal country border crossing to an ally state*

Verbal anti-government propaganda in peacetime

Personal acts of economical sabotage

Unapproved foreign (Western) media possession

Showing support to enemy states or regimes

Unregistered media broadcasting device possession**

Unregistered foreign property possession

Leaking or disclosure of confidential information

Penalties:

Limitations on certain jobs, ranks and positions

Demotion from Party member to Party candidate

Termination from the Party (in more severe cases)

Forced resettlement to remote areas with corrective labor for up to a few years

Deportation to labor communes for up to 10 years

Protection status:

All remaining constitutional rights legally and actually protected (may experience discrimination)

Further restrictions:

Not allowed to get certain jobs or ranks

Not allowed to be registered within EESU capital, region capitals and biggest cities (usually from 3 to 20 years after release)

Political literacy courses after resettlement or release from the commune

Life prospects:

Back to freedom after detention or release from the commune

Back to life in a remote town/settlement after serving penalty

Job, movement and travel prospects reduced

More often become political crime suspects later in life; may be arrested as class 3-4 while in labor commune or resettlement

Rehabilitation possibility:

Rehabilitated with a political criminal record after finishing courses

May be fully rehabilitated with charges dropped and rights restored for labor or political achievements

Party membership can be restored (usually a difficult process)

Class promotion/demotion possibility:

Promotion to class 1 for labor achievements and political loyalty

Demotion to class 3 if aggravating circumstances are found during investigation/detention

Demotion to class 3 if escaped from the labor commune

Prisoner use methods:

Cheap unskilled labor within their commune or resettlement place

Cheap labor in the offender’s skill field within their commune or resettlement place

May be used as voluntary unofficial informers

May be used in SSR*** for important projects

Legal documentation:

ID card stamped with a political criminal record mark

*Ally states (by 1960): USSR, Yugoslavia, China, North Korea. Yugoslavia is the most common EESU escape route aside from West Germany.

**TVs and radios, including DIY radio stations. Must be analyzed and approved by the government before purchase.

***Strategic Scientific Reserve (Science Division).

Picture: Ştefana Rusu and Ana-Maria Antonescu on the field work in a small labor commune. PUR Romania, 1965.

Art tag: @painful-pooch @prismpanic @generic-whumperz @suspicious-whumping-egg @onlywhump @whumpedydump @whumpthefifth @monarchthefirst @sunshiline-writes @project-xiii

Lore dump tag: @sweet-lost-husbands @whumpingandsmilinglikeanidiot

#not really whump again #whump #whump community #whumpblr #historical whump #totalitarian whump #whump art #whumpee #whump ideas #whump stuff

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fandomtrumpshate · 3 months

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2024 Supported Org: Never Again Action

Anti-immigrant hatred, antisemitism, and other forms of bigotry uphold one another—and safety lies in the collective struggle against white nationalism and white supremacy. For many American Jews, honoring their heritage means standing with vulnerable people of all kinds in their struggle for justice and recognition. When they stand up for themselves as Jews, and for their allies in the immigrant community, they recognize that we are all in this together. Never again means never again for anyone —not in the United States, and not in Palestine.

Never Again Action is a Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, taking direct action to raise the alarm about the current system and disrupt its operation, and to catalyze a popular movement for permanent protection for all undocumented people. They work by empowering the public, not making compromises with the powerful. They don’t negotiate with candidates, politicians, or companies–but welcome them to move to the right side of history. They act to change the common sense among the American public, to create the political conditions that politicians will have no choice but to follow.

Continuing their work to fight antisemitism and anti-immigrant bigotry, for the past several months, NAA has also worked in cooperation with other organizations to mobilize in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, working to challenge the narrative conflating Jews and Israel, staging protests and demonstrations in support of Gaza and calling for a ceasefire. NAA and its partner organizations argue that the culture and values of Judaism require them to stand up against injustice and oppression everywhere.

They imagine a world where people of all races, identities, and origins come together to tear down the walls that have kept us apart from each other and build a new world.

You can support Never Again Action as a creator in the 2024 FTH auction (or as a bidder, when the time comes to donate for the auctions you’ve won.)

#fth 2024 #fanworks charity auction #supported org #never again action #immigration #justice for palestine

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chterzidislaw · 17 hours

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⚖️ JUDICIAL SUCCESS IN MIGRATION LAW!

⚖️ 🏛️ The Administrative Court of First Instance of Thessaloniki orders the Administration to allow our client's temporary stay in Greece until the decision is issued and to refrain from any action that would result in his forced departure from Greece.

✅ In this way, he is not at risk of arrest and deportation !!!

💼 As a greek law office, we provide legal assistance to refugees and migrants in Greece. Christos M. Terzidis, a Greek migration lawyer with a PhD title from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and former legal advisor to the NGO 'ARSIS' on refugee and migrant issues, is greatly experienced and specializes in Migration Law.

⚖️ We protect the human rights of refugees, providing legal assistance to refugees and migrants,undertaking cases that deal with refugee and immigrant residence permits (issuance and renewal) , application for political asylum and support at all stages of the process , appeals , protection from deportation and protection from administrative detention, deposition applications and their presentation and support before the Administrative Courts , presentation and representation before the Appeals Authority and its competent committees , passports (issuance-renewal) , family reunifications, Golden visa cases and so on.

✍ We prepare each case methodically with the outmost care and attention.

🆘 There is a 24-hour service available for emergency cases (like arrests and so on).

📞 You can reach us on 00306977424779 , so that we help you resolve your legal issues!

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thedreadvampy · 1 year

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fuck me so the migration bill passed in Commons yesterday.

still gotta go through Lords so it MIGHT get slightly defanged but let's look at how well that worked for the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill last year which passed into law despite native public outrcy with most of its anti-protest and all of its anti-Traveller clauses intact. and there's not been nearly the same degree of concerted protest against this one yet.

in a bid to """""""stop the small boats"""""", the bill will:

Override the rights enshrined in international law to seek asylum, instead prioritising the Home Office's new legal duty to deport any undocumented migrant to concentration camps in Rwanda. yes I said concentration camps they are mass internment camps for a specific group of people to be incarcerated indefinitely without trial. that is what a concentration camp is. here's home secretary Suella Braverman laughing in front of the "estate" built in Rwanda to house deported asylum seekers

allow for indefinite detention of children suspected of being undocumented until they can be removed to the Rwanda camps. Tory rebels said 'could we not have to review that after 3 days to justify their detention?' and the Tory government said 'no but if we pass the bill we pinky promise that we'll think about maybe adding in an indefinite review period at some point' so it passed.

remove temporary protections allowing people claiming they've been trafficked as slaves to stay in the UK while their case is reviewed, and to recieve some support and leniency if it's found that they are Literally Here As Slaves. that's off the table in this bill, if you get trafficked to Britain as a slave who give a shit it's off to Rwanda with you buddy. even former PM Theresa "We Have To Create A Really Hostile Environment For Immigrants" May was like hey steady on there lads. that is incredibly specifically going to make preventing modern slavery way harder because who the fuck is going to come forward and say "help I'm being enslaved and trapped against my will in bad conditions in an unfamiliar country" when the thing that the government will do with that information is trap you against your will in bad conditions in a different unfamiliar country? NOBODY IS GOING TO DO THAT meaning that victims will be penalised in law for being victimised and traffickers will face even fewer consequences. which to be fair is the Tory playbook.

it's fucked. it's fucked and I feel so sick about it and so afraid of how overtly fascistic and genocidal this government continues to get.

meanwhile their new voter ID laws are in place and they've already been caught lying to voters in high-opposition areas by sending out flyers from party HQ claiming you don't need ID to vote. which you now do.

it's very bad lads. it's very very very very bad.

in the past 24 months we've seen a constant flow of legislation targeting Gypsy/Roma/Traveler communities, migrants, LGBTQ+ people (particularly trans people), disabled and chronically ill people, and protesters and dissidents. meanwhile we're in our biggest cost of living crisis in 45+ years, protections for the poor are being stripped and national services are being privatised.

the best case interpretation as far as I can see is that they expect to be ousted in the next General Election (but that isn't until 2025) and are getting everything they want to do in terms of attacking human rights and wellbeing as far as possible so that the next government will struggle to roll them all the way back

the thing is though that Labour are just nodding along with all these policies and are in the process of aggressively removing the remainder of open leftists from the party's core power structure, having already removed the ordinary membership's ability to guide party leadership or policy, and the SNP, which has often lately been the only meaningful opposition party in Westminster, is in freefall and on fire over an embezzlement and corruption scandal. that plus the voter suppression laws and control over media that the government are wielding FEELS A LOT LIKE even if we make it to the 2025 election we might still get another Tory term.

Winter of Discontent...2!!!! has been something of a damp squib - there have been widespread strikes but little obvious impact. this winter felt like the time things were gonna snap but I'm just not sure we're ever gonna snap hard enough.

Idk I feel sick as a fucking dog. I don't know what to do. If anyone knows of any ways to help (in Edinburgh, I can't travel easily out of the city) with the Migration Bill situation or with stuff more broadly, hmu. I'm pretty well tuned in on trans rights and abortion rights protests but I don't have connects for most other stuff.

#red said #uk politics #rainy fascist island

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todaysdocument · 2 months

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"Loyalty towards a Country or a Nation...is a covenant..."

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United StatesSeries: Criminal Case FilesFile Unit: United States of America vs. Kiyoshi Okamoto, et. al.

Loyalty towards a Country or a Nation is a m[a]tter of the sentiment. It is nurtured from a knowledge of justice received. It is a covenant of faith between the party of the People on the one hand and the Party of the Government on the other. Under this understanding, the People maintain the inviolability of our Instruments of Government. For this service, the Government assume the responsibilities of justice, freedom, liberty and security to It's Inhabitants. Under such an interpretation, the President terminated the agreement when he caused to be evacuated 112,000 People without due process of law. In so doing, he violated the very fundamentals of our democratic form of government. He disregarded the guarantees of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He caused us into Citizens without a Country. By these acts, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights become of doubtful value as Instruments guaranteeing Life, Liberty, Justice, Freedom and Security. With these conditions, where does our Country need us the most--on the home front where justice, freedom, democracy and liberty are slapped on the face or, on foreign battlefields to uphold dubious ideals and Principles? We believe a correct understanding must be had at this time between true patriotism and loyalty on the one hand and from regimented concept of misguided interpretations on the other. We believe the first duty of every true and loyal Citizen is the protection of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The cornerstone of these Instruments of our Government are Justice, Liberty, Security, Freedom, and the protection of Humane Rights. These are flagrantly violated in the various procedures of our evacuation, deportation and detention. We believe the issue forced upon us is sufficently vital as to warrant a decided attitude...not only for our benefit but, as a safeguard to our hitherto free and democratic form of government. It is vital as an issue of National defense if Democracy is to exist. [STRIKETHROUGH] If we are loyal and patriotic Citizens, we must keep an eagle eye on ten cent leaders who are unable to see beyond the 12-16-19 dollars paid them by the W. R. A.[END STRIKETHROUGH] Thus, to be drafted or not to be drafted or, to be loyal or not to be loyal as Citizens with suspended Rights are not the questions at issue. To us, the fundamentals of Democracy is at stake. In the preservation of the ideals and principles of freedom, justice and democratic practices as guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights within our own home front lie any hope to validate and justify any utterances of freedoms and democracies. We must rectify the breaches made upon the guarantees of justice, freedom and democratic practices by the Roosevelt Administration. THEREBY, AS TRUE AND LOYAL CITIZENS OF THIS NATION, WE ASK A FIRST CLARIFICATION OF OUR STATUS AND RIGHTS AS FORCED[full transcription at link]

#archivesgov #1940s #world war ii #February 15 #1944 #japanese internment #japanese american

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she-is-ovarit · 6 months

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UK police report domestic abuse victims to immigration, shows data

43 police forces referred people who asked for help to Home Office in last three years, finds watchdog

Domestic abuse victims are being reported to immigration officials when they turn to the police for help, according to data published by an independent watchdog. The 43 police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police have all referred victims or survivors of abuse to immigration enforcement in the last three years, prompting urgent calls for reform of the system. The threat of being reported to the Home Office is often used by the perpetrators of domestic abuse to control their victims, according to the domestic violence commissioner, Nicole Jacobs. One of those targeted by David Carrick, the Metropolitan police officer who was jailed for life after admitting to 85 serious offences during a 17-year campaign of attacks against women, said he had threatened her with deportation.

Jacobs said the practice of reporting victims to immigration enforcement stopped people from coming forward and allowed perpetrators to evade justice. She said: “At the point when victims have come to the police for safety from abuse, they are met with what many fear most: contact with immigration enforcement. Migrant victims have told me that this plays into the perpetrator’s tactics of control. “This data shows there is not a single police force where migrant victims are treated as victims first and foremost. This must change now. Only with the introduction of a firewall can the victims and prisoners bill ensure justice and protection for all, not just some, victims.” Jacobs has written to the home secretary, Suella Braverman, calling for a firewall to stop police and other services from reporting complainants to immigration enforcement. Police made 537 referrals to the Home Office for immigration investigation in relation to victims and survivors reporting domestic abuse from April 2020 to March 2023, according to the figures obtained by the commissioner from the Home Office. According to a report published by the commissioner, police officers called immigration enforcement in front of one victim, when she reported her ex-partner.

The report says: “This was the first time Lucia sought support from the police after three years of being in an abusive relationship. She felt let down by the police and fearful of removal from the country as a consequence of having reported the crime. The perpetrator continued to harass and threaten her. “Lucia contacted her caseworker, extremely distressed, saying she did not want to have any contact with the police. As abuse escalated again, her caseworker tried to convince her to make another report, which Lucia opposed as she was more afraid of deportation. Eight days after the police report, Lucia got an immigration enforcement letter.” The immigration enforcement letter led the woman to withdraw from domestic abuse support. The commissioner found that no enforcement action such as detention or removal was made in the three years to March 2023. Jacobs said: “That no immigration enforcement action was taken against victims shows us that this practice is serving no one, but the fear it instils creates a high cost to the safety of victims and the public.” The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) guidance to forces says they may share basic information, including an address, with immigration enforcement if they suspect a victim or witness may not be legally residing in the UK. The NPCC said, however, that officers did not routinely investigate victims’ migration status. Jacobs said she wanted the government to amend the victims and prisoners bill when it returns to parliament in autumn this year. Imkaan, a charity that focuses on addressing violence against women and girls from ethnic minority backgrounds, has reported that 90% of women with insecure immigration status who experienced domestic abuse had their abusers use the threat of their removal from the UK to dissuade them from going to the police. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.

Evil.

#domestic violence #violence against women #UK #global feminism #United Kingdom #women's rights #women's oppression #immigration

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ausetkmt · 6 months

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Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans

Former President Donald Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 — including preparing to round up people living in the United States without legal permission on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled.

The plans would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration in a multitude of ways.

Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a COVID-19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — although this time, he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis.

He plans to scour the country for immigrants living here without legal permission and deport people by the millions per year.

To help speed mass deportations, Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due-process hearings. To help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out sweeping raids, he plans to reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states.

To ease the strain on ICE detention facilities, Trump wants to build huge camps to detain people while their cases are processed and they await deportation flights. And to get around any refusal by Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, Trump would redirect money in the military budget, as he did in his first term to spend more on a border wall than Congress had authorized.

In a public reference to his plans, Trump told a crowd in Iowa in September, “Following the Eisenhower model, we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” The reference was to a 1954 campaign to round up and expel Mexican immigrants that was named for an ethnic slur — “Operation Wetback.”

The constellation of Trump’s 2025 plans amounts to an assault on immigration on a scale unseen in modern American history. Millions of immigrants living in the country without legal permission would be banned from the U.S. or uprooted from it years or even decades after settling here.

Such a scale of planned removals would raise logistical, financial and diplomatic challenges and would be vigorously challenged in court. But there is no mistaking the breadth and ambition of the shift Trump is eyeing.

In a second Trump presidency, the visas of foreign students who participated in anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian protests would be canceled. U.S. consular officials abroad will be directed to expand ideological screening of visa applicants to block people the Trump administration considers to have undesirable attitudes. People who were granted temporary protected status because they are from certain countries deemed unsafe, allowing them to lawfully live and work in the United States, would have that status revoked.

Similarly, numerous people who have been allowed to live in the country temporarily for humanitarian reasons would also lose that status and be kicked out, including tens of thousands of the Afghans who were evacuated amid the 2021 Taliban takeover and allowed to enter the United States. Afghans holding special visas granted to people who helped U.S. forces would be revetted to see if they really did.

And Trump would try to end birthright citizenship for babies born in the United States to parents living in the country without legal permission — by proclaiming that policy to be the new position of the government and by ordering agencies to cease issuing citizenship-affirming documents like Social Security cards and passports to them. That policy’s legal legitimacy, like nearly all of Trump’s plans, would be virtually certain to end up before the Supreme Court.

In interviews with The New York Times, several Trump advisers gave the most expansive and detailed description yet of Trump’s immigration agenda in a potential second term. In particular, Trump’s campaign referred questions for this article to Stephen Miller, an architect of Trump’s first-term immigration policies who remains close to him and is expected to serve in a senior role in a second administration.

All of the steps Trump advisers are preparing, Miller contended in a wide-ranging interview, rely on existing statutes; while the Trump team would likely seek a revamp of immigration laws, the plan was crafted to need no new substantive legislation. And while acknowledging that lawsuits would arise to challenge nearly every one of them, he portrayed the Trump team’s daunting array of tactics as a “blitz” designed to overwhelm immigrant rights lawyers.

“Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error. Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown,” Miller said, adding, “The immigration legal activists won’t know what’s happening.”

Todd Schulte, the president of FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice advocacy group that repeatedly fought the Trump administration, said the Trump team’s plans relied on “xenophobic demagoguery” that appeals to his hardest-core political base.

“Americans should understand these policy proposals are an authoritarian, often illegal, agenda that would rip apart nearly every aspect of American life — tanking the economy, violating the basic civil rights of millions of immigrants and native-born Americans alike,” Schulte said.

The Tools to Exploit

Since Trump left office, the political environment on immigration has moved in his direction. He is also more capable now of exploiting that environment if he is reelected than he was when he first won election as an outsider.

The ebbing of the COVID-19 pandemic and resumption of travel flows have helped stir a global migrant crisis, with millions of Venezuelans and Central Americans fleeing turmoil and Africans arriving in Latin American countries before continuing their journey north. Amid the record numbers of migrants at the southern border and beyond it in cities like New York and Chicago, voters are frustrated, and even some Democrats are calling for tougher action against immigrants and pressuring the White House to better manage the crisis.

Trump and his advisers see the opening and now know better how to seize it. The aides Trump relied upon in the chaotic early days of his first term were sometimes at odds and lacked experience in how to manipulate the levers of federal power. By the end of his first term, Cabinet officials and lawyers who sought to restrain some of his actions — like his Homeland Security secretary and chief of staff, John Kelly — had been fired, and those who stuck with him had learned much.

In a second term, Trump plans to install a team that will not restrain him.

Since much of Trump’s first-term immigration crackdown was tied up in the courts, the legal environment has tilted in his favor: His four years of judicial appointments left behind federal appellate courts and a Supreme Court that are far more conservative than the courts that heard challenges to his first-term policies.

The fight over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals provides an illustration.

DACA is an Obama-era program that shields from deportation and grants work permits to people who were brought unlawfully to the United States as children. Trump tried to end it, but the Supreme Court blocked him on procedural grounds in June 2020.

Miller said Trump would try again to end DACA. And the 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court that blocked the last attempt no longer exists: A few months after the DACA ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, and Trump replaced her with a sixth conservative, Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Trump’s rhetoric has more than kept up with his increasingly extreme agenda on immigration.

His stoking of fear and anger toward immigrants — pushing for a border wall and calling Mexicans rapists — fueled his 2016 takeover of the Republican Party. As president, he privately mused about developing a militarized border like Israel’s, asked whether migrants crossing the border could be shot in the legs and wanted a proposed border wall topped with flesh-piercing spikes and painted black to burn migrants’ skin.

As he has campaigned for the party’s third straight presidential nomination, his anti-immigrant tone has only grown harsher. In a recent interview with a right-wing website, Trump claimed without evidence that foreign leaders were deliberately emptying their “insane asylums” to send the patients across America’s southern border as migrants. He said migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” And at a rally Wednesday in Florida, he compared them to the fictional serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter, saying, “That’s what’s coming into our country right now.”

Trump had similarly vowed to carry out mass deportations when running for office in 2016, but the government only managed several hundred thousand removals per year under his presidency, on par with other recent administrations. If they get another opportunity, Trump and his team are determined to achieve annual numbers in the millions.

Keeping People Out

Trump’s immigration plan is to pick up where he left off and then go much further. He would not only revive some of the policies that were criticized as draconian during his presidency, many of which the Biden White House ended, but also expand and toughen them.

One example centers on expanding first-term policies aimed at keeping people out of the country. Trump plans to suspend the nation’s refugee program and once again categorically ban visitors from troubled countries, reinstating a version of his ban on travel from several mostly Muslim-majority countries, which President Joe Biden called discriminatory and ended on his first day in office.

Trump would also use coercive diplomacy to induce other nations to help, including by making cooperation a condition of any other bilateral engagement, Miller said. For example, a second Trump administration would seek to reestablish an agreement with Mexico that asylum-seekers remain there while their claims are processed. (It is not clear that Mexico would agree; a Mexican court has said that deal violated human rights.)

Trump would also push to revive “safe third country” agreements with several nations in Central America and try to expand them to Africa, Asia and South America. Under such deals, countries agree to take would-be asylum-seekers from specific other nations and let them apply for asylum there instead.

While such arrangements have traditionally only covered migrants who had previously passed through a third country, federal law does not require that limit, and a second Trump administration would seek to make those deals without it, in part as a deterrent to migrants making what the Trump team views as illegitimate asylum claims.

At the same time, Miller said, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would invoke the public health emergency powers law known as Title 42 to again refuse to hear any asylum claims by people arriving at the southern border. The Trump administration had internally discussed that idea early in Trump’s term, but some Cabinet secretaries pushed back, arguing that there was no public health emergency that would legally justify it. The administration ultimately implemented it during the coronavirus pandemic.

Saying the idea has since gained acceptance in practice — Biden initially kept the policy — Miller said Trump would invoke Title 42, citing “severe strains of the flu, tuberculosis, scabies, other respiratory illnesses like RSV and so on, or just a general issue of mass migration being a public health threat and conveying a variety of communicable diseases.”

Trump and his aides have not yet said whether they would reenact one of the most contentious deterrents to unauthorized immigration that he pursued as president: separating children from their parents, which led to trauma among migrants and difficulties in reuniting families. When pressed, Trump has repeatedly declined to rule out reviving the policy. After an outcry over the practice, Trump ended it in 2018, and a judge later blocked the government from putting it back into effect.

Mass Deportations

Soon after Trump announced his 2024 campaign for president last November, he met with Tom Homan, who ran ICE for the first year and a half of the Trump administration and was an early proponent of separating families to deter migrants.

In an interview, Homan recalled that in that meeting, he “agreed to come back” in a second term and would “help to organize and run the largest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”

Trump advisers’ vision of abrupt mass deportations would be a recipe for social and economic turmoil, disrupting the housing market and major industries including agriculture and the service sector.

Miller cast such disruption in a favorable light.

“Mass deportation will be a labor-market disruption celebrated by American workers, who will now be offered higher wages with better benefits to fill these jobs,” he said. “Americans will also celebrate the fact that our nation’s laws are now being applied equally and that one select group is no longer magically exempt.”

One planned step to overcome the legal and logistical hurdles would be to significantly expand a form of fast-track deportations known as “expedited removal.” It denies immigrants living in the country without legal permission the usual hearings and opportunity to file appeals, which can take months or years — especially when people are not in custody — and has led to a large backlog. A 1996 law says people can be subject to expedited removal for up to two years after arriving, but to date, the executive branch has used it more cautiously, swiftly expelling people picked up near the border soon after crossing.

The Trump administration tried to expand the use of expedited removal, but a court blocked it, and then the Biden team canceled the expansion. It remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will rule that it is constitutional to use the law against people who have been living for a significant period in the United States and express fear of persecution if sent home.

Trump has also said he would invoke an archaic law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs without due process. That law allows for summary deportation of people from countries with which the United States is at war, that have invaded the United States or that have engaged in “predatory incursions.”

The Supreme Court has upheld past uses of that law in wartime. But its text seems to require a link to the actions of a foreign government, so it is not clear whether the justices will allow a president to stretch it to encompass drug cartel activity.

More broadly, Miller said a new Trump administration would shift from the ICE practice of arresting specific people to carrying out workplace raids and other sweeps in public places aimed at arresting scores of immigrants living in the country without legal permission all at once.

To make the process of finding and deporting immigrants already living inside the country without legal permission “radically more quick and efficient,” he said, the Trump team would bring in “the right kinds of attorneys and the right kinds of policy thinkers” willing to carry out such ideas.

And because of the magnitude of arrests and deportations being contemplated, they plan to build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” for immigrants as their cases progress and they wait to be flown to other countries.

Miller said the new camps would likely be built “on open land in Texas near the border.” He said the military would construct them under the authority and control of the Department of Homeland Security. While he cautioned that there were no specific blueprints yet, he said the camps would look professional and similar to other facilities for migrants that have been built near the border.

Such camps could also enable the government to speed up the pace and volume of deportations of people who have lived in the United States without legal permission for years and so are not subject to fast-track removal. If pursuing a long-shot effort to win permission to remain in the country would mean staying locked up in the interim, some may give up and voluntarily accept removal without going through the full process.

The use of these camps, he said, would likely be focused more on single adults because the government cannot indefinitely hold children under a long-standing court order known as the Flores settlement. So any families brought to the facilities would have to be moved in and out more quickly, Miller said.

The Trump administration tried to overturn the Flores settlement, but the Supreme Court did not resolve the matter before Trump’s term ended. Miller said the Trump team would try again.

To increase the number of agents available for ICE sweeps, Miller said, officials from other federal law enforcement agencies would be temporarily reassigned, and state National Guard troops and local police officers, at least from willing Republican-led states, would be deputized for immigration control efforts.

While a law known as the Posse Comitatus Act generally forbids the use of the armed forces for law enforcement purposes, another law called the Insurrection Act creates an exception. Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act at the border, enabling the use of federal troops to apprehend migrants, Miller said.

“Bottom line,” he said, “President Trump will do whatever it takes.”

#US Immigration #immigration issues #trump #Sweeping Raids #Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans #deportations #forced deportations #illegal migration #gop #lies #posse comitatus act

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spiderlegsmusic · 4 months

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Trump told chief of staff Hitler ‘did a lot of good things.’ Trump Wanted His Military Leaders to Pretend He Was Adolf Hitler. Trump's late wife, Ivana, said Trump kept a book full of Hitler's speeches on his bedside table.

Hitler had poor social skills, singular obsessions with conspiracy theories, and an intolerance of anyone who disagreed with him. His deepest need was to be seen as a genius. Trump has narcissism, with odd social skills, belief in conspiracy theories, and an intolerance of people who disagree with him. His deepest need is for admiration and support of his grandiose sense of self-importance.

Here are 20 serious points of comparison between Hitler and Trump:

Neither was elected by a majority.

Both found direct communication channels to their base.

Both blame others and divide on racial lines.

Both relentlessly demonize opponents.

They unceasingly attack objective truth.

They relentlessly attack mainstream media.

Their attacks on truth include science.

Their lies blur reality--and supporters believe and spread them.

Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status.

They embrace extreme nationalism.

Both made closing borders a centerpiece.

They embraced mass detention and deportations.

Both used borders to protect selected industries.

They cemented their rule by enriching elites.

Both rejected international norms.

They attack domestic democratic processes.

Both attack the judiciary and rule of law.

Both glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.

They proclaim unchecked power.

Both relegate women to subordinate roles.

Germany in 1920 had many similarities to the United States in 2020:

Both times were/are extraordinary. Voters were/are polarized between the left and the right, and centrist leaders struggled to stay in office. Street brawling between the left and right occurred nightly in cities across Germany, like the recent unrest in Portland and Kenosha.

Both times were/are extraordinary for the same reason: conservatives were discredited and lost control of the right, enabling the rise of right-wing populists. The conservatives, who were generally well-educated, affluent, and had been in positions of influence for generations, were discredited. Their place was taken on the right by populists, who were not educated or affluent. The 2007–2008 Great Recession was followed by a realization that the wealthy “1%”, who are associated with conservative politics, had both caused the recession and benefited from it. Since 2008 economic disparity has increased in the United States, i.e., the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer. This discrediting of conservatism led to the 2016 conservative loss of control of the Republican Party, with conservative leaders being replaced by populists.

The German right-wing populists, including Hitler, were dedicated to restoring Germany to its pre-WWI status as one of the leading nations of Europe, economically and culturally. Current American right-wing populists, including Trump, promise to “make America great again.”

In 1920s Germany conservatives supported the right-wing populists on the belief that the conservatives could control business and industrial policies while the populists focused on popular conspiracy theories, such as international cabals of Jewish bankers and Freemasons, secret Catholic societies, and Russian control of German Communists. Since the 2016 election, conservatives have made a similar deal with right-wing populists, who enthrall voters with wild theories about Mexican immigrants, Muslim terrorists, and Democratic pizzerias.

The Nazis believed, correctly, that a small minority of fanatics could gain power over larger numbers of more or less indifferent voters. American democracy is more firmly established, but the Republicans were able to gain the Presidency after losing the popular vote in 2000 and 2016. Republican-controlled state legislatures have used gerrymandering and changing voting laws to maintain control.

A key step in the rise of the Nazis was the 1920 purchase of Munich’s Völkischer Beobachter newspaper. In 1923 the newspaper moved to daily editions, with Nazi supporters reading only the Völkischer Beobachter, enabling the Nazis to shape their followers into fanatics. Donald Trump doesn’t own Fox News but their relationship is symbiotic. Cable news and social media algorithms enable Trump’s followers to live in a news bubble, shaping their views.

the effort to bring Trump to justice is the beginning of a much longer struggle, not the end.

Trump called US soldiers who died in war “losers” and “suckers”.

Trump has made positive remarks about far-right and white supremacist groups. Trump's understanding of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Black experience in general post-civil war as vague to non-existent. His indifference to Black history was similar to his disregard for the history of any race, religion or creed.

The parallels--especially the links between Lugenpresse and 'fake news,' and promises to restore German greatness and 'Make America Great Again'--are just too close to be coincidental.

The federal architecture intended to be a check and balance against tyrants, is not poised to act. Congressional representation is fundamentally anti-democratic. In the Senate, politicians representing 18 percent of the national population--epicenters of Trump's base--can cast 51 percent of the chamber's votes. A Republican majority from rural states, representing barely 40 percent of the population, controls the chamber. It repeatedly thwarts legislation reflecting multicultural America's values--and creates a brick wall for impeachment.

The House of Representatives is not much better. Until 2018, this decade's GOP-majority House, a product of 2011's extreme Republican gerrymanders, was also unrepresentative of the nation's demographics. That bias still exists in the Electoral College, as the size of a state's congressional delegation equals its allocation of votes. That formula is fair as far as House members go, but allocating votes based on two senators per state hurts urban America. Consider that California's population is 65 times larger than Wyoming's.

The Supreme Court's majority remains in the hands of justices appointed by Republican presidents--and favors that party's agenda. Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's blocking of President Obama's final nominee thwarted a twice-a-century change. Today's hijacked Supreme Court majority has only just begun deferring to Trump's agenda.

There will, of course, be American quislings who will enthusiastically support an American tyrant. There always are--everywhere.

The ex-president was charged with consequential offenses in Georgia and in federal court for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election; inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection; and absconding to Mar-a-Lago with a trove of top-secret documents; the available public evidence suggests he is in serious jeopardy of being convicted of multiple state and federal felonies.

We should be under no illusions that taking Trump down will cure all that ails our democracy. Trump is the head of the Republican Party and a political movement that has morphed into a form of 21st-century fascism. Prosecuting Trump, and even sending him to prison, will not extinguish the movement he unleashed.

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

An upgraded form of fascism with its rabid nativism and hatred of racial mixing is currently at the center of politics in the United States. Traditional liberal values of equality, social justice, dissent and freedom are now considered a threat to a Republican Party supportive of staggering levels of inequality, white Christian nationalism and racial purity.

It is by no means clear that the U.S. can withstand the existential threat posed by the upgraded form of fascism we face today.

#donald trump #adolph hitler #fascism #republicans #us politics

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