Are we now in full blown fascist totalitarianism?

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Two Left-wing Domestic Terrorist Citizens Arrested

Spoiler

ICE Agent Kneels on Pregnant Woman as Bystanders Hurl Snowballs at Him

As always, the story Minneapolis residents are sharing is different from what ICE claims.

newrepublic.com

...
“Please let her go! She’s pregnant!” one onlooker shouted.

“Get her off of her fucking stomach,” another said.
In response to this, one agent fired a Taser into the crowd. “Who wants more?” he taunted, according to WCCO.

...

According to ICE, they succeeded in arresting the targets of their operation: a young Ecuadorian couple who were abducted from their car, its windows shattered by agents. The woman is currently in custody in Illinois, and it’s not known where her husband is being held. Two U.S. citizens were also arrested for assaulting federal officers, according to CBS.

So basically they threw snowballs and then stopped.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office

 

[crazyfingers]

Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office

I wish Trump was just as real as the Christian god.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Day of Infamy

Unfortunately, this isn’t a bad dream

paulkrugman.substack.com

...we should be clear about what is happening. American fascism is on the march, and anyone who balks at saying that clearly, who makes excuses and pretends that Trump and the people he brought in aren’t monsters, is deeply unpatriotic. If we are to have a chance at saving democracy, our first duty must be clarity. No sanewashing, no bothsidesing. Only facing the horrible truth can set us free.

 

[laughing dog]

Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office

Just think how more horrible Trump would be if he didn’t have such a fine spiritual advisor.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Wired:

ICE Can Now Spy on Every Phone in Your Neighborhood

Plus: Iran shuts down its internet amid sweeping protests, an alleged scam boss gets extradited to China, and more.

www.wired.com

Materials obtained by 404 Media shed new light on how the surveillance tools Tangles and Webloc from a company called Penlink can provide information to ICE agents after the agency contracted for the services in September. The social-media and phone-surveillance platforms can be used to monitor neighborhoods or city blocks for mobile phones and track the devices over time, potentially revealing where people live, work, and visit. Penlink purchases vast troves of commercial location data to augment and expand the dragnet.

“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency. This granular location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media

Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/09/18/ice-spends-millions-on-social-media-spy-tech-banned-by-meta-facebook/

In 2021, Meta banned a surveillance company called Cobwebs from gathering intelligence across all its platforms. Its security staff had discovered Cobwebs, founded by former members of Israel’s elite cyber intel agencies, was using hundreds of accounts to snoop on Facebook and WhatsApp users, many of them activists, opposition politicians and government officials in Hong Kong and Mexico.

Since then, ICE has spent over $5 million on the company’s tools, with one $2 million purchase made this week for Cobwebs’ AI-powered social media surveillance tech Tangles. The software scours the open internet and the dark web for information relevant to police investigations with AI tying together data on people of interest. In one recent description filed with the Texas state government, PenLink, which now sells Cobwebs tech after a 2023 merger, wrote that Tangles “automatically ingests historical data from multiple communication channels, mobile forensics, internet-based communications, location data, financial records and web intelligence.”

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Wired:

ICE Can Now Spy on Every Phone in Your Neighborhood

Plus: Iran shuts down its internet amid sweeping protests, an alleged scam boss gets extradited to China, and more.

www.wired.com

Materials obtained by 404 Media shed new light on how the surveillance tools Tangles and Webloc from a company called Penlink can provide information to ICE agents after the agency contracted for the services in September. The social-media and phone-surveillance platforms can be used to monitor neighborhoods or city blocks for mobile phones and track the devices over time, potentially revealing where people live, work, and visit. Penlink purchases vast troves of commercial location data to augment and expand the dragnet.

“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency. This granular location information paints a detailed picture of who we are, where we go, and who we spend time with,” Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy project director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, told 404 Media

Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/09/18/ice-spends-millions-on-social-media-spy-tech-banned-by-meta-facebook/

In 2021, Meta banned a surveillance company called Cobwebs from gathering intelligence across all its platforms. Its security staff had discovered Cobwebs, founded by former members of Israel’s elite cyber intel agencies, was using hundreds of accounts to snoop on Facebook and WhatsApp users, many of them activists, opposition politicians and government officials in Hong Kong and Mexico.

Since then, ICE has spent over $5 million on the company’s tools, with one $2 million purchase made this week for Cobwebs’ AI-powered social media surveillance tech Tangles. The software scours the open internet and the dark web for information relevant to police investigations with AI tying together data on people of interest. In one recent description filed with the Texas state government, PenLink, which now sells Cobwebs tech after a 2023 merger, wrote that Tangles “automatically ingests historical data from multiple communication channels, mobile forensics, internet-based communications, location data, financial records and web intelligence.”

Which you can thank Bush and the PATRIOT Act for. People were warning about it, and they were right.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Open question for anyone...

So where exactly are we now in the spectrum towards fascism?

 

[unapologetic]

So where exactly are we now in the spectrum towards fascism?

I would say 9/10.
All he needs to do now is suspend an election, or run for another term.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Or invoke martial law, insurrection act/sediction act/alien enemies act.

 

[bilby]

So where exactly are we now in the spectrum towards fascism?

I would say 9/10.
All he needs to do now is suspend an election, or run for another term.

Or invoke martial law, insurrection act/sediction act/alien enemies act.

I don't think either of these is necessary; You are there now, with government goons gunning down citizens with impunity, and the administration blatantly lying about it in obvious propaganda that their supporters lap up and obediently regurgitate.

These things are likely next steps, but the line has definitely been crossed. Whether your country can come back at this point is highly doubtful, though I would say it's not impossible - it depends on a lot of ordinary citizens resisting the goons, particularly with regard to blocking interference in future elections.

Pressure and pushback from foreign governments might help a little, but ultimately it's a domestic issue, and pressure from allies such as Canada and the UK will not make a huge difference (though every other OECD nation should apply such pressure, if only to protect their own international reputations).

The mid-terms will be decisive. If MAGA manage to avoid a massive defeat (whether by fair means or foul), it's all over.

I am not confident.

 

[KCFlyer]

I am not confident.

Nor am I.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

So where exactly are we now in the spectrum towards fascism?

I would say 9/10.
All he needs to do now is suspend an election, or run for another term.

Or invoke martial law, insurrection act/sediction act/alien enemies act.

I don't think either of these is necessary; You are there now, with government goons gunning down citizens with impunity, and the administration blatantly lying about it in obvious propaganda that their supporters lap up and obediently regurgitate.

These things are likely next steps, but the line has definitely been crossed. Whether your country can come back at this point is highly doubtful, though I would say it's not impossible - it depends on a lot of ordinary citizens resisting the goons, particularly with regard to blocking interference in future elections.

Pressure and pushback from foreign governments might help a little, but ultimately it's a domestic issue, and pressure from allies such as Canada and the UK will not make a huge difference (though every other OECD nation should apply such pressure, if only to protect their own international reputations).

The mid-terms will be decisive. If MAGA manage to avoid a massive defeat (whether by fair means or foul), it's all over.

I am not confident.

Germany did come back. But it took a while.

 

[bilby]

Germany did come back. But it took a while.

It took a military defeat and occupation by foreign powers, who embarked on an explicit program of reeducation.

 

[laughing dog]

Germany did come back. But it took a while.

It took a military defeat and occupation by foreign powers, who embarked on an explicit program of reeducation.

I think I’d welcome Canadian conquerors.

 

[crazyfingers]

Free speech is punished in the Trump regime.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — At 1 p.m. Friday, ABC News aired an interview with Abigail Adelsheim-Marshall, who owns St. Paul’s Mischief Toy Store with her parents Dan Marshall and Millie Adelsheim. She discussed the store’s decision to distribute free whistles that citizens have been using to alert neighbors of the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“She delivered a very strident anti-ICE message, which we’re incredibly proud of,” said Dan Marshall. “Three hours later, two plainclothes ICE agents came into our store and served us with a Notice of Inspection.”

The agents were asking for I-9 documents — which prove people are legal to work in this country — from the store’s employees. Marshall said the store has been audited for various things in the past, but this was different. For starters, the notice listed the store by its name, rather than its legal name Mischief LLC, which has been used in every other government document the store has received. Also, Marshall said, he was alerted to previous audits by mail, not by in-person agents.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/hours-after-abc-news-ran-a-story-about-a-minnesota-toy-store-ice-agents-arrived-at-their-door/

Clear retaliation and abuse of power.

Abuse of power. Retaliation.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Germany did come back. But it took a while.

It took a military defeat and occupation by foreign powers, who embarked on an explicit program of reeducation.

I think I’d welcome Canadian conquerors.

I hope they make us "sorry".

 

[WAB]

Germany did come back. But it took a while.

It took a military defeat and occupation by foreign powers, who embarked on an explicit program of reeducation.

I think I’d welcome Canadian conquerors.

I hope they make us "sorry".

Me too. But we may have to get used to Rush.

Wait...I actually like Rush.

 

[Millrat]

Germany did come back. But it took a while.

It took a military defeat and occupation by foreign powers, who embarked on an explicit program of reeducation.

I think I’d welcome Canadian conquerors.

I hope they make us "sorry".

Me too. But we may have to get used to Rush.

Wait...I actually like Rush.

As it happens, and as much as it disappoints me, they're touring again with a new drummer.

That said, they should open every show with A Farewell to Kings. It's freaky how accurate this is:

"Cities full of hatred, fear and lies,
Withered hearts and cruel tormented eyes,
Seeming demons dressed in kingly guise,
Beating down the multitudes and scoffing at the wise"

 

[TV and credit cards]

Perhaps other western nations can do what our useless fucking Republican controlled congress will not. Isn't it in other western nation's interest to not see the United States turn, from a security perspective? I hate to reach out, hat in hand but I'm reaching out hat in hand. If between Trump dickery during the midterms and his giving cover to congress to not seat fairly elected members, perhaps there is still hope in other nations coming to the aid of democracy.