Are we now in full blown fascist totalitarianism?

[Jimmy Higgins]

CBC piece on ICE hiring and the White Nationalist / Anti-Semitism (actual anti-Semitism, not the fake one alt-right'ers rail on about) in the advertising for new hires. It paints a rather awful picture about who ICE is looking to hire.

 

[Playball40]

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.

Venezuela, Russia, Hungary all have "elections"

 

[ZiprHead]

Republicans Will Detonate Their Secret Weapon at the Midnight Hour to Stop Women from Voting

The Republican Senate will pass the SAVE Act at the midnight hour before the midterms, and tens of millions of women will discover their names don’t match their birth certificates when fixing the crisis has become impossible.

wendy664.substack.com

Imagine arriving at your polling place in November only to be turned away because you changed your name when you got married. You’ve voted for 20 years with valid identification. Nothing matters. The SAVE Act passed the House in April, and 69 million American women are about to discover their names don’t match their birth certificates while the deadline to fix the problem has already closed.

You arrive at your polling place the same as every election since 2004 with the same precinct, same poll workers, and same ritual of civic participation, but this time the worker scans your driver’s license, frowns, types into the computer, then looks up with an apologetic expression that will replay in nightmares.

“I’m sorry, but your documents don’t match. Your license says Martinez, but your birth certificate says Chen. I can’t give you a ballot.”

Twenty years of voting with valid ID, Social Security records, tax returns, and a mortgage in your name mean nothing when the system decides your marriage certificate makes you unverifiable.

 

[ZiprHead]

What You Need to Know About the SAVE Act

campaignlegal.org

 

[crazyfingers]

Editorial by US Senator Markey

Under the Trump administration, ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, have dramatically expanded their surveillance apparatus. Along with the apparently routine use of phones to record confrontations with protesters, ICE has deployed cutting-edge technologies — license plate readers, facial recognition apps, social media monitoring technologies, and vast commercial databases — to monitor, track, and target individuals with unprecedented scope and precision. As a result, even when ICE leaves a neighborhood, its presence lingers. Through these technologies, ICE has constructed a digital dragnet that captures and retains massive amounts of data about all of us, citizens and noncitizens alike.

This is the new reality of immigration enforcement: an invisible infrastructure of surveillance technologies — assembled quietly, without meaningful oversight or public debate. This is unacceptable. This is dangerous. This is authoritarianism.

ICE’s growing surveillance state - The Boston Globe

ICE has constructed a digital dragnet that captures and retains massive amounts of data about all of us, citizens and noncitizens alike.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[crazyfingers]

How far along the scale to autocracy is the US now?

Opinion | ICE and Minnesota Have Pushed the U.S. Closer to Autocracy

Measuring America’s slide toward democratic erosion.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

Checking the linked source, the last one "Manipulating the law to stay in power' is a "2".
Some of these actually seem lower than expected. One could call them 'conservative figures" (in the old neutral meaning of that term).

 

[Swammerdami]

From a recent article at New York Times. Are they "Fake News"? We have several Trumpists here -- though only @RVonse has the self-respect and gumption to admit his affiliation. I'm interested in how our Trumpists would respond to these headlines:

The Latest on the Trump Administration​

---

• Racist Video of the Obamas: President Trump posted a blatantly racist video clip portraying former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but he insisted he had nothing to apologize for even after he deleted the video following an outcry.
• Struggling to Recruit Prosecutors: The intermingling of law enforcement and political goals has made the Justice Department, long a magnet for platinum legal talent, an unappealing landing spot, according to current and former officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
• Funding for Democratic States: A federal judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration from withholding funds for child care and social services in five Democratic-led states, keeping at bay cuts that the states say are politically motivated and would harm hundreds of thousands of people.
• Kennedy’s Unfounded Claim: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted that the keto diet could cure schizophrenia — an unfounded claim. A Harvard psychiatrist who studies the link between diet and mental health said that the keto diet, while promising, did not “cure” schizophrenia.
• Vance Booed at Olympics: San Siro stadium in Milan broke out in scattered boos as Vice President JD Vance appeared on huge screens there during the opening ceremony for the Winter Games, an indication of the fury in Italy over the Trump administration’s policies.
• Smithsonian: Trump administration officials have suggested that the National Portrait Gallery create a section in the museum to display multiple images of the president in addition to his official portrait.

 

[DrZoidberg]

This is on topic. Sarah Paine talks about how fascism is coming back and how Trump's attitude is in line with fascist ideology. Which I think is what the thread starter really meant. I guess

 

[Patooka]

This is on topic. Sarah Paine talks about how fascism is coming back and how Trump's attitude is in line with fascist ideology. Which I think is what the thread starter really meant. I guess.

And yet you argue over the fucking semantics? That baffles me.

 

[DrZoidberg]

This is on topic. Sarah Paine talks about how fascism is coming back and how Trump's attitude is in line with fascist ideology. Which I think is what the thread starter really meant. I guess.

And yet you argue over the fucking semantics? That baffles me.

I care about the power of words. Exaggerating Trump's crimes means we instinctively over adjust in the opposite direction and play it down. The opposite of what we want, when we're dealing with such a dangerous figure as Trump.

There's a lot about Trump that is fascist. But USA is not a fascist country. Nor is it totalitarian. I am convinced it would be if Trump got his way. But he's not. So USA isn't.

I care about what is true. Saying that USA isn't a fascist totalitarian state isn't to defend Trump.

 

[crazyfingers]

WTF?

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts​

The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.

In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

...

Unlike arrest warrants, which require a judge’s approval, administrative subpoenas are issued by the Department of Homeland Security. They were only sparingly used in the past, primarily to uncover the people behind social media accounts engaged in serious crimes such as child trafficking, said tech employees familiar with the legal tool. But last year, the department ramped up its use of the subpoenas to unmask anonymous social media accounts.

...

In September, for example, it sent Meta administrative subpoenas to identify the people behind Instagram accounts that posted about ICE raids in California, according to the A.C.L.U. The subpoenas were challenged in court, and the Department of Homeland Security withdrew the requests for information before a judge could rule.

“We have received legal process from law enforcement seeking information about your Facebook account,” the notification said, according to court records. “If we do not receive a copy of documentation that you have filed in court challenging this legal process within ten (10) days, we will respond to the requesting agency with information.”

The account owner alerted the A.C.L.U., which filed a motion on Oct. 16 to quash the government’s request. In a hearing on Jan. 14 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the A.C.L.U. argued that the government was using administrative subpoenas to target people whose speech it did not agree with.

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.

www.nytimes.com

If you are watching Bondi and ICE. I say FUCK YOU.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

WTF?

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts​

The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.

The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.

In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from the Department of Homeland Security, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

...

Unlike arrest warrants, which require a judge’s approval, administrative subpoenas are issued by the Department of Homeland Security. They were only sparingly used in the past, primarily to uncover the people behind social media accounts engaged in serious crimes such as child trafficking, said tech employees familiar with the legal tool. But last year, the department ramped up its use of the subpoenas to unmask anonymous social media accounts.

...

In September, for example, it sent Meta administrative subpoenas to identify the people behind Instagram accounts that posted about ICE raids in California, according to the A.C.L.U. The subpoenas were challenged in court, and the Department of Homeland Security withdrew the requests for information before a judge could rule.

“We have received legal process from law enforcement seeking information about your Facebook account,” the notification said, according to court records. “If we do not receive a copy of documentation that you have filed in court challenging this legal process within ten (10) days, we will respond to the requesting agency with information.”

The account owner alerted the A.C.L.U., which filed a motion on Oct. 16 to quash the government’s request. In a hearing on Jan. 14 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the A.C.L.U. argued that the government was using administrative subpoenas to target people whose speech it did not agree with.

Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts

The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.

www.nytimes.com

If you are watching Bondi and ICE. I say FUCK YOU.

Crickets from all of the right wingers who claim they're pro-free speech.

 

[crazyfingers]

Crickets from all of the right wingers who claim they're pro-free speech.

Bondi is a slimy Ferengi slug. You hear that Bondi? You slimy fucking slug. And so are other Trump supporters. Slimy Ferengi slugs!

 

[ZiprHead]

I've never seen a woman more in need of a good orgasm than Bondi. I say we start a drive to have sex toys, dildos, vibrators, whatever, to her.

If they are used, don't bother cleaning them before sending.

 

[Elixir]

I've never seen a woman more in need of a good orgasm than Bondi.

You just don’t like seeing a strong woman standing up for herself a halfwitted senile rapist fraud.
Women like money and power too, and there is no lower hanging branch from which to obtain either, than sucking up to the base cruelty of demented Dear Leader.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

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.

Venezuela, Russia, Hungary all have "elections"

This is how I see it playing out. Suspending elections, while still a possibility, is less blatant than e.g. California going red by a tiny margin. It would still be outrageous but in terms of stealing and then consolidating power, it's a less terrible PR move.

Sham elections aren't new and the Trump party has no legal, ethical, or moral qualms about taking that route.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

I've never seen a woman more in need of a good orgasm than Bondi. I say we start a drive to have sex toys, dildos, vibrators, whatever, to her.

If they are used, don't bother cleaning them before sending.

I mean, chances are she's a huge hypocrite on masturbation and already has at least one dildo. Such is the way of Christian fundies. It's just an act she's putting on, these people are all super fake.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Also I just want to point out, it's perfectly fine to be asexual too.

 

[unapologetic]

Trump’s Redistricting Plan