Several years ago, when our older grandson was ten or eleven, my husband took him to New York, where he was most impressed by the museum at Ellis Island–especially the exhibit that explained the difference between America and many of the countries immigrants were leaving: in those repressive regimes, people could be stopped on the streets and required to produce their “papers.”
In America, such tactics were scorned. We were a free people.
That grandson is now thirty-six, and the Trump administration is waging war on the America celebrated in that exhibit. As the Daily Beast (among other outlets) has reported, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has defended the ICE agents who are stopping people on the streets and demanding that Americans prove their citizenship. When Noem was asked if she supported allowing federal agents to violate people’s Fourth Amendment rights–they are asking Americans for papers without reasonable suspicion–she responded that “Every single action that our ICE officers take is according to the law and following protocols that we have used for years. They are doing everything correctly.”
Noem evidently slept through her high school government class…
Nor is this throwback to “bad” countries an anomaly. There are increasing parallels with those “unAmerican” regimes.
Lincoln Square recently compared remarks from a 1980 speech by Iran’s Khomeni with pronouncements from our increasingly fascist regime.
Khomeini: Iran should not just be an Islamic republic but a clerical republic. The clergy should be the ruling strata…
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.): “I am a Bible‑believing Christian. Someone asked me today in the media, they said, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.’”
Khomeini: Revolution should come about in all the universities throughout Iran, so that the professors who are in contact with the East or the West will be purged, and so that the universities may become healthy places for the study of higher Islamic teachings.
Steve Bannon: “I’ve told President Trump … we have to go into these elite institutions, cut out all the money. That’s a bitch slap, right? They’ll start paying attention.”
Khomeini: The false teachings of the former regime should be abruptly stopped in universities throughout Iran because all the misery of the Iranian society during the reign of this father and son was due to these false teachings.
President Donald Trump: “For many years, tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding … while academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth. The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left, and we will do that.”
Khomeini: If we had a proper set-up in our universities, we would have never had a university-educated intelligentsia who during Iran’s most critical period are engaged in conflict and schism among themselves and are cut off from the people and are so negligent of what happens to the people, as though they do not live in Iran [shouts of “God is great!”].
Vice President J.D. Vance: “I think if any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country and for the people who live in it, we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”
Khomeini: Most of the deadly blows which have been delivered to this society have been due to the majority of these university-educated intellectuals who have always regarded — and still regard — themselves as being great and have always said things — and still continue to say things — which only their other intellectual friends can understand, regardless of whether the people understand them or not.
Trump: “When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.”
These parallels are especially ironic, given Trump’s sudden concern for Iranian protesters while encouraging his ICE thugs to violently attack protesters in America.
Add to that the administration’s increasing use of Nazi slogans . As the Guardian has reported, recent posts from the Labor department have included a video using the phrase: “One Homeland. One People. One Heritage.” a retread of the Nazi slogan: “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” (“one people, one realm, one leader”). Trump’s labor department has also published artwork that depicts only white male workers. “Its posts frequently cite “Americanism”, decry “globalism” and tout misleading claims that all US job gains under Trump have gone to “native born” Americans.”
They’ve gone way beyond dog whistles. As someone has told us “When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
This conflict between fascism and the rule of law is like a Hollywood thriller in its suspense but with no guarantee of a happy ending.
RESIST!
Talk about intellectuals communicating at a higher level, I hope everyone gets to listen to or read Mark Carney’s Davos speech. To cut through the bullshit, he admitted the Western rules-based order created after WW2 was a sham. It was great for the powerful, but not so great for everybody else. Poor Lil Trumpy’s consciousness is nonexistent, as he thought the whole speech was about HIM. LOL
I went the route of being nice and trying to elevate the discussion, but there is nothing elevated about Trump and his intellectual misfits. I listened to their hearings and knew what was coming. They actually booted Matt Gaetz for being a pedo when the entire Republican Party just voted against holding Bondi in contempt for breaking the law. Meanwhile, she posts on social media about the protesters in Minnesota, “Nobody is above the law!” They have no clue. None. Noem, Bondi, Hegseth, etc., are just clueless. Furthermore, the entire MAGA Party is protecting the global pedophile sex trafficking elite and seems proud of it. Bondi’s defiance tells us exactly who she is.
Just to be clear, NEITHER party wants to reveal what’s in those files. Everything surrounding those files is a performative gesture, including the faux media.
It’s true that the criminal enterprise in the executive branch doesn’t give a damn about the rule of law, the Constitution or the people it presumes to govern. The parallels with Iran are interesting and compelling, but the current U.S. government is not able to speak to the people OR the media, faux or not. They are purely ideological and beholden to the cult leader. Add to that the utter lack of intellect among any of them. The only creature with a brain is the egregious Steven Voight … the guy who is leading us to our demise.
And as we see, the more we resist, the more violent and lawless the ICE/HSA become. They WANT an outright civil war so they can complete the suppression of our freedoms, laws and the Constitution. THAT is the ultimate goal of P – 2025.
Please accept my apology for errors in the above comment. It’s Russell Vought and DHS. Hey, it’s almost 5:00 A. M. when I look at this blog. I’ll accept any corrections.
No problem, Vern! At “almost 5:00 A.M.” almost anything can be excused.
It seems the Trump is on a “How stupid, and ridiculous can I be?” tour. I can only imagine what was going through the minds of his Davos audience!
Vought, Bannon, et. al. ought to be brought before a jury of their peers, but they and their “peers” ought to be set afloat on the many icebergs emerging from the Antarctic ice fields.
its the type of ice stupid. should be the new slogan. as ive watched since the gulf war,s. the cities,towns,counties,states, all had ads for military police training; come serve with us. since the power that be, want some privious experience,military was probably leathal with few rules of engagement. this type of hype to draw from trained,ill say this quietly,killers. not all,but some. be it ill say ive done my fair share of getting stopped for some infraction for whatever. im not a star citizen,but im not trouble at your back door. drivn truck or,my past as party town follower,has seen every angle of police stops. even face down with a FBI shotgun behind my neck. i was the wrong person,twice. seeing and feeling the chill of trained killers hold me down and have total authority to excicute at will. then walk away,is more chilling. every state in 47 years of driving a truck has givin me a seat in a truck stop to discuss issues mainly trucking and traffic,with local and state cops., and some not so nice. standing upon my ACLU rules of engagment solid and with a smile.(Thanks Sheila) its the total sum of all here. not all law enforcement,just some. and today we have a gathering of sludge for a grand finale. i recently was stoped for a,so called illegal left. all bullshit,i was stopped because my toyota avalon looked like.. the state cop was the most agressive ive met in NoDak to date, his name Jackson. i phone as body wear lookin at me,like some thrid eye. all tech training was present,along with his smart ass talk.he is not from nodak. this was a goon. and its been a long time since i delt with one. he didnt expect my lack of his concern,and my defence. i ignored him,and answered his surley way of question with a staright concrete face i gave him. its obvious his training is akin to the new government. i was not his whoever he was looking for. obvious he missed his mark. and he got my ire,respectivly. im use to this harrasment. drive a truck and deal with cops on quotas who look at us like a free ride for a ticket over pulling over someone who is doing something obviously wrong while driving. as a cop in ohio once said,why should i pull him over,when he may pull a gun on me,most likely,you wont.(1984,ohio pike) seems today, look at every angle,around you. its being recorded by someone or something. every stop lite in nodak has a camera. our police force is becoming the police state,and ice can use them at will. this is what magats voted for. and this how they want us treated.we the ones who defend thier freedom to kick us to the curb.
p.s; that ring stuff on your porch, it was you had to contact amazon within 10 days to make sure the local law couldnt tap into them. i dont know how this stands now; but many have made thier own lives at stake with them..
one,other mention. ive been around this nation in alot of places you may never see or hear from.im not a straight line driver. but over the last few decades ive been witness to cops over stressin. even in the norm. we the trucker have always been protrayed as some drug users,speed etc. ive never even drank coffee or smoke tobacco to drive. its just in me to drive. the point here. the local genre,cops and donuts. try energy drinks and hype. seems these ice goons move around alot. and maybe that mask is for other reasons. since the consumption of these drinks are legal. they may fuel the goon to act out and gives them the right to body slam ya for fun.
mattel has a new Barbie.the autistic: now if someone will make a head that
resembles ice noem, maybe mattel will sell a bunch.. then we can matchem up with g.i.joes..
I was stopped once by Immigration officers. I was in Southern California, driving from San Diego to Mount Palomar Observatory. There was a road block on a small county highway with little traffic and they were stopping every car. I was alone and I was asked to open my trunk. This was in the early 90’s and attitudes were different. I didn’t think twice about that incident until years later.
We are spending January and February in warmer weather. If we could drive to another 1st world country, we would not be in Florida. But before we left, I asked my wife if we should pack our passports. At the time the decision was no, but maybe it should have been yes! So far Florida is still keeping up the illusion that everything is normal and we haven’t been asked for our papers.
Dan, I moved to San Diego in 1968 and discovered the immigration checkpoints on I-5 near Oceanside and one near Escondido on (then) U.S. 395. When it became I-15, the checkpoint remained. Then, of course, the “traffic” was agricultural workers being smuggled by the big farms.
A local TV reporter took a crew up to North County and revealed paper box camps for these illegal workers. It was horrific. When asked what they did with their money, the workers said they lived like this so they could send most of their cash home to Mexico to keep their families from starving.
Today, it’s drug traffic for the Americans who purchase around $6 billion worth of this shit every year. It’s a clear indictment of what sort of people populate our land that they have to find ways to escape their reality of personal failure – for whatever reason. I wonder how many of these losers actually vote.
When I was young and would watch WWII movies, the most frightening scene was always when some black-hatted guy in uniform would stop people on the street and say, “Papers.” And those guys didn’t even wear masks.
America is now a frightening place of which I can no longer be proud. I even hesitate to say the Pledge of Allegiance, thanks to Trump and his MAGA minions.
I think Norm showed exactly how much she knows about the Constitution when she testified that Habeus Corpus gave the President the right do whatever he wanted. She either slept through Civics and History classes or she is a sleeper agent. It’s painfully obvious that she never took a course in Latin.