The Washington Post reports that Trump’s allies are encouraging him to declare a national state of emergency using alleged Chinese interference in the 2020 election. The pretext would be used to nationalize the midterm elections this fall—which are constitutionally supposed to be run by the states—with ICE guarding and potentially blocking polling stations. It’s essentially a putsch attempt, or soft coup.
Protests against ICE prompted Republicans to revive their hoary 1960s-era complaints—utterly unsourced and demonstrably false—that protesters are “outside agitators” paid to march around and get beaten up by the police.
If you were around in 2002–2003, you remember that the George W. Bush Administration bent over backwards to get public support for their wars, even making up lies about weapons of mass destruction. Weirdly, Trump makes no effort whatsoever to convince or explain to the public why we should attack Venezuela or Iran or wherever.
Congress has handed $38 billion to ICE in order to build massive detention centers across the United States as processing facilities for illegal immigrants to be deported. When you crunch the numbers, however, it’s clear they don’t need all those beds for their supposed purpose. What’s the real reason they want them? Hint: it’s not to deport them—it’s to deport you.
As America spins into fascism, with masked goons terrorizing citizens and the Administration clearly plotting to subvert or cancel elections, the real left and moderate left are bickering over who is to blame. Maybe it’s time to fight the Right first, and fight one another later.
For 1,900 of the last 2,000 years, Jews represented a tiny minority, usually in the low single digits of the population of what is today Israel. Zionists argue that they, and only they—not the other ancient peoples who lived and ruled there—are entitled to live in and dominate the region and expel those who lived there throughout their absence.
After ICE shot peaceful protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti to death in Minneapolis, right-wing supporters of the ICE surge terrorizing Americans in their cities argued that those who interfere with law enforcement and/or attend protests inherently risk their lives. If you want to stay alive, stay home.
Ironically, the Republican Party that insists on Voter ID laws requiring would-be voters to fully identify themselves at the polls supports ICE agents who refuse to show their faces, present ID, or stick around after they gun down American citizens in the streets of American cities. Privacy rights are for them, not for we the people.
ICE agents and their supporters portray them as big and brave. The truth is, they’re fragile snowflakes who complain about being called names, the cold in Minnesota, and having demonstrators throw empty water bottles and snowballs at them. Most absurdly, they wear masks for fear of being doxxed, while every other state and local cop and federal LEO has their identity in open view. ICE are vicious. But they’re also cowards.
After ICE agents gunned down peaceful protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the government smeared him (and previously, Renee Good) as a terrorist. In truth, he never drew, much less brandished, his gun. If he had a chance to come back to life and do it again, would he avail himself of his Second Amendment right to defend himself against random masked goons who might or might not be government agents?
Ted Rall’s Latest Books:
