As most have predicted and feared, the US Administration appears to now be testing if they can push one step further towards enforcing an authoritarian ethno-state: threatening a full-on US citizen by-birth with detainment and deportation (to where, exactly, if they are a born US citizen?). Someone who, “coincidentally”, is an immigration lawyer, someone who might defend other targets of their deportation agenda.
First they came for …
EDIT: a thread indicating this has been a mass email to others https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3lmljpkrdj22h
As with all things the Trump administration is doing, this moment came sooner than one would have expected.
Yeah, I thought we’d at least get to June before they tried this.
In January I commented hoping that they would move as quickly as possible. The problem all along has been the slow, gradual destruction. Death by a thousand cuts, so to speak.
Just be thankful that they aren’t doing this slowly and methodically. Their actions show that this was inevitable. The only hope the American people have at this point is that the nazis incompetence shocks the masses into the appropriate response; whatever’s necessary to remove them from power.
I take your point - that the rapid progression might shock some people into action - but also keep in mind that Hitler took control of Germany rather quickly too and we all know how that ended.
True, but even if Americans are too brainwashed to do what’s necessary, the rest of the world is not. The shock and awe will result in massive divestment and brain-drain from the US. With how dependent the US is on trade, that might mean the difference between WW3 and domestic economic collapse (containment).
A slow takeover would result in an even stronger shift of the overton window, globally, and give fascism some legitimacy among the average moron. Without the American people enacting a peaceful revolution, the best case scenario for the world is economic collapse and civil war in the US.
True. Here in Australia the rapid progression of the Trump administration has definitely resulted in some last-minute policy changes by our major conservative party. I don’t believe they will honour their new campaign promises for a moment if they get into power, based on their previous behaviour, but it has been nice to see a bit of a reality check.
Do you mean they’re backing down from a ∀פ∀W agenda?
In Canada, the conservative party was basically MAGA, Northern Branch. The same kinds of anti-immigrant rhetoric, the same culture war BS, the same “government can’t do anything right” stance, etc. US Republican politicians were publicly supporting Canadian conservatives and vice-versa. Their support reached its peak on Jan 20th 2025, the same day Trump took office.
Since then, support from the Liberals has gone from 20.1% to 43.9%, while the conservatives have dropped from 44.8% to 38.0%. The conservative ties to the MAGAs has really hurt them, while the Liberal government fighting back against the MAGAs has given them a massive boost.
If Trump hasn’t picked a fight with Canada, or had just delayed it a few months, he’d have had a friendly conservative government in power who could have legitimized him and been a partner. Instead he decided to attack, causing a huge “rally round the flag” effect and basically guaranteeing the Liberals will win the election.
The LNP has appeared to back down from MAGA-esque policies, but I don’t believe they are being honest with their “change of heart”. Their established behviour and lack of support for workers’ rights, etc., almost guarantees that if they were to get into power, they’d eventually go back to their original policies of ending WFH, gutting the federal government, etc.
I always forget how Aussie politics is weird. Your liberal party is Labour but without the ‘u’, and your mainstream conservatives are the Liberals. Canada doesn’t have a “Labour” party, so our Liberals are the left wing (our “Labour” party is spelled NDP). And then there’s the UK where they don’t really have a “Liberal” party so their extremes are Labour and Conservative.
articles like this one suggest that the brain drain is an intentional cultural purge:
aka a real life hand maid’s tale
Literally everything they are doing is a “cultural purge”, to plant fascist loyalists into every position of power and authority. The brain drain is a side effect, and the more educated and high-skilled people that leave, the more it will sap American tech and industry of profits (including big tech, the war machine, etc).
Brain drain: the situation in which large numbers of educated and very skilled people leave their own country to live and work in another one where pay and conditions are better.