Category Archives: Bigotry

The Occupation Of Minnesota.

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In case you are unaware of what is happening, Trump has created a personal army of 30,000 heavily armed, masked thugs (aka ICE and CBP) to do his bidding. A force of 3,000 of those bullies has invaded Minneapolis-St. Paul and surrounding communities on the pretext that they will make our cities safer.

The truth is quite the opposite.

Indeed, these thugs continue to break laws and violate the Constitution. In the cities’ most diverse neighborhoods, masked teams are going door-to-door and demanding residents show their papers.

Everyone with brown or black skin, including Native Americans, are vulnerable to being stopped and brutally detained regardless of their citizenship status. Thousands of nonviolent Minnesotans, including U.S. citizens, have been detained and incarcerated. Minnesota drivers have been pulled over and brutally dragged away in handcuffs – their cars left running in the streets. Some have had their cars rammed by ICE.

Lawless teams of armed masked men are pushing their way through department stores, restaurants and other businesses. They are teargassing legal observers and nonviolent protestors in violation of international law. They are using electronic surveillance of license plates, cell phones, social media and personal data from the newly consolidated government database to identify and intimidate those who record their activities.

At least one foreign visitor who came to Minnesota for medical treatment was detained. In another case, a team of agents without warrant unconstitutionally broke down the door to a home and dragged out one of its residents at gunpoint. Two young women were struck by nonlethal rubber bullets because they were apparently not moving fast enough through a crosswalk. And sadly, a young mother of three was shot and killed for simply trying to protect her neighbors.

Residents – most residents – are scared. Some too frightened to leave their homes or let their children go to school. As a result, many businesses are closed.

Some Minnesotans are purchasing groceries and other essentials  for immigrant families who are afraid to shop for themselves. Others have “adopted” immigrant neighbors who have legal status to help them in case one or more of them are detained.

It’s as if there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Anne Franks in our cities.

You may wonder why our federal government would treat its citizens this way. The answer is a combination of retribution against a “blue” state and theater designed to intimidate and threaten Minnesotans and all other Americans into compliance. Violence is the goal. And it’s escalating.

The New Surveillance And Police State.

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In recent years, the Republican Party and MAGA have constantly cried “Freedom”, believing that Democratic presidents were out to take away their liberty. But ironically, the people they voted for are the ones who are actually suspending the Constitution and taking away our freedoms.

Starting by suspending due process for immigrants, the Trump regime has quickly moved to attack the freedoms of citizens. It has attacked the First Amendment guarantees of free speech in government agencies, universities, and the media. It has violated the Fourth Amendment preventing unreasonable search and seizures, the Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, and the 14th Amendment that gives citizenship to all those born in the United States, leading to a case that is now before SCOTUS.

The regime has initiated numerous attacks on the 15th Amendment guaranteeing the right to vote. Numerous individuals in the regime have openly discussed repealing the 19th Amendment, which gives women the right to vote. In addition, the regime has repeatedly discussed violating the 22nd amendment limiting all presidents, including Trump, to two terms.

And the regime is clearly only getting started.

Billionaire Peter Theil and his Palantir data mining company have helped construct a master government database of all US citizens enabled by the company’s numerous government contracts and Trump’s Executive Order to eliminate information silos. And the creation of the database and the accompanying surveillance network is happening faster than legislators can recognize the threat, let alone craft legislation to control it.

So, all of your personal data, including financial records, tax records, and medical records are all in one place, quickly accessible to anyone with clearance. And since the Trump regime has ordered states to turn over voting records, the database will likely include your party affiliation, political donations and voting history.

Additionally, Homeland Security and ICE are using more than 70,000 LPR (License Plate Reader) cameras to monitor the movements of undocumented immigrants. Of course, the cameras also allow the government to track movements of ordinary citizens, with the FBI and DHS using AI to sort through tips and social media to determine what they believe to be “threats.”

And the entire domestic surveillance network is shielded from oversight by “national security” exemptions.

At the same time, the regime is rapidly increasing the number of masked and armed ICE agents to roughly 30,000. It has also increased ICE’s budget for weapons by $71 million, a 700 percent increase.

But that shouldn’t worry us. We all trust that the Trump regime won’t use its database, cameras and secret police for political purposes, or to interfere with the liberties of American citizens. Right? Right? Right???

The Arpaio Model.

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From 1993 to 2017, the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” Joe Arpaio terrorized Latinos and political opponents in Arizona’s Maricopa County for which he faced numerous civil rights lawsuits and was eventually convicted of contempt of court.

During his reign of terror, Arpaio established a model for what has become Trump’s ICEstapo.

Racial Profiling – Arpaio’s Sheriff’s department racially profiled Latinos during his anti-immigration sweeps stopping every driver with dark hair and brown skin to demand to see their papers. And, if they were unable to provide them, he swiftly hauled them off to jail where they were held in deplorable conditions. If those tactics seem familiar, that’s because the so-called conservative majority of SCOTUS decided to look the other way as ICE Barbie and her Gestapo wannabes violate the 4th Amendment ban on illegal searches and seizures.

Detention Conditions – Instead of normal jails, Arpaio housed many of his detainees in what he called a concentration camp in the Arizona desert. Known as Tent City, the camp consisted of surplus military tents located next to a landfill which made the entire site stink. Adding to the stench were the site’s only bathroom facilities – portable toilets. There was no heat or AC leading to temperatures inside the tent rising to as high as 145 degrees.

It was reported that Arpaio’s wife had a lucrative contract to provide meals for the detainees. Yet the twice-daily meals consisted of a carton of milk along with orange juice in the morning, a bowl of flavorless porridge, a hard roll and a piece of fruit recovered from food rescue.

Given that elected officials have been denied access to inspect ICE’s Alligator Alcatraz, it’s likely the conditions are as bad or worse.

Targeting Political Opponents – Arpaio famously arrested two reporters for publishing an article unfavorable to his office. The reporters were handcuffed by plainclothes officers, placed in an SUV with tinted windows and hauled off to jail. He also did the same to many of his political opponents. Sound familiar?

Like Arpaio ICE has also arrested political opponents without cause, forcing them to spend thousands on legal fees. The only difference between Arpaio’s thugs and the ICEstapo is that ICE agents have taken it a step farther by wearing masks.