It appears free speech at U.S. universities and colleges is kaput, except maybe for “Young Republican” clubs that want to invite Nazis and rapist “influencers” to speak, in which case free speech is sacred and everyone who objects is pro-censorship. From AP:
Immigration agents arrest Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University protests
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal immigration authorities arrested a Palestinian activist Saturday who played a prominent role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel, a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s pledge to detain and deport student activists.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia until this past December, was inside his university-owned apartment Saturday night when several Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered and took him into custody, his attorney, Amy Greer, told The Associated Press.
Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa. Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.
According to the article, Khalil’s wife, an American citizen, was unable to visit him at the nearby facility to which ICE claimed Khalil was being transported. There are rumors that Trump’s brownshirts bundled Khalil off to Louisiana, but who knows.
In a tweet on the (Nazi-infested by order of its owner) X site, Marco Rubio accused Khalil of being a “Hamas supporter.” But if there’s a shred of evidence of that, aside from Khalil’s participation in protests denouncing Israel’s actions in Gaza, I haven’t been able to find it.
This comes on the heels of the Trump regime canceling $400M in grants and contracts with Columbia for failing to “squelch antisemitism on campus,” despite the university’s establishment of a disciplinary committee to investigate students involved in the protests.
Columbia’s predicament underscores the foolishness of trying to appease fascists. They hate educational institutions they don’t control, so they will come for you anyway.
As always with Republicans, there’s a bonus helping of hypocrisy here since Trump hasn’t squelched antisemitism in his own administration. A good start would be for Trump to stop repeating antisemitic garbage himself and firing his lawless, unelected co-president, who famously endorsed the same antisemitic trope that inspired the Tree of Life synagogue mass murderer.
Antisemitism is a huge problem around the world and definitely here in the U.S. The latter point is illustrated by the fact that both co-presidents have trafficked in grotesque antisemitic stereotypes. Antisemites unfortunately exist across the political spectrum, and during the campus protests, the media covered horrifying stories about protesters targeting Jewish students.
I say screw anyone who did that. That sort of behavior should result in serious consequences, including getting kicked out of school for cases where protesters intimidated fellow students and created a climate of fear where students felt unsafe on campus.
But as far as I can tell, there’s no evidence Khalil did anything like that. He was a high-profile campus protest leader, so Trump’s goons disappeared him as a warning to others. Anyone who believes in the First Amendment should be alarmed by that.
JML
I’m sure the Current Occupant admires the Pinochet regime.
It’s quite disturbing how many of his supporting are still convinced that he won’t turn on him and that all the bad stuff will fall on the people they don’t like. But what’s more disturbing is how many of those people who consider themselves in the middle, the classic “both sides do it” people keep finding ways to shit on Democrats during this kind of stuff. (apparently sharing memes showing how bad the administration is “hateful” and “part of the problem”)
terraformer
As has been mentioned in other stories about this – if this administration can do this to that person, then they can do it to *anyone*, even US Citizens with birth certificates and all of it
I’m watching this one closely because this is one of those lines that once passed, can go downhill very, very quickly.
Omnes Omnibus
Even if Khalil did participate in the anti-Semitic parts of the the Columbia protests, there should be due process. Here he was simply disappeared. Straight up dictator shit. Completely unacceptable.
Gin & Tonic
I guess “permanent” doesn’t mean permanent? My DIL was fucked over during Trump I, now that we thought everything was copacetic, we have to worry about Trump II?
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Even saying anti-Semitic shit might be grounds to kick him out of school, but not to disappear him, or “cancel” his green card or deport him. This is a bright, glaring violation of the rule of law.
trollhattan
@JML:
Just in case, stay well away from any helicopters.
Meanwhile, it appears giant ships either do not have radar, or they don’t bother to use it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Hence my saying “straight up dictator shit.”
suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m agreeing with you.
tobie
This is a canary in the coal mine moment. Political speech is protected speech. Calling for divestment or a ban of weapons sales to Israel is protected speech. The fundamental right of people in the US to voice their political opinions–whatever they may be–is under attack.
Michael Bersin
The Cult of the Supreme Leader – Iowa Agriculture Branch:
I keep wondering if they’ll give him a pass once it all caves in. Yeah, probably.
oldgold
Trump and his Federalist attorneys have fly-specked and twisted the 14th Amendment in an attempt to twist its long accepted meaning.
What makes anyone think they will not do so with the First Amendment. For instance: “Congress shall make no law ….”
prostratedragon
Apparently, just last week 60 Minutes ran some features reviewing the Dirty War period in Argentina:
Finding the plane used for Argentina’s dictatorship-era “death flights” | 60 Minutes
Woman tracks down brother snatched at birth by Argentine military official
“A Dirty War” | 60 Minutes Archive [from 1984]
One thing to takeaway, as with other atrocities, is that at least some of the truth will come out.
Chetan Murthy
@terraformer: I remember back during Dubya’s time, a guy with a green card was coming into the country, but hadn’t passed customs. On secret evidence (not disclosed in court) they held him on charges of supporting terrorism and deported him. The argument that he could be denied due process was that he wasn’t a “person” in the US (under the Constitution) b/c he hadn’t passed customs. Nevermind that he’d been granted a green card, nevermind that he was on US soil.
Sigh. Yeah, this is the ever-so-slightly-thicker-edge-of-the-wedge (thicker than back during Dubya’s time). Sigh.
Every person in the US is supposed to get due process. Even (if this were one) Hamas supporters.
WaterGirl
Fuck. Straight up dictator shit is right.
u
Many thanks, again, to the “Genocide Joe” activists who helped to get Trump elected and have been remarkably quiet since November 5th. “Tools of the Putin regime or just very stupid people?”. Views differ.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. GCs can’t be just cancelled like that. He can sue ICE. Isn’t this type of case that ACLU usually takes up
Something doesn’t make sense how can he be a both a green card holder and need a student visa?
GC=permanent resident is an immigrant visa
Student visa= long term non-immigrant visa.
GCs don’t need student visas.
Most likely he had applied for a GC and was on student visa.
Even if he is on an F-1 he must get due process and ACLU can sue on his behalf
ETA: The road to a GC is long and arduous with several steps and can last for several years.
Omnes Omnibus
@oldgold: That doesn’t make it less outrageous.
J.
I continue to be horrified by this administration and its attacks on Constitutional freedoms.
YY_Sima Qian
There were also agent provocateurs supporting the Israeli far right, picking fights w/ the student protestors, & spewing the most vile racist bile toward Palestinians. No one is going after them.
clay
Look, everyone knows that true antisemitism is when you fail to uncritically support Israel in whatever it does. Which means Trump is the most pro-Semite in history!
(I joke, but I’m pretty sure this is what he actually believes.)
YY_Sima Qian
@Chetan Murthy: The GWB gang had to use Gitmo to find a fig leaf to violate the US Constitution. The Trump gang DGAF, & neither does the current SCOTUS.
Gin & Tonic
@clay: As a card-carrying pedant, the use of “anti-Semitic” to mean “anti-Israel” really bothers me. The Palestinians are Semites too.
kindness
I would say ‘Let the fascism begin’, but it began in January.
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I may be wrong, but my read is that the Trump regime ASSUMED he was on a student visa, and were corrected by the attorney.
Steve LaBonne
One line crossed. The next will be purporting to cancel naturalization certificates. Then if the courts don’t put a stop to that, canceling the citizenship of absolutely anyone. Nothing less than full-throated support of Khalil is acceptable because defending him is defending all of us.
YY_Sima Qian
@Gin & Tonic: Aren’t Palestinians simply the formerly Jewish or Christian residents of the region that had converted to Islam (voluntarily or forcibly)? Kind of like the difference between Serbs & Bosniaks.
Steve LaBonne
@WaterGirl: There is a good chance this began as a fuckup, but now they see it as a new advance in the Nazi program.
schrodingers_cat
@WaterGirl: If that is the case, he is on a firmer legal ground. IANAL but I have been a non-resident alien (person on a long term visa) and permanent resident.
He can fight the revocation of his GC in court while he would have to fight revocation of the student visa in an immigration court (which is not a court of law, and the defendants don’t have the same rights as they do in a trial)
suzanne
@YY_Sima Qian: There’s a significant minority of Palestinian Christians.
Anyway
Yep, looks like his attorney corrected the ICE agent – they didn’t bother to check what kind of visa he had – went in with guns blaring. ACLU can sue but horrifying that they barged into his apartment and detained him.
YY_Sima Qian
@suzanne: Yep, Coptic Christians, & even a few Catholics.
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: That tracks with the accounts I’ve read, including the AP article linked in the post up top. Khalil is/was a grad student, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent. Nothing I read indicated how long he’s been in the U.S.
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all Semitic religions. As is Mandaeism, but you don’t hear so much about that one anymore.
Glory b
I was wondering about that too.
snoey
@WaterGirl: He was on a student visa during the protests and had his green card come through later.
trollhattan
Also meanwhile, the new Canada PM is firing shots not across Trump’s bow, but right into the bridge. Donny’s not gonna like this dude, even a little. (TBH he does not care for anybody smarter than him, which comprises a rather vast group.)
Pity.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@tobie:
But the reality is that in an unacceptable number of states, named participation in BDS boycotts gets you officially blacklisted from state contracts and other benefits, even as an American citizen.
Frankly, I’m surprised that no right winger has thought of saying that the viewpoint that a literalist view of the Torah is complete bullshit is antisemitism by definition. I think we’re scarily close to that.
New Deal democrat
Ken White (Popehat) asked if any immigration attorneys could weigh in, and got this response from the Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council:
“ While the State Department CAN revoke *visas* with very little legal process involved, stripping someone of a green card is done by DHS (not the State Department) and requires filing formal charges alleging a violation of immigration law and a removal hearing in front of an immigration judge.”
https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3ljy5m4vsuc23
Couple this with the claim against birthright citizenship, and the precedent is very dark indeed.
YY_Sima Qian
@Steve LaBonne: Absolutely. As I said in previous threads. The reactionaries are probing w/ bayonet, & we have to meet it w/ steel. If they find mush, they’ll keep going.
Even if Khalil is on still on a student visa, ICE’s actions are unjustifiable.
WaterGirl
@snoey: Ah. thank you.
schrodingers_cat
When your initial petition for you GC has been approved but you still have to go through one last step of officially changing your status. Another application with its set of forms etc. It takes a few months.
You are in a grey zone legally. USCIS calls it parole.
lowtechcyclist
@terraformer:
This. I’ve already called my Congresspersons about this one. They’ve crossed a big red line here.
As long as he wasn’t inciting violence, I don’t care what this guy said. He’s in the country legally, he has the right to express his opinions. If this Administration starts deporting people simply because it doesn’t like their politics, we’re in a very bad place.
trollhattan
Lest anybody think Mormons are immune to Republican prion disease (HT Charles Pierce), Utah declares their kids’ teeth not important.
Goddamn John Birch Society lives on.
YY_Sima Qian
@New Deal democrat: & the plans for an apparatus of “denaturalization”.
There may come a day when they will try to strip me of my US citizenship, & that of my daughters.
tobie
The German politician Wilhelm Marr coined the term antisemitism in the late 19th century, when he founded a new political party named the Antisemitic League to oppose the emancipation of Jews (i.e., conferral of citizenship). He wanted a term that would underscore that Jews were not of the same race as Germans. Judenhass still had too many religious as opposed to racial overtones in his opinion.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Okay, he’s been made to vanish in the best Stalin-esque way. Don’t take the use of the word ‘best’ in a literal sense, ie., don’t make me go to the sarcasm font generator.
Soooo, what are the next steps? Meaning what can his wife do? I assume it’s all about attorneys now. Given the fraught nature of what’s happened, I’m assuming a group like the ACLU knows about it, knows what to do, might get involved?
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Absolutely.
HE MUST GET DUE PROCESS.
oldgold
@Omnes Omnibus: True. It is outrageous.
A lot of trouble could have been avoided had Madison taken more care in drafting the First and Second Amendments. In terms of clarity, they are very much less than above reproach.
rikyrah
@u:
Quiet as church mice pissing on cotton.
Gin & Tonic
@YY_Sima Qian:
/looks into can of worms; backs away slowly.
New Deal democrat
@YY_Sima Qian:
I used that very same analogy elsewhere yesterday. That applies to their international as well as domestic behavior.
Right now it is the Canadian “steel” which is taking the lead. By summer the US could face a nearly worldwide consumer and tourism boycott.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Oh they should up to protest at the DNC elections last month.
Would they be behaving any differently if they were an op funded by Putin?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Ned F
Ruth Marcus has resigned from WAPO over the CEO’s killing of her story about Bezo’s opinion changes.section.
I am predicting Katherine Rampell to follow.
Shame
Geminid .
@Gin & Tonic: One weird aspect of the term “Anti-Semitism”: it was coined in the late 19th century by a German academic who was not especially supportive of Jewish people. He wanted a more clinical term for “Judenhaas,” or “Jew-hatred.” I get the impression the guy didn’t neccesarily think hating Jews wasn’t a such a bad thing, but it needed a better and more scientific name.
Sloane Ranger
@trollhattan:
You would think that ships that size would be able to physically see each other without needing radar!
As the Stena Immaculate was apparently at anchor, first indications are that the Portuguese ship was to blame.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Utah now trying to out-Kansas Kansas (as we used to say of the Misery state legislature) in the batshit, insane policy department.
And (some) apologies to KS in that a whole lot of other states have out-Kansased them in the last decade (looking back at you, Misery).
Slightly related in a UT sense, Sundance will be leaving Park City in 2027. The three potential new sites are SLC, Boulder (snort!) and Cincy. I was talking to one of the board directors last week at the True/False Doc film festival (I’ve been a very casual acquaintance for years) about the move, giving him my view on what a disaster it would be if it went to Boulder.
He stated that some scuttlebutt stories floating around the move (he would know as he’s connected in the festival world) was that Sundance didn’t necessarily want out of Park City because they feel they’ve outgrown it but that the state politics were getting to such an untasteful point that they wanted out.
In his view, that meant the only option would actually be Boulder even tho SLC and Cincy might actually be better places from a space and infrastructure standpoint, to host the festival.
Taking flouride out of the water, yeah, that’ll help convince an event that brings in shitloads of outside money, to stay.
tam1MI
And the sad thing is that once again we have to throw our broken bodies into the machine to defend people who hate us and were happy to see Trump elected because it Taught Those Dirty Stinking Dems A Lesson.
YY_Sima Qian
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Then there are the cases of the British & the German tourists detained for supposed visa violations:
They should have been processed & expelled in days (that is if their expulsion are justified), but instead they are being detained indefinitely. Probably because the ICE bureaucracy, like the rest of USG, is in utter shambles.
Looking at the photos, I am beginning to suspect that the 2 tourists were being targeted because of their appearance.
Glory b
@rikyrah: Ha, I haven’t heard that one in a long time.
Black folks tried to tell them. They rejected the advice.
Heck, even Palestinians in Gaza said they wanted them to vote for Harris, they were/are deathly afraid of Trump.
I don’t have a clue about what their strategy was, or if they even thought that far ahead.
trollhattan
@Sloane Ranger:
Right? My next big surprise would be if the “Portuguese-flagged ship” was helmed by Captain Boris Badinoff.
WereBear
@Chetan Murthy: Dumbya got them Obama. Petulant Trump 2016 got them the most progressive admin in a long time.
Tyrant Trump 2024? Cannot wait to see what Fate has in the bottom drawer for that move. With a lifetime long lens, one can see that our pushback keeps getting harder, too.
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: * they showed up not should up..
tobie
@Geminid .: I mentioned the origins of the term in comment #48 but didn’t respond to anyone in particular because I find the whole discussion of the word’s meaning in this thread to be a form of ‘whataboutism.’ Why unify in defense of the first and fourteenth amendments when we can divide opponents of this admin yet again?
YY_Sima Qian
@New Deal democrat: w/ the rate things are going Stateside, I am not taking my wife & daughters to the US this summer. I may have to find an excuse to skip the business trip myself.
YY_Sima Qian
@Gin & Tonic: Probably wise.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yup. I have *years* of first hand experience with that.
Back when I was an intel officer traveling on an official US passport, I’d never have trouble getting thru customs/border in any other country. This included going to China and I always figured the Chinese knew who I was.
But getting back into the US? I never looked like an intel officer. I look like a drug-smuggling, terrorist as a rule. Each and every time I’d come back into the US, again on my official US passport, US customs people would hassle the shit out of me. Half the time they’d pull me aside, take me into one of those little rooms they don’t advertise and again question me.
After my last trip to China, they pulled that crap and I finally had enough. I said “It was easier for me to get into COMMUNIST CHINA, oh, did I mention I work for the Defense Intelligence Agency and you know what I study? CHINA! And yet, they treat me better than my own people do when they’re staring at my official government passport.”
That outburst didn’t help and they kept me in there probably 30 minutes longer than normal.
It wasn’t until the Global Traveler program was instituted and I paid and signed up that I stopped getting hassled coming back into the country because…I still look like a drug-smuggling, terrorist.
So yeah, I’m sure those clowns now are targeting anybody who remotely fits some profile they’re not supposed to be using. Oh wait, I’m sure those profiles are front and center again.
brendancalling
Already called John “I love the Laken-Riley Act” Fetterman, but I expect him to be as useless as he typically is. Such a disappointment. At this point “but if you don’t support him, a Republican might take his place” is a pretty empty threat.
tam1MI
I missed the Canadian election results. Who won?
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@brendancalling:
You’ll be called a “purity pony” or “the online left” or some other pejorative by our sensible centrists for talking that way. /s
YY_Sima Qian
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Jeez, even a government passport didn’t protect you from harassment?
Gin & Tonic
@tam1MI: Mark Carney won the leadership of the Liberal Party, so he replaces Trudeau, but I guess he’s thinking of calling a snap election because Liberals are looking a lot better than they did a couple of months ago. If he does and the Liberals lose, then he’s not PM anymore.
Gin & Tonic
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Global Entry, if you qualify and feel like paying, is outstanding. Last time I came back in, with the facial recognition, the whole process took like five seconds.
WTFGhost
So now, green card holders, and everyone who cares about them, knows that they can be subject to deportation under the Trump administration. Good to know!
Remember, “yeah, he said he’d do that, goddamn asshole,” is good, “we told you so,” is not. (I was watching a Netflix show, and a counselor gave some *great* advice, “no, you never touch another person’s shortcomings while apologizing,” so you don’t say “you didn’t listen” to people who are in shock and grief. Don’t stab at ’em, just agree with them.) So, you acknowledge he said he was an asshole, so of course he crapped on people.
“It’s not just him, though – Republicans in Congress could rein him in,” is not a bad thing to add, because they could.
It’s just, they just think he can crap over everything, and everyone will approve of the smell of his feces, because it’s goddamned *REPUBLICAN* feces, which doesn’t *really* stink, except to LIEberals and DEMONcrats. Plus, they expect it to wear off by this time next year, so their carefully planned social media attack on your sensibilities will help keep you too angry to focus on what’s important, while sowing divisions between us.
Don’t worry – if they know your three favorite movies, your zipcode, and and whether you identify as m/f/other, they can likely identify the main parts of your personality, and what social media ads will tend to affect you, because they can test them in numerous focus groups. No, I’m not kidding – emotional self defense has become a required skill for Democracy.
Sloane Ranger
@trollhattan: According to the owners of the Stena Immaculate all their crew are safe and accounted for, nothing being reported yet about the crew of the Portuguese flagged ship. Both ships on fire and the Stena Immaculate is leaking jet fuel into the sea.
A major rescue operation is underway.
Glory b
@tam1MI: And Clarence Thomas now says it’s time to “revisit” (his word) Brown v Bd of Ed, now that there’s an opening.
Don’t forget all of Trump’s judicial picks who wouldn’t confirm that Brown was the law of the land because they didn’t want to opine on a matter that might come before them?
Think maybe they had a plan?
prostratedragon
@YY_Sima Qian: Or anyone else whose citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@YY_Sima Qian:
Nope. One year I had a locked briefcase full of classified material. I had several letters on my person that explained things should I get hassled.
And I got hassled coming back. I refused to unlock the briefcase, they thought the letters were bogus. I stood my ground, gave them contact phone numbers to call. Again, the official gubmint passport right there on the table.
They finally relented because I think somebody higher up the chain who was there that day probably thought it was too much hassle to continue and if they pushed it and were wrong, it wouldn’t look too good.
We’d always joke about it, mainly everybody in my division saying “Well, you always do look shifty as shit so it’s your fault”.
Suzanne
@brendancalling: I have meetings all morning, but I will call his office this afternoon. Fetterman is an obstacle to progress, sanity, good governance.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Gin & Tonic:
Per an above comment, I signed up for Global Entry the nanosecond it was instituted.
And before they rolled out all the facial recognition stuff, it made the coming back to my country experience massively better. Now that there’s more technology, yeah, I breeze thru no matter how shifty I look.
VeniceRiley
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yeah, right? I’m sorry that happens to you. Makes me swear. My English wife gets the full in person before a visitor visa and a lovely full body search too. Her parents were overseas in a Muslim country when she was born. She’s as English and white as a sheet as you can imagine, and works for the government too.
The world is full of knobs. Spanners. And assholes who can’t read beyond the first point in an email.
pajaro
@Steve in the ATL:
Yes, Judaism is not the only semitic religion but anti-Semitism (as opposed to anti-Jewish prejudice in general) was an ideological program that was specifically aimed at Jews, and it was a hatred based on national/racial grounds, not religious practice.
Gretchen
@prostratedragon: I know someone who was imprisoned in Argentina when they were disappearing dissidents. He’s a US citizen now and all-in on Trump. His explanation is that those guys were leftists while Trump is a rightist so he’ll be on the good side. You’d think someone with that experience would be cautious about despotism, but you would be wrong.
tam1MI
Those laws were put in place years ago by Republican administrations. The Uncommitted crowd should have had a plan in place to challenge or at least some other tactics developed to get around this, but no, in their infinite wisdom [/sarcasm] they decided to to make BDS demands to institutions that could not, by law, comply with their demands.
Gretchen
@schrodingers_cat: maybe he came here on a student visa and more recently got a green card, possibly after marrying a citizen? According to the article, he was a student until December but isn’t now. Also that his wife is 8 months pregnant, which may be why he isn’t taking classes this semester.
trollhattan
@Glory b:
Come a long way since his “high-tech lynching”, hasn’t our Clarence.
Such a monster.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I am a pale white English-speaking guy with a US passport saying I was born smack in the middle of the continent and a corn-fed Midwestern US accent. I’ve gotten more hassle getting into my own country than into any other country I have visited. Including the one where the little card they give you starts with a spiel about how they kill drug dealers.
Granted, sometimes, it was probably because there were Asian people in the car.
Lily
Regret to say, but (what shouldn’t be) a US terrorism operation is taking hostages, spreading fear, using violence and secrecy to undermine a society.
Eric
What really set this up was the left’s abandonment and subsequent villainizing of the college Gaza protests.
Harrison Wesley
These Niemoller Festivals seem to be occuring more and more frequently.
u
@tam1MI: I’m convinced that there is segment of the “cosplay-left” who believe that the United States is the source of all evil in the world, and that, therefore, anything (including Trump) that damages the U.S. should be supported. (Or maybe they’re all just being paid by Russia or China.)
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I have never any trouble with an Indian passport (as a permanent resident or a visa holder) or with a US passport.
POEs were Boston and Canadian border (Maine and NY)
Ken B
@schrodingers_cat: My understanding is that ICE told his wife that his student visa had been revoked; she told them he had a green card, not a student visa. Then they said revoked.
trollhattan
@Eric:
Huh?
schrodingers_cat
@u: Yes, we had a speaker like that last year. And I was on the organizing committee for the said speaker. Don’t ask.
pajaro
@New Deal democrat:
This is different than a claim against a citizen would be. Lawful permanent residents can be deported, but the government has to prove there are grounds (like criminal behavior) that justify revoking LPR status.
Citizens are in a different position. There is no basis on which citizens at birth can be deported. It’s not an authorized criminal penalty, either. I believe naturalized citizens can be stripped of their citizenship, but, basically, it requires proving that the citizenship was fraudulently obtained.. I understand that the Administration would like to change this current reality, but they will need a Supreme Court decision changing long-standing precedent to do it, and I don’t think there’s any case in the pipeline yet.
trollhattan
@Ken B: “Technically, they are now harlequin cards so this is void and he’s gotta go.”
Matt McIrvin
@schrodingers_cat: For some reason, the automated facial recognition thingie is incapable of recognizing that my face matches my passport, even though any sighted human being can tell instantly that it does. This is a source of friction at TSA checkpoints as well. I guess my face is AI poison.
Old School
From Jabberwocking:
Matt McIrvin
@pajaro: They can just start doing it and create the case. That seems to be their method, to create a fait accompli– “move fast and break shit”.
TBone
@prostratedragon: I’d like to repost your comment(s) about tracking from the last thread – or you should! We never know who might be reached and it could might make a difference. If it saves one, it is worth it.
tam1MI
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: You’ll be called a “purity pony” or “the online left” or some other pejorative by our sensible centrists for talking that way.
It wasn’t the centrists that inflicted Fetterman on the party.
pajaro
@Ned F:
Do you know who is left of the non-right will columnists? (I quit them in October over the cancellation of their endorsement of Harris, after years of subscribing)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
More in the annals of the Trump’s admins desperate and disgusting search for someone so weak they can’t fight back.
gene108
@Glory b:
The entire conservative movement that got us to Trump 2 and Project 2025 started as a backlash to Brown.
From what I’ve read, the core belief among Republican jurists is that the landmark cases of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s interpreted the 4th and 14th amendments too broadly and there needs to be a narrower reinterpretation of those amendments.
Matt McIrvin
@tam1MI: I don’t care who it is I’m defending, in this case. This is about freedom for all of us. Whether I agree with the guy’s views or his past behavior, whether he’s advocating for my interests or not, is immaterial and I don’t care to even get into it.
Gretchen
Rubio seems to be behind revoking the green card. An underling of Rubio doesn’t like him and has been publishing claims that he’s stupid and of questionable sexuality. Why these guys think they can get close to Trump without getting slimed, I don’t know. Dogs/fleas…
schrodingers_cat
@tam1MI: I am so old that I remember when valued commenters of this blog dissed me when I pointed out the gun incident that made many black people (some of whom were vocal on Twitter and other social media) uncomfortable with Fetterman. He was popular with performance art caucus because of his outfits and Twitter comebacks as a Lt.Gov of PA.
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: As far as I can tell, they regard the post-Civil War amendments and the civil service reforms of the Chester Alan Arthur administration as illegitimate.
TBone
@prostratedragon:
P.D. Genius:
LAC
@rikyrah: Now that’s quiet.
Normalcy and due process…what a difference barely two months make.
schrodingers_cat
@Gretchen: IDK his exact status and Twitter is down so I can’t see what the immigration lawyers are saying about the case. There are a lot of legalities you have to follow when you are not a citizen. And the USCIS can absolutely nail you on those if they decide to.
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: I had to do the facial recognition thingie along with reading the chip on the passport when I went to London earlier this year. Thankfully it worked for me.
HinTN
@Anyway:
So they had no court order / warrant specifying what they were doing and why. The ACLU should shred that pretty quickly. Louisiana judge or New York?
TBone
@brendancalling: per today’s Inky. I’m finally ready to wash my hands of him GAH.
https://www.inquirer.com/politics/inq2/trump-cabinet-senate-confirmation-votes-fetterman-kim-booker-20250310.html
A comprehensive list for each Cabinet pick!
TBone
Elno would never block
StarlinkXitter!The Thin Black Duke
@TBone: Fetterman is Krystin Sinema in a hoodie.
TBone
@The Thin Black Duke:
Fettermanchinema
JCJ
@brendancalling: That worked well in the past as the people who replaced Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu were huge upgrades! Oh, wait…
schrodingers_cat
@The Thin Black Duke: She was a favorite too of the Performance Art Caucus. Until the thumbs down gesture when voting.
Geminid .
@schrodingers_cat: I think what happened with John Fetterman is, a lot of Democrts saw in him what they wanted to see. He won his 2022 primary with 50% the vote; he had two capable opponents so I think the support was broad-based.
Fetterman turned out to be fool’s gold, but now Pennsylvania Democrats are stuck with him and their dreams of 2028 primary challenge. I have hunch though, that John Fetterman will disappoint again by not running for reelection.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: Thank you.
sentient ai from the future
this is basically a replay of the goon squad antics in portland at the end of shitbird 1.
probably angling to test SCOTUS to see how far they can be pushed with the lawlessness.
oh, also the stock market is crashing so hard it’s bluescreening.
*sigh
jonas
The whole dismantling of Jim Crow was a mistake in their eyes. Wait. Scratch that. The whole ending of the Civil War was a mistake in their eyes.
A Ghost to Most
Yet more casualties of The Holy Wars.
Suzanne
@The Thin Black Duke: Fetterman is bad, but I think Sinema is worse. Sinema shivved a friend to get ahead in her career.
Nothing has made me feel dirtier in my voting history than voting for Kyrsten Sinema, in full awareness of her piece-of-shit status.
rikyrah
@gene108:
They want to erase the 20th Century.
Every advancement in the 20th Century has, as its foundation, BROWN.
The foundation of Brown is found in the 14th Amendment.
The Thin Black Duke
Phil Ochs saw what was happening.
Betty Cracker
@sentient ai from the future: Was just looking at the market. Oof. At least the regime is on the same page re: the economy (WSJ):
Looks like tech stocks in particular are getting hammered, and from what I hear, Musk’s Nazi bar is on the fritz today, so the propaganda pipeline is compromised.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid .: There’s been a yearning for someone on our side who can sort of aesthetically neutralize culture-war attacks by looking like a salt-of-the-earth manly man.
The problem is, those attacks aren’t just aesthetic, they’re substantive objections to the entire liberal concept of freedom. I don’t think there’s a Weird Trick that can do an end run around this.
Doug R
@u:
Both
prostratedragon
@Gretchen: Lord. I knew several people who themselves escaped being imprisoned, but very much shared in the general trauma and fear of going back. Umpty years ago one (a UChicagp alum) said that some features of US life made him a bit uneasy. Black me could basically just say, “I’m hip.”
me
@Betty Cracker: It’s a self fulfilling prophecy for a president to say there might be a recession. Even when the experts were saying 100% probability of a recession in 2023 (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-17/forecast-for-us-recession-within-year-hits-100-in-blow-to-biden), Biden never said it was even possible much less likely.
Suzanne
@Geminid .: Fetterman was a popular Lieutenant Governor, and he proved to have enough appeal in Pennsyltucky and among the trade union guys. There was a more progressive candidate in that race (Malcolm Kenyatta, now a DNC Vice-Chair). So his appeal was, in part, that he could hold the coalition together.
Anecdotally, some of my “white working class” neighbors love them some Fetterman. Two of my neighbors on the next block dressed up as him for Halloween in 2022.
sentient ai from the future
@Betty Cracker: i already shifted a good deal from equity indexes into bond indexes, and that is sparing me some of the pain so far. some.
i put a little into some of the big 5 canadian banks too because they have consistently had crazy good dividends, it might be time to collect the rest, because the new canadian PM has economic governance credibility for that ass. i do not want to bet against him in a trade war, and it appears that his history is one of using that venue to advocate for actual social justice causes to a greater degree than i would have predicted.
Suzanne
Off topic, but Elmo just called Mark Kelly a “traitor” for supporting Ukraine.
#sendelontomars
#now
#rapidunscheduleddisassembly
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
TBF Elmo surely can recognize a fellow traitor. Mark Kelly? Dude, do not fuck with Mark Kelly. Just don’t.
Geminid .
@Betty Cracker: Musk’s car company is also on the fritz today. Last I looked Tesla stock was down 12%. It’s price has dropped by over half since December 17.
As for the recession talk Trump made to “money honey” Marie Bartiromo this weekend, I’m guessing Trump has been told we are likely heading into a recession now and he’s trying to get ahead of the story.
WTFGhost
@schrodingers_cat: Per the story, he was a green card holder, *not* a student visa holder.
ICE said they cancelled his visa. Told he doesn’t have one, he has a green card, they said they cancelled that, instead.
This is absolute SS shit.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: Right?! Like, you want to get into a pissing match about traitorousness with a Navy captain and an astronaut?!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WTFGhost:
https://www.rebeccablacklaw.com/how-a-green-card-can-be-revoked/
Wonder which area they’re using to revoke his GC status? A better way to put it, which area can they best cheaply rationalize as the reason for revocation?
sentient ai from the future
@Geminid .: he’s telegraphing that the writing is on the wall, even for him, and that he’s not going to do anything to prevent or mitigate it.
Eric
@trollhattan: last year Democrats on the whole fully supported allowing police to crack down on these protests. This included looking the other way when right wing groups attacked some of these protesters, as well as police arresting peaceful protesters and detaining them for hours without food or water. Additionally, even Biden fed into the “outside agitator” myth of these protests.
This is what made a Palestinian student an easy first target for the Trump administration.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid .:
https://www.wired.com/story/whats-driving-teslas-woes/
Worth the read. Takes a comprehensive look at what’s going on and engages a number of market analysts.
Best part, Alex Winter, aka ‘Bill’ from “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” has organized a “take down” of Tesla:
https://www.teslatakedown.com/
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Based on Stephen Miller’s eructations it sounds like they’re going to go with the thoroughly bogus “assisting a terrorist group” accusation, the kind of vibes-based smear that should be familiar from the George W. Bush administration.
sentient ai from the future
@Suzanne: well, you did see his smarmy coments to the Polish foreign minister, no? he’s on a fucking bender. i also think he probably can assert control over a number of official twitter accounts remotely and has told rubio et al to just fuckin deal with it.
Baud
@Eric:
That’s lame. I’m sorry to hear you won’t hold Republicans accountable, but I understand a lot of people are scared of them.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agreed.
Tester was a homegrown farmer who lost to a carpetbagger.
Geminid .
@sentient ai from the future: Trump’s gonna start blaming the recession on Joe Biden. His motto will be:
pluky
@YY_Sima Qian: Basically, especially when compared to Mizrahi (West Asian) Jews. The Second Exilic didn’t completely depopulate Palestine. The intent was to eliminate the use of the area as a focus of Judean identity, especially in Jerusalem.
Baud
@Geminid .:
Dems should announce they’re not running in 2028 because their tired of fixing Republican problems for an ungrateful people. #OnlinePoliticalFantasy
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid .: He’s going to try Reagan’s play during the early-1980s recession, blaming it on the terrible economy bequeathed him by the Carter administration (never mind that Carter got it from Nixon and Ford).
It actually worked for Reagan–not at the time, but when the recovery came a couple years later, there was a general sense that a whole decade of economic pain was over. In hindsight, that recovery wasn’t actually that great, but just having any kind of recovery with low inflation seemed novel at the time.
trollhattan
@Eric:
It wasn’t the Dems who made all those university presidents and chancellors knuckle under. So who does that leave?
Eric
@Baud: that’s not lame and it’s not a way of avoiding holding Republicans accountable. But let’s not act like this happened in some vacuum.
What is lame is how Democrats handled the protests last year, which was by leaning to the right, which also happens to me a failing strategy.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid .: Will people* blame Trump if there is a recession? I think they will because voters 1) tend to hold sitting presidents responsible for downturns whether they’re responsible or not, and 2) Trump yapped about tariffs, deep government funding cuts, etc., before the R-word talk started in earnest. That may make it difficult to sell the Shaggy defense.
*Cultists excluded.
Eric
@trollhattan: maybe you forgot the Democrats joining in on that.
Geminid .
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: One of the things I think about with Tesla is that it has thrived during a decade of sustained economic growth, and recessions typically hit the auto auto industry hard.
I think about that with crypto-currency, which also has thrived during a petiod of sustained economic growth. We may be about to see the effect a recession has on the crypto-currency industry, and how interconnected that industry is with the “real” economy. I’m not sure I’ll like what I see.
Citizen Alan
@Ned F: So the Leopards got hold of the face of one of my least favorite WP fascism apologists. (/insert gif of Jeremy Clarkson saying “That’s terrible!” before immediately changing the topic in a bored voice “… so anyway.”
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
sentient ai from the future
@Geminid .: oh, funny you should mention that, BTC is also down below the Jan20 marker and still dropping like a stone. lost nearly 30% off its peak from the last month and a half.
some of my specific bets are getting hammered but at least i have schadenfreude from both btc and tsla eating shit
Citizen Alan
@Glory b: Every morning in the shower, Clarence Thomas scrubs furiously with a wire brush in the hope that the blackness will come off.
Baud
@sentient ai from the future:
Pure altruism.
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: i think it’s a decent bet that by the end of the shitbird’s term, canada is going to own an awful lot of the US. which is fine by me, because they are clearly better stewards of resources and infrastructure for the betterment of their populace than we are.
PatD
@u: I’m sure they feel terribly and deeply regret their votes.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: Only Democrats Have Agency, part eleventy-billion.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud:
It’s open to question to what extent reality is going to intrude into the median American mind.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
No, he’s term limited. The other two things are open to perception.
JML
RIP Kevin Drum. Good dude, and his voice will be missed. Always tried to bring the data, wasn’t afraid to admit he didn’t know the answer, and damn if he didn’t keep pushing for better until the very end. He fought the good fight and ran his race.
Glory b
@Eric: When you’re entire strategy consists of “How many people can we piss off today?” you can’t/shouldn’t expect much.
First, Americans are famously unconcerned with foreign affairs if there aren’t American boots on the ground & many times not even then.
About 80% of Americans blamed Hamas, not Israel.
Even college students didn’t really care, polling on issues of importance had Gaza next to last.
A popular black Twitter /Bluesky account, TooRaw2real, posted a Tik Tok of a Muslim guy saying he’d vote for “Satan himself if it would keep that bitch out of the White House,” and now trying to put together a multi racial coalition.
Even people in Gaza said they wanted Americans to vote for Harris, they were terrified of Trump getting into office.
Now ALL of our civil rights may hang in the balance.
They had no plan, no strategy, no follow through & now seem to be cowering in terror, although this was ostensibly the outcome they desired
https://www.axios.com/2024/05/07/poll-students-israel-hamas-protests
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: He’s term limited today. I’m not sure that will apply in the future.
Geminid .
@Betty Cracker: I think most people will blame a recession on Trump and the Republicans. The economy was in decent shape coming into this year, and the political change January 20 was abrupt and spectacular by design and in effect. So I don’t think Trump will be able to pin this one on Sleepy Joe Biden or Woke Jerome Powell.
Trump might be able to muddy the waters some if there’s a government shutdown this weekend that he can blame on Congressional Democrats. But that’s one of the reasons I think House and Senate Democrats will help pass a continuing budget resolution if neccesary, even if a lot of Democrats seem absolutely certain they shouldn’t.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: What matters there is basically what the Army perceives. And Hegseth is purging the Army.
Baud
@Harrison Wesley:
@Matt McIrvin:
Wrong. He’s term limited. You’re arguing about whether the law will be enforced, not what the law is. Don’t pretend it’s up for debate.
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: I’m not arguing with that. The problem is that there’s a concerted effort to ignore or overturn laws that are inconvenient.
Baud
@Harrison Wesley:
If they overthrow the Constitution, then the economic situation won’t matter all that much.
jonas
The MAGA 27% will happily run around telling everyone that getting laid off and the massive drop in their retirement portfolios is actually just pwning the libs and besides they have everything in Trumpcoin or NFTs or whatever (which have also cratered, natch).
The rest of the country, including all those independents and previously Dem-curious independents who voted for Trump this time because eggs and rent cost too much will probably be less amused.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: Yes, any agreement or disagreement with what Khalil was saying is completely irrelevant. Debating his message is, imo, counterproductive AF right now.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: It gets tedious when people give the Rs and their standard bearer in the WH wins that haven’t materialized yet.
JPL
@Suzanne: Maybe someone should suggest that Elon go for a ride in one of his space shipts just to prove his manliness.
Betty
@Geminid .: I agree. He has stated that he is unhappy in the job, and we are certainly unhappy with his performance. I just looked at his X account and saw post after post that is all in on Israel and anti-Palestinian. It’s extreme. I am rooting for Madeleine Dean to replace him.
Eric
@Glory b: that was not the strategy at all of these protests. Almost all of them had actionable demands for their university, such as divesting of funds.
Last I checked, there is a right to free speech in this country, and many Democrats shit on that right for these protests. Doesn’t matter whether you agree with them or if they were popular. We can all recognize how horrible the current situation is, but we also should recognize that the situation wasn’t great before this. Pretty much the whole Democratic campaign strategy was “we’re not as bad as this guy” and that is not how you win elections.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eric: It’s not a great idea to fight about this right now. Everyone here is agreeing that what is happening to Khalil is unconscionable. Let’s run with that.
Juju
@The Thin Black Duke: I’ve never looked closely at his rings, so who knows , he may have a fuck you ring in common with Synema as well.
Eric
@Omnes Omnibus: when is the right time to bring it up?
Glidwrith
I just called my Congress critter Sara Jacobs concerning the two separate German tourists being held in the Otey Mesa ICE facility. They hadn’t caught this had happened.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eric: It depends on what your goal is. Is it fighting Trump or something else?
Eric
@Omnes Omnibus: I think we can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time.
You might not agree, but it’s important to not only blame Trump for this specifically, but also to point out what Democrats need to do and should’ve done differently. Otherwise Democrats are doomed to keep losing elections. I think we both have the same goal in mind, which is to get Trump and these fascists out of our government.
David Collier-Brown
@YY_Sima Qian: Yup! One worries about the Israeli and the Palestinian _people_. Their so-called governments? Not so much.
David Collier-Brown
@YY_Sima Qian: We used to call that “reconnaissance by fire”.
David Collier-Brown
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “constructive dismissal” (even in the US).
David Collier-Brown
@YY_Sima Qian: Yes: I’m not even crossing Maine on the way to Price Edward Island, something I used to enjoy doing.
David Collier-Brown
@tam1MI: The former head of the Bank of Canada, and the Bank of England. Somewhat familiar with political problems.
Donald
@u:
I voted for Harris but Biden is a war criminal and the people who deny this are despicable. Biden and Blinken should be in prison.
And no, the people who despise Biden are not silent. I despised him then and I despise him now. That Trump is a fascist doesn’t change the fact that Biden is a racist killer. Senility might be a defense for him, or maybe he was always a racist idiot, but nothing gets Blinken off the hook.
@u: