Want to understand what Trump is doing? Part 3

I believe that Trump is engaged in moving the US from a democracy to an authoritarian regime and has the intention of staying on for a third term. Absolutely everything he is doing points in that direction including an executive order that will change the way elections are run and votes are counted.

Agree absolutely foxie.

My heart bleeds as I have always considered the USA as a place of "many parts" and aware of the long histories for example of the fight for equality for people of colour and of course women - but definitely a place where there were choices as to live your lives out.

If you've read a lot of John Grisham as I have its clear that the rich and powerful could easily "buy" certain sorts of justice in the courts and electable positions in the police and justice system - but the Erin Brockovich's of this world could find justice.

Who recalls the TV series "The West Wing" as a model of decency as I do? Or even the oath of allegiance to the constitution as inviolate when Trump breaks the constitution.

Its a warning against those in the UK and other countries who support Trump and favour aspects of Project 25 for our own governance - "first they came for the.....

I wonder when Margaret Attwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale in 1985 if she ever thought Americans would be leaving the US to live in Canada because of the political system. I still find what is happening almost impossible to believe and for there to be so little opposition to Trump is what I find really scary.

The similarities astound me foxie.

Marjorie Taylor Green dissenters were tazed during her town hall. From what I can see, they were asking her about her insider trading.

The violence from keeps slowly escalating.

This is what Chuck Grasley said to his constituents at his town hall.

“Well, it's not a question of the president following the court order. It's a question of is the president of El Salvador going to do what our Supreme Court wants done? And obviously our Supreme Court doesn't have any control over him, and he says he's not going to return him," Grassley said. "So if there's a constitutional crisis, it's not being caused by President Trump, it's being caused by the president of El Salvador.":

Just repeating the propaganda of the Trump regime.

They call anyone pushing back paid protestors and eject them from the Town Halls.

Court had opened contempt proceedings on Trumps team for not following orders.

Not sure who will be found in contempt. The attorney on record? Bondi?

Going to be an interesting few days.

www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/politics/boasberg-contempt-deportation-flights/index.html

Good for him, may they never give up.

This is an update to a story from last month where a woman in Idaho was dragged out of a Town Hall by security guards.

The Police Chief (city official) was the only one at the time to help this woman after her rights were violated. The Sheriff (county official) was on scene and watched as this woman was dragged away.

The County and the Representative's staff have done everything g they can to stop any investigation by the police.

politicalpotatoes.substack.com/p/kcrcc-townhall-investigation-question

Sorry, that link is broken. Try this.

politicalpotatoes.substack.com/p/kcrcc-townhall-investigation-questions

It has finally happened. A US Citizen is being held in an ICE hold, despite a judge verifying his US birth certificate and Social Security card are valid.

The article doesn't indicate if he is still being unlawfully held by ICE.

floridaphoenix.com/2025/04/17/u-s-born-man-held-for-ice-under-floridas-new-anti-immigration-law/

Whoever would have thought this nightmare in the US would actually happen?

I think of 'The Omen' film and feel very anxious for the future of this world

ICE must be acting this way for a reason?

Pnut:

“The deportation debacle is developing quickly. Yesterday, a federal judge found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt, citing the White House’s continuation of deportation flights to El Salvador despite a court order. “The Court does not reach such a conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” the judge wrote. If the deportation flights continue, the judge has promised to prosecute accordingly.

In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, things have gotten even weirder. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen personally traveled to El Salvador yesterday to speak to Abrego Garcia, but was denied a meeting or phone call with him. What he got instead was a personal meeting with the country’s vice president, who proceeded to tell him that a meeting would be impossible even if Van Hollen returned to the country next week. “Why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence that he’s committed any crime and they have not been provided any evidence from the United States that he has committed any crime?” Van Hollen asked after the meeting.”

And yet …

Garcia entered the USA illegally did he not? Can’t remember the year must look it up.

Found something:

A man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison was not an “upstanding Maryland” resident but a wife abuser, a US government department has claimed.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported by Donald Trump’s administration in error, had a history of violence and was handed a restraining order against his wife Jennifer Vasquez in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday.

Ms Vasquez, who is campaigning for Mr Garcia’s return and has described him as an “excellent father”, previously told law enforcement he punched, scratched and ripped off her shirt, according to court documents published on Tuesday.

Per the court documents, Mr Abrego Garcia, who entered the US illegally 14 years ago, was ordered to vacate the family home in Maryland and not to contact Ms Vasquez as part of the temporary protective order.

In a statement to Newsweek, Ms Vasquez described her husband’s deportation as an abduction and said she had sought the restraining order “out of caution” because of her previous experience with domestic violence.

Sounds a fine upstanding citizen not and def deported is no bad thing.Not that he needs to be locked up in his home country unless the authorities know something about him that we don’t.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been investigated for a range of alleged illegal acts, including civil liberties violations, unlawful arrests, and excessive use of force. These allegations have spurred numerous lawsuits and investigations into the agency's practices.

Garcia had the right to Due Process. Whatever the ins and outs of his individual case, it is very dangerous for a democracy to take the route of abandoning due process, including ignoring a US Supreme Court ruling that people are entitled to it. Now he is in a vicious El Salvador prison, and Trump and friends giving the excuse that its El Salvador won't let him go.

He was granted asylum in 2019 and Garcia has never been convicted of any criminal offence, including gang membership, in the US or in El Salvador. He lived in the US for 14 years, had three children and worked in construction, according to court records.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Found something:

A man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison was not an “upstanding Maryland” resident but a wife abuser, a US government department has claimed.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported by Donald Trump’s administration in error, had a history of violence and was handed a restraining order against his wife Jennifer Vasquez in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday.

Ms Vasquez, who is campaigning for Mr Garcia’s return and has described him as an “excellent father”, previously told law enforcement he punched, scratched and ripped off her shirt, according to court documents published on Tuesday.

Per the court documents, Mr Abrego Garcia, who entered the US illegally 14 years ago, was ordered to vacate the family home in Maryland and not to contact Ms Vasquez as part of the temporary protective order.

In a statement to Newsweek, Ms Vasquez described her husband’s deportation as an abduction and said she had sought the restraining order “out of caution” because of her previous experience with domestic violence.

There was a court order in 2021, but Ms Marquez has subsequently said that the situation at the time of the restraining order has been resolved within the family, and describes him as a loving partner and father.

According to a Newsweek article, Mr García did come to the USA illegally, but was given leave to stay due to a potential threat from a gang. He then found work, and was able to support Ms Marques, her two children, and the child they had together.

Mr García has not been convicted of any crimes and was deported because of an administrative error. A federal judge has rebuked the Trump administration for taking no steps to secure Mr Garcia's release despite a Supreme Court order ordering the administration to facilitate his return to the US.

I don't give a rats ass what he did in 2022. He is still guaranteed due process under the Constitution of the United States. There is a process to remove him and it was not followed.

That is the issue at hand here, no matter what you try to dig up on him to make this ok in your mind.

Ironic tho, isnt it? Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was accused of sexual assault. And his selection for health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was accused last summer of groping a former family babysitter.
Kennedy responded to the allegation against him over the summer by saying: “I said in my announcement speech that I have so many skeletons in my closet that if they could all vote, I could run for king of the world.”

imaround

I don't give a rats ass what he did in 2022. He is still guaranteed due process under the Constitution of the United States. There is a process to remove him and it was not followed.

That is the issue at hand here, no matter what you try to dig up on him to make this ok in your mind.

Yes.

Definition by Nathan S. Chapman Associate Professor of Law at the Univeristy of Georgia School of Law and by by Kenji Yoshino Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the Director of the Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

"The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is the source of an array of constitutional rights, including many of our most cherished—and most controversial.

Consider the following rights that the Clause guarantees against the states: procedural protections, such as notice and a hearing before termination of entitlements such as publicly funded medical insurance; individual rights listed in the Bill of Rights, including freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, the right to bear arms, and a variety of criminal procedure protections; fundamental rights that are not specifically enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution, including the right to marry, the right to use contraception, and the right to abortion.

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment echoes that of the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment, however, applies only against the federal government. After the Civil War, Congress adopted a number of measures to protect individual rights from interference by the states.

Among them was the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

The US no longer cares about human rights around the world. It makes sense. Why would you publish a report that you are on?

"The Trump administration is substantially scaling back the State Department's annual reports on international human rights to remove longstanding critiques of abuses such as harsh prison conditions, government corruption and restrictions on participation in the political process, NPR has learned.

Despite decades of precedent, the reports, which are meant to inform congressional decisions on foreign aid allocations and security assistance, will no longer call governments out for such things as denying freedom of movement and peaceful assembly. They won't condemn retaining political prisoners without due process or restrictions on "free and fair elections."

Forcibly returning a refugee or asylum-seeker to a home country where they may face torture or persecution will no longer be highlighted, nor will serious harassment of human rights organizations."

www.npr.org/2025/04/18/nx-s1-5357511/state-department-human-rights-report-cuts

Gotta love Boston. 🤣

250 years ago today.

I dont really understand what is written on the Boston clock, imaround