Sorry, but I don't think the revelation about KAG's wife petitioning for a protective order changes a damn thing, nor does the ultimate outcome of his immigration status, nor even some future revelation about criminal conduct or gang affiliation. It changes nothing for the simple reason provided very intelligently and powerfully by Sen. Van Hollen son Fox News in response to the suggestion that he should be concerned that he's fighting so visibly for a man who may be proven down the line to be a member of MS-13:
"I am not vouching for the man. I am vouching for the man's rights. His constitutional rights to due process... Put up or shut up IN COURT... where we litigate these things."
Or as Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson put it in the Lincolnesque opinion he issued last Thursday:
"The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order."
Its pretty damn simple actually, and the truly alarming aspect of it all is how so many people seemingly don't get it, or worse still, don't even care.
If IRS moves ahead to carry out revoking Harvard’s tax exempt status, then the doors should be open to do likewise for churches and religious organizations who actively stumped for Trump and Republicans from the pulpit.
I believe the administration’s policy re: Harvard is profoundly antisemitic and I’m at a loss to understand why this has not been part of the conversation about this issue. If successful, the measures they are attempting to take against the University, up to and including revoking tax free status and curriculum oversight, are so draconian and repulsive to - let’s call it “normal” - societal values, that sooner or later there will be a backlash throughout our society. When that happens what will an administration like this do? Well, I think as so often has occurred in history, why not blame the Jews? By justifying the actions by saying they are doing it BECAUSE of antisemitism, we are being set up. I can just imagine statements like: we got lots of pressure to protect Jews. Powerful Jews pressured us to do this. If it weren’t for the Jews on campus and their unreasonable demands to be seen as being on THEIR side, we wouldn’t have had to do this.
I mean, does anyone really think these thugs give a damn about antisemitism on campus? Does anyone really think they’d hesitate to blame any negative fallout from this on SOMEONE ELSE. And when in history was there a better someone else to blame than “The Jews?” I’m not being paranoid, but no longer can we confidently say, “that can’t happen in America.”
I just gave Harvard a donation AND I sent a copy of the Thank You receipt to alumni relations at my alma mater Columbia. My note said "could have been you I gave to if you stood up for democracy and academic freedom. Destroying the Universities is classic step 1 for authoritarians along with disappearances and intimidation. Never thought I'd see this in my country.
It doesn't matter what we don't know about Garcia. What we DO know is that he and hundreds of others were denied due process. THAT'S a violation of the law! And as far as domestic abuse goes, if I remember correctly, the Felon's first wife accused him of the same. And we KNOW that our alcoholic Sec of Defense has also been accused of abuse by his wife. So, if the Felon and his Nazi SS can ignore the laws of the land, why shouldn't we do the same? And, remember, "I was ordered to do it," was the excuse the Nazis used during the Nuremberg trials.
The most patriotic thing a GOP congressperson can do is switch parties. Will the 26 elections be remotely free and fair? There is some doubt. But people currently in office have power.
WRT Cruz, etc, I think it's fair to say GOP belief in those ideals couldn't have ever been deep to begin with. There's a reason Trump switched parties before he started his takeover.
Worst is yet to come. Donald "The Beast" Trump is building a wall once again. Colossal tariff wall that is the beginning of the end for the system of down. At first the beast will pull the plug out of the global economy. The worst financial crisis of human history will pull a swarm of the banks underwater and the bank run begins. Then the beast will collapse a mountain of debt shattering the backbone of the monetary system causing a systemic risk to realize. Finally the beast will cast American citizens into a system slavery under the name of Ronald Wilson Reagan, just to "honor his legacy" count the number. After the destruction a new world order will be established in the US. And the Golden Age begins from the ruins of the world wide collapse. All of the system slaves will love it. No more cash - just digital transactions. No more traditional criminal activity. No more tax evasion. No more transactions without the "all seeing eye". Outcasts will hate the world without freedom, hope and privacy. To cover up the mess and distract the public by smoke and mirrors, the beast will engage in a war with Iran. Lies and deceit, corruption and decay, dancing on the graves will continue. Until; Black hole sun, won't you come, won't you come... I want to play a game. Time has come to opt out of the empire of filth. Live or die...
This has always been the case. Court challenges to oppressive laws and procedures come from disreputable and marginal people because those are the people that get shoved around and have their rights abused. Authoritarians use that marginal disreputability to launch ad homines. AFAICT Fox has a whole “No Angel Department” dedicated to finding dirt on nonaffluent nonwhite nonstraight nonmales
Well, Clarence Earl Gideon would not have been able to join the Chamber of Commerce, and Ernesto Miranda would not, I hope, have been a scoutmaster, but Gideon v Wainright and Miranda v Arizona were rightly decided.
The real John Proctor (not the heroic dude in The Crucible) was a pedo(he was 72 and Abigail Williams was 11), but he was asserting his wife’s conviction on witchcraft charges was wrong on procedure and evidence, he was right, and Justice Danforth should not have hanged him. Dred Scott may (or may not) have been developmentally delayed or mentally ill (as generations of Lost Causers scoured the few records to try to prove) but he had lived in a free state and walked on free soil Chief Justice Taney was wrong to use the full faith and credit clause to re-enslave him
Freedom does not come to us in clean new packages with white glove delivery. It comes mostly in the faces of miserable (and often cruel, stupid, or vicious) losers who are hoping against all reasonable expectations that this time they will finally catch a break.
The "No angel" tactic is ironic, to say the least, from a network dedicated to arguing that a multitude of moral failings and legal infractions by Donald Trump should never be held as disqualifying for the presidency.
Whether this Administration, which lauds itself on free speech, takes over every university in the country, or sends non-citizens and citizens alike to a brutal gulag without benefit of due process as enjoined by the Fifth Amendment (“NO person shall be denied life, liberty or property without due process”), what is important is not the character of Mr. Garcia but of US. Our performer/salesman President has already warped that of an incredible number of Americans, and there’s no telling if we can come back from it.
The horror of the Garcia case is not for Garcia - although the Right Wing would like you to believe it is. Garcia is just the focus. The actual horror is the casual dispensation with all judicial guard rails.
To all those idiots celebrating that a wife beater (if he is) has been flung in a foreign jail, the only response is "IF THEY CAN DO IT TO HIM THEY CAN DO IT TO YOU!"
And trump has already expressed out loud and on video his wish to do so.
How much further do these people have to walk out over the edge of the cliff before they realise there is a 500 foot drop below them?
Old cliches can sound silly, but they become cliches based on some grain of truth. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If we have the miraculous luck of defeating this man and his sad, sad party, we will celebrate the greatness of our democracy. That survived such a time.
To truly achieve the kind of viewpoint diversity requested of Harvard, each department would have to dig down into their pile of qualified applicants to find candidates to hire who are at least close to being as fully qualified as those who too closely resemble the overall makeup of the current faculty. Merit based hiring, of course.
Abrego Garcia’s background and history is almost irrelevant. What is critical is that if we can ensure him due process, we are doing the same for all of us.
Sorry, but I don't think the revelation about KAG's wife petitioning for a protective order changes a damn thing, nor does the ultimate outcome of his immigration status, nor even some future revelation about criminal conduct or gang affiliation. It changes nothing for the simple reason provided very intelligently and powerfully by Sen. Van Hollen son Fox News in response to the suggestion that he should be concerned that he's fighting so visibly for a man who may be proven down the line to be a member of MS-13:
"I am not vouching for the man. I am vouching for the man's rights. His constitutional rights to due process... Put up or shut up IN COURT... where we litigate these things."
Or as Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson put it in the Lincolnesque opinion he issued last Thursday:
"The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process. If the government is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order."
Its pretty damn simple actually, and the truly alarming aspect of it all is how so many people seemingly don't get it, or worse still, don't even care.
If IRS moves ahead to carry out revoking Harvard’s tax exempt status, then the doors should be open to do likewise for churches and religious organizations who actively stumped for Trump and Republicans from the pulpit.
I believe the administration’s policy re: Harvard is profoundly antisemitic and I’m at a loss to understand why this has not been part of the conversation about this issue. If successful, the measures they are attempting to take against the University, up to and including revoking tax free status and curriculum oversight, are so draconian and repulsive to - let’s call it “normal” - societal values, that sooner or later there will be a backlash throughout our society. When that happens what will an administration like this do? Well, I think as so often has occurred in history, why not blame the Jews? By justifying the actions by saying they are doing it BECAUSE of antisemitism, we are being set up. I can just imagine statements like: we got lots of pressure to protect Jews. Powerful Jews pressured us to do this. If it weren’t for the Jews on campus and their unreasonable demands to be seen as being on THEIR side, we wouldn’t have had to do this.
I mean, does anyone really think these thugs give a damn about antisemitism on campus? Does anyone really think they’d hesitate to blame any negative fallout from this on SOMEONE ELSE. And when in history was there a better someone else to blame than “The Jews?” I’m not being paranoid, but no longer can we confidently say, “that can’t happen in America.”
I just gave Harvard a donation AND I sent a copy of the Thank You receipt to alumni relations at my alma mater Columbia. My note said "could have been you I gave to if you stood up for democracy and academic freedom. Destroying the Universities is classic step 1 for authoritarians along with disappearances and intimidation. Never thought I'd see this in my country.
It doesn't matter what we don't know about Garcia. What we DO know is that he and hundreds of others were denied due process. THAT'S a violation of the law! And as far as domestic abuse goes, if I remember correctly, the Felon's first wife accused him of the same. And we KNOW that our alcoholic Sec of Defense has also been accused of abuse by his wife. So, if the Felon and his Nazi SS can ignore the laws of the land, why shouldn't we do the same? And, remember, "I was ordered to do it," was the excuse the Nazis used during the Nuremberg trials.
The most patriotic thing a GOP congressperson can do is switch parties. Will the 26 elections be remotely free and fair? There is some doubt. But people currently in office have power.
WRT Cruz, etc, I think it's fair to say GOP belief in those ideals couldn't have ever been deep to begin with. There's a reason Trump switched parties before he started his takeover.
Worst is yet to come. Donald "The Beast" Trump is building a wall once again. Colossal tariff wall that is the beginning of the end for the system of down. At first the beast will pull the plug out of the global economy. The worst financial crisis of human history will pull a swarm of the banks underwater and the bank run begins. Then the beast will collapse a mountain of debt shattering the backbone of the monetary system causing a systemic risk to realize. Finally the beast will cast American citizens into a system slavery under the name of Ronald Wilson Reagan, just to "honor his legacy" count the number. After the destruction a new world order will be established in the US. And the Golden Age begins from the ruins of the world wide collapse. All of the system slaves will love it. No more cash - just digital transactions. No more traditional criminal activity. No more tax evasion. No more transactions without the "all seeing eye". Outcasts will hate the world without freedom, hope and privacy. To cover up the mess and distract the public by smoke and mirrors, the beast will engage in a war with Iran. Lies and deceit, corruption and decay, dancing on the graves will continue. Until; Black hole sun, won't you come, won't you come... I want to play a game. Time has come to opt out of the empire of filth. Live or die...
Re: complicating the picture
This has always been the case. Court challenges to oppressive laws and procedures come from disreputable and marginal people because those are the people that get shoved around and have their rights abused. Authoritarians use that marginal disreputability to launch ad homines. AFAICT Fox has a whole “No Angel Department” dedicated to finding dirt on nonaffluent nonwhite nonstraight nonmales
Well, Clarence Earl Gideon would not have been able to join the Chamber of Commerce, and Ernesto Miranda would not, I hope, have been a scoutmaster, but Gideon v Wainright and Miranda v Arizona were rightly decided.
The real John Proctor (not the heroic dude in The Crucible) was a pedo(he was 72 and Abigail Williams was 11), but he was asserting his wife’s conviction on witchcraft charges was wrong on procedure and evidence, he was right, and Justice Danforth should not have hanged him. Dred Scott may (or may not) have been developmentally delayed or mentally ill (as generations of Lost Causers scoured the few records to try to prove) but he had lived in a free state and walked on free soil Chief Justice Taney was wrong to use the full faith and credit clause to re-enslave him
Freedom does not come to us in clean new packages with white glove delivery. It comes mostly in the faces of miserable (and often cruel, stupid, or vicious) losers who are hoping against all reasonable expectations that this time they will finally catch a break.
The "No angel" tactic is ironic, to say the least, from a network dedicated to arguing that a multitude of moral failings and legal infractions by Donald Trump should never be held as disqualifying for the presidency.
Whether this Administration, which lauds itself on free speech, takes over every university in the country, or sends non-citizens and citizens alike to a brutal gulag without benefit of due process as enjoined by the Fifth Amendment (“NO person shall be denied life, liberty or property without due process”), what is important is not the character of Mr. Garcia but of US. Our performer/salesman President has already warped that of an incredible number of Americans, and there’s no telling if we can come back from it.
Can someone sue the Republican Party for trading under a false name?
Because it is very obvious that it is now the "MAGA Party".
The horror of the Garcia case is not for Garcia - although the Right Wing would like you to believe it is. Garcia is just the focus. The actual horror is the casual dispensation with all judicial guard rails.
To all those idiots celebrating that a wife beater (if he is) has been flung in a foreign jail, the only response is "IF THEY CAN DO IT TO HIM THEY CAN DO IT TO YOU!"
And trump has already expressed out loud and on video his wish to do so.
How much further do these people have to walk out over the edge of the cliff before they realise there is a 500 foot drop below them?
Old cliches can sound silly, but they become cliches based on some grain of truth. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If we have the miraculous luck of defeating this man and his sad, sad party, we will celebrate the greatness of our democracy. That survived such a time.
Ok. A week to celebrate - then a decade or two strengthening the guardrails round our democracy.
Trump didn't get elected because he went round the country on a push bike. He had a LOT of help - from a lot of VERY nasty people.
“I am afraid to be close to him,” she wrote. “I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he has left me.”
I'm old enough to remember when "Stand By Your Man" was a rightwing anthem ...
If he'd murdered her, he would have been arrested, given a public defender, gone before a judge and jury, and if found "Guilty" sent to jail.
Hell - if he had fled to El Salvador - the US would ask for him to be extradited - and he would be.
So much for all the "Boo Hoo - we can't get him back!" shit.
To truly achieve the kind of viewpoint diversity requested of Harvard, each department would have to dig down into their pile of qualified applicants to find candidates to hire who are at least close to being as fully qualified as those who too closely resemble the overall makeup of the current faculty. Merit based hiring, of course.
Abrego Garcia’s background and history is almost irrelevant. What is critical is that if we can ensure him due process, we are doing the same for all of us.
First they came for …