I'm assuming that all data from everywhere in the government was vacuumed up by DOGE and now resides in a Palantir database being indexed for when it can be used to purge the next group of "Undesirables" from the White Nationalist paradise.
I'll know liberals mean business when they drop the throw-away lines of "chilling" and "society's ills" for clicks from the dense. Please, lecture me again about how "chilled to the bone" I should be by all this unpleasantness.
When I retired I joined the All of Us Research Project - a project that collected health data from a large subset of Americans to be used for medical research. The project is under NIH. Now this Administration has my private health information along with thousands of other people, and I have no idea how they are using it. It's apparent that medical research is not one of their priorities.
"Meanwhile, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, has threatened to create his own “database” of people who protest ICE, which sounds an awful lot like twentieth-century government databases of Commies, wrong thinkers, and other political enemies"
There was a video released just yesterday documenting this very thing. It is of an ICE thug snapping a picture of a woman filming and then telling her she now in a database of "domestic terrorists". According to the jackbooted NAZIS, simply filming them now makes one a domestic terrorist. This should be chilling to anyone. That, and these requests from the gov't for info about heritage, certainly is lending credence to the worries of citizens that they will be targeted by the scum of this administration.
Not Jewish myself but we do have Jewish family members in the extended family. So regarding Jews, it is pretty clear that when Trump's minions finish with Hispanic immigrants, Muslims should be worried, so should Indians and well Jews are likely next.
It's not that the data is there, it's that (a) it is being comingled and aggregated in ways that previous database silos strictly forbade, (b) there is no oversight as to who is accessing the data and how it is used, and (c) there are apparently no ethics or training in proper means and reasons to access the data. Back in Trump's first term, I was alarmed when the first requests were sent out to states requesting confidential voter rolls data by the so-called "Voter Integrity Commission". I sent a letter to our Secretary of State requesting this data NOT be provided from our state because there were no indications that the data would be secure, not made readily available to all and sundry or sold, would be no proper training on how and why and when the data could be accessed, and there would be no oversight and consequences on queries made for illegal or unethical reasons. Prior administrations have had rules and laws and consequences, but this administration has blown past those so quickly we never even saw it coming. There will always be overstepping or misuse to some degree, but those actions were never outright policy before. Keep in mind: A is not important, B might be interesting, and C might be curious.... but A+B+C=possible consequences on someone's life or livelihood.
my very first reaction to DOGE- rogue and opaque- apparently let loose with zero protection of the inconceivably vast databases of information laid bare to them (social security. dept of labor. irs. medical claims/records. birth certificates. voting registration. the mind reels--- at the possiblities) was EXACTLY this. but not categorized/reserved for anti-semitism.
I did not have the language or expertise of Ms Rampell but my image/metaphor:
the horrific, physical, yellow stars of pre WWII.. can/could/will be replaced by digital blue dots.
just think of that for a single moment.
for example, instead of slashing Medicaid and risking making an entire country angry and perhaps willing to push back--
JUST slash Medicaid for 'blue' voters. keep your supporters/your base 'happy'
I was told by every single aquaintance that I was catastrophizing. over-reacting. 'we just have to win the midterms. it's pointless to ruminate before then. why imagine the worst that could happen before it happens?' and on and on
and yet it's so clear to me that that IS what is happening- what is being reached for
I have been joyfully reading Ms. Rampell many years before her timely exit from the sinking ship known as WaPo, and this is unusually frank language. Ms. Rampell may be many things, but I don’t count hysteria or melodrama among those qualities.
And, “ No, Ms. Rampbell, this American Jew doesn’t feel remotely safe…yet.”
For a man who just sued the IRS for $10B for releasing his tax records years ago, that’s pretty rich. Hypocrisy thrives under this criminal.
I'm assuming that all data from everywhere in the government was vacuumed up by DOGE and now resides in a Palantir database being indexed for when it can be used to purge the next group of "Undesirables" from the White Nationalist paradise.
This article needs to be widely shared & re-stacked. We need to be working on how to delete these lists - how will un-do all the harm DOGE created?
I'll know liberals mean business when they drop the throw-away lines of "chilling" and "society's ills" for clicks from the dense. Please, lecture me again about how "chilled to the bone" I should be by all this unpleasantness.
https://tenor.com/search/please-tell-me-more-gifs
Thank you, Catherine, for your diligent and important work. I’m so glad you are with The Bulwark.
When I retired I joined the All of Us Research Project - a project that collected health data from a large subset of Americans to be used for medical research. The project is under NIH. Now this Administration has my private health information along with thousands of other people, and I have no idea how they are using it. It's apparent that medical research is not one of their priorities.
I recall that Nixon (no surprise here) also asked for a secret list of Jews who worked at the Department of Labor.
"Meanwhile, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, has threatened to create his own “database” of people who protest ICE, which sounds an awful lot like twentieth-century government databases of Commies, wrong thinkers, and other political enemies"
There was a video released just yesterday documenting this very thing. It is of an ICE thug snapping a picture of a woman filming and then telling her she now in a database of "domestic terrorists". According to the jackbooted NAZIS, simply filming them now makes one a domestic terrorist. This should be chilling to anyone. That, and these requests from the gov't for info about heritage, certainly is lending credence to the worries of citizens that they will be targeted by the scum of this administration.
Not Jewish myself but we do have Jewish family members in the extended family. So regarding Jews, it is pretty clear that when Trump's minions finish with Hispanic immigrants, Muslims should be worried, so should Indians and well Jews are likely next.
Lot's of history suggests Jews should be wary.
ICE is already asking people "where do the Asians live?"
It's not that the data is there, it's that (a) it is being comingled and aggregated in ways that previous database silos strictly forbade, (b) there is no oversight as to who is accessing the data and how it is used, and (c) there are apparently no ethics or training in proper means and reasons to access the data. Back in Trump's first term, I was alarmed when the first requests were sent out to states requesting confidential voter rolls data by the so-called "Voter Integrity Commission". I sent a letter to our Secretary of State requesting this data NOT be provided from our state because there were no indications that the data would be secure, not made readily available to all and sundry or sold, would be no proper training on how and why and when the data could be accessed, and there would be no oversight and consequences on queries made for illegal or unethical reasons. Prior administrations have had rules and laws and consequences, but this administration has blown past those so quickly we never even saw it coming. There will always be overstepping or misuse to some degree, but those actions were never outright policy before. Keep in mind: A is not important, B might be interesting, and C might be curious.... but A+B+C=possible consequences on someone's life or livelihood.
even the photo of this post is triggering..
my very first reaction to DOGE- rogue and opaque- apparently let loose with zero protection of the inconceivably vast databases of information laid bare to them (social security. dept of labor. irs. medical claims/records. birth certificates. voting registration. the mind reels--- at the possiblities) was EXACTLY this. but not categorized/reserved for anti-semitism.
I did not have the language or expertise of Ms Rampell but my image/metaphor:
the horrific, physical, yellow stars of pre WWII.. can/could/will be replaced by digital blue dots.
just think of that for a single moment.
for example, instead of slashing Medicaid and risking making an entire country angry and perhaps willing to push back--
JUST slash Medicaid for 'blue' voters. keep your supporters/your base 'happy'
I was told by every single aquaintance that I was catastrophizing. over-reacting. 'we just have to win the midterms. it's pointless to ruminate before then. why imagine the worst that could happen before it happens?' and on and on
and yet it's so clear to me that that IS what is happening- what is being reached for
digital blue dots
There’s a ton of antisemitism in those exposed Telegram messages from the self-appointed defenders of Jewish students on college campuses.
I have been joyfully reading Ms. Rampell many years before her timely exit from the sinking ship known as WaPo, and this is unusually frank language. Ms. Rampell may be many things, but I don’t count hysteria or melodrama among those qualities.
And, “ No, Ms. Rampbell, this American Jew doesn’t feel remotely safe…yet.”
It does sound like McCarthy's list of "commies" in the State Department. Also sounds like Orwell's '1984'
Well said, we need to be very worried!
This is textbook Vichy behavior