Thursday, January 23, 2025
Friend or Foe?
The conversation with Tipper this morning, as she got ready to leave for school, was one that I never imagined needing to have. “If you see anyone coming into your classroom or anywhere else at the school and removing students, I want you to text me immediately.” I didn’t have to tell her why. She’s already well aware of the ICE raids going on around town. She and her classmates have been discussing them and sharing their fears with each other all week.
“It’s more likely to happen on the bus than at school, I think,” Tipper said. “They’ve already been doing that. My friends have seen it. I’ll call you if I see anything.”
“No, text me, don’t call. Don’t do anything that would draw attention to yourself,” I warned her. “Putting your phone up to your ear could be seen as an aggressive action.”
The fact is, she’s concerned. Sure, she’s trying to blow it off and knows that she’s not likely to be at the top of anyone’s list, but there’s that lingering doubt. Tipper knows she can no longer trust some authority figures. She wants to be defiant and protect her friends but she also knows she can’t really fight back against armed adults.
Why the concern? Tipper wasn’t born in the US. Kat and her bio-dad were stationed at the Marine base in Okinawa when she was born. Both US and Japanese birth certificates were issued. Both of her parents are US citizens. Yet, as Felonious Punk wages war against the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, there’s room to question whether she might potentially be caught up in the new detention of immigrants. I’ve tried easing her concerns, she knows her risks are slim, but she’s also aware that situations like these are unpredictable and that innocent people can be caught up.
Making matters worse is the knowledge that the DOJ is investigating any local police who don’t go along with the immigration round-up. This page, straight out of the Waffen SS playbook, makes it impossible to know which police officers can be trusted to uphold the Constitution and which can’t. Crime never stops, but if you can’t trust local police to do the right thing, what happens next? Is it still safe to call 911 if you only speak Spanish? What if you have an ‘accent’ of some kind? Are 911 operators going to send ICE along with emergency services if they think the caller might be an immigrant?
I’m watching to see if there are any mass resignations from the Department of Justice in light of these new presidential orders. I’m not expecting it, at least not yet, but that is what needs to happen. One of the most critical things coming out of the Nuremberg Trials is the legal concept that ‘following orders’ is not an excuse for actions that violate human rights. Nazi soldiers who served as guards at concentration camps were imprisoned and some were put to death for carrying out orders that resulted in the deaths of millions of Jews and other imprisoned people. Officials with the FBI, CIA, ICE, and Homeland Security could potentially be prosecuted in the same way if they carry out Punk’s orders. Better for them that they find jobs in the private sector rather than be found complicit with evil.
There is a lot of evil in this administration. Felonious Punk set us back 60 years yesterday when his orders rescinded the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and other long-standing civil rights protections. So far, only COSTCO is standing up and defying the administration. Publicly traded companies are running scared of potential legal costs if white, straight men start claiming that DEI or EEOC policies discriminate against them. You and I both know that such a claim is absolute bullshit, but the legal costs of being involved in such a suit could dramatically affect a company’s bottom line regardless of the outcome. The fact is that anyone who’s not a straight, white male is likely in for a rough time in the employment arena, especially if they work for a publicly traded company. The rights you thought you had have been eliminated.
Congress is complicit in this evil and they’re actively preparing to bring more hardship to your door. Republicans in the House are passing around a proposed list of ways to pay for the Punk’s tax cut and immigration crackdown. Click the link and you can read the whole thing for free. Some of the more aggregious items on the list include but are not limited to the following:
- Limit Federal Health Program Eligibility Based on Citizenship Status. This policy would remove specified categories of non-citizens from eligibility for federal health care programs.
- Repeal Title I of IRA (Excluding: 45Q Carbon Sequestration, 45U Nuclear Power, 45Z Clean Fuels, and EV Tax Credit).
- Repeal Green Energy Tax Credits.
- End Employee Retention Tax Credit
- Repeal SALT Deduction. This option would eliminate both the individual and business State and Local Tax deduction.
- Eliminate Nonprofit Status for Hospitals. Because healthcare isn’t expensive enough already.
- Eliminate Head of Household Filing Status. The Head of Household filing status provides a larger standard deduction for unmarried individuals who have children.
- Eliminate Credit for Child and Dependent Care.
- Eliminate Deduction of Interest on Student Loans.
I’ll stop there because if I included everything on this list that’s alarming it would be over 100 points long. Read the whole thing, please. Descriptions of Republican’s reasoning for these actions are included with most of the items.
The Punk’s recent actions put almost everyone I know at some form of risk. The administration is hoping that you’ll just roll over and take it. I’m sure that a lot of people will. The truth is, we can and should fight back, loudly, ferociously, and using every option available to us. I don’t think we have time for suits to make their way through the court system, especially then the Punk is pushing the DOJ to support his policies. We have to take a more immediate and physical stand. Yes, that may put some of us at greater risk, but we’re already at severe risk just from all the bullshit that Punk has dumped on us this week. I’d rather go out fighting than whimpering in a ditch.
This is the battle against tyranny and fascism that your grandparents and great-grandparents fought in wars to avoid. They didn’t want you to be subject to this type of government. They believed that the United States is better than this. They would all be severely disappointed, if not downright angry, to see where we are now.
Scream. Shout. Disobey. Resist. Dissent. If a 14-year-old can do it, so can you.
Friday, January 24, 2025
Protect Yourself
Nothing that has happened this week should be a surprise, not even the record-setting weather along the Gulf Coast. The weather is the result of unchecked climate change and everything else was telegraphed in Project 2025 long before Felonious Punk was elected. We, in all our arrogance, allowed this to happen. Just like 1930s Germany, we were sure that there would be no negative fallout from all our nationalistic posturing. We were wrong, and now we’re beginning to pay an extremely high price for more than just eggs.
We talked yesterday about Tipper’s concern over possible ICE enforcement in the city, particularly at her school. Checking with her when she got home, she said that she didn’t see anything, but that a lot of kids were talking about it, many were scared, and a few students were missing from classes. Apparently, both school and city officials noticed the unrest and fear. Shortly after school ended yesterday, we received the following email from the school’s principal.
Dear PPHS Community,
Purdue Polytechnic Schools (PPHS) are dedicated to creating equitable and inclusive environments where every student feels safe and supported both socially and emotionally. Due to potential changes in federal policies, many students, families, and staff are facing heightened anxiety and uncertainty about the possibility of mass deportation. While we still do not know exactly what actions the incoming administration may or may not take at this time, it is important that our families have access to resources and information to establish an action plan.
This Family Resource Toolkit is available in English and Spanish and contains information and resources about your rights, current DPS policies, training, mental health support, and a list of community resources. Please read this guide and save it so you can refer back to it whenever necessary.
It is also important that families update emergency contacts. Each student should have at least two emergency contacts. These individuals do not need to be family members; they can be any trusted adult known by the family. We also ask that families identify those authorized to pick up their students (including older siblings) from school if a parent or guardian cannot. Please email us if you need to update emergency contacts.
Our schools are safe, and we want our students here. While our function is to provide education for all students, our responsibility is to provide safe and welcoming environments. That commitment remains true.
Jacob Pactor, principal
Within the hour, the following statement hit social media from IMPD Chief Chris Bailey.
Almost simultaneously, Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) released their own statement, complete with a new website. If officials wanted to communicate that the city of Indianapolis is safe for immigrants, they almost made their point. At least, it seemed they made a good effort.
Then, from the statehouse came the news that a new bill requiring police in the state to report anyone suspected of being undocumented had passed out of committee. So much for immigrants being safe. For that matter, no one is safe because the bill only requires that an officer ‘suspect’ that a person, driver, or passenger, might be undocumented. No actual evidence is required. That makes everyone a target.
Yes, a federal judge did issue a temporary restraining order preventing ICE from implementing Punk’s executive order. The order lasts for 14 days so that no immigration authority can make a rush to lock up immigrants before courts have a chance to decide on the legality of the issue. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour stopped the Justice Department’s lawyer mid-sentence, pummeled him with questions, and then called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.”
On the surface, this seems like a cut-and-dried case. The 14th Amendment makes it extremely clear that anyone born here in the US is a citizen. However, Punk’s justice department is trying to get around that. An article published by Salon late yesterday outlines exactly how lawyers intend to argue that even Indigenous peoples, Native Americans, are not necessarily citizens. If Indigenous people, whose ancestors have lived on this land for over 50,000 years, are not citizens, then who the fuck is? Certainly not any offspring of late-coming Europeans! By this argument, does the US have any citizens at all?
Pay attention to the timing here. Monday marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The opening paragraph on the website memorializing the lives lost reads as follows:
Soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front opened the gates of Auschwitz Concentration Camp on January 27, 1945. The prisoners greeted them as authentic liberators. It was a paradox of history that soldiers formally representing Stalinist totalitarianism brought freedom to the prisoners of Nazi totalitarianism.
There aren’t many survivors of Auschwitz or Birkenau left. Of the few remaining, at least one is still actively telling his story. The frightening experience he endured, the millions of lives lost, should stand as a stark reminder of what happens if people like you and I stand by and do absolutely nothing.
I know this is going to hit some people the wrong way, but now is the time for Democrats, progressive thinkers, liberals, and academics to begin arming themselves. We’ve spent so much time over the past 50 years advocating for gun laws that we’ve lost sight of the original purpose of the 2nd Amendment: Protecting ourselves from the government. I hate to think that we actually have anything in common with the militias that participated in the January 6 insurrection, but the truth is that we are at a point where arming ourselves is a necessity. Republicans are counting on us trying to use the courts, stretching the battle out over the next four years, while ICE and other DOJ agencies do their evil deeds unthwarted. We cannot let that happen.
I’m willing to bet that if liberals suddenly start buying the same weapons we’ve been screaming against, folks in government are going to notice. One of two things will happen. Either they’ll change their tune on birthright citizenship and immigration policy, or we’ll finally start getting the restrictive gun laws we’ve needed. I’m willing to bet on the former.
We cannot make the same mistake that German citizens did. They waited until it was too late and a monster was unleashed upon the world. We have the opportunity to stop this new monster in his tracks. Arm yourselves. Stand your ground. You have an inherent right to defend yourself, your family, and your property against government intrusion. Use it.
Just make sure you’re well caffeinated when you do it. No one needs a sleepy shooter.
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