The system teaches its agents that some civilians are not quite citizens. They are obstacles. Risks. Agitators. Problems to be neutralized.

This is how people holding cameras become targets.

This is how witnesses become enemies.

This is how restraint becomes optional.

Observation becomes intolerable when an agency’s authority depends on speed, fear, and anonymity. When agents claim that being watched makes their job impossible, what they are really saying is that their authority depends on being unaccountable.

Remember when Biden was heckled? Night and Day: youtu.be/7Xd5TCpcszY?...

Interesting info on Bovino:

He can't suspend elections in November. Elections are written into the Constitution. Period. And they are a state function, not a federal function.

To be President of Venezuela, you must be a natural-born Venezuelan citizen (no other nationality), at least 30 years old, have no disqualifying criminal convictions, and cannot hold high office like Minister or Governor when running.

He's a president for one very specific group of people. Everyone else is considered to be terrorists.

No they weren't. There was still a border to run. The separation of families stopped. The mistreatments stopped. Hmm, when ICE mistreats people it seems to be under Trump, I wonder why.

He sure does have a thing about labeling groups of people he doesn't like as terrorists. First it was Antifa, then basically all democrats involved in protests, gangs and drug traffickers, Antifa groups in Germany, Italy and Greece. Pretty soon, everyone except MAGA will be labeled terrorist.

If Trump gets them to act like criminals and thugs, then hell no, don't fund them. Between 2017 and 2020, they were engaged in separating families, losing children in the system, and treating immigrants inhumanely. That hasn't changed this time either.

dragging people off the street, arresting them first and verifying their identities AFTER arresting them, roughhousing them, and treating them as less than the dirt on the bottom of their shoes.

And? If ICE is doing illegal things this term, then yes, they should be deported. If they are following the laws and treating people with dignity, then they should be funded. That is not what is occurring with ICE today. ICE has become a rogue police force, outside their assigned roles,

Democrats should defund authoritarian capacity, not normalize it.

Exactly. ICE isn’t just a deportation agency anymore. It’s been reshaped into an internal security force with weak oversight and political discretion—one that can be used to intimidate opponents, suppress dissent, and interfere with democratic processes.

We're already there. www.opinionatedobserver.com/post/fascism... Though I believe we have a hybrid form of it. (I'll be posting that next Thursday 15th).

He cannot suspend elections. They are written into the Constitution. I do not think SCOTUS would side with him on this one.

When agents of the state kill an American citizen and powerful political voices rush not to demand accountability but to justify the killing, something fundamental has broken. www.opinionatedobserver.com/post/fascism...