The Skinny: A Fascist State Under Trump Emerges
A Fascist State Under Trump Emerges: April 1st – 9th, 2025
White Nationalist Repression is the Point
I must confess that I’m getting pretty sick of saying “yes the Trump regime is unquestionably fascist” because at some point, the evidence that they are a bunch of repugnant nazis is so extensive that you have to be willfully ignorant to keep pretending this is still up for debate; as many big media outlets in the US appear to be doing. This story however brings us to a point where I feel compelled to point out not only that the Trump regime is definitely fascist, but these assclown nazi pigs are also, objectively speaking, evil.
As part of its unconstitutional scheme to traffic migrants, without due process, to a notorious torture prison in El Salvador in order to wage a made up war against “gangs” and “Venezuela” apparently, Trump’s DHS has admitted they “accidentally” deported a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is A) married to a US citizen B) has a five year old disabled child, and C) had a judge’s order not to deport him to El Salvador.
Trump Administration Admits Accidentally Deporting Maryland Father to El Salvador Mega Prison
“Although [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” the government admitted in response to Abrego Garcia’s complaint.
The government nevertheless argued in its filing that the court can’t order officials to bring Abrego Garcia home because he’s not in U.S. custody. The Trump administration is paying El Salvador to jail him, but the U.S. can’t force El Salvador to return the jailed men, the government claims.
It can only “entreat” or “cajole” its “close ally,” according to the filing.
“They claim that the court is powerless to order any relief,” Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told The Atlantic. “If that’s true, the immigration laws are meaningless—all of them—because the government can deport whoever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want, and no court can do anything about it once it’s done.”
Holy sweet fuck; let me restate what we’ve just read for clarity. The US govt just admitted, in court, that they unlawfully “deported” a guy who has been working and raising a family peacefully in the United States for years while seeking legal asylum, despite a judge’s order not to deport him to the exact country the regime just shipped him to, as part of a nazi kabuki theater human trafficking (deportation, requires a hearing before an immigration judge) scheme. Despite this, the regime’s lawyers are arguing, simultaneously, that they can’t get him back because he’s not in American custody, and they aren’t obligated to obey a judge’s order to return him because US courts don’t have jurisdiction over El Salvador.
Wait, it gets better because the U.S. government is also arguing that they shouldn’t have to do anything to correct this “mistake” because the man isn’t in danger, and “even if Abrego Garcia is being wrongfully imprisoned, he hasn’t suffered irreparable harm.” This is despite both the 2019 judge’s order granted because Garcia was “more likely than not” to face persecution” in his country of origin (El Salvador), and a 2023 US State Department investigation that “found credible reports that CECOT inmates in El Salvador had been electrocuted, tortured, and beaten to death.” Finally it should be mentioned that the regime hasn’t offered any legal reason (beyond “oopsie”) for why it was trying to deport Garcia in the first place, given that even if Trump’s bullshit invocation of the Alien Enemies Act walks in court somehow, Garcia isn’t Venezuelan, and the state’s own filing calls El Salvador a “close ally” – meaning we’re not even at fake war with them in the Trump regime’s own bubble of unreality.
Naturally, if the US wasn’t being run by maliciously evil fascists, one might expect some degree of contrition; but that’s not how the Pork Reich rolls. Vice President JD Vance took to social media to justify the actions his regime’s own lawyers just admitted were a “mistake” by spewing fact-free excuses about MS-13 that had to be corrected multiple times because Vance didn’t even read the government’s own filing. As the article notes, even Vance’s lies about gangs made no sense because ICE’s previous case against Garcia (from 2019) was based on the testimony of one anonymous source and fell apart when the state couldn’t produce anyone to testify; which is why he was still in the country and granted protected status while he sought asylum.
Folks, this wasn’t a mistake; when you purposely ignore all the legal processes designed to prevent “mistakes” like this, we call that criminal negligence. The Trump regime wanted planes full of nonwhite migrants to display like war trophies on prime time TV, and Garcia fit the bill. They didn’t care about the law; his skin tone and status as an asylum seeker made him an acceptable target. The cruelty was the point, which is why they don’t want to return Garcia even after admitting their “mistake.”
Trump Forces Emhoff’s Firm to Surrender Too
To the surprise of perhaps nobody with a pulse, yet another Big Law firm has preemptively surrendered in advance to the Pork Reich’s fascist agenda to avoid Trump’s revenge for *checks notes* taking completely legitimate cases against him and his fascist allies; including “representing two Georgia election workers who sued his (Trump’s) former attorney and adviser, Rudy Giuliani, for defamation.”
‘Absolutely Shameful’: Critics Slam Latest Law Firm to Cave Amid Trump’s Revenge Threats
“Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP proactively reached out to President Trump and his Administration, offering their decisive commitment to ending the Weaponization of the Justice System and the Legal Profession,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The President is delivering on his promises of eradicating Partisan Lawfare in America, and restoring Liberty and Justice FOR ALL.”
According to Trump, Willkie—whose partners include former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff—will provide a total of at least $100 million in pro bono services to veterans, active duty U.S. troops, and Gold Star families; law enforcement and first responders; to “ensuring fairness in our justice system;” and combating antisemitism.
The firm also agreed to commit to “merit-based hiring” and refrain from “illegal” diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring, promotion, and retention. It must also “not deny representation to clients, such as members of politically disenfranchised groups… who have not historically received legal representation from major national law firms… because of the personal political views of individual lawyers.”
Setting aside the fact that forcing the law firm run in part by Kamala Harris’s husband to grovel and capitulate without a fight is a huge propaganda win for Der Führer, Trump’s increasing control of Big Law is a much bigger story than folks outside of the legal world may realize. I think most people grasp that like virtually all of the stories about white shoe DC law firms agreeing to work for Trump, even if they don’t realize that’s what they’ve done yet, the story of Wilkie’s preemptive surrender is primarily about cowardice, greed, and collaboration. These firms have the ability to fight back against fascism, but it’s going to cost them some money; so instead they’ve agreed to work for free to further the political causes of our would-be fascist dictator, Donald Trump.
What I’m not sure a lot of people who aren’t familiar with how civil rights law actually functions in America understand however, is that every time Trump forcibly recruits one of these DC firms, he’s also knocking out a valuable plank of resistance to his authoritarian violations because there are literally only so many lawyers available to take civil rights cases, and those cases are typically done pro bono. While it would be nice to imagine a legal system not entirely dependent on lawsuits and rich lawyers engaging in a little reputation washing to protect the civil rights of folks persecuted by a fascist government, that is in fact the situation in the really real world we’re living in. At the rate he’s going so far, Trump is not only going to force all the best law firms in DC to work for the regime, but he’s also going to drastically reduce the number of cases that can be brought against his government for even clear civil rights violations, simply because there won’t be any lawyers left able to take those cases at rates targeted people can afford.
Yes Trump’s Racism Inspired the El Paso Shooter
I haven’t seen a lot about this emerging story in the national news, but the lawyer for the 2019 El Paso mass shooter (Patrick Crusius) is now expressly stating that his client thought he was working for Trump to stop the “invasion” (by brown people) the president said was occurring in Texas.
Patrick Crusius believed he was fulfilling Trump’s wishes in El Paso attack, his attorney says
“Patrick Crusius believed he was acting at the direction of President Donald Trump when he murdered 23 people and wounded 22 others at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, his defense lawyer told El Paso Matters.
“He thought he had to stop the invasion because that’s what his president was telling him, which is just not rational,” defense attorney Joe Spencer said in his first extended interview about the mass shooting that Crusius said was meant to stop “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
“He thought, if he doesn’t do it, then nobody’s going to do it. He’s got to start,” Spencer said.”
It’s not lost on me that Trump sycophants and apologists have a whole ream of excuses at the ready; the shooter had a history of serious mental illness, his lawyer is a Democrat who (rightfully) thinks Trump’s white nationalist rhetoric is dangerous, Crusius awkwardly tried to absolve Trump of responsibility for the muders in his manifesto, and so forth. The fact is however that just because fascists are willing to spew disingenuous lies to cover up Trump and the larger fascist propaganda industry’s involvement in motivating a mass murderer, doesn’t mean any thinking person has to treat those disingenuous excuses seriously. This guy was one of Trump’s legion of white nationalist fanboys; he was quoting Great Replacement conspiracy theories in his cut and pasted manifesto, he was adamantly against his lawyer subpoenaing Trump, and the shooter even admitted a 2019 Trump rally in Florida was the moment that convinced him to plan and enact the murders.
“Spencer said Crusius told him that a key event leading to the murderous rampage in El Paso occurred in May 2019 in Panama City Beach, Florida, when Trump spoke at a rally.
“I mean, you have 15,000 people marching up and you have hundreds and hundreds of people and you have two or three border security people that are brave and great,” Trump said, then added falsely that Border Patrol agents weren’t allowed to use weapons.
“But how do you stop these people?” Trump said.
“Shoot them,” someone in the audience shouted, drawing laughter from the crowd and a smile from the president.
“That’s only in the (Florida) Panhandle you can get away with that statement,” Trump said while shaking his head. “Only in the Panhandle.”
Crusius said he saw video of that Trump rally and was motivated to act, Spencer said. In June 2019, a month after the Florida Trump rally, Crusius purchased a semiautomatic rifle online and had it delivered to a gun dealer in his hometown of Allen, Texas, near Dallas, according to court records.”
Like are you fucking kidding me? Please keep in mind that as you read this, the Trump regime is currently arguing that Venezuelan migrants are literally “an invasion” that justifies the president invoking war powers to ship them to a maximum security torture prison in El Salvador without due process. Of course this murderous maggot fascist believed Trump was serious about migrants “invading” America and destroying the country because Trump himself is serious every time he says it! And the fact that Crusius was suffering from documented mental illness isn’t a valid excuse either because when you tell folks that they’re being invaded by brown people who’re going to rape and murder them, you don’t get to pretend its a surprise when vulnerable people high on your white nationalist conspiracy theories take that seriously; the negligence itself, is the problem here just as much as the overt race war rhetoric is.
By the way, don’t sleep on the fact that the primary reason you’re only hearing all of this now is that his lawyer has been under a gag order that was only dissolved in late March; you know, after Trump was elected again. After all, it wouldn’t be in the public interest to allow Trump’s eliminationist activities to disrupt his promising career as a white nationalist dictator by publicizing the reality that his rhetoric has a body count before America heads to the polls, would it?
Trump’s Tariffs Are A Mafia Shakedown
I haven’t spent a lot of time writing about Der Führer’s so-called economic policy, or even the devastating DOGE firings in the federal labor force because a US corporate media class trying very hard to either ignore, or normalize Trump’s fascist agenda has gladly turned to reporting extensively on why Trump sucks at running an economy and it’s a terrible idea to fire all the smart people who actually make the government function, only to replace them with nazi ideologues and teenage fascist hackers. You don’t need me to tell you what you can hear on CNN and there’s been surprisingly little spin on this type of reporting; Fox News obviously excepted.
Unfortunately however, the Trump tariff story is an absolute shitshow in terms of how poorly corporate media is covering it. Virtually every network and paper has dragged out a bunch of baffled economic analysts who’re more or less trying very hard to make sense of Trump setting fire to the global economy and levying what is effectively the largest regressive tax on consumers in the modern history of America; as if there’s some sort of long term vision that means Trump’s absurd tariff regime might pay off for Americans or at least American businesses. This is of course nonsense and I’ve been inclined to simply assume the obvious; Trump is gonna use the made up income to justify massive tax cuts for the billionaire ruling class and when it turns out tariffs don’t magically make up trillions of dollars in tax revenue, leave workers and taxpayers holding the bag.
As I’ve noted however, these fascists are pretty good at using the whole cow, and after I read this article by David Dayen, I’m starting to come around to the idea that the key to understanding Trump’s tariffs is to realized they aren’t economic policy at all, but rather an authoritarian attempt to bend companies, industries, and even entire countries to the Pork Reich’s will.
They’re Not Tariffs, They’re Sanctions
“What Trump is doing is a sanction policy, only he’s doing it against the whole world, all at once, for the assumed harm of “ripping off” the United States for decades. Sanctions have become a dangerously large component of American geopolitical strategy, an instrument of economic war felt disproportionately by the world’s poorest citizens. The stated reason that Russia and North Korea and other rogue states aren’t on the tariff lists is because sanctions have destroyed their ability to have a trading relationship with the U.S. Trump is applying those punitive measures to the rest of the world.
It is not at all surprising that Trump sees the appeal in sanctions. It is no different from a mob boss moving into town and sending his thugs to every business on Main Street, roughing up the proprietors and asking for protection money so they don’t get pushed out of business. Trump believes that the U.S. is indispensable enough that it can intimidate every country on Earth by, well, asking for protection money, which would take many forms: curbing migration, taking in more U.S. farm exports or weapons systems, reducing industrial capacity in China and forcing more consumption, buying long-dated U.S. debt on the cheap, siding with a war strategy against Iran, literally anything the White House wants. Trump now has a tool by which he can achieve whatever goals he conjures up, or simply have his leg-breakers beat the global economy to a pulp. It’s a mentality fit for someone repeatedly linked to organized crime.”
I realize Dayen’s theory may be hard to accept; after all, what kind of egomaniac fascist dipshit seriously thinks he can strongarm the entire planet? On its face, it seems absurd; until you realize that Trump clearly thinks he’s the God Emperor of the most “indispensable” nation in the world, and he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of American exceptionalist nazis who ardently believe “Western Civilization” as exemplified by the United States has a right to dominate the planet. Furthermore, Dayen’s analysis dovetails very well with Chris Murphy’s theory that Trump is trying to strongarm American companies to consolidate his power because the same strategy works for both private sector actors and entire nations. In other words – Trump has hit supervillain on a quest for world domination status; less than 3 months into his term.
“I’ve really only seen Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) understand this, that this is just a loyalty test for virtually every business in the nation, a universal attempt to gather protection money. It’s no different than using the leverage of government funding to force universities and law firms into submission. These economic sanctions force businesses to supplicate. “One by one, every industry or company will need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief,” Murphy writes. That’s correct, and it could come in the form of campaign support, corporate governance changes, or just raw cash. Anything is possible.”
Folks, I don’t want to alarm you but what you’re watching is Trumpism’s Gleichschaltung period. The regime is bringing every aspect of American life it can possibly affect into line with the fascist unreality that animates their authoritarian actions; this is how you install a fascist dictatorship built around a cult of personality.
Fascist GOP Wants to Remove Judges Who Oppose Trump
As I’ve written in the past, it remains unclear if the judiciary branch of the US government is willing to, or for that matter capable of stopping a fascist Trump regime that has to various degrees ignored court orders, argued that courts have no power to stop Der Führer’s executive orders, and threatened to remove judges or even dissolve courts that rule against the regime’s authoritarian and often blatantly unconstitutional actions. As yesterday’s tepid rulings in support of Trump’s torturing of American law to justify fascist repression by a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS makes clear, the regime still has an ace up its sleeve in court battles because it can use the Supreme Court to override all the other courts trying to stop it; assuming of course at least five judges in that body agree.
Despite this “trump” card however, the larger fascist GOP is rapidly beginning to coalesce around the idea that if the courts won’t give Downmarket Mussolini what he wants, the solution is to limit the court’s authority to rule on Trump’s orders, remove judges who aren’t ideologically aligned with the fascist regime’s (often illegal) activities, or simply dissolve circuit courts that don’t give them what they want without too much of a fuss. Why? Well, because they’re fascists running a fascist party and they support the overwhelming majority of the Trump agenda; but also, Elon Musk’s role as the new kingmaker of Republican politics means they’d much rather get funding from Musk to support the regime, than run against someone funded by Musk in Republican primaries to punish or remove politicians who don’t toe the official white nationalist line.
Alarm as Republicans in Congress back Trump and Musk’s attacks on US judges
“As Donald Trump and Elon Musk widen their radical attacks on US judges who have stalled some of Trump’s executive orders and Musk’s slashing of federal agencies, they’re gaining backing from top House Republicans and other politicians, including some to whom the tech billionaire made big campaign donations.
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, and judiciary panel chairman Jim Jordan have echoed some of Trump’s attacks on judges, and a judiciary subcommittee hearing on 1 April explored “judicial overreach” and ways to curb judges who have stymied some Trump orders or Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and its draconian cuts to the federal government.”
At this point we’re mostly talking about words and committees, but I think it’s important to understand that while many in corporate media and the political class are counting on public pressure to force the Republican Party to reign in Trump’s most authoritarian instincts and intentions, GOP leaders are wrangling support to make Trump’s dictator dreams a reality, regardless of what the courts say. While fundie fascist bootlickers like Mike Johnson and Jim Jordan are the face of these efforts, Elon Musk’s immense wealth and control of internal GOP primaries have created a core of support within elected Republicans operating in lockstep with the White House to implode judicial authority over the regime; and that core is growing.
“Despite such fears, many of Trump’s hardcore loyalists in Congress are jumping on board to further fuel Trump’s attacks on judges, while benefiting from Musk’s campaign largesse.
At least seven Republican members, including Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Brandon Gill of Texas, who echoed Trump’s call for impeaching Judge Boasberg, or advocated other “action” against judges who ruled against Trump orders, received checks from Musk for $6,600, the maximum he could donate.
Although Republican leaders have suggested that impeachment of judges won’t happen because they don’t have the votes, their public efforts to bolster Trump’s war on judicial independence has been accelerating, with allies exploring other avenues to curb judges.”
I can’t predict the future but if you’re asking me whether or not these GOP nazis are serious, I would strongly suggest that both their fascist ideological positions, and the incentive structure to support the regime against the judiciary created by Musk’s money and influence over the party, strongly suggests they are in fact dead serious about this. Is anyone in the opposition establishment even aware of this? Who knows, after all we’ve collectively spent the past nine or so years asking if Trump and the fascist GOP actually mean the things they say, when they promise to install the fascist regime we’re watching them install right now. At this point I’ve been quoting the wisdom of Maya Angelou for so long I should have her on macro, but that repetition doesn’t make her words any less true: “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” The best time to take these nazis seriously was the day Trump came down that escalator; the second best time is right now.
A Dictator In Search of a Gulag System
In an ominous episode that is still being treated as “Trump being Trump” by some portion of the corporate media, Downmarket Mussolini has once again floated the idea of transferring American citizens to a maximum security torture prison in El Salvador that the regime running it says people don’t ever get to leave:
Trump Backs ‘Blatantly Unconstitutional’ Proposal to Send US Citizen Inmates to El Salvador Prisons
“With a deadline looming for the Trump administration to return a Maryland resident to the U.S. after expelling him along with hundreds of other people to an El Salvador detention center under a shadowy deal with the Central American country, U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday stunned observers by expressing a desire to send U.S. citizens into El Salvador’s prison system.
In a press briefing aboard Air Force One Sunday evening, Trump was asked by a reporter about an offer made by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to accept prisoners sent by the U.S. from its federal prison population.
“I love that,” Trump said. “If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and hit people over the back of the head and purposely run people over in cars, if he would take them, I would be honored to give them.”
“I don’t know what the law says on that,” he added. “I have suggested that, why should we stop at people who cross the border illegally?”
I know I’m not the only person working in this space that’s getting sick of hanging on Der Führer’s ever word, musing, and threat, but as we’ve discussed many times, part of the way this regime operates is by transforming Trump’s ravings into presumed consent to act on its worst fascist impulses and plans, in a system of “enforced unreality.” When the president says, multiple times, he wants to send US citizens to a gulag in El Salvador, he’s being dead serious about the regime’s intentions; whether that’s legal or anyone in a position to stop him will do so, is another matter entirely – but this guy isn’t just talking to hear himself talk, no matter how hard that may be to believe for people who know how profoundly ignorant and unstable Trump actually is. Given that reality then, the regime’s continued quest to manufacture consent for rendering US citizens to a foreign maximum security torture prison, brings up 4 important issues:
1) We literally have no idea what Trump’s deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele says, and the arrangement is extrajudicial at best.
“As Trump expressed interest in expelling U.S. citizens to a foreign prison system, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council pointed out that the details of the White House’s deal with Bukele have not been publicly disclosed.
“We literally know nothing about it, other than we’re paying them $6 million,” said Reichlin-Melnick. “No law in the United States authorizes us to pay another country to imprison people. And yet! They’re doing it.”
2) At the same time Der Führer is advocating for the wonders of rendering US citizens to the carceral “care” of an authoritarian foreign government aligned with the Trump regime, the US government is also arguing in court that once they send someone to CECOT they no longer have the ability to bring them back because they don’t have custody of the prisoner and El Salvador is outside of US jurisdiction. Taken together then, this means that the President of the United States is currently advocating for the wisdom of, and his right to permanently disappear US citizens. I don’t care how much of a trav-sham-mockery you already think Trump is, that’s arguably the most terrifying news to emerge from the entire Trump 2.0 era.
3) While Trump’s current rhetoric is focused on “dangerous criminals” and the examples he gives are mostly made up violent crime stories, the reality is that this regime has been arguing that folks protesting its fascist agenda, boycotting Elon Musk, or acting to oppose a US-backed genocide by Israel in Gaza, are literally domestic terrorists and an active threat to US national security. Furthermore it requires no conjecture to connect these facts to the regime’s gulag fantasies because Attorney General Pam Bondi has already indicated support for sending “domestic terrorist” anti-Tesla protestors to CECOT. If they want to disappear you into a gulag for depressing Elon’s profit margins, you can bet they’re fine with doing so for protesting a genocide, or even just opposing Trumpism in the streets.
4) While all of this sounds horrifying and impossible, the reality is that our anti-terrorism policies under the Bush administration after 9/11 have already established a precedent for the US government shipping people to legal black holes and claiming they hold no responsibility for protecting their rights as part of the extraordinary rendition policy. As many warned at the time, the War on Terror was always destined to return home, and it seems that under Trump it has done precisely that.
These Are White Nationalist Immigration Policies
One of the most important necessary illusions to maintain (largely bipartisan) public support for the American war on migrants, is the idea that the fascist repression structures used to target brown noncitizens are only been used on “bad hombre” criminals who have snuck across the border for nefarious purposes. Bizarrely, this delusion remains popular with a US public that would rather not see how the sausage is made; even as the Trump regime actively targets migrant communities in America who have been granted state protection, are seeking asylum, and are otherwise “playing by the rules” that supposedly justifies brutalizing anyone who isn’t following “the process” to enter and reside in the United States.
For example, since Trump took office back on January 20th, 2025, the regime has revoked the protected status and demanded the “self-deportation” of hundreds of thousands of law abiding immigrants registered with and monitored by government programs designed to curb illegal entry into the United States by offering a legal pathway to residency; including many people who are residing in America precisely because US foreign policy and exploitation has rendered their countries of origin objectively unsafe to return to. These folks aren’t drug smugglers, or coyotes running undocumented people across the border, they are for all intents and purposes refugees created by US imperialist policy and they are precisely the kind of migrants apologists for our fascist deportation regime claim won’t be targeted – a fact that has changed drastically under the tender mercies of Trump’s unofficial Secretary for White Nationalist Shit, Stephen Miller.
Trump’s DHS revokes legal status for migrants who entered the US on Biden-era CBP One app
“CBP One was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s strategy to create and expand legal pathways to enter the United States in an attempt to discourage illegal border crossings. By the end of December, 936,500 people had been allowed to enter with CBP One appointments at border crossings with Mexico. President Donald Trump ended CBP One for new entrants on his first day in office, stranding thousands in Mexico who had appointments into early February.
Trump has ended and revoked temporary status for many who benefited under Biden’s policies. Homeland Security said Monday that Biden’s use of parole authority — more than any president since it was created in 1952 — “further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.”
Homeland Security said last month that it was revoking another form of parole for 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the country at their own expense with a financial sponsor. It ends April 24.
The Trump administration has also announced an end to Temporary Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans and about 500,00 Haitians, though a federal judge temporarily put that on hold, including for about 350,000 Venezuelans who had been scheduled to lose TPS on Monday. TPS is granted in 18-month increments to people already in the U.S. whose countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.”
Ultimately I chose this story to demonstrate how week after week, the Trump regime is quietly enacting an immigration policy designed to produce and entrench an American white ethnostate, and by and large this news doesn’t really penetrate the public consciousness. When you combine the figures provided in this article alone, we’re talking about the rapid expulsion of almost two million people who are objectively not the bloodthirsty “illegal” predators the regime claims these policies are designed to stop; newsflash, hardcore narco-terrorists don’t register with the US government via phone app when they arrive in America. They are however nonwhite people Stephen Miller can parade in front of an extremely racist American public in a sort of fascist theater show designed to assure crackers that the government is “keeping them safe” from people with the wrong skin tone.
Furthermore and despite what the Trump regime would have you believe about deterrence, anyone who has studied the history of US immigration laws can tell you that shutting off the legal pathways for, again, what amount to refugees of US imperialist policy, to enter and remain in the United States will simply increase the number of undocumented people who sneak into the country illegally. The conditions that caused them to flee to America aren’t going to change, migrants just aren’t going to register with the US government anymore because it means inviting DHS and ICE to pick them off as “low hanging fruit” to make the white nationalist regime’s mass deportation quotas.
Musk Using AI to Install a Federal Panopticon
For the past several years I’ve been arguing vigorously with AI advocates about the ultimate purpose of the technology they’re enamored with. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m aware that there are use cases for so-called AI programs that aren’t inherently evil, but when you take a look at the nazi billionaires who’re behind the projects to force widespread adoption, their long term plans to establish city-state dictatorships out of the hollowed out core of the nation-state era, and what these guys actually do with the technology, it’s pretty clear AI is a fascism machine; just as much as IBM’s punch card computers were a genocide machine for the Nazis. It doesn’t have to be this way, but this is the way it is.
As such, I can’t say I’m shocked that after Elon Musk bought himself a president, the first thing he started doing is using AI purge his political enemies as well as their ideas, sort surveillance data to identify targets for a white nationalist regime, and now spy on federal workers in search of those with insufficient loyalty to God Emperor Trump, the regime, and Musk himself.
Exclusive: Musk’s DOGE using AI to snoop on U.S. federal workers, sources say
“Reuters’ interviews with nearly 20 people with knowledge of DOGE’s operations – and an examination of hundreds of pages of court documents from lawsuits challenging DOGE’s access to data – highlight its unorthodox usage of AI and other technology in federal government operations.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, some EPA managers were told by Trump appointees that Musk’s team is rolling out AI to monitor workers, including looking for language in communications considered hostile to Trump or Musk, the two people said.
The EPA, which enforces laws such as the Clean Air Act and works to protect the environment, has come under intense scrutiny by the Trump administration. Since January, it has put nearly 600 employees on leave and said it will eliminate 65% of its budget, which could require further staffing reductions.
Trump-appointed officials who had taken up EPA posts told managers that DOGE was using AI to monitor communication apps and software, including Microsoft Teams, which is widely used for virtual calls and chats, said the two sources familiar with these comments. “We have been told they are looking for anti-Trump or anti-Musk language,” a third source familiar with the EPA said. Reuters could not independently confirm if the AI was being implemented.
The Trump officials said DOGE would be looking for people whose work did not align with the administration’s mission, the first two sources said. “Be careful what you say, what you type and what you do,” a manager said, according to one of the sources.”
Naturally the regime and DOGE have denied that they’re using AI to conduct “thought” policing inside the federal workforce, but I think given how readily the Trump administration has engaged in clear ideological warfare and suppression against its perceived political enemies, that denial sound a lot like a hollow lie. Speaking broadly however, I can’t say I’m surprised at all that this is where a technology like AI and the billionaire nazis who’re pushing it have lead us as a society. There are a near infinite number of things “AI” technology is terrible at, but one thing it does really well is sort through the vast amounts of data and metadata collected as part of our already existing police state panopticon society; in fact, without automation we really wouldn’t be able to sift through that amount of data at all with human eyes.
AI doesn’t have morals, it doesn’t have humanity, it doesn’t have any sense of what’s right and wrong; it presumes the world it’s programmed to presume, and engages in the tasks it’s purposed to engage in – and billionaire nazi cultists who want to build their own tech-feudalist dicatorships are the guys in charge of the coding and tasking of this technology. Whether it’s picking out targets for extermination by the IDF during a genocide in Gaza, hunting down student protestors in vast seas of education and immigration data, or spying on federal workers for anti-Musk sentiments, the fact is fascist oppression and violence can be automated; particularly if you don’t give a fuck about false positives because you’re a soulless nazi murderbot.
– Nina Illingworth
Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic and analyst.
You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, and on Mastodon.
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