Traitor Watch - The 45 & 47 Thread

[Pale Rider]

FB friend:

Everyone on YouTube makes fun of sovereign citizens, but the US just elected a president who's basically a sovereign citizen.

Seriously, what's the difference between Trump and your average sovcit? Do they not make the same bogus arguments from bizarre misreadings of the constitution and made-up legal principles that no real lawyer would take seriously? Do they not have the same attitude that the laws somehow should not apply to them?

People are not nearly disturbed enough about Trump's attempts to use the power of the government to coerce private individuals to remake every part of society in his image, from education to art and culture.

Taking control of the Kennedy Centre and attempting to directly control what sort of performances can take place there is an attempt to take top-down control of culture. Taking control of education is an attempt to take top-down control of knowledge. The GOP wants every single part of society to be coerced into following their agenda, because they weren't inclined to do so on their own. This is very serious tyrant behaviour and people are sleeping on it.

 

[Pale Rider]

This was both fascinating and infuriating to watch.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

https://bsky.app/profile/davelevitan.bsky.social/post/3ljsejpjx7b2u
View attachment 26536

I think someone once used the meme "Make America the 1950s Again"?

 

[Pale Rider]

I think someone once used the meme "Make America the 1950s Again"?

Does that mean bringing back the 91% top marginal tax rate, strong labor unions, and massive government investment in infrastructure?

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

Does that mean bringing back the 91% top marginal tax rate, strong labor unions, and massive government investment in infrastructure?

Clearly not, but we could make the argument that it should....

 

[KidTDragon]

What they really mean is "Make America 1940s Germany".

 

[Anonymous X]

Does that mean bringing back the 91% top marginal tax rate, strong labor unions, and massive government investment in infrastructure?

Y’know, it just struck me that as we as late-capitalist societies we are learning far too slowly why the postwar consensus existed in the first place. Capitalism at all costs without social guardrails is a self destructive shitshow.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Futurists and analysts have been warning this since before the 2nd world war. Basically since the second industrial revolution when they could the continuing march of technology actually force multiplying production to the point of removing the masses from said production.

But they got to live with the GOOD portions of unfettered capitalism, when people were only just and slowly pushing the limits of the morals and ethics of it: we're at the end stage now and we can quite clearly see how it sucks, why it sucks, that it will CONTINUE TO SUCK... and that the vast majority cannot possible do anything about it other to raze it to the ground and start again because the people who could make it a smooth, easy, almost seamless transition are intent on making sure that transition never happens. Because they can't be rich, powerful and in charge if we completely change how we manage our civilization and economy.

 

[Dekafox]

British Comic Creator R.E. Burke Detained By ICE After Crossing Border

British comic book creator R.E. Burke has been detained by ICE after crossing the border from USA to Canada. Do you know anyone who can help?

bleedingcool.com

 

[Rhinox]

So shall we talk about the official white house accounts being used here? Or just go straight to the fact that Trump is crowing about the very illegal detainment of a legal immigrant who has rights that have been absolutely violated at Trump's direct order.

 

[abates]

No one seems to know where Khalil is actually being held either:

Pro-Palestinian student protester detained by US immigration officials, says lawyer

Mahmoud Khalil was at his college accommodation when immigration officials detained him, says his attorney.

www.bbc.com

 

[Rhinox]

I know there are attorneys working on his behalf. I sincerely hope that they get to a judge and when the DoJ tries to stonewall, they contempt their ass and throw them in jail.

 

[Pale Rider]

So shall we talk about the official white house accounts being used here? Or just go straight to the fact that Trump is crowing about the very illegal detainment of a legal immigrant who has rights that have been absolutely violated at Trump's direct order.

That used to matter. Now it's an "official act," for which he's immune.

 

[Rhinox]

That used to matter. Now it's an "official act," for which he's immune.

That shouldn't mean that he's able to violate the constitution at will. I know, I know.

 

[KidTDragon]

That shouldn't mean that he's able to violate the constitution at will. I know, I know.

It's not "at will"; it's just whenever a majority of the 2/3 conservative Supreme Court thinks he should be allowed to.

 

[Pale Rider]

Trump survived two impeachments and 34 felony convictions, but he just came back for more. Why should he worry about the law at this point?

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

There really is a tweet for everything...

 

[Thylacine 2000]

What a can of worms.

The above, published on the 1-year anniversary of the Oct. 7th massacre, is just one of the ways that CUAD - the student group for which Mahmoud Khalil is a leader and negotiator - has undeniably endorsed terrorism. Another CUAD leader, Khymani James, said Zionists (=most of the world's Jews) should be killed.

As a green card holder, immigration law says Khalil can be deported for multiple reasons, including "being a representative of a political, social, or other group that endorses or espouses terrorist activity."
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1182

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-protesters-issue-call-to-arms-as-columbia-activist-threatened-with-deportation/

Will Creeley, FIRE’s legal director, said that if there are allegations about material support for terrorism, “you really need to see those... Simple, independent advocacy on behalf of a terrorist organization, however reprehensible some, many, or even all Americans might find it, is still protected by the First Amendment.”
Support for Hamas would become illegal if it was coordinated with the terrorist group, Creeley said. Free speech also does not cover targeted threats, discriminatory harassment, and incitement to imminent violence. “It’s very much a stretch to think that activities ‘aligned’ with Hamas are enough to justify this kind of action,” Creeley stated. “Folks who would find pro-Hamas advocacy abhorrent should understand that the First Amendment protects your rights just as well, and to defend the rights of those who disagree with you is the best guarantor of your own rights.”

Two legal experts said authorities have grounds for deporting Khalil.

Federal laws say aliens are inadmissible to the US, or “deportable,” if they engage in terrorist activities, including anyone who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization.” Green card holders are considered aliens.

Last week, at a protest Khalil attended at Columbia affiliate Barnard College, demonstrators passed out pamphlets from the “Hamas media office,” and photos of the late Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah, according to students at the scene. Hamas and Hezbollah are US-designated terrorist groups.

Distributing Hamas pamphlets could be grounds for deportation, said Ted Frank, senior attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, which has filed litigation against anti-Israel groups that have blocked traffic at US protests.

“The pamphleting, at least under congressional law, says, ‘Yeah, deport for that,’ and the Biden administration could have done that, but they weren’t enforcing that law, so the Trump administration is enforcing that law,” Frank said. “Under the law, even just espousing support for Hamas is enough for deportation.”

Frank added that voicing support for terrorist activities, and not a specific terror group, is grounds for deportation, according to the law’s wording, and there is also no difference under the law between having a green card or a student visa.

Americans’ speech in support of Hamas is protected by the First Amendment, but different rules apply for immigration and deportation, Frank said.

Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney and professor at New York’s Cardozo School of Law, said that if the government launched an investigation and found evidence that Khalil supported Hamas before he received a green card, they could revoke his status.

“Immigration laws are clear — that if he lied on his green card application about his support of Hamas, they could rescind his green card,” Wildes said.

If the government found evidence Khalil supported Hamas after receiving a green card, prosecutors could make a case for his deportation in criminal or immigration court, Wildes said. Wildes is a Jewish Democrat, the mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, and Melania Trump’s immigration lawyer.

“Until you’re an American citizen, you can be deported from the United States,” he said.

Creeley disagreed that Khalil could be deported, saying, “That read of the law is overly expansive and gives the government power it does not have.”

Here's a legal analysis published by Biden officials in 2023, right when Trump first started saying terrorist supporters should be deported:

ICE Acknowledges First Amendment Limits on Its Power to Remove Foreign Nationals

knightcolumbia.org

ICE’s memo, titled Inadmissibility Based on Endorsing or Espousing Terrorist Activity: First Amendment Concerns and revised by the White House Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), discusses constitutional limits on the enforcement of an INA provision for the exclusion or expulsion of non-U.S. persons who “endorse or espouse” terrorist activity. The memo concludes that, in cases involving lawful permanent residents, non-U.S. persons within the United States, or non-U.S. persons outside the United States who have significant U.S. contacts, “applications of the INA’s content-based restriction on speech will likely be subject to a heightened standard of review,” and that “it is rare for a statute to survive strict scrutiny.” Accordingly—in text apparently inserted by the OLC—the memo casts doubt on the constitutionality of the provision as applied to such persons “who have expressed support for terrorism at a more abstract level or in contexts that would not implicate the security of the United States or its nationals.”

We don’t know whether these memos were widely circulated among agencies or whether they’re still operative. Nevertheless, the memos reflect the government’s awareness of the rights of individuals targeted by extreme vetting policies and a recognition of the serious—and likely unconstitutional—burdens such policies impose on individuals’ expressive rights.

Together, the two memos confirm that proposals to revoke the visas of student demonstrators who express controversial or even offensive views about Israel or Hamas would likely be held unconstitutional. So too would proposals to use the INA’s terrorism-related ground of inadmissibility to remove individuals who merely express support for Hamas at an “abstract level.”

The First Amendment gives very broad protection to political speech, including to speech that is contentious or unpopular. Accordingly, regulations that target political speech on the basis of viewpoint almost never survive judicial review.

I am not a lawyer, I have no clue whether the First Amendment protections I enjoy every day apply with equal strength to green card holders when there are black-ink lists of activities that can get them deported. I don't know if there's precedent either way, and knowing Trump's SCOTUS it probably wouldn't matter.

Am I allowed to find both the guy and this entire process disgusting?

 

[Dekafox]

Stock market sell-off deepens after Trump threatens to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports to 50% – as it happened

US president announces new 50% tariff on Canadian metal imports from tomorrow

www.theguardian.com

Stock market sell-off deepens after Trump doubles tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium imports to 50% – business live

Related, regarding the "Continuing Resolution" they're trying to push through to keep from government shut down due to hitting the debt ceiling:

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

I work in a metal shop. A lot of the material we use comes from Canada (well, our suppliers get it from Canadian sources, but same difference). The company's been struggling for a bit already. I should probably get my resume in order.