The only encouraging thing are the first few of the articleâs comments at the bottom about abolishing ICE. The rest of it is super scary and maddening.
Hereâs the link to the original arrticle. Paywalled, of course, but I can get you the pdf if youâr really interested
Thereâs a story from December 1936 headlined
Thereâs a book review from 1935 that reviews prsion camp memoirs from both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
âTwo first hand accounts which picture a similar barbarity of treatmentâ
âBoth books have the appearance of veracity and neither writer seems to have played up his experiences for the sake of making his story effective. If only half the incidents recorded are true, the books would still carry to any reader who believed in human rights, unqualified condemnation of the repressive systems which they describe.â
Maybe their Berlin correspondent was just too credulous.
Sigh.
From the Newsweek article:
ICEâs new training facility is expected to include,âat a minimum,â a âmultitude of basic, intermediate and hyper-realistic training devices, a tactical training warehouse, classroom facilities and vehicle assault training area.â
Hyper-realism, the agency states, is âa critical component to this acquisition as the details provide essential information that must be acknowledged, processed and acted upon to minimize risk to our Special Agents, Deportation Officers and SRT operators during high-risk search and arrest warrants, fugitive operations, undercover operations, hostage rescue, gang operations, etc.â
What in the flying fuck does ICE think it is? And is this some sort of end run around the Posse Comitatus Act?
It makes more sense when translated to mid-century German.
I heard about that this morning, down at Ft. Benning. Itâs like School for the Americas, but for training people for actions inside the US.
Probably.
OTOH, even when snatching people from private houses, they only âneedâ a warrant in theory. In practice, they can just snatch and disappear anyone who isnât privileged enough to have legal clout.
I like to think of âwarrantlessâ as synonymous with âunwarrantedâ. There may be a legal distinction, but spiritually itâs comforting to think that there ought to be a firm evidentiary basis for the governmentâs use of violence.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court majority is unlikely to share that view.
I think the scariest part of it in my mind is that these agencies believe that they are the ones who determine what the law is or is not, and try to exclude the entire legislative process. Extremely alarming.
Itâs still unconstitutional. The 4th Amendment applies to âpersonsâ not âcitizens,â and therefore every human being present in the United States.
OTOH, as with everything else, this isnât really new. The US Constitution has always had an unwritten clause: âoffer only valid if white and wealthyâ.
the responses to the Charli XKCD tweet are priceless.
History repeats.
Part of the reason for the foundation of the Nazi extermination camps was because they felt that participation in more direct forms of mass-murder was causing excessive psychological distress to their soldiers.
I recall reading a story that speculated that Trump spouts egregious untruths as a means of gauging absolute loyalty among his subordinates.
I suspect that requires far more cerebral ability of Il Douche than he has presented up to now. I think he spouts untruths because he just makes shit up and expects that everyone will bow and scrape because he is Il Douche.
