I have lived in countries with hate-speech laws. I have lived in countries with highly restrictive political speech laws.
It’s not unbearable. You are clear on what you cannot say. You learn the art of metaphor.
What’s unbearable is when you get TOLD you have the right to free speech and then the administration prosecutes or punishes you for exercising it, for no coherent reason.
That’s the terror that comes from the arbitrary application of power. #FreeSpeech #fascism #authoritarianism
ICYMI -
What to expect from a felon tyrant wannabe king who keeps getting stopped by a judiciary enforcing the #RuleOfLaw? That he continue to break laws and try to silence those who call it out and oppose him.
It’s also why he’s attacking law firms.
Saturday 5 April. Nonviolent action. Host an event or find an event to participate in. most important: BE THERE FOR ALL OF US.
#protest #RESIST #HandsOff #politics #FascistAmeriKKKa #fascism #Nazis #Authoritarianism https://handsoff2025.com/
OMG
#TimothySnyder left the country for #Canada
Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley, along with Yale history professors Marci Shore & her husband Timothy Snyder, are taking their teaching to the University of Toronto to advocate for #democracy, speak out against #fascism & teach without fear of #academic capitulation to the #Trump White House, they say.
#tyranny #authoritarianism #autocracy #ThoughtPolice #dissent #FreeSpeech #FreedomOfAssembly
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/28/us/yale-university-scholars-toronto-trump/index.html
Things are happening in Serbia, people mobilizing and organizing to resist a corrupt authoritarian government.
No leaders, cooperation, solidarity, respect for differences.
One student explains (very well and in excellent English) how they're doing. The most interesting and HOPEFUL thing I've watched all week.
Whoa, yesterday, #Trump illegally stripped #CollectiveBargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of #FederalWorkers in 18 different departments across multiple #FederalAgencies.
The admin stated that “Certain Federal unions have declared *#war* on President Trump’s agenda.”
Is he going to use #wartime powers against #union members now?
#law #LaborLaw #labor #Musk #DOGE #authoritarianism #autocracy #tyranny #propaganda #Trumpaganda #gaslighting #NaziState #MafiaState
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/03/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-exempts-agencies-with-national-security-missions-from-federal-collective-bargaining-requirements/
#Trump’s instructions to his team late this week remained to attack #JeffreyGoldberg & #TheAtlantic, & not “produce a scalp” by firing any members of his Cabinet, in the words of one outside adviser consulted by the White House who described the discussions to us.
#law #NationalSecurity #military #intelligence #SignalGate #Signal #idiocracy #kakistocracy #propaganda #authoritarianism #autocracy #tyranny
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-hegseth-waltz-signal/682220/
#Trump Targets #WilmerHale, Citing #LawFirm’s Connection to #RobertMueller
#Mueller, who worked at WilmerHale before retiring in 2021, had investigated the Trump campaign’s ties to #Russia during Trump’s first term.
#law #RevengePolitics #authoritarianism #autocracy #tyranny #MafiaState #TheRealWeaponizationOfGovernment
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/us/politics/trump-wilmerhale-law-firm-mueller.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=EB968B02-59E6-44C9-B0A7-4057762D4A42
"A recent Abacus Data survey found 56 percent of Canadians have changed or cancelled their travel plans to the United States."
~ Mégan Harvey, Barron's
"Europeans cancel US trips in protest over Trump’s policies"
~ Joanna Plucinska, Doyinsola Oladipo, Ilona Wissenbach, Independent
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #Canada #travel #economy
/7
"Future flight bookings between Canada and the U.S. have collapsed," OAG senior analyst John Grant wrote in a blog post on Wednesday."
~ Robert Silk, Travel Weekly
https://www.travelweekly.com/North-America-Travel/Air-travel-from-Canada-drops-for-key-summer-season
"Ottawa travel company hasn’t sold a single U.S. trip since Trump tariffs"
~ Janson Duench, Ottawa Citizen
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ottawa-travel-company-trump-tariffs
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #travel #economy
/6
"Advisories issued for those travelling to the U.S., sparked by a series of arrests & detentions at, could take a serious toll on America's tourism industry.
Jukka Laitamaki, prof. of international hospitality & tourism at New York University, told Newsweek that should these spread to other countries, the economic impact could be 'anywhere between 60 to 120 billion USD in 2025."'
~ Hugh Cameron, Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com/us-travel-warnings-could-cost-tourism-120b-2051535
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #travel #economy
/5
"Following reports of travelers being detained or denied entry, along with the president’s increasingly fiery rhetoric, tourist numbers have dropped, and one study estimates it could lead to billions of dollars in lost revenue."
~ Nicholas Dale Leal, El Pais
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #travel #economy
/4
"Trump has made America hated around the world. Here’s a sign of how bad it’s getting. ... Future flight bookings from Canada to the U.S. have dropped 70% for every month through the end of September, according to data from aviation analytics provider OAG."
~ Lauren Sforza, NJ.com
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #Canada #travel #economy
/3
"The Trump administration’s multi-front tariff wars and escalating rhetoric are turning off international tourists, according to a growing body of travel data."
~ Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/03/27/trump-torpedo-foreign-tourism/
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #travel #economy
/2
Bad Choices Make Good Stories offers a smorgasbord of headlines and stories from the last few days about how Canadians and Europeans are canceling travel plans to the US in record numbers.
"‘Trump Slump’ Looms as Foreign Visitors Rethink Travel to U.S."
~ Ceylan Yeğinsu, New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/travel/foreign-travel-to-united-states-trump.html
#Trump #authoritarianism #tariffs #Europe #travel #economy
/1
https://www.badchoices.us/p/the-whole-world-hates-america-now
"Since the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card-holding pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student, many have asked which legal residents the Trump administration will target next. Trump promised that the 30-year-old Columbia graduate and Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent would be the first of many such arrests to come.
In early March, Axios reported that the administration was using AI to scan tens of thousands of social media accounts, targeting student visa holders believed to show “pro-Hamas” support. The endeavor, run by the State Department as well as the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, will be used to revoke student visas, officials said.
Whether or not the “Catch and Revoke” system reported by Axios was behind ICE’s deportation efforts, DHS has been well positioned to use AI surveillance of social media in targeting “foreign threats” for years.
“The previous administrations built the runway that can be used by the Trump administration and more authoritarian regimes to crack down on the civil rights of communities in the U.S.,” wrote Citlaly Mora Hernandez, a spokesperson for a racial and immigration justice advocacy group fighting against tech surveillance, Just Futures Law."
https://documentedny.com/2025/03/25/dhs-ice-ai-social-cbp-media-khalil-surveillance/
"This is how it begins.
Tuesday night, Tufts University PhD student #RumeysaOzturk was going out to a restaurant to meet friends when masked federal #ICE agents dressed in street clothes seized her off a public sidewalk and disappeared her. Her apparent crime was co-authoring an op-ed critical of #Trump & #Netanyahu."
- @ThomHartmann
https://hartmannreport.com/p/she-stepped-onto-a-sidewalk-in-boston-a74
But #RumeysaOzturk [was]…transferred to the Central Louisiana #ICE Processing Center in Basile, a #DHS spox said Wed.
It’s only been 8 weeks.
I cannot imagine what this country will look like in a year.
The point is to create a climate in which agents of the state routinely wear masks to conceal their identities & street #abductions are not out of the ordinary.
As a fellow on BlueSky said, “If you’re a #police officer in America & you think you need to wear a mask to do your job, you shouldn’t be a police officer in America.”
That was true enough in the old #America.
…Why was she handcuffed & pulled off the street? She had not committed a #crime; she did not present a danger. She could have been notified of the change in her #visa status by mail, given instructions to leave the country promptly, & given a deadline with which to comply.
But merely pulling #RumeysaOzturk’s visa wasn’t the point. Even having Ozturk leave the country wasn’t the point. The point was to arrest her.
