A Week of Fascism

I’ve had trouble keeping up this week, which is a bit of a puzzler given that I’m on sabbatical unemployed after being laid off in January, which should leave me with ample time, but I digress. I’m sharing my thoughts on a few key events from this week, and an update on a previous post.

Fascism #1

This week, a county circuit judge in Wisconsin was arrested by the FBI. The FBI has charged her with impeding/obstructing a proceeding, after she allegedly escorted a man and his attorney out of a jury door to evade arrest by immigration agents. The DOJ is aiming to make an example of her by posting photos of her perp walk to Twitter.

Fascism #2

Now, we’re apparently deporting toddlers — not undocumented toddlers, but actual citizens. Even Trump-appointed district judge, Terry Doughty, noted that the deportation was carried out with no meaningful due process. The government contends that it was honoring the mother’s wishes that her child be deported with her, but her lawyer indicates that is a mischaracterization. According to the article, the mother was held in an undisclosed hotel, and coerced by ICE until she accepted deportation.

Fascism #3

This isn’t so much a specific incidence of Fascism, though it touches on the misnomer commonly known as “mass deportation.” What’s really happening here, as a Bluesky user noted (link may be inaccessible due to user’s privacy settings), is human trafficking, particularly in the case of the mass abduction of Venezuelan migrants. These people were kidnapped, received no due process, and were shipped off to a detention center in El Salvador, a country we’re paying to keep them locked up. This does not fit the legal definition of deportation. It is the stuff of authoritarian, fascistic thuggery, and needs to be called out for what it is.

Are We There Yet?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about whether I thought we were living in a Fascist state. At the time, I concluded we weren’t quite there. We’re there now, and I was probably too optimistic at the time I wrote this.