Apparently, if your job description or department title has the words "diversity," "inclusion," "equity," "civil liberties," "disadvantaged," or "racial," you are earmarked for being fired, laid off, or reassigned to Outbackistan. Today the administration destroyed the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties , which investigates potential rights violations within the DHS and fields complaints from the public. Two offices targeted were the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, which served similar oversight functions. These organizations play an important role in protecting unaccompanied minors who are apprehended by ICE. Child immigrants now lack all legal protection.
A half a million legal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela will have their parole status revoked as of next month. A similar number of Ukrainian immigrants are under threat as well. While having brown skin is a sure way to come under Trump's fire, the threat of Ukrainian deportations is no doubt a bargaining tactic to force Kyiv to accept some onerous "peace deal" concocted by Putin and Trump.
WTF? Where are all the protesters? You know, the one's who didn't/wouldn't vote for a black woman? The ones in Dearborn who wanted to send a message that Biden's support of Israel required a protest vote? I've heard that AOC and Bernie had a huge turnout in Denver. The Guardian reports on successful protest rallies throughout the country. Indivisible is planning a big nationwide protest on April 5th. We'll see if that materializes. Yet here in ABQ, protest turnout has been mediocre.
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| Lackluster protest on the Civic Plaza, Feb. 14, 2025 |
My friend in FEMA continues to report via Signal. Facebook she considers to be compromised by a Trump toady for an owner. I post articles of interest to the private NW ABQ P.A.G. page, but largely keep the political stuff off the public-facing Travel Schlepp pages. Other friends boldly post anti-Trump pieces publicly on FB. I applaud their courage.
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| A handful of protesters at the Capitol, Feb. 5, 2025 |
So it's kitties, flowers, food, and bread baking for Facebook. Here on my personal blog, I don't expect to be discovered by MAGA types. I don't think Doge is scraping all Blogger posts looking for "subversive" keywords. So far they haven't been able to do that even with single government departments. Removing photographs of the Enola Gay and taking down Code Talker webpages only amplifies their incompetence.
Still, when entire universities like Columbia roll over in the face of illegal impoundments by Trump, you realize that speaking out in even the smallest of ways has non-zero risk. The law firm of Paul, Weiss capitulated, sending a chilling message to lawyers everywhere. And risk times consequence equals threat. The threat is real, and not insignificant.
While Congress sits ineffectually on the sidelines, we're left to depend on the courts. Judge Boasberg holds the line on the El Salvadoran imprisonment of Venezuelan immigrants, but administration lawyers basically are flaunting the presidential immunity thing in his face. One would think that they would be worried about personally being held in contempt and disbarred. Trump can't pardon disbarment. But then, the administration could somehow gut the American Bar Association.
Other judges continue to push back on Doge as Musk takes his figurative chainsaw to government agencies. Sometimes it's a temporary restraining order, other times there are reinstatements.
It's now early in the dark of a Saturday morning and we'll see by the light of day what chaos has been sown on a Friday evening. I'm sure electoral-vote.com will have a full plate for their Q&A when it comes online.
Late breaking note: EV is "taking an unscheduled day off." Have they been disappeared?
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