I remember original Duers talking about fears of being disappeared right after 9-11, at the start of this site [View all]

Last edited Mon Apr 14, 2025, 09:48 PM - Edit history (1)

...folks worried about what they'd do if the site was shut down by the government, or if bloggers were going to be arrested.

It was just a question then, a prospect which was defended against on myriad fronts.

It's no longer a question today. The courts are weakened by the lack of enforcement ability on rulings, and the Trump administration is willing to accept any injustice that serves their personal or political interests.

We're all rightly and correctly forward and unbridled in our political opposition, but for the second time in my life, witnessed to the remnants of Jim Crow and segregation, there is a real threat of retribution and assaults against protest and resistance.

We've watched as Trump is not only attacking the press, but is taking coercive actions against those in the press who report against him or take actions contrary to his interests. It's just a small step from there to government repression of critics or opponents of the Trump administration who don't have any agency or means to defend themselves.

And, remember, the penalty Trump said today that he wants to pursue for American citizens he or his regime merely claim are criminals, without proving any of that in court, is abduction from the U.S. to a supermax prison in El Salvador with no visible chance of return.

American citizens disappeared, for dissent, into a black hole hell in a dictatorship.

Don't go to sleep on this. If Trump gets his way and continues to defy the SCOTUS, none of us are safe in this country.

Not even people like Chris Krebs who actually toiled loyally for Trump in his first term, but is now the subject of a monarchical executive order to investigate him for what amounts to alleged statements criticizing the dear leader.

Americans are comfortable dissociating themselves from those of us who experience injustice or strife, because they can - until they can't. Many have never experienced a government that wasn't just indifferent to their rights, safety, and livelihoods, but outright hostile.

This is the crisis that was worried and warned about at this site's outset, now so very real. I suspect that even now, not many are willing to allow themselves to believe this deportation fight is about them.

But this is a test of our system of law. And it's a test of our nation's people, who at this point, look like they may be willing to wait and watch other people get picked off and disappeared before finally recognizing the wolf at their own door, again.