Well I don't know about you, but there's nothing *I* love more than to be lectured by a British-Hungarian-American nazi about why demanding due process before we traffic a man legally residing in the United States with his American family, to a forever torture prison in El Salvador, is actually supporting terrorism; and if powerful administration officials are to be believed, so is protesting against Trump and his fascist regime:

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-adviser-compares-opposing-abrego-garcias-detention-with-backing-terrorism/

Trump Adviser Compares Opposing Abrego García’s Detention With Backing Terrorism

"As independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reported, White House Senior Director for Counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka said in an interview with Newsmax that the divide between the Trump administration, which has sent hundreds of people to a notorious foreign prison without trial and disobeyed a Supreme Court order, and those who oppose its actions boils down to a disagreement between those who “love America” and those who “hate America.”

Those committed to abandoning constitutional rights guaranteed to anyone on U.S. soil, according to Gorka, are in the former camp.

“We have people who love America, like the president, like his Cabinet, like the directors of his agencies, who want to protect Americans,” said Gorka. “And then there is the other side, that is on the side of the cartel members, on the side of the illegal aliens, on the side of the terrorists.”

“And you have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting them?” Gorka said. “Because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime in federal statute.”

Let's start by stating the obvious: in a just universe, Sebastian Gorka would have been tried, convicted, and "deported" via rocket directly towards the sun years ago; but here in our modern fascist-dominated unreality, this little nazi muppet is the Trump regime's "Senior Director for Counterterrorism." In other words, this bloated fascist toad is the guy literally in charge of going after "terrorists," which if you've been paying attention, is also the word multiple Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, and deputy DHS secretary Troy Edgar, have used to describe Tesla vandals, and protestors in general.

As such, it should absolutely alarm you when Seb Gorka goes on TV, repeats and reinforces the government's fact free claim that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is literally a "terrorist," and starts accusing people who oppose Trump's illegal "deportation" of Garcia of potentially "aiding and abetting" terrorists; because, again, for some mysterious reason (they're all nazis too) the Trump regime gave this disgraced War on Terror-era reject authority over protecting America from whoever the hell the regime says are "terrorists" apparently. How Gorka finds the time to do so amid his typically busy day of doing Islambophia, warmongering, and spreading fascist ideology, remains a mystery.

Look, I hate to keep beating the drum about American imperialism and War on Terror policy decisions being why we're in this moment, but ultimately almost everything the Trump regime is trying to do to transform the United States into a fascist dictatorship rises out of those two horrible realities. Trump is using a fake "war" against "gangs" that the president alone has the right to declare "terrorists" for any reason at all, to grant him emergency powers to do all sorts of fascism; and Gorka (as well as other regime officials) are quietly, but repeatedly asserting the regime's right to take this fight against "terrorism" to the streets of America. On its face, none of this is legal; but given the ridiculous Calvinball powers our society has already granted the imperial presidency to make war, fight "invasions," and stop "terrorism," it's entirely possible these chucklefucks will get away with it - especially with a 6-3 fascist high Supreme Court that has already allowed Trump to declare a fake war in the first place, holding final say on the legality of the regime's actions.

#Fascism #Trump #SebastianGorka #AbregoGarcia #CounterTerrorism #ProtestRights #CivilRights #PamBondi #TroyEdgar #SCOTUS

While you certainly don't "have to hand it to the nazis," I must admit that it's way easier to show people that the Trump regime's attempts to target anti-genocide protestors using "War on Terror" logic will lead to them targeting all protestors using that same logic, when they just blurt that part out loud:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/deportation-protest

DHS Official Explicitly Equates Protest to Terrorism in 'Stunning' Interview

"The Trump administration has accused Khalil, who is of Palestinian descent, of leading "activities aligned to Hamas" and protests where pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed, but officials have provided no evidence that he's provided support to Hamas or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.

A White House official this week told The Free Press that Khalil is not being accused of breaking any laws, but is rather "a threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States," and Edgar's comments to Martin offered further evidence evidence that DHS is working to deport Khalil without accusing him of a crime.

"He is coming in to basically be a student that is not going to be supporting terrorism," said Edgar. "So, the issue is he was let into the country on this visa. He has been promoting this antisemitism activity at the university. And at this point, the State Department has revoked his visa for supporting a terrorist type organization."

This story comes out of an interview with Troy Edgar (Trump's deputy homeland security secretary) by NPR's Michel Martin; thus it's important to note that while Edgar isn't making a legal argument here, he is absolutely working the court of public opinion to sway your perception about the legality of Trump's unlawful arrest, detainment, and ongoing attempts to deport a former Columbia University student green card holder, legally residing in the country with his wife (who is an American citizen), for protesting a genocide (by Israel) in Gaza, facilitated by both the current, and prior US administrations.

With that in mind, the first thing I'd like to point out is the bizarre, manipulative, and legally irrelevant language Edgar uses here. From a technical standpoint, the phrase "activities aligned with Hamas" is wholly unrelated to any law on the books in America, even our nightmare War on Terror era anti-terrorism laws, while simultaneously covering such a broad spectrum of activities that untold millions of Americans could potentially be "engaging in activities aligned with Hamas" - if for example, as in Khalil's case, you've advocated for ending Israel's genocide in Gaza, or the US government's arm shipments to Israel that make it possible, you've technically engaged in "activities aligned with Hamas," who also want the genocide and arms shipments to end. Does anyone, including Troy Edgar know what "a terrorist type organization" means? You won't find a single paragraph in US law that discusses prohibitions against supporting "a terrorist *type* organization" and this is really just a way for Edgar to say Khalil is working for "terrorists" without exposing himself to liability for false accusations; it's a poison phrase to turn public opinion against the accused, and in favor of the Trump administration's unlawful and quite frankly fascist actions. This is of course setting aside that Edgar, much like the rest of the Trump regime, continues to use the War on Terror legal language of "supporting a terrorist organization" (typically financially, materially, or logistically) to describe protesting a genocide; a stretch that also has no basis in American law that I'm aware of.

Additionally of course, there's the bombshell this article is mostly based around to consider; a US deputy homeland security secretary just went on public radio and argued that (legally nebulous) "pro-Palestine activity" and even just protesting in general, is terrorism. While many disingenuous bootlickers will try to parse Edgar's words here, he was given plenty of opportunities to answer questions about what "terrorist" activities the government was alleging Khalil engaged in, and Troy continually repeated the phrases "pro-Palestinian activity" and "protesting." Furthermore given that the entire Trump administration keeps making this "mistake" over and over again, it seems pretty reasonable to assume that at least from a propaganda perspective this is the regime's official position on supporting Palestinians and protesting in general.

Folks, can you think of any reason why an increasingly unpopular fascist administration presiding over the rapid impoverishment of the US labor class, and working with Israel to ethnically cleanse Gaza, would want to declare "pro-Palestinian activity" and "protesting" to be terrorist activity? Might it be because they expect a lot of Americans to start getting interested in Palestinians and protesting?

#Fascism #Trump #MahmoudKhalil #CivilRights #DHS #TroyEdgar #Gaza #Israel #Palestine #FreeSpeech