Paul CantrellMar 16, 2025

The Trump administration has twice in the past week illegally disappeared people ••in open defiance of a court ordering them to stop••.

If you were still somehow waiting for them to cross a bright line — if somehow what’s already happened wasn’t enough — this is your bright line.

#uspol
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/deportation-alleged-gang-members-el-salvador

US deports 250 alleged gang members to El Salvador despite court ruling to halt flights

Trump invoked 1798 law previously used to detain Japanese Americans in second world war to justify deportations

The Guardian
Show threadPaul CantrellMar 16, 2025

If Congress doesn’t have the power of the purse and the courts don’t have the power of law, then our system of checks and balances crumbles and the US constitution is finished.

Either the administration faces immediate and overwhelming resistance to this, or democracy in the US is over.

#uspol

Show threadPaul CantrellMar 16, 2025

There are mass protests in Serbia right now.

There are mass protests in South Korea right now.

And yes, there are mass protests in the US right now, getting larger and larger by the week. You don’t hear much about it — the press is sheepish about covering it — but it •is• happening.

Time to show up. Over and over.

#uspol
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-02/thousands-of-protesters-rally-in-downtown-los-angeles-against-trump-deportation-policies

Thousands rally in L.A., shut down 101 to protest Trump deportations

Draped in Mexican and Salvadoran flags, roughly 1,000 demonstrators gathered near City Hall shortly before noon, blocking traffic at Spring and Temple streets.

Los Angeles Times
Show threadSmoljaguar
@inthehands there were 300k people protesting in belgrade, south korea is between "tens of thousands" and a million.
50501 claim to have 72,000 protestors *nationwide* (other protests were only in the capital city) in a country >6x more populous than south korea
Mar 16, 2025 at 8:28pmWeb
Show threadPaul CantrellMar 16, 2025
@Smoljaguar
Yup, we're just figuring this out. A lot of folks in the US aren’t used to having to show up. Thus the exhortation to practice doing just that, over and over.