Trump is showing us what FASCISM looks like

We are at war!

Blackhawk helicopters, drones and armed agents launch a middle of the night raid on a residential building in a U.S. city, engaging in warrantless mass arrests.

Boats in international water more than 2,500 miles from the United States targeted by the military—killing all on board.

These events are very much connected. They were both recently carried out by the Trump regime--and both were based on zero credible evidence to support these alarming actions. If we don’t loudly push back on this conduct, Trump will go even further--as we are seeing now as he seeks to send troops from Texas to occupy and oppress the people of Portland, Oregon based on a lie.

We are locked in a day-to-day war against Trump’s fascist ambitions. It’s a challenging war to say the least—especially given corporate media is for the most part on Trump’s side. Add to that, only a small percentage of the more than 250 Democrats in Congress are valiantly taking the fight to Trump. But despite that, we are winning battles—the most visible being pressuring Disney to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel after Trump had him taken off the air for mocking the thin-skinned wannabe tyrant.

The lesson from that successful battle is that we need to ensure our fellow Americans are aware of what Trump is doing. True, the MAGA base will always defend Trump but Americans who are not MAGA have an innate sense of what is right or wrong when it comes to our government’s actions.

That is why Trump’s military style assault last week in Chicago and his repeated illegal killing of people in international waters demand far more coverage. We need our fellow Americans to hear about how dangerous Trump is to our freedoms.

First, last Tuesday, more than 300 federal agents conducted a late night raid on an apartment building in Chicago on South Shore Drive. This raid involved heavily armed agents in Blackhawk military helicopters lowered onto the roof, stun grenades, drones and military-sized vehicles.

As Chicago media outlets reported, armed federal agents in military fatigues busted down apartment doors—some using flash grenades. The agents then pulled men, women and children from their apartments, some of them naked. Before the raid concluded, agents had knocked on doors or entered nearly every apartment in the five-story building.

Numerous U.S. citizens were swept in this clearly illegal raid. One was 67-year-old Rodrick Johnson, who said agents broke through his door and dragged him out in zip ties. Johnson told the agents he was an American citizen and “asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.” After three hours of being under arrest, they finally released him.

Another U.S. citizen, Pertissue Fisher told the media how federal immigration agents burst into her apartment, immediately putting a gun in her face as another placed her in handcuffs tight enough to leave bruises. Fisher –who was only released after being under arrest for hours—stated, “I want answers. I have kids, I have grandkids, and if I would have [gotten] killed, who gonna answer for it? Nobody,”

Ebony Sweets Watson, who lives across the street, said she saw agents dragging residents, including kids, out of the building without any clothes on and into U-Haul vans.

Yes, this was a military style attack targeting a residential building in one of our nation’s largest cities. And the most alarming part is that the U.S. government has still not provided evidence that justified the raid and detention of so many people. The Trump regime’s cover story was that they were looking for members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization but they did not provide evidence to back up the claims. And even if there were criminals in the building, under U.S. law, the government must first obtain a search warrant based on facts specific to each apartment.

Days after the raid, federal officials claimed 37 people were arrested, but they have not been identified nor charged with a crime. Worse, ICE and DHS refuses to respond to the media requests for more information because they no longer feel they answer to us—only to Trump.

On Friday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker slammed this raid, saying, “Imagine an armed stranger forcibly removing you from your bed, zip-tying your hands, separating you from your family, and detaining you in a dark van for hours. This didn’t happen in a country with an authoritarian regime — it happened here in Chicago.”

Pritzker is right! Does this sound like the United States of America to you?! But this is the America Trump wants to expand to other cities where federal agents will target anyone they claim is a threat without presenting a warrant or any credible evidence.

That is why the Trump regime’s repeated killing of people riding in boats in international water more than 2,5000 miles from U,S. shoreline demands far more attention. Altogether, Trump’s forces have now killed 21 individuals in four vessels in international waters over the past several weeks. The latest incident occurred Friday, when Trump and Pete Hegseth bragged that they killed four people on a boat who were “narco-terrorists smuggling drugs.”

But as the BBC reported this weekend, “the US has not provided evidence for its claims or any information about the identities of those on board.”

That is why numerous legal experts from the United States and abroad have noted there is no legal basis for the execution of these unnamed people. These boats thousands of miles from the United States obviously did not pose an imminent threat to our nation. It wasn’t like the ships were approaching our coastline and refused to stop when confronted by the U.S. Coast Guard. And even if they were arrested, the penalty for selling drugs is not death with no trial.

Marty Lederman, the executive editor at Just Security--who served for years in the DOJ--wrote about these actions, “The Trump administration’s “armed conflict” justification, however, is groundless. No one—in the public, in Congress or, most importantly, in the military itself—should treat it as a plausible legal basis that might justify lethal strikes on the alleged drug vessels and the civilians on those boats.”

Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, condemned the strikes stating, “Every American should be alarmed that the President believes he can wage secret wars against anyone he chooses.”

And international law experts the BBC have spoken to have also raised alarm bells. For example, Professor Luke Moffett of Queens University Belfast said the U.S. actions appear to be “extrajudicial arbitrary killing” and “a fundamental violation of human rights”.

All of this why Amnesty International USA stated in response to the latest killings, “This is murder. The U.S. government must be held accountable.”

If you combine Trump ordering military style raids in a U.S. city based on no credible evidence with his ordering the killing of people no credible evidence, we all get what could come next here in the United States. Trump could simply claim anyone he wants to eliminate is a “terrorist” and have them arrested in the middle of the night or even potentially killed by a drone strike.

That is unless we demand our elected officials and the media cover this to warn our fellow Americans about Trump’s fascist game plan.

Trump is already horribly unpopular. Trump’s average approval rating is now down to 41%--while disapproval is up to 57%. These are his worst numbers in the second term. And especially relevant is a new CBS poll released Sunday found only 39% of Americans support Trump sending military into US cities while 61% oppose it.

We are at war. We need to win the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans to build a coalition strong enough to defeat the fascism of Trump. I have every confidence that when patriotic Americans hear the details of what Trump is doing, more of them will join our movement to save the United States from fascism.

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