Operation Enduring Nuremberg: The Trump Diaspora begins...con carne!

[The Brain]

I hear they've ordered a new mural for their HQ.

I love how the native American with the peace pipe is tossed in with the rest of the "foreign hordes" 

katmai looks happy enough.

[Berkut]

Well, if you want to become an authoritarian, it is very important to find a group you can give power to who can then exercise it on your behalf. This group should be as thuggish as you can find, because you want them to be

A) Not to worried about rules, law, and concern for other peoples rights, and
B) Completely beholden to you for their new found power and relevance.

Is the border patrol that group? It will likely need some light purging - I know quite a few BP agents, and the ones I know at least are rather horrified at Trump. Of course, I know ones who work the border with Canada, so I suspect the southern border BP agents are a whole different mindset...

[crazy canuck]

Well, if you want to become an authoritarian, it is very important to find a group you can give power to who can then exercise it on your behalf. This group should be as thuggish as you can find, because you want them to be

A) Not to worried about rules, law, and concern for other peoples rights, and
B) Completely beholden to you for their new found power and relevance.

Is the border patrol that group? It will likely need some light purging - I know quite a few BP agents, and the ones I know at least are rather horrified at Trump. Of course, I know ones who work the border with Canada, so I suspect the southern border BP agents are a whole different mindset...

I am pretty sure the Northern Border folks get selected on how well they welcome Canadians into the US to spend their money.  There are a few exceptions but more often then not we get a friendly welcome.  Perhaps not the skill set Trump is looking for over all.

[Oexmelin]

Is the border patrol that group? It will likely need some light purging - I know quite a few BP agents, and the ones I know at least are rather horrified at Trump. Of course, I know ones who work the border with Canada, so I suspect the southern border BP agents are a whole different mindset...

Yes. CPB in the South is terrible. And terrifying. Under Obama they pretty much complained about the fact that they did not have impunity. But even in the North, (White) American citizens do not suspect the routine levels of humiliation that happen in the detention rooms in airport.

Since the beginning of January, I have had three colleagues who either were turned back, or threatened to be turned back, before universities intervened on their behalf. The latest one being Henri Rousso, one of the greatest French experts on fascism... And these were white, educated people. I can't imagine how it is for people whose English is weaker, or are of Mexican descent. This never happened before. Ever.

[grumbler]

Yup. Trump has found his armed thugs.

Who turn out to be the former Obama armed thugs, who were the former Bush armed thugs.  Who'da think it.

Anyone of passing knowledge of history?

You don't even need that; a glance around the current world will show that every government has found their armed thugs.

[Oexmelin]

I am pretty sure the Northern Border folks get selected on how well they welcome Canadians into the US to spend their money.  There are a few exceptions but more often then not we get a friendly welcome.  Perhaps not the skill set Trump is looking for over all.

Have you ever crossed with a non-white, foreign-born, English-as-a-second language Canadian? My experience has been less overwhelmingly positive...

[crazy canuck]

I am pretty sure the Northern Border folks get selected on how well they welcome Canadians into the US to spend their money.  There are a few exceptions but more often then not we get a friendly welcome.  Perhaps not the skill set Trump is looking for over all.

Have you ever crossed with a non-white, foreign-born, English-as-a-second language Canadian? My experience has been less overwhelmingly positive...

No, but then again you have described a fairly small percentage of the population.  I have crossed a number of times with non-white, English as a second language Canadians who were born in Canada (a category which most of my sons' friends would include) and my description stands for that group.

edit:  But I see you are describing the border since Trump became president - I have not entered the US since the election.

[The Brain]

Letting a fascism expert into the US sounds like a great idea.

[viper37]

I am pretty sure the Northern Border folks get selected on how well they welcome Canadians into the US to spend their money.  There are a few exceptions but more often then not we get a friendly welcome.  Perhaps not the skill set Trump is looking for over all.

those with muslim sounding name get turned back at the border now.

[Oexmelin]

. The latest one being Henri Rousso, one of the greatest French experts on fascism... And these were white, educated people. I can't imagine how it is for people whose English is weaker, or are of Mexican descent. This never happened before. Ever.

It made it to the BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39095196

[The Larch]

In recent days more relatively famous people have halt to dealt with harsh treatment by US border agents:

Australian children's author Mem Fox detained by US border control: 'I sobbed like a baby'
Author of Possum Magic was aggressively questioned for two hours over her visa status and later received an apology for her treatment by border guards
(...)
She told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation she was questioned by border agents for two hours in front of a room full of people – an experience that left her feeling like she had been physically assaulted.

"I have never in my life been spoken to with such insolence, treated with such disdain, with so many insults and with so much gratuitous impoliteness," Fox said.

"I felt like I had been physically assaulted which is why, when I got to my hotel room, I completely collapsed and sobbed like a baby, and I'm 70 years old."

Fox said she was questioned over her visa, despite having travelled to America 116 times before without incident. She was eventually granted access to the country.

After lodging a complaint over her treatment with the Australian embassy in Washington and the US embassy in Canberra, Fox received an emailed apology from US officials.

US border agents ask Muhammad Ali's son: 'Are you a Muslim?'
Boxing legend's 44-year-old son detained and questioned about religion after flying back to US from Jamaica, lawyer says

Border agents detained and questioned the son of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali about his religion when he flew back to the US this month, a family lawyer said.

"Where did you get your name from? Are you a Muslim?" they asked the 44-year-old Muhammad Ali Jr, who was born in Philadelphia and is a US citizen.

When Ali confirmed to immigration officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport in Florida that he was a Muslim, they began questioning him about where he was born, family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini told the Courier-Journal newspaper. The questioning lasted for about two hours.

Ali had been at a black history month event in Jamaica with his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali. She was allowed to enter the country after producing a photo of herself with her famous ex-husband, who died last year, but her son had nothing to prove his link to the boxer.

So, if 70 year old ladies and US nationals with funny sounding names are getting shit when arriving to the US, I don't want to imagine what a less privileged person must have to go through nowadays.

[11B4V]

From the "Yay, We Turn Fucking With People Up to 11 Now" file.

The Failing New York Times
Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump
By NICHOLAS KULISH, CAITLIN DICKERSON and RON NIXON
FEB. 25, 2017

The Trump administration's far-reaching plan to arrest and deport vast numbers of undocumented immigrants has been introduced in dramatic fashion over the past month. And much of that task has fallen to thousands of ICE officers who are newly emboldened, newly empowered and already getting to work.

Gone are the Obama-era rules that required them to focus only on serious criminals. In Southern California, in one of the first major roundups during the Trump administration, officers detained 161 people with a wide range of felony and misdemeanor convictions, and 10 who had no criminal history at all.

"Before, we used to be told, 'You can't arrest those people,' and we'd be disciplined for being insubordinate if we did," said a 10-year veteran of the agency who took part in the operation. "Now those people are priorities again. And there are a lot of them here."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/us/ice-immigrant-deportations-trump.html

"Morale amongst our agents and officers has increased exponentially since the signing of the orders," the unions representing ICE and Border Patrol agents said in a joint statement after President Trump issued the executive orders on immigration late last month.

"The discretion has come back to us; it's up to us to make decisions in the field," a 15-year veteran in California said. "We're trusted again."

Good grief.

This will be a huge mistake and problem.

[grumbler]

This will be a huge mistake and problem.

Any time you give people with authoritarian tendencies a free reign, they will overdo it.  That's true of Trump's underlings as much as it is true of Trump himself.

Discretion is all well and good if an agent has demonstrated that he or she can be trusted with discretionary powers, but handing it out like candy always ends badly.

[Jacob]

This will be a huge mistake and problem.

Any time you give people with authoritarian tendencies a free reign, they will overdo it.  That's true of Trump's underlings as much as it is true of Trump himself.

Discretion is all well and good if an agent has demonstrated that he or she can be trusted with discretionary powers, but handing it out like candy always ends badly.

Or as Oex said - "Trump has found his thugs".

[grumbler]

Or as Oex said - "Trump has found his thugs".

That's not an "or."  Every national leader has found his or her thugs.  Trump had his thugs even before he took office.