Colewd on U.S. politics

Speaking of which:

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Fox viewers to buy Tesla stock

Possibly not the most egregious of government law-breaking under Trump – but probably the most blatant and bizarre.

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Also an object lesson in how the same kind of tactics used by creationists are used by supporters of authoritarianism and fascism, and hence the spread of creationism can indeed lead to “great societal harm.”

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I’m glad you agree that due process is important, but fail to see where it is not the right choice. How can we distinguish between a citizen with rights and a criminal non-citizen except by allowing due process? It not a question of one man being illegally deported (tho that is bad enough), but any of us could be deported, citizens with rights or not.

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Hi Dan
I don’t believe either of us are known criminals or part of a criminal organisation like ms-13. What am I missing?

Agreed we are not criminals. Now suppose we are both accused of being members of MS-13 and unceremoniously thrown a prison in El Salvador. What should we do about it?

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I agree mere accusation is not enough.

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You’re missing the part where, after ICE picks you up and manhandles you into a truck for no reason other than that you were standing next to a building where an illegal immigrant lives, you get a chance to tell a court that you are a US citizen with no criminal record.

Without due process, you would be taken out of that truck and put onto a plane to El Salvador.

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@Roy kind of spoiled it already, but I’ll fill in the holes. I think we agree that mere accusation should be not be enough all by itself; there should be some evidence to back up the accusation, and some sort of hearing to evaluate that evidence, maybe even a trial. In other words, there should be due process.

But now Due Process is off the table, and we can be thrown into a dark hole of a foreign prison at the whim of whoever is in power, and there is nothing we can do about it.

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I think you make a good point and the same goes for the death penalty.

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Lack of due process is one of the hallmarks of fascism.

Even though the label of fascism has long been cast about far too casually, I think this period of American history is not one of those times. The danger is real. We see it in the news everyday. If someone attributes it to mere “fake news” and the “liberal media”, I will simply ask them to read the White House website and also watch the White House press briefings. That is all the evidence one needs.

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