Speaking of cowardice, complicity, and paving the road for fascism, let us not forget that the Trump regime's enabling of an ongoing genocide by Israel in Gaza, their fascist kidnapping spree against student protestors, and their quest to control American universities under the guise of "fighting antisemitism" are built on the back of policies, and in particular ideological justifications, provided by a Democratic Party that picked supporting genocide, hunting down migrants, and building out a police state over winning "the most important election in American history."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/26/universities-columbia-trump

Don’t just blame Trump – Democrats paved the way for this campus crackdown

"For instance, the reason Trump could plausibly refer to Gaza a “demolition site” is because, for more than a year prior to his re-election, his Democratic predecessor (urged on by Schumer and others) supplied unlimited weapons to Israel to carry out a campaign of destruction that has few modern equivalents – a campaign that was not just restricted to Gaza, but also extended to the West Bank, Iran, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria. Biden’s planned successor, Kamala Harris, and her surrogates repeatedly stressed to voters that these policies would continue largely unchanged under her watch.

Even before Trump had a chance to weigh in, Joe Biden immediately characterized the protests at Columbia as “antisemitic” and declared that “order must prevail” on college campuses. Democratic lawmakers put aggressive pressure on the former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik to crush the protests. She ultimately did so with the assistance of New York City’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams (who justified his clampdown via evidence-free statements that the protests were driven primarily by “outside agitators”). Trump celebrated the pictures and videos of students getting roughed up by the NYPDand, upon Trump’s reclaiming the White House, the justice department interceded on behalf of Adams – making his criminal investigation go away in apparent exchange for the mayor adopting a more aggressive posture on immigration – a move that critics claim is a quid pro quo.

In a similar vein, it was Biden who enshrined the IHRA definition of antisemitism into federal guidance, despite the definition’s author repeatedly describing it as a “travesty” to use this definition to regulate speech and behavior. Building on Biden’s introduction, Trump is poised to sign a bill that would implement this same definition into federal anti-discrimination law – and in the meantime, he’s insisting Columbia and other schools adopt this definition in their own codes of conduct. NYU and Harvard have already taken this step, overriding concerns by civil rights and civil liberties organizations – from the ACLU, to Fire and the AAUP, to Israeli civil rights groups – who stressed that IHRA’s definition is extremely vague and provides strong leeway for institutional stakeholders to censor most critical discussion of Israel, Zionism or Judaism more broadly, by Jews and non-Jews alike."

Look, you can criticize me for playing "the blame game" all you like, but every goddamn thing Trump is doing surrounding the US-backed genocide in Gaza, including the domestic installation of fascist ideological policing, was and is facilitated by a Biden administration that was warned all of this - from Trump winning, to deploying War on Terror logic repression on anti-genocide protesters - was on the table if they didn't change course. If you want to know why only fourteen Democrats signed a letter decrying the fascist abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, and only thirty-four Democrat lawmakers signed the letter demanding the release of Rumeysa Ozturk (whose only "crime" appears to be have been writing an op-ed calling for her University to divest from Israel and condemn a genocide) you don't have to look any further than a mainstream Democratic Party leadership class that's fat on AIPAC donations and happily told you student protestors were violent antisemites who endorsed terrorist organizations, demanded colleges take action to suppress the protests, and justified a brutal police crackdown on... college kids who don't want their government to facilitate a genocide. It's kind of hard to criticize all that fascism when your donors love it and you directly made the arguments Trump is using to conduct it, after all.

At the risk of stating the obvious, it would be nice if media minions on my TV would spend any time at all analyzing Trump's fascist ICE kidnapping spree as part of a larger plan, with an eye on what the regime is actually trying to accomplish here. Maybe American media outlets are spooked by living in a country where it's increasingly illegal to admit racism exists, but it's not like it's impossible to do the legwork; even for corporate media. Take for example this piece in the international edition of The Guardian, pointing out that it's almost certainly not an accident all of DHS's targets for fascist ideological policing and deportation are people of color, even though a majority of the folks participating in campus anti-genocide protests the regime is claiming represent a threat to our national security, were white folks born in America.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/us-universities-students-israel-palestine-protests

‘A warning for students of color’: Ice agents are targeting certain protesters, say experts

"Now, at least five students and academics of color at US universities have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing push to punish noncitizens over their support of Palestine.

“What we’re seeing is the use of immigration law to go after visa holders, permanent lawful residents, [over] their speech,” said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). “He’s trying to suppress political speech that goes against what the administration wants.”

Despite white students, professors and academics also being heavily involved in pro-Palestine protests, people of color have disproportionately faced sudden arrests and threats of deportation or had their visas revoked.

“We’re just seeing the focus on very specific people,” said Sisay, referring to academics of color. “I think it really is to try to create a wedge in solidarity, the multiracial, multiethnic solidarity that’s been created in support of Palestinian human rights.” Ice’s actions, she said, have “set a warning for students of color at these universities who rely on scholarships and educational support to improve their lives or better the situations for their family.”

So look, maybe you don't need to be a genius to figure out why an openly white nationalist, Islamophobic, and deeply xenophobic Trump administration is starting its attempts to criminalize protest and dissent, with non-white academics, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim. These guys are fucking nazis, and that's the kinda shit nazis do; although I'll be honest with you, the next time I see a corporate media outlet explain the actions of the Pork Reich by directly saying "well they're fascists, obviously" it'll probably be the first.

The truth however, is that Stephen Miller, who is definitely running Trump's immigration policies and his fascist war to crush dissent, is the kinda crudely cunning fascist who absolutely "uses the whole cow." Sure the regime is stacked to the brim with raving white nationalists, but they're also clearly working to break the solidarity of the anti-genocide protest movement, while simultaneously targeting people Americans have already been taught to hate in order to shift the Overton Window far enough towards fascism to allow them to start black bagging and imprisoning *anyone* of *any* immigration status, who opposes the regime. It is irresponsible to simply repeat regime propaganda to justify illegally disappearing protestors, without helping your audience put these events in a larger context that would explain why it's important for all of us to oppose Trump's fascist repression of people many Americans don't care about and have been taught to dislike, if they don't want the regime's next assault on civil rights to strike closer to home.

The Trump regime has expanded its blatantly unconstitutional college campus kidnapping spree beyond the Ivies; this time ICE snatched University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi at his off campus home at 5AM on Tuesday. The DHS has refused to provide clarification for why Doroudi, a mechanical engineering student from Iran who is legally studying in the United States, was detained; beyond some vague nonsense about "national security."

https://archive.is/m42G7

ICE detains University of Alabama doctoral student as government's college crackdown continues

"David Rozas, an attorney representing Doroudi, said in a statement Saturday that they are "confused" about why Doroudi was detained. Doroudi has maintained lawful status while studying at the university, Rozas said.

"We have not been made aware of any allegations of misconduct against my client," Rozas said. "We do not believe he is suspected to have committed any crimes nor participated in any political activities whatsoever."

He said Doroudi has a pending EB-2 application, a pathway to a green card for immigrants who hold an advanced degree or have "exceptional ability."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed statement: "ICE HSI made this arrest in accordance with the State Department’s revocation of Doroudi’s student visa. This individual posed significant national security concerns."

Given the DHS's refusal to provide adequate details, many mainstream news outlets are reporting that it's unclear if this particular visa revocation and ICE kidnapping is part of Trump's larger fascist war on college campus protestors and people who write op-eds criticizing Israel's genocide in Gaza. Given the methods the regime used to target Doroudi and fact that ICE has already shipped him to the notorious detention center in Louisiana that it shipped most of the other students to however, I think that position is a little too credulous. At a minimum, sources at the University of Alabama have indicated that the community there regards this as part of Trump's racist repression of international students.

#Immigration ofcls also detained #Palestinian activist & #Columbia graduate #MahmoudKhalil – a #GreenCard holder – earlier this month in front of his pregnant wife, Noor, a US citizen. Other students detained by immigration ofcls include #BadarSuri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at #Georgetown University, after #DHS accused him of having ties to Hamas.

But #RumeysaOzturk [was]…transferred to the Central Louisiana #ICE Processing Center in Basile, a #DHS spox said Wed.

It’s only been 8 weeks.

I cannot imagine what this country will look like in a year.