Trump's War on America Is Expanding

[Celerity]

The president is now unleashing state violence at home and abroad, illegally and with impunity.

https://newrepublic.com/article/201356/trump-war-america-expanding-state-violence

https://archive.ph/VLoDK


Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“It felt like we were under siege.” That’s how Darrell Ballard, a 63-year-old Chicago resident, described a massive federal raid on a South Side apartment complex on Tuesday that involved a swarm of drones, snipers rappelling from helicopters, and hundreds of heavily armed agents. They stormed the building, breaking down doors and igniting flash-bang grenades, and pulled out dozens of residents—some of whom were naked children, and many of whom were U.S. citizens. The adults were cuffed and the kids zip-tied to each other, in some cases for hours, while their names were run through a database to check for existing warrants and citizenship status. The Department of Homeland Security claimed, without providing evidence, that the building was a hotbed for Tren de Agua, the Venezuelan drug gang.

Two days after federal agents turned a peaceful apartment complex in Chicago into a war zone, Donald Trump informed Congress that he had “determined” that drug cartels operating in foreign countries are “nonstate armed groups” and “unlawful combatants,” whose actions “constitute an armed attack against the United States.” Trump was declaring war, in other words, and providing the same post-9/11 rationale used for taking out terrorists to justify repeated airstrikes on small Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean that have left several dead. The administration has claimed, again without providing evidence, that these ships are carrying drugs—not that the presence of drugs would warrant obliterating them, the administration’s legal contortions notwithstanding.

Even with the fig leaf of legality, those strikes almost certainly defy international law, just as the warrantless detention of U.S. citizens in Chicago make a mockery of the Constitution. Taken together, they are stark examples of an administration that is increasingly using state violence with impunity—both outside and within America’s borders. But they are also chilling signs for the future: The awesome power being wielded against Venezuelans may one day be wielded against what Trump calls “the enemy within”—and justified on similar grounds.

It’s becoming clear that the administration’s extralegal assault on immigrant communities was just the beginning of a wider war, one that lately hast targeted anyone—from the street to the TV screen—who dares criticize the regime. Trump and his cronies have targeted media and entertainment companies, with the president filing baseless lawsuits against organizations like The New York Times (which is fighting) and CBS (which folded)—the goal being to cow them, and by extension their entire industries, into submission. Though unsuccessful, the Federal Communications Commission’s effort to push ABC host Jimmy Kimmel off the air—done via an assist from right-leaning affiliate broadcasters—showed that the administration does not give a damn about the First Amendment. It was also unmistakable proof that it will use state power to crush dissent with impunity.

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