Outside the Beltway

“Thomas Homan” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

In Front of Our Noses: Pure, Uncut Authoritarianism

The thuggish stylings of Tom Homan.

Steven L. Taylor
10

Comments

“Thomas Homan” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.

For previous entries, click here.

In point of fact, there are, in fact, limitations on the authority of the president when it comes to law enforcement. At a bare minimum, a huge chunk of the Bill of Rights constrains federal law enforcement.

A debate can be had, both legally and morally, as to what the outer limits of those powers might be, but the notion that the president can do whatever he wishes in the name of public safety is classic authoritarianism.

It should be noted, although it should also be obvious, that no dictator can create 100% safety. And there is a tipping point wherein trying to get as close to 100% safe as possible means terrorizing the population, including the law-abiding.

Categories

, , ,

Tags

,

10 responses to “In Front of Our Noses: Pure, Uncut Authoritarianism”

  1. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    The escalating level of rhetoric and subsequent actions is deeply disturbing.

    I hope the Supreme Court is happy with the results of their advancement of Unitary Executive Theory.

    13
  2. Slugger Avatar
    Slugger

    This is the new reality. No subsequent President will give up these powers. Our institutions were aware that power is never given up, and that’s why we had formal and informal limitations on the leader. Political leaders will try to increase their power; it is a law of nature. The limitations have been eroded over time by every chief executive, but Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR took the largest bites. The dam has been broken now. Broken things do not spontaneously return to order. Get used to it.

    3
  3. Hume's Ghost Avatar
    Hume’s Ghost

    “there is a tipping point wherein trying to get as close to 100% safe as possible means terrorizing the population, including the law-abiding.”

    Which we’re already past.

    A delivery worker was tased, punched and kicked by multiple federal agents in the middle of the street outside a popular brunch spot in Northwest DC on Saturday morning, a video shared with The Handbasket shows. While customers sitting outside at the Logan Circle cafe munched on avocado smash and matcha pancakes, two and then an additional four masked agents beat the shit out of the man in broad daylight. This is America.

    8
  4. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    A debate can be had, both legally and morally, as to what the outer limits of those powers might be, but the notion that the president can do whatever he wishes in the name of public safety is classic authoritarianism.

    A debate CAN’T be had when the administration has not only claimed limitless power unsupported by any reasonable reading of any legal statute, but also has defined public safety through assertions at odds with the data.

    When both “means” and “ends” are being fabricated, then there’s no negotiating or influencing to be done. We are merely left to point out the evil, ridicule the sycophantic enablers, and hope to blunt the damage through exposure.

    10
  5. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @Hume’s Ghost: You are sadly correct.

    @Scott F.: Said debate is only an abstraction at this point.

    2
  6. becca Avatar
    becca

    Well, I never felt ashamed of being a white American until this administration.

    3
  7. Hume's Ghost Avatar
    Hume’s Ghost

    @Steven L. Taylor: Yeah, I don’t think it will be much longer until they just start straight murdering people in the streets. Only a matter of time.

    A group of men in police vests surround their vehicle. One appears to step from behind a truck with a firearm drawn and pointed at the vehicle before holstering it. This individual is also wearing a hat with the CBP acronym for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The man behind the wheel can be heard telling his son not to open the door. The three instead repeatedly ask the men to identify themselves and ask why they’re being stopped. The agents never do nor do they present a warrant. They instead use a device to break the windows on the driver and passenger sides. One of them smashes through the window to attempt to grab the driver, who speeds off. Three gunshots can be heard at the end of the video recorded by his son as they escape back home.

    1
  8. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    @Hume’s Ghost: Fun Fact: there are overlapping jurisdictions, and these thugs are always committing their crimes in some state, county or city (often all three!).

    Unidentified thugs shooting at a car in a known location and time? Where are the local prosecutors? Why are they not pressing ICE by laying John Doe charges on their doorstep? At least push ICE into court and make them actually make their legal claims of immunity.

    3
  9. Hume's Ghost Avatar
    Hume’s Ghost

    @Gustopher: When they got home they called the police and said that masked men stopped them & wouldn’t identify themselves, smashed their car window, tried to pull them out of the car and then shot at them when they drove away to escape. As they always do, the agents told local police that the driver assaulted them.

    2
  10. Modulo Myself Avatar
    Modulo Myself

    President Newsom should deploy FBI and the National Guard to places like Cobb County. The goal is safety. The technique is enforcing the speed limit by mass policing and surveillance.

    Give this a month, and maybe five percent of MAGA’s base in these states will have died in road-rage accidents or suffered aneurysms or heart attacks due to everyone being forced by a police state to go 65.

    1

Latest Posts