Journalist checklist/guide in this authoritarian regime

 

Israel is a beacon for democracy in the Middle East

 Right?

Watch and learn

 

Authoritarian?

 

Despotic might be a more accurate word.

They're hitting campuses for intimidation purposes because that's often where major dissention and protest of authoritarian regimes originates.

MAGA.

Now you know what happened to NPR to make it less useful.  The problem is not the number of registered Democrats (how does she know that?).  It's the CEO.

UPDATE 07:43 pm:

UPDATE 03/27/2025:  Regarding Rumeysa Ozturk...

 

Meanwhile, in Turkey

 

Stalin would be proud

Donald Trump’s team and allies are moving swiftly to draw political benefit from an unannounced search by FBI agents at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday. And they’re keeping tabs of Republicans who aren’t, in their view, sufficiently rushing to his defense.

[...]

“They’re going to drastically use this to rally their allies, GOP leaders on Capitol Hill and juice for his political agenda and run for 2024,” said a person close to the Trump operation. “If there was a 99 percent chance it’s 100 percent now. He makes it part of his platform – going after the FBI.”

[...]

While Trump’s team was bullish about the political benefits of being targeted by the FBI, the situation comes with clear and obvious downsides. Legal experts said that it would be highly unlikely that the agency would have taken such action without clear evidence of wrongdoing — noting the rarity of a former president being targeted so aggressively. The search would require the signoff of a federal judge or magistrate, who would issue the warrant based upon evidence of a potential crime.

On top of that, Trump is embroiled in a number of legal dramas and headaches, in addition to being the focus and target of the House January 6 committee. Focus groups of Trump 2020 voters have shown that even they have grown wary of the drama that accompanies his political ventures and are ready to move on.

  Politico

But not MAGAheads. I mean, they're still counting on the South to rise again.

In the hours after Trump issued his statement, a slew of prominent Republicans and allies ranging from RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) sent out statements of outrage and support. By the end of the night, the RNC had dashed off a fundraising text: “THIS IS NOT A DRILL: UNPRECEDENTED move Biden’s FBI RAIDS Pres. Trump’s home. Time to take back Congress.”

You might think MAGAheads would want Trump to go away, because every time some criminal issue arises, the RNC and Trump use it to soak them for more money. ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Academics are never welcome in authoritarian states

I wouldn't come here if I were them.  If Trump gets back into office in 2024, they'd just have to move again.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hmmm...

So, is he saying we're not normal?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Speaking of fascism and overreach...

The United States Department of Commerce plans to issue an order on Friday that will bar people in the US from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting from September 20, three officials have told Reuters News Agency.

  alJazeera

That's gonna go over big.

The officials said the ban on new US downloads of TikTok could be still rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late on Sunday as TikTok owner ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its US operations.

[...]

The commerce department order will "deplatform" the two apps in the United States and bar Apple Inc's app store, Alphabet Inc's Google Play and others from offering the apps on any platform "that can be reached from within the United States," a senior department official told Reuters.

How will Trumpalos justify this?

How much of this is because those kids on TikTok added to the spoiling of his Tulsa rally?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

"I have given the deal my blessing," Trump said. "I approve the deal in concept."

Since when does the president of the United States give his blessing to private deals?

Belarus - still rounding up opposition members

Belarusian authorities have detained one of the last leading members of an opposition council who had remained free, moving methodically to end a month of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.

Maxim Znak, a lawyer and member of the coordination council created by the opposition to facilitate talks with the country’s leader on a transition of power, was taken out of the council’s office by unidentified people in ski masks, his associate Gleb German said. He said Znak only had time to text message “masks” before they took the phone away from him.

Unidentified people were also trying to enter the apartment of the last member of the council’s executive presidium who remained free, Svetlana Alexievich, who won the 2015 Nobel prize in literature.

  Guardian

Somehow, I don't think that's going to quell protests.

Oh, look...the US has expressed disapproval.

In Washington, the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, issued a statement expressing concern about the attempt to expel Kolesnikova and warning that the US and its allies were considering sanctions against Belarus.

Conversion to authoritarianism continues - Part 2

Since 2016, 14 states have enacted new laws to restrict the right to peaceful assembly. [...] [I]n the wake of the nationwide movement in support of Black lives, numerous states have increased the severity of criminal penalties for protesters along political lines and are prosecuting them more aggressively, as demonstrations continue with no sign of slowing down.

[...]

The trend of criminalizing protest has been on the uptick since the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, during and after which numerous states upped charges for protests “near critical infrastructure” as felonies.

[...]

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a law that made it a felony to participate in some types of protests, including camping out overnight on state property. Charges for the same activity were previously classified as a misdemeanor. In Tennessee, people convicted of felonies lose their voting rights — making the new law a tool for disenfranchisement.

[...]

Earlier this month, police in Muscatine, Iowa, apprehended two people they say were attempting to drive a vehicle into the city Public Safety Building and got stuck on a planter. They charged both men with numerous counts, including terrorism.

[...]

AMONG THE MOST serious recent charges against protesters are those of terrorism in Oklahoma. There, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater charged three teenagers and two other people in their 20s with terrorism related to their alleged activity during protests in late May.

[...]

The terrorism charges reveal a “false equivalency between people who kill, and people who commit acts of property damage,” said Kate Chatfield, policy director at the Justice Collaborative, a policy and media organization focused on mass criminalization and incarceration. “Maybe not a great thing.”

  The Intercept

Maybe not.

“To say that the power of the state will be wielded in this way against political enemies is incredibly frightening,” Chatfield said, drawing a parallel to the post-9/11 era, when many people who had never committed an act of violence were prosecuted for terrorism. “Let’s not ignore the fact that we have a history of this in this country. A very recent history. And a continuing history, unfortunately.”

[...]

For the Oklahoma City teens and young adults facing terror charges, “what’s next is they fight for their lives,” Lambert said. The statute carries a maximum of life in prison. “Many of these charged protesters are young teenagers. … So they are facing spending their entire lives in prison simply for, in some cases, attending a protest to try and hold police accountable.” Criminal defense attorneys are still working to get those charges dropped or significantly reduced.

Conversion to authoritarianism continues

Current and former national security officials are raising concerns over Attorney General William Barr's recent decision to remove the head of a Justice Department office that helps ensure federal counterterrorism and counterintelligence activities are legal – and replace him with a political appointee with relatively limited experience.

[...]

For much of the past decade, that little-known office has been led by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann, a 23-year career public servant, not a political appointee. But two weeks ago, Wiegmann, 54, was told he is being reassigned and replaced with a political appointee.

[...]

Last year alone, Wiegmann represented the Justice Department in three public congressional hearings, testifying about U.S. capabilities to fight the rise of domestic terrorism and the importance of conducting secret surveillance inside the United States and abroad.

At one of the hearings, a House Democrat tried to push Wiegmann into offering even indirect criticism of Trump's racially-charged rhetoric, but Wiegmann insisted: "It's just not my place as a career government official to comment on what either members of Congress or the president choose to say."

[...]

[T]he new head of the office is 36-year-old Kellen Dwyer, a cyber-crimes prosecutor who joined the federal government six years ago and made international headlines in November 2018 when he accidentally revealed that federal charges had been secretly filed against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

  ABC

Not only inexperienced, but incompetent.

From 2018 to 2019, he served as a fellow at the conservative-leaning Leonine Forum, a non-profit organization that says its alumni are "committed to the cause of reintroducing the tenets of [the Catholic church] into the political, policy, legal, business, and cultural activities of society."

Before joining the Office of Law and Policy this month, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

[...]

The timing of the personnel change – coming just two months before the U.S. presidential election, and in the midst of a battle against domestic terrorism and foreign interference in the election – has worried current and former members of the national security community.

[...]

Past chiefs of the office have served as political appointees, while others – like Wiegmann – served as career officials, so, "It would not have been that unusual early in an administration to place a political [appointee] in that policy role, but to do that now is very unusual," one current U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

[...]

Though a relatively small unit of fewer than two dozen attorneys, the Office of Law and Policy participates in almost every National Security Council meeting, works with congressional staff to draft new legislation, and conducts oversight of the FBI's intelligence-gathering activities.

[...]

The concern from current and former officials stems from the Office of Law and Policy's role in national security: The office shapes government efforts by ensuring that new policies and executive actions don't violate federal law.

Which is precisely why Dwyer is being installed there.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

In Rogers Park, Chicago

h/t  Josh Sheperd

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No press allowed here in the United States of America

On Aug. 24, Republican delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, N.C., to formally vote to make Trump the GOP nominee. The vote itself will reportedly be livestreamed.

The move was reportedly made to reduce the amount of people present to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. The vote was already scaled down from 2,550 to 336 delegates, or one person per every six delegates.

"Given the health restrictions and limitations in place within the state of North Carolina, we are planning for the Charlotte activities to be closed press Friday, August 21 – Monday, August 24," a convention spokeswoman told the outlets in a statement Saturday.

[...]

A Republican National Convention official told CNN that Trump is not expected to accept the nomination with a public speech. If he is physically present at the convention, he will most likely thank delegates in private, without press present.

  The Hill

They don't want any images to get out to the public that look bad. Such as crowd size.  Or protests.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Speaking of authoritarian regimes blocking reporters...

American exceptionalism.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Signs of collapse

The scenes have been disturbingly familiar to CIA analysts accustomed to monitoring scenes of societal unraveling abroad — the massing of protesters, the ensuing crackdowns and the awkwardly staged displays of strength by a leader determined to project authority.

[...]

Former intelligence officials said the unrest and the administration’s militaristic response are among many measures of decay they would flag if writing assessments about the United States for another country’s intelligence service.

[...]

“I’ve seen this kind of violence,” said Gail Helt, a former CIA analyst responsible for tracking developments in China and Southeast Asia. “This is what autocrats do. This is what happens in countries before a collapse. It really does unnerve me.”

[...]

They cited the country’s struggle to contain the novel coronavirus, the president’s attempt to pressure Ukraine for political favors, his attacks on the news media and the increasingly polarized political climate as other signs of dysfunction.

[...]

Marc Polymeropoulos, who formerly ran CIA operations in Europe and Asia, was among several former agency officials who recoiled at images of Trump hoisting a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington after authorities fired rubber bullets and tear gas to clear the president’s path of protesters. “It reminded me of what I reported on for years in the third world,” Polymeropoulos said on Twitter. Referring to the despotic leaders of Iraq, Syria and Libya, he said: “Saddam. Bashar. Qaddafi. They all did this.”

The impression Trump created was only reinforced by others in the administration. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper urged governors to “dominate the battlespace” surrounding protesters, as if describing U.S. cities as a foreign war zone. Later, as military helicopters hovered menacingly over protesters, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured the streets of the nation’s capital in his battle fatigue uniform.

“As a former CIA officer, I know this playbook,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) said in a tweet. Before her election to Congress last year, she worked at the agency on issues including terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

  WaPo

Just the deep state trying to take Trump down, right?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Approaching Despotism

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

That's a little extreme, Hungary

Hungary’s parliament handed Prime Minister Viktor Orban the right to rule by decree indefinitely, effectively putting the European Union democracy under his sole command for as long as he sees fit.

  Bloomberg

Which will be his lifetime. He's an ultra-right-winger.

Hungary’s ruling party lawmakers overrode the objections of the opposition in a vote on Monday, handing Orban the right to bypass the assembly on any law. The Constitutional Court, which Orban has stacked with loyalists, will be the main body capable of reviewing government actions.

[...]

The legislation’s scope is “limited” and envisions only “necessary and proportionate measures” to fight Covid-19, Justice Minister Judit Varga told journalists on Friday. The cabinet has already been granted emergency powers and the legislation actually gives parliament the right to end that, she said.

Varga asked journalists not to “distort” facts, a crime the legislation makes punishable by as long as five years in jail for anyone deemed hampering the virus fight.

[...]

Orban’s track record indicates he may not give up the powers quickly. His anti-immigrant Fidesz party has continuously renewed a “state of emergency for mass immigration,” announced after the 2015 refugee crisis, even after the number of asylum seekers arriving to Hungary plunged.

[...]

Faith in Orban to exercise restraint is running low. In the past decade, the nationalist leader has used supermajorities in parliament to dismantle checks and balances, build the EU’s largest state propaganda machine and crack down on civil society to silence dissent.

The EU is probing the erosion of the rule-of-law, though it’s lacked the will to rein in Orban as populism flourishes across the bloc. The EU’s executive will review Hungary’s emergency-rule law to see if it’s in line with its norms, Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said on Twitter.

[...]

“In light of previous experiences with authoritarian dynamics in Hungary, once passed, the enabling act will not be rescinded anytime soon,” said Daniel Hegedus, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.

Don't think it can't happen here.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Birx is not to be trusted

All the insane Dear Leader praise coming from the Trump administration (and GOP congress) is getting to be North Korea level. Disturbing.

Sit down, Debbie.  We've already seen your credibility tanked.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We have the orb

In his book “MBS,” a profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, New York Times correspondent Ben Hubbard writes that after the 2017 photo taken at a Riyadh summit, the Saudis left the orb at the American Embassy, The Guardian reported.

“It sat in a hallway for a number of days, where diplomats passing by would pose for photos,” Hubbard wrote, but “someone apparently worried that the photos would make their way online and cause a scandal, so the orb was hidden away in embassy storage.”

  The Hill