13 Comments
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Robin Gilmartin's avatar

All the ingredients are there to account for what we’re seeing!

James P Petrila's avatar

Very insightful. (And shameless self-promotion aside for the recent set of articles Steady State was kind enough to publish, it underscores how this contributes to the vertically integrated removal network that has been put in place, and emphasizes even more how this threatens not only our democracy, but our very safety).

Teri Gelini's avatar

Thank you ken Syring for bringing this out into the open . This should be sent to everyone in congress daily until they get the drift we will not stand for this in OUR country. Absolutely against everything we were brought up to believe in.

Patrick Downs's avatar

I think that many/most of these DHS/ICE agents who have been hired in this surge to get 10,000 new agents on the street will have to be fired. They have not met the historical standards for background checks, psych profiles, and training that were mandatory for federal LEOs. They have sought to hire Proud Boys, militia members, gun fanatics, white supremacists, J6 insurrectionists and other radicals who want to be Trump's "goon squad". They are dangerous.

John McNellis Rich's avatar

It seems a countermeasure is through personal connections to reach enough of the newly disillusioned people on the fringes of MAGA-world who have standing to influence their congress-people that this is unacceptable. It's slow and organic, & out of synch with the pace of authoritarian surge. Who has ideas on jiu jitsu moves to flip the so-called Christian nationalist freaks and push them back to the dark fringes of society.

BILL PIEKNEY's avatar

Yes, yes and yes.

LeftRightUSA's avatar

I think this video by Kale Kaalekahi of NOW Academy goes right along with what you're saying. He talks about how manosphere content is creating disconnected, angry, fit young men who look to certain male role models for validation. He fears that could be feeding a pipeline.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1azNwRtJuC/

Tom Wolfson's avatar

When it comes time to purge the impeachable and criminal elements of Trump, his government, and his followers, it's going to be hard to decide what to address first. But clearly, the dismantling and prosecution of the particular abomination Ken Syring details so well have got to be near the top of the list.

Greg Rushford's avatar

I served as an enlisted AP (Air Policeman) in the 1960s, with my USAF service including South Korea, a tough neighborhood in those days. My colleagues were essentially decent people, in the main. as the majority of cops worldwide have always been. But we had a few "knuckle draggers" People who enjoyed hurting others, because they could. Donald Trump loves the ICE knuckle draggers. They personify his political message.

Doug Clapp's avatar

Thanks Ken Syring for this thoughtful essay about the creation and shaping of Trump's personal paramilitary "agenda enforcers," a group very distinct from "law enforcers."