Tag: Law and Order under threat

“Not My President’s Day” national day of protest announced for Feb. 17, 2025, @ noon at City Hall

 

A super PAC is urging Americans to rally en masse nationwide February 17th at noon at city halls across the country to show opposition to “co-presidents” Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s lawless dragging of the nation into fascism and oligarchy. It is the same group that organized the #50501 protests at state capitals across the country February 5th.

American Opposition, a new Super PAC based in Boulder, Colorado that just registered with the Federal Election Commission on January 27, 2025, formed to fill the vacuum they say is being left by Democrats.

Social media post announcing the national protests

Their objective is to get large numbers of people to turn out to protest Trump and Musk’s illegal actions to shred the U.S. government. Trump and Musk have been working to push out hundreds of thousands of skilled civil servants and end birthright citizenship which is enshrined in the Constitution. They’ve invited unvetted and unidentified people to enter and seize control of the U.S. Treasury and access millions of Americans’ private and sensitive personal information,like Social Security numbers and bank account information. They’ve illegally closed down public agencies that were duly created and funded by Congress, like USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and they’ve illegally blocked Congressionally mandated funds from going to duly established federal agencies in compliance with U.S. law. Beyond this, they’ve been threatening and bullying everyone who stands in their way.

Most of the aggressive actions taken by Trump and Musk since the start of this administration to dismantle the government have been determined to violate either the U.S. Constitution or U.S. laws, or both. Trump and Musk have even brazenly violated direct court orders to cease their actions. 

These activities to illicitly seize control of U.S. government have been widely recognized as takeover of government by unelected, private citizen Elon Musk (video), the wealthiest person on Earth, and an anti-democratic administrative “coup,” a sudden, illegal seizure of power from the American government.

A press release issued on the PR NewsWire Service Feb. 4, by American Opposition says,

BOULDER, Colo.Feb. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Amid growing concerns over the future of democracy in the United States, Carlos Álvarez-Aranyos has launched American Opposition, a new organization dedicated to mobilizing Americans against the rising grip of fascism. Álvarez-Aranyos – a political veteran who oversaw strategic communications efforts for the most covered political non-profits in both 2020 (Protect Democracy) and 2024 (The American Sunlight Project) – aims to deploy high-impact messaging strategies to inform and empower the public….The United States is now under the grip of fascism, and if we don’t rise up to defend her, we may very well lose her,” said Álvarez-Aranyos. “American Opposition is designed to provide concerned citizens with the knowledge and tools they need to take meaningful action in defense of democracy.”

No local organization has been identified as organizing the protest scheduled for February 17th. People are just asked to show up in numbers, bring signs, chant and demonstrate. When asked who, if anyone on the ground in Grand Junction is spearheading this this event, American Opposition responded by saying that just gathering at City Hall is the right thing to do, and “We don’t keep lists, for obvious reasons.”

Information about the protest is mostly being spread on social media sites like Threads, local Reddits and on American Opposition’s Instagram page.

A convicted felon now in charge of the country, Trump is moving quickly to end law enforcement as we know it

Letter sent to federal law enforcement officials who worked on the criminal cases against convicted felon and now U.S. President Donald Trump. The two federal cases against him were for his attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election and for hoarding classified and top secret government documents and refusing to return them to the federal government. The letter notifies federal law enforcement employees they are being fired because their investigations did not please Trump.

The following analysis of Trump’s ongoing mass purge of federal law enforcement officials was taken from Rachel Maddow’s show 1/31/25 show, starting at 17:12 into the show (video). I transcribed her presentation and then lightly edited the text to make it clearer as a written, rather than a spoken piece. I also included links to further information. I chose to highlight Maddow’s presentation because it is perhaps the fullest, clearest and most concise explanation of the current state of affairs ongoing on under Trump that has been broadcast so far. (Note: Italicized, bolded and capitalized emphasis are mine.):

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Trump is punishing law enforcement officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who pursued violent January 6 criminals to gain revenge on law enforcement personnel who participated in a previous investigation that is now over. The point of Trump’s actions is to permanently, irrevocably change law enforcement in the United States so FBI and prosecutors will no longer pursue criminal investigations and cases against suspects if the suspected criminals are associated with Trump and his supporters.

Trump is trying to get rid of American law enforcement as we know it.

They are trying to get rid of the very idea of an independent “justice-is-blind” system that makes America who we are. It is hard to see how this can be corrected or undone.

The practical effects of Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship

Presidents have no authority to change the rules of citizenship on their own, as adjudicated sexual abuser, convicted felon and President Donald Trump is trying to do, but if Trump’s recent dictatorial attempt to end birthright citizenship at the stroke of a pen were to ultimately be realized, it would create negative repercussions for parents and babies born in the U.S. after February 19, 2025. Estimates are that about 150,000 children born in the U.S. each year and their parents could face obstacles under this system.

Billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s “First Buddy,” gives Nazi salute twice during speech at Trump’s inaugural celebration

Billionaire Elon Musk, who spent $277 million to get Trump elected and who publicly declared himself Trump’s “First Buddy” in a November 11, 2024 tweet, gave a Nazi salute not once but twice during his talk at Trump’s inaugural celebration at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2025 [Video clip: PBS]

Musk, who is facing global criticism over the gesture, has not explicitly denied it was a Nazi salute. Instead he dismissed the criticism as a “tired” attack, writing on his social media platform that “The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

Right wing extremists celebrated Musk’s use of gesture.

It is illegal to perform this gesture in Germany.

In an article by investigative reporter Bernard Condon posted January 21 on Associated Press, Kurt Braddock, a professor of communication at American University who studies extremism, radicalization and terrorism, said the gesture was a fascist salute and that “people shouldn’t doubt what they saw.”

Trump embraces lawlessness by pardoning all Jan. 6 rioters, including the most violent offenders

Violent insurrectionist David Dempsey in front on the gallows set up at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 (Photo: U.S. District Court)

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump showed the extent to which he is willing to disrespect the laws of the United States when it comes to protecting those who commit violence and sedition in his name.

As one of his first acts, Trump pardoned approximately 1,500 January 6 rioters, including the most violent offenders and those convicted of seditious conspiracy (the crime of conspiring against the U.S. government). Among them are David Dempsey, who was serving a 20 year prison sentence for viciously assaulting Capitol Police using crutches, flag poles, pieces of broken furniture, pepper spray and anything else he could get his hands on. Dempsey struck Washington D.C. Police Seargent Jason Mastony so hard with a metal crutch that Mastony collapsed and was left stunned with a gash in his head. Trump also commuted the 18-year sentence of Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right anti-government paramilitary militia the Oath Keepers, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering, and Enrique Tarrio, former national chairman of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys, who was serving a 22 year sentence in prison.