The First Signs Of Tyranny: From People Who Missed Them
This is a two part post. Below the first section which details a video worth watching, in the bottom half I will point of some similarities missed in the video's summary.
PART ONE
This is a transcript of an amazing video on YouTube right now: The First Signs of Tyranny, From People Who Missed Them | NYT Opinion
For easy reading the people are represented by the country they fled from: Nicaragua, Russia, Singapore, and Hungary. These countries are thereafter identified by a single initial. It should be noted that Trump has praised and hosted Viktor Orbán, PM of Hungary in his home. Trump has also met privatelywith Putin and praised him repeatedly. These are two of the tyrants the interviewees fled from.
Nicaragua:
It doesn’t start with them kidnapping you.
Russia:
It does not start with our exile.
Singapore:
They don’t stuff the ballot boxes.
Hungary:
It starts with the government making hints.
N: It starts with overcomplicated red tape.
R: With the law.
S: With retribution.
N: Fake narratives and financial attacks.
S: Democracy and rule of law is more fragile than Americans think.
R: Russia was banning writers. But I was thinking, "I’m not writing books."
Then it was banning teachers. And I thought, "OK, I’m not a teacher."
This is the big mistake. Because, of course, it came to me.
The first alarm that we should have noticed was in 2001, when NTV, the independent channel, was taken over.
Voice Over: "Staff arriving for work were told their offices and studios were off limits unless they signed an oath of loyalty to NTV’s new managers."
R: I remember how frustrated and angry we were, and we even went to the protest rally. But then it was cold, and we had so many other independent TV channels, so we just went home and forgot about that.
S: My uncle, who until recently was prime minister of Singapore, had this pattern of using police investigations and criminal prosecutions to dispose of or exile his opponents. There have been malicious prosecutions against two leaders of different opposition parties.
N: The Sandinista dictatorship in Nicaragua sees nonprofits as a threat, including mine. We are focused on pro-democracy work, and that was unacceptable to the dictatorship.
H: In Hungary, the elimination of gender studies was the first step towards the restriction of academic freedom.
S: When it would be too obvious to prosecute someone for being an enemy of the state, you have to make something else up.
N: They came after us with the excuse that we had not submitted our financial reports. They didn’t give us an opportunity to appeal.
S: I posted a private Facebook comment to my friends only, and the Singapore government went after me with a criminal prosecution.
Voice Over: “ ... attorney general’s chambers has asked the high court to fine Li Shengwu at least $15,000 if ...”
H: The steps were gradual, and every one of them was unbelievable for me. Looking back, it had been obvious that the government had been going in this direction, the little speech here and a half a sentence there.
Voice Over: “We have to revitalize our churches, our families, our universities.”
H: We thought, no way, they cannot cross that line —until 2020, when the Hungarian government forced my university to leave the country.
R: Vladimir Putin, he always has these legal steps first.
Voice Over: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed two controversial security bills into law."
R: And then he does what he wants.
Voice over: "... would designate certain journalists and bloggers as foreign agents."
R: He was testing the society. 'Would it be OK for them if I shut down just one channel and then maybe one radio station, one newspaper, one magazine?'
N: Our nonprofit was one of the first to be canceled by the Ortega regime. Right now, we’re up to over 3,500 nonprofits.
R: My television channel was declared a foreign agent. I was declared a foreign agent.
H: I am blacklisted as an academic in Hungary. I could never get a job.
N: The regime was saying that I was a financier of terrorism; it would be best if I left the country immediately.
S: And I fled the country as soon as I could.
Voice over: "Russia blocked its last independent TV channel, TV Rain. Those staffers remaining in the studio gathered for a farewell at the ...."
R:We left Russia.
CUE the introduction to tyranny in America
TRUMP: “I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.”
H: If you’re used to living in a democratic society, you don’t expect that a government could just go ahead and close a university.
TRUMP: “I will fire the radical-left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.”
R: Right now, there is no independent media outlets in Russia, no freedom of speech.”
TRUMP: “ABC, they’re the most dishonest, in my opinion, the most dishonest news organization.”
S: My uncle had taken his own personal lawyer and made that lawyer attorney general.
Voice Over: "President-elect Trump’s new pick for attorney general? Pam Bondi.
Voice Over: "She was also on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial."
Trump: “I call my attorney general. I say, 'Listen, indict him.' 'Well, he hasn’t done anything wrong that we know of.' 'I don’t know, indict him on income tax evasion. You’ll figure it out.'”
N: I wish that I would have paid more attention to those flashes of authoritarianism. We ignored it because the economy was going really, really well.
H: I should have known. I’m a sociologist.
R: And I blame myself.
S: You want to think it’s not happening because, otherwise, you might have to do something.
N: Take your finances out of the country. Try not to have a physical office space. They will seize all of your assets.
S: It is better to fight.
R: Every person unlawfully jailed, unlawfully harmed is your business.
S: It is better to refuse rather than to give in and hope that somebody else will be the check and balance for you.
PART TWO
NON PROFITS
The man from Nicaragua ran a non-profit which was targeted and labeled a supporter of terrorism.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would empower the Treasury Department to eliminate the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit it deems to be supporting terrorism.
The House bill that could punish nonprofits over alleged ‘terrorist’ ties
The initial aim seems to be targeted pro Palestinian groups who are speaking out against the genocide in Gaza. However, Beth Gazley, an Indiana University scholar of nonprofits, local governance and civil society, summed it up as a real threat. "I believe that this is part of a strategy to preempt opposition to Republican policies and encourage self-censorship. It’s a way for the GOP to try to restrict what activists and nonprofit organizations can say or do. And, essentially, it’s a threat to political opponents of President-elect Donald Trump. This kind of law could become a blunt sword that can be used against everybody."
From PBS: "U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who previously was a constitutional law professor, called the bill 'a werewolf in sheep’s clothing.' Raskin observed that 'rendering support to terrorists is already a felony' and warned that this bill could end up 'capsizing' all rights to due process."
The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
ENDING DUE PROCESS
Ending the right to Due Process is something which has been included in the Laken Riley Act. Broadly written, not only is the presumption of innocence ignored but it is an attempt to transfer immigration policy from the national level to individual states. This is a direct challenge to the principles of the US Constitution.
Further, the LRA allows anyone who appears out of the ordinary (racial profiling) to be stopped without cause. Already this routinely happens in some areas with stop and frisk policies and random traffic stops. A minor infraction can result in an individual being detained and deported. Here in Georgia a Canadian woman was jailed by an ignorant policeman who did not understand the basic laws about driving in the US.
Finally, a provision in the Laken Riley Act will allow the US to assert power over other nations. By refusing to accept their citizens forcibly repatriated by the US, these countries would face punitive measures such as banning visas. So this law transcends US boundaries.
