In an odd turn of time, I know people whose family were stripped of German citizenship in 1936, now reapplying to regain their historic citizenship rights. They have assessed the United States of America, the country which afforded their grandparents refuge, is no longer a safe bet to keep them.
Yes, friends of mine also have recieved German citizenship based on records found in the archives in Berlin. Those Germans were very good at keeping meticulous records. Perhaps if things get tight here they can adopt me. My family has been illeagal immigrants on this continent since 1640 or so, by the headstones and grave markers in the old cemetary on the bluffs overlooking the sound at Guilford Connecticut.
I remember the feeling of horror I felt as a child when I learned of Hitler and the holocaust. Leafing through Life Magazine I came upon a black and white photograph of Hitler in an arena where thousands of people were saluting him. I was in utter disbelief that they were buying his propaganda because they all looked so normal. I am re-experiencing the very same emotion....
in the 50's my parents had friends who had numbers tatooed on their arms from the camps. my parents told my brother and I not to ask them about it...they would explain it to us when we got home...
There are three forces vying for power: (1) the Technocrats who seek to control the world with their technologies; (2) the White Christian evangelists who believe the US should be a white Christian nation; and (3) the Authoritarians, like Trump, who seek unbridled omnipotence. It is basically a battle among the forces of evil - their alliances will shift and change depending on the moment and objective. They work together until they don’t and then war breaks out between them. For example, all three forces of evil worked together to get the authoritarian elected with the promise that they would each benefit. Now members of the technocrats (Elon Musk, in particular) is learning that despite his enormous wealth and power, he is a threat and will be destroyed unless he surrenders. So, now, the White Christian and Authoritarian sects are in control. Eventually, this alliance will falter too - such as when the White Christians forbid pornography - which, based on recent history, is one of Trump’s favorite pastimes other than golf. At that point we’ll see which of the Cerberus, the three headed monster of Greek literature, survives. Meanwhile, we will all be bystanders watching the ruins fall around us unless we can find our inner Hercules to defeat this evil triumvirate.
Apparently he was lied to at the beginning of the bromance, and it turned out there was NOT the massive fraud and abuse that he was told was there. And he's smart enough to see that the BBB is a pile of lies. This is playing out with a lot of interesting quirks and twists. Meanwhile.... what is happening in the background? Is is all another diversion?
How do we get rid of those sniveling coward legislators who caved? Let's make Tillis a saint. Can we get him knighted? North Carolinians are southern salt of the earth and look out for each other.
My mistake. He had other crimes. "At least one person has already been denaturalized in recent weeks. On June 13, a judge ordered the revocation of the citizenship of Elliott Duke, who uses they/them pronouns. Duke is an American military veteran originally from the U.K. who was convicted for distributing child sexual abuse material — something they later admitted they were doing prior to becoming a U.S. citizen."-NPR.
Actually, the plan was in force during Trump # 45. From 1990-2017, DOJ filed 305 denaturalization cases, about 11 per year.
The number has surged since Trump's first term.
Several Americans who fought for the Castro army were denaturalized.
The rise began under the Obama administration, "which used improved digital tools to identify potential cases of naturalization fraud from years before."
It's the Trump Republican way - if we allow you to live here, you will live the way we tell you - any society, ethnicity we deem as "unacceptable" must conform or go.
They are wise to do this. It is easiest to move to another country if you are a student or retired, but the increase of stress that is now placed on US citizens is unfathomable. I have a friend who is Jewish and a lesbian with children adopted from Guatamala. She is looking at getting her Polish citizenship, not necessarily to live in Poland, but to have entry to the EU.
I wrote "A 'Plan B' for Catastrophe" last November, but it is still relevant.
Of course, right now Trump is screwing the EU too by quietly having taken off the sanctions from Putin's war funding banks. This was announced yesterday on Dean Blundell's Substack which he got from Lev Parnas's Substack. Dean even had Lev on his podcast yesterday to talk about it. Not only does this screw Ukraine, as Trump never tires of doing, but also the EU, which he also never tires of doing. Trump wants all of the wealthy European nations to be client states of the US, just as they are all realizing they need to get independent of him he is trying to make them more indebted.
Thanks for this information. Empire building in plain sight. Globalising oligarchs like Putin or Murdoch have always despised the EU Peace and human rights rule of law based Project. As someone recently reminded me, many have forgotten how the wars of past empires progressed. Once Putin has been gifted Ukraine by the MAGAs, those sympathetic to him within the country will join forces with Russia. This new power bloc will either economically strong arm the EU with the aid of Xi’s China or militarily invade Poland. This northern European invasion would be aided by a pincer military movement from US invaded Greenland. The global cartel of criminal oligarch’s plans to carve up the world for a New Order of predatory capitalists is beginning to take shape before all our eyes as the postwar Pax Americana world is dying.
He blows hot and cold. Only a few weeks ago he vowed to spend a lot less time and money on politics. However, if Trump goes through with his threat to remove federal subsidies from Musk's companies then who knows how this will end. Last time this flared up, Musk backed down and sought reconciliation but he was rebuffed. Trump repeated those threats today on Truth Social in a message as vindictively humiliating as anything he's posted:
"Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!"
How different it all was last August when at a rally in Atlanta Trump said:
“I’m for electric cars. I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice.”
It shows that Trump's attitude can change very quickly when people offer him money.
It seems to me that Trump is going to require a significant act of obeisance from Musk and he might have just picked on the wrong guy this time. Cue the right-wing media to step in quickly and describe this spat as merely a game of four-dimensional chess between these two masters of the universe.
However, I remind you that Russia did not take Afghanistan, not after the 9 years they were there. Also, Syria just got rid of Bashar al-Assad and Russia, so while Russia is concentrated on Ukraine, EU does realize that Russia cannot have a win. They are not letting up sanctions and instead are adding more. There are a lot of moving variables, but Trump is clearly under Putin's thumb and part of that is payback for Putin's help in this election. I was preparing for Trump to do this before he even took office. Here is a piece I wrote about preparing for war to spread in Europe, which I updated in February after Trump was in office.
I read your excellent Substack column, thinking it would give some information on getting EU citizenship through a relative or close ancestor. I was disappointed not to find anything about this. Could you address this in a future column? And perhaps also address, in general, the subject of retiring in another country? It would be most appreciated.
Katherine those are both great ideas. I am in the process of getting my mother support for her dementia and also moving and selling our house, and overseeing work on our house in Germany which is not happening during this heat wave. These summer things has slowed down my writing. I will try to address those both in the near future. I will start on them, and hope to publish something soon.
Linda, thanks so much for taking the time to reply. You certainly have your hands full, and this heat wave makes life doubly difficult. (I’m currently in Italy in a house with no AC except in the bedroom—thank god for that, at least.) I look forward to reading your future posts.
Katherine, I have been in Italy in a summer heat wave where every day reached 95-104 degrees, and having air conditioning in our bedrooms was a must! So grateful for those places that have it. It is a good day for Gelato.
It's different in each country. 1 has to provide proof of work, enough $$, etc. A friend worked for the government and despises orange. I asked her about what to do. She said the best thing would be to stay here.
I read that the US was holding off on imposing further sanctions which is hardly surprising given Trump's tendency towards leniency where Russia is involved.
Russell, Actually according to Dean Blundell, the US has not only held off on imposing sanctions but Trump has lifted them on Putins banks that he uses to fund war.
That is CHILLING!!! My husband’s family came over from Poland/Germany during the migration in the early 20th century. His dad’s brothers were born over there, but he and the rest of his siblings were born here. Thankfully it was before the Nazis came to power. It’s hard to wrap my head around someone who was stripped of their German citizenship in 1936 deciding to regain it because THIS counrty, America, is not a safe option for them. I makes me feel ashamed.
I remember there was a community in Odessa of Ukrainian Jews in a nursing home who moved to Germany at the beginning of the war. For some this was a journey back to the country they had left during the Holocaust. I recall a woman who was 90 being interviewed in a paper, and saying that Germany was where she was going to end up. She could have gone to Israel too, but didn't. She was in Frankfurt.
At this point a lot of countries are less safe for a lot of people than they were just 5 years ago. Oh how quickly the world can change.
So true. I’m not too hopeful with Ukraine. My feelings are complicated. I always thought we should have state unequivocally no NATO to avoid all out war even though it was defacto. I also k ew that once Russi invades it seeks to destroy regard of human life. But our president is a traitor so how to get around that.
I am watching what is happening, and looking what the European press is saying. They are making their plans to support Ukraine in the ways they can, and given that Russia has a failing economy and is a third world country, I see no reason that the EU cannot step in and help, except for the people, who have been continuously bombarded with Putin's propaganda.
Leslie, It is an odd turn of time. I grew up speaking to Jewish widows in our building who wanted to speak German with me, a little brown-skinned girl because probably I felt safer, so I would be invited over for tea when I was quite young. My mother was worried about the reverse happening to her in the US if she took on US citizenship. Now my friends and I are worrying about loss of US citizenship, even those of us who were born in the US. I wrote this piece about our musings.
Joyce, if I may, let me go further into what happened in Germany and Poland because my parents lived it. My daughters, my sister, and I are applying for dual citizenship through Germany and Poland. My mother was born in Berlin in 1916. Her parents came from Krakow, Poland in approx 1906. My mother had 3 other siblings, an older sister and brother, and a younger brother. When Hitler came into power in 1933, my mother was 17 years old. Hitler, like Trump, stripped Jews, gays, and gypsies of their rights to being citizens. I have all of my parents’ original documents including their passports.
Last week, my oldest daughter and I went to the San Francisco German Consulate where I presented my mother’s birth certificate, my passport, one daughter’s driver’s license, and the other’s passport, along with what I thought was my mother’s German passport. The woman assisting us told us quite frankly that my mother’s passport was not a German one but was a “foreigner’s” passport. She also said my mother was declared stateless. I became very emotional when I heard that and my daughter, bless her, put her hand on top of mine. I asked how could that be true when I had the original birth certificate. The woman said in a more softer tone, “This is what the Nazis did to the Jews”. She instructed me to have our attorneys draw up other application papers to present our case. Needless to say, I walked out of the building totally deflated and felt such angst for my mom. I absolutely now understand her neuroticism!
Not giving up or giving in. Just starting to file for Polish citizenship. It took my mother from 1935 until 1939 to escape Germany. This “foreigner’s” passport has the Nazi symbol stamped all over it. Tears me up.
My mother and her siblings got out but their parents perished at the gas camp known as Chelmno in 1942.
My father left Poland in 1938. Quite a number of his relatives were put in ovens. When he came here, he knew nothing of the English language but quickly learned it. Signed up for the Army to fight the Nazis but they sent him to the Pacific Theater instead.
My parents never gave in and they never gave up and neither will I.
Jesus, what a deep heartache, Marlene. Tears to my eyes and ache in my heart for all the cruelty, then and now. In my heart's eye my hand too is on yours. Sending loving thoughts to you.
The experience of migrants around the world shows the importance of citizenship and a sheltering polity to people's access to basic human rights. I wonder if the US is rapidly moving towards a situation where it can no longer be described as a sheltering polity and where even citizenship isn't the guarantee of security and rights that it should be. If this can happen in "the land of the free and the home of the brave" then it could happen anywhere and we should all be concerned.
Yes, exactly. We are no longer a nation with a “sheltering polity” - no matter that many of us have that orientation and intend to keep it. Our government is no longer trustworthy. We will not be allowed to express ourselves in goodness and kindness to others. We need to be very concerned.
So it goes back the House where things are even more fractious between Republicans.
It's long been known that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cats, can exert a strange sort of mind control over rodents so that they are more likely to indulge in behaviour that will increase the chance of them being eaten by cats. The parasite can only reproduce sexually in the guts of cats and manufactures situations where this is more likely to happen.
Something similar has happened to the Republican party in the present case where they know that voting for this Bill may very well cost them their seats in Congress yet they nonetheless feel compelled to do it anyway.
I wish this was new. But thanks to George W. Bush, the same Pres. who gave us the term "Illegal aliens" for undocumented immigrants, also deported people under "False Claims Act". A colleague of mine, received his Doctorate in Mexico, then went to A&M and got a Master's degree in Texas. He met his wife and had a daughter while a student. When he applied for a student VISA, the application only had room for 3 names, but like many of Spanish descent he had 6 names on his Mexican birth certificate. The university used the first of his family names in the list. Now this is not someone who snuck across the border, he never missed one date of updating his VISA and later his residency information, or his Green card. He was not poor, his family is well off, he has not one but several Text books he has authored that are used in Mexico and translated into English and used here. He had a job as a research scientist with our firm. Then he decided he wanted to change his citizenship. The new computerized forms had places for all his names, so he filled it out. They had his a copy of his birth certificate from back when he was first enrolled at A&M over 12 years prior. He was very proud to be applying for his citizenship. Except the following week when he arrived home from work, there was ICE. He finally managed to get a hold of his lawyer and our company. We provided everything they needed to verify he was an honest man, zero criminal history, not even a traffic ticket. He spent a year in detention in an old gym. Then he was deported for giving false information on his original application. Now he cannot even visit his daughter in the states.
If we are truly dealing with EVIL writ large, then simply fleeing the U. S.A. and/or "merely" protesting against these fascist suckers is not an adequate response-- it was not adequate in Germany then and it is not here now.
Maybe we should be carrying signs to our protests that read "Defund the SS." That might raise some eyebrows. At least among those of us who are Of A Certain Age.
I understand. I was undecided between SA or SS myself. These ICE thugs are scruffy, poorly disciplined, and violent like the “brown shirts, but they are an official agency of the US government. So I went with SS. Either way, they’re Nazis, and a permanent blot on our national.honor.
People living and working here, doing the responsible thing by reporting for their immigration check-ins, following the rules they agreed to in order to continue to live and work in the US and they are being rounded up as they do what they said they would.
It’s like…
I’m no artist so as an accurate depiction of these horrible round ups, someone please draw Noem and Bondi spearing fish in a barrel. Ann Telnaes?
Rachel interviewed one of his uncles, I believe, in 2018
I think they've disowned him
I mean - the irony is that had his own ancestors been turned away he wouldn't be here.
If Bavaria had forgiven Donald's grandfather - also a draft dodger - and let him back in the country after they first turned him away for draft-dodging -- then we might not have to deal with him or his thieving, not-allowed-to-operate-a-charity-in-NYS-because-they-steal-from-children-with-cancer family either
Miller may have been born into a Jewish family and provided a Jewish experience and education, but he has evolved into a monster that is as far from Jewish teaching as can be. "Welcome the stranger" is fundamental to Jewish behavior. The message appears again and again in scripture. So, when you write, "he's Jewish"...no, he is not at all Jewish.
No no! I meant that his heritage is Jewish. I absolutely agree that his current mindset (which was warped while in his teens) is about as far as you can get from the faith.
I only made that point to indicate how far this monster has fallen.
That could happen. Anybody besides non-dentist me wondered about the teeth in his lower jaw. Notice the black in between the teeth. Nothing healthy about that. Hmmm.
My friends know that I have a basement, an attic and 2 bedrooms if need be. I said that to them before November and I've said it again since then. We have a code word. That's all it takes.
I logged onto Angie's list.com and requested a contractor to build a hidden safe room to house a persecuted family until the regime is toppled. I got a response asking when it would be convenient to talk with me. I responded, "First I need to know how many hidden safe rooms you have built for the purpose of housing a persecuted family." No response. From a small business perspective this could be a growing niche. My maga senators are all about helping business so I think I'll share this opportunity with them. And encourage them to continue to support these contractor businesses.
So glad you are stating things more straightforwardly, Joyce. Project 2025 and the people behind it, are deep into instituting its premises, always lying about what they are doing with help from FOX. Trump hasn't mentioned that if the BBB passes, it will allow him to cancel elections. CANCEL elections. When he was campaigning, he said christians would never need to worry again and that they might never need to vote again, either. That's the truth. White, male, straight "christians" running things, deliberately killing democracy (its no longer useful) by weakening Congress and the SCOTUS, vetting all the individuals in the administration before they were proposed for their posts, and making sure they hold allegiance only to Trump and not the Constitution. The question is, how many of these "christians" would publicly admit what they agreed to? How many of them would admit to seeking to destroy democracy? The motto of this country is "out of many, one" so DEI is written into our motto. Attacking law firms, large universities, education at all levels, and disregarding court orders is just the beginning. Are the Democrats doing anything useful? No. The Democratic party is the party of "gimme." Democrat = give us money. Keep up the good work, Joyce. There are far too few people telling everyone the truth.
that didn't sound like a threat to me, just an acknowledgement of what kind of danger Trump's opponents may be in. Remember that MAGAts are (a) loonies and (b) heavily armed.
I wonder how many VIPs in the Republican party or funders are naturalized citizens. Is it too much to hope that they are worried and perhaps even regretting their complicity, corruption, and bigotry?
I continue to be stunned that so many Americans hate, fear, and resent other Americans so deeply. We've made our own time machine to take us back 90 years to Germany. Behind all this is immense corruption - who profits from this chaos and hate? - and cruel "theology."
Please get active with an Indivisible group near you! Or start one. www.indivisible.org. We must grow our democracy community with determination to stop Trump, Republicans, and their funders.
Don't forget that some of Trump's family from TWO of his three marriages are naturalized. And it is possible (albeit not proven) that his present spouse's parents have/ had fraudulent residency papers.
Of course they are rich. Wealth has its privilege in the "new" United States.
"Fortunately", the DoJ has left many loopholes to allow them to pick and choose, not that they wouldn't anyhow. Remember T45 railing against chain immigration at the same time that Melania's parents were in the process of being naturalized?
what about melania,usha's parents and their children.....citizens ? I guess not...maybe of trump's children only tiffany is a citizen ? Is trump a citizen since his immigrant grandfather entered the way he did ?
When Jasmine Crockett pointed this out regarding Melania, Trump went ballistic. She self-sponsored herself on an Einstein visa. Yet this morning I read his rant against Musk where he talked about him going back to South Africa and thought how easily he could do it since Musk also lied when he entered the country.
Dearest Joyce, I can't imagine how painful this must have been to write. We know we are in deep trouble when we begin to worry about the well being of our precious, brave truth tellers. My heart aches so bad. Trump's reign of hatred, revenge, cruelty and pure malevolence must end. Now. Many of his regime are traitors and will be treated as so under the rule of law as we once knew it. I am prepared to give my life to achieve this. Take care and stay safe.
What a mean thought. By definition children can't commit a crime that would disqualify them for citizenship or provide false information. Don't hate on kids.
You were speaking in support of Donna's cruel comment that wished evil on Amy Coney Barrett's adopted children. Would you like to join me in deploring Donna's comment?
If you want to pick a fight and put words in someone else’s mouth go somewhere else. I was disdaining the practice. The fact is if you go after one, you have to go after them all. No exceptions because they’re on your side. I personally don’t think adopted kids should even be considered but you can bet if Newsom adopted kids from another country Trump would be deporting them without thinking twice. Especially if they were POC like some of ACB’s.
Finally, we get to denaturalization. The memo calls for DOJ to prioritize denaturalization for people who became naturalized citizens through fraud, lying about, or concealing facts related to their eligibility. There is nothing new about this in principle, 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), provides for citizenship to be revoked in these circumstances.
… I call on a coalition of State Attorney Generals to file a lawsuit demanding that Melania Trump lose her citizenship and be deported on the grounds that she lied when she came to America on an Einstein Visa … (an issue recently raised by Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett) …
Sickening once again.. this constant non stop attack on the people’s rights and freedoms is not going to end well..we see it and more people will as the oppressors get more brutal and desperate..I do not believe the majority of Americans will stand still for this..we are not Germany in the 30s we are a long standing democracy or at least closest to it, and our freedoms and rights have been part of who we are for our whole lives..we will resist, we will fight and do what it takes to bring back and preserve these long standing principles that we all hold dear..💪🙏
One of the things that confuses and puzzles me about this is why those of us who warned and warned and warned and warned and *warned* that he was exactly like this, that he was a predator, that he lied all the time, that the caricature of a successful businessman put forward on The Apprentice was fake -- in part because we knew that in time time forecloses certain remedies to other peoples' (or full Administrations') egregious misdeeds --
why were we dismissed?
Why were we told we were "being alarmist"?
I don't know how many times I personally (never mind those more seasoned than I who echoed it) said
"Given these peoples' - these Republicans' - history, we have to begin with them on any policy matter from the assumption that they are always lying. It is 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 for the citizens to offer them any vaunted benefit of doubt; it is 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 to take them at their word. It is 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 to trust them with American citizens' welfare, especially without taking additional precautions should something go awry."
Why were the cautious we put forth insufficient for people in authority to take us sufficiently seriously to set out any safeguards so that the people in power who have nothing but terrible ambitious for those of us whom they deem "not White and wealthy enough to 'deserve' them", by whatever arbitrary and capricious "standard" they pervert the Civil Rights Division and the DOJ to set --
Cassandras are always ridiculed and ignored until it is too late. There is no piercing of the veils of wilful ignorance. There is only the thankless lonely task of bearing witness. Much of the heroism of our age is not to be found in publicity addicted bare chested strongmen or women, but in those who see it all and yet choose to endure the unendurable for the common good 🐈⬛
Audience is fungible with liquidity and thus power. You lacked an audience that admired you enough to pay you with their attention, which is convertible to cash and power. That's why you weren't heard.
"why were we not heard?" "We" weren't heard but you were? Huh? I think you missed my point. I have ideas for the long haul, they are worth considering, yet I am not heard (in spite of my name). The reason I am not heard has little to do with the quality of the ideas and everything to do with audience, which has become the primary credential within civic discourse. Ideas developed and forwarded without audience lack currency. People that need an admiring audience display narcissistic tendencies. If they are successful, they generate currency. That's virtually every presenter, journalist, entertainer and politician. It's a problem.
My family members thought they were American Citizens in the 1930s. My mom was born in 1919 in California. Dad's parents were plantation workers in the Kingdom of Hawai'i and after the USA annexed it as a Territory, making the land subject to US jurisdiction. My dad was born there in 1914. The Imperial Japanese Army drafted him (his parents moved back to Hiroshima so that's where he grew up); Dad made the Empire of Japan release him as an American citizen from the Army after he was drafted in the 1930s.
Spooked, he moved to Long Beach, CA. En route his ship stopped in Hawai'i, still a Territory, and his brother insisted he get off in Honolulu and stay awhile. Dad consequently got an official territorial ID card attesting that he was a native of that place and thus, an American. His brother felt that US-Japan relations were so rancid that family members going to the Mainland needed to carry proof of American identity. It didn't do him that much good.
Dad lived in Long Beach. After Pearl Harbor, he was imprisoned at Manzanar! The very same place Stephen Miller now cites as precedent for his own deportation camps.
In Trump's first term, I thought it bad enough that I dug out Dad's ID card in case I needed to prove Dad had birthright citizenship. In the second Trump term, mere proof seems entirely irrelevant!
Now, reading the latest DOJ dicta and Joyce's analysis, not even the 14th Amendment is safe.
My dad's family roots in America started when his great-grandfather went to the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1868 and continued when Dad's dad got on another ship. This felt pretty deep until this month. It seems irrelevant and insufficient now.
If my family becomes de-naturalized, I am sure we won't be at the head of the line. But as Leslie M said (below) I am also not certain the USA is still a safe bet to keep us.
In an odd turn of time, I know people whose family were stripped of German citizenship in 1936, now reapplying to regain their historic citizenship rights. They have assessed the United States of America, the country which afforded their grandparents refuge, is no longer a safe bet to keep them.
Unfathomable! And… Yet… Here. We. Are.
Yes, friends of mine also have recieved German citizenship based on records found in the archives in Berlin. Those Germans were very good at keeping meticulous records. Perhaps if things get tight here they can adopt me. My family has been illeagal immigrants on this continent since 1640 or so, by the headstones and grave markers in the old cemetary on the bluffs overlooking the sound at Guilford Connecticut.
we are all illegal immigrants on this continent...
So true. The only real cirizens are the Native American Indians.
I remember the feeling of horror I felt as a child when I learned of Hitler and the holocaust. Leafing through Life Magazine I came upon a black and white photograph of Hitler in an arena where thousands of people were saluting him. I was in utter disbelief that they were buying his propaganda because they all looked so normal. I am re-experiencing the very same emotion....
Really triggers those of us that have that same memory
That's so frightening
My sister's friend's father had a tattoo on his forearm. He didn't want to talk about it. No one had tatts in the 50's! I remember vividly seeing it.
My friend's father had a number tattood on his forearm. Is that what's next for us? Oh I forgot, they already have all of our information....
in the 50's my parents had friends who had numbers tatooed on their arms from the camps. my parents told my brother and I not to ask them about it...they would explain it to us when we got home...
It is!
Elon is no threatening to found a new party called The American Party after calling the MAGAs The Porky Pig Party. There is some hope.
I don’t think anything Elon wants to do could be a source of hope, except for the MAGAts.
I don't think musk likes maaagats...
Only insofar as they can help him achieve his ends.
Isn’t Elron a naturalized citizen?
You couldn’t be more wrong, Bill. This is what is at stake:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/techno-fascism-comes-to-america-elon-muskElon Musk, and How Techno-Fascism Has Come to America | The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/techno-fascism-comes-to-america-elon-musk
February 25. Techno Fascism Comes to America. Kyle something author v
This link does not work--can you cite the article title or date?
A working link: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/techno-fascism-comes-to-america-elon-musk
There are three forces vying for power: (1) the Technocrats who seek to control the world with their technologies; (2) the White Christian evangelists who believe the US should be a white Christian nation; and (3) the Authoritarians, like Trump, who seek unbridled omnipotence. It is basically a battle among the forces of evil - their alliances will shift and change depending on the moment and objective. They work together until they don’t and then war breaks out between them. For example, all three forces of evil worked together to get the authoritarian elected with the promise that they would each benefit. Now members of the technocrats (Elon Musk, in particular) is learning that despite his enormous wealth and power, he is a threat and will be destroyed unless he surrenders. So, now, the White Christian and Authoritarian sects are in control. Eventually, this alliance will falter too - such as when the White Christians forbid pornography - which, based on recent history, is one of Trump’s favorite pastimes other than golf. At that point we’ll see which of the Cerberus, the three headed monster of Greek literature, survives. Meanwhile, we will all be bystanders watching the ruins fall around us unless we can find our inner Hercules to defeat this evil triumvirate.
Apparently he was lied to at the beginning of the bromance, and it turned out there was NOT the massive fraud and abuse that he was told was there. And he's smart enough to see that the BBB is a pile of lies. This is playing out with a lot of interesting quirks and twists. Meanwhile.... what is happening in the background? Is is all another diversion?
How do we get rid of those sniveling coward legislators who caved? Let's make Tillis a saint. Can we get him knighted? North Carolinians are southern salt of the earth and look out for each other.
Trump has stated that he is currently looking into getting Elon deported. https://l.smartnews.com/p-5JmWBmko/9Ht0En
Notice that the US just removed someone for using 'they them' pronouns. Their 'crime' wasn't being a Nazi. It was...their pronouns.
Insanity. Nazi Germany. Soviet Union. That is us now. The world should shun us.
They have already started to.
My mistake. He had other crimes. "At least one person has already been denaturalized in recent weeks. On June 13, a judge ordered the revocation of the citizenship of Elliott Duke, who uses they/them pronouns. Duke is an American military veteran originally from the U.K. who was convicted for distributing child sexual abuse material — something they later admitted they were doing prior to becoming a U.S. citizen."-NPR.
This is a great correction, Lauren. Your ability to stick to the truth is what sets you apart. My compliments.
Thank you.
but would the government have cared about the distribution of child sex abuse if Duke had just called himself 'him'?
Apparently, yes, though his case might not have so quickly come to their attention. To Trump, etc., anyone is suspect for more than one reason.
Actually, the plan was in force during Trump # 45. From 1990-2017, DOJ filed 305 denaturalization cases, about 11 per year.
The number has surged since Trump's first term.
Several Americans who fought for the Castro army were denaturalized.
The rise began under the Obama administration, "which used improved digital tools to identify potential cases of naturalization fraud from years before."
"But the Trump administration, with its overall immigration crackdown, is taking denaturalization to new levels." https://www.axios.com/2025/06/30/trump-naturalized-citizenship-doj-immigration
Thank you for the additional information.
Miller and orange? Probably would encourage the distribution...because it's miller and orange soo...
That's also because - I believe, and unlike Germany - the United States never criminalized Nazism.
Or racism.
#FreezePeach and all that
It's the Trump Republican way - if we allow you to live here, you will live the way we tell you - any society, ethnicity we deem as "unacceptable" must conform or go.
It is called Totalitarianism.
Someone asked about a link. I think both the NPR and Guardian links were included in a post below.
They are wise to do this. It is easiest to move to another country if you are a student or retired, but the increase of stress that is now placed on US citizens is unfathomable. I have a friend who is Jewish and a lesbian with children adopted from Guatamala. She is looking at getting her Polish citizenship, not necessarily to live in Poland, but to have entry to the EU.
I wrote "A 'Plan B' for Catastrophe" last November, but it is still relevant.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/a-plan-b-for-catastrophe?r=f0qfn
Of course, right now Trump is screwing the EU too by quietly having taken off the sanctions from Putin's war funding banks. This was announced yesterday on Dean Blundell's Substack which he got from Lev Parnas's Substack. Dean even had Lev on his podcast yesterday to talk about it. Not only does this screw Ukraine, as Trump never tires of doing, but also the EU, which he also never tires of doing. Trump wants all of the wealthy European nations to be client states of the US, just as they are all realizing they need to get independent of him he is trying to make them more indebted.
Thanks for this information. Empire building in plain sight. Globalising oligarchs like Putin or Murdoch have always despised the EU Peace and human rights rule of law based Project. As someone recently reminded me, many have forgotten how the wars of past empires progressed. Once Putin has been gifted Ukraine by the MAGAs, those sympathetic to him within the country will join forces with Russia. This new power bloc will either economically strong arm the EU with the aid of Xi’s China or militarily invade Poland. This northern European invasion would be aided by a pincer military movement from US invaded Greenland. The global cartel of criminal oligarch’s plans to carve up the world for a New Order of predatory capitalists is beginning to take shape before all our eyes as the postwar Pax Americana world is dying.
A hero must arise
That's why they're trying to strip Mamdani of his citizenship & deport him before he even gets started
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/zohran-mamdani-faces-racist-smears-calls-citizenship-stripped
Disgusting slobs.
I think you're going to need a few million of those, Bill.
Elon is threatening to form a new political party “The American Party.”
He blows hot and cold. Only a few weeks ago he vowed to spend a lot less time and money on politics. However, if Trump goes through with his threat to remove federal subsidies from Musk's companies then who knows how this will end. Last time this flared up, Musk backed down and sought reconciliation but he was rebuffed. Trump repeated those threats today on Truth Social in a message as vindictively humiliating as anything he's posted:
"Elon Musk knew, long before he so strongly Endorsed me for President, that I was strongly against the EV Mandate. It is ridiculous, and was always a major part of my campaign. Electric cars are fine, but not everyone should be forced to own one. Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!"
How different it all was last August when at a rally in Atlanta Trump said:
“I’m for electric cars. I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly. So I have no choice.”
It shows that Trump's attitude can change very quickly when people offer him money.
It seems to me that Trump is going to require a significant act of obeisance from Musk and he might have just picked on the wrong guy this time. Cue the right-wing media to step in quickly and describe this spat as merely a game of four-dimensional chess between these two masters of the universe.
However, I remind you that Russia did not take Afghanistan, not after the 9 years they were there. Also, Syria just got rid of Bashar al-Assad and Russia, so while Russia is concentrated on Ukraine, EU does realize that Russia cannot have a win. They are not letting up sanctions and instead are adding more. There are a lot of moving variables, but Trump is clearly under Putin's thumb and part of that is payback for Putin's help in this election. I was preparing for Trump to do this before he even took office. Here is a piece I wrote about preparing for war to spread in Europe, which I updated in February after Trump was in office.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/germany-prepares-for-war-updated?r=f0qfn
I read your excellent Substack column, thinking it would give some information on getting EU citizenship through a relative or close ancestor. I was disappointed not to find anything about this. Could you address this in a future column? And perhaps also address, in general, the subject of retiring in another country? It would be most appreciated.
Katherine those are both great ideas. I am in the process of getting my mother support for her dementia and also moving and selling our house, and overseeing work on our house in Germany which is not happening during this heat wave. These summer things has slowed down my writing. I will try to address those both in the near future. I will start on them, and hope to publish something soon.
Linda, thanks so much for taking the time to reply. You certainly have your hands full, and this heat wave makes life doubly difficult. (I’m currently in Italy in a house with no AC except in the bedroom—thank god for that, at least.) I look forward to reading your future posts.
Katherine, I have been in Italy in a summer heat wave where every day reached 95-104 degrees, and having air conditioning in our bedrooms was a must! So grateful for those places that have it. It is a good day for Gelato.
Enjoy your time.
Thank you.
It's different in each country. 1 has to provide proof of work, enough $$, etc. A friend worked for the government and despises orange. I asked her about what to do. She said the best thing would be to stay here.
That’s interesting. Do you why she said that? I’m in the process of getting my Italian citizenship.
Are you aware that the equivalent of trump is RUINING....err..running Italy right now?
Yeah…
I wasn't aware that the EU had lifted sanctions on Russia. The EU only recently renewed sanctions.
https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/06/30/ukraine-eu-renews-sanctions-against-russia/
I read that the US was holding off on imposing further sanctions which is hardly surprising given Trump's tendency towards leniency where Russia is involved.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/25/trump-rubio-sanctions-russia-nato-00422668
Russell, Actually according to Dean Blundell, the US has not only held off on imposing sanctions but Trump has lifted them on Putins banks that he uses to fund war.
https://open.substack.com/pub/deanblundell/p/breaking-trump-lifts-key-russian?r=f0qfn&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
The EU has not lifted sanctions. This is a unilateral move on the part of Trump.
Thanks, Linda. I wasn't aware of this but it's good that someone was!
Yes I get it. My grandparents came from Sicily and I started the process but soon stopped it for a variety of reasons. It was a thought.
Paisana qui. Mine were from Reggio Calabria. 🇮🇹
Pero, Io ho abitato in Firenze per due hanni qualche volta
Che fortuna! Firenze è la mia città italiana preferita!
That is CHILLING!!! My husband’s family came over from Poland/Germany during the migration in the early 20th century. His dad’s brothers were born over there, but he and the rest of his siblings were born here. Thankfully it was before the Nazis came to power. It’s hard to wrap my head around someone who was stripped of their German citizenship in 1936 deciding to regain it because THIS counrty, America, is not a safe option for them. I makes me feel ashamed.
I remember there was a community in Odessa of Ukrainian Jews in a nursing home who moved to Germany at the beginning of the war. For some this was a journey back to the country they had left during the Holocaust. I recall a woman who was 90 being interviewed in a paper, and saying that Germany was where she was going to end up. She could have gone to Israel too, but didn't. She was in Frankfurt.
At this point a lot of countries are less safe for a lot of people than they were just 5 years ago. Oh how quickly the world can change.
So true. I’m not too hopeful with Ukraine. My feelings are complicated. I always thought we should have state unequivocally no NATO to avoid all out war even though it was defacto. I also k ew that once Russi invades it seeks to destroy regard of human life. But our president is a traitor so how to get around that.
I am watching what is happening, and looking what the European press is saying. They are making their plans to support Ukraine in the ways they can, and given that Russia has a failing economy and is a third world country, I see no reason that the EU cannot step in and help, except for the people, who have been continuously bombarded with Putin's propaganda.
Countries need to do something about it.
And I feel the same way....I am trying to get back my father's italian citizenship.
You do realize Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy, are Fascist?
Hum… Facismo with a human face, lol.
If she wasn't in charge, I'd go there in a heartbeat.
One can get Italian citizenship and live elsewhere in the EU, so it is worth it. It is like having US citizenship and deciding which state to live in.
PS. All of us could in this blog COULD BE CLASSED AS INCONVENIENT.
Leslie, It is an odd turn of time. I grew up speaking to Jewish widows in our building who wanted to speak German with me, a little brown-skinned girl because probably I felt safer, so I would be invited over for tea when I was quite young. My mother was worried about the reverse happening to her in the US if she took on US citizenship. Now my friends and I are worrying about loss of US citizenship, even those of us who were born in the US. I wrote this piece about our musings.
https://lindaweide.substack.com/p/losing-your-us-citizenship?r=f0qfn
Sad and Disheartening. Also there has been an increase of AFD in Germany. Hope they don 't get as far as drumpf has and ruin Germany.
It is difficult to read this but you, Joyce, write it so it must have a more entrenched place in your mind. Thank you for doing the heavy lifting.
Yes - a big thank you for keeping us informed.
This is a seriously disturbing read.
Joyce, if I may, let me go further into what happened in Germany and Poland because my parents lived it. My daughters, my sister, and I are applying for dual citizenship through Germany and Poland. My mother was born in Berlin in 1916. Her parents came from Krakow, Poland in approx 1906. My mother had 3 other siblings, an older sister and brother, and a younger brother. When Hitler came into power in 1933, my mother was 17 years old. Hitler, like Trump, stripped Jews, gays, and gypsies of their rights to being citizens. I have all of my parents’ original documents including their passports.
Last week, my oldest daughter and I went to the San Francisco German Consulate where I presented my mother’s birth certificate, my passport, one daughter’s driver’s license, and the other’s passport, along with what I thought was my mother’s German passport. The woman assisting us told us quite frankly that my mother’s passport was not a German one but was a “foreigner’s” passport. She also said my mother was declared stateless. I became very emotional when I heard that and my daughter, bless her, put her hand on top of mine. I asked how could that be true when I had the original birth certificate. The woman said in a more softer tone, “This is what the Nazis did to the Jews”. She instructed me to have our attorneys draw up other application papers to present our case. Needless to say, I walked out of the building totally deflated and felt such angst for my mom. I absolutely now understand her neuroticism!
Not giving up or giving in. Just starting to file for Polish citizenship. It took my mother from 1935 until 1939 to escape Germany. This “foreigner’s” passport has the Nazi symbol stamped all over it. Tears me up.
My mother and her siblings got out but their parents perished at the gas camp known as Chelmno in 1942.
My father left Poland in 1938. Quite a number of his relatives were put in ovens. When he came here, he knew nothing of the English language but quickly learned it. Signed up for the Army to fight the Nazis but they sent him to the Pacific Theater instead.
My parents never gave in and they never gave up and neither will I.
Jesus, what a deep heartache, Marlene. Tears to my eyes and ache in my heart for all the cruelty, then and now. In my heart's eye my hand too is on yours. Sending loving thoughts to you.
It's hard to come to terms with what we have fallen to, and so quickly. Your story makes it painfully real. I wish you the best!
This is a powerful and heartbreaking story. Thank you for sharing it with us.
The experience of migrants around the world shows the importance of citizenship and a sheltering polity to people's access to basic human rights. I wonder if the US is rapidly moving towards a situation where it can no longer be described as a sheltering polity and where even citizenship isn't the guarantee of security and rights that it should be. If this can happen in "the land of the free and the home of the brave" then it could happen anywhere and we should all be concerned.
Yes, exactly. We are no longer a nation with a “sheltering polity” - no matter that many of us have that orientation and intend to keep it. Our government is no longer trustworthy. We will not be allowed to express ourselves in goodness and kindness to others. We need to be very concerned.
That is exactly what it is now that the Senate passed Donny’s Big Ugly Bill today!
So it goes back the House where things are even more fractious between Republicans.
It's long been known that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite found in cats, can exert a strange sort of mind control over rodents so that they are more likely to indulge in behaviour that will increase the chance of them being eaten by cats. The parasite can only reproduce sexually in the guts of cats and manufactures situations where this is more likely to happen.
Something similar has happened to the Republican party in the present case where they know that voting for this Bill may very well cost them their seats in Congress yet they nonetheless feel compelled to do it anyway.
What an incredible story! Thank you for sharing it.
💕❤️💕
Incredible story of the trauma your family and you have endured. I so wish that more people would hear this/-maybe it could change some hearts?
I doubt it, Barbara Ann. Look what is happening to immigrants right now in our country. It’s unfathomable!
I wish this was new. But thanks to George W. Bush, the same Pres. who gave us the term "Illegal aliens" for undocumented immigrants, also deported people under "False Claims Act". A colleague of mine, received his Doctorate in Mexico, then went to A&M and got a Master's degree in Texas. He met his wife and had a daughter while a student. When he applied for a student VISA, the application only had room for 3 names, but like many of Spanish descent he had 6 names on his Mexican birth certificate. The university used the first of his family names in the list. Now this is not someone who snuck across the border, he never missed one date of updating his VISA and later his residency information, or his Green card. He was not poor, his family is well off, he has not one but several Text books he has authored that are used in Mexico and translated into English and used here. He had a job as a research scientist with our firm. Then he decided he wanted to change his citizenship. The new computerized forms had places for all his names, so he filled it out. They had his a copy of his birth certificate from back when he was first enrolled at A&M over 12 years prior. He was very proud to be applying for his citizenship. Except the following week when he arrived home from work, there was ICE. He finally managed to get a hold of his lawyer and our company. We provided everything they needed to verify he was an honest man, zero criminal history, not even a traffic ticket. He spent a year in detention in an old gym. Then he was deported for giving false information on his original application. Now he cannot even visit his daughter in the states.
Steve Schmidt just nailed it. ICE is the MAGA SS. The personification of militarized evil.
If we are truly dealing with EVIL writ large, then simply fleeing the U. S.A. and/or "merely" protesting against these fascist suckers is not an adequate response-- it was not adequate in Germany then and it is not here now.
Maybe we should be carrying signs to our protests that read "Defund the SS." That might raise some eyebrows. At least among those of us who are Of A Certain Age.
I myself keep thinking of "brown shirts". Perhaps not exactly correct yet, but going that direction.
I understand. I was undecided between SA or SS myself. These ICE thugs are scruffy, poorly disciplined, and violent like the “brown shirts, but they are an official agency of the US government. So I went with SS. Either way, they’re Nazis, and a permanent blot on our national.honor.
Absolutely!the “brown shirts” for Hitler; the “black shirts” for Mussolini …
Wicked and evil to treat human beings, our brothers and sisters, this way!
OMG! This is horrid! I am so very sorry.
People living and working here, doing the responsible thing by reporting for their immigration check-ins, following the rules they agreed to in order to continue to live and work in the US and they are being rounded up as they do what they said they would.
It’s like…
I’m no artist so as an accurate depiction of these horrible round ups, someone please draw Noem and Bondi spearing fish in a barrel. Ann Telnaes?
No words -- that is beyond horrible.
And what was his crime?
So, we are here now. Thank you for documenting this. So sorry.
So 47 is equivalent to Hitler? Sickening. Just sickening. Never in a million years would think this could happen here. Ever.
This has the stink of Stephen Miller all over it.
And he’s Jewish.
Rachel interviewed one of his uncles, I believe, in 2018
I think they've disowned him
I mean - the irony is that had his own ancestors been turned away he wouldn't be here.
If Bavaria had forgiven Donald's grandfather - also a draft dodger - and let him back in the country after they first turned him away for draft-dodging -- then we might not have to deal with him or his thieving, not-allowed-to-operate-a-charity-in-NYS-because-they-steal-from-children-with-cancer family either
Miller may have been born into a Jewish family and provided a Jewish experience and education, but he has evolved into a monster that is as far from Jewish teaching as can be. "Welcome the stranger" is fundamental to Jewish behavior. The message appears again and again in scripture. So, when you write, "he's Jewish"...no, he is not at all Jewish.
Yup Miller is "Jewish" like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were "Christian". Total BS.
No no! I meant that his heritage is Jewish. I absolutely agree that his current mindset (which was warped while in his teens) is about as far as you can get from the faith.
I only made that point to indicate how far this monster has fallen.
thank you
The stench of Trump pervades all. And never washes out.
And now that stench been bottled for sale in his latest scam: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5378452-trump-launches-victory-fragrances/
He would be best dead.
no, we would be better if he were...from natural causes
That could happen. Anybody besides non-dentist me wondered about the teeth in his lower jaw. Notice the black in between the teeth. Nothing healthy about that. Hmmm.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome
We need to open our homes as sanctuary environments and fast. It would be crowded in my home with my business and 6 cats but I would do it if needed.
My friends know that I have a basement, an attic and 2 bedrooms if need be. I said that to them before November and I've said it again since then. We have a code word. That's all it takes.
I logged onto Angie's list.com and requested a contractor to build a hidden safe room to house a persecuted family until the regime is toppled. I got a response asking when it would be convenient to talk with me. I responded, "First I need to know how many hidden safe rooms you have built for the purpose of housing a persecuted family." No response. From a small business perspective this could be a growing niche. My maga senators are all about helping business so I think I'll share this opportunity with them. And encourage them to continue to support these contractor businesses.
That is not needed. Your home cannot be invaded or you have the right to defend it. A couple of AR-15s is a better investment.
So glad you are stating things more straightforwardly, Joyce. Project 2025 and the people behind it, are deep into instituting its premises, always lying about what they are doing with help from FOX. Trump hasn't mentioned that if the BBB passes, it will allow him to cancel elections. CANCEL elections. When he was campaigning, he said christians would never need to worry again and that they might never need to vote again, either. That's the truth. White, male, straight "christians" running things, deliberately killing democracy (its no longer useful) by weakening Congress and the SCOTUS, vetting all the individuals in the administration before they were proposed for their posts, and making sure they hold allegiance only to Trump and not the Constitution. The question is, how many of these "christians" would publicly admit what they agreed to? How many of them would admit to seeking to destroy democracy? The motto of this country is "out of many, one" so DEI is written into our motto. Attacking law firms, large universities, education at all levels, and disregarding court orders is just the beginning. Are the Democrats doing anything useful? No. The Democratic party is the party of "gimme." Democrat = give us money. Keep up the good work, Joyce. There are far too few people telling everyone the truth.
And the South shall rise again.
OVER MY DEAD BODY!
Very possibly.
Sounds like a threat to me. Let’s see, could this white nationalist be charged with assault. Why, I do believe so.
David, crawl back under your rock please so you will be safe.
that didn't sound like a threat to me, just an acknowledgement of what kind of danger Trump's opponents may be in. Remember that MAGAts are (a) loonies and (b) heavily armed.
Reported
Pathetic, just pathetic. How can you say such a thing after (I’m assuming) reading Joyce’s message today.
Ah, my carefully honed sense of irony wins another fan …
I wonder how many VIPs in the Republican party or funders are naturalized citizens. Is it too much to hope that they are worried and perhaps even regretting their complicity, corruption, and bigotry?
I continue to be stunned that so many Americans hate, fear, and resent other Americans so deeply. We've made our own time machine to take us back 90 years to Germany. Behind all this is immense corruption - who profits from this chaos and hate? - and cruel "theology."
Please get active with an Indivisible group near you! Or start one. www.indivisible.org. We must grow our democracy community with determination to stop Trump, Republicans, and their funders.
Don't forget that some of Trump's family from TWO of his three marriages are naturalized. And it is possible (albeit not proven) that his present spouse's parents have/ had fraudulent residency papers.
Of course they are rich. Wealth has its privilege in the "new" United States.
But he and his family are exempted from Constitutional Rules which occurs automatically in Autocratic governments.
"Fortunately", the DoJ has left many loopholes to allow them to pick and choose, not that they wouldn't anyhow. Remember T45 railing against chain immigration at the same time that Melania's parents were in the process of being naturalized?
what about melania,usha's parents and their children.....citizens ? I guess not...maybe of trump's children only tiffany is a citizen ? Is trump a citizen since his immigrant grandfather entered the way he did ?
When Jasmine Crockett pointed this out regarding Melania, Trump went ballistic. She self-sponsored herself on an Einstein visa. Yet this morning I read his rant against Musk where he talked about him going back to South Africa and thought how easily he could do it since Musk also lied when he entered the country.
Dearest Joyce, I can't imagine how painful this must have been to write. We know we are in deep trouble when we begin to worry about the well being of our precious, brave truth tellers. My heart aches so bad. Trump's reign of hatred, revenge, cruelty and pure malevolence must end. Now. Many of his regime are traitors and will be treated as so under the rule of law as we once knew it. I am prepared to give my life to achieve this. Take care and stay safe.
Well then it is time to take away the citizenship of Amy Coney Barrett’s adopted kids
Those poor children are being indoctrinated into her religious cult.
Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are high on my list, along with the genius Melania.
What a mean thought. By definition children can't commit a crime that would disqualify them for citizenship or provide false information. Don't hate on kids.
It’s not like DonOLD isn’t already going after innocent children. Especially ones who are here for medical care.
Yep, Trump is mean to kids. So we want to be like Trump?
That’s not even close to what I said.
You were speaking in support of Donna's cruel comment that wished evil on Amy Coney Barrett's adopted children. Would you like to join me in deploring Donna's comment?
If you want to pick a fight and put words in someone else’s mouth go somewhere else. I was disdaining the practice. The fact is if you go after one, you have to go after them all. No exceptions because they’re on your side. I personally don’t think adopted kids should even be considered but you can bet if Newsom adopted kids from another country Trump would be deporting them without thinking twice. Especially if they were POC like some of ACB’s.
Donna just making a point Kathleen
There's other ways of making the point that leaves out the kids.
everything trump does involves kids...snap d/c etc.
Yep, Trump is mean to kids. So we want to be like Trump?
Based on this reporting by Joyce …
Finally, we get to denaturalization. The memo calls for DOJ to prioritize denaturalization for people who became naturalized citizens through fraud, lying about, or concealing facts related to their eligibility. There is nothing new about this in principle, 8 U.S.C. § 1451(a), provides for citizenship to be revoked in these circumstances.
… I call on a coalition of State Attorney Generals to file a lawsuit demanding that Melania Trump lose her citizenship and be deported on the grounds that she lied when she came to America on an Einstein Visa … (an issue recently raised by Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett) …
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5370991-crockett-melania-einstein-visa-question/amp/
And she can take Barron with her, as apparently we now deport kids with their mothers.
Note: Barron is now 19 yo, so the "we don't pick on the kids" rule no longer applies.
Sickening once again.. this constant non stop attack on the people’s rights and freedoms is not going to end well..we see it and more people will as the oppressors get more brutal and desperate..I do not believe the majority of Americans will stand still for this..we are not Germany in the 30s we are a long standing democracy or at least closest to it, and our freedoms and rights have been part of who we are for our whole lives..we will resist, we will fight and do what it takes to bring back and preserve these long standing principles that we all hold dear..💪🙏
If Americans are going to stand up, they'd better hurry it up.
Amen, Sister!
I hear ya😬
but the millions who depend on Fox don't know about any of this, or know only what the Trumps and Bondis and Patels tell them.
"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔."
One of the things that confuses and puzzles me about this is why those of us who warned and warned and warned and warned and *warned* that he was exactly like this, that he was a predator, that he lied all the time, that the caricature of a successful businessman put forward on The Apprentice was fake -- in part because we knew that in time time forecloses certain remedies to other peoples' (or full Administrations') egregious misdeeds --
why were we dismissed?
Why were we told we were "being alarmist"?
I don't know how many times I personally (never mind those more seasoned than I who echoed it) said
"Given these peoples' - these Republicans' - history, we have to begin with them on any policy matter from the assumption that they are always lying. It is 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 for the citizens to offer them any vaunted benefit of doubt; it is 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 to take them at their word. It is 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 to trust them with American citizens' welfare, especially without taking additional precautions should something go awry."
Why were the cautious we put forth insufficient for people in authority to take us sufficiently seriously to set out any safeguards so that the people in power who have nothing but terrible ambitious for those of us whom they deem "not White and wealthy enough to 'deserve' them", by whatever arbitrary and capricious "standard" they pervert the Civil Rights Division and the DOJ to set --
why were we not heard?
Cassandras are always ridiculed and ignored until it is too late. There is no piercing of the veils of wilful ignorance. There is only the thankless lonely task of bearing witness. Much of the heroism of our age is not to be found in publicity addicted bare chested strongmen or women, but in those who see it all and yet choose to endure the unendurable for the common good 🐈⬛
Thank you
I'm not out here doing the Cassandra by myself
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/she-won-they-didnt-just-change-the
#StartTheInvestigations
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:2ck355ujknhhfhtkbp6ywa2n/post/3lsmb7ih5xc2a
https://bsky.app/profile/digitalmb.bsky.social/post/3lrtfg3vp5s27
🙏
Audience is fungible with liquidity and thus power. You lacked an audience that admired you enough to pay you with their attention, which is convertible to cash and power. That's why you weren't heard.
I didn't say I wasn't heard
"why were we not heard?" "We" weren't heard but you were? Huh? I think you missed my point. I have ideas for the long haul, they are worth considering, yet I am not heard (in spite of my name). The reason I am not heard has little to do with the quality of the ideas and everything to do with audience, which has become the primary credential within civic discourse. Ideas developed and forwarded without audience lack currency. People that need an admiring audience display narcissistic tendencies. If they are successful, they generate currency. That's virtually every presenter, journalist, entertainer and politician. It's a problem.
My family members thought they were American Citizens in the 1930s. My mom was born in 1919 in California. Dad's parents were plantation workers in the Kingdom of Hawai'i and after the USA annexed it as a Territory, making the land subject to US jurisdiction. My dad was born there in 1914. The Imperial Japanese Army drafted him (his parents moved back to Hiroshima so that's where he grew up); Dad made the Empire of Japan release him as an American citizen from the Army after he was drafted in the 1930s.
Spooked, he moved to Long Beach, CA. En route his ship stopped in Hawai'i, still a Territory, and his brother insisted he get off in Honolulu and stay awhile. Dad consequently got an official territorial ID card attesting that he was a native of that place and thus, an American. His brother felt that US-Japan relations were so rancid that family members going to the Mainland needed to carry proof of American identity. It didn't do him that much good.
Dad lived in Long Beach. After Pearl Harbor, he was imprisoned at Manzanar! The very same place Stephen Miller now cites as precedent for his own deportation camps.
In Trump's first term, I thought it bad enough that I dug out Dad's ID card in case I needed to prove Dad had birthright citizenship. In the second Trump term, mere proof seems entirely irrelevant!
Now, reading the latest DOJ dicta and Joyce's analysis, not even the 14th Amendment is safe.
My dad's family roots in America started when his great-grandfather went to the Kingdom of Hawai'i in 1868 and continued when Dad's dad got on another ship. This felt pretty deep until this month. It seems irrelevant and insufficient now.
If my family becomes de-naturalized, I am sure we won't be at the head of the line. But as Leslie M said (below) I am also not certain the USA is still a safe bet to keep us.
Thank you for writing this. There was so much trust in the law that turned out to be misplaced. Blessings on your ancestors.
How does using they/them pronouns harm someone? https://www.npr.org/2025/06/30/nx-s1-5445398/denaturalization-trump-immigration-enforcement. I'm all for kicking out Nazis. Because I'm fairly sure the orange terrorist is harming the US more than someone using they/them. If 1 truly kicked out Nazis, bannon/trump/miller/musk/vance, etc. would all be removed.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/trump-birthright-citizenship-naturalized-citizens
Trump himself is descended from an illegal German migrant, as German chancellor Friedrich Merz pointed out during their recent meeting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STgsg1URVJE
https://theconversation.com/donald-trumps-grandfather-was-an-illegal-migrant-and-trojan-horse-54749
The person to whom you're referring also lied about child pornography prior to naturalization. The "they/them" pronouns was just a "bonus".
Well., here we go... Chickens anyone? I need chickens.
I certainly need chickens…daily!