This was an interesting read. I mean isn’t it obvious what they are doing with the immigration system? Immigration has parallel and much more restrictive civil rights; far less accountability; less institutional history.

I thought it was yet more interesting what this piece left out, which is the administration’s partners in private industry. There are private companies who provide the surveillance equipment, the data, the tear gas, the uniforms, the maintenance of vehicles, etc etc. private industry is what provides the weapons of state power. The engine of authoritarianism exists outside of government in the places where it can be truly unaccountable. Thyssen Krupp, Beyer, BMW, and so on.

Historically, the entity that has most effectively resisted authoritarianism is organized labor. This article doesn’t even mention labor which is truly intellectually retarded. Gee, NYT, I wonder what force could possibly be powerful enough to stop coercion of line level employees by a tiny, democratically unaccountable ruling class? Wish we could figure out what that might be in a moment like this.