Day of the High Lists, 23rd of Summer, 525 M.E. (Atlas): Look at them. Men in blue jeans and sport shoes, wearing baseball caps (some backwards). No uniforms, no insignia, not even lanyards with identification, claiming they are ICE agents as they manhandle and arrest the New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate at an immigration courthouse as he was escorting a migrant they wanted to arrest. 

Who the fuck are they? Should we believe they're ICE agents just because they say so? Are they truly ICE as they claim, or are they vigilantes? Or members of the Proud Boys or Oathkeepers or something? Last weekend, four Minnesota politicians were shot by a gunman, two fatally, by a man disguised as a police officer. It seems a bit naïve these days to just accept who they say they were based on their words alone. 

In fact, according to the press reports, the comptroller, Brad Lander, was asking for just that kind of identification when he was arrested.  He asked to see a warrant and told them, “You don’t have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens.” Then they manhandle him and frog marched him to the courthouse. 

ICE agents, typically wearing masks and carrying no identification, have become a regular presence as the arrest of migrants showing up for routine court hearings has become a common occurrence. Politicians, including members of Congress, have shown up at immigration courthouses in recent weeks to protest these tactics, but now the goons are turning on the pols, too.

Last month, federal agents arrested the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, and Representative LaMonica McIver in connection with a clash outside of an immigration detention center. In April, FBI agents arrested a Milwaukee judge on charges that she had shielded an undocumented immigrant from federal agents.

This latest assault and arrest of a Democratic politician comes not only after the Minnesota assassinations and the arrests mentioned above, but also after Senator Alex Padilla of California was shoved to the floor and handcuffed by federal officers after he had tried to ask Kristi Noem a question during a press conference.

It's particularly unfortunate that Padilla's mistreatment diverted attention from what Noem was actually saying during that conference. “We are not going away,” she was warning, referring to the presence of armed National Guard and U.S. Marines in Los Angeles. “We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor (Newsom) and that this mayor (Bass) have placed on this country and what they have tried to insert into the city.”

She's flat out saying that the Trump administration is using the military to overturn the duly elected representatives of the people. That statement alone should cause millions to march in the streets and protest this fascist power grab. 

Trump, Noem, Homeland Security, and ICE are using unidentified, masked thugs to rough up and arrest Democratic politicians, and using the military to overturn elections if they don't like the outcome. This isn't "drifting toward fascism" - this IS fascism. The Nazi's are already here and they're already reaching out well beyond the undocumented immigrants they're supposedly after.

This fascist Trump regime has got to end now.