Remember the ICE detainees?
Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Mass Hysterectomies at ICE Detention Center
According to the whistleblower, medical staff have been performing hysterectomies with no or questionable consent. For example, a number of patients had the procedure at the same time as being treated for other conditions that they may have not actually had.
*sigh*
It feels like it might be worth taking a step back and reviewing some
Early Warning Signs of Fascism. This deals with the Republican party and the way they're running things, of course.
1. Powerful and continuing nationalism - Check
2. Disdain for human rights - This would be yet another in innumerable checks
3. Identification of enemies as a unifying cause - Check
4. Supremacy of the military - I'm going to say that this is not actually a check. There's a lot of lip service, though.
5. Rampant sexism - Check
6. Controlled mass media - This one's a bit tougher to call in general. Mass media is overwhelmingly owned by and therefore controlled by only a very, very few people. It's not as bad as outright state control, but it's a dangerous situation on that front. This, though, is somewhat balanced by less direct reliance on the official mass media for information compared to social media, which has notably different pros and cons, albeit ones that currently seem to make it easier to end up in an ideological bubble. Further, the right-wing "news" sources have actively worked to create such ideological bubbles and largely act as if they were controlled media. So, it's pretty much a conditional yes, for some groups, and a generally dangerous situation but not the case at the moment otherwise.
7. Obsession with national security - Mostly not a check and only lip service to foreign threats. As for the national security threat that is antifa, though.
8. Religion and government intertwined - Check. Not as blatantly and directly as the people pushing it may prefer, yet, but... things like Muslim bans and multiple Trump officials using government resources to seriously push their faith are plenty good enough to qualify for this.
9. Corporate power protected - Big check
10. Labor power suppressed - Big check
11. Disdain for intellectuals & the arts - check
12. Obsession with crime & punishment - Here's another yes and no one, much as the overriding concern there is more - "Is the person aligned with me?" If so, support and forgiveness for any crimes. If not, they should be condemned and punished harshly - even if it may mean breaking the law, potentially.
13. Rampant cronyism & corruption - Big check
14. Fraudulent elections - For quite a while now, there have been a number of forces in the Republican Party that have been working hard to rig elections in their favor by nigh every route they think they can get away with, with varying levels of success. So yes from the start. As I noted not long ago, though, Trump advisor Roger Stone has now
publicly advised Trump to do a bunch of things to take that rigging much further, including outright seizure of large numbers of legitimately cast Democratic ballots.
On the Democrat's side... 7 and 12 are arguably the case, with the note that any excess there is likely due to backlash against how brazenly Trump and his administration have been undermining national security, causing significant harm intentionally for the benefit of a very few, and flouting the laws.
