"The Main Threat Is the American People "

 

“The Main Threat Is the American People” DHS Internal security Assessment Report

Yes, America, if the government wants you, you have no rights, no recourse

So, what’s new under that report? Writing for the January 24th Better America, Thomas Smith explains: “The U.S. faces ongoing risks to critical infrastructure and national security from hostile actors including Russia, China, and others. But according to a new report, an unreleased Homeland Threat Assessment drafted under the Trump administration places the greatest emphasis on threats emerging domestically.

“Since 2020, DHS has issued an annual Homeland Threat Assessment outlining the department’s view of the biggest risks facing the nation. The usual categories—crime, drug trafficking networks, and illegal immigration—appear again this year. However, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein says the latest version introduces a new focal point: terrorism tied to ‘class-based or economic grievances.’”

That wondrous DHS memo, explaining that judge-confirmed warrants are not needed to support a CBP/ICE forced entry to a private home in search of immigration perps, effectively repeals the 4th Amendment. Further, JD Vance was just one administration official to assure those agents that they have absolute immunity from criminal prosecutions for their acts, seemingly even for excessive violence and even killing. Not the law, JD.CBP/ICE agents have also been informed that individuals exercising their 1st Amendment rights, peacefully to protest against the Minneapolis killings, do so at their risk – including standing in a spot that the agent feels (usually without justification) is impeding their immigration sweeps, photographing agents pushing the limits of the authority – as agents can direct flash bangs, hold pepper spray an inch from a civilian’s face… if they feel threatened, kill even a US citizen… even as a federal court has ordered them to cease such tactics (that court was reversed). So, the 2nd Amendment can get you killed, the 4th Amendment offers you no protection if a fed wants to break into your home, and if you are peacefully exercising your 1st Amendment rights, you could easily be deemed a domestic terrorist earning a database target on your back.

When ICU nurse, Alex Pretti was gunned down by federal agents, because he was armed, a court ordered the officers to preserve all the evidence, but the officers had long since contaminated the crime scene and excluded any state of local police from the site entirely. Minnesota is a 2nd Amendment state, where getting a license for open or concealed carry is little more than a background check. Republicans fought hard for such pro-gun legislation, but when a legally licensed individual has a gun and much more, federal agents, if the feel threatened, can use the presence of that guns as a reason to shoot to kill. As least, unlike the Renee Good death, the FBI is investigating this gun death… with or without local police (TBD). Yet, the assemblage of videos of the events surrounding the killing do not show Pretti brandishing a gun (DHS claims that happened), and he was apparently disarmed before a stream of federal bullets ended his life.

There is a notion of “sovereign immunity” prevents a citizen from suing the government unless it consents to the suit. Until 1941, citizens had to petition Congress, on a one-off basis, to find redress. Then Federal Tort Claims Act was enacted, a landmark moment for victims’ rights. But the Trump administration has developed a pattern of instantly exonerating a CBP or ICE agents engaged in what frequently is an act of excessive violence, now involving two recent Minneapolis killing of two American citizens, which sure appeared to be innocent protesters. In both cases, local police were excluded, and the deceased victims were instantly declared to be domestic terrorists. In the case of Good, the Trump administration began investigating the dead mother of three to see whether her opinions might explain it all. There was no investigation (taken or even permitted) of the Good shooting, and the FBI, now devoid of agents embracing their historical pledge to neutrality as they look at the Pretti shooting, although their bosses have preordained the verdict. There is no accountability for clearly horrible CBP/ICE agents engaged in excessive violence under the guise of getting rid of the worst of the worst… gardeners, waiters, construction workers, nannies and small business people who have never committed a crime worthy of the treatment we give them.

Bottom line, we are tracking a pattern of behavior that mirrors the behavior of the Nazis before and during WWII. Step for step. And as Canadian PM, Mark Carney, pointed out, Trump’s actions on the global stage were viewed as unhinged and irrational, creating a permanent “rupture” in the way the world now will treat the United States, even as Trump backed off a military invasion of Greenland. He burned a global bridge, which will not be rebuilt anytime soon… no matter who our next president may be. Trump stated that for those nations not supporting his ultimate takeover of Greenland, even by peaceful means bear the consequences: “we will remember.,” he declared. The international refrains of nations’ pushing back were an echoed counter of many foreign voices saying, “WE will remember!”

I’m Peter Dekom, and the constitution seems to have been repealed, and in our future relationships with the rest of the world, trust has left the building and isn’t coming back anytime soon.