In March 1933, the Enabling Act became law in Germany, granting the chief executive the power to enact laws without legislative oversight, effectively dismantling the system of checks and balances.
This pivotal legislation marked the transition from a democratic republic to a totalitarian dictatorship.
By September of that year, Germany had become a one-party state, consolidating the power of the Nazi regime and eliminating political opposition.
During the liquidation of the ghettos starting in 1942, trains were used to transport the condemned populations to death camps. To implement the “Final Solution”, the Nazis made the Deutsche Reichsbahn an indispensable element of the mass extermination machine, wrote historian Raul Hilberg.
Today masked immigration agents are taking unwanted immigrants to detention facilities.
Does any of that history remind anyone of what is happening in the United States today?
During the liquidation of the ghettos starting in 1942, trains were used to transport the condemned populations to death camps. To implement the “Final Solution”, the Nazis made the Deutsche Reichsbahn an indispensable element of the mass extermination machine, wrote historian Raul Hilberg.
Today masked immigration agents are taking unwanted immigrants to detention facilities.
Obama brought us the Affordable Care Act and an Iran nuclear deal. So far Trump has brought us tariffs that will result in a higher cost of living and terror among those who work in hospitals, fields, and construction.
‘Are you from California?’ Political advisor said he was detained at airport after confirming he’s from L.A.
Longtime L.A. political consultant Rick Taylor was returning from a weeklong vacation in Turks and Caicos with his wife and daughter when he was held by Customs and Border Protection for 45 minutes without reason.
He believes he was unjustly targeted and was intimidated during his holding.
Veteran Los Angeles political consultant Rick Taylor said he was pulled aside by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents while returning from a trip abroad, asked if he was from California and then separated from his family and put in a holding room with several Latino travelers for nearly an hour.
“I know how the system works and have pretty good connections and I was still freaking out,” said Taylor, 71. “I could only imagine how I would be feeling if I didn’t understand the language and I didn’t know anyone.”
Taylor said he was at a loss to explain why he was singled out for extra questioning, but he speculated that perhaps it was because of the Obama-Biden T-shirt packed in his suitcase.
Taylor was returning from a weeklong vacation in Turks and Caicos with his wife and daughter, who were in a separate customs line, when a CBP agent asked, “Are you from California?” He said he answered, “Yeah, I live in Los Angeles.”
The man who ran campaigns for L.A.’s last Republican mayor and for current Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla when he was a budding Los Angeles City Council candidate in the 1990s found himself escorted to a waiting room and separated from his family.
There, Taylor said he waited 45 minutes without being released, alleging he was unjustly marked for detention and intimidated by CBP agents.
“I have no idea why I was targeted,” said Taylor, a consultant with the campaign to reelect L.A. City Councilwoman Traci Park. “They don’t talk to you. They don’t give you a reason. You’re just left confused, angry and worried.”
Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the incident brought to mind Sen. Alex Padilla, who was arrested and handcuffed June 12 while trying to ask a question during a Los Angeles press conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“My former chief of staff and political consultant, Rick Taylor, was detained at Miami International Airport by federal authorities after returning from an international vacation,” he said in an email. “As Senator Alex Padilla said a couple of weeks ago, ‘if it could happen to me, it could happen to anyone.’ This Federal government operation is OUT OF CONTROL! Where will it end?!”
A representative from the Customs and Border Protection in Florida said an inquiry made by the Los Angeles Times and received late Friday afternoon will likely be answered next week.
“If Mr. Taylor feels the need to, he is more than welcome to file a complaint online on our website and someone will reach out to him to try and get to the bottom of things,” CBP Public Affairs Specialist Alan Regalado said in an email.
Taylor, a partner at Dakota Communications, a strategic communications and marketing firm, said he was more concerned about traveling and returning to the U.S. with his wife, a U.S. citizen and native of Vietnam.
He said he reached out to a Trump administration member before leaving on vacation, asking if he could contact that individual in case his wife was detained.
The family flew American Airlines and landed in Miami on June 20, where he planned to visit friends before returning to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
In a twist, Taylor’s wife and daughter, both Global Entry cardholders, breezed through security while Taylor, who does not have Global Entry, was detained, he said.
He said after the agent confirmed he was a Los Angeles resident, he placed a small orange tag on his passport and was told to follow a green line. That led him to another agent and his eventual holding room.
Taylor described “95% of the population” inside the room as Latino and largely Spanish-speaking.
“I was one of three white dudes in the room,” he said. “I just kept wondering, ‘What I am doing here?’”
He said the lack of communication was “very intimidating,” though he was allowed to keep his phone and did send text message updates to his family.
“I have traveled a fair amount internationally and have never been pulled aside,” he said.
About 45 minutes into his holding, Taylor said an agent asked him to collect his luggage and hand it over for inspection.
He said he was released shortly after.
“The agents have succeeded in making me reassess travel,” Taylor said. “I would tell others to really think twice about traveling internationally while you have this administration in charge.”
Today is Flag Day but it has turned into Sad Day as the president has an Army Parade, people are demonstrating calling this No Kings Day, and thousands of Hispanics have fear of arrest and deportation.
The lawn was not cut. I called the gardener. His wife said he feared for arrest and told me he is in hiding.
Hotel workers, restaurant workers, farm workers and many other groups are living in fear.
Days after attacking a megabill that advances President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, Elon Musk slammed it again, calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a post on X. https://abc7.la/45DCMIk
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote of the House-passed bill.
“Et tu, Brute?” (translated as “And you, Brutus?”) is a famous Latin phrase from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. It is spoken by Caesar as he is being stabbed to death, having recognized his friend Brutus among the assassins. It is often used in a general sense to describe a betrayal by someone you trust, according to the Dictionary.com.
President Theodore Roosevelt said “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
In merely four months Donald Trump has turned the United States from a functioning democracy into a country on the edge of a fascist dictatorship.
The following reports I found on the internet from reliable news sources confirm what my beliefs.
The courts including the Supreme Court have given the power for Donald Trump to do as he wishes. The Supreme Court has ruled that President Trump is at least presumptively immune from criminal liability for his official acts, and is absolutely immune for some “core” of them — including his attempts to use the Justice Department to obstruct the results of an election.
Since late February, President Trump has used the power of the presidency to punish law firms that he accuses of weaponizing the justice system and undermining the national interest, part of his promised campaign of vengeance against his perceived political enemies.
Donald Trump expanded on his threats to the media suggesting actions of the press should be deemed illegal and subject to investigation.
“I believe that CNN and MS-DNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat [sic] party and in my opinion, they’re really corrupt and they’re illegal, what do they do is illegal,” the president said during a contentious speech at the Department of Justice.
The Trump administration is seeking to exert extraordinary influence over American universities by withholding the kind of federal financial support that has flowed to campuses for decades. His claim it’s all about anti-semitism. His initial attack is on Harvard, a private university. But it has been expanded.
So far, seven universities have been singled out for punitive funding cuts or have been explicitly notified that their funding is in serious jeopardy. They are:
Columbia, which is hoping to regain about $400 million in canceled grants and contracts after it bowed to a list of demands from the federal government.
Northwestern, which Trump administration officials said would be stripped of $790 million.
The University of Pennsylvania, which saw $175 million in federal funding suspended in response to its approach to a transgender athlete’s sports participation in 2022.
#Harvard#LaurenceTribe worked at Harvard Law School for over 52 years. He graduated from Harvard College in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and later earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1966.
He joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in 1968 and received tenure in 1972. He taught at Harvard Law School until his retirement in 2020, mentoring notable students like former President Barack Obama, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Elena Kagan.
After retirement, Tribe holds the position of Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University.
Coast Contact 