ICE in Chicago
Another day, another Kavanaugh stop.
U.S. citizens say they’re also being questioned by federal immigration agents for proof of citizenship.
Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk. Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.
Greeley, who was born at Illinois Masonic hospital and is adopted, carries a copy of her passport just in case she runs into federal agents.
“I am Latina and I am a service worker,” Greeley said. “I fit the description of what they’re looking for now.”
During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she “doesn’t look like” a Greeley.
“They said this isn’t real, they kept telling me I’m lying, I’m a liar,” Greeley recalled. “I told them to look in the rest of my wallet, I have my credit cards, my insurance.”
When the agents let her go, Greeley got home and screamed when she saw the shadow on her door. Days after the incident, Greeley said, it’s still “terrifying.”
This is happening because the Roberts Court, still celebrating “bold and unhesitating action” by a Republican president, has supercharged Trump’s lawless. police state occupations of American cities.
The First Branch takes a pass
To bring a democracy under authoritarian control, you need more than a strongman. You need politicians who will assure the public, as we slide toward one-man rule, that nothing odd is happening. That’s the role Johnson is playing in Donald Trump’s takeover of America.
Will Saleton at The Bullwark provides ample detail. As I’ve noted before, Project 2025’s authoritarian takeover would not be possible if not for the GOP’s takeover of all three branches of the federal government. Mike Johnson (along with John Thune and John Roberts) are onboard with this anti-democratic project.
The Constitution created three branches of government with shared powers. The framers didn’t expect men to be angels; they foresaw men like Trump, Johnson, et al. They designed the Constitution anticipating that ambitious men (whether corrupt or compromised or not) would jealously guard the prerogatives of their respective branches — serving as checks on overreach by the other two branches.
The current Republican Congress has no interest in checking an off the rails Executive. Trump’s domination of the Republican Party, and the movement conservatives and billionaires who stacked the courts, corrupted the legislative branch, and paved the way for a wannabe authoritarian in the White House, have enfeebled constitutional safeguards.