Thread by @matt_cam

1/ NEVER FORGET that hrs before #January6th, Trump initiated the designation of an imagined domestic enemy he called "Antifa" as a criminal terrorist organization & gave DHS broad powers to enforce against suspected non-citizen members & supporters.

trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-a…

2/ This order came to mind this morning as I continued to consider the implications of yesterday's #SCOTUS decision immunizing #CBP and #ICE from judicial accountability for abuses of power against ordinary people. Let me tell you where this goes.

https://twitter.com/matt_cam/status/1534656729799090176

3/ The order confirmed that DOJ had already collected enough evidence to deem "Antifa" (which is, again, not an actual thing) a domestic terror organization and recommended that State add them to 2 different lists: (1) "criminal organizations" and (2)"terrorist organizations"

4/ The "criminal organizations" list is pretty much just straight up organized crime: the Mafia, the Yakuza, MS-13 and other Latin American street gangs, etc. Even if "Antifa" were an actual organization of any kind (which, again, it is not) this would be an odd designation

5/ The "foreign terrorist organization" list is also pretty much what you'd expect. Antifa, an ideology which is not associated with any kind of recognizable "organization," has no place on this list and there is only one reason anyone would try to add it

state.gov/foreign-terror…

6/ Yesterday Clarence Thomas and all of the conservative justices agreed that someone who was brutalized by a CBP officer in his own driveway badly enough to leave lasting back problems had no legal ability to sue the officer *or* the agency. These things are related.

7/ Former CBP/current hero Jenn Budd has been warning us for years that this agency is totally unaccountable to anyone but the president, and even then only the presidents they agree with. Prepare yourself before clicking through to this thread.

https://twitter.com/BuddJenn/status/1227624958974513152

8/ Fascism starts with identifying foreign threats to the nation before moving on to associate those groups with its citizens. That is *exactly* what Trump was doing with that order on January 5th, and absolutely where things were going for his 2nd term with all the "Antifa" talk

9/ It's too easy to write off "fascism" as some wild right-wing fantasy of a cartoon dictator commanding faceless jackboots, but that's only extreme endpoint. Fascist states (& cultures) aren't necessarily born that way, and no one wakes up in that world without warning.

10/ Never forget Voltaire's warning that "those who make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

On his first day it's the size of an inauguration crowd; 4 yrs later it's a fake "terrorist" org that anyone reading this could easily be alleged to be supporting

11/ The "Antifa" executive order was immediately eclipsed by the events of #January6th. Trump was out of office two weeks later.

But it happened. We let it happen. It will happen again, & yesterday #SCOTUS let CBP know they won't be held individually or collectively accountable

12/ "Antifa" is now mainstream US right-wing shorthand for anyone left of Mitt Romney.

The 1/5/21 order made "Antifa" a matter of national security.

Thomas's decision yesterday excused CBP from any accountability in the name of "national security."

Do you need a diagram here