u/WankingAsWeSpeak

>As the U.S. marks its 250th year, let’s celebrate the often-ignored colonial rebels who insisted that the Constitution include a Bill of Rights to prevent overreach by a government created for the wealthy. Today, the battle for democratic rights rages as Trump et al. attempt to shred the First Amendment — the rights to protest, speak out, cover the news and freely practice any religion or none. A powerful movement of modern rebels is reclaiming the revolutionary heritage of those early resisters.

This article offers six main findings about the state of democracy in the world. First, for the statistically average global citizen, the level of democracy in 2025 has reverted to 1978 levels. Second, autocracies now outnumber democracies (92 to 87) and are home to 74% of the world’s population. Third, freedom of expression is the worst-affected aspect, worsening in 44 countries over the last decade. Fourth, 44 countries are currently autocratizing, representing 41% of the world’s population and 39% of global GDP, while only 18 are democratizing. Fifth, the systematic analysis of the cumulative effects of the third wave of autocratization shows that 85 countries – almost half of the world – were autocratizing at some point since 2000. Three-quarters of them are worse in terms of democracy by 2025. Sixth, comprehensively analyzing the ongoing autocratization in the USA, this article highlights a dramatic 24% decline in liberal democracy during the first year of the second Trump presidency, reverting to 1965 levels. This represents the most rapid dismantling of democracy in modern history, marked by a concentration of power in the presidency, undermining civil rights and the rule of law, and the suppression of dissent and the media.

While Palmer’s site does use language such as “official report form” and says reports are “submitted through official federal channels”, the comedian doesn’t claim to work for ICE and the privacy policy contains a disclaimer that the site is “for parody”.

Near the bottom of the Bolo alert, the DHS acknowledged the comedian did not pose a danger. “At this time, there appears to be no direct threat to life or infrastructure,” the alert reads.

…

Darius Reeves, a retired ICE field office director, said Bolos more commonly include terms such as “‘considered armed and dangerous’, ‘approach with caution’ or ‘do not approach at all’”, reflecting the seriousness of the threat they describe. They are typically issued nationwide and are usually reserved for serious threats to public safety.

Reeves said he understood why federal immigration authorities would be wary of a fake tip line but he thought a Bolo being issued for a comedian was “unusual”.

Trump was speaking at the US Coast Guard Academy's 145th graduating class at Cadet Memorial Field when he discussed 11 icebreaker ships which have been ordered for the US military.

Trump said: "We're making, right now, currently under construction, we have 11. Beautiful.

“And I said, 'Come on, when's the first one coming?' They said, 'In 28'. I said, 'I'm going to be here in 28'.”

The president added: “Maybe I'll be here in 32, too. I don't know. Maybe I will. But I'm going to be here in 28. And I'll tell you, I say, that's great, because I'm going to be there."

>So a little bit of background. I’m the chair of the Academic Freedom Council. The university fired Melissa McCoul in September. She taught the course on children’s literature from a gender perspective, why so many children’s books have heterosexual, white parents, rather than, for example, same sex parents raising kids. And that was not permitted. So she was fired.

>I met with her the same day in my office, and we discussed the process for filing an academic freedom complaint. The next day, I met with the university president and the provost, and they explained why they fired her, namely, that [Republican Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott… tweeted about it and told them to do so. They didn’t respect her due process rights. She has now sued the university.

>Later, the Board of Regents decided to implement a new policy in response to this. They had to do something, they felt, and that’s Policy 801. It’s a policy on civil rights violations. So now they consider it to be a civil rights violation to teach Plato in the philosophy department.

>And how did I find out about this? I submitted my syllabus as requested. Everyone had to submit their syllabus for review before the semester started. I sent it to my department head in December, and in January, she wrote back to me, saying that I must remove the readings on Plato and also the relevant parts of a textbook, or be assigned to teach another course.

>I wanted to teach my course, so I did comply. I did remove the reading by Plato, but I made it very clear to my students: I just crossed out that text with a red line, and instead, I asked my students to read an article from The New York Times that described what had happened, with an interview I gave, and then I replaced the censored material with lectures on free speech and academic freedom.