BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
A few things to note. U.S. citizens can not be denied entry into the United States. Lawful permanent residents of the U.S. can not be deported or have their green cards revoked without a hearing before an immigration judge. KEEP IN MIND these rules and regulations are being challenged in court by the neo-nazi fascist authoritarian oligarchy of the NOT MY pres musk, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance administration and the neo nazi fascist authoritarian oligarchy of the gop / greed over people-republican party controlled U.S. Congress. All lawful permanent residents of the U.S. and all lawful immigrants holding valid visas should not leave the U.S. until the courts have sorted all these issues out. It is suggested you touch base with your attorney if you have one, the ACLU if you do not and with your countries embassy. This from the Washington Post.....
Amid reports of travelers being questioned, detained or refused entry, here’s what officials can legally do and how to protect yourself.
March 21, 2025
Several reports of travelers being questioned, detained or refused entry at U.S. ports of entry have emerged in recent weeks as the Trump administration continues to tout a crackdown on illegal immigration.
The interactions at airports and border checkpoints have largely involved foreign nationals and legal permanent U.S. residents. Travelers from Germany and the United Kingdom and their families have decried their treatment after they were placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities over visa issues. (ICE and Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond Thursday to requests for comment.)
“The stories are definitely concerning,” said Noor Zafar, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “I think we’re just in a period of more aggressive policies being implemented at the border. And I think that requires people to take extra precautionary measures.”
Here’s what to know about your rights at the U.S. border.
What rights do I have?
That depends on your immigration status. U.S. citizens cannot be denied entry to the country. Lawful permanent residents cannot be deported or have their green cards revoked without a hearing before an immigration judge.
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Foreign nationals and visa holders must be admitted by Customs and Border Protection officials, who determine admissibility and can deny entry on their judgment.
What precautions should I take before traveling?
Zafar recommends that travelers, especially noncitizens, keep the phone number of an immigration attorney or another emergency contact on hand if they are detained at the border and need legal advice.
Travelers should also consider the data on their personal electronic devices, which can be subject to search, said Esha Bhandari, the deputy director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.
What can I be questioned about?
U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents only have to answer questions establishing their identity and citizenship or permanent residency, according to the ACLU. Refusing to answer other routine questions, though, may delay your entry into the United States.
Noncitizens and visa holders can be denied entry if they refuse to answer officers’ questions.
The border crossing checkpoint in Point Roberts, Washington — reachable only by water or through British Columbia — is seen on March 1. (Ryan Sun/AP)
Can an agent search my electronic devices?
Yes. All travelers are subject to search by Customs and Border Protection officers, according to the agency’s website. The CBP says searches of electronic devices are rare — less than 0.01 percent of arriving international travelers had their electronic devices searched in 2024.
You are not obligated to unlock your devices if an agent asks to search them, but refusing may affect your travel. Foreign nationals may be denied entry to the U.S. if they do not cooperate with a search. U.S. citizens will not be denied entry, but they could be detained and their devices might be seized by authorities.
CBP policy states officers can hold onto electronic devices for up to five days (though it may be longer if officials consider there to be “extenuating circumstances”). If your devices are seized, you should ask an officer for a custody receipt, which they are required to issue and will contain guidance for retrieving your devices.
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When traveling into the U.S., can an agent search your phone? And what does that search entail? Travel reporter Natalie Compton explains your privacy rights. (Video: Jillian Banner, Natalie Compton/The Washington Post)
What do electronic searches entail?
There are two types of searches that officers conduct on electronic devices: basic and advanced. Basic searches generally involve an officer manually reviewing a device without external equipment and can be performed on anyone.
In an advanced search, an officer connects external equipment to a device to review, copy or analyze its contents. Officers require reasonable suspicion of a violation of law and manager approval to conduct an advanced search, according to the CBP.
CBP policies for electronic searches state that officers should handle sensitive information, including medical records or work-related information from journalists, “in accordance with any applicable federal law,” though this can be murky in practice, according to the ACLU.
You should tell an officer conducting a search if your device contains legally protected information, Bhandari said.
What should I do if I’m detained or refused entry?
It’s best that travelers being detained by immigration authorities comply with the commands of officers, Zafar said. They should try to contact an attorney as soon as possible.
Daniel Wu is a reporter on The Washington Post's General Assignment desk. He joined The Post as an intern on the Metro desk in 2022 and previously worked for the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News
NOBODY in the NOT MY pres musk, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, and NOT MY vp vance administration can be described as a supporter of freedom, democracy, human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and true faith of their claimed religion. Drippings each and every one, they are a writhing den of evil, intent on the destruction of America as we have been known, to be replaced with the Fourth Reich. They are well on their way to succeeding though they are also facing more and more opposition than the Third Reich faced. If they do succeed it will be up to the real Americans, united, to make sure the Fourth Reich doesn't last as long as the Third and that this gop / greed over people-republican cabal is appropriately punished for their evil as were the creators of the Third. BE SURE to watch the video "The Political Science That Predicted Trump's Rise" explaining the lure of authoritarianism and the danger of not taking someone like trump seriously. drumpf / trump 1.0 was an idiot and dangerous, drumpf / trump 2.0 is still an idiot BUT much more dangerous...
March 23, 2025 at 5:31 a.m. EDTtoday at 5:31 a.m. EDT
Trump’s statements, policies and actions are providing cover for attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law around the world.
Under Hungary’s antigay “propaganda” law, bookstores were fined for selling LGBTQ+ themed tomes without sealed plastic wrappers and a museum director was fired for allowing minors into an exhibit with images of same-sex couples. But the autocratic government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban stopped short of targeting the community’s premier event: the annual Pride parade.
Until now. Parliament voted overwhelmingly this month to ban the event — and threatened to use facial recognition technology to identify violators.
What changed? According to Orban, it was the return to the White House of President Donald Trump.
Gergely Gulyas, Orban’s chief of staff, told journalists that the change in administrations in Washington had lifted the “American boot” off the chest of the Hungarian government, making it easier “to breathe.”
Orban himself noted that the Biden administration’s ambassador to Hungary — David Pressman, a fierce Orban critic who directly challenged the nationalist leader’s democratic backsliding — made a point of participating in Budapest Pride, an event that has brought 35,000 people to the Hungarian capital, to protect it.
Pride “shouldn’t have existed earlier, but it did, because the U.S. Ambassador led the march, which clearly showed that the world’s great powers supported it,” Orban said last month. “But now the world has changed, and the Americans have called these types of ambassadors back home. … It’s clear that [Pride] won’t have international protection.”
The emboldened Orban is not alone. As Trump upends democratic norms at home, his statements, policies and actions are providing cover for a fresh chill on freedom of expression, democracy, the rule of law and LGBTQ+ rights for autocrats around the world — some of whom are giving him credit.
Democratic backsliding in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey long predates Trump; the president has been said to have derived some of his messaging from Orban. But in several nations, including Hungary and Serbia, authorities say openly that Trump’s return has helped them serve up what critics say are fresh violations of basic rights. In Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week detained his leading political rival and dozens of others, advocates see Trump’s influence as an enabling factor.
The new Trump administration “is bringing together autocrats and would-be autocrats around the world,” said Rosa Balfour, director of Carnegie Europe. “What they share is a radical right agenda, and they are much more connected in their policies and goals than we have been assuming.”
Cuts at USAID have eliminated funding for nongovernmental organizations that promoted the rule of law in countries where democracy is under attack, she said. Meanwhile, the administration’s actions at home — rolling back protections for minorities, the mass deportation of migrants outside normal processes, attacks on judges who stand in the way — and its decision to vote against a United Nations censure of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, she said, signal a new era in which the United States is no longer seen as a global defender of liberal democracy.
Demonstrators in Budapest on Tuesday protest the government ban on the capital's annual Pride parade, scheduled for June. (Marton Monus/Reuters)
For Orban, opponents fear, the ban on Pride is only the starting point. Last week, he announced a “spring cleaning” against opposition politicians, judges, journalists, civil society organizations and activists — a group he collectively described as society’s “stink bugs.”
“In terms of international pressure, Orban is now liberated,” said Márton Tompos, president of the opposition Momentum Movement. “It’s like he’s saying, ‘Okay, Trump won, and now I can do anything I want.’”
In Serbia, where autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic has been challenged by a sustained protest movement, authorities cited Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of rampant fraud, corruption and waste at USAID as a basis for launching raids last month against four civil society groups, including one that monitors elections and one that promotes government accountability and transparency.
The International Fact-Checking Network, a program of the Florida-based Poynter Institute, called the raids “an unprecedented escalation of government repression, meant to silence independent voices and using the pretext of baseless accusations from the current U.S. administration for the suppression of independent media.”
Donald Trump Jr., interviewing Vucic this month, praised Serbia for “embracing the MAGA movement,” and echoed Vucic’s unproven claim that anti-corruption protests were tied to “left-wing actors” in the U.S.
Erdogan has targeted political rivals, judges and journalists for years. But the detention this month of nearly 100 people, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, his strongest political challenger, on corruption charges opponents call specious, was seen as a major escalation. On Sunday, a Turkish court formally declared Imamoglu under arrest, saying he would be imprisoned pending trial.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of his ruling AK Party in Ankara, Turkey, in February. Turkey arrested his top political opponent, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, on corruption charges. (Cagla Gurdogan/Reuters)
Erdogan, critics say, is also laying the ground work for a fresh assault on minority rights. Kerem Dikmen, a Human Rights Program Coordinator at Kaos GL, a Turkish LGBTQ+ group, said the organization has obtained a draft of a bill that would impose sentences of up to three years on individuals who do not behave in public according to their biological sex. It would also make it a crime to officiate same-sex weddings, Dikmen said.
The target isn’t new. Istanbul’s Pride march has been banned since 2015, and Erdogan has described himself as “against LGBT.”
“Those in Turkey are not passing a law because Trump is in power. But there is a psychological influence,” Dikmen said. “It will become easier.”
The Biden administration clashed bitterly with Orban, an ally of both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to establish what he calls an “illiberal state” in Hungary. Since coming to power 15 years ago, Orban has undermined judicial independence and sought to control the media while targeting migrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
The 2021 antigay propaganda law stoked fear in Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community. Lawmakers followed it in 2023 with a proposal to allow citizens to report same-sex couples with children anonymously.
That bill, however, was never signed — the result, Pressman told The Washington Post, of public and private pressure by U.S. and European officials. In the final weeks of the Biden administration, the U.S. also sanctioned a top Orban aide for alleged corruption in office.
“Look, when you’re dealing with an emerging authoritarian government, part of the effort of diplomacy is to create guardrails,” said Pressman, who left his post as ambassador in January. “I think there is a very fair question as to whether or not those guardrails still exist. And some of the policy decisions you see, I think, are reflecting that.”
The ban on Pride affects far more than one event, critics say. It allows fines of up to roughly $550 for any protest or gathering authorities deem a danger to children.
A convergence of challenges — an anemic economy, high inflation and flagging poll numbers — have left Orban vulnerable to a surging challenge by former ally Péter Magyar. Organizers of Budapest Pride see the renewed harassment of the LGBTQ+ community in part as an effort to direct attention toward a scapegoat.
Orban said Pride participants would not be arrested but fined. Mate Hegedus, a spokesman for Budapest Pride, said the June 28 event will go ahead as planned. By happenstance, he said, it will coincide with the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the Greenwich Village uprising in 1969 that gave lift to the modern gay rights movement in the U.S.
“After this, anyone can be silenced,” Hegedus said. “We’re not going to stand for this. We will go on with the event.”
Orban’s vows to expand his net to include judges, journalists, NGOs and others have also rattled the country. Orban has acted against opponents in the past, said David Vig, executive director of Amnesty International in Hungary. But Trump’s action against USAID, he said, seemed to serve as a “trigger” for a “very significant change in tone.”
“The prime minister has said he wants to wipe out these organizations by Easter [and] the smearing, the chilling effect is already there,” Vig said. “If a prime minister is talking about civil society, talking about journalists, and judges, as bugs who need to be killed and wiped out, I think that is sending a very clear chilling message.”
Karoly Szilagyi in Budapest and Stefano Pitrelli in Rome contributed to this report.
Anthony Faiola is Rome Bureau Chief for The Washington Post. Since joining the paper in 1994, he has served as bureau chief in Miami, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Buenos Aires and New York and additionally worked as roving correspondent at large.
A dear friend shared via IM with me and a group of our friends a bumper sticker she saw encouraging people to pray for NOT MY pres drumpf / trump as in Psalm 109:8, "Let his days be few"....I reminded my friends this is the same 'prayer' republicans were encouraged to pray after Pres Obama was elected. I told them it was wrong then, it is wrong now and I can not pray for the death of anyone no matter how evil I think they are. I will actively participate in the opposition to the authoritarian theological oligarchy the NOT MY pres musk, NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance, their administration and the gop / greed over people-republican party plans to impose on America, destroying our democratic Republic a la the heritage foundation cabals project 2025. I will not abandon my Christian faith to lower myself to the level of those now in power. Here is the article from VOX on how the gop got drumpf / trump, though I must point out that the gop / greed over people-republican party has been working to destroy our Democracy since they nominated barry goldwater for president in 1964.
Sen. David Perdue is the junior senator from Georgia. He’s known in the Senate as a nice, modest guy — not one of the bomb throwers, by any means.
Here is how the prayer he encouraged the audience to make for Obama continues:
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
You don’t have to believe Perdue literally wants Michelle Obama to be a widow to think that invoking this psalm toward the president of the United States is, perhaps, a bit inappropriate. (Perdue isn’t the first to suggest Psalm 109:8 is an appropriate prayer for Obama; it’s become a meme in hard-right circles, where you can buy bumper stickers and shirts that say the same thing.)
The Republican Party acts shocked by Trump — like he is some alien parasite who has taken over their party without warning or precedent. They shouldn’t be so shocked.
Comments like Perdue’s are the context in which Trump ran. For years, Republican voters have been told that the president is a Muslim, a Kenyan, a socialist. They have heard Newt Gingrich fret over his “Kenyan anti-colonial mindset,” Mitt Romney worry that the United States is “inches away from no longer being a free economy,” and, yes, Donald Trump argue that he’s hiding the true circumstances of his birth. They were thrilled when Ben Carson called Obamacare “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery” and pleased when Ted Cruz agreed to look into whether Obama was planning an armed takeover of Texas.
And those examples are limited to national leaders in the Republican Party. The rhetoric coming from state senators, talk radio hosts, and local Tea Party chairs is much worse. Grassroots Republicans have been told for years that the struggle with Obama is existential and civilizational, that the disagreements are fundamental and scary, that the future of the country they love dearly is in doubt.
Republican leaders are not responsible for all of this rhetoric, but they have consistently indulged it and rarely challenged it. Rather than fighting the hysteria, they have sought to harness it for their own ends.
In some ways, the strategy has worked. Republicans control the House and the Senate. But they face a base continually angry over their inability to stop Obama, and one that punishes them severely when they try to compromise. And now the base has lost faith in their quisling leaders and turned to a guy who seems like he really won’t give up, who seems like he really isn’t cowed by the media or Washington elites, who seems like he believes what they believe and recognizes the stakes are high enough that something needs to be done about it.
Or, as Jamelle Bouie wrote:
So, in case you missed it, a sitting U.S. senator just asked an audience to pray a death curse to the president.
Karoline Leavitt est vraiment une idiote. Non seulement nous devons aux Français notre amitié et notre gratitude pour nous avoir aidés à conquérir notre indépendance, mais aussi parce que des milliers de soldats français se sont sacrifiés pour contenir l'armée allemande pendant l'évacuation des forces britanniques et de nombreuses forces françaises de Dunkerque. Arrête de boire, Karolynn, ça te ronge le cerveau.
La Maison Blanche a rejeté l'appel symbolique d'un homme politique français en faveur du retour de la Statue de la Liberté - un cadeau de la France il y a environ 140 ans - au motif que les États-Unis ne représentent plus les valeurs incarnées par le monument.
Le président Donald Trump ne rendrait « absolument pas » la statue, a déclaré lundi la porte-parole de la Maison Blanche, Karoline Leavitt, interrogée sur les propos de Raphaël Glucksmann, membre du Parlement européen.
« Mon conseil à cet homme politique français de bas niveau dont je ne dévoile pas le nom serait de lui rappeler que c'est uniquement à cause des États-Unis d'Amérique que les Français ne parlent pas allemand en ce moment », a déclaré Leavitt, faisant référence au rôle des États-Unis dans l'aide apportée à la France pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. « Ils devraient donc être très reconnaissants envers notre grand pays. »
Les États-Unis ont joué un rôle majeur dans la libération de la France après quatre années d'occupation par l'Allemagne nazie, mais ils n'ont pas agi seuls. Le 6 juin 1944, les forces alliées – principalement américaines, britanniques et canadiennes – ont lancé le débarquement décisif du Jour J, qui a marqué le début de la libération de la France.
Glucksmann, du parti de centre-gauche Place Publique, a fait cette remarque sur la Statue de la Liberté lors d'une convention du parti dimanche.
« Nous allons dire aux Américains – à ceux qui ont choisi de se ranger du côté des tyrans, à ceux qui licencient des chercheurs pour avoir exercé leur liberté scientifique – deux choses. Tout d'abord, rendez-nous la Statue de la Liberté ! » a-t-il déclaré.
« Nous vous l'avons offert, mais apparemment, vous le méprisez. Alors, laissez-le parmi nous », a-t-il ajouté.
Glucksmann, fervent défenseur de la défense de l'Ukraine dans sa guerre contre la Russie, a déjà accusé les dirigeants européens de ne pas fournir un soutien suffisant à Kiev.
Dans ses propos de dimanche, il a également critiqué la réduction par l'administration Trump de l'aide fédérale aux instituts de recherche américains. Plus tôt ce mois-ci, le ministre français de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche a exhorté les établissements du pays à accueillir les chercheurs touchés par les coupes budgétaires de Trump aux États-Unis.
Julian Jackson, professeur émérite d'histoire française moderne à l'Université Queen Mary de Londres, a qualifié Glucksmann de dirigeant respecté et éloquent. « Et la Statue de la Liberté rappelle bien sûr que l'Amérique doit en partie son indépendance aux Français, comme lors de la guerre d'Indépendance », a-t-il déclaré dans un courriel.
La France a fourni des armes, des munitions, des troupes et un soutien naval aux colonies américaines pendant la guerre d'indépendance.
La Statue de la Liberté, symbole emblématique de liberté et d'espoir, attire des millions de visiteurs chaque année. Elle fut imaginée par le Français Édouard de Laboulaye, fervent admirateur des États-Unis, comme un cadeau pour commémorer le centenaire de la Déclaration d'Indépendance et l'abolition de l'esclavage.
Le sculpteur Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi a conçu la statue pour exprimer ces valeurs : une couronne représentant la lumière, une inscription indiquant la date de l'indépendance américaine, ainsi qu'une manille et des chaînes brisées marquant la fin de l'esclavage. La statue achevée a été démontée et expédiée à New York en 1885, tandis que la plaque portant le célèbre poème d'Emma Lazarus a été ajoutée en 1903.
Dans un fil de discussion sur les réseaux sociaux lundi soir, Glucksmann a répondu à Leavitt en reconnaissant l'héroïsme des « centaines de milliers de jeunes Américains » qui ont débarqué sur les plages de Normandie tout en qualifiant la position de l'administration Trump sur l'Ukraine de trahison du pays ravagé par la guerre et des alliés européens des États-Unis.
« Bien sûr, personne ne viendra voler la Statue de la Liberté. La statue est à vous. Mais ce qu'elle incarne appartient à tous », écrivait Glucksmann . « Et si le monde libre n'intéresse plus votre gouvernement, alors nous reprendrons le flambeau, ici, en Europe. »
