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With the passage of Draco II’s Big, Ugly Bill (OBBB for short), ICE now has the funding and will become the largest police system this country has ever known.  ICE will now have funding levels larger than FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Prisons combined.  Bigger than the budget for the U.S. Marine Corp.

ICE masked marauders hiding their faces will soon be in every town, many of them paid third party contractors just doing what they are contracted to do without any accountability.  Draco II’s administration is even suing the city of Los Angeles for NOT allowing their police force to aid in the ICE roundups.  If he wins there, you can bet that he’ll sue any town for the same thing if it doesn’t acquiesce first.  This plan will implement a new type of slave system as part of a super-expanded detention program that will thrive as detainees will be rounded up, determined to be guilty by Draco II’s definition (not the courts), and incarcerated without due process which is their constitutional right.  Draco II’s border czar Tom Homan recently said “You think we’re arresting people now? You wait till we get the funding to do what we got to do”.  SCOTUS has already said that anything Draco II does in his official capacity cannot be determined criminal, so he has a permanent get-out-of-jail free card to do anything he wants.

With the new funding, DOGE and DHS are joining up and creating a nation-wide national citizenship data bank which will be in addition to a new nation-wide surveillance system implemented first in democratic-leaning cities who typically oppose Draco II.  The database will gather info from DOGE efforts, the Social Security Administration, and the IRS giving ICE and HHS access to personal data, including bank accounts and medical claims, access to what’s in your wallet.  The database is from Palantir, owned by billionaire Peter Thiel (who bought and paid for J.D. Vance’s Senate seat), whose CEO Alex Karp exclaimed to investors recently that “Palantir is here to disrupt.  And, when it’s necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them”.  With the OBBB, the party has begun.

There are already over 56,000 immigrant detainees as of June 15^th.  Tens of thousands more, and up to half a million people could now be headed for detention centers like Alligator Alcatraz in Florida’s Everglades.  As of this writing, 71.7 percent of those detained have NO criminal record.  A larger percentage of the remaining “criminals” have only a misdemeanor, no felony.  Many have been in their communities as hardworking citizens for decades, contributing to the tax base while getting little in return other than comradery with fellow citizens like you.  These fellow community members are not “Unhuman” as defined by the book of the same name by Jack Prosobiec (a Draco II loyalist) which was endorsed by Vice President J.D. Vance; they are beings most definitely “human”.  Remember, there are still over 200 humans in an El Salvador prison right now put there without due process, and now El Salvador has stated in a letter to the United Nations that the U.S. is in charge of these people and not El Salvador (El Salvador is only doing Draco II’s bidding), which is absolutely contrary to what Draco II and his DOJ have said for months:  Draco II’s administration has known about this letter for 3 months and told no one – not even our court system who asks for and requires ALL pertinent information in order to adjudicate correctly – while they continued to push their lie.

Not only do these Draco II administrative efforts have a foul smell, creating chaos whenever and wherever possible while they test out these new Police tactics, but more importantly, it is also a precursor and pretext to intimidate and silence anyone who opposes Draco II with a show of massive force and scare tactics.  Draco II does not care about anything he tells you he cares about, rather, he cares only about fighting perceived political enemies, riling up and diverting awareness away from important things in his political base, thumbing his nose at the existing rule of law while implementing his authoritarian alternatives, increasing the economic inequality already in place by taking money away from the poor and giving to the rich (the “Niborhood” syndrome – the reverse of Robinhood), all while implementing his plan to obtain kingship.

But, the opposition will not fold under the weight of authoritarian intimidation because we still believe in democracy – like our forefathers did; we will not be ruled by any King. “Give me liberty, or give me death!” was the cry by our forefather Patrick Henry back in 1775, which is still apropos now when it comes to being ruled by any King; Draco II does not care if he unleashes the latter to establish his kingship.  So, country-wide police state, here they come!

And as soon as Republicans and Draco II figure out how to permanently rig elections in their favor (attempts at which have ongoing for quite a while), your vote won’t matter anymore.  American will become like Russia, ruled by a dictator (like Draco II’s buddy Vladamir Putin) and supported by those oligarchs allowed onto the dictator’s approved list.  Game over; democracy dead.

Actions by the Draco II administration will certainly make things much worse very soon, so buckle up.  The only question is whether or not you choose to support Draco II’s “unhuman” cruelty and his dictatorial agenda, or choose to support America’s democratic experiment to continue to build a more perfect union.  At least for now, you still have a choice; authoritarianism can only be stopped by the people working together for the common good.  You have to choose.  Choose wisely.

The views expressed by Bob Bates do not reflect the views of the staff or management at The Tullahoma News.