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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShe Stepped Onto a Sidewalk in Boston -- and Vanished Into Trump's Shadow State -- Thom Hartmann
https://hartmannreport.com/p/she-stepped-onto-a-sidewalk-in-boston-a74She Stepped Onto a Sidewalk in Boston and Vanished Into Trumps Shadow State
Masked ICE agents are now snatching dissidents off the streets like a scene from Stalins Russia. This isnt speculative fiction. Its happening right now, in America
This is how it begins.
Tuesday night, Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was going out to a restaurant to meet friends when masked federal ICE agents dressed in street clothes seized her off a public sidewalk and disappeared her. Her apparent crime was co-authoring an op-ed critical of Trump and Netanyahu.
Where is she now? At first, nobody knew. As her attorney told The New York Times:
We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her.
Then it was revealed last night as the video of her kidnapping went viral that shes been transported to a violent ICE facility in Louisiana. Yeah, that place. Without any legal due process that anybody can identify.
Meanwhile, Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil remains in the hellhole of a notoriously brutal private prison in Louisiana for daring to speak out against the Israeli slaughter of Gazans.
And Columbia student Yunseo Chung, whos been a legal permanent resident of the US since she was 7 years old, is in hiding while her lawyers sue to prevent her arrest for also speaking up about the violence Netanyahu is inflicting on people in Gaza.
. . .
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She Stepped Onto a Sidewalk in Boston -- and Vanished Into Trump's Shadow State -- Thom Hartmann (Original Post)
erronis
Mar 2025
OP
chia
(2,751 posts)1. Quote from Senator Chris Murphy:
The video is really chilling. And this should matter to every single American. Okay, first of all the president doesnt need the Alien Enemies Act in order to remove from this country. People who pose a threat to the nation, people who have engaged in criminal behavior or who have coordinated with terrorist groups, he has that power under existing law to remove from the country non-citizens. So he doesnt need this authority.
What he is trying to do is put America on a war footing. This is an act that has only been exercised three times in American history. During the war of 1812, during the First World War, and during the Second World War. It is a wartime authority, and what you really worry about is the president continuing to move forward in exercising wartime powers in order to suspend additional elements of the constitution.
He, of course, has shown affection for something called the Insurrection Act, which would put the military in charge of everyday law enforcement in this country.
You are watching along multiple channels this massive slide away from democracy and democratic norms. And so that video is chilling because a the president doesnt need that act to be able to remove a threat, but it speaks to his willingness to try to put America in a kind of quasi-martial law that ultimately will come to be a threat, not just to green card holders, but to American citizens as well.
So its a really worrying time and everybody in America should care whats happening.
What he is trying to do is put America on a war footing. This is an act that has only been exercised three times in American history. During the war of 1812, during the First World War, and during the Second World War. It is a wartime authority, and what you really worry about is the president continuing to move forward in exercising wartime powers in order to suspend additional elements of the constitution.
He, of course, has shown affection for something called the Insurrection Act, which would put the military in charge of everyday law enforcement in this country.
You are watching along multiple channels this massive slide away from democracy and democratic norms. And so that video is chilling because a the president doesnt need that act to be able to remove a threat, but it speaks to his willingness to try to put America in a kind of quasi-martial law that ultimately will come to be a threat, not just to green card holders, but to American citizens as well.
So its a really worrying time and everybody in America should care whats happening.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/democratic-senator-warns-trump-putting-country-under-quasi-martial-law-after-chilling-cloak-and-dagger-arrest/
newdeal2
(4,775 posts)2. This should be a bigger story
Disappearing people off of the street.
malaise
(292,744 posts)3. Chile, Argentina
In the 1970s with full backing from the CIA and other US interests.
Now theyve brought it home
erronis
(22,652 posts)4. The Sidewalk Where She Vanished - Where did she go, that girl with dreams? Into the night, into the screams
The Daily Song by Thom Hartmann
https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-sidewalk-where-she-vanished

Haunting audio track on his web page.
[Verse 1]
She stepped outside, just chasing light
A bag in hand, a heart upright
No warning, just the black-clad men
And silence swallowed her again
No sirens wailed, no rights were read
Just asphalt where she used to tread
And no one saw, or dared to speak
In shadows now, the strong hunt weak
[Chorus]
Where did she go, that girl with dreams?
Into the night, into the screams
They say her name, then choke it down
In every frightened, silenced town
Were not so free, were not so brave
When fear becomes the flag we wave
[Verse 2]
He baked his bread, he paid his dues
He stood for love, not left or right views
But still they came, like ghosts in black
And sent him where he wont come back
A brother cries in Dallas heat
No fathers arms, no shoes, no street
And letters fade, and hope burns slow
As tyrants strike the final blow
. . .
She stepped outside, just chasing light
A bag in hand, a heart upright
No warning, just the black-clad men
And silence swallowed her again
No sirens wailed, no rights were read
Just asphalt where she used to tread
And no one saw, or dared to speak
In shadows now, the strong hunt weak
[Chorus]
Where did she go, that girl with dreams?
Into the night, into the screams
They say her name, then choke it down
In every frightened, silenced town
Were not so free, were not so brave
When fear becomes the flag we wave
[Verse 2]
He baked his bread, he paid his dues
He stood for love, not left or right views
But still they came, like ghosts in black
And sent him where he wont come back
A brother cries in Dallas heat
No fathers arms, no shoes, no street
And letters fade, and hope burns slow
As tyrants strike the final blow
. . .
Norbert
(7,559 posts)5. ABC News Overnight showed a clip
The passer byes asked them, Who are you?. They said police.
The passer byes kept asking, If you are police, why do you have your face covered?
malaise
(292,744 posts)6. Just like J6 goons
That is all
raccoon
(32,208 posts)7. I was hearing about this on NPR a while ago. Sending this to Greatest.
Xavier Breath
(6,471 posts)8. He opened is show just now with the story.
Just despicable.