[RD] Trump in Charge: The MAGA Presidency

[Samson]

Airlines Don't Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS (avoiding paywall)

A data broker owned by the country’s major airlines, including Delta, American Airlines, and United, collected U.S. travellers’ domestic flight records, sold access to them to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and then as part of the contract told CBP to not reveal where the data came from, according to internal CBP documents obtained by 404 Media. The data includes passenger names, their full flight itineraries, and financial details.

CBP, a part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), says it needs this data to support state and local police to track people of interest’s air travel across the country, in a purchase that has alarmed civil liberties experts.
The documents reveal for the first time in detail why at least one part of DHS purchased such information, and comes after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detailed its own purchase of the data. The documents also show for the first time that the data broker, called the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), tells government agencies not to mention where it sourced the flight data from.

“The big airlines—through a shady data broker that they own called ARC—are selling the government bulk access to Americans' sensitive information, revealing where they fly and the credit card they used,” Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement.

ARC is owned and operated by at least eight major U.S. airlines, other publicly released documents show. The company’s board of directors include representatives from Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and European airlines Lufthansa and Air France, and Canada’s Air Canada. More than 240 airlines depend on ARC for ticket settlement services.

ARC’s other lines of business include being the conduit between airlines and travel agencies, finding travel trends in data with other firms like Expedia, and fraud prevention, according to material on ARC’s YouTube channel and website. The sale of U.S. flyers’ travel information to the government is part of ARC’s Travel Intelligence Program (TIP).

A Statement of Work included in the newly obtained documents, which describes why an agency is buying a particular tool or capability, says CBP needs access to ARC’s TIP product “to support federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to identify persons of interest’s U.S. domestic air travel ticketing information.” 404 Media obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The new documents obtained by 404 Media also show ARC asking CBP to “not publicly identify vendor, or its employees, individually or collectively, as the source of the Reports unless the Customer is compelled to do so by a valid court order or subpoena and gives ARC immediate notice of same.”

The Statement of Work says that TIP can show a person’s paid intent to travel and tickets purchased through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories. The data from the Travel Intelligence Program (TIP) will provide “visibility on a subject’s or person of interest’s domestic air travel ticketing information as well as tickets acquired through travel agencies in the U.S. and its territories,” the documents say. They add this data will be “crucial” in both administrative and criminal cases.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The US has a very long history of pubic protesting and protester who get out of hand. Local police are almost always able to handle the situations even when some people get out of control. Governors can call for NG support if they choose to. It is not, legally< a presidential action. And, the constitution forbids the use of US military in be used for internal control issues. As usual, Trump is trying to break the system to be king.

 

[Angst]

I'm not going to quibble about dollar figures.

"the dollars matter - wait not like that"

Needless to say the level of damage is not conducive to what you originally described as some sort of peace march because you admittedly (then) did not follow this story.

attempted rhetorical shift. see my other post.

on me following, been following since thursday. i saw the cars. your knowledge of how these things work is tiring.

case in point

so just to introduce some more news, there has been a lot going on over the weekend, in a fast-moving story which suggests the situation is being escalated to that of a riot:

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/national-guard-troops-los-angeles-immigration-protests/

might have to do with the fact they're sending in 3k troops to enforce legal disappearing of members of the la community.

the situation is fundamentally unjust and is demonstrative of trump's enforcement of his directive. you are not allowed to break the law, he is. you are not allowed to riot, he is. that some cars burn is such a red herring and if you truly think it's the important part, it's because you choose to be ignorant. it's pearl clutching that you can't believe property damage would happen in this situation, and it is absolutely indicative of your position.

you don't have to make the argument, is the thing.

stop arguing about cars. understand the point of escalation. denounce the f us government, not the people they're disappearing or the people who riot over disappearances.

 

[Angst]

Well except the video where you can clearly see the pig intentionally target her

like it's clear as day. the guy just aims in the side of the frame and shoots at her lol

did yall see the cop trying to get their horse to trample a protester

fun stuff

 

[GoneFishingX]

like it's clear as day. the guy just aims in the side of the frame and shoots at her lol

did yall see the cop trying to get their horse to trample a protester

fun stuff

There was another one where the horse did trample a lady and she was carried off to the hospital by bystanders.

Also that insane video where a cop is blaming the protestors after he shot a rubber bullet at a woman's head. Another cop was bandaging her bloody scalp, while they waited for an ambulance.

As usual, the cops take any minor excuse to bully and brutalize people. They know they will suffer no consequences for even the most obvious acts of unprompted violence.

 

[danjuno]

Republicans pretending to care about police brutality after 1/6 was hilarious. Open and unapologetic political violence is their modus operandi. This is just returning to form.

 

[Lexicus]

did yall see the cop trying to get their horse to trample a protester

I did indeed, fortunately horses are both morally and intellectual superior to those creatures

As usual, the cops take any minor excuse to bully and brutalize people. They know they will suffer no consequences for even the most obvious acts of unprompted violence.

Yep, they glorify it, call themselves warriors, wear punisher t-shirts and everything and then cry like toddlers when one of them gets whacked

 

[Voidwalkin]

What do we think about the effectiveness of protest?

I don't really expect it to shake the status quo. I expect, tbh, it to benefit Trump. He's giddy. It provides excuses for action, which fascist advisors love, and allows Trump to satiate the more extreme supporters demands of deportation while falling well short of meeting targets.

What is the role of protest today, then? If unaccompanied by organization drives, mass boycott, does it really...do anything?

If the goal is to change minds, moral indignation does not appear to work, probably because the minds that would need changing have a distinctly different moral lens and have spent the past 60 years losing ground in the culture war. They're ok with use of state power.

Realistically, probably better off sending bilingual organizers to podunk towns handing out union fliers. Protest is romantic but kinda...eh.

 

[Arwon]

There is a significant virtue in direct action to make the lives of these immigration thugs much harder. They're trying to kidnap and imprison heaps innocent people, anything they do which interferes with that is intrinsically useful. The focus of these actions has been the physical locations of the imprisonment.

This is just one visible example of resistance, people are doing plenty of other organising. For example some of the people these arseholes are going after, are being targeted over flyers and posters with information about ICE, information strategies that are clearly affecting them. We've seen a high school in Massachusetts stage a walkout to go protest after they just grabbed a teenager off the street. We've seen examples of them just being chased away by the public when they try to grab people. Every little bit of opposition helps.

 

[Voidwalkin]

There is a significant virtue in direct action to make the lives of these immigration thugs much harder. They're trying to kidnap and imprison heaps innocent people, anything they do which interferes with that is intrinsically useful. The focus of these actions has been the physical locations of the imprisonment.

This is just one visible example of resistance, people are doing plenty of other organising. For example some of the people these arseholes are going after, are being targeted over flyers and posters with information about ICE, information strategies that are clearly affecting them. We've seen examples of them just being chased away by the public when they try to grab people. Every little bit helps.

I dunno, I have become increasingly skeptical of protest over the years.

I think we no longer have the social structures that exerted pressure alongside it, which were equally if not more important. Union membership, way down. Even often mocked religiosity was influential in the famously successful 60s protests, and it is also way down.

Millions marched in the streets against the invasion of Iraq. Still went through.

I dunno how you motivate a nation of increasingly disconnected, isolated individuals to have effect. We are good at being an internet commentariat, passing judgment on this or that happening. But this does not move things; and few actually demonstrate(while without those other social structures providing basis, even if millions did demonstrate, effectiveness would still be in dispute)

I only discuss it because I've come to wonder if what I'd describe as a romanticization of protest is actually unhealthy. I've wondered for a little while if the presumption of success is unsound or should be re-evaluated. I certainly doubt 400 protestors will shake the Trump admin. 400 protestors in every American town might(though whether that would dip Trump's support below 40 is in doubt, and 40 is all he needs) but realistically, there is no shot of that when the social organizations who would have lent it weight are defunct.

 

[Arwon]

I think huffing your own farts about the philosophy of political resistance while it's actually unfolding is basically pointless lol. People are trying to protect their communities from autocratic thuggery, it's really not complicated. When these people show up to grab people off the streets you can either respond, or you can put your head down and allow it. You don't really need a well thought out program of political revolution in order to act

 

[Lexicus]

I think huffing your own farts about the philosophy of political resistance while it's actually unfolding is basically pointless lol. People are trying to protect their communities from autocratic thuggery, it's really not complicated. When these people show up to grab people off the streets you can either respond, or you can put your head down and allow it. You don't really need a well thought out program of political revolution in order to act

Worth pointing out that 1800s liberals in the US routinely engaged in the same kind of hand-wringing condemnations of literal slaves who violently revolted against their masters

 

[Arwon]

ICE Releases Gavin Newsom Beheading Video

WASHINGTON—Disseminating grainy footage of the California Democrat meeting his disturbing and bloody end, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a video Tuesday in which Gov. Gavin Newsom is seen being beheaded. “This is a message to the enemies of immigration enforcement: Gov. Newsom’s...

theonion.com

 

[Arwon]

Worth pointing out that 1800s liberals in the US routinely engaged in the same kind of hand-wringing condemnations of literal slaves who violently revolted against their masters

Not just them, plenty of participants in the French revolutionary National Assembly were very keen to outright defend their plantation interests in Haiti.

 

[Voidwalkin]

political resistance while it's actually unfolding

Let's not get carried away. Unless my numbers are inaccurate(slept most of Sunday and working much since), it's 1000 people. From NBC LA.

It is a national story because of the response of the Trump administration. The scale of that protest was not super eye-popping.

People are trying to protect their communities from autocratic thuggery, it's really not complicated. When these people show up to grab people off the streets

Yes, that has been established, if it wasn't already.

I kinda wanted to talk about whether or not we can actually expect protests to move the needle, though, and this is less clear. Oh well, I suppose.

You may be thinking the implication is doesn't work, don't do it? In reality, I don't care about whether they do or do not. I tend to be pretty deterministic about public opinion. I think it reacts in certain ways to certain stimuli in a predictable if imprecise manner. In other words, a certain percentage of pop is probably going to support protestors, and a certain percentage Trump, for reasons of varying cultural inheritances, random personality preferences, etc.

What I am suspecting is that the, shall we say, turnout intensifiers are down relative to past eras, and that it may be time to consider new forms of exertion of influence.

Amusingly, and against conventional wisdom, I kinda wonder if a sustained effort to change opinion in your average conservative subreddit may actually change more minds than protesting itself.

 

[Arwon]

Yeah man the real revolution is to be found by getting posts deleted in r/maga, great call there champ

Get off the streets and onto your phones, it's time for Going To The Subreddits.

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

"the dollars matter - wait not like that"

attempted rhetorical shift. see my other post.

on me following, been following since thursday. i saw the cars. your knowledge of how these things work is tiring.

case in point

might have to do with the fact they're sending in 3k troops to enforce legal disappearing of members of the la community.

the situation is fundamentally unjust and is demonstrative of trump's enforcement of his directive. you are not allowed to break the law, he is. you are not allowed to riot, he is. that some cars burn is such a red herring and if you truly think it's the important part, it's because you choose to be ignorant. it's pearl clutching that you can't believe property damage would happen in this situation, and it is absolutely indicative of your position.

you don't have to make the argument, is the thing.

stop arguing about cars. understand the point of escalation. denounce the f us government, not the people they're disappearing or the people who riot over disappearances.

i) I notice how very carefully you worded this [bolded] and I must say I'm genuinely impressed.
Because even if those arrested in the raids are ultimately guilty of being illegal aliens (and I won't say if they are!), apparently in your eyes, Trump would still be morally guilty of stealing away "members of the LA community" as if being so is some fundamental civil right.
I imagine this can be a new line of argument versus ICE. Whether it'll be effective, I don't know...

ii) also, who was disappeared in last Friday's raids? (Maybe there have been, I don't know, but you seem pretty sure of it). The news I've seen says they were arrested. I'm assuming deportation proceedings will happen next; unless now there really is no difference between that happening and "disappearing" someone. Unless these protestors are just responding to the general air of the Trump regime right now. Which, er, okay...but like setting things alight and blocking traffic and throwing bricks at cops etc. doesn't scream "yeah LA is a real safe place without you outside agitators coming in here". Like what if I'm their neighbor and I cut off one of these guys in the supermarket line? Does my place get torched next? I'd sort-of question their ability to rationalize mob behavior into inducing real legal change.

It's all too easy to ignore the demonstrations where there was no unrest, especially when Trump created the situation with ICE abducting law-abiding people, deliberately exacerbated the situation by being the first president to federalise the National guard against the governor's wishes for 60 years, and even started mass detainments of people at the demonstration, yet all you can manage to say is "stop rioting" and pooh-poohed any comparison with other notorious authoritarians.

There is a historical similarity. Quite. But perhaps not in the way you think. See, in both instances, a president was enforcing a law which local officials refused to comply with. In the 1950s, Dwight Eisenhower did not like Arkansas schools not wanting racial integration. So if LA officials (and maybe Gov Newsome) want to take the side of the Stars and Bars, I guess that's their prerogative.

 

[Birdjaguar]

1800 anti Trump rallies are scheduled for Saturday all across the nation as Trump wash is tanks parade in front of him. That is a very big number.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

If people get organized they can paralyze the country indefinitely and put Trump on his knees as nothing else.

 

[IglooDame]

https://theonion.com/ice-releases-gavin-newsom-beheading-video/

Ummm... A CW on that would have been nice, tbh, since TheOnion label shows up at the bottom of the blurb not the top.