The demented moron is 80 years old. He doesn't care anymore. He never cared anyway, so would he now? ======================================================= James Carville Fears Trump Will Declare Martial Law and Rig the Elections Kenneal Patterson Wed, April 9, 2025
Democratic strategist James Carville warned Americans Tuesday that Donald Trump might try to declare martial law and even rig the midterm elections.
During a Q&A segment on his Politics War Room podcast, Carville said people were right to be worried about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. Listeners asked if there was a risk that Trump could halt the U.S. democratic process. “Is Trump looking to spark enough protest to justify declaring martial law in 2026 thus suspending the election?” asked one.
“You’re so correct to be concerned about this,” Carville said. “They deserve a serious answer. And a serious answer is not necessarily an encouraging answer.”
He said the threat of Trump disregarding election laws was very real. “It’s getting worse by the day. It is not going to stop getting worse. And I would be—we ought to be—on high, high alert,” he said.
Last month, the president claimed he wasn’t joking about an unconstitutional third term in office. Carville said that Americans have a right to be worried about Trump's regime. / Emma McIntyre / Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
“I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Trump does not like the United States,” Carville said. “He doesn’t like our laws, he does not like our Constitution.”
Carville said that if Trump is “going down,” he’ll take the country with him.
“He is not loyal to the United States of America. He does not like this country. He criticizes it all the time. He has affection for dictators. He has an affection for authoritarianism,” he said.
“I’ve said, and yet, continue to believe even stronger every day—we’re in the midst of a collapse,” said Carville, who rose to prominence after being a lead strategist in Bill Clinton’s winning 1992 presidential campaign. Trump has signed several executive orders that some Democratic representatives say are unconstitutional. / Nathan Howard / Nathan Howard/REUTERS
Carville continued: “He’s gonna try anything he can and to help himself, of course, I believe the man genuinely wants to hurt the country.”
Trump allies, including his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, have suggested that Trump should be able to run again since his two terms in the White House were not consecutive.
The president told NBC News March 30 that “there are methods” to get around the constitutional limit.
“I wish we could have him for 20 years as our president,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox News Sunday. “But I think he’s going to be finished, probably, after this.”
When asked why she used “probably,” Bondi simply said it would be a “heavy lift” to overhaul the Constitution.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez Sounds Alarm Over Trump Administration’s ‘Absolute Pattern of Censorship and Control’ Carolyn Giardina Wed, April 9, 2025
FCC commissioner Anna M. Gomez warned broadcasters of her grave concerns over what she sees as a “disturbing” pattern of efforts by the Trump administration to impose politically motivated controls over news media outlets.
Gomez spoke with urgency Monday during a Q&A session held at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas.
“My alarm over what we are seeing today is so high right now that I will not stop speaking out because I have to. I cannot allow this to continue without raising alarm bells. And I really hope I’m not alone in doing that,” Gomez said in a moderated conversation with Wall Street Journal reporter Joe Flint and Q&A with conference delegates.
Topics included DEI policy regulations for private companies, following the FCC’s recent moves to open investigations into companies including Disney and ABC. “If we are going to get into the business of policing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices, I want to see where in the statute we have authority to do so,” she asserted. Describing this as “harassment,” she added, “when you see companies capitulating, that is the end goal.”
She viewed investigations into and public broadcasters such as NPR and PBS as a “fishing expedition to find a reason to tell Congress to defund public broadcasting. I don’t think it’s really because there was any evidence of any wrongdoing whatsoever. … I worry that this is about shutting down voices.” The FCC is also in a charged battle with CBS News over its investigation of politically charged “news distortion” complaint against CBS’ New York flagship station related to “60 Minutes’ ” interview broadcast last October with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
During the session, Gomez reminded delegates that the FCC is an independent agency created by Congress. “It is important that we are seen as an expert agency that is driven by technological decisions in the public interest and not controlled by a political agenda,” she said. “It is particularly important for media regulation, which is why we were set up as an independent agency a long time ago, because there were fears of the type of interference that you are now seeing today from the White House down with media, whether it’s our broadcasters, public media and internet platforms, all in the attempt to control speech.”
She elaborated, “not only have we seen the actions against the broadcasters for editorial decisions that this administration doesn’t like. We’ve seen this administration, throughout the administration, threaten tech companies for their moderation practices to give consumers an environment that they want and to fast check this information. … it is an absolute pattern of censorship and control. If we let them do this, it will be to the harm of this country.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was appointed by President Trump and assumed the role in January. Gomez, who will soon be the only Democrat on the commission as Geoffrey Stark has announced that he will step down this spring, was the only commissioner to attend the convention, something the NAB attributed to federal employee travel suspensions. “I felt it was important enough for me to come to meet with broadcasters and to speak, and so I self funded,” Gomez responded when asked about her participation, receiving applause.
On the current FCC dynamic, Gomez said, “Chairman Carr cares very deeply about ensuring that he collaborates well with other commissioners and the commission. I realize that I have been very passionate in my concerns about what the FCC is doing, but on a personal level, he and I actually work very well together.” She added, “I would really love to see the commission pivot away from these culture wars, from these areas that are outside of our statutory agreement, and focus on our core mission, which we can do on a bipartisan basis.”
Asked to looking ahead, Gomez restated her concerns and shared a call to action. “That level of control and censorship is really terrifying, so I’m afraid of where we’re going to be in two years if we allow it to continue.” She urged those that can, to “continue to speak up and hold their ground.”
“I can imagine that there is a chilling effect at play here, where whoever speaks up is going to be targeted,” she continued, adding, “sticking your neck is not not the easiest thing to do. But I would hope that if they are targeted, that they, in fact, think about the repercussions on our democracy.”
Gomez, a Democrat, was appointed to the FCC in 2023.
I think Ryanair is taking lessons from American Airlines on how to mistreat flying passengers. Instead of graciously offering a drink to folks returning home aboard its aircraft, Ryanair chose to have them arrested by police. All for $9 worth of drinks and snacks.
Still, not having $9 cash on you when flying from Spain to England sounds odd. But that is probably the clientele that Ryanair attracts: pennyless voyagers!
A Couple Ordered Pringles, a Coke and a Water on Their Flight. Then They Were Escorted Off the Plane by Police
Ann-Marie Murray, 55, says her credit card wouldn't swipe on a recent Ryanair flight, and the repercussions weren't what she or her fellow passengers anticipated
A British couple learned the hard way that the price of airplane snacks might be their dignity.
On March 28, a couple was escorted off their Ryanair flight from Tenerife, Spain en route to Bristol, U.K. after being unable to pay for the snacks they acquired onboard, according to a report from SWNS via the New York Post,
The wife, Ann-Marie Murray, 55, ordered Pringles, a bottle of water, and a Coca-Cola for nearly $9, but when she went to pay, she claims, the in-flight payment system wasn’t accepting her credit card and the couple didn’t have enough cash between them to pay.
Murray’s husband offered to pay for the snacks when they landed in Bristol, however, the flight crew reportedly declined this alternative and accused the couple of “refusing to pay.” The passengers alleged that the crew took their boarding passes and told them that the police would be waiting for them when they touched down in the U.K.
As promised, the police boarded the aircraft when it landed at Bristol Airport.
“I thought it was a joke when the crew said they had called the police,” she explained. “I was shocked when the police came on board and we were asked to leave. It was so embarrassing. I had done everything I could to resolve it.”
SWNS Cop looking at passenger from front seat of police van
In a statement from Ryanair obtained by PEOPLE, a spokesperson said, “The crew of this flight from Tenerife to Bristol called ahead for police assistance after a passenger and her travel companion failed to pay for their food and drinks onboard, and as a result, became disruptive toward crew and failed to follow reasonable crew requests.”
Murray claims that she “wasn’t disruptive,” per SWNS, and that “there were no raised voices” between her and her husband and the flight crew.
In a video of the altercation obtained by PEOPLE, Murray could be heard telling the police officers that the situation was “a silly misunderstanding.” She also added that a pair of passengers on their flight informed her and her husband that the card payment system had been broken on a previous flight as well.
However, the airline refuted the claim that the payment system was malfunctioning, alleging, “There were no issues with the card payment terminals on board this flight and no other passenger encountered any difficulty making payments.”
Murray said she also asked for CCTV footage of the incident, but was allegedly told that the airline could not release the video.
What is it with the Trump administration's officials? Like Pete Hegseth, they take their alcoholism with them around the world.
The senior member of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's security detail has clashed with a hotel manager in Brussels who refused to open the hotel bar after hours for them so they get drunk. When police arrived and arrested him, he resisted arrest and had a fight with the police officers.
But apparently the US Supreme Court says Rubio's bodyguards have immunity and after the US embassy intervened, the drunkard was released. Then a State Department spokesperson excused the behavior of the security detail members by saying that they work very hard!
Nothing to be embarrassed about. It's the dumb and ugly quality of the Fraternity Boys Administration after all.
Member of Rubio’s security team arrested in Brussels after fight with local police Katie Hawkinson Tue, April 8, 2025
A member of the Secretary of State’s security team was arrested in Brussels after becoming physically aggressive with a hotel staff member and confrontational with local police, according to a new report.
Marco Rubio and his security team were in Brussels last week for a NATO summit when the incident occurred, according to The Washington Examiner. The Diplomatic Security Service, of which the member was a senior agent, is “aware of the incident” and the “allegations are being examined,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to The Independent.
The Diplomatic Security Service is the State Department’s security team, which protects diplomats and helps combat transnational crimes, including passport and visa fraud.
On March 31, a shift supervisor assigned to Rubio’s detail reportedly became irate when staff at Hotel Amigo refused to reopen the bar after it had closed. When the staff and night manager tried to tell the staff member to return to his room, he became physically aggressive, the Examiner reports, and law enforcement was called.
Rabbit-eared Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American immigrant and Trump's Secretary of State
The security detail then got in an altercation with officers, leading to his arrest.
They released him from police custody hours later after the U.S. embassy intervened, according to the Examiner.
The Examiner did not publish the agent’s name, and the State Department did not provide the agent’s name when asked by The Independent.
An anonymous State Department employee told the Examiner that shift supervisors on Rubio’s detail have “an incomprehensible workload.”
“They are responsible for all the agents under them, scheduling, evaluations and a preposterous amount of admin work [as well as] performing the actual shift work,” the employee said.
“They work 6 to 7 days a week,” the employee added. “I truly believe this was the result of incomprehensible strain [the agent] was placed under and, at the very least, [Diplomatic Security Service] owes [the agent] a very fair evaluation of these circumstances in their totality – looking deep into [DSS’s] own role [in what happened].”
US Tourism sector to suffer a downfall with fewer overseas tourists wanting to come here and be humiliated at ports of entry by an immigration service looking more like the Nazi Gestapo. And US tourists going overseas should also expect to be treated like scum because the demented moron president they elected is exposing the dumb and ugly nature of Americans in general.
I can say with assurance that Americans will stab their president in the back when facing hostility from overseas people: They'll say Trump is a problem, they'll lie that they didn't vote for him, etc. I know Americans, I've lived long enough around them to know.
Cornered and confronted: American tourists are facing a scary backlash
Emily Stewart
Updated
Jen
Donahue can't help but wonder whether a fellow skier took a bit of
subtle revenge on her during a recent trip to Canada. Donahue and her
husband, who are from California, took a trip up to Whistler, British
Columbia, in March to enjoy the slopes. On their very first gondola ride
up the mountain, they were seated next to a Canadian couple. While
almost everyone else they met on the trip was very nice, the woman in
the couple, Donahue said, was "straight mean." She was angry about the US's recent antagonism toward Canada, insisting Donahue and her husband make sure they buy Canadian products while on their visit and expressing dismay at the state of political affairs between the two countries.
"I
think they're taking it really personally. She felt, personally, 'How
could you do this to us? We've been so kind to you,'" Donahue said.
The
woman's husband eventually got her to lay off, but before they parted
ways, she gave the pair of American travelers some advice on which ski
run to try. "She sent us down the most awful way, and we were like, 'Do
you think she did that on purpose?'" Donahue said.
The
spring and summer travel season is upon us. It's a time when people are
excited to take a much-needed break and head out on vacation, in many
cases, to a foreign destination. This year, American travelers are
confronting a novel political scenario as President Donald Trump has
taken a hostile stance toward countries that have historically been
considered strong allies, such as Canada and those within the European
Union. He's put in place widespread tariffs. His administration has issued loud public complaints about trade and defense relations with Europe. The president keeps joking about taking Greenland from Denmark and making Canada the 51st US state in a way that seems increasingly not jokey.
For
many Americans living and traveling abroad, their home nation turning
into a global frenemy is making things uncomfortable. Some are
rethinking their travel plans, and those who remain undeterred are
bracing for some thorny conversations. In recent days, I talked to
tourists and expats about how tensions were playing out in their
journeys, and the consensus was that while the situation isn't dire,
it's making things awkward. People travel to get away from reality, but
this year, they're having a harder time achieving that. As the saying
goes, wherever you go, there you are — or, rather, there are your
country's politics.
Donahue
goes to Whistler once a year or so, and before this past trip, she had
never had a political conversation in Canada. This time around, politics
came up often — people would ask about it, they'd all hesitantly laugh,
and she and her husband would explain they think it "sucks," too.
"Everybody else almost felt sorry for us," she said. "It's
embarrassing."
Inbound travel to the US from many foreign nations is expected to take a hit this year. Flight bookings from Canada to the States have plunged this year, and Canadian airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet have reduced flights to US destinations. Bookings from Europe to the US have fallen,
too. Foreign travelers are turned off by America's inward turn and
adversarial stance. They've also seen stories about tougher border
security and travelers being detained upon entry into the US. Some
countries, such as the UK and Germany, have put in place warnings for
their citizens regarding travel to the US.
American tourists may also be scaling back some of their international travel plans.
An analysis from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, of third-party
air travel bookings from major US hubs to major European cities found
that 12.6% fewer reservations had been made so far this year for June,
July, and August compared with the same period last year. The Airlines
Reporting Corp., which provides air transaction data, found that both
international and domestic flight sales fell in February for US-based
travel agencies compared to a year ago. International sales fell less
than domestic sales, but both declines are a bad sign, given booking
habits. I'm not bringing the usual pride that I have as an American.
"Because
of the deeper advance discounts and higher dollar price rise closer to
day of departure, summer international tends to book sooner than
domestic," Bob Mann, an aviation analyst, said in an email. He added
that at a JPMorgan analyst-investor conference in March, multiple
executives brought up poor recent sales, including international and
transatlantic. "While one month is not a trend, it could signal an
inflection point," he said.
To
be sure, if Americans do scale back on air travel this summer, it may
not be because they're worried about politics. Virgin Atlantic has said it's seeing a slowdown in travel from the US to the UK, citing economic uncertainty. Consumers are concerned about the economy and their own income prospects,
and that may lead more of them to stay home or wait on booking. Still,
for some travelers, the potential for negative international attitudes
may be part of the calculation.
Even
if American travelers aren't staying home, they're readying themselves
for some questions and encounters they haven't dealt with in the past.
On the American travel guru Rick Steves' blog, there's lengthy advice
(and debate) about whether Americans are still welcome abroad. Forums
on Reddit have intense discussions among expats and tourists about what
to anticipate, how to handle tense situations, and a sense that this
year is different from years past.
Leila
Bulling Towne, an executive coach in California, told me she's
rethinking her approach to her coming trips — she's going to Mexico in
the spring, and then in June, she'll be in Germany and Belgium. She has
both American and Irish passports, and she plans to travel with both,
just in case. Bulling Towne has traveled a lot throughout her life, and
she never imagined she'd be so worried about her reception as an
American.
"I
felt like in the past, the worst that maybe people assumed about
Americans was that we were loud and maybe not polite in a church or
didn't respect someone or assumed everybody spoke English," she said.
"Now, I feel as if it's a little I'm not bringing the usual pride that I
have as an American."
Bulling
Towne has a lot of friends and family in Germany, and she said they'd
been "quite honest that there's a pretty good anti-American sentiment"
there. "As much as I can try and speak the local German dialect, I'm
still going to be loud and clear coming through as an American," she
added.
Carol Harms, a
retired teacher from Seattle who's doing a lot of foreign travel in her
golden years, told me in an email she tries to avoid the topic of
politics as much as possible in her journeys "because, on a personal
level, I am ashamed" of the Trump administration's actions. Politics
talk doesn't make for great vacation talk, but it's sometimes
unavoidable. She was just landing in London when the November election
results came in, and people were "puzzled" — good-natured but curious.
In
January, on a cruise in South Africa with a lot of Brits and
Australians, almost everyone asked her about the election. "Most
continued to be polite but were far less cheerful than before," she
said. "One outspoken Trump supporter was avoided by most people." Now
she's in Japan, surrounded by many Brits and Australians once again, and
their attitudes have changed drastically. "Many of them are simply
angry," she said, though it's not directed at her personally. "They feel
completely let down."
Ambrose
Conroy, a management consultant from California, has found that in many
of his recent business travels, his clients in Ireland and Germany are
clamoring for clarity.
"A
lot of these people are people that I've known for a very long time. I
think they're confused and frustrated by US policy," he said. "We're
dividing the world with this right now, and unless we get simplicity and
clarity, it's going to continue to be divisive."
Some
American expats find themselves in situations where their home country
is now antagonizing the country they call home. That's the case for
Elizabeth Van Horne, an English teacher from Colorado who's been living
in France since 2013. Her French accent is good enough that people don't
immediately realize that she's American, but once they figure it out,
they inevitably want to talk Trump. "He's front and center of all those
conversations," she said. Some people treat her with a sense of concern —
as though she's gone through a natural disaster. "The vibe that I've
been getting is pity," she added.
It's hard to see the place you love so much is being viewed so negatively.
She
teaches English to many business students, who historically have wanted
to travel to the US to visit or even launch their careers. This year,
she has only one student who wants to go to America; the rest are going
to try Canada, Australia, or maybe the UK. A colleague who was going to
visit the US with her family has decided to delay the trip.
"It's
hard to see the place you love so much is being viewed so negatively,"
she said. Her infant son has dual citizenship, and she wonders what
he'll think of the US when he gets older, if he'll want to visit or live
there. "I don't know what his view will be."
The
complications of traveling while American are hardly new. American
tourists have long had a certain reputation — they're loud, they're
entitled, they don't try to speak the language. There's a reason "tell
people you're Canadian" is common travel advice, even if that may be an
urban legend. (Though reporting for this story, I did come across a
Canadian who was worried people might confuse her for an American while
she was abroad.)
Trump
is hardly the only politician whose policies American travelers have
had to reckon with while on the road. During the George W. Bush years,
they had to answer questions about a president who launched two
unpopular wars and a culture that tried to make "freedom fries" a thing.
More recently, with President Joe Biden, they had to explain why a
country would try to reelect someone so old and try to justify some of
his global policies.
Tom
Predhome, a retired consultant from New York who moved to Malta in
2023, said Trump is a "natural topic of conversation" when people meet
Americans there, but he also found under Biden there was a lot of
concern about foreign policy, namely, Israel and Gaza. "You'll get
people saying things like, 'Oh, Biden or Trump is really no different,'"
he said. In 2017, he and his wife were with a tour group in Borneo,
where the topic of Trump was so contentious that things between some
American tourists almost came to blows. He remembers telling the tour
guide, "I'm sorry. I apologize for my country."
The point of travel is that it's supposed to be a way to leave worries behind. It's a chance to escape from the day-to-day,
to forget for a while about obligations and work and responsibilities —
and, in theory, politics. I don't know about you, but my idea of a good
time on vacation is not lying on the beach and chatting about how
Republicans are going to keep their small-margin coalition together as
they negotiate the next reconciliation bill.
But
this travel season, Americans may have no choice but to face some of
the Trump-composed music and deal with some less-than-friendly hosts. As
much as Donahue was a little flabbergasted that the Canadian skier had
sent her and her husband down a bad path, they heeded her advice with
regard to what else to do while they were there. They bought Canadian
products, including sweatshirts from a very obvious local brand. They
tipped extra. Her husband wore the same sweatshirt with a Canadian flag
and a beaver on it every day. "We wanted to blend in," she said.
Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.
Fox News keeps marketing the "Angel mom" brand (white middle America women who say a child of theirs was killed or raped by an immigrant to the US). While this is an undeniable and sad fact, it is nowhere sufficient to justify the mass deportations and persecutions of immigrants that is being carried out by the Trump administration.
99% of all crimes in the US are committed by US-born criminals. Which means that deporting those immigrants with criminal records WILL NOT change the harsh reality of the so-called American Nightmare: inborn violence, school mass shootings, rampant gun ownership, America's birth was itself a massive organized crime against Black Africans and Native Amerindians, the staple of US culture is in such organizations as the KKK, the NRA, and all the violent and racist veins the run deep in the American psyche. Deprived of humanistic diplomacy skills, the US always resorts to wars and criminality (e.g. assassinations of rival leaders) in order to solve problems that are more often imagined than real. Whether on purpose or by sheer innate brutality, the US thinks that violence is always the solution.
Fox News focuses on the 0.1 % of all crimes that are committed by immigrants for one reason and one only: To denigrate ALL immigrants and express its xenophobia. The irony is that no American, except the native Amerindians, can claim to be native to the land. Every friggin' American is an immigrant or a one- or two-generations-removed child of immigrants. No one, except the native indigenous tribes of the American continent, has the upper ground on who belongs and who does not belong to this land.
Hence, Fox News and the Trump Administration have ONE objective in what they are doing: THEY ARE TERRIFIED THAT "DARKER-SKINNED" AMERICANS WILL EVENTUALLY REPLACE THE "WHITE-SKINNED" AMERICANS. By deporting, persecuting, harassing, terrorizing, etc. newer immigrant classes from mostly African, Asian, Arab, or Latin American origins, the racists of Fox News and Trump hope to artificially maintain the inexorably disappearing European stock white majority, slated to become a minority, albeit still the largest, by 2050.
Everything that Trump is doing should be viewed under that angle. Project 2025 is itself the "Mein Kampf" bible for neo-Nazis, white supremacists, Christian nationalists, Evangelical barbarian colonialists, and for Trump himself.
The collusion between the Zionist regime led by war criminal Benyamin Netanyahu and the authoritarian illiberal regime of convicted criminal felon Donald Dumb keeps reaching new heights. Beyond the genocide they are perpetrating in Palestine and their impending ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population, international students at dozens of US universities have seen their visas revoked because they are merely suspected of protesting the genocide carried out by foreign settler Jews in colonized Palestine in collusion with the United States.
The message: Comply with the official pro-Zionist narrative of deception and lies, or else we will ruin your life! Do not speak out. You have no freedom of conscience, speech or opinion.
That the collusion between the US and Israel has reached such depths of criminality and authoritarianism is a symptom of one thing: The Zionist narrative of 80 years of lies and dehumanization of the indigenous population of Palestine is unraveling. People around the world are watching the barbarism that foreign Jewish settlers are capable of, in spite of the fact that they are NOT the victims in this case: They are the perpetrators of the original crime (1948) of dispossessing the indigenous population of Palestine of their lands - with much terrorism, looting, rape, home demolition, forced expulsions - and now that the Palestinians are resisting, the foreign Jewish settlers are branding them anti-Semitic terrorists. Since when have the indigenous Semitic Palestinians defending their own country against invading hordes of foreign Eastern European and Russian converts to Judaism (i.e. blond, blue-eyed non-Semites) become terrorists and antisemites in the heartland of Semitic culture that the Near East and Palestine have always been?
Remember: Antisemitism is a Western ideology born in the European continent, not in the Semitic East where Jews and Muslims have lived in harmony for millennia. Anti-semitism could never have emerged from the Semitic Near-Middle East whose 500 million people are all Semites. ALL Semites (Egyptians, Phoenicians, Syrians, East Africans, Arabs, Ethiopians, etc...), and not only Jews, are the targets of European antisemitism just as they always have been targets of western colonialism.
Since the fake "Judeo-Christian" construct is the perpetrator of ALL anti-Jewish persecutions and yet is the founder of the Zionist movement and its colony in Palestine, it goes without saying that colonialism and Zionism are therefore one and the same thing. Islamophobia and Arabophobia, the denigration of the Phoenician, Hebraic and Egyptian contributions to western culture, are all forms of antisemitism. Antisemitism, just like Zionism, was born out of the womb of European colonialism. Jews are only a tiny fraction of the broader Semitic world and yet they have monopolized the "term" and limited it to only themselves, thus presenting thermsleves as its only victims. Meanwhile, the real Semites, the real victims of Western Zionist colonialism are the Palestinians.
If you are a lawyer, attorney, advocate with sympathy for the Palestinian cause, leave your cell phone behind you if you decide to travel to the US or simply cancel your trip. ====================================================
DETROIT FREE PRESS
Lawyer for Univ of Michigan protester detained at airport Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press Tue, April 8, 2025
A lawyer's spring break trip to the Dominican Republic with his family ended on a troubling note at Detroit Metro Airport on Sunday: He was detained by federal agents, questioned about his clients, and asked to give up his cellphone, he says.
But Dearborn attorney Amir Makled, who is representing a pro-Palestinian demonstrator who was arrested at the University of Michigan last year, stood his ground. He didn't give up his phone.
"I'm an American citizen. I'm not worried about being deported," Makled said he recalled thinking to himself in the airport interrogation room. "So, I tell them, 'I know you can take my phone. I'm not going to give you my phone, however ... 90% of my work is on my phone. You're not getting unfettered access to (it).' " Dearborn attorney Amir Makled, who represents a pro-Gaza demonstrator arrested at the University of Michigan in 2024, said federal agents tried to seize his cell phone at Detroit Metro Airport upon his arrival from a spring break trip with his family on April 6, 2025.
What followed was a 90-minute, back-and-forth verbal tussle between Makled and two federal agents, who, he said, ultimately released him without taking his phone, but looked at his contacts list instead. For the 38-year-old civil rights and criminal defense attorney, it was a daunting experience that he says highlights a troubling phenomenon that's occurring across the United States: Lawyers are getting targeted for handling issues the administration of President Donald Trump disagrees with.
'This administration is doing something that no administration has done — they're attacking attorneys'
Makled's airport experience comes in the wake of a memo that President Donald Trump issued to the U.S. Justice Department last month, in which he directed the agency to seek sanctions against attorneys, alleging they are helping fuel "rampant fraud and meritless claims" in the immigration system.
That's the bit that Makled said irritates him. He's not an immigration lawyer, he says. So why did the government want his phone, he asks?
"This current administration is doing something that no administration has done — they are attacking attorneys," Makled said, stressing lawyers from big and small firms alike are being targeted. "This is a different type of threat to the rule of law that I see. They are now challenging the judiciary, or lawyers, they're putting pressure (on them) to dissuade attorneys from taking on issues that are against the government's issues. We have an obligation as lawyers to stand up to this stuff."
In a statement to the Free Press, Customs and Border Protection Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham defended the government's airport tactics.
"Claims that CBP is searching more electronic media due to the administration change are false. CBP’s search numbers are consistent with increases since 2021, and less than 0.1% of travelers have their devices searched," the statement reads.
"These searches are conducted to detect digital contraband, terrorism-related content, and information relevant to visitor admissibility, all of which play a critical role in national security. Allegations that political beliefs trigger inspections or removals are baseless and irresponsible." Dad's photo raised red flags at airport: 'What the hell is going on?'
According to Makled, here are the events that unfolded at Detroit Metro Airport after his family landed back home from a five-day stay in Punta Canta:
It was about 7 p.m. when the Delta flight landed back at Detroit Metro. Makled, his wife and two daughters exited the plane and made their way to the passport checkpoint for screening. Their photos were taken.
Mom and the kids got through with no problem. But when Makled's photo was taken, a notification popped up and Makled said he heard one agent ask another agent: "Hey, are the TTRT folks around?"
"I thought, 'What the hell is that?' So, I Google that quickly," Makled recalled of the acronym.
He quickly learned that TTRT stands for Tactical Terrorism Response Team.
Makled said his wife looked at him and asked what was going on, but he said he didn't know. As the border agents let his wife and kids go, they took Makled into a small interrogation room.
'We know you're a lawyer'
While in the interrogation room, Makled said, a man in plain clothes entered and began speaking to him. He said he recalls the man telling him: "We know you're a lawyer. We know you take on big cases."
Makled said he responded: "I said, 'I’m not a famous lawyer. Let’s get to the bottom. What's the issue here?' "
According to Makled, there were two men in the room with him. One told him it's a federal crime to lie to a federal agent.
"I'm aware of that," Makled said. "But you're not identifying yourself."
One agent handed him a pamphlet about confiscating phones at the border. Makled, who is familiar with the law, said he was well aware that the government can confiscate one's phone for a period of time and then give it back. But he said he told the agents he wasn't going to let them have his phone because it contained privileged information with all of his clients.
So, he said, the agents asked for a list of texts that he believed to be privileged. Makled said he told them that that was impossible given his thousands of texts.
So they kept pushing.
"I said, 'Listen, why don’t you ask me what you want. What is it that you’re looking for, and I’ll decide if I’m going to give you the answer.' "
"He said, 'Nope. It doesn't work like that ... we want your contact list,' " Makled said he was told.
Makled agreed to let them see his contact list. The agents asked who various people were, though Makled said he only told them that they are his clients, nothing more.
The meeting ended with the agents writing up a report and releasing Makled without incident.
Before Makled left the room, he said he asked the agents whether this was going to be routine in the future — him getting stopped at airports and questioned.
The agent told him he didn't have an answer, but said he would write up a report and that "as a result, you should be fine," Makled said he was told.
Makled said he then left the room and soon reunited with his family. 'I have to be a person who can speak out'
Makled views himself as a respected lawyer in his community of Dearborn, where he is a partner in a law firm of five lawyers. He helps people through all kinds of legal trouble, he said, whether traffic tickets, or civil rights issues, or serious injuries.
His latest high-profile client is Samantha Lewis, who is among seven demonstrators arrested last year following her involvement at a pro-Palestinian protest on the U-M campus. While the seven defendants face misdemeanor trespassing charges, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also charged them with resisting arrest and obstructing police, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison.
Nessel has maintained that they used "physical force to counter" police who were trying to clear them from an encampment they had established on the diag. The students, however, have pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintain they were engaged in protected, free speech.
"I don’t know what triggered this," Makled said of his ordeal at the airport. "I don’t know if it’s a result of civil rights cases, or First Amendment issues involving student protesters. They wouldn’t tell me what it is."
But whatever the reason, Makled said, he's on notice now.
"We have an obligation as lawyers to stand up to this stuff," Makled said. "I have to be a person who can speak out when your rights are violated. We have to be the balancing act. We're a nation of laws. You gotta have lawyers."
And whether the government believes its "fear mongering" tactics are going to silence lawyers, Makled said he has a message: "It's not working," he said. "It's going to do the opposite."
Exclusive: U.S. Chamber of Commerce is considering suing the Trump administration to halt global tariff assault Jason Del Rey Updated Mon, April 7, 2025
The largest lobbying force for corporate America is considering suing the Trump administration to block the implementation of the president's new tariffs set to go into effect Wednesday, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions told Fortune.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents millions of U.S. businesses big and small but which is heavily funded by industry titans, has been weighing taking the tariff battle to the courts and is being urged to do so by some of its largest members. The move would effectively provide cover for companies distressed about the tariffs' impact on their businesses but fearful of incurring the President's wrath by openly criticizing his trade policy.
Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Matt Letourneau declined to comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the exact legal argument behind the group's potential suit could not be learned, the Chamber could argue that President Trump's invocation of emergency powers to impose the new tariffs is illegal. Last week a nonprofit called New Civil Liberties Alliance took a similar approach, filing suit on behalf of a small business owner who imports goods from China, arguing that the President did not have the legal authority to impose his February tariffs on China. Trump had done so by invoking the 50-year-old Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), arguing that China had not done enough to help stem the U.S. fentanyl crisis.
The President did so again when announcing the new worldwide slate of tariffs last week. But the NCLA argued that the IEEPA does not authorize a president to impose tariffs and noted that no president has ever attempted to use it to do so.
It's possible other groups could sue alongside the chamber, one of these people said.
Many big companies' CEOs have been resistant to speaking out against the tariffs, fearful of the President and his most vocal supporters targeting their business in retaliation. "No one wants a target on their back" is a common refrain. By working through trade groups like the Chamber of Commerce, companies can push back against the administration without sticking their neck out.
"You need to force your industry groups to take a much more combative position than they want to do if you’re afraid to do it yourself," Sean West, a veteran global affairs expert, told Fortune's Diane Brady for today's CEO Daily newsletter. "Industry groups are no longer just about kind of quietly slowing down policymaking. They can be a vehicle for safety in numbers."
While the chamber doesn't typically spar with Republican leaders, this wouldn't be the first time that it has sued to try to block Trump policy. In 2020, the business group sued the first Trump administration over its immigration policies, with its then CEO writing in an op-ed that "if you want businesses to grow and the economy to rebound, you allow skilled workers to come here legally to work and contribute to the well-being of our nation; you don’t lock them out."
After decades of voodoo bullshit pseudo-science hogwash and denial of diseases and the efficacy of vaccines, the charlatan US Health Secretary - with a frog in his throat and a worm in his brain - is now saying that Americans, particularly the backward stupid conservative Texans, may but are not obligatedto give the Measles vaccine to their kids.
Why the soft U-turn? Because children - WHOSE PARENTS DID NOT VACCINATE THEM BECAUSE RFK Jr TOLD THEM THEIR CHILDREN WOULD BECOME AUTISTIC IF THEY DID - are dying from Measles.
Obviously, in the twilight anti-science zone of a Donald Dumb administration, there is no accountability for saying things from a position of responsibility that can cause harm to thousands of people.
===============================================
RFK Jr., a vocal critic of vaccines, is now advocating for the MMR vaccine to stop measles from spreading in Texas
Aditi Bharade
Updated
RFK Jr. said the MMR vaccine was the "most effective way to prevent the spread of measles."
He previously touted Vitamin A as a possible treatment for the highly contagious disease.
There have been close to 500 reported cases of measles in Texas since January, most being children.
The US's new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is advocating for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine amid the ongoing measles outbreak in the country.
"The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine," Kennedy said in an X post
on Sunday, in which he said he visited the family of the second child
in Texas who died after contracting the highly contagious disease.
Kennedy
added in the post that he had deployed a team to supply pharmacies and
clinics in Texas with MMR vaccines and other medicines in March to
support the state during the outbreak.
The Texas Health Department said
on Sunday that the child who died from measles was not vaccinated
against the disease. The department added that 481 measles cases —
mostly children — have been reported in Texas since late January.
Kennedy has been a vocal critic of vaccines. When he launched his 2024 presidential bid, he vowed to cut funding for federal health agencies that regulate childhood vaccines.
But
during his January confirmation hearings by the Senate, he gave assurances that he and the Trump
administration would work within existing vaccine systems and
not remove vaccine guidance from government websites.
And in an opinion piece in Fox News in March, Kennedy said the MMR vaccine was "crucial to avoiding potentially deadly disease." However, he stopped short of mandating the vaccine, writing in the op-ed: "The decision to vaccinate is a personal one."
He then recommended Vitamin A
as a possible treatment for measles, adding that a balanced diet and
good nutrition "remains a best defense against most chronic and
infectious illnesses."
Representatives for the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
=================================================
More on the charlatan voodoo imbecile running the US Health Department:
Robert F Kennedy Jr claims anti-vax physicians healed ‘some 300 measles-stricken children’ Richard Luscombe Mon, April 7, 2025
Robert F. Kennedy Jr arrives at Reinlander Mennonite church after a second measles death in Seminole, Texas, on Sunday.Photograph: Annie Rice/AP
Robert F Kennedy Jr followed up his attendance at the Texas funeral of a child who died from measles by praising two unconventional “healers”, one of whom was previously disciplined by the state’s medical board for “unusual use of risk-filled medications”.
The US health secretary continued to send mixed messaging over the weekend about the measles outbreak that has now claimed at least three lives, including that of two children – first touting the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as effective, then extolling the practitioners who have eschewed it in favor of vitamins and cod liver oil.
For years, Kennedy has himself baselessly sowed doubt about vaccine safety and efficacy, and sparked alarm last month when he backed vitamins to treat the illness. At the time, he had stopped short of endorsing the MMR vaccine, which he minimized as merely a “personal choice” rather than a public health and safety measure that long ago was proven effective.
In a tweet on Sunday following his presence in Seminole at the funeral of Daisy Hildebrand, an unvaccinated eight-year-old who died on 3 April, Kennedy said he had visited with Richard Bartlett and Ben Edwards – and claimed without evidence the anti-vax physicians had treated and healed “some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children”.
The Texas Medical Board disciplined Bartlett in 2003 for his “inappropriate treatment of patients with intravenous antibiotics and other medications”.
Kennedy’s tweet said Bartlett had used “aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin” to treat children with measles, two drugs Bartlett reportedly previously claimed were also ingredients in his “magic bullet” treatment for Covid-19.
Bartlett, who ran a short-lived congressional campaign in 2019, has something of a checkered past. During a lengthy medical career that he has said was “a calling from God”, patients complained of receiving “unnecessary diagnostic tests, medications or treatments”. And in 2021, he received a criminal trespass warning after being caught allegedly rifling through trash bags at an Ector county hospital where he did not work.
Edwards, meanwhile, has a vaccine-free “wellness practice” at a converted barn building in Seminole where he promotes better nutrition and treats patients with cod liver oil and vitamins to control the measles outbreak, according to NBC News.
Like Bartlett, Edwards is an advocate of budesonide, a corticosteroid more commonly used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease – and inhaled to open airways in asthma patients.
Kennedy has previously expressed admiration for the pair, telling Fox News last month that budesonide has produced “very, very good results”, and that patients had experienced “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries.
Conversely, Kennedy talked up the MMR vaccine during his visit to Texas. He said the purpose of the trip was to comfort the families of Hildebrand and Kayley Fehr, a six-year-old whose death in February was the first from measles in the US in a decade.
“My intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief,” he said in an earlier post on Sunday to X.
“In early March, I deployed a CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] team to bolster local and state capacity for response across multiple Texas regions, supply pharmacies and Texas run clinics with needed MMR vaccines and other medicines and medical supplies.
“Since that time, the growth rates for new cases and hospitalizations have flattened. The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.”
Kennedy said as of Sunday there were “642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, 499 of those in Texas”.
The US health and human services department confirmed the death of Hildebrand to NBC late on Saturday, stating that the cause of the child’s death remained under investigation.
On Sunday, a spokesperson for the UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said that the child had been hospitalized before dying and was “receiving treatment for complications of measles”, which is easily preventable through vaccination.
According to authorities, Fehr was also unvaccinated. NBC reported that Gaines county, which incorporates Seminole, has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates in Texas, at nearly 18% compared to 3% nationally.
...What he meant is a suppository right in his face.
As an unprecedented market sell-off kicks in Monday morning over his useless tariffs,
Donald Dumb said the country needs
medicine.
“I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you
have to take medicine to fix something,” Trump said, “What’s going to happen to the markets, I
can’t tell you. But our country is much stronger.”
The dumbass rebuffed those in his entourage who say that he is intentionally manufacturing a crisis as a way to
strengthen his negotiating hand. He just said it was OK that consumers - already reeling from inflation and massive firings from companies and the government - should tolerate short-term pain.
Meanwhile, while he engineered a worldwide crisis because he is a dumb idiot, the so-called "president" chose to participate in a golf tournament instead of attending a ceremony honoring the return of four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in Lithuania. He apparently doesn't care about soldiers and veterans - suckers and losers were his words for US soldiers who died in battle - or he particularly doesn't care for these four soldiers who are all Hispanic-Americans, not quite up the ladder of "whiteness" he so cherishes.
Not even expressing any empathy for the suffering he is inflicting on middle class and poor people worlwide, the billionaire asshole recommended in a Truth Social post that Americans “HANG TOUGH” despite the market collapse.
“HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic,” he posted, still living with the illusion (or the lie) that his halfass policies will, first, perpetuate his disgusting memory in American history, and second, perhaps deliver some relief to the American people.
As he is meeting today Monday with his spoiled Zionist handler, Benjamin Netanyahu, he is likely to make yet another "Israeli" exception (other than immunity from crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide charges) by lifting his tariffs off Israel. What else to expect from an incestuous pair of criminal corrupt felons?
As his Tesla empire is collapsing and his DOGE "term" ending at the White Outhouse of Donald Dumb, Felon Musk is beginning a retreat out of the Trump camp as he sneakily tries to repent and curry favor with those he insulted.
Suddenly, Musk is fighting with Peter Navarro, Donald Dumb's top trade adviser over the issue of tariffs, which indicates an impending divorce between Trump and Musk. Like many before him, Trump used him to get elected and paraded him as the frontman for DOGE. Now that the harm is done, Trump is ready to ditch Musk like a used dirty rag and blame him for everything that went wrong.
Musk knows his end at the White Outhouse is near and so he is beginning to try and make amends with the Europeans (primarily because they are part of the "white race and culture" that racist South African Apartheid Musk cherishes).
I can't wait to see the sparks flying between Trump and Musk.
Musk calls for 'zero tariff situation' between US and Europe, slams Trump trade adviser [Navarro]
Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – Elon Musk called for a "zero tariff situation" between the U.S. and Europe on Saturday amid stock market trepidation about President Donald Trump's massive new tariff regime.
Musk made the comments, which run counter to the sweeping tariffs Trump
promised last week to impose on all U.S. trading partners, including
European nations, to a group of Italian conservative politicians on
Saturday.
"At the end of the day, I hope it's agreed that both
Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero
tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe
and North America," the tech billionaire told Matteo Salvini, the leader
of Italy's right-wing League Party.
Tariffs
were the centerpiece of Trump's economic pitch on the 2024 campaign
trail, and he has repeatedly characterized them as leverage to address
trade disparities.
"The tariffs give us great power to negotiate.
Always have," he told reporters on Air Force One last week, without
providing specifics on how low rates could potentially go.
On his
social media platform, X, Musk also laid into Peter Navarro, one of the
top trade advisers in the White House. Navarro was one of many
administration officials who took to the TV airwaves this week to defend
the president's controversial tariff plans after the stock market
plummeted.
When
an X user praised Navarro and pointed out he has a doctorate from
Harvard in economics, Musk responded: "A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a
bad thing, not a good thing."
When another X user defended Navarro, Musk replied that he "ain't built" anything, using an expletive.
Remember: Israel's objective is to void Gaza and the West Bank of their indigenous Palestinian population to bring in more Jewish settlers from Brooklyn New York. Regardless of the "elegance" with which the Zionists cover their barbarism, their basic idea is the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by way of genocide, starvation, mass killings, attacks on basic social support (schools, clinics, hospitals, maternity wards, aid agency offices and employees, etc. Anything that helps the indigenous Palestinian population to sustain its existence and presence on its native land is a target.
Israel was caught lying to the world - thanks to someone holding a camera. It now says it has killed over a dozen Palestinian aid workers
when IDF settler troops fired on ambulances last month in Rafah.
Israel initially claimed that it
shot at “terrorists [in] suspicious vehicles”. That is what it always does: lie and refer as "terrorists" where ordinary Palestinian children, humanitarian aid workers, doctors and such are. But in those instances where someone was holding a mobile
phone as the Israeli crime was being perpetrated, nfolding, and the footage is rleqased to the public, ISrael then claims to have made a mistake. Imagine the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by such "mistakes" that no one could film and report to the world.
The video was recovered from the phone of a Palestinian paramedic who was one of 15 humanitarian workers assassinated by Israeli forces this past March 23. The terrorist settlers of the IDF (Israel Death Forces) initially claimed that they fired on “suspicious” vehicles with no
headlights or emergency signals. But then the video showed that the ambulances and a fire vehicle had their red emergency lights flashing. The Israeli lie was then changed to an Israeli "mistake".
Imagine all the Zionist "mistakes" that are never caught on film, and how prevalent is the demonization of an entire indigenious population fighting against a foreign occupier.
Eight members of the Red Crescent team were killed, as were six civil defense members and one UN employee.
The "innocent" Israeli soldiers were apparently “surprised” by the arrival of a convoy of ambulances near a so-called "combat zone" and they instinctively opened fire on several “suspects” who
ran from the area without knowing that they were aid
workers. Oh the poor settler soldiers! How could they have known? People arriving in ambulances and fire vehicles flashing their red lights could still be "terrorists" trying to murder Jews in an area that has no Jews.
To add insult to injury, and to justify the lie and the assassination retroactively, Israel claims that several of the aid workers killed were in fact Hamas operatives. Settled. Yes, we lied. But retrospectively we were right, and therefore we - Israeli settler soldiers - will continue shooting and murdering people because they will inevitably be members of Hamas. In fact, the entire 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and the 3.5 million Palestinians of the West Bank are ALL terrorists and Hamas operatives. The mass killings, genocide and ethnic cleansing can continue with a morally satisfied mind.
Accounts from Gaza reveal that some of the group of aid workers assassinated had their hands or feet tied and were executed
with a shot to the head, which contradicts the Israeli settler propaganda that said they just shot at "suspicious" individuals running away from the ambulance area.
Their bodies were
found in a “mass grave” following the incident, according to Jonathan
Whittall, head of the UN office for the co-ordination of humanitarian
affairs.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees, said the bodies had been “discarded in shallow graves [in] a profound violation of human dignity”. In
a report in The Guardian, Dr Ahmed al-Farra from the Nasser medical
complex in Khan Younis, said: “I was able to see three bodies when they
were transferred to the Nasser hospital.
“They had bullets in their chest and head. They were executed. They had their hands tied.’’
Strange! How can it be that the eternal and permanent victim becomes a barbaric and deceitful executioner? How can it be that the executioner is being applauded because he is defending the civilized world against those barbarian Palestinians and other Arabs.
Double standard? Israel exception to the rule of law? Moral blackmail to justify colonialism? Suffer the little Palestinian children in this 21st century because an ultra-religious fundamentalist man from Brooklyn wants to live in a theme park in Palestine recreating Bronze Age myths.
... and if they find something they don't like, such as a pro-Palestine text or video, or a criticism of Donald Dumb's nefarious policies, you might end up shackled in a dingy concentration camp in the swamps of Louisiana. That would be another "Grand Dérangement" for the Québécois among you.
So, Canadians, boycott the US. Do not spend your dollars to help what has become your country's enemy. DON'T TRAVEL TO THE US. GO TO A CARRIBEAN ISLAND INSTEAD. THEIR CULTURES ARE BY FAR MORE INTERESTING AND RICHER THAN THAT OF THE BORING AND DUMB AIRHEADS IN FLORIDA OR TEXAS.
==================================================== Canada warns travelers of US border agents’ authority to search electronic devices Sat, April 5, 2025
The Canadian government is warning citizens visiting the United States that US border officials have the authority to search travelers’ electronic devices – including phones, laptops, and tablets – without providing a reason.
In a revised travel advisory posted online, it urges Canadians to “expect scrutiny” when crossing the border and warns that refusing to comply involves risks including device seizure, travel delays, or the denial of entry for non-US citizens.
Under US law, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents may demand passwords to unlock devices during inspections. Travelers who refuse the demand risk having their electronics confiscated and may face long delays.
The advisory recommends placing devices in airplane mode before crossing to prevent unintended downloads of remote files, which could complicate screenings.
The move follows recent incidents involving such searches. Last month, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese assistant professor and physician at Brown University, was deported to Lebanon after US agents at Boston Logan International Airport discovered deleted photos of the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on her phone.
The existence of the photos was outlined in a court filing obtained by CNN affiliate WCVB.
“In explaining why these multiple photos were deleted by her one to two days before she arrived at Logan Airport, Dr. Alawieh stated that she did not want to give authorities the perception that she supports Hezbollah and the Ayatollah politically or militarily,” the filing reads, per WCVB.
While US authorities maintain that device searches are critical for national security, civil liberties groups have long criticized the practice as invasive.
The US Supreme Court has upheld the authority of border agents to conduct warrantless device searches, citing the “border search exception” to the Fourth Amendment.
Canada updates travel advice to warn of U.S. border officers' power to search electronic devices CBC Sat, April 5, 2025
The federal government has quietly updated its online travel advice to remind Canadians to "expect scrutiny" from border patrol officers if they travel to the United States.
A website with official advice for travellers heading south was updated with a paragraph about the "significant" discretion officers have when it comes to deciding who enters their country — including the power to search phones and laptops.
"U.S. authorities strictly enforce entry requirements. Expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices. Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities. If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation," the website now reads.
Agents with U.S. Border Patrol have long had the power to ask to search travellers' belongings, but the Canadian government updated its online guidance to include the extra warning this week — a change that comes as the nations' long-friendly relationship breaks down under the pressure of the Trump administration's war on trade.
An immigration lawyer and a privacy lawyer said travellers who are concerned about their privacy should understand border patrol officers' powers and decide how much risk they're comfortable taking before they leave home. Two of the experts suggested travelling with a burner phone and leaving their actual phones at home.
Heather Segal, an immigration lawyer and founding partner of Segal Immigration Law in Toronto, told CBC News on Monday that her inbox is flooded with questions.
"There's been much more heightened security and heightened investigations at the border," she said. "There is just tremendous fear, fear for numerous reasons. First of all, there's fear of getting detained. There's fear of not getting into the United States."
No warrant needed!
Away from the border, law enforcement officials need a search warrant to look through someone's phone or laptop. But U.S. Border Patrol officers can look through a mobile phone, check comments made on social media and examine a laptop without a warrant. They can also take devices or download all of their contents.
"For many people, the phone is a window into the soul. It's got your letters to your spouse, it's got your calendar showing all the people you've met with. And so for many people, they might want to take precautions to keep that information secure," said Adam Schwartz, privacy litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, based in San Francisco.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show 0.1 per cent of people crossing the border had their electronic devices searched in 2024. Sometimes, Schwartz said, agents will ask for a search based on their gut — which can be through either explicit or implicit bias, leading to discrimination.
"When will the border guard choose to search somebody? It could be no reason. It could be that they've been searched before. It could be that the officer thinks there's something suspicious. Unfortunately, in general, the officer does not need any kind of suspicion in order to make the ask," said Schwartz, whose non-partisan organization focuses on defending civil liberties with digital material.
Border guards are supposed to be scanning for evidence that a traveller might commit a crime in the U.S. or violate the terms of their entry visa, but negative statements about the country or its president might make them look harder.
"What they should be scanning for is evidence that someone is going to commit a crime or violate the terms of their entry visa. But once the officer is noodling around inside the phone, you know that there's a risk they're going to go beyond that. And as you say, they might just be looking at someone who says, 'I am angry at the president of the United States' or 'I'm proud to be Canadian and it makes me mad that the United States has just imposed tariffs on us or whatever it is," Schwartz said.
"They should be not looking for those kinds of opinions, but if they find those kinds of opinions, maybe they'll look even harder for potential evidence of law breaking or visa breaking."
Schwartz said you can refuse a search, but officers can deny you entry to the U.S. They could also seize the phone and try to unlock it themselves or detain the traveller for several hours.
The Canadian government's current risk rating for travel to the U.S. is still set at low, advising Canadians to keep taking "normal security precautions."
Segal and Schwartz acknowledged how many people are feeling uneasy. The latter said travellers have to decide how much risk they're comfortable taking.
"For a person who wants to protect themselves, obviously, the choices are to not go to the border at all or go to the border and hope for the best. If the border guard demands the phone, there are pros and cons of unlocking. There's pros and cons of refusing and potentially being bounced," he said.
"What people have to decide before they get to the border is how much privacy intrusion they can tolerate."
THIS IS WHAT AWAITS YOU IF YOU TRY TO CROSS THE US-CANADA BORDER:
Canadian detained for 11 days by U.S. immigration speaks out for others stuck in limbo CBC Sat, April 5, 2025
Jasmine Mooney, 35, travelled to the U.S. many times in her life. She's worked as an actress, owned bars and was marketing health products when she was detained while trying to apply for a work visa. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC - image credit)
Jasmine Mooney's smile went viral after the 35-year-old Canadian was taken into U.S. custody at the Mexican border in March, but her story is now whispered in fear.
On March 3, Mooney tried to get her work visa renewed, entering at an immigration office at the Mexico-San Diego border, against a U.S. lawyer's advice. Instead she ended up being denied, and then, all of a sudden, detained.
Mooney spent 11 days in custody — off and on in cement cells she says are dubbed "ice boxes" — with little more than a thin foil emergency blanket. Mooney says she faced numerous transfers, humiliating medical tests, degrading treatment and no answers — despite pleas to let her pay for her own flight home.
She at first refused food and couldn't sleep, but then forced herself to get up and help others.
"It breaks you. That place breaks you into a million pieces. It is so disgusting what goes on in there," Mooney told CBC News in an interview on Thursday.
Her case is one of a series of instances involving non-U.S. travellers that has travellers and legal experts concerned.
Mooney's story has become a sort of warning, a harbinger of a shifting attitude toward Canadians travelling or trying to work in the U.S.
Immigration lawyers are urging people who need visa renewals to opt to go to airports, where they can be processed on Canadian soil, with no risk of getting detained if they are deemed ineligible.
Mooney's Blaine, Wash.-based immigration lawyer Len Saunders said her case is scaring Canadian travellers.
"It has a huge chilling effect on Canadians going to the United States," said Saunders.
He advised her not to try to reapply for her visa at a Mexican entry point, given changes he saw under the new Trump administration.
"She wasn't trying to do anything illegal. She thought she was doing the right thing," said Saunders.
"I've never seen a Canadian citizen who's applied for a work visa, either a brand new one or a renewal, being detained like this."
Mooney was at one point held at a San Diego-area prison where a Chinese inmate offered up her phone time enabling Mooney to get her plea out to at least one reporter. At that point, she had no idea that her story had gone viral and so many people were fighting for her freedom. She was released within a few days and left feeling "lucky."
Mooney says she left a lot of women behind when she was released and wants to shine a light into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres and how people end up trapped there.
"I met a girl who had been in there eight months," she said.
She says the women helped her get out — and urged her to tell their stories. Mooney says there were about 140 women in her unit at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, one of the first places she was held, in the Ysidro Mountains foothills of Otay Mesa overlooking the U.S.-Mexico border.
She describes how most of the women she met had lived in the U.S. illegally and overstayed visas — detained with no warning when they reapplied.
"You meet all of the girls who had trekked from India, from Iran, from Africa, they're covered head to toe in bug bites and scars from their journey and they paid all of this money, gave up everything they owned to come to America and then end up in jail and they're all most likely getting shipped back to their countries," said Mooney.
'Scorched earth' approach to immigration
Mooney, who grew up in Yukon and had been living in B.C. until last year, is one in a series of recent U.S. immigration detention cases that have caught attention internationally.
In January, German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche was was held for more than a month after border agents assumed she'd work illegally. A 28-year-old British backpacker was held for 10 days after trying to enter Washington State from Canada. She'd been living with host families trading housework for board on a tourist visa. A couple returning from Tijuana ended up handcuffed: U.S. citizen Lennon Tyler was chained to a bench, her German fiance Lucas Sielaff held for 16 days for violating his 90 day tourist permit.
NPR reported the story of a Guatemalan immigrant named Sarahi who accidentally drove the wrong way across the Ambassador Bridge trying to go to Costco — and ended up held for five days in a windowless office near the bridge with her daughters, two U.S. citizens aged one and five.
"I don't think that the Americans are targeting Canadians. I think they're targeting anyone immigrating or visiting the United States. There's this heightened scrutiny," said Saunders. "It's almost a scorched earth whether you're coming in and applying for a work visa or coming in as a visitor."
He's urging anybody reapplying for visas to do it at an airport — where they are safe on Canadian soil and can't be detained.
However, he says he's not shocked that some Canadians are just opting to skip any U.S. travel
Jasmine Mooney of B.C. grew up in Whitehorse.
Mooney's immigration lawyer Len Saunders said her case is scaring Canadian travellers. "It has a huge chilling effect on Canadians going to the United States," he said. (Submitted by Alexis Eagles)
Mooney first hit immigration trouble last spring. She'd applied for her work visa at the Blaine, Wash., border office and was denied. The officer had noticed a missing employer letterhead.
She tried again at the San Diego border in April of 2024. The visa was issued without a problem, so she returned to California and worked.
Mooney says she didn't have a problem again — despite multiple border crossings — until she headed back into the U.S. after a visit to family in November.
Upon her return, she says a border agent told her that her visa had been improperly processed. She was interrogated and that work visa was revoked, after border officials noted her product contained hemp.
After a few months in Canada, she was offered another job and says she was told by another lawyer that it was acceptable to try to reapply.
"The worst that I thought would happen is that I would get denied," she said.
She headed to the San Diego immigration office that first processed her visa on March 3. After hours there explaining her situation, she says the officer told her she'd have to reapply through a consulate. Then Mooney says the female officer added: "You didn't do anything wrong, you are not in trouble, you are not a criminal."
She was told they'd have to send her back to Canada. But as Mooney sat searching for flights home on her phone she says that a man appeared and told her to come with him.
She knew something was way off when they pulled the shoelaces from her sneakers.
"Later I found out that's so you don't hang yourself in jail," said Mooney.
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that Mooney was processed in light of an executive order signed on Jan. 21. (Gregory Bull/The Associated Press)
CBC News reached out to U.S. officials for more details about her case.
A statement from Sandra Grisolia of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement explained that Mooney was processed in accordance with the "Securing Our Borders" Executive Order dated Jan. 21.
It states that all aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the U.S., regardless of nationality.
Saunders says that Mooney plans to appeal her revoked visa and loves the U.S. She was pursuing a marketing career there selling a hemp-infused water product – after running bars and restaurants in Vancouver.
