A few months ago shortly after

Crumb The 1st was sworn in and the fascism began to be implemented many of us here on DU began to warn that people from vulnerable groups were sure to be targeted and so it would be wise for them to think about becoming ex-pats while there was time.

We got major push-back from many who called our warnings "fear-mongering" and worse. OK everybody has respectful opinions but in the face of subsequent months of further fascist crackdown I reiterate that initial advisory.

In March of 2025 I'm sure that many well meaning people thought that by September we would not be where we are now. Open fascist attacks on universities, businesses, health care, immigrant children, foreign students etc. Some of us were certain there would be major escalation in fascist attacks on women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, free speech and freedom of movement. We warned again over the summer months.

This post is not being put up for the purposes of saying we were right and someone else was wrong. It is for the purpose of reiterating the warning because as many of us said the time for making moves to leave or not be subjected to possibly massive harm from the fascists grows shorter not longer. Learn from history about those who waited too long to leave Germany, Austria etc. and then found they could not leave or could not do so without great risk.

We now see open calls by elected officials to take LGBTQ+ people "off the streets". We now see censorship of dissent implemented and growing. We now see proposals for "limiting" US citizens access to passports. We now see open acts of extrajudicial killing of people simply on the say so of Crumb The 1st and without any evidence presented to back up the claims of wrongdoing for those killed. We see deployment of the military in our streets. We see people grabbed off the street and disappeared without explanation, trace or due process.

The fascists now have a day of mourning on October 14th for someone who spewed their hate and they have decided to take that murder as an opportunity for a full frontal assault on dissent, criticism and generally anybody on the left. I expect that we will see very shortly, and perhaps coinciding with their October 14th date, a major official move announced at the Federal level that will even further restrict and punish dissent by way of censorship. I believe they will move full force against left groups, web sites and anything they perceive to be "left media". They have made general statements about it but now I believe they will make it more specific.

Hayes, Maddow, Velshi and Lawrence may well be yanked in the future. You can be sure the pressure has been there all along and now the fascists will push the needle to tilt in an attempt to silence their criticisms of the fascists. The playbook from almost a century ago is being followed. Learn from history. During the rise of the Nazis there were also people raising the warnings about where it was going and how time grew short. Learn from history. They are not talking about restricting US citizens access to passports because they have good things planned for you here.

You see how quickly we have gone down the slippery slope? According to them it was just "getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse" and it quickly turned into every bit of data on every person being compiled and accessed by unaccountable people. It has become demands for every bit of information about voter records across the nation. None of that is because they want to do "good" things for the people.

According to them it was "getting the worst criminals deported" and it quickly became grabbing a guy from Home Depot and grabbing pregnant women while making jokes about putting them in places where they are in danger from alligators.

So learn not only from the fascist history of the 1930's but also learn from the history of the current fascists. See how they start and then how they escalate? See how the real intent is disguised in the beginning and then rapidly becomes something else? Like the National Guard in L.A. was supposedly only about quelling a violent protest and guarding a Federal facility but now has become an excuse for a multi city rollout of troops to grab people off the street? It's not just the nose but the entire camel is making it's way into the tent.

So anything the fascists tell you about what and why they are doing something should not be believed because their history shows why it should not be believed. They are going to ramp up way more before Christmas. We will continue to fight with our words and with words they don't want spoken. We will continue to fight with our ability to cancel doing business with companies. We will continue to fight with peaceful civil disobedience.

But at the end of the day I want people who are extremely vulnerable to repression and hatred to be safe and to think of the safety of themselves and their loved ones. If you think leaving is best I support that and warn that time grows short. If staying is the decision I support that as well and I will not be silent in defending you.