#detention camp raid

[spacelazarwolf]

before yom hashoah ends, i want to remind folks that sephardi, maghrebi, and mizrahi jews were also deeply affected by the holocaust.

this is by no means inclusive of all communities who were affected by the holocaust and its aftermath, i do not have the emotional bandwidth for that, but hopefully this gives you some insight into jewish experiences outside of what's usually talked about.

the jews of morocco, algeria, tunisia, libya, and italy were all subjected to the racial laws of the vichy regime or fascist italy, which prevented them from attending educational institutions, holding public office, and owning businesses and sometimes property. moroccan jews were protected from some of the violence faced by other jews of the mediterranean and north africa because of the moroccan sultan mohammed ben youssef, who was vocally opposed to the anti jewish laws. he reportedly told the vichy government, "there are no jews in morocco. there are only moroccan subjects." he believed he had a god-given responsibility to protect moroccan jews. "moroccan jews are my subjects, and it is my duty to protect them against aggression."

unfortunately, other jewish communities did not receive that kind of protection. algerian jews faced a pogrom by the local arab population in constantine, killing 25 and destroying several jewish homes and businesses. 2000 algerian jews were sent to concentration camps in bedeau and djelfa, where many died from hunger, exhaustion, disease, or beatings. 5000 tunisian jews were forced into labor and detention camps where over 400 of them were killed. in libya, there was a violent pogrom which killed 500 jews out of a community of 4000. 2600 of the survivors were sent to the giado concentration camp, of which 526 died. in tunisia, there was a violent pogrom which killed over 130 jews (including 36 children), injured hundreds, and left 4000 homeless. italian jews faced pogroms, the jewish ghetto in rome was raided and over a thousand jews were detained and sent to concentration camps. a total of 7680 italian jews out of a population of nearly 45,000 were killed.

in greece, thousands of jews were deported to auschwitz. as many as 50% died en route, and only 10,000 out of over 75,000 survived, a nearly 90% death rate. their homes were looted and their property was stolen, and when the few survivors tried to return after the war (a difficult task as the greek foreign ministry attempted to delay or prevent their return to greece), most were unable to regain their property and possessions, forcing most to seek asylum in israel or other countries.

egyptian jews were not directly affected by the axis powers, but extremist organizations like young egypt and the muslim brotherhood sympathized with the nazis and even secured nazi funds to distribute thousands of antisemitic propaganda pamphlets. sporadic pogroms took place throughout the 40's, stoked by political leaders like mahmoud an-nukrashi pasha who said to the british ambassador, "all jews were potential zionists" and dr heykal pasha who said "if the u.n. decides to amputate a part of palestine in order to establish a jewish state, ... jewish blood will necessarily be shed elsewhere in the arab world ... to place in certain and serious danger a million jews." this political extremism prompted the 1948 cairo bombings that killed 70 jews and wounded 200, with many more being killed in the riots following, and eventually led to the expulsion of nearly all egyptian jews, whose money and posessions were all confiscated by the egyptian government.

similar political persecution was directed at iraqi jews, leading to the farhud, a pogrom which killed 180 jews and forced tens of thousands to flee. though there were many who did not support the nazi regime or agree with their views, there were just as many in arab countries who did, in no small part because of active effort by the nazis to gain sympathy from arab populations who already did not get along with their local jewish populations. this led to several other pogroms that took place in the 30's and 40's across lebanon, syria, and british mandate palestine, including a pogrom in jaffa which killed 9 jews and forced 12,000 jews to flee, and another in tiberias which killed 19 jews (including 11 children), most of whom were stabbed to death.

it's understandable that most of what the general public knows about the holocaust is the stories of ashkenazi jews from central and eastern europe, because they comprise the vast majority of the victims. hopefully, this encourages you to do further research into the ways other parts of the diaspora were also affected.

[robertreich]

How Trump is Following Hitler's Playbook

You’ve heard Trump’s promise:

TRUMP: I’m going to be a dictator for one day.

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

In a previous video, I laid out the defining traits of fascism and how MAGA Republicans embody them. But how could Trump — or someone like him — actually turn America into a fascist state? Here’s how in five steps.

Step 1: Use threats of violence to gain power

Hitler and Mussolini relied on their vigilante militias to intimidate voters and local officials. We watched Trump try to do the same in 2020.

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.

Republican election officials testified to the threats they faced when they refused Trump’s demands to falsify the election results.

RAFFENSPERGER: My email, my cell phone was doxxed.

RUSTY BOWERS: They have had video panel trucks with videos of me proclaiming me to be a pedophile.

GABRIEL STERLING: A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason.

If the next election is close, threats to voters and election officials could be enough to sabotage it.

Step 2: Consolidate power

After taking office, a would-be fascist must turn every arm of government into a tool of the party. One of Hitler’s first steps was to take over the civil service, purging it of non-Nazis.

In October of 2020, Trump issued his own executive order that would have enabled him to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists. He never got to act on it, but he’s now promising to apply it to the entire civil service.

That’s become the centerpiece of something called Project 2025, a presidential agenda assembled by MAGA Republicans, that would, as the AP put it, “dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.”

Step 3: Establish a police state

Hitler used the imaginary threat of “the poison of foreign races” to justify taking control of the military and police, placing both under his top general, and granting law-enforcement powers to his civilian militias.

Now Trump is using the same language to claim he needs similar powers to deal with immigrants.

Trump plans to deploy troops within the U.S. to conduct immigration raids and round up what he estimates to be 18 million people who would be placed in mass-detention camps while their fate is decided.

And even though crime is actually down across the nation, Trump is citing an imaginary crime wave to justify sending troops into blue cities and states against the will of governors and mayors.

Trump insiders say he plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to have the military crush civilian protests. We saw a glimpse of that in 2020, when Trump deployed the National Guard against peaceful protesters outside the White House.

And with promises to pardon January 6 criminals and stop prosecutions of right-wing domestic terrorists, Trump would empower groups like the Proud Boys to act as MAGA enforcers.

Step 4: Jail the opposition

In classic dictatorial fashion, Trump is now openly threatening to prosecute his opponents.

TRUMP: if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business.

And he’s looking to remake the Justice Department into a tool for his personal vendettas.

TRUMP: As we completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, we will also launch sweeping civil rights investigations into Marxist local district attorneys.

In the model of Hitler and Mussolini, Trump describes his opponents as subhuman.

TRUMP: …the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country…

Step 5: Undermine the free press

As Hitler well understood, a fascist needs to control the flow of information. Trump has been attacking the press for years.

And he’s threatening to punish news outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

He has helped to reduce trust in the media to such a historic low that his supporters now view him as their most trusted source of information.

Within a democracy, we may often have leaders we don’t like. But we have the power to change them — at the ballot box and through public pressure. Once fascism takes hold, those freedoms are gone and can’t easily be won back.

We must recognize the threat of fascism when it appears, and do everything in our power to stop it.

[sirfrogsworth]

Donald Trump is not a supervillain. He is the oafish rube yelling at clouds. The actual danger of Donald Trump is that he enables supervillains to do their super villainy.

The man in this video is such a direct, mask-off, hateful, evil piece of shit. His heart is just dark, inky black. There is no doubt in my mind he is doing everything in his power not to say, "Of course the answer is concentration camps. Of course that is how we're going to do it."

Directly after he said there wouldn't be concentration camps he basically Freudian-slip'd and said the opposite. It was on the tip of his brain and you could see it.

He'll just call them something else and say they are different—because reasons. They are "temporary detention centers" or "public safety corrals."

In this very video he used alternate terminology to couch what he actually wants to do.

"I don't call them 'raids'; I call them worksite enforcement operations."

There is no other way to deport millions of people and he knows it. And he does not care.

If the man in this video gets any kind of power again, he is not going to waste the opportunity.

"Families can be deported together."

Please vote.

(If you are region-blocked I uploaded the video to my Google Drive here.)

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 A child, killed in an Israeli airstrike, is found in the arms of his dead father by Palestinian civil defense personnel under the rubble of their residential home in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after a long night of IOF warplanes bombing their way across the entirety of the enclave.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏠💥🚑 🚨

ZIONIST BOMBING CAMPAIGN KILLS DOZENS ON DAY 176 OF "ISRAEL'S" WAR OF GENOCIDE IN THE GAZA STRIP

On the 176th day of "Israel's" ongoing war of genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 7 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of at least 71 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while another 112 others have been wounded over the previous 24-hours.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported on Saturday that a total of 26 personnel have been killed since the beginning of the Zionist aggression on Gaza, including 15 team members who were killed while performing their duties.

PRCS crews also reported transporting the bodies of two martyrs, killed as a result of occupation artillery shelling of a civilian structure in the Al-Maghazi Camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

Israeli occupation forces continued with their offensive near Al-Shifa Medical Complex, located in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, besieging the hospital for at least 10 consecutive days, while horrific attacks on civilians, patients and medical personnel in the hospital are being reported, including field executions of civilians, illegal detentions, torture, and forced displacement of local residents and civilians sheltering in the complex.

Elsewhere, Zionist occupation forces bombed a residential home belonging to the Abdo family on Al-Wahda Street, in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths of 10 family members.

In yet another horrific atrocity, Zionist soldiers assassinated a police officer in Gaza City as he drove his wife and children in his civilian vehicle, killing all seven family members.

IOF warplanes also bombarded The Shuja'iyya Club, a local sports club in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, resulting in the martyrdom of several citizens, including members of the popular committees in charge of organizing the distribution of humanitarian aid.

The Zionist occupation army also targeted starving Palestinians waiting for food aid on Salah al-Din Street, in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City, wounding a number of civilians.

Occupation bombing, shelling and gunfire also continues to target civilians across the northern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces also completed the destruction of the city of Prisoners, north of the Al-Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, leveling 21 out of 24 buildings in the area.

Simultaneously, Zionist warplanes bombed several civilian homes near the Prisoner Towers, west of the Al-Nuseirat Camp, martyring five civilians.

Occupation fighter jets also bombarded the town of Al-Mughraqa, along with the Al-Nuseirat Camp, Al-Maghazi and in the vicinity of the Wadi Gaza Bridge in the central Gaza Strip.

The IOF also targeted the headquarters of the municipalities of Al-Bureij and Al-Zawayda in the central Governate of the Gaza Strip, which can no longer provide basic services as a result.

In yet another horrific crime, IOF warplanes bombed a civilian residence belonging to the Musa family in the Al-Maghazi Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing several family members and wounding a number of others, while the explosion from the blast also wrought massive destruction on nearby houses.

In the south of Gaza, local paramedic and civil defense crews say they transported the bodies of 13 Palestinians who were slaughtered in mass killings after the occupation bombing of the town of Al-Qarara, north of Khan Yunis.

Violent raids continued when Zionist aircraft bombed central Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, martyring two Palestinian civilians and wounding a number of others, while occupation warplanes also wrought massive destruction after bombing several multi-storied residential buildings in the Austrian neighborhood west of Khan Yunis.

The Zionist occupation army, including tanks, armored vehicles, and warplanes, have been hammering, with violent airstrikes and heavy artillery shelling, targeting various areas of Khan Yunis, with special attention paid to the eastern and western neighborhoods of the city, and also in the vicinity of Nasser Medical Complex.

Several firebelts were also launched by IOF fighter jets targeting the Khuza'a neighborhood, east of Khan Yunis, along with the Sufa and Abasan areas, northeast of the city.

It is also being reported that the number of dead as a result of the IOF bombing of the Abu Muammar family home in Rafah City, in southern Gaza, on Thursday morning has risen to 14.

The infinitely rising death toll resulting from "Israel's" war of genocide in the Gaza Strip has now exceeded 32'705 Palestinians killed, with more than 25'000 of the victims being women and children according to the United States Pentagon, while an additional 75'190 civilians have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression beginning on October 7th, 2023.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#infographicsource

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[opencommunion]

The producer, artistic director, and an educator at The Freedom Theatre in Jenin were kidnapped alongside over 100 other Palestinians today (13 Dec 23). The Freedom Theatre is a hub of cultural resistance and artistic community in the occupied West Bank.

Join me in calling on theatre institutions to demand the immediate release of these kidnapped artists. Here's the email I'm sending; feel free to copy but please adjust the phrasing to avoid spam filters: "Today in Jenin refugee camp, The Freedom Theatre's artistic director Ahmed Tobasi, producer Mustafa Sheta, and acting teacher Jamal Abu Joas were taken hostage by the Israeli army alongside over one hundred other Palestinian civilians. This follows the murder of three Freedom Theatre artists in the last few weeks: Yamen Jarrar (17), Jehad Naghniyeh (26), and Mohammed Matahen (30). The global theatre community must stand up in support of artists persecuted by the occupation regime. There is extensive documentation of torture in Israeli occupation detention centers. I urge [name of organization] to issue a public statement demanding the immediate release of these hostages. Here's a recent article about The Freedom Theatre's work with traumatized children: [AJ link above]" I'm also adding a brief statement from my perspective as a theatre artist, expressing my disappointment in my local and national theatre scene for its silence. If you're a theatre artist or theatre-goer I encourage you to do the same! The international and US institutions I'm emailing: International Society for the Performing Arts - dbaile@ispa.org, mdriscoll@ispa.org, rjohnson@ispa.org, zcheng@ispa.org International Theatre Institute - info@iti-worldwide.org, hessa@cpo.fujairah.ae International Amateur Theatre Association - secretariat@aitaiata.net Theatre Without Borders - info@theatrewithoutborders.com ASSITEJ - president@assitej-international.org, sg@assitej-international.org, chris@assitej-international.org International Federation for Theatre Research - marcus.tan@nie.edu.sg IDEA- info@idea-austria.org International Schools Theatre Association - office@ista.co.uk, tom@ista.co.uk, helen@ista.co.uk, keriann@ista.co.uk Theatre for Young Audiences USA - info@tyausa.org, sbfala@gmail.com, saramorgulis@gmail.com American Association of Community Theatre - quiana@aact.org, david@aact.org, dvancleave@aact.org American Theatre Wing - mailbox@americantheatrewing.org, rachel@americantheatrewing.org American Theatre Magazine - rwkendt@tcg.org, ksmith@tcg.org, apierson@tcg.org, jpierce@tcg.org American Alliance for Theatre and Education - heidischo@gmail.com American Society for Theatre Research - president@astr.org, info@astr.org Theater of War - marjolaine@theaterofwar.com, bryan@theaterofwar.com Actors' Equity - jrice@actorsequity.org, kshindle@actorsequity.org, wcarter@actorsequity.org, abundonis@actorsequity.org The Broadway League - league@broadway.org PEN America - info@pen.org, education@pen.org Please also email organizations where you live, and any personal contacts in the performing arts. You can also tag organizations in the comments of The Freedom Theatre's posts on ig @.thefreedomtheatre

[nando161mando]

Israeli occupation forces release Palestinians after hours of detention during which they were subjected to torture, during their raid on Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarm today.

[melhindips]

Day 345 (yesterday)

‼️ Massacre in Nuseirat (central) after IOF targets tents in refugee camp, killing 10+ & injuring 15

🇵🇸 24 killed, 57 injured in Gaza yesterday

🇾🇪 Unprecedented Houthi missile strikes near Tel Aviv, penetrating Israeli defences. 9 lightly injured

🇵🇸 2 IOF attacks on Gaza City (north) kill 8 incl. a woman, many injured still under rubble. Attack on Sheikh Radwan kills 1 elderly & a girl

🇵🇸 IOF strike kills 2, injured many near al-Azhar University (central). IOF targets Gaza official in Nuseirat for 3rd time killing 2 kids, injuring 15. Other attack kills 1 in Nuseirat

🇵🇸 Israel renew 33 administrative detention orders for Palestinian abductees in 1 day w/o trial or charges

🌧️ Dozens of tents destroyed in Khan Younis (south) by rising sea levels & heavy rainfall forcing re-displacement of Palestinians

West Bank:

🇵🇸 Jerusalem: Israeli border officer injured in stabbing by Palestinian w/ Israeli citizenship who was killed by Israeli police

🇵🇸 IOF raids Hebron, Ramallah & Nablus. Settlers attacked village in Ramallah, firing live bullets at homes

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Mass roundups. Raids. Indefinite detentions in concentration camps. Martial law. The erosion of habeas corpus protections. This is how it always begins, justified in the name of national security.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/deep-state/this-is-how-it-begins-the-deep-state-wants-to-terminate-the-constitution

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[gowns]

i have been reading about the prisoners in israel.

i wish i could quote this whole page. just read it.

--

i have been following samidoun, which is a palestinian prisoner solidarity network. here is an article on one of the prisoners who have been assassinated this past week.

On Tuesday, 24 October, less than 24 hours after the assassination of Palestinian prisoner Sheikh Omar Daraghmeh, 58, fellow Palestinian prisoner Arafat Yasser Hamdan, 25, was martyred in Ofer prison by Israeli occupation forces, only two days after his arrest by the occupation forces. Hamdan was among over 1,000 Palestinian political prisoners seized by the occupation throughout the West Bank, Jerusalem and occupied Palestine ’48 following the launch of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation by the Palestinian resistance on 7 October and amid the ongoing genocide it is waging against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the Palestinian prisoners’ movement in affirming that the martyrdom of Arafat Yasser Hamdan represents a clear policy of assassinatiion and murder by torture targeting the Palestinian prisoners that is part and parcel of the genocidal war on the Palestinian people. 

As in the case of Daraghmeh, who was martyred in Megiddo prison, the occupation prison administration claimed that Hamdan, from Beit Sira, near Ramallah, had sudenly “felt unwell and was transferred to the prison clinic,” where he was declared dead. The healthy 25-year-old was arrested only 2 days ago, meaning that he was likely under interrogation when he was martyred.

It is notable that the killing of Arafat Yasser Hamdan took place in Ofer prison, where the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission released just today a list of the ongoing severe conditions imposed upon the Palestinian prisoners held there. There are currently approximately 6,300 Palestinian political prisoners jailed as well as approximately 4,000 Palestinian workers from Gaza who have been rounded up into Zionist prison camps. As Samidoun stated upon the martyrdom of Daraghmeh, “The massive escalation of arrests aims not only to undermine the organization of resistance, solidarity and rising struggle against the genocide in Gaza, but also in an attempt to prevent the resistance from achieving a prisoner exchange for imprisoned Palestinian leaders, strugglers serving life sentences and other prisoners that the occupation wants to avoid exchanging for the release of its prisoners of war.”

As the occupation continues its genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which has already taken over 5,700 Palestinian martyrs’ lives, it is conducting a simultaneous campaign of targeting the prisoners, up to and including assassination by torture. All Palestinian prisoners in Ofer are subjected to collective punishment, including the confiscation of all electrical devices, including heating plates, televisions and radios (denying them access to news of the assault and the resistance); cutting electicity to the sections throughout the day; denial of access to the courtyard; destruction of sports equipment; cutting off of all hot water; closure of the kitchen; constant room searches and raids; overcrowding of the prison rooms; and the continued escalation of administrative detention orders. Palestinian prisoners whose sentences have ended are being ordered jailed without charge or trial rather than released.

Arafat Yasser Hamdan has become the 239th martyr of the prisoners’ movement, lives taken through medical neglect, colonial imprisonment, torture and outright assassination. The occupation continues to imprison the bodies of 12 martyrs of the prisoners’ movement (incluing Daraghmeh) alongside hundreds of strugglers for Palestine whose bodies are held captive.

[dankusner]

Former ICE chief to be ‘border czar’

Homan expected to manage scope of deportation vows

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Tom Homan, his former acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, will serve as “border czar” in his incoming administration, a position that is likely to play a key role in Trump’s campaign pledges to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and mount a massive deportation operation.

“I am pleased to announce that the Former ICE Director, and stalwart on Border Control, Tom Homan, will be joining the Trump Administration, in charge of our Nation’s Borders,” he wrote late Sunday on his Truth Social site.

In addition to overseeing the southern and northern borders and “maritime, and aviation security,” Trump said Homan “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” a central part of Trump’s agenda.

He says he had “no doubt” Homan “will do a fantastic, and long awaited for, job.”

Homan is a tough-talking former Border Patrol agent who worked his way up to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2017 and 2018 as the acting director.

He was never confirmed by the Senate, and his new role does not require it.

Bringing him on shows the lengths that the Trump administration is likely to go to carry out the hard-line immigration pledges that were a hallmark of the campaign.

However, Homan has also pushed back on rhetoric suggesting massive roundups.

At the National Conservatism Conference in Washington earlier this year, Homan said that while he thinks the government needed to prioritize national security threats, “no one’s off the table.

If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.”

He also said:

“You’ve got my word. Trump comes back in January, I’ll be in his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”

He said in recent interviews, however, that those targeted — at least initially — would be people posing a risk to public safety and pushed back on suggestions that the U.S. military would be assisting in finding and deporting immigrants.

“You concentrate on the public safety threats and the national security threats first, because they’re the worst of the worst,” he said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

He also said that ICE would move to implement Trump’s plans in a “humane manner.”

“It’s going to be a well-targeted, planned operation conducted by the men of ICE. The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it,” he said.

During a “60 Minutes” interview before the election, Homan called suggestions of mass neighborhood raids or building camps to hold people “ridiculous.”

When asked whether there was a way to carry out deportations without separating families, he said, “Families can be deported together.”

He also said worksite immigration enforcement operations — which the Biden administration largely stopped — would be “necessary.” Gil Kerlikowske, who knows Homan from when Kerlikowske headed U.S. Customs and Border Protection under then-President Barack Obama, said Homan likely got the job because he’s been a strong, vocal supporter of Trump since leaving office and knows how the border and immigration works.

He added that unlike other figures such as Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner who’s also been tapped for a top White House job, Homan’s decades in immigration jobs means he knows the difficulties of launching a massive deportation operation.

“Tom is much more knowledgeable about what can be done and what’s practical,” Kerlikowske said.

Trump has long vowed the massive deportation of people living in the country illegally, but logistical and financial challenges make that difficult to carry out.

ICE has about 41,500 detention beds at any one time, and countries have to agree to take back their citizens, which is not always a given, especially for those with which the U.S. has no diplomatic relations, like Venezuela.

Obama carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept. Deportations under Trump never topped 350,000.

Homan started his career in 1984 as a Border Patrol agent before moving to ICE.

He was a relatively low-key but influential figure on immigration enforcement in the Obama administration, heading ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arm — tasked with tracking down people who don’t have the right to be in the country and removing them.

During his first administration, Trump scrapped Obama-era policies limiting deportations to people who posed a public safety threat, convicted criminals and those who have crossed the border recently, effectively making anyone without legal status open to apprehension.

During that time, Homan spearheaded a 40% surge in deportation arrests and established policies to make immigration arrests at courthouses and detain pregnant women.

He was also a key figure responsible for immigration when the Trump administration launched its zero-tolerance policy, which separated migrant parents from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border.

After leaving the Trump administration in 2018, Homan wrote a book titled, “Defend the Border and Save Lives: Solving our Most Important Humanitarian and Security Crisis” and he has also been a frequent guest on Fox News.

What Does Trump’s ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan Want to Do?

In 2024, as he did in 2016, Donald Trump campaigned heavily on immigration, deploying violent and graphic rhetoric about migrant crime and vowing to enact mass deportation efforts beginning on day one of his presidency.

One key figure in achieving these dark goals will be Tom Homan, the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who Trump named on Sunday as his new “border czar.”

“I’ve known Tom for a long time, and there is nobody better at policing and controlling our Borders. Likewise, Tom Homan will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.

During his brief tenure leading ICE, Homan quickly became known as a hardliner on immigration who embraced the administration’s family-separation policy as a way of deterring illegal border crossings.

Homan made it clear during a speech at the Republican National Convention this summer that his stance on the issue has never wavered.

“As a guy who spent 34 years deporting illegal aliens, I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden’s released in our country in violation of federal law: You better start packing now. You’re damn right. Cause you’re going home,” he said.

In a series of recent interviews, Homan laid out what mass deportations would look like under a Trump presidency.

Homan has said the government will focus on people who pose a threat to public safety and national security, but indicated that those categories could expand.

He’s also said that workplace raids and the mass arrests at job sites that ended under the Biden administration “have to happen.”

During an appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes in October, he rejected the idea that such actions were “racist” in nature and said that talk of concentration camps holding detainees was overblown.

During Trump’s first term, thousands of immigrant children were separated from their families while the administration’s policy was enforced.

Homan was asked on 60 Minutes whether there was any way to conduct mass-deportation operations in the country without separating parents from their children.

The incoming border czar signaled that an even stricter policy could be enacted down the line.

“Of course there is. Families can be deported together,” he said.

And when asked if the American-born children of undocumented immigrants could be subject to deportation under a Trump administration, Homan did not close the door on that possibility.

“Their parent absolutely entered the country illegally, had a child knowing he was in the country illegally. So, he created that crisis,” he said.

Though allies of Trump like Stephen Miller have suggested that the administration will utilize the military and National Guard to conduct its deportation efforts, Homan has pushed back on that, saying the operation will be conducted by members of ICE.

“The men and women of ICE do this daily. They’re good at it. They all have Fourth Amendment training. They know what they can and can’t do legally,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures

Vice-President-elect J.D. Vance has previously said that the administration should start with deporting 1 million people who are in the country illegally.

But a report from the American Immigration Council estimates that it could cost $88 million to remove that many people on a yearly basis.

Homan has insisted that mass deportations would ultimately save the country and taxpayers money over the years.

By selecting Homan as one of his first staffing decisions, Trump is making it clear that his immigration agenda is top of mind.

For months, Homan signaled his intention to return in a second Trump administration to finish the job that he started.

“Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” he said in July, per Semafor.

“They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.”

[jeanieology]

Opinion:

Trump wins 2024 election. America needs to admit it's not 'better than this.'

We are a country that just elected – that just willfully chose – one of the most cruel, unscrupulous and transparently self-serving political figures in modern history to be president. Again.

Rex Huppke

USA TODAY

I never want to hear the words “America is better than this” again. I never want to be told about America’s better angels.

I want honesty. I want an admission of exactly who we are as a country, and let’s be damn clear about that definition: We are a country that just elected – that just willfully chose – one of the most cruel, unscrupulous and transparently self-serving political figures in modern history to be president. Again.

We just elected a convicted felon who has normalized bullying, spread hate like an industrial sprinkler and shown us over and over and over again he sees laws as irrelevant and self-enrichment as sacrosanct. Faced with a billowing ocean of red flags – from indictments for trying to overturn the 2020 election to the coddling of dictators who rule enemy nations – a majority of Americans cast their vote for the man who is a totem of the worst in all of us.

So spare me the wails of “This isn’t who we are!” I’ve got bad news for the sane and decent among us: This is exactly who we are.

America just chose mass deportations and chaos and hate

We’re a country that supports the mass deportation of immigrants, a promise Donald Trump made and will undoubtedly keep. When families are pulled apart, cities and towns are raided by federal law enforcement and the people who once worked in communities and made homes there – some for decades – are penned in detention camps, it is the voting public that approved such a thing.

If legal citizens get swept up in the chaos, so be it. It was the voters’ choice.

When an unhinged and unqualified billionaire like Elon Musk is put in charge of slashing the federal government to bits, that will be what America chose.

When the Department of Education is abolished and our education system falls into the hands of right-wing ideologues and religious zealots, that’s the outcome of the choice U.S. voters made.

When Trump’s tariffs hit and drive up prices across the board for consumers, it won’t be the fault of the myriad economists who told us what would happen. It will be the thing a majority of Americans chose. It will be the economic pot they chose to be boiled in, even though the Biden-Harris administration has the economy rocking.

As The New York Times reported Oct. 30: "Consumers are spending. Inflation is cooling. And the U.S. economy looks as strong as ever."

Trump will clear himself of charges and turn the DOJ on his enemies

When Trump does away with his own legal cases – trashing the rule of law his party once claimed to stand for – that will be what the people wanted. When he turns the U.S. Department of Justice on his so-called enemies, when he goes after Democrats and others with malicious intent and calls in the military to stifle any form of dissent, keep your mouth shut about that being un-American. It’s now 100% American, because it’s exactly what people in this country willfully chose.

I don’t want to hear a damn word – ever – about anyone not realizing just how bad things could get. I don’t want to hear about how grocery prices were too high so you figured voting for Trump couldn’t hurt. I don’t want to hear how you didn’t like either candidate so you sat the 2024 election out.

The stakes of this election could not have been more clear and could not have been broadcast any louder. Vice President Kamala Harris ran as smart a campaign as I’ve seen. She reached across the aisle and offered a big tent for people to seek shelter. She was qualified – as a former prosecutor, a former U.S. senator and a vice president – in ways Trump could never imagine.

Face it, America. We're a country that picked Trump – a second time.

But America chose the guy who cavalierly said he’d be a dictator for a day. Voters chose the guy who denounces our allies and cozies up to our enemies. Voters chose the guy who is an adjudicated rapist, a role model to none, an often-incoherent and always hate-fueled loon who has turned Americans against each other in ways I never thought possible.

Voters chose Trump. He won. Cruelty won. Bullying won.

And that’s who America is right now. We are Trump, and we will own every bit of the shameful and painful and embarrassing things he does. We are not "better than this." We lost the right to make that claim the moment the presidential race was called.

[darkmaga-returns]

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary.”Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

This is how it begins. This is how it always begins, justified in the name of national security.

Mass roundups. Raids. Indefinite detentions in concentration camps. Martial law. The erosion of habeas corpus protections. The suspension of the Constitution, at least for select segments of the population. A hierarchy of rights, contingent on whether you belong to a favored political class.

This is what you can expect in the not-so-distant future.

Once you allow the government to overreach the restraints imposed  by the Constitution, no matter what that threat might be, it will be that much harder to restrain it again, no matter which party is at the helm.

We’ve seen this played out time and again.

Some years ago, for instance, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board suggested that government officials should mandate mass vaccinations and deploy the National Guard “to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.”

In other words, they wanted the government to use the military to round up and lock up the unvaccinated in concentration camps.

That didn’t happen, but it so easily could have.

Now the script has been flipped, and it’s the soon-to-be Trump Administration promising to use the military to round up and lock up undesirables in concentration camps.

At this moment in time, those so-called “undesirables” are illegal immigrants, but given what we know about the government and its expansive definition of what constitutes a threat to its power, any one of us could be next up in the police state’s crosshairs.

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚨

ZIONIST ARMY SUBJECTS PALESTINIAN CIVILIANS TO TORTURE, IMORISONMENT, RAPE AND HUMILIATION

Khaled Mahajna, a lawyer for Palestinian journalist Muhammad Saber Arab (42yo), a reporter for Al-Arabi's satellite network, was allowed to visit his client currently detained at the Sde Teiman military camp in the Negev desert, following his arrest more than 100 days ago from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, during the raid of the hospital back in March by the Israeli occupation army.

Mahajna underwent the visit under harsh restrictions and supervision by Israeli soldiers, where the first question his client asked him was "Where am I?"

According to Mahajna, his client conveyed to him a horrific collection of stories and details from his experiences, including allegations of torture, rape, abuse and humiliation.

“The camp administration keeps the detainees shackled 24 hours a day and blindfolded. For fifty days, Muhammad has not changed his clothes, and only before the visit was he allowed to change his pants, while he remained with a jacket that he had not changed for fifty days," Mahajna said of his client.

Describing the conditions his client conveyed to him, Mahajna said that "over the course of time, they are subjected to torture, abuse, and various forms of assault, including sexual assaults and rape, all of which led to the martyrdom of detainees."

"The beatings, abuse, humiliation, and insults do not stop, and no detainee is allowed to talk with any other detainee, and whoever speaks is severely beaten until all detainees are talking to themselves, and continue to praise and pray in secret, and they are deprived of praying and practicing any religious rituals," Mahajna added.

Describing horrific conditions leading to illness and death among detainees, Mahajna said the sick and wounded had limbs amputated and bullets removed from their limbs without anesthesia, turning emergency medical care into a form of torture.

Mahajna said his client stated that, in addition to being restrained and blindfolded, Palestinian prisoners are surrounded by police dogs at all times, with every four detainees being permitted to use the bathroom for one minute, and are punished if they exceed the allotted time, while sleeping during the day is strictly prohibited.

Further, Saber Arab told his lawyer that he was finally permitted to shave his hair fifty days after his arrival, while food and sleep remain scarce.

"On the ground, they use their shoes as pillows for sleeping. As for bathing, the available time is once a week for a minute, and sleeping during the day is prohibited. He pointed out that fifty days after his arrest, he was allowed to shave his hair. As for food, it consists of a few bites of labneh and a piece of cucumbers or tomatoes, which is the meal that is served to them all the time.”

Mahajna said he carried a message from the prisoners at Sde Teiman for the outside world, including to all international human rights institutions, that what they are being subjected to is no less a crime than the genocide to which his people are being subjected to in the Gaza Strip, conveying his demand for the necessity of immediate action to save them and to continue to express their suffering.

In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoners' Association and the Prisoners' Club confirmed that "in light of this visit, which carried a new confirmation of the level of horrific crimes to which prisoners are exposed in the occupation prisons and camps, and specifically the conditions of detention to which Gaza detainees have been exposed since the beginning of the war of extermination, as this visit came after amendments to the regulations concerning the lawyer’s recent meeting with Gaza detainees.”

The statement went on to indicate that the Israeli occupation has imposed a policy of forced disappearance against Gazan detainees since the start of the occupation's war of genocide, and continues to refuse to disclose their fates, their numbers, and their places of detention.

Although thanks to the efforts of some institutions, which persisted in their inquiries with great difficulty and challenges, the prisoners' groups managed to learn certain details related to the detainees, however, "knowing their places of detention does not negate the absence of secret prisons established by the occupation to hold detainees from Gaza."

The Prisoners' Commission and the Prisoners' Club added that they held the Israeli occupation authorities, along with the countries supporting them, fully responsible for the fates of prisoners and detainees in the occupation's prisons, especially in light of the current level of horrific and unprecedented crimes, which constitutes one of the aspects of the ongoing genocide.

Continuing in their statement, the prisoners' groups emphasized that all of the policies and crimes we observe today are nothing but fixed and systemic policies used by the occupation again and again, over many decades, and only their intensity changes.

Further, the prisoners' groups went on to demand for the necessity of opening an impartial international investigation into the crimes and grave violations committed against detainees and prisoners in the Zionist entity's prisons and camps, which they see as an extension of the genocide against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, despite the "bleak picture that afflicts the international human rights system, and the terrifying state of helplessness that has dominated its image."

"In view of the crimes and atrocities committed by the occupation since the beginning of the war of genocide until today, which in essence constitute a violation of all of humanity."

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[opencommunion]

On October 11th the occupation cut off electricity and water from many of the prisons where it incarcerates Palestinians, including children, often without trial or charge, while denying them legal representation. Long before October 7th the occupation tortured Palestinians in these prisons — again, including children — on top of the inhumane conditions that are torturous in themselves. The conditions are getting worse every day, and every day the occupation is abducting dozens or hundreds of Palestinians from the West Bank and occupied interior. The number of abductions since October 7th has reached 1000. The number of abductions since January 1st has exceeded 6000. 25% are minors, disabled, sick, or elderly, and sick prisoners are being denied medical care. Additionally, after forcibly transferring 18,000 Gazan workers to the West Bank, the occupation is now rounding up these same workers and detaining them in existing prisons or new camps, giving the excuse that "it is not possible for them to return to Gaza." The Palestinian Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Commision estimates, based on occupation reports, that 4000 people are trapped in these camps. In their nightly raids, the occupation targets Palestinian journalists, activists, and representatives of the Palestinian Legislative Council. They also abduct the family members of targets to pressure those targets to surrender themselves. During these raids Palestinians are beaten, teargassed, and shot with rubber and live bullets. Then they are dragged to prisons where conditions are worse than ever. Today, October 20th, Qadura Fares, head of the Prisoners' and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs Commission, wrote:

"Developments in the scene inside the occupation prisons compel us to expose the injustices committed against the prisoners. Many prisoners have had their limbs, legs, and hands broken, and after the beatings, their comrades could no longer recognize them. The Naqab prison has become like Abu Ghraib prison, a center of brutality and savage treatment towards the heroic prisoners. 'Israel' is making the Palestinian prisoners pay the price for its failures, acting solely with a spirit of revenge. We call upon all the countries of the world to raise your voices in support of the principles you claim to uphold, or have you returned to your history as colonial powers?"

In short, in the past two weeks the occupation has: - Made the already brutal conditions in their prisons deadly - Created new camps where they trap displaced Gazans - Doubled the total number of detained Palestinians - Kidnapped numerous Palestinian journalists, activists, and elected officials

Given the occupation's practice of "administrative detention," occupation prisons have arguably met the definition of concentration camps for decades, and now detained Palestinians are being deprived of basic survival necessities. I do not know how to describe these facilities except as death camps. A regime does not need to build death camps in order to qualify as genocidal, and the Zionist occupation has been committing genocide by various means for 75 years. That being said, these are death camps or are on the verge of becoming death camps, and I don't think we have time to waste being squeamish about applying that terminology.

Please follow RNN Prisoners to stay informed about what Palestinian detainees are facing.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Lincoln Project

* * * *

VP Harris challenges Trump on immigration

September 19, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

On Wednesday, VP Kamala Harris spoke at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th Annual Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Harris took on Trump's nightmarish threat to deport millions of immigrants if he is elected.

Harris said,

While we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward. We all remember what they did to tear families apart, and now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history. Imagine what that would look like and what that would be? How’s that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?

Harris’s speech is here: Harris delivers remarks at Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute leadership event.

As VP Harris said, it is a dangerous fantasy to believe that Trump could deport ten million immigrants. An operation of that scale is beyond the resources of the federal and state governments combined. Although the effort would not succeed, it would lead to economic chaos as the labor pool is jolted by the sudden disappearance of workers who fill entry level service jobs, harvest America’s crops, provide home care for the elderly, and provide significant portions of the workforce in construction, hospitality, and manufacturing industries.

If you don’t have time to watch Harris’s entire speech, I recommend viewing the segment in which she frames reproductive rights as one of the freedoms guaranteed to Americans. She also notes that 40% of Latina women live in states with Trump abortion bans: Harris addresses impact of Trump abortion bans on Latina women.

VP Harris’s comments on abortion and reproductive freedom are powerful and moving. She continues to be an effective, focused campaigner who is sticking to the Democratic messaging of “freedom” and “an opportunity economy.”

As a reminder, Kamala Harris’s Opportunity Economy focuses on making the lives of middle-class Americans better. Her proposals include a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborns, expansion of the child tax credit, expansion of the earned income credit, a $50,000 deduction for new business owners, making rent affordable, incentivizing the construction of 3 million starter homes (as opposed to McMansions), subsidizing $25,000 of the down payment for first time homeowners, and reducing the cost of prescription drugs. See Issues - Kamala Harris for President: Official Campaign Website.

The Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by 0.5%

The Biden-Harris administration significantly reduced inflation levels while sustaining robust growth in the US GDP. As a result, the Federal Reserve announced today that it was cutting the prime interest rate by 0.5% and suggested that additional cuts would be forth coming. See Federal Reserve Board - Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement.

Even Trump admitted that “it was a big cut,” although he suggested the timing was political. In truth, the cut was overdue. The Fed waited too long to reduce rates. See Common Dreams, Fed 'Waited Too Long' But Finally Cut Interest Rates. As noted in the Common Dreams article,

Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker also welcomed that the Fed is changing course, saying: "This is a belated recognition that the battle against inflation has been won. Contrary to the predictions of almost all economists, including those at the Fed, this victory was won without a major uptick in unemployment."

Kamala Harris and Joe Biden achieved the nearly impossible—avoiding a recession while taming inflation. They deserve great credit for doing so—and voters are starting to realize that fact. See Harris closes gap with Trump on the economy, new Pennsylvania poll shows | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Per the Post-Gazette,

Pennsylvania voters no longer prefer former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris on the economy in a poll that shows the Democratic presidential nominee all but erasing the deficit on which candidate can best handle the top issue for voters this fall. In a Quinnipiac University poll of likely Pennsylvania voters released Wednesday, Trump’s advantage over Ms. Harris was just 50% to 48%, a two-point advantage well within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

Harris continues to do everything just right. While there is no guarantee of success, we should be gratified that we have a candidate who is running such a terrific campaign!

Trump's effort to cram voter suppression bill through Congress fails

Trump ordered Speaker Mike Johnson to make a futile attempt to pass a continuing resolution for the budget that included the GOP voter-suppression bill that would require proof of citizenship to register as a voter. (Note that our nation has survived for 235 years without requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.) The bill was doomed to fail—and Mike Johnson knew it. But Trump ordered him to jump and Johnson’s only question was, “How high, sir?”

See Roll Call, Johnson's stopgap funding package goes down to defeat.

To be clear, Trump wants to force the US into a financial crisis for political advantage. He said on Truth Social,

If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form.

But extremists in the GOP caucus know that Mike Johnson will cave. Per Marjorie Taylor Greene, “Johnson is leading a fake fight that he has no intention of actually fighting.”

Americans deserve better than a House GOP caucus willing to hold the budget hostage for Donald Trump.

Trump's desperation is showing

Trump is promising tax cuts like a man who can smell defeat. On Wednesday, he promised New Yorkers that he would remove caps on federal deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). Trump's position is absurd because he proposed and obtained the SALT caps as a way of punishing taxpayers in New York, New Jersey, and California (among other states). Now that he senses that he might lose, he is telling voters in those states that he will remove the caps he instituted.

Members of Congress immediately trashed the idea. Although capping the SALT deduction was unfair to taxpayers in states that fund their operations and pay into the federal coffers, reversing the policy would add $1.2 trillion dollars to the deficit. See HuffPost, Donald Trump’s Latest Tax Pander Flops In Congress.

Trump's flip-flop is a sign of his willingness to promise anything to anyone to be re-elected. Trump's desperation is a more reliable sign of the state of the race than the polls!

Wall Street Journal debunks JD Vance immigrant / cat story

The Wall Street Journal published an article on Wednesday that reported (a) the city manager of Springfield told JD Vance that there was no evidence to support the cat-eating immigrant story before JD Vance doubled-down on the false claim on social media, and (b) the woman who filed a police report claiming her cat had been taken by Haitians later found her cat hiding in the basement of her house.

See Wall Street Journal, How the Trump Campaign Ran With Rumors About Pet-Eating Migrants—After Being Told They Weren’t True (This article is accessible to all.)

Per the WSJ,

[Vance] asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” recalled [Springfield City Manager] Heck. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” By then, Vance had already posted about the rumors to his 1.9 million followers on X. Yet he kept the post up, and repeated an even more insistent version of the claim the next morning.

The WSJ article takes a deep dive into the situation in Springfield and is well worth your time to read the entire article. The WSJ reporters lay out in detail how Vance and Trump are exploiting an immigrant population that is helping Springfield to grow and prosper after decades of decline:

The local economy boomed. Business owners said they were grateful to have workers eager to work long shifts and do what it took to meet production goals. New subdivisions sprung up in the cornfields outside town. New restaurants opened. The Haitian flag flew at City Hall.

Growth came with growing pains. The number of non-native English speakers in the public schools quadrupled to more than 1,000 children. The local clinic and hospital were overwhelmed with people fleeing a country where healthcare had been scant. Traffic increased, as did frustration with drivers more accustomed with the chaotic streets of Port-au-Prince than the orderly grid of Springfield.

One thing is clear: Vance and Trump know the rumors have no basis in fact but continue to promote them—thereby hurting the people of Springfield. Trump claims he will visit Springfield—over the objections of the mayor and the Governor of Ohio (both Trump-supporting Republicans!). The fact that Republicans in Ohio understand the cynical dishonesty of Trump's propaganda is a good sign

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[trashmenace]

Man's Book, February 1973

Man's Book February 1973 Vol 12 No 1

From the dying days of the Men's Adventure magazines before they went full porn. A couple of topless spreads and tons of ads. The texts were very short, maybe four pages worth each at most. Man's Book lasted five more issues.

Savagery in Action - They Prey on Homosexuals by Charles Beach

Broad overview of blackmail against gays.

The Incredible Raid of Italy's Kissing Daughters of Doom by Roy Harper

An Italian sex worker working with anti-fascists sneaks a bomb into a detention center to kill her beloved before he's tortured for information.

10 Weaknesses That Can Doom Your Love Life by L.O. Peterson

Pop sexology

The Monster Vampires Who Lived on Maidens' Blood by Chuck McCarthy

Quick story of Elisabeth Bathory. The torture deaths of her accomplices are a bit more embellished than I've seen elsewhere;

I Pay Off in Lust - Confessions of an Orgy Girl by Lola Bryan

The story of women hired by yacht salesmen to entertain potential clients.

Dance, My Darlings, to the Whip's Evil Song by Lotya Grez as told to Jim McDonald

A woman is forced to play the violin in a concentration camp orchestra while others are whipped.

The Truth About Aphrodisiac Foods

They don't work and are dangerous. Gave a stat about heroin overdoses in NYC that works out to 800 a year - in 2021 there were 2668 overall overdose deaths, a 234% increase against just a 19% increase in population. Also mentions the "regulation" WWII era diet of 3000 calories a day. I looked up the study and it was more like 3600, but that may have been the baseline for soldiers in the field.

It's Raining Fire on Hell's Beach by Cpl. Ben Vetter

Brutal tale of rangers being decimated behind enemy lines in Italy. The highlight of the mag.