Antarctica Starts Here.

Welp. We are not only at the stage where the US government is disappearing people, we're at the stage where folks are showing up at places in good faith and getting nicked. Even if you are a US citizen. Especially if you speak out about politics.

It's only a matter of time when it starts happening to folks who were born in the US.

For starters, some hearts-felt advice: Don't come to the United States. It's too dangerous. It doesn't matter if it's for vacation, for a conference, to see family, or what, the risk is too great that you could get picked up by a couple of folks dressed in civilian clothes and masks (ironic, that), bundled into a white van, and find yourself in custody without charges. Or never be seen again. Even if you're being invited to speak at a convention or conference, don't come here. Even if you leave the US and try to come back.

So, what can you reasonably do?

I don't think that they can be prevented from grabbing you if they're going to grab you. Not going with them will probably be called "resisting arrest" followed by getting the ever living crap kicked out of you. Same with trying to intervene if you see someone being kidnapped by these guys. This is not an action movie where folks leap to the rescue and distract the bad guys while you run for your life and go into hiding; that does not happen in real life and thinking it does or will is, well, dumb.

I can't give you legal advice, and I can't second guess your threat model. But I can make a few suggestions about plans to have in place. This is something we've been doing at home, as well as something that some folks I know have been doing. And it's amazingly simple. Systems that have the fewest moving parts tend to be the ones that don't break.

If you go anywhere, text some folks (hopefully you're using Signal but not everybody has a smartphone) that you're leaving for someplace (ideally with the address) and how you're getting there. If you get into a car or a cab, or get on public transportation, text them that you've done so. When you're getting off or out, text them that you're doing so and where you are. When you get there, text them. When you're leaving, text them. And so forth.

Will this keep you from getting thrown into a for-profit prison and then deported (possibly to what people better educated than I are calling a concentration camp)? No. It won't. But what it will do is help people find you. Where the last message sent says you were is where folks should start looking. Asking around that location should provide some clues about what happened - who, what, when, and how. There are securicams all over the place these days so you might have a chance of asking politely to see footage where you vanished. This is all information that can be applied to hopefully get you help.

This brings up a bigger question: If it comes down to it, can you avoid The Suck? And the honest answer is no, you can't commpletely avoid The Suck. But you can try to minimize how long you're stuck with it by being part of a support network of friends that keep tabs on each other's health, well-being, and relative freedom (defined as "incarcerated or not"). This isn't a world in which Pete Thornton shows up to bail MacGyver out of jail just on his say-so and a smile, if things go sideways you'll be in the soup for a while and, realistically speaking, there's no way of knowing how it'll turn out. But if you have a few things in place ahead of time, things very well might turn out for the better.

Good luck, everybody. We're going to need it.