142: Disappeared and Bought: The New American Justice
Criminalizing Dissent and Buying Judges in Wisconsin
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The Disappearance of Rumeysa Ozturk
It began like an abduction.
Masked figures surrounded her in the street. It was just after sunset on March 25, 2025. Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, was walking in Somerville, Massachusetts, on her way to share iftar with friends. Then, out of nowhere, she was stopped. Surveillance footage would later show the individuals wearing masks and gloves, handcuffing her, seizing her phone, and refusing to identify themselves.
"Who are you? Take off your masks! Are you police?" yelled bystanders.
There was no answer. No proof. No badges. Just black-gloved hands and the unmistakable coordination of a team that had done this before.
They forced her into an unmarked vehicle. She vanished from the street.
What followed was a Kafkaesque descent into the abyss of U.S. immigration enforcement. Ozturk was swept into ICE custody, accused of "providing material support to Hamas," a designation that instantly revoked her student visa and justified her detention. The government has yet to disclose evidence supporting the allegation.
She was quickly flown to a detention facility in Louisiana, far from her community, legal support, and the Massachusetts court that—just hours later—would attempt to intervene. The court order to halt her removal came too late.
This is not just the story of one student. It is a chilling sign of what happens when the state begins to treat dissent as treason, and due process as optional. When law enforcement acts like an unaccountable militia, and public oversight becomes a formality instead of a safeguard.
Ozturk was not hiding. She co-authored an op-ed critical of U.S. complicity in Gaza's destruction. She participated in peaceful campus activism. For this, she is now being held in a prison in another state, the target of a high-level, opaque operation.
We must name what happened clearly: this was a disappearance.
And disappearances are not the tools of democracy.
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The Wisconsin Courtroom Coup
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, a different kind of power play is unfolding—one that wears the costume of democracy while reprogramming its core functions.
The upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election is already the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, with spending projected to top $100 million. At the center of the storm is Elon Musk, who has funneled millions into the conservative candidate Brad Schimel’s campaign, and raised eyebrows by awarding a $1 million “prize” to a Wisconsin voter just days before ballots are cast. Musk’s overt involvement isn’t just provocative—it’s prophetic. It reveals how American oligarchs increasingly view state-level courts as tools to entrench power, discipline dissent, and insulate their interests from legal scrutiny.
What’s at stake in Wisconsin isn’t just local control. It’s reproductive rights, union protections, voting laws, and redistricting—each one a lever of political power. The court's balance, currently tipped liberal 4-3, is one seat away from becoming a conservative stronghold. This isn’t just about jurisprudence. It’s about legitimacy. The Trump-aligned right is moving quickly to build legal bulwarks in key battleground states. With federal courts increasingly out of reach, state supreme courts become the frontlines—and billionaires like Musk are eager to redraw the map.
The Wisconsin race offers a glimpse of a new political economy of justice: where elections serve as the veil, while private capital buys the robes. A captured court can lend legitimacy to voter suppression, criminalize protest, and shield its benefactors from the consequences of their power. The future of American justice, in this view, is not blind—it’s sponsored.
And as Rumeysa Ozturk sits in a cell far from home, caught in the gears of a state that no longer distinguishes between activism and enemy action, we’re left with the same haunting question: when the mask slips, what’s left behind?
I didn't want to move to Thailand because of its orwellian political structure, but I guess the way thailand works is coming to America...