I would hope so, I'm fairytale ugly and a complete bastard!
Are we now officially in a dictatorship?
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I would hope so, I'm fairytale ugly and a complete bastard!
PJF
Well-Known Member
No, President Trump is not a dictator. The U.S. operates under a constitutional republic with checks and balances, including a separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. During his presidency (2017-2021) and in his current term, Trump has functioned within this system, subject to legal and institutional constraints like elections, judicial review, and congressional oversight. Claims of dictatorship often stem from polarized rhetoric or specific policy disagreements, but no evidence supports the label in a technical sense—dictators typically dismantle democratic institutions, suppress opposition, and rule without term limits, none of which apply here. Critics may point to his strong executive actions or rhetoric, while supporters argue these reflect decisive leadership within democratic bounds. The debate largely hinges on interpretation, not objective metrics of authoritarianism.
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This is big. It's all happening at breakneck speed. He has to be stopped NOW.
• 40m•
2 min read
The Trump administration is flagrantly ignoring a directive from the Supreme Court, a prominent immigration rights attorney warned Thursday afternoon.
The revelation came from a court document that revealed the Trump administration plans to slash the amount of time people have to seek federal relief before being subject to immediate deportation.
"BREAKING: The US is now only giving migrants 12 hours to decide whether they want to contest under the wartime authority, Alien Enemies Act, down from 24 hours," wrote Valerie Gonzalez, an Associated Press reporter covering border security issues, in a post on X. She added that "the government attempted to seal the document but judge just unsealed it."
"WOW. This is incredible. It signals open defiance of the Supreme Court, which ruled that the government MUST give people 'reasonable time' to be able to 'actually seek habeas relief' — to be able to ACTUALLY, not theoretically, sue. 12 hours is not enough for that. Period," wrote Reichlin-Melnick.
The standard notice the government will send not only gives people just 12 hours, but doesn't even inform them of their rights, he noted.
"This is an important part of understanding why DHS's process is openly defiant of the Supreme Court, which said notice 'must be afforded ... in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief.' This notice doesn't even MENTION court!" he wrote. "Also, the DHS notice is entirely in English and does not even mention the POSSIBILITY of challenging the designation as an 'alien enemy,' so how would anyone even know to tell DHS within 12 hours?! The closest thing on here is a bit saying a person can 'make a phone call.'"
There isn't even a box on the form they can check to request a hearing, Reichlin-Melnick added.
"Nothing on the form would give any person the idea that they can go to a DHS agent and say 'I am formally opposing this, please delay my removal for 24 hours so I can file a habeas corpus lawsuit.' It's just a ridiculous claim by ICE officials."
Trump's administration has increasingly come under fire for clashing with courts over their ability to conduct mass deportations to a foreign megaprison in El Salvador, with one of the most prominent cases being a Maryland father who was disappeared overseas despite a protective order barring his removal to that country.
'Incredible': Expert warns Trump admin just signaled 'open defiance' of Supreme Court
Story by Matthew Chapman• 40m•
2 min read
The Trump administration is flagrantly ignoring a directive from the Supreme Court, a prominent immigration rights attorney warned Thursday afternoon.
The revelation came from a court document that revealed the Trump administration plans to slash the amount of time people have to seek federal relief before being subject to immediate deportation.
"BREAKING: The US is now only giving migrants 12 hours to decide whether they want to contest under the wartime authority, Alien Enemies Act, down from 24 hours," wrote Valerie Gonzalez, an Associated Press reporter covering border security issues, in a post on X. She added that "the government attempted to seal the document but judge just unsealed it."
"WOW. This is incredible. It signals open defiance of the Supreme Court, which ruled that the government MUST give people 'reasonable time' to be able to 'actually seek habeas relief' — to be able to ACTUALLY, not theoretically, sue. 12 hours is not enough for that. Period," wrote Reichlin-Melnick.
The standard notice the government will send not only gives people just 12 hours, but doesn't even inform them of their rights, he noted.
"This is an important part of understanding why DHS's process is openly defiant of the Supreme Court, which said notice 'must be afforded ... in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief.' This notice doesn't even MENTION court!" he wrote. "Also, the DHS notice is entirely in English and does not even mention the POSSIBILITY of challenging the designation as an 'alien enemy,' so how would anyone even know to tell DHS within 12 hours?! The closest thing on here is a bit saying a person can 'make a phone call.'"
There isn't even a box on the form they can check to request a hearing, Reichlin-Melnick added.
"Nothing on the form would give any person the idea that they can go to a DHS agent and say 'I am formally opposing this, please delay my removal for 24 hours so I can file a habeas corpus lawsuit.' It's just a ridiculous claim by ICE officials."
Trump's administration has increasingly come under fire for clashing with courts over their ability to conduct mass deportations to a foreign megaprison in El Salvador, with one of the most prominent cases being a Maryland father who was disappeared overseas despite a protective order barring his removal to that country.
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History has taught us this lesson repeatedly — and we ignore it at our peril | Opinion
Opinion by Thom Hartmann• 13h•
7 min read
President Donald J. Trump, joined by Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan Department of Homeland Security, along the border area of Otay Mesa, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)© provided by AlterNet
People of a certain age will remember the old black-and-white movies, The Twilight Zone, and countless Cold War-era dramas set in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. In scene after chilling scene, people in uniform approach random pedestrians and bark, “Papers, please.”
Those who hesitate — who don’t have their documentation in order, who look “out of place,” or simply fail to comply fast enough — are dragged away. Vanished. Disappeared into the gulag or the prison camps, never to be seen again.
It was always framed as national security. Public order. Protecting the homeland. But what it really was, in both Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR, was authoritarianism dressed up as bureaucracy.
Republicans in the House have passed legislation requiring people to bring their passports to register to vote; increasingly Americans with brown skin are today carrying their citizenship papers, birth certificates, and even passports out of fear of a chance encounter with ICE.
Because it’s already started here: On his first day in office, Trump issued a directive requiring all non-citizens in the US — including those on visas and green card holders — to carry proof of their legal status at all times. Failure to comply will result in imprisonment.
This policy, part of Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” has sparked fears among civil rights groups that it could lead to racial profiling and wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens who may be unable to immediately prove their status.
As recently happened to Jose Hermosillo, who was held in a detention facility for undocumented immigrants for 10 days after simply asking an officer for directions.
It’s as if the Trump regime is taking a cue from those old movies, like they were templates for America’s future. After all, if you want to control a civilian population this is tried and true.
The Soviet Union’s internal passport system, introduced in 1932, became the backbone of state control over citizens. Those domestic passports — containing personal information and required for anyone over 16 — weren’t just identification but permission slips for existence itself. Without the proper stamps and approvals, citizens couldn’t access employment, housing, education, or even food rations. The system created a population dependent on state approval for their most basic needs.
During crackdowns like those following the 1968 Prague Spring, these identification systems became weapons allowing authorities to swiftly target, detain, and “disappear” political opponents under the guise of administrative violations. The message was clear: your papers aren’t just documentation; they’re the difference between freedom and vanishing into the system.
Another poignant example of this oppressive system was the “Green Ticket Roundup” on May 14, 1941, in Paris. Immigrant Jews received summonses from the Nazi-collaborating Vichy government printed on green paper, instructing them to report for a “status check.” Upon arrival, over 3,700 individuals were arrested and deported to death camps, marking one of the first mass arrests of Jews in France during World War II .
A regime of fear, enforced by ID checks and compliance demands, that began with targeting outsiders — immigrants, ethnic minorities, refugees — and then, inevitably, turned inward toward its own citizens: starting with marginalized groups, political dissenters, even the merely inconvenient.
Today, in the United States, we are witnessing the early stages of this same playbook.
Donald Trump recently attacked the U.S. Supreme Court for temporarily blocking his administration’s attempt to summarily deport migrants without due process. He raged, “We cannot give everyone a trial,” signaling his belief that constitutional protections shouldn’t apply to undocumented people, or perhaps to anyone he deems unworthy.
This wasn’t a slip of the tongue. It was a direct statement of naked authoritarianism.
Across the country, stories are piling up of ICE arrests and detentions with no transparency, no due process, and no answers. A mother from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, was suddenly detained by ICE, leaving her children and family in a panic, not knowing where she had been taken or why. She had no criminal record, no apparent reason for the arrest, and is still missing.
In another case, the U.S. government detained a father of two under a highly questionable interpretation of immigration law, claiming he was involved with a gang despite a complete lack of evidence or criminal charges. The Center for Constitutional Rights called the detention illegal, noting it was based on racial profiling and guilt by association, not rule of law.
Even places of education are no longer safe. ICE agents reportedly detained a Harvard affiliate in what critics called a targeted enforcement action meant to intimidate immigrant students and faculty. In Los Angeles, ICE showed up in a public school district, triggering fear and outrage among parents and teachers alike.
What kind of country sends armed agents — not local police, but militarized agents of the federal government — into school communities to drag away parents or students?
A country rapidly sliding into fascism.
Trump and his allies claim this is about law and order. But when you strip people of their rights based solely on their immigration status — and create a culture where anyone who “looks” undocumented can be interrogated or detained without cause — you are not enforcing the law. You are weaponizing it.
Estimates suggest there are around 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today. Trump has made it clear he sees the Black and brown people among this group as a political tool, not as people. He has floated mass deportation plans that would require enormous internment facilities and a paramilitary-style enforcement mechanism.
This is not idle talk; it is a blueprint for authoritarian control that will quickly expand beyond immigrants: He’s already said that he wants to be able to deport average US citizens who piss him off to the CECOT concentration camp in El Salvador.
Consider how quickly this can escalate. In Venezuela, for example, internal identification cards are linked to government food distribution and political loyalty. Those who criticized the regime or fail to demonstrate allegiance are routinely denied basic necessities and even health care.
This combination of surveillance, identification, and coercion has always been the hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and Trump’s is no different. This is an old story.
And let’s not forget how it begins: first by singling out the “outsiders,” then targeting the marginalized, and finally sweeping up anyone who dares resist. We saw it in the 1930s. We saw it in the 1950s. And now, disturbingly, we are seeing echoes of it today.
Axios reported this morning that the Trump administration is floating the idea of arresting US citizens who criticize their “anti-terrorism” policies (people who protest Israel’s Gaza policies at universities, and people who condemn Trump’s actions against immigrants) and deporting us to the same CECOT concentration camp in El Salvador:
This is how it starts. Soon it could be policy, and anybody who protests or resists the Trump regime could end up disappeared.
The American public must resist the normalization of “papers, please” politics. We must reject the idea that entire populations can be stripped of rights simply because of how they look, where they were born, or what kind of documentation they carry.
Because once the machinery is built and the culture of silence takes hold, it doesn’t stop at the border. It never has.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Just this month, a family in Arizona reported that their grandmother, a legal permanent resident for over 30 years, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in. No explanation was given. No timeline for release. Just the bewildering silence of bureaucratic cruelty.
For the millions living in fear, and for all Americans who value liberty, the time to act is now:
— Contact your representatives and demand oversight hearings on ICE enforcement.
— Support legal aid organizations providing representation to detained immigrants.
— Document and report ICE activities in your community to civil liberties watchdogs.
— Show up for weekly protests.
— Participate in social media and other venues to get the word out.
— Send small donations ($5-$25) to politicians who show the courage to speak out or take action against the regime every time they do so; it’ll have far more impact than a call or postcard.
MVP
Well-Known Member
Expensive targets for shooting practice....
PJF
Well-Known Member
Mark is actually right for once. No one is above the law.
View: https://x.com/catturd2/status/1915910358503723421?t=bIEcPIYmHKxsMp54eiAHUw&s=19
View: https://x.com/catturd2/status/1915910358503723421?t=bIEcPIYmHKxsMp54eiAHUw&s=19
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
Yes, we are clearly a dictatorship.
Judge orders go ignored. People that the Supreme Court has determined should be retuned to the country, are still rotting in gulags in El Salvador.
Judges are being arrested for doing things that the dictator doesn’t like.
Media companies, universities, scientists, and law firms are all being threatened or attacked. The goal is to turn them into loyalists or intimidate them/hurt them financially enough so they’re compliant.
And then this **** is the norm. Remember free speech? I was told that republicans merely cared about free speech and definitely weren’t arguing in bad faith so they could squash the speech they didn’t like while forcing their speech down our throats. I’ve also been told that “both sides” just need to sit down together and break bread.
How much more evidence do we need that this isn’t a “both sides” thing? How many more fascists must do fascist things before we pull our heads out and realize that our democracy is quickly eroding as we’ve sunk into a fascist dictatorship and our democratic institutions are being crushed or hijacked by the fascists?
View: https://bsky.app/profile/dburbach.bsky.social/post/3lnqifogly22g
View: https://bsky.app/profile/donmoyn.bsky.social/post/3lnqmj5qh6k2w
View: https://bsky.app/profile/radleybalko.bsky.social/post/3lni76fwids2u
Citizens being detained:
www.cbsnews.com
This is so immoral:
www.bbc.com
Which is why laws and process exist, so 2 year old citizens aren’t deported to god knows where.
Judge orders go ignored. People that the Supreme Court has determined should be retuned to the country, are still rotting in gulags in El Salvador.
Judges are being arrested for doing things that the dictator doesn’t like.
Media companies, universities, scientists, and law firms are all being threatened or attacked. The goal is to turn them into loyalists or intimidate them/hurt them financially enough so they’re compliant.
And then this **** is the norm. Remember free speech? I was told that republicans merely cared about free speech and definitely weren’t arguing in bad faith so they could squash the speech they didn’t like while forcing their speech down our throats. I’ve also been told that “both sides” just need to sit down together and break bread.
How much more evidence do we need that this isn’t a “both sides” thing? How many more fascists must do fascist things before we pull our heads out and realize that our democracy is quickly eroding as we’ve sunk into a fascist dictatorship and our democratic institutions are being crushed or hijacked by the fascists?
View: https://bsky.app/profile/dburbach.bsky.social/post/3lnqifogly22g
View: https://bsky.app/profile/donmoyn.bsky.social/post/3lnqmj5qh6k2w
View: https://bsky.app/profile/radleybalko.bsky.social/post/3lni76fwids2u
Citizens being detained:
U.S. citizen DHS detained for 10 days has intellectual disabilities, family claims
Jose Hermosillo, a U.S. citizen who was detained by DHS for 10 days and prosecuted for illegal entry into the U.S. has intellectual disabilities, his family claims.
www.cbsnews.com
Two-year-old US citizen may have been deported without 'meaningful process'
A federal judge said there was "strong suspicion" the Louisiana-born girl had been sent to Honduras with her mother and sister.
www.bbc.com
Red
Well-Known Member
I know I’ve said in the past, in trying to hone in more, to distill the essence of Trumpism, that one way may be to say Trump is the State. A quote from the just published Atlantic interview stands out.
And why wouldn’t he think this? Isn’t his egomania expansive enough to believe he is the State?
Here is the interview. Apologize if posted already. It was published 8 hours ago.
www.theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com
www.theatlantic.com
And why wouldn’t he think this? Isn’t his egomania expansive enough to believe he is the State?
Here is the interview. Apologize if posted already. It was published 8 hours ago.
Read The Atlantic’s Interview With Donald Trump
A conversation with the president about executive power, Signalgate, and 24-karat gold
www.theatlantic.com
‘I Run the Country and the World’
Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.
www.theatlantic.com
Radio Atlantic: In the Oval Office With Donald Trump
A conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, Ashley Parker, and Michael Scherer about their recent interview with the president of the United States
www.theatlantic.com
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Red
Well-Known Member
PJF
Well-Known Member
There is such a clear divide between the right and the left.
View: https://x.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1917225959167869298?t=hX_U5_aWWLbM9bCEdBvvxw&s=19
View: https://x.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1917225959167869298?t=hX_U5_aWWLbM9bCEdBvvxw&s=19
The Thriller
Well-Known Member
I know I’ve said in the past, in trying to hone in more, to distill the essence of Trumpism, that one way may be to say Trump is the State. A quote from the just published Atlantic interview stands out.
And why wouldn’t he think this? Isn’t his egomania expansive enough to believe he is the State?
Here is the interview. Apologize if posted already. It was published 8 hours ago.
Read The Atlantic’s Interview With Donald Trump
A conversation with the president about executive power, Signalgate, and 24-karat gold
‘I Run the Country and the World’
Donald Trump believes he’s invincible. But the cracks are beginning to show.
Radio Atlantic: In the Oval Office With Donald Trump
A conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, Ashley Parker, and Michael Scherer about their recent interview with the president of the United States
Trumpism is license for he and his followers to act their worst. There’s freedom in acting like an adolescent child. It’s why so many emotionally stunted and socially frustrated tech bros love Trump. While the rest of us become adults and act responsibly, trumpers revert to their base 14 year old embittered selves.
Honestly, a good study would be how much of the maga coalition consists of closeted gays and sexually frustrated and unfulfilled women? It wouldn’t surprise me if some of the trolls on here were really just angry gays who are just upset that they don’t feel comfortable coming out of the closet while living in their parent’s basement. Would it surprise you? So because they’re not getting what they feel they’re entitled to, they want to watch the rest of the world burn.
Red
Well-Known Member
The MAGA crew call an awful lot of their fellow Americans “whiners”. Maybe they think we just can’t recognize Trump’s greatness?
Well, the “whiners” seem to be growing in number, and it would appear MAGA is projecting. It would appear that MAGA is butting their heads up against a reality that will not favor their fantasies.
Well, the “whiners” seem to be growing in number, and it would appear MAGA is projecting. It would appear that MAGA is butting their heads up against a reality that will not favor their fantasies.