Trump clearly has recognized the crucial difference between weaponizing the law and enforcing the law, and he has chosen to manipulate that difference to his own unlawful advantage.
I wonder, when I read about “Trump’s strategy….” “Trump has chosen…” how much of this grand design is coming from that orange head. That vacant look he so often wears now does not suggest he is playing 4D chess. The inability to finish a coherent sentence, the rages, are not characteristic of a brilliant mind.
I am beginning to wonder who is choreographing his increasing dementia/insanity. It occurs to me (a personal fantasy these days) that the various real puppet masters may even be knowingly inciting him on tariffs and deportations? Perhaps their goal is to reach a point where We The People are uniformly opposed to Trump so that they can replace him without starting a civil war? Then - and only then - will trump get the hook and JDV takes the stage and continues the rampage with more stealth. Either way, the billionaires are still getting their anti tax, anti-regulation way.
‘Basic to the Constitution is habeas corpus, the notion that the government cannot seize your body without a legal justification for doing so. If that does not hold, then nothing else does.’
___Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder has written and said that '... journalists are our heroes'. The New York Times provided a detailed account of how the Trump administration has been invoking the Alien Enemies Act, '... a sweeping wartime power that allows the government to swiftly deport citizens of an invading nation.' when no nation has been invading the U.S.
A gifted link to that report has been provided below.
‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump’s Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants
The Trump administration sent them to a prison in El Salvador under a wartime act, calling them members of a Venezuelan gang. But a New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang.'
"The Trump administration sent them to a prison in El Salvador under a wartime act, calling them members of a Venezuelan gang. But a New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang.'"
Even in wartime, Germans, Italians and Japanese detained under the Alien Enemies Act were afforded a minimum of due process, and detained in the United States (Yes, I am aware of the terrible conditions under which the Japanese and Japanese-Americans especially were detained; whereas German-Americans were incorporated in the US Army and sent to fight Germany.)
Yes, I agree. In a way, it's almost worse, because it is using another country to do one's dirty work, with the excuse of a different jurisdiction. I don't think the courts will stand for it - they didn't with Guantanamo - but it could take years to resolve this, as it did with the Guantanamo prisoners who weren't actually terrorists. Assuming the courts are still independent enough to decide freely in the next half decade!
Great to hear from you Fern! I think I am suffering from terrorist tactics overload. I KNEW it was going to be bad, but gulags in South America for innocents? I took a walk past my Proud Boy neighbor's house. These Brown Shirts are in every neighborhood. And just becauseI am paranoid doesn't mean they are NOT out to get me. So your name popping up (like a spring fern in Northern Michigan!) is a joy! Thanks.
I just returned from a rally at the trial of Mr Gonzalez. I would estimate that there were 200 inside and 300 of us outside. There should be thousands.
The convicted criminal in the White House is in fact carefully following law in his kidnapping, abduction, and deporting of people to Bukele's Salvadoran hell hole.
The law is the one Smedley Butler cited shortly after his retirement as commanding officer of the U.S. marines nearly 100 years ago.
Then, and often through the 1930s, he cited his own experiences leading U.S. military might to subsidize, prop up, and cover up for dictatorships from banana republics in the Caribbean, to the Philippines and China. The law then was to protect the mostly Ivy-League-led U.S. nice, genteel, proper banking and other corporate predators requiring feudal conditions around the world so these nice, genteel, proper U.S. elites might prosper.
The convicted criminal in the White House, Bondi, Vance, Miller, and their abettors all understand this law which they continue never to question.
In six months we can watch as they pick off the more recognizable names on Substack. Nice the way they're all carefully laid out for them. If we didn't know better, we'd think we were being set up...
Substack will have a choice then: set itself up outside the United States; or knuckle down to dictatorship. At which point another Substack will be born, in Canada, Europe or (democratic) Asia-Pacific.
As for the writers - if the USA continues down this road, they will do as every other writer has done in autocratic states: go into exile and keep writing, or keep quiet and stay alive. Some might do as Osip Mandelstam did: defy the regime and somehow survive long enough to leave deathless poems, until Stalin eventually had him killed.
Thank-you for this clear explanation. Although knowing about the Holocaust for many years and visiting the Washington DC Holocaust Museum several times, I was never aware of the second principle, as you explain it, although I wondered why so many of the camps were in other countries.
What in the hell are those Right wing deluded idiots on the Supreme Court thinking? They believe they will be immunized because of their loyalty but haven’t they seen the hundreds of loyal orange soldiers littering our politics? Very soon they will have not an ounce of power left to wield.
El Salvador ( heh heh ' the Saviour') has stumbled upon the notion that the world's Guardians of Freedom, Decency and Prosperity might have increased need of good places to store troublesome humans... El Salvador: world's first Concentration Camp Country?
Thank you Professor Snyder. The Elephants instinctively pulled together during the earthquake yesterday. I hope people will find their way to Stand Up, Speak Out and Pull Together. A human being would have expelled Bukele from the Oval Office when he refused to return Mr. Garcia. Instead we have this...A true display of State Terror. Your piece is On Point. Everyone, Hello find a local group to rally with https://indivisible.org/groups
HANDS OFF! Saturday, 19 April as a part of an organized demonstration or with a group of friends or alone if need be. The important thing is to have millions of us, throughout the natio, visible in opposition.
Just do it. And be ready to repeat as necessary until we win.
I think we have reached the point of needing to do more than demonstrations. I am in the process of finishing writing my 3 representatives in Congress. I don't have a lot of hope or faith in them doing the right thing, but I have to ask -- and with urgency.
You need to take advice from those who lived and were active through the Civil Rights movement. It was an extraordinary time of courage, but also of organisation, coordination and creativity in the actions they undertook. African Americans should be at the forefront, because they know: they have lived through American terror far more than any white American.
You are probably right. I saw the sit-ins, Bloody Sunday, etc. on the news as a child. It's scary to think about how much time it took for the 1950s and 1960s Congress to finally act because this feels like we don't have a lot of time now.
It aggregates a wider range of groups, including Indivisible, and resistance activities in addition to demonstrations. Also look for your local Democratic party organization. They are actively mobilizing their communities, and you don't have to be a Democrat to participate. All democracy lovers are welcome!
I travel ten miles Its good having a town nearby. I have reunited with friends I haven’t seen from our kids school days and meeting a lot of new people as we rally on a regular basis every Saturday
Senator Van Hollen (Md) says he will travel to El Salvator to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia (a Maryland resident) if he isn't back in the US by mid-week. Other Congresspeople are talking of joining him. Towards the bottom of this article is also a video clip where Trump talks about the "home-growns" being next.
Please continue to alert us on any progress that Senator Van Hollen makes in El Salvador. Not sure how much we will learn about it out here in the hinterland.
Two warnings about me: 1) I'm guilty of trying to juggle too many stories, too.
2) I may know (vaguely, because I heard about it, or because I once used it) that something exists, or can be done, but I have to burrow around until I find it again. Burrows are dangerous places: one finds so much hidden away, that one risks (in true hobbit fashion) being late for lunch.
Actually, being in the United States without proper documents IS NOT a criminal offense. It is an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. It IS a deportable offense, but unless these hostages have been convicted of a true crime, NONE of them "deserve" to be in PRISON, especially CECOT. CECOT is referred to it as a "black hole of human rights".
We're all consuming too much news! Which, as various wise people point out, is rather the point. Seeing too many fires to put out means we are not likely to put out any. And, we lose our senses of humor and of humility. Humor keeps the would-be-fear-mongers off-balance; humility helps us to accept that we are finite, fallible beings who are incapable of doing it all. All the best to you, Karen.
I was just thinking that this could turn out worse than Hitler's destruction of humanity (in view of yesterday's performance in the oval office). Too many fires to put out and my head explodes every day.
You’re right about this— we are long-accustomed to thinking of Hitler’s destruction as the worst in recent history, but the tools are are sharper, and more dangerous now than ever, and the potential for destruction so much greater.
When we have enough, we turn on YouTube for Jimmy K, or Cobert - everyone has to have humor in their life to stay sane inside insane America these days.
I've wondered, since the day they said they wouldn't return Abregio, why someone (in Congress or Senate) couldn't take a plane down there and bring him home! Is that too naïve of me, that they'd give him up easily? Just a thought! (But it's bugged me all this time)
With your original comment, I now am tracking this issue, so thank you Mary. From The Guardian comes the following:
"Deported Maryland man: Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, is heading to El Salvador to press for the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration. Mr. Abrego Garcia remains imprisoned in his native country after the Supreme Court ordered the U.S. government to facilitate his return.
"To a very sad degree, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress are already complicit in this experiment in state terror. They might find their way back to an America in which their offices have meaning, but only with the help of we the people."
I think it is much more horrible than merely sad. I have seen extremely little evidence that their are sufficient numbers of Republicans in Congress and not very many more Democrats who are willing to speak up. I am doing what I can. I am contacting my representative and my senators and spreading the warning to as many people in other places as I can. But I see little of the alarm that I feel. Most people that I interact with feel helpless and are self-censoring out of personal fears for their safety and the safety of their families, not facing into the reality that that behavior is exactly what puts them in more danger.
Leilani, "doing what you can" is very important. People feeling scared, or uncertain, are also susceptible to taking heart when they see someone else doing "something". (Think of all those people who turned out April 5, many, many because someone they knew asked them to come along.) And the other important thing is laughter. Humor puts the monsters back in their boxes and makes it easier to do what one can, to encourage others. Keep being brave. All the best to you, Leilani.
I agree, Mary. I have been intentionally engaging in more "laughter" in the past few months. I am a retired psychologist and have always valued a sense of humor, considered to be one of the most mature defense mechanisms.
I don't want to dismiss the thousands and hundreds of thousands, even millions of people who are stepping out and speaking up. Everything we can do to consciously resist the regime is important.
As well, what I know is that there is much that is occurring behind the scenes at a number of levels. While I do my best to stay abreast of what is going on, there is no way that one person alone can keep up. Gathering together, to resist and to laugh is more important than ever.
Right on for the laughter factor. Reminded me to share this excerpt from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger":
Satan was accustomed to say that our race lived a life of continuous and uninterrupted self-deception. It duped itself from cradle to grave with shams and delusions which it mistook for realities, and this made its entire life a sham. Of the score of fine qualities which it imagined it had and was vain of, it really possessed hardly one. It regarded itself as gold, and was only brass. One day when he was in this vein he mentioned a detail-the sense of humor. I cheered up then, and took issue. I said we possessed it.
"There spoke the race!" he said; "always ready to claim what it hasn't got, and mistake its ounce of brass filings for a ton of gold dust. You have a mongrel perception of humor, nothing more; a multitude of you possess that. This multitude see the comic side of a thousand low-grade and trivial things-broad incongruities, mainly; grotesqueries, absurdities, evokers of the horselaugh. The ten thousand high-grade comicalities which exist in the world are sealed from their dull vision. Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon-laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution-these can lift at a colossal humbug-push it a little-weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons. Do you ever use that one? No; you leave it lying rusting. As a race, do you ever use it at all? No; you lack sense and the courage."
--------------------------------------
BTW Myst Stranger is one of the most biting, cynical, to-the-bone denunciations of the human race, comically, that has ever been written and it's pocket-size. "Satan" will not brook any nonsense from humans and is a classic figure. In times like these, this and Voltaire's "Candide" (possibly even more biting) should be read and re-read steadily.
what is the 'LRA'? if you want to educate people, try not to use ubiquitous acronyms, there are just too many today, and I am always looking to call my reps to account, thanks :)
Thanks Bill, I get it. Another careless footsie with gulag rules by congress, and of course the "non-citizen" angle can be ignored by His Highness, and is.
Thank you, Bill, for this link to the National Immigration Project's "Practice Advisory: The Laken Riley Act's Mandatory Detention Provisions". (I copied the title, hoping that it will be easier for those working on improving specific immigrants' status to find it.)
No she explained her thought process https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HTfpgI5Sf1Q. Just finished Raymond Arsenault bio of John Lewis. Sometimes we have to forgive people. Especially if they give a heartfelt apology
"Thinking" is not part of the daily agenda, obviously. No one should be expecting that from congress members anymore. I saw Rand Paul, of all people, say in a recent speech to end Trump's "state of emergency" dictates, to whoever in congress was sitting that day "...that we're feckless and so on, and all that's true..." Nobody shouted in disagreement.
I know what you mean. Our elected leaders are not being thoughtful right now. But as long as my tax dollars are creeping into their pockets, I expect them to be spending every hour of the day thinking hard about how they’re going to fix this. I think we could all use an explanation for their lethargy.
Right on Betsy. And if you find one that will give you an explanation I'd like to know their name. I'm 68 and have been loosely watching politics for about 50 years now, at about the same distance I try to keep from my toilet, and I've never seen such a capitulation to such a "personality cult" as Trump has erected, other than possibly George Bush II. But at least most people acknowledged that G. Bush was a bona fide idiot (remember the calendars?). This goon seems to have everyone hypnotized into thinking he's brilliant, even his own party. There is only one upside to all these congresspeople not showing up for their town halls, mostly Repubs I see (too scared and/or smug), and that is that the new younger generation can point to that and make hay from it, as long as they're smart. The email I just got from Dem runner Jake Rakov (CA 32 district, West Covina) is a perfect example of the sort of new generation that is needed, and that is going to wash the useless "old guard" Dems down the sewer, and he says so in no mincy language.
I'm 63, and, though we watched the news from opposite oceans, we saw the same things. We thought Nixon was so evil... and he seemed to be. Cheating? Now we're going to cheat? But then it was just wiped away, Gerald Ford was such a great bungling fool, then was it Carter? Loved him. Hated seeing him lose to the big R. I could never understand why anybody would vote for an actor. I think that was a sign of the republican's early dementia. Who else would have thought it was a good idea to vote for a person trained to misrepresent himself?
We laughed and cried with Clinton, mostly laughed with GWB, but also picked up a permanent and lasting revulsion for humor which has plagued me ever since. I always thought humor was my best thing. Remember when our greatest concern was a guy in a plane? Remember the day before that? That was the last day before we formally rolled out the doormat for Trump. I don't remember what I did that day, other than cart my kids around to school, soccer, piano lessons,... But the way that guy "reportedly" rejoiced after that attack alerted me that I hadn't been paying close attention. I wish that were still true.
I can’t help but feel that one of the reasons the administrations is going to such lengths to say that Kilmer Abrego Garcia can not be brought home is that he is dead. I think everything you said is spot on, but I also think the administration knows that the American people will be extremely angry if they find he has been killed.
He may be dead, but I think this is just their way of letting the American people know that this can happen to them too. They can take you too, you saw his comment on "Home Growns"...and then if they take you, you will never come back. It is a threat to all of us.
I just think they find terror useful and cruelty enjoyable.
What frightens me no end is the rectitude of the Supreme Court. “Facilitating” this man’s return isn’t the same thing as ordering it, and every Trump goon knows it. Even if they order it, Trump has already violated every court order and federal appeals court judge. How would a judgment be enforced? What bailiff is going to march into the Department of Justice and take Pam Bondi out in manacles?
Courts have no way of enforcing their judgments. It’s all done by gentleman’s agreements. Even Nixon complied with a court order. But these scoundrels have already spit in the eye of the courts.
I don't think he is dead; I think he is a test case for Trump et al. If Garcia can be extracted and returned home, their plans for sending hundreds/thousands to a similar fate would be disrupted by the application of the actual law: an actual example of how the laws they seek to disrupt are supposed to work. Can't have that. . .
Agreed. Heather Cox Richardson made this point in her letter last night and it makes sense.
That said, theirs is a dehumanization project. We have ample historic precedent for the horrifying outcomes. Everyone who falls into it is in great peril for their lives.
I was of course referring to othering. The violent shackling of individuals and sending them to prisons in foreign countries where they’re stripped of their identity, shorn…all that is being done to make it possible to treat other human beings as non human. You. Me. Everyone. And no doubt, the desire to undermine public education as a value in our commons is part of this project.
It breaks my heart to think that Kilmar Abrego Garcia could already be dead, but it is a real possibility. Perhaps Trump and Bukele are using their bravado to cover up their crime. Us "home grown" citizens need to wake up and realize that this could happen to us and others that we know and love. I am reminded of the WWII poem "First They Came" by Pastor Martin Niemöller. Here's the link to the poem posted on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust: https://hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/
This is the key sentence in what Professor Synder wrote, and it is the scariest sentence. "Trump spoke of the need to deport people who 'hate our country' or who are 'stupid.'" Pam Bondi can define "hate our country" as anyone who protests or disagrees with Trump. Straight up—protesters and can be lumped with criminals (or who they claim are criminals) and people they claim are treasonous. As such, be abducted without due process and their life is over.
The gov repression machinery has a quite limited throughput. At least until the gov gets some practice. Use the time until the gov becomes competent the Soviet way. I know this is like explaining that "the wardens do not have that many bullets".
He was heard talking about “homegrowns” and needing 4 or 5 more prisons built to hold them in El Salvador, with Bukule saying there’s room.
Trump described people who hit little old ladies over the head with a hammer, implying that such violence is frequent and is the kind he claims he is protecting us from.
What about Trump supporters hitting Paul Pelosi on the head with a hammer and the arsonist attacker who wanted to hammer Gov Shapiro? Felon Frumpy is creating Nazi Germany in his image. We cannot just stand by and watch as fellow citizens are approached by his thugs to drag them
off to the gulag. We cannot turn in our fellow citizens or turn our heads away from what is happening. We the people are the ones to stand up and fight against this autocratic kleptocracy. I fear for my safety as a 69 yr old but I fear more full blown Nazi gas chambers in El Salvador and other places Felon Frumpy pays off.
Only to say that I trust what Professor Synder wrote. He did not link the quotes around "hate our country" and "stupid." But I doubt he constructed the sentence just to meet a bias he has.
I tend to trust him as well, but I can't use this in arguments without the evidence to back it up -- and that's unfortunate because this is potentially a *really* compelling point for Trump supporters who are okay with abusing those they see as bad people, but might balk at applying the same to others.
I did find where Stephen Miller appeared to apply potential deportation to people who "hate our country", but not Trump. I can't find any reference to either Trump or any of his surrogates saying stupid people can be renditioned.
I am living in a state of horror and shock, wondering why others are not noticing what is occurring. Then again, as a psychologist, I understand it is natural to deny anything that is frightening and that feels beyond our control. But, for those of us who are living in reality, what can we do - beyond a few protests, phone calls, letters, etc.? I’m already hearing people say that they don’t anticipate a 2026 election; that, while we pin our hopes on it, this regime will find a way to make sure it doesn’t happen. Any insights, anyone?
Thanks for articulating this. You describe where I am. I am not sure what we can do. I think about this every single day. But we need to find each other to dream our way forward and envision our power together. To live in reality is to categorically reject all that we saw in display in the Oval Office yesterday, this is certain. They are trying to frighten us into submission.
Thank you for finding me here!
Also a reminder: being brave and feeling brave aren’t the same thing. Here’s to doing what we can. Here’s to us (quickly!) becoming a united front against the brash and violent criminality in our halls of power, and us successfully protecting each other from all that is being perpetrated against we the people.
Hi Martha, I am a retired psychologist and my experience seems to be similar to yours. Perhaps see my comment above. From let's wait and see, give him (Trump) enough rope to hang himself, to you are over-exaggerating, etc. responses from others to my alarm have been very disheartening. Nevertheless, I am continuing to do what I can and making connections where I can. It takes a lot of time and energy to keep it up and Sunday, Palm Sunday, I did sort of collapse and slept for 10 hours.
I live in a state of really angry and intense curiosity about what the F is happening and why and what's next.
There are many places to get information. Mostly: youtube and substacks. Not mass media. BTW: pay for no ads on Youtube. a better investment than Netflix.
Right now there is "negotiations" between the USA and Russia.
I am counting on Russia to be the rational negotiator.
No bombing Iran!!!! Bad for Iran. Suicidal for the USA.
I don't think I'm in denial (does a light come on somewhere so I'll know for sure?), but I'm staying calm recognizing that there really isn't a whole lot we can do right now. We could make donations here or to NPR and any other resources looking for money and we can attend whatever demonstrations we learn about, but other than that we're just waiting to see what happens later. I am comforted knowing that the eyes of the world are watching. Whatever happens in America will not happen to us in a vacuum. Europe is watching. Ukraine is watching. Trump might get away with what he has set in motion, but we will be avenged.
Oh no. It just occurred to me that he could knock down our cloud servers. What if he takes away our WiFi? This thing just got real.
Arm yourself, Martha -- with these (and refer often to them in further writing you do):
films like “The Florida Project,” “Knives Out,” and “Winter’s Bone”;
novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” and many by Richard Russo and Stephen King;
memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” and Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,”
essay collections such as Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone, and George Packer’s “The Unwinding”;
biographies such as Lindsey Stonebridge’s “We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience”;
histories like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel,” and Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War”;
poems such as Philip Levine’s Detroit factory poems,
songs like Tim Grimm’s “Broken Truth,” Bob Seger’s “Feel Like a Number,” Carsie Blanton’s “Rich People,” and any number of Bruce Springsteen or hip hop Ari Melber will cite.
All readers of this post must educate others by sending it to as many people who could possibly be moved to join the resistance. Encourage them to sign on to this and other progressive sub stacks!
Let’s be clear about the hypocrisy. If a Democratic president had done anything like this, or indeed like so much else Trump has done, a Republican dominated House would have drawn up articles of impeachment long ago.
Stunning and extremely disturbing. Professor Snyder, it should be noted that the photograph you show is of the vans in Paris, in front of the Vélodrome d'Hiver (Vél d'Hiv) that were used to transport Jews, rounded up by French police in 1942, and then taken to the transport center at Drancy. The majority of these Jews were sent to Auschwitz. I've read that this photograph was the only one to ever show these vans.
You're very welcome. Years ago, I saw this image in by book made by Serge Klarsfeld, 'French Children of the Holocaust,' New York University Press, 1996. Contained within it are photographs of thousands of children, with detailed information about each, where they died, if they survived, etc. This book is extremely distressing, so if you want to obtain it, just be aware of that fact.
Serge Klarsfeld was the famous Nazi hunter who amassed this information, with the help of many others. He collected the photographs over a 50-year period. When we lived in New York, there was an exhibition of many of these photographs at the Grey Gallery, a part of New York University. It was only afterwards that this book was published in English. I recognized the image immediately. Thanks. BD
I like your analysis and agree that Trump through his words/actions has now officially named himself dictator.
I would also like to hear your views on who or what groups get the terrorist label in other situations, such as Hamas. Does that label justify whatever either Israel and the US do in Gaza, the West Bank or the Middle East as anti-terror killings no matter how many innocent children are targeted?
Both Netanyahu and Putin are already using this method.
(This is to everyone, not specifically you, Richard, but I'm putting it here because it's the reasoning behind my comment.)
I suspect that it is important to name the leaders, rather than to lump them in with everyone of their nationality or citizenship. The leaders, with their inner circle, are calling the shots; the populace is often just trying to survive. Referring to the actions or decrees of the leaders by the country name (Israel, Russia, China) is often convenient, but may have two untoward results:
1.) causing the populace to circle the wagons around the leaders (as happened in WWII when cities were bombed), or
2.) a handy to convince one's followers of the existence of a (vaguely defined) mass of heretics/ foreigners/ aliens (extra-terrestrials?) that must be fought off.
Mary, are you familiar with Anne Applebaum's latest book, Anarchy Inc.? She has been speaking on a number of podcasts about it. A loose network of anarchists around the globe that don't necessarily share ideology, but to share ideas and support one another.
No, I haven't yet read any of her books. Amazon lists her latest as "Autocracy". Did you mean that? (I think Spell check has been doing its bit for "anarchy" :) ) Thanks for the reference. I'll look it up.
And yes, autocrats do seem to like to hang out together. Glitzy parties are a great place for networking.
Your observation that the Trump regime’s goal is to escape the law rather than follow it is profoundly true
Trump clearly has recognized the crucial difference between weaponizing the law and enforcing the law, and he has chosen to manipulate that difference to his own unlawful advantage.
I wonder, when I read about “Trump’s strategy….” “Trump has chosen…” how much of this grand design is coming from that orange head. That vacant look he so often wears now does not suggest he is playing 4D chess. The inability to finish a coherent sentence, the rages, are not characteristic of a brilliant mind.
I am beginning to wonder who is choreographing his increasing dementia/insanity. It occurs to me (a personal fantasy these days) that the various real puppet masters may even be knowingly inciting him on tariffs and deportations? Perhaps their goal is to reach a point where We The People are uniformly opposed to Trump so that they can replace him without starting a civil war? Then - and only then - will trump get the hook and JDV takes the stage and continues the rampage with more stealth. Either way, the billionaires are still getting their anti tax, anti-regulation way.
Yes, I suspect that the puppet masters will find a way to throw Trump under the bus after he’s no longer needed. Transactional.
‘Basic to the Constitution is habeas corpus, the notion that the government cannot seize your body without a legal justification for doing so. If that does not hold, then nothing else does.’
___Timothy Snyder
Timothy Snyder has written and said that '... journalists are our heroes'. The New York Times provided a detailed account of how the Trump administration has been invoking the Alien Enemies Act, '... a sweeping wartime power that allows the government to swiftly deport citizens of an invading nation.' when no nation has been invading the U.S.
A gifted link to that report has been provided below.
‘Alien Enemies’ or Innocent Men? Inside Trump’s Rushed Effort to Deport 238 Migrants
The Trump administration sent them to a prison in El Salvador under a wartime act, calling them members of a Venezuelan gang. But a New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang.'
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/world/americas/trump-migrants-deportations.html?unlocked_article_code=1._04.qYnJ.FbRR84vPODlh&smid=url-share
"The Trump administration sent them to a prison in El Salvador under a wartime act, calling them members of a Venezuelan gang. But a New York Times investigation found little evidence of criminal backgrounds or links to the gang.'"
Even in wartime, Germans, Italians and Japanese detained under the Alien Enemies Act were afforded a minimum of due process, and detained in the United States (Yes, I am aware of the terrible conditions under which the Japanese and Japanese-Americans especially were detained; whereas German-Americans were incorporated in the US Army and sent to fight Germany.)
Sending prisoners to El Salvador, the equivalent of Occupied Poland (Auschwitz), is truly shocking.
Yes, although the Bukkaki man is being paid for all that. I don't think the Nazis paid the Poles. They killed them or shoved them in KZs as well.
And El Salvador isn’t occupied (that I know of) by the US. And we’re not at war, except civilly (which seems like the wrong word somehow).
Still, there are parallels. Outsourced, so it isn’t America. And I’m shocked. Guantanamo was bad enough.
Yes, I agree. In a way, it's almost worse, because it is using another country to do one's dirty work, with the excuse of a different jurisdiction. I don't think the courts will stand for it - they didn't with Guantanamo - but it could take years to resolve this, as it did with the Guantanamo prisoners who weren't actually terrorists. Assuming the courts are still independent enough to decide freely in the next half decade!
Thanks, Fern. I think.
Great to hear from you Fern! I think I am suffering from terrorist tactics overload. I KNEW it was going to be bad, but gulags in South America for innocents? I took a walk past my Proud Boy neighbor's house. These Brown Shirts are in every neighborhood. And just becauseI am paranoid doesn't mean they are NOT out to get me. So your name popping up (like a spring fern in Northern Michigan!) is a joy! Thanks.
With appreciation and friendship. To spring, the flowers and unity all year round!
Great to see you MaryPat. You think? That's more indecisive than I remember.
I hope that you're well, still laughing, supporting our rights, education, affordable housing and welfare as you always have.
Salud!
You made my day, Fern! Thanks!
Of course there is no war at all!
I just returned from a rally at the trial of Mr Gonzalez. I would estimate that there were 200 inside and 300 of us outside. There should be thousands.
Better than nothing! Every protest helps. Think positive.
Yes, true, Sarah, except also not true.
The convicted criminal in the White House is in fact carefully following law in his kidnapping, abduction, and deporting of people to Bukele's Salvadoran hell hole.
The law is the one Smedley Butler cited shortly after his retirement as commanding officer of the U.S. marines nearly 100 years ago.
Then, and often through the 1930s, he cited his own experiences leading U.S. military might to subsidize, prop up, and cover up for dictatorships from banana republics in the Caribbean, to the Philippines and China. The law then was to protect the mostly Ivy-League-led U.S. nice, genteel, proper banking and other corporate predators requiring feudal conditions around the world so these nice, genteel, proper U.S. elites might prosper.
The convicted criminal in the White House, Bondi, Vance, Miller, and their abettors all understand this law which they continue never to question.
I believe it used to be called The White Man's Burden.
I’ve read about states going authoritarian, but now we’re watching it in real time.
It’s still early yet but it’s scary to watch.
In six months we can watch as they pick off the more recognizable names on Substack. Nice the way they're all carefully laid out for them. If we didn't know better, we'd think we were being set up...
Does anybody know who owns this place?
Substack will have a choice then: set itself up outside the United States; or knuckle down to dictatorship. At which point another Substack will be born, in Canada, Europe or (democratic) Asia-Pacific.
As for the writers - if the USA continues down this road, they will do as every other writer has done in autocratic states: go into exile and keep writing, or keep quiet and stay alive. Some might do as Osip Mandelstam did: defy the regime and somehow survive long enough to leave deathless poems, until Stalin eventually had him killed.
Substack is a Silicon Valley company I believe.
The terror of Jamaica Estates has been evading/escaping the law since he was 11.
Thank-you for this clear explanation. Although knowing about the Holocaust for many years and visiting the Washington DC Holocaust Museum several times, I was never aware of the second principle, as you explain it, although I wondered why so many of the camps were in other countries.
My internal 78 year old terror meter just burned out.
Current events have pushed aside my 86-year-old Holocaust nightmare dreams.
What in the hell are those Right wing deluded idiots on the Supreme Court thinking? They believe they will be immunized because of their loyalty but haven’t they seen the hundreds of loyal orange soldiers littering our politics? Very soon they will have not an ounce of power left to wield.
If they aren't careful, they'll get a permanent Salvadorean vacation, too.
El Salvador ( heh heh ' the Saviour') has stumbled upon the notion that the world's Guardians of Freedom, Decency and Prosperity might have increased need of good places to store troublesome humans... El Salvador: world's first Concentration Camp Country?
Concentration Camp for hire.
International Concentration Camp Services. Ask about our group rates.
" Ask about our group rates"
This.
I thought " Arbeit Macht Frei" was effective promotion. This completes the
sales package.
And I believe they are now well aware of this, thus we should not be surprised when they give him full reign to save their own b's.
No, they are more likely to get a golden house arrest.
I am so sorry that you have experienced the Nazi terror.
Mine too.
Thank you Professor Snyder. The Elephants instinctively pulled together during the earthquake yesterday. I hope people will find their way to Stand Up, Speak Out and Pull Together. A human being would have expelled Bukele from the Oval Office when he refused to return Mr. Garcia. Instead we have this...A true display of State Terror. Your piece is On Point. Everyone, Hello find a local group to rally with https://indivisible.org/groups
HANDS OFF! Saturday, 19 April as a part of an organized demonstration or with a group of friends or alone if need be. The important thing is to have millions of us, throughout the natio, visible in opposition.
Just do it. And be ready to repeat as necessary until we win.
HANDS OFF! organized by the Dems Abroad here in Merida, Mexico.
I think we have reached the point of needing to do more than demonstrations. I am in the process of finishing writing my 3 representatives in Congress. I don't have a lot of hope or faith in them doing the right thing, but I have to ask -- and with urgency.
You need to take advice from those who lived and were active through the Civil Rights movement. It was an extraordinary time of courage, but also of organisation, coordination and creativity in the actions they undertook. African Americans should be at the forefront, because they know: they have lived through American terror far more than any white American.
You are probably right. I saw the sit-ins, Bloody Sunday, etc. on the news as a child. It's scary to think about how much time it took for the 1950s and 1960s Congress to finally act because this feels like we don't have a lot of time now.
I’ll be there
Did not see any groups for upstate New York.
Kathryn, try using the Mobilize website:
https://www.mobilize.us/
It aggregates a wider range of groups, including Indivisible, and resistance activities in addition to demonstrations. Also look for your local Democratic party organization. They are actively mobilizing their communities, and you don't have to be a Democrat to participate. All democracy lovers are welcome!
Thank you !
You can start one. Indivisible.org
Big rally in my town on Saturday!!
I travel ten miles Its good having a town nearby. I have reunited with friends I haven’t seen from our kids school days and meeting a lot of new people as we rally on a regular basis every Saturday
Senator Van Hollen (Md) says he will travel to El Salvator to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia (a Maryland resident) if he isn't back in the US by mid-week. Other Congresspeople are talking of joining him. Towards the bottom of this article is also a video clip where Trump talks about the "home-growns" being next.
Please continue to alert us on any progress that Senator Van Hollen makes in El Salvador. Not sure how much we will learn about it out here in the hinterland.
You might try setting up an alert in your news program for more about the story.
Two warnings about me: 1) I'm guilty of trying to juggle too many stories, too.
2) I may know (vaguely, because I heard about it, or because I once used it) that something exists, or can be done, but I have to burrow around until I find it again. Burrows are dangerous places: one finds so much hidden away, that one risks (in true hobbit fashion) being late for lunch.
Senator Van Hollen's message should be:
RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!
STARTING WITH
KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA!
Yes! I think he's not the only man who did nothing to deserve this.
Actually, being in the United States without proper documents IS NOT a criminal offense. It is an infraction, similar to a traffic ticket. It IS a deportable offense, but unless these hostages have been convicted of a true crime, NONE of them "deserve" to be in PRISON, especially CECOT. CECOT is referred to it as a "black hole of human rights".
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68244963
Here is a source FYI 👇
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/FINAL_criminalizing_undocumented_immigrants_issue_brief_PUBLIC_VERSION.pdf
I had been hoping congress would finally go there. I hope he still lives.
Thank you for mentioning this. Somehow, despite all the news I am consuming I missed this.
We're all consuming too much news! Which, as various wise people point out, is rather the point. Seeing too many fires to put out means we are not likely to put out any. And, we lose our senses of humor and of humility. Humor keeps the would-be-fear-mongers off-balance; humility helps us to accept that we are finite, fallible beings who are incapable of doing it all. All the best to you, Karen.
I was just thinking that this could turn out worse than Hitler's destruction of humanity (in view of yesterday's performance in the oval office). Too many fires to put out and my head explodes every day.
You’re right about this— we are long-accustomed to thinking of Hitler’s destruction as the worst in recent history, but the tools are are sharper, and more dangerous now than ever, and the potential for destruction so much greater.
I’m definitely with you in the humor camp! (The Daily Show did a great piece on the deportations, I think yesterday.)
When we have enough, we turn on YouTube for Jimmy K, or Cobert - everyone has to have humor in their life to stay sane inside insane America these days.
Andy Borowitz is funny. So are the comments.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/the-useful-idiots-useful-idiot
I've wondered, since the day they said they wouldn't return Abregio, why someone (in Congress or Senate) couldn't take a plane down there and bring him home! Is that too naïve of me, that they'd give him up easily? Just a thought! (But it's bugged me all this time)
Pretty sure Dictator Bukele wouldn’t cooperate.
Of all the horror going on now, Garcia is near the top of my list of: FIX IT!!!!! GET THAT MAN BACK!!!!
With your original comment, I now am tracking this issue, so thank you Mary. From The Guardian comes the following:
"Deported Maryland man: Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, is heading to El Salvador to press for the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration. Mr. Abrego Garcia remains imprisoned in his native country after the Supreme Court ordered the U.S. government to facilitate his return.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/15/chris-van-hollen-el-salvador-kilmar-abrego-garcia
"To a very sad degree, Supreme Court justices and members of Congress are already complicit in this experiment in state terror. They might find their way back to an America in which their offices have meaning, but only with the help of we the people."
I think it is much more horrible than merely sad. I have seen extremely little evidence that their are sufficient numbers of Republicans in Congress and not very many more Democrats who are willing to speak up. I am doing what I can. I am contacting my representative and my senators and spreading the warning to as many people in other places as I can. But I see little of the alarm that I feel. Most people that I interact with feel helpless and are self-censoring out of personal fears for their safety and the safety of their families, not facing into the reality that that behavior is exactly what puts them in more danger.
Leilani, "doing what you can" is very important. People feeling scared, or uncertain, are also susceptible to taking heart when they see someone else doing "something". (Think of all those people who turned out April 5, many, many because someone they knew asked them to come along.) And the other important thing is laughter. Humor puts the monsters back in their boxes and makes it easier to do what one can, to encourage others. Keep being brave. All the best to you, Leilani.
I agree, Mary. I have been intentionally engaging in more "laughter" in the past few months. I am a retired psychologist and have always valued a sense of humor, considered to be one of the most mature defense mechanisms.
I don't want to dismiss the thousands and hundreds of thousands, even millions of people who are stepping out and speaking up. Everything we can do to consciously resist the regime is important.
As well, what I know is that there is much that is occurring behind the scenes at a number of levels. While I do my best to stay abreast of what is going on, there is no way that one person alone can keep up. Gathering together, to resist and to laugh is more important than ever.
Courage is contagious. Civil courage is essential to democracy.
Right on for the laughter factor. Reminded me to share this excerpt from Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger":
Satan was accustomed to say that our race lived a life of continuous and uninterrupted self-deception. It duped itself from cradle to grave with shams and delusions which it mistook for realities, and this made its entire life a sham. Of the score of fine qualities which it imagined it had and was vain of, it really possessed hardly one. It regarded itself as gold, and was only brass. One day when he was in this vein he mentioned a detail-the sense of humor. I cheered up then, and took issue. I said we possessed it.
"There spoke the race!" he said; "always ready to claim what it hasn't got, and mistake its ounce of brass filings for a ton of gold dust. You have a mongrel perception of humor, nothing more; a multitude of you possess that. This multitude see the comic side of a thousand low-grade and trivial things-broad incongruities, mainly; grotesqueries, absurdities, evokers of the horselaugh. The ten thousand high-grade comicalities which exist in the world are sealed from their dull vision. Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon-laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution-these can lift at a colossal humbug-push it a little-weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons. Do you ever use that one? No; you leave it lying rusting. As a race, do you ever use it at all? No; you lack sense and the courage."
--------------------------------------
BTW Myst Stranger is one of the most biting, cynical, to-the-bone denunciations of the human race, comically, that has ever been written and it's pocket-size. "Satan" will not brook any nonsense from humans and is a classic figure. In times like these, this and Voltaire's "Candide" (possibly even more biting) should be read and re-read steadily.
Here again I call out the 12 US Democratic senators who voted in support of the LRA. What were they thinking???
what is the 'LRA'? if you want to educate people, try not to use ubiquitous acronyms, there are just too many today, and I am always looking to call my reps to account, thanks :)
Fair point. I had to look it up even though I knew of the legislation, the acronym didn't make it obvious. The original poster is referring to the Laken Riley Act. https://nipnlg.org/work/resources/practice-advisory-laken-riley-acts-mandatory-detention-provisions
Thanks Bill, I get it. Another careless footsie with gulag rules by congress, and of course the "non-citizen" angle can be ignored by His Highness, and is.
Thank you, Bill, for this link to the National Immigration Project's "Practice Advisory: The Laken Riley Act's Mandatory Detention Provisions". (I copied the title, hoping that it will be easier for those working on improving specific immigrants' status to find it.)
It’s another attempt to demonize illegals. We don’t need new laws. The existing criminal law is adequate.
Laken Riley Act.
very good, thanks
I don't know what "LRA" means either!
From Congress, last week my CT-5 State Rep Jahana Hayes Apologized for voting for this bill, in a town hall on CNN.
Couldn't be bothered to read it before voting on it I guess? Our "leaders" are so weak. We are screwed.
No she explained her thought process https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HTfpgI5Sf1Q. Just finished Raymond Arsenault bio of John Lewis. Sometimes we have to forgive people. Especially if they give a heartfelt apology
"Thinking" is not part of the daily agenda, obviously. No one should be expecting that from congress members anymore. I saw Rand Paul, of all people, say in a recent speech to end Trump's "state of emergency" dictates, to whoever in congress was sitting that day "...that we're feckless and so on, and all that's true..." Nobody shouted in disagreement.
I know what you mean. Our elected leaders are not being thoughtful right now. But as long as my tax dollars are creeping into their pockets, I expect them to be spending every hour of the day thinking hard about how they’re going to fix this. I think we could all use an explanation for their lethargy.
Right on Betsy. And if you find one that will give you an explanation I'd like to know their name. I'm 68 and have been loosely watching politics for about 50 years now, at about the same distance I try to keep from my toilet, and I've never seen such a capitulation to such a "personality cult" as Trump has erected, other than possibly George Bush II. But at least most people acknowledged that G. Bush was a bona fide idiot (remember the calendars?). This goon seems to have everyone hypnotized into thinking he's brilliant, even his own party. There is only one upside to all these congresspeople not showing up for their town halls, mostly Repubs I see (too scared and/or smug), and that is that the new younger generation can point to that and make hay from it, as long as they're smart. The email I just got from Dem runner Jake Rakov (CA 32 district, West Covina) is a perfect example of the sort of new generation that is needed, and that is going to wash the useless "old guard" Dems down the sewer, and he says so in no mincy language.
I'm 63, and, though we watched the news from opposite oceans, we saw the same things. We thought Nixon was so evil... and he seemed to be. Cheating? Now we're going to cheat? But then it was just wiped away, Gerald Ford was such a great bungling fool, then was it Carter? Loved him. Hated seeing him lose to the big R. I could never understand why anybody would vote for an actor. I think that was a sign of the republican's early dementia. Who else would have thought it was a good idea to vote for a person trained to misrepresent himself?
We laughed and cried with Clinton, mostly laughed with GWB, but also picked up a permanent and lasting revulsion for humor which has plagued me ever since. I always thought humor was my best thing. Remember when our greatest concern was a guy in a plane? Remember the day before that? That was the last day before we formally rolled out the doormat for Trump. I don't remember what I did that day, other than cart my kids around to school, soccer, piano lessons,... But the way that guy "reportedly" rejoiced after that attack alerted me that I hadn't been paying close attention. I wish that were still true.
I can’t help but feel that one of the reasons the administrations is going to such lengths to say that Kilmer Abrego Garcia can not be brought home is that he is dead. I think everything you said is spot on, but I also think the administration knows that the American people will be extremely angry if they find he has been killed.
He may be dead, but I think this is just their way of letting the American people know that this can happen to them too. They can take you too, you saw his comment on "Home Growns"...and then if they take you, you will never come back. It is a threat to all of us.
I just think they find terror useful and cruelty enjoyable.
What frightens me no end is the rectitude of the Supreme Court. “Facilitating” this man’s return isn’t the same thing as ordering it, and every Trump goon knows it. Even if they order it, Trump has already violated every court order and federal appeals court judge. How would a judgment be enforced? What bailiff is going to march into the Department of Justice and take Pam Bondi out in manacles?
Courts have no way of enforcing their judgments. It’s all done by gentleman’s agreements. Even Nixon complied with a court order. But these scoundrels have already spit in the eye of the courts.
This is really, really bad, people.
I don't think he is dead; I think he is a test case for Trump et al. If Garcia can be extracted and returned home, their plans for sending hundreds/thousands to a similar fate would be disrupted by the application of the actual law: an actual example of how the laws they seek to disrupt are supposed to work. Can't have that. . .
Agreed. Heather Cox Richardson made this point in her letter last night and it makes sense.
That said, theirs is a dehumanization project. We have ample historic precedent for the horrifying outcomes. Everyone who falls into it is in great peril for their lives.
". . . a dehumanization project . . .. Everyone who fall into it is in great peril for their lives."
Yes, Brother Chris -- but tens of millions of U.S. students have fallen into it.
It's American schools at their normal for some decades now -- void of humanities to make room for more relentless, soul-killing standardized testing.
I was of course referring to othering. The violent shackling of individuals and sending them to prisons in foreign countries where they’re stripped of their identity, shorn…all that is being done to make it possible to treat other human beings as non human. You. Me. Everyone. And no doubt, the desire to undermine public education as a value in our commons is part of this project.
This is my worry as well.
It breaks my heart to think that Kilmar Abrego Garcia could already be dead, but it is a real possibility. Perhaps Trump and Bukele are using their bravado to cover up their crime. Us "home grown" citizens need to wake up and realize that this could happen to us and others that we know and love. I am reminded of the WWII poem "First They Came" by Pastor Martin Niemöller. Here's the link to the poem posted on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust: https://hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/
He might as well be.
Just like all the Palestinians who are damn close to erased. No representation. No power. No hospitals.
This is the key sentence in what Professor Synder wrote, and it is the scariest sentence. "Trump spoke of the need to deport people who 'hate our country' or who are 'stupid.'" Pam Bondi can define "hate our country" as anyone who protests or disagrees with Trump. Straight up—protesters and can be lumped with criminals (or who they claim are criminals) and people they claim are treasonous. As such, be abducted without due process and their life is over.
And in Trump we have a very good example of 'stupid', 'rapist', and 'felon'.
The gov repression machinery has a quite limited throughput. At least until the gov gets some practice. Use the time until the gov becomes competent the Soviet way. I know this is like explaining that "the wardens do not have that many bullets".
That is indeed really scary... if it's true. I can't find any evidence that Trump said those things. Can you?
He was heard talking about “homegrowns” and needing 4 or 5 more prisons built to hold them in El Salvador, with Bukule saying there’s room.
Trump described people who hit little old ladies over the head with a hammer, implying that such violence is frequent and is the kind he claims he is protecting us from.
What about Trump supporters hitting Paul Pelosi on the head with a hammer and the arsonist attacker who wanted to hammer Gov Shapiro? Felon Frumpy is creating Nazi Germany in his image. We cannot just stand by and watch as fellow citizens are approached by his thugs to drag them
off to the gulag. We cannot turn in our fellow citizens or turn our heads away from what is happening. We the people are the ones to stand up and fight against this autocratic kleptocracy. I fear for my safety as a 69 yr old but I fear more full blown Nazi gas chambers in El Salvador and other places Felon Frumpy pays off.
I think he's creating Nazi-America in Germany's image...
Only to say that I trust what Professor Synder wrote. He did not link the quotes around "hate our country" and "stupid." But I doubt he constructed the sentence just to meet a bias he has.
https://youtu.be/fdj2pktTGLg?si=sy9v6IOfYlvW-yG-
I tend to trust him as well, but I can't use this in arguments without the evidence to back it up -- and that's unfortunate because this is potentially a *really* compelling point for Trump supporters who are okay with abusing those they see as bad people, but might balk at applying the same to others.
I did find where Stephen Miller appeared to apply potential deportation to people who "hate our country", but not Trump. I can't find any reference to either Trump or any of his surrogates saying stupid people can be renditioned.
“Hate our Country” is one of Trump’s favorite phrases.
Sure, but did he say he'd deport citizens for hating America? I can't find it.
https://youtu.be/fdj2pktTGLg?si=sy9v6IOfYlvW-yG-
Not sure if he says “stupid people.”
He doesn't say either of the things Professor Snyder claimed, not in that clip. And not anywhere else as far as I can find.
I can’t find Trump saying they’re “stupid” or “hate our country.”
Searching on the latter did bring up him accusing CNN of “hating our country.”
One more (free to read):
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2024/10/21/fact-check-12000-trump-statements-immigrants
I found him calling illegals “animals.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/trump-undocumented-immigrants-animals.html
Here he called them “trash.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/24/trump-arizona-immigrants-garbage-can-trash-rally/
Here “garbage can.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/trump-calls-america-a-garbage-can-of-undocumented-immigrants
Various unflattering things:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trumps-bad-guy-talk-belies-migrants-reality
I didn’t know about these! He sure doesn’t like them.
OK. Dunno,
https://youtu.be/fdj2pktTGLg?si=sy9v6IOfYlvW-yG-
I am living in a state of horror and shock, wondering why others are not noticing what is occurring. Then again, as a psychologist, I understand it is natural to deny anything that is frightening and that feels beyond our control. But, for those of us who are living in reality, what can we do - beyond a few protests, phone calls, letters, etc.? I’m already hearing people say that they don’t anticipate a 2026 election; that, while we pin our hopes on it, this regime will find a way to make sure it doesn’t happen. Any insights, anyone?
Thanks for articulating this. You describe where I am. I am not sure what we can do. I think about this every single day. But we need to find each other to dream our way forward and envision our power together. To live in reality is to categorically reject all that we saw in display in the Oval Office yesterday, this is certain. They are trying to frighten us into submission.
Thank you for finding me here!
Also a reminder: being brave and feeling brave aren’t the same thing. Here’s to doing what we can. Here’s to us (quickly!) becoming a united front against the brash and violent criminality in our halls of power, and us successfully protecting each other from all that is being perpetrated against we the people.
Hi Martha, I am a retired psychologist and my experience seems to be similar to yours. Perhaps see my comment above. From let's wait and see, give him (Trump) enough rope to hang himself, to you are over-exaggerating, etc. responses from others to my alarm have been very disheartening. Nevertheless, I am continuing to do what I can and making connections where I can. It takes a lot of time and energy to keep it up and Sunday, Palm Sunday, I did sort of collapse and slept for 10 hours.
I gave up horror and shock several years ago.
I live in a state of really angry and intense curiosity about what the F is happening and why and what's next.
There are many places to get information. Mostly: youtube and substacks. Not mass media. BTW: pay for no ads on Youtube. a better investment than Netflix.
Right now there is "negotiations" between the USA and Russia.
I am counting on Russia to be the rational negotiator.
No bombing Iran!!!! Bad for Iran. Suicidal for the USA.
The NYT still has good reporting. Their opinion pieces are tepid, but they’ve got good reporting.
Not the truth until it becomes obvious.
But, I'm addicted.
It's an essential organ.
Others are noticing. Even at the conservative WSJ, non-MAGA commenters are in evidence in significant numbers.
I don't think I'm in denial (does a light come on somewhere so I'll know for sure?), but I'm staying calm recognizing that there really isn't a whole lot we can do right now. We could make donations here or to NPR and any other resources looking for money and we can attend whatever demonstrations we learn about, but other than that we're just waiting to see what happens later. I am comforted knowing that the eyes of the world are watching. Whatever happens in America will not happen to us in a vacuum. Europe is watching. Ukraine is watching. Trump might get away with what he has set in motion, but we will be avenged.
Oh no. It just occurred to me that he could knock down our cloud servers. What if he takes away our WiFi? This thing just got real.
Arm yourself, Martha -- with these (and refer often to them in further writing you do):
films like “The Florida Project,” “Knives Out,” and “Winter’s Bone”;
novels like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead,” Walter Mosley’s “Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned,” Tom Hanks’ “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece,” and many by Richard Russo and Stephen King;
memoirs like Mary Karr’s “The Liars’ Club,” Jeannette Walls’ “The Glass Castle,” and Erin Gruwell’s “The Freedom Writers Diary,”
essay collections such as Arlie Russell Hochschild’s “Stolen Pride,” Sarah Smarsh’s “Bone of the Bone, and George Packer’s “The Unwinding”;
biographies such as Lindsey Stonebridge’s “We are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience”;
histories like Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money,” Rachel Maddow’s “Prequel,” and Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War”;
poems such as Philip Levine’s Detroit factory poems,
songs like Tim Grimm’s “Broken Truth,” Bob Seger’s “Feel Like a Number,” Carsie Blanton’s “Rich People,” and any number of Bruce Springsteen or hip hop Ari Melber will cite.
All readers of this post must educate others by sending it to as many people who could possibly be moved to join the resistance. Encourage them to sign on to this and other progressive sub stacks!
Let’s be clear about the hypocrisy. If a Democratic president had done anything like this, or indeed like so much else Trump has done, a Republican dominated House would have drawn up articles of impeachment long ago.
Scary stuff.
My reaction:
RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!
STARTING WITH
KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA!
This is terrorfying. Seriously.
Stunning and extremely disturbing. Professor Snyder, it should be noted that the photograph you show is of the vans in Paris, in front of the Vélodrome d'Hiver (Vél d'Hiv) that were used to transport Jews, rounded up by French police in 1942, and then taken to the transport center at Drancy. The majority of these Jews were sent to Auschwitz. I've read that this photograph was the only one to ever show these vans.
Thank you for this context. I was wondering about the image.
You're very welcome. Years ago, I saw this image in by book made by Serge Klarsfeld, 'French Children of the Holocaust,' New York University Press, 1996. Contained within it are photographs of thousands of children, with detailed information about each, where they died, if they survived, etc. This book is extremely distressing, so if you want to obtain it, just be aware of that fact.
Serge Klarsfeld was the famous Nazi hunter who amassed this information, with the help of many others. He collected the photographs over a 50-year period. When we lived in New York, there was an exhibition of many of these photographs at the Grey Gallery, a part of New York University. It was only afterwards that this book was published in English. I recognized the image immediately. Thanks. BD
Grateful for this explanation and your thoughtful consideration in offering it 🙏🏻 Thank you.
It’s a grim but atmospheric photo.
Thanks for the description.
Yes, it sticks in the mind. Thanks.
I like your analysis and agree that Trump through his words/actions has now officially named himself dictator.
I would also like to hear your views on who or what groups get the terrorist label in other situations, such as Hamas. Does that label justify whatever either Israel and the US do in Gaza, the West Bank or the Middle East as anti-terror killings no matter how many innocent children are targeted?
Both Netanyahu and Putin are already using this method.
(This is to everyone, not specifically you, Richard, but I'm putting it here because it's the reasoning behind my comment.)
I suspect that it is important to name the leaders, rather than to lump them in with everyone of their nationality or citizenship. The leaders, with their inner circle, are calling the shots; the populace is often just trying to survive. Referring to the actions or decrees of the leaders by the country name (Israel, Russia, China) is often convenient, but may have two untoward results:
1.) causing the populace to circle the wagons around the leaders (as happened in WWII when cities were bombed), or
2.) a handy to convince one's followers of the existence of a (vaguely defined) mass of heretics/ foreigners/ aliens (extra-terrestrials?) that must be fought off.
Mary, are you familiar with Anne Applebaum's latest book, Anarchy Inc.? She has been speaking on a number of podcasts about it. A loose network of anarchists around the globe that don't necessarily share ideology, but to share ideas and support one another.
No, I haven't yet read any of her books. Amazon lists her latest as "Autocracy". Did you mean that? (I think Spell check has been doing its bit for "anarchy" :) ) Thanks for the reference. I'll look it up.
And yes, autocrats do seem to like to hang out together. Glitzy parties are a great place for networking.