Are we now in full blown fascist totalitarianism?

[bilby]

Yet.

I'm trying to be polite here, but you claimed it was happening right now in your last post. That is what I was responding to.

It is happening right now.

It's not happening to everybody who expresses liberal political opinions publicly, yet.

I am trying to be polite here, but you need to both read and think about what I write, before responding to it.

You can argue that Trump is doing some bad stuff, but it would be obvious to everyone if we lived in an actual fascist totalitarian state.

Apparently not to everyone.

If you have to tediously follow the news 24/7 to tell whether you live in a fascist totalitarian state, you don't.

If you never see any news at all, or you ignore what you see, then you need never admit that your personal experience might not be the sum total of all that is happening.

What do you make of the massive outpouring of dissent to Trump?

I think it's utterly ineffective.

I can't so much as fire up my web browser without coming across two or three editorials arguing against a policy or a decision that he has made.

Great. When are the courts and/or legislature going to do something, as the constitution demands?

Trump is doing an unprecedentedly feeble job of suppressing dissent for a totalitarian fascist dictator.

No, he is just ignoring it for now because he isn't threatened by it at all.

He hasn't even outlawed the opposition party or assassinated his political rivals.

He doesn't need to; They are demonstrably powerless, or at least unwilling to exercise any power (which amounts to the same thing).

You can present a particular news item that you think is objectionable if you want to discuss that, but there is too much widely available evidence against the claim that we live in fascist totalitarian dictatorship for it to be credible.

Do you mean that you have widely available evidence that nobody has been sent from the USA to a prison in El Salvador without being given the due process required by the US Constitution?

Or do you mean that you are unaware of this having happened, because I personally haven't yet posted a link for you?

What you must mean is that Trump is doing some undesirable and alarming stuff which doesn't rise to the level of fascist totalitarianism.

No, what I must and do mean is that that stuff DOES rise to the level of fascist authoritarianism, and that you are incredibly naïve and woefully unaware in clinging to the hope that it doesn't.

That is something I would agree with, I just don't think it's smart to use an inaccurate term for what is going on.

You appear either not to know, or not to understand, what is going on.

(As I said, if you use that term now, then when someone actually does shut down dissent and freedom wholesale, you will not have a term to use.)

The term is "more of this".

The line has been crossed. You do nobody any favours by trying to pretend that it's not bad enough yet. It doesn't get worse than the suspension of due process; You can (and will) have even more of it, but it's not any better for being in its early stages.

 

[bilby]

concentration camps don't exist yet

Yes, they do.

There's one in El Salvador.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

You say one has nothing to do with the other but it really does. The performance of Biden and the Dramacrats had everything to do with this. If Biden had done 1/10 of a job that Trump has done on border patrol, none of this drama would have needed come to pass. The criminals would not even be here to begin with so Auxlus would then have no tears to shed on their departure today.

Drama? The US sent people who hadn't committed a crime in our country to a prison in El Salvador. That isn't "drama" it is "illegal".

It is very probable that Trump might not have even been elected if our government would have been functioning in some kind of basic manner in the first place.

The government was functioning pretty well. In fact, the economy was doing decently, despite some stubborn inflation on the tale end of the global pandemic. Now Trump is sanctioning law firms, illegally impounding funding from wherever the fuck he wants, sending people with no due process to a prison in a third party country, and his Admin's actions have be paused by Federal justices (appointed by everyone from Reagan to Biden) across the country and your response is... but whadabout the Dramacrats?

And the Dramacrats have no one to blame but themselves and their own poor performance with border patrol.

How in fucking hell does that free Trump up from having to abide by the US Constitution?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The immigration situation was actually Trump's fault. It was high under Trump 1 and then Biden tried to work with Republicans to fix the immigration issues, but Trump told Republicans not to do anything so he could later claim he was coming in to save it as The Chosen One. So of course now MAGA followers will all say in unison that Dear Leader saved them--it was his plan to get them to believe that in the first place.

Also, immigration wasn't the number 1 issue--it was the economy. Trump is currently destroying it and ceding global economic power to Russia and China. Meanwhile MAGAs have 100% faith in Dear Leader as the The Great Negotiator.

All of the stuff they've said before about rights, the Constitution, the Tree of Liberty, ... it was all bullshit. That's why they're okay with arresting people for speech they disagree with. And it's why they are okay with making Trump a king.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall, 1906, summarizing Voltaire's views on free speech

"You can call all this cruel and bad and you may even be right. After all, no one likes to see criminals get punished. It is unsettling for someone so dignified as yourself to see." -- RVonse, 2025

 

[Axulus]

Fuck these Nazis

Russian scientist from Harvard Medical School detained in U.S., faces deportation and likely arrest upon return due to anti-war stance

Russian scientist from Harvard Medical School detained in U.S., faces deportation and likely arrest upon return due to anti-war stance

A Russian scientist working at Harvard Medical School has been detained in the United States and placed in immigration detention. According to multiple independent Russian media outlets and the scientist’s friends, she now faces possible deportation to Russia, where she could be subject to...

theins.press

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

They just revoke the Visa and then they are in custody. Like a Police Officer saying your license or license plate was "revoked", you need to come with us.

I guess this is the MAGA Dream.

 

[Spacetime Inhabitant]

So was wondering if anyone could help me out here. We have clear evidence right in front of our eyes that we have people in power willing to send innocent people to slavery and torture for the sole purpose of creating a propaganda reel and create terror, for the sole purpose of entrenching their power. Even if you are one of the sickos that gets hard watching the videos, isn't there any kind of "oh shit" realization that these people have absolutely no limits on what they will do when it benefits them? Even if you enjoy seeing immigrants being tortured, why doesn't the thought cross the mind that supporting this kind of power is like playing Russian Roulette? It's all fun until the bullet blows through your brain?

I just don't see how delusion is enough to explain it away. They know exactly what is happening (which is why they jerk off to the video). Maybe some sort of psychiatric condition to believe they could never be a target? Maybe a willingness to collaborate and therefore be useful? A delusion that the guy in power will always target other people no matter what?

From a self preservation standpoint, it just doesn't make sense. Maybe they are being led by their sadistic dicks and are so nihilistic they couldn't give two shits if humans go extinct? Any psychologists that can chime in?

For all of you dramacrats going on about this, what we at least no longer have is a border problem anymore. As Trump himself said at his inaugural address, congress did not need to pass any more laws. All our country needed was a new president. The illegals flooding through the gates during Biden's term are thinking twice about doing it now. Trump has resolved at least one of his campaign promises. He has fixed the border already.

You can call all this cruel and bad and you may even be right. After all, no one likes to see criminals get punished. It is unsettling for someone so dignified as yourself to see. But this punishment is the exact deterrence preventing more crime over the border. Illegals just aren't coming across anymore and for good reason.

There will still be people illegally crossing the border - probably from or for the cartels bringing in more drugs.
The only proper way to deal with border issues is with laws, and Biden had proposed such a law which the Republicans at the behest of Trump, before he again became president stopped being passed. This shows how beholden, and in the grip of Trump's desires the Republican Congress is, that they did this before he gained all that additional power from being president.
Saying that congress does not need to pass any new laws he can use also to justify other illegal acts.

This is from post 332 where I responded to your false claim.

So was wondering if anyone could help me out here. We have clear evidence right in front of our eyes that we have people in power willing to send innocent people to slavery and torture for the sole purpose of creating a propaganda reel and create terror, for the sole purpose of entrenching their power. Even if you are one of the sickos that gets hard watching the videos, isn't there any kind of "oh shit" realization that these people have absolutely no limits on what they will do when it benefits them? Even if you enjoy seeing immigrants being tortured, why doesn't the thought cross the mind that supporting this kind of power is like playing Russian Roulette? It's all fun until the bullet blows through your brain?

I just don't see how delusion is enough to explain it away. They know exactly what is happening (which is why they jerk off to the video). Maybe some sort of psychiatric condition to believe they could never be a target? Maybe a willingness to collaborate and therefore be useful? A delusion that the guy in power will always target other people no matter what?

From a self preservation standpoint, it just doesn't make sense. Maybe they are being led by their sadistic dicks and are so nihilistic they couldn't give two shits if humans go extinct? Any psychologists that can chime in?

For all of you dramacrats going on about this, what we at least no longer have is a border problem anymore. As Trump himself said at his inaugural address, congress did not need to pass any more laws. All our country needed was a new president. The illegals flooding through the gates during Biden's term are thinking twice about doing it now. Trump has resolved at least one of his campaign promises. He has fixed the border already.

You can call all this cruel and bad and you may even be right. After all, no one likes to see criminals get punished. It is unsettling for someone so dignified as yourself to see. But this punishment is the exact deterrence preventing more crime over the border. Illegals just aren't coming across anymore and for good reason.

Conflating the deportation of legal immigrants and legal visitors with illegal immigration is, at a minimum, unhelpful.

Defending illegal behavior by the administration is pretty rich coming from a whiner of “lawfare”.

You say one has nothing to do with the other but it really does. The performance of Biden and the Dramacrats had everything to do with this. If Biden had done 1/10 of a job that Trump has done on border patrol, none of this drama would have needed come to pass. The criminals would not even be here to begin with so Auxlus would then have no tears to shed on their departure today.

It is very probable that Trump might not have even been elected if our government would have been functioning in some kind of basic manner in the first place. This was all totally predictable IMO. And the Dramacrats have no one to blame but themselves and their own poor performance with border patrol.

Here you repeat similar bullshit, having ignored that I answered your false claim already in post 332. You have to learn to read and understand other posters responses to your post, and take them into account before you repeat ridiculous claims that are not concordant with reality.

 

[Axulus]

RVonse,

No matter your station in life, there is astoundingly little separating any of us from those men in that cage behind Kristi Noem. No charges, no attorneys, no hearings, no trial. Just conjecture and brute force could be enough to justify completely dehumanizing you, too.

 

[laughing dog]

So was wondering if anyone could help me out here. We have clear evidence right in front of our eyes that we have people in power willing to send innocent people to slavery and torture for the sole purpose of creating a propaganda reel and create terror, for the sole purpose of entrenching their power. Even if you are one of the sickos that gets hard watching the videos, isn't there any kind of "oh shit" realization that these people have absolutely no limits on what they will do when it benefits them? Even if you enjoy seeing immigrants being tortured, why doesn't the thought cross the mind that supporting this kind of power is like playing Russian Roulette? It's all fun until the bullet blows through your brain?

I just don't see how delusion is enough to explain it away. They know exactly what is happening (which is why they jerk off to the video). Maybe some sort of psychiatric condition to believe they could never be a target? Maybe a willingness to collaborate and therefore be useful? A delusion that the guy in power will always target other people no matter what?

From a self preservation standpoint, it just doesn't make sense. Maybe they are being led by their sadistic dicks and are so nihilistic they couldn't give two shits if humans go extinct? Any psychologists that can chime in?

For all of you dramacrats going on about this, what we at least no longer have is a border problem anymore. As Trump himself said at his inaugural address, congress did not need to pass any more laws. All our country needed was a new president. The illegals flooding through the gates during Biden's term are thinking twice about doing it now. Trump has resolved at least one of his campaign promises. He has fixed the border already.

You can call all this cruel and bad and you may even be right. After all, no one likes to see criminals get punished. It is unsettling for someone so dignified as yourself to see. But this punishment is the exact deterrence preventing more crime over the border. Illegals just aren't coming across anymore and for good reason.

Conflating the deportation of legal immigrants and legal visitors with illegal immigration is, at a minimum, unhelpful.

Defending illegal behavior by the administration is pretty rich coming from a whiner of “lawfare”.

You say one has nothing to do with the other but it really does. …

. No, it doesn’t. People who are here legally should not be deported.

The performance of Biden and the Dramacrats had everything to do with this. If Biden had done 1/10 of a job that Trump has done on border patrol, none of this drama would have needed come to pass. The criminals would not even be here to begin with so Auxlus would then have no tears to shed on their departure today.

. Plenty of criminals came during Trump 1.

BTW, according to this week’s Economist magazine, Trump II deported almost 38,000 people in his first month while the Biden monthly average was 57,000. It also reports during Trump’s 1st term, the US deported 1.9 million people while during Biden’s term, the US deported roughly 4 million people.

Seems to this observer that you are basing your opinion on emotion, not fact.

 

[Elixir]

“If Biden had done 1/10 of a job that Trump has done on border patrol …”

He could have gotten Kami elected. That’s why Trump killed border reform.
He’s a scumbag.

 

[ZiprHead]

You say one has nothing to do with the other but it really does. The performance of Biden and the Dramacrats had everything to do with this. If Biden had done 1/10 of a job that Trump has done on border patrol, none of this drama would have needed come to pass. The criminals would not even be here to begin with so Auxlus would then have no tears to shed on their departure today.

Who was the president from 2021 to January 2025 again?

Immigration Enforcement and Legal Processes Monthly Tables

Monthly immigration enforcement data. Includes encounters, arrests, book-outs, book-ins, detention, removals, returns, repatriations, credible fear, and parole.

ohss.dhs.gov

Is this another example of RVonse being led astray by the right-wing blowhards he listens to?

 

[barbos]

You are the one who introduced Obama into the conversation. I understand this as a typical tactic: you cannot call out whatever egregious sanction or statement by a MAGA because ( insert name), your hero was not perfect ( by my standards).

What Obama did was egregious too. Your false equivalence excuses don't fly.

It’s weak ass bullshit, intended to distract from the validity of whatever criticism or observation is being made of one of Putin’s buddies—or Putin himself.

Again, both (Trump and Obama) were wrong, I told you that already.
Your inability to acknowledge that is amusing.

Your unwillingness to acknowledge that some wrongs are relatively inconsequential/little harm and others are extremely damaging is absurd.

Well, Obama's wrongs are not inconsequential/little. He started two illegal wars (On Syria and on Russia)
Trump started to deport illegal immigrants (Obama did that too)

Illegal immigrants have always been subject to deportation. Yes, if memory serves, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump but unlike the current administration he did it legally.

Deporting illegal immigrants is by definition legal.

Under Obama, the US did interven in the Syrian civil war. Obama did not wage war against Russia. That’s mob boss talk for not laying back and thinking by of England whenever a bully does whatever he ( (Putin—or Trump for that matter) wants.

Obama administration organized the whole damn thing! John Kerry and Nuland admitted it.

 

[Elixir]

Trump is doing an unprecedentedly feeble job of suppressing dissent for a totalitarian fascist dictator.

Two things:

* Trump isn't good at doing things, period. He's a cunning, malevolent dumbass who has been drunk with narcissism and power from the day he was born. Don't expect HIM to do anything. Watch the billionaires who control him, starting with Putin and Musk.

* Were you expecting a morning announcement that the US Constitution is now null and void, and anyone who says otherwise is now subject to arrest, torture, deportation or defenestration? They're softening the ground for that, but it's going to take 6-8 years. Just be sure to vote for Trump in '28 if you want to see it come to full fruition.

 

[Elixir]

Is this another example of RVonse being led astray by the right-wing blowhards he listens to?

I don't know. Can he READ graphs? The key is missing. Here it is in B&W so he has no excuse.
Trump is doing the worst job anyone has done since... Trump

 

[Toni]

You are the one who introduced Obama into the conversation. I understand this as a typical tactic: you cannot call out whatever egregious sanction or statement by a MAGA because ( insert name), your hero was not perfect ( by my standards).

What Obama did was egregious too. Your false equivalence excuses don't fly.

It’s weak ass bullshit, intended to distract from the validity of whatever criticism or observation is being made of one of Putin’s buddies—or Putin himself.

Again, both (Trump and Obama) were wrong, I told you that already.
Your inability to acknowledge that is amusing.

Your unwillingness to acknowledge that some wrongs are relatively inconsequential/little harm and others are extremely damaging is absurd.

Well, Obama's wrongs are not inconsequential/little. He started two illegal wars (On Syria and on Russia)
Trump started to deport illegal immigrants (Obama did that too)

Illegal immigrants have always been subject to deportation. Yes, if memory serves, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump but unlike the current administration he did it legally.

Deporting illegal immigrants is by definition legal.

Under Obama, the US did interven in the Syrian civil war. Obama did not wage war against Russia. That’s mob boss talk for not laying back and thinking by of England whenever a bully does whatever he ( (Putin—or Trump for that matter) wants.

Obama administration organized the whole damn thing! John Kerry and Nuland admitted it.

Maybe where you are from but in the US, everyone has a right to due process. Kidnapping people from the street, not showing any kind of warrant or ID, not allowing them to speak with an attorney and then transporting them thousands of miles away, holding them in inhumane conditions actually IS NOT legal in the US.

Despite Trump and Musk and Putin’s ( and your) best efforts to convince us that the US Constitution is just some suggestions.

 

[barbos]

You are the one who introduced Obama into the conversation. I understand this as a typical tactic: you cannot call out whatever egregious sanction or statement by a MAGA because ( insert name), your hero was not perfect ( by my standards).

What Obama did was egregious too. Your false equivalence excuses don't fly.

It’s weak ass bullshit, intended to distract from the validity of whatever criticism or observation is being made of one of Putin’s buddies—or Putin himself.

Again, both (Trump and Obama) were wrong, I told you that already.
Your inability to acknowledge that is amusing.

Your unwillingness to acknowledge that some wrongs are relatively inconsequential/little harm and others are extremely damaging is absurd.

Well, Obama's wrongs are not inconsequential/little. He started two illegal wars (On Syria and on Russia)
Trump started to deport illegal immigrants (Obama did that too)

Illegal immigrants have always been subject to deportation. Yes, if memory serves, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump but unlike the current administration he did it legally.

Deporting illegal immigrants is by definition legal.

Under Obama, the US did interven in the Syrian civil war. Obama did not wage war against Russia. That’s mob boss talk for not laying back and thinking by of England whenever a bully does whatever he ( (Putin—or Trump for that matter) wants.

Obama administration organized the whole damn thing! John Kerry and Nuland admitted it.

Maybe where you are from but in the US, everyone has a right to due process. Kidnapping people from the street, not showing any kind of warrant or ID, not allowing them to speak with an attorney and then transporting them thousands of miles away, holding them in inhumane conditions actually IS NOT legal in the US.

Despite Trump and Musk and Putin’s ( and your) best efforts to convince us that the US Constitution is just some suggestions.

Actually, it's all a daily life in Ukraine and since Ukraine is part of US now.....

 

[ZiprHead]

You are the one who introduced Obama into the conversation. I understand this as a typical tactic: you cannot call out whatever egregious sanction or statement by a MAGA because ( insert name), your hero was not perfect ( by my standards).

What Obama did was egregious too. Your false equivalence excuses don't fly.

It’s weak ass bullshit, intended to distract from the validity of whatever criticism or observation is being made of one of Putin’s buddies—or Putin himself.

Again, both (Trump and Obama) were wrong, I told you that already.
Your inability to acknowledge that is amusing.

Your unwillingness to acknowledge that some wrongs are relatively inconsequential/little harm and others are extremely damaging is absurd.

Well, Obama's wrongs are not inconsequential/little. He started two illegal wars (On Syria and on Russia)
Trump started to deport illegal immigrants (Obama did that too)

Illegal immigrants have always been subject to deportation. Yes, if memory serves, Obama deported more illegal immigrants than Trump but unlike the current administration he did it legally.

Deporting illegal immigrants is by definition legal.

Under Obama, the US did interven in the Syrian civil war. Obama did not wage war against Russia. That’s mob boss talk for not laying back and thinking by of England whenever a bully does whatever he ( (Putin—or Trump for that matter) wants.

Obama administration organized the whole damn thing! John Kerry and Nuland admitted it.

Maybe where you are from but in the US, everyone has a right to due process. Kidnapping people from the street, not showing any kind of warrant or ID, not allowing them to speak with an attorney and then transporting them thousands of miles away, holding them in inhumane conditions actually IS NOT legal in the US.

Despite Trump and Musk and Putin’s ( and your) best efforts to convince us that the US Constitution is just some suggestions.

Actually, it's all a daily life in Ukraine and since Ukraine is part of US now.....

If ukraine was actually part of the US you would have been totally fucked by now. Right up Putin's slimy smelly bunghole.

 

[Axulus]

Our minister of propaganda working hard to fulfill his role

 

[Axulus]