Are we now in full blown fascist totalitarianism?

[Loren Pechtel]

For everyone else who thinks that Trump is Hitler.

What about the negotiations between Putin and Ukraine? Would you say Trump is just agreeing with Putin or is he trying to keep his word getting out of war? Maybe even trying to save on military dollars? Trump seems to be the first person in history being accused of being both Neville Chamberlain AND Hitler at the same time. How do you reconcile this?

What about Trump's comments about Canada, Greenland, Panama, or a possible 3rd term? Do you consider that to be Trump the Hitler dictator or Trump the troll? These are more gray area's IMO but Im pretty sure most will think otherwise.

You are assuming he has a coherent position. What you apparently don't realize is that Hitler was rather bonkers. The Allies quit trying to assassinate him because they realized he was hurting Germany.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

He is not literally Hitler. He is an authoritarian strongman in a fascist style. He has done some things Hitler did in the 1930s but of course not all. He is following a classic playbook to undermine democracy and turn the government into a dictatorship. Victor Orban and Hugo Chavez followed similar paths to consolidate their power.

Really? The dodgiest thing Trump has done so far is shipping gangbangers to El Salvador. I don’t see a dictatorship. I will say I am never happy about a presidents use of executive orders. This is bullshit and needs to be stopped.

And what's this nonsense about saving dollars? The GOP defense budget that is in the works is currently calling for ~ 15%/$150 billion increase. I thought the idea of getting Europe to pay for more defense meant the US can cut back? Just more lies the MAGA rubes fell for.

The increase is probably due to having to match the Chinese who are becoming increasingly threatening. Plus the shit load of military hardware and support shipped to Ukraine.

I suggest a trip to the optometrist.

How about shipping completely innocent people to El Salvador? They were just trying to rack up numbers for the cameras, were grabbing people that had "gang" tattoos--except they were simply similar. And there is a sports team with a similar logo.

And knowingly deporting people to the wrong country isn't "dodgy", it's horrendous. Deliberately dropping people into war zones. And it's 100% pure sadism.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Putin wouldn't be able to fly a kite over Ukraine if the US stepped in and meant it.

Knowledgeable military people say that even in a conventional direct conflict US would now lose badly in Ukraine. Of course conventional is not possible so it's theoretical.

Putin-version "knowledge".

Ukraine is pretty much stalemated vs a small fraction of our capability.

And we wouldn't need to even fight in Ukraine. Ukraine possesses little deep strike capability, we have a lot. We wouldn't even need to go anywhere near the fighting--think of what happens to Russia if we simply drop the train bridges?

Or what if we took a page from your playbook and played energy war? One strike wave, basically every major power plant in your country goes down. Your grid would never come back up. I don't think The Felon is deranged enough to do something like that, but you would be an absolute sitting duck.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

My husband and I are trying to work towards getting a business stood up, but privately, I think we have just thrown away 20k that we will never see delivered on; I think the civil war is inevitable, and this is "deck chairs on the titanic". Not that I expect the dollars to have been worth anything but that point anyway... But maybe it could have bought canned and dry goods.

I keep suggesting canned goods and shelf stable stuff when we go to the grocery store, but even my own husband seems to act like I'm borderline crazy for wanting to be getting ready as much as possible for the coming darkness.

No point to canned goods. If it comes apart they won't save you.

There won't be 2026 elections unless there are 2025 impeachments.

An impeachment would do nothing but get ignored.

A meaningful 2026 election will only come from a coup.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

You can't read maps.

I have no idea of his map-reading skills. But I'm one of these people who throws a pack on my back and heads off into the wilderness, very often without a trail. I most certainly am used to reading maps!

 

[Loren Pechtel]

FUCK TRUMP!!!

Ick, no! I am sure I wouldn't be able to.

 

[crazyfingers]

FUCK TRUMP!!!

As much as i agree Fuck Trump and Bondi, it's another piece of fakery

Fact Check: Pam Bondi Did NOT Promise To Send People To El Salvador For 15 Years For Saying 'Fuck Trump' | Lead Stories

Did U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi threaten that anyone saying "Fuck Trump" may get "15 years in El Salvador" for...

leadstories.com

 

[Jarhyn]

My husband and I are trying to work towards getting a business stood up, but privately, I think we have just thrown away 20k that we will never see delivered on; I think the civil war is inevitable, and this is "deck chairs on the titanic". Not that I expect the dollars to have been worth anything but that point anyway... But maybe it could have bought canned and dry goods.

I keep suggesting canned goods and shelf stable stuff when we go to the grocery store, but even my own husband seems to act like I'm borderline crazy for wanting to be getting ready as much as possible for the coming darkness.

No point to canned goods. If it comes apart they won't save you.

There won't be 2026 elections unless there are 2025 impeachments.

An impeachment would do nothing but get ignored.

A meaningful 2026 election will only come from a coup.

This fourth of July while watching the fireworks, I was struck with the reality that when Nazis come to your door, the option is to fight or to die quietly.

I think it's a bad idea to die quietly as one of a million silent martyrs, even if the other option is "civil war on what might be the losing side".

I'm just so sad, and tired, and outright deflated over all of this, and the fact that I might have to face that choice soon, because my oaths to the idea of freedom ARE more than "mere" words to me; they are meaningful and powerful prompts.

I say "canned goods" because even if we end up having to eat normal groceries, canned goods can feed someone quietly within rations for at least a little while, while they run; or ourselves, if we need it. Sometimes it's about having something in case you need it, when it isn't so burdensome.

Even a month or two of spare food can make the difference between life and death.

 

[Elixir]

Swiz doesn’t find beating up opposition politicians as “dodgy” as deporting gangbangers.
Hmmm.

 

[barbos]

Putin wouldn't be able to fly a kite over Ukraine if the US stepped in and meant it.

Knowledgeable military people say that even in a conventional direct conflict US would now lose badly in Ukraine. Of course conventional is not possible so it's theoretical.

Putin-version "knowledge".

Ukraine is pretty much stalemated vs a small fraction of our capability.

Your government admitted that you have no more weapons left for Ukraine
NATO CEO admitted that Russia makes 4 times more weapons than all Collective West combined.

And we wouldn't need to even fight in Ukraine. Ukraine possesses little deep strike capability, we have a lot. We wouldn't even need to go anywhere near the fighting--think of what happens to Russia if we simply drop the train bridges?

For fuck's sake. look at the fucking map. You can't even bomb Iran,

Or what if we took a page from your playbook and played energy war? One strike wave, basically every major power plant in your country goes down. Your grid would never come back up. I don't think The Felon is deranged enough to do something like that, but you would be an absolute sitting duck.

 

[Swammerdami]

For everyone else who thinks that Trump is Hitler.

... Trump seems to be the first person in history being accused of being both Neville Chamberlain AND Hitler at the same time. How do you reconcile this?

What about Trump's comments about Canada, Greenland, Panama, or a possible 3rd term? Do you consider that to be Trump the Hitler dictator or Trump the troll? These are more gray area's IMO but Im pretty sure most will think otherwise.

Have you read assessments of Trump's personality? No, I'm not speaking of assessments here at IIDB by people with no training in psychiatry and who've never met Trump in person -- although there are many smart people here who know how to find valid information.

I'm speaking of psychological assessments by trained psychologists and psychiatrists. I'm speaking of personality assessments by people who socialized regularly or did much business with him in Manhattan -- one needn't respect a big player to enjoy his parties or his paychecks. I'm speaking of his own niece Mary Trump. I'm speaking of top officials he hired for his first term who soon turned away from him in disgust.

There are lots of books to educate you about this man -- I recently picked up Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff for $2 or so -- AND magazine articles AND YouTubes et cetera. FoxNews and Jimmy Dore aren't the only sources for insight about this man.

You ask "Is he Chamberlain or is he Hitler?" NEITHER: Both of those men were intelligent, well-read and dominated their advisors' thinking. Trump makes decisions on a whim, following the last person he talked to. Of course he appears erratic and self-contradictory; that's not genius, that's a little boy who never grew up.

Read about this man whom you admire. The following were not "cherry-picked"; I clicked the first two results from each of two Google searches.

Google "psychiatric evaluation of Trump" and find

a letter signed by more than 200 mental health professionals warned that Donald Trump is dangerous because of “his symptoms of severe, untreatable personality disorder – malignant narcissism”, which makes him “grossly unfit for leadership”.
. . .
More than 100 ex-Republican officials call Trump ‘unfit to serve’ and endorse Harris.

“Using the DSM V”, or the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a bedrock text that helps mental health professionals define and treat mental disorders, “it is easy to see that Trump meets the behavioral criteria for antisocial personality disorder,” the open letter said.

“Even a non-clinician can see that Trump shows a lifetime pattern of ‘failure to conform to social norms and laws,’ ‘repeated lying,’ ‘reckless disregard for the safety of others,’ ‘irritability,’ ‘impulsivity,’ ‘irresponsibility,’ and ‘lack of remorse,’” the letter said.

A forensic psychiatrist, who has studied the principles on which the assessment of current and future dangerousness in violent criminals is based, concludes:

‘Trump is now the most powerful head of state in the world, and one of the most impulsive, arrogant, ignorant, disorganised, chaotic, nihilistic, self-contradictory, self-important, and self-serving. He has his finger on the triggers of a thousand or more of the most powerful thermonuclear weapons in the world. That means he could kill more people in a few seconds than any dictator in past history has been able to kill during his entire years in power.’

The authors also consider the ‘Trump effect’ on society, and the malignant normality that is established — what was previously considered unthinkable becomes the norm. Some therapists have seen patients suffering from trauma and re-trauma resulting from the president’s actions, which mimic those of an aggressive abuser, and there were reports of an increase in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents immediately after his inauguration in January 2017.

Then I typed "what do Trump insiders think of him" into Google's search and found Comments by 24 top insiders and the following opinion:

In any election, it’s hard to know whose word to trust. And in a polarized country, many Americans distrust any information that comes from the other side of the political divide. That’s why the criticism of Donald Trump by those who served with him in the White House and by members of his own party is so striking. Dozens of people who know him well, including the 91 listed here, have raised alarms about his character and fitness for office — his family and friends, world leaders and business associates, his fellow conservatives and his political appointees — even though they had nothing to gain from doing so. Some have even spoken out at the expense of their own careers or political interests.

The New York Times editorial board has made its case that Mr. Trump is unfit to lead. But the strongest case against him may come from his own people. For those Americans who are still tempted to return him to the presidency or to not vote in November, it is worth considering the assessment of Mr. Trump by those who have seen him up close.

So RVonse, I suggest you do some OBJECTIVE research. How many hours have you spent "learning" about Trump from the MAGAT crowd? Spend a tiny fraction of that in the way I've outlined here. Give us a report on what you find.

 

[bilby]

You ask "Is he Chamberlain or is he Hitler?" NEITHER: Both of those men were intelligent, well-read and dominated their advisors' thinking. Trump makes decisions on a whim, following the last person he talked to.

So he's more Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Quite capable of starting a World War, by incompetent blundering rather than any application of either principles or strategy.

 

[Swammerdami]

... MAGAT ...

What should we call the cretins who are Giddily Gobsmacked Over Trump's agenda to Make America Great?

I do NOT like the mixed-case MAGAt.

"Fascist" and "Nazi" are inappropriate. Hitler's fans read Mein Kampf and were proud to adopt those adjectives. Trump's fans are only semi-literate, know of him from a scripted reality show and know nothing of "fascist" except that it's a bad word, so think it probably applies to the Democrats.

I want to go with MAGGOT (or MAGGGOT?). But what's that an acronym for? Make-Amerika-Grotesque/Gobsmacked-Over-Trump ? Help please.

 

[unapologetic]

Ick, no! I am sure I wouldn't be able to.

Then FUCK BLONDY. ...er, Bondi.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

US will not be able to achieve air-superiority in Ukraine, that's just impossible in modern war.

Weird how the US achieved air superiority in Iraq twice, isn't it? Saddam's vaunted air force barely left the ground in 1990, and by 2003 it was more a matter of "how can we stop the Americans from blowing up the bunkers where we have our last few planes?"

He's half right.

It would be impossible for the US to achieve air superiority limited to the borders of Ukraine because missiles fly so far these days. You have to deny the skies to the enemy much farther out than you can actually control.

I don't know if Russia has anything equivalent but we have SAMs that are a ground launch variant of the AIM-120. The AIM-120 is capable of being entirely remotely guided, the launcher doesn't have to illuminate, the missile doesn't have to illuminate until the end of it's flight. The entire strike can be directed from an AWACS plane far from the scene. The launcher is mobile. That has a very nasty ambush potential.

And the Navy has test-fired a SA-6(?) from a container loaded on a cargo ship. If you can do that you can also set down a container somewhere and do the same thing.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In the run-up to Iraq War 1, much was made of how the Iraqi army was "the fourth largest force in the world." Granted, some of this was the Neo-conservatives trying to play them up as a "fearsome enemy," but that propaganda worked to a certain extent.

Then the Iraqi army folded like a pack of cards.

Because they couldn't do much about the skies. We are good at knocking out SAMs and they didn't have the mobile stuff that could actually pose a threat. From what we have seen in Ukraine Russia has no ability to hunt mobile SAMs.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I would like to see us (freedom lovers) fill the street, block the parade, with a 'No Kings' demonstration.
Think Tiananmen Square
View attachment 50583

What’s stopping you?

I'm trying to find transportation. That's why I brought it up. Are you offering?
Anybody?

Sure, Jan.

Meanwhile in a Musk provided AI Internet data harvester, TSwizzle has been flagged for agreeing to conspire to help facilitate an illegal protest in DC.

Gibberish.

Oh, come on now! We know you're an embezzler! Just look at your name! TSwizzle vs embezzle. Close enough match for the gestapo.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Are we now in full blown fascist totalitarianism?​

I think maybe totalitarianism is the wrong word. Putin is a totalitarian dictator. Trump is a hapless pawn of the Corporatist oligarchy.

I was at Walmart today... buying distilled water. When Trump took office 2x, the price for a gallon was 97 cents. Today it's $1.37.
Do tell - is distilled water imported from China? Or is Walmart opportunistically predating on its customers? A 40% increase in price over five months should have to be somehow justified IMHO. I'm sure that the complaints, if they exist, are rather muted, since everyone is used to everything costing more. If it costs Wally World 40% more to produce or buy a gallon of distilled water than it did five months ago, I'll eat my hat.

Or is it companies that don't want to figure out the details of every price and simply set overall price a bit above costs?

 

[Jarhyn]

US will not be able to achieve air-superiority in Ukraine, that's just impossible in modern war.

Weird how the US achieved air superiority in Iraq twice, isn't it? Saddam's vaunted air force barely left the ground in 1990, and by 2003 it was more a matter of "how can we stop the Americans from blowing up the bunkers where we have our last few planes?"

He's half right.

It would be impossible for the US to achieve air superiority limited to the borders of Ukraine because missiles fly so far these days. You have to deny the skies to the enemy much farther out than you can actually control.

I don't know if Russia has anything equivalent but we have SAMs that are a ground launch variant of the AIM-120. The AIM-120 is capable of being entirely remotely guided, the launcher doesn't have to illuminate, the missile doesn't have to illuminate until the end of it's flight. The entire strike can be directed from an AWACS plane far from the scene. The launcher is mobile. That has a very nasty ambush potential.

And the Navy has test-fired a SA-6(?) from a container loaded on a cargo ship. If you can do that you can also set down a container somewhere and do the same thing.

I mean... If we're being cheeky about it, Ukraine showed that Air Superiority has radically mutated with the era of drone warfare.

I really hope Russia enjoys all that fiber optic cable litter, too.

It's that same "container space" logic.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

A liebig condenser can be had for $50-100* from any lab glassware supplier.

Our ambient humidity is effectively zip, so heating water is the only way. Well water would provide a great cold sink, but would need a heat source to encourage evaporation.
The well water will leave some components behind so the evap chamber will need fairly continuous cleaning/replacement.
It's a tough call, but I think I'll scrimp and save and spring for the $1.37
That's how they get you.
Somewhere around here I have a filter that would actually suffice for my purposes, but I don't know where. A very cool item, works based on principles of dialysis filters.

SAWYER 0.02 micron Water Filter
"a hollow fiber membrane filter that uses absolute micron pore sizes, meaning there are no variances in the pore size, ensuring the removal of harmful pathogens"

Of course some soluble impurities will remain, but I'm not doing chemistry.

Caution!

You list your location as "Mountains". I don't know the specifics of your filter but in general once those filters have been used once they have moisture inside and will cease to work properly if allowed to freeze--in cold areas backpackers keep their filter in their sleeping bag at night. Since you say you don't know where it's stored, beware that if that somewhere is or ever has been "garage" that it will have been damaged.

And they're useless against soluble stuff, those filters are designed to stop pathogens. Make tap water safe in India? The good ones, yes. Make it tasty? No.