If You Aren't Scared Yet, You Should Be
Apr. 14th, 2025 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seawaspTL;DR: Trump REALLY IS well on his way to Hitler 2, Electric Boogaloo, and you'd better accept it fast.
"If Trump was really a dictator, you'd have been disappeared by now! Worst. Dictator. Ever."
This is a common post from the still-MAGA side. What it shows is someone, as Professor Snape would say, "Not. Paying. Attention."
Hitler took about two months to go from "I'm Chancellor" to establishing the first concentration camp (Dachau), and that one was for political prisoners -- people he'd targeted during his campaigning, people who spoke out against him, etc.
We're now three months into the Trump regime, and Trump has now:
1) Established an extraterritorial, extralegal prison camp (by paying El Salvador for it)
2) Shipped off a large number of people based purely on his say-so and on fuzzy, not-even-vetted criteria based on his campaign rantings about "illegal alien criminals"
3) When forced to admit that any of them weren't the criminals he claimed they were, done nothing to fix the mistake
3a) Research shows between 70% and 90% of the people sent to El Salvador were not the criminals the administration claimed they were
4) When the SUPREME COURT directed that he rectify the error, he's basically thumbed his nose at them, defying the Court to do anything about it.
5) Established a holding camp on our own territory (Florida) that is apparently little, if any, better than El Salvador's prison.
6) His own press people have dismissed the idea that ANY of these people should get "due process". I ranted about THAT stupidity previously.
In addition, the administration has:
1) Sent large number of blanket revocations of permission to stay (calling them "revocations of parole"), many of them to people who aren't even SUBJECT to that kind of revocation -- including permanent residents and actual US Citizens. It is unclear as to whether there's even an avenue for people to PROTEST this.
2) Allowed unvetted, untrained people to cavalierly dismantle, search, copy data from, and replace -- with buggy and untested software -- vital administrative systems that are the lifeline for literally tens of millions of US citizens.
3) Put an unscientific conspiracy theorist in charge of the Department of Health
4) Wiped out most of the established scientific research and development programs overseen by multiple government agencies
5) Mass-fired huge numbers of government employees, thereby dismantling agencies through the method of destroying institutional knowledge
6) Replaced thousands of government employees by political appointees specifically chosen for loyalty rather than competence.
So he's already established his first concentration camp, he's already set up a direct challenge -- a test of his power -- against the Supreme Court, which is just about the only remaining leg of the government that COULD in theory block him, and he's DARING them to act.
He's making people in his circle WEAR HIS DAMN IMAGE as a badge of loyalty. He's DEMANDING people pay him tribute in order to get better treatment; he literally told CBS that the way to get in his favor would be to pay tens of millions of dollars for a TV show for a member of his family. His grift is no longer even figleafed. It's right out in the open.
He's already disappeared people. It's just a few, so far, a small enough number that it's still being argued with -- but if that isn't stopped, and stopped fast, he'll be able to disappear anyone -- and he will.
Me? Not right away, I'm not important enough to see. But notable opposition? His mouthpiece already said flat out that opposing Trump should be prosecuted as treason. They'll start disappearing as soon as he's sure no one's going to stop him.
And it's sure looking like no one will.
There's another march on the 19th. People better be in it. LOTS of people. And they'd better be ready for possible active opposition, because one thing a dictator can't permit is organized protests and resistance.
"If Trump was really a dictator, you'd have been disappeared by now! Worst. Dictator. Ever."
This is a common post from the still-MAGA side. What it shows is someone, as Professor Snape would say, "Not. Paying. Attention."
Hitler took about two months to go from "I'm Chancellor" to establishing the first concentration camp (Dachau), and that one was for political prisoners -- people he'd targeted during his campaigning, people who spoke out against him, etc.
We're now three months into the Trump regime, and Trump has now:
1) Established an extraterritorial, extralegal prison camp (by paying El Salvador for it)
2) Shipped off a large number of people based purely on his say-so and on fuzzy, not-even-vetted criteria based on his campaign rantings about "illegal alien criminals"
3) When forced to admit that any of them weren't the criminals he claimed they were, done nothing to fix the mistake
3a) Research shows between 70% and 90% of the people sent to El Salvador were not the criminals the administration claimed they were
4) When the SUPREME COURT directed that he rectify the error, he's basically thumbed his nose at them, defying the Court to do anything about it.
5) Established a holding camp on our own territory (Florida) that is apparently little, if any, better than El Salvador's prison.
6) His own press people have dismissed the idea that ANY of these people should get "due process". I ranted about THAT stupidity previously.
In addition, the administration has:
1) Sent large number of blanket revocations of permission to stay (calling them "revocations of parole"), many of them to people who aren't even SUBJECT to that kind of revocation -- including permanent residents and actual US Citizens. It is unclear as to whether there's even an avenue for people to PROTEST this.
2) Allowed unvetted, untrained people to cavalierly dismantle, search, copy data from, and replace -- with buggy and untested software -- vital administrative systems that are the lifeline for literally tens of millions of US citizens.
3) Put an unscientific conspiracy theorist in charge of the Department of Health
4) Wiped out most of the established scientific research and development programs overseen by multiple government agencies
5) Mass-fired huge numbers of government employees, thereby dismantling agencies through the method of destroying institutional knowledge
6) Replaced thousands of government employees by political appointees specifically chosen for loyalty rather than competence.
So he's already established his first concentration camp, he's already set up a direct challenge -- a test of his power -- against the Supreme Court, which is just about the only remaining leg of the government that COULD in theory block him, and he's DARING them to act.
He's making people in his circle WEAR HIS DAMN IMAGE as a badge of loyalty. He's DEMANDING people pay him tribute in order to get better treatment; he literally told CBS that the way to get in his favor would be to pay tens of millions of dollars for a TV show for a member of his family. His grift is no longer even figleafed. It's right out in the open.
He's already disappeared people. It's just a few, so far, a small enough number that it's still being argued with -- but if that isn't stopped, and stopped fast, he'll be able to disappear anyone -- and he will.
Me? Not right away, I'm not important enough to see. But notable opposition? His mouthpiece already said flat out that opposing Trump should be prosecuted as treason. They'll start disappearing as soon as he's sure no one's going to stop him.
And it's sure looking like no one will.
There's another march on the 19th. People better be in it. LOTS of people. And they'd better be ready for possible active opposition, because one thing a dictator can't permit is organized protests and resistance.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 01:48 am (UTC)Once you are in Canada, with a passport, you could stay for up to six months with no paperwork needed. Lots of things can happen in six months. Either things get better in the US, or you have a chance to explore options elsewhere.
Worst case, Canada is a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Canada theoretically does not deport refugee claimants to unsafe countries (although there have been regrettable incidents).
Sleeping on a cot in a chilly hockey rink in Canada may or may not be better than sharing a five-tier bunk in a sweltering prison warehouse in El Salvador. Getting a US passport gives you the opportunity to choose.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 12:42 pm (UTC)Personally my main problem is that my health requires specific medical support. I have no money to support any form of moving at the moment (I'm approaching the point where I will have trouble paying the mortgage, but there's no real option other than doing so if we don't want to be "living in a van down by the river").
My family's the bigger concern -- Kathy's a known activist, my one child's disabled enough that they get SSI, another may be, two of them are LGBTQ+, etc.
no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-16 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-15 03:54 pm (UTC)