I think that’s the only thing left that surprises me - just how petty he can be. How he now won’t let past even the smallest perceived slight (i.e. lack of fawning) without a huge punitive reaction.
I’m getting better at predicting Trump’s pettiness - when the VOA reporter asked him the question about his previously stated plans to expel Palestinians, and Trump denied them and took umbrage, asking him where he was from (and then responding “Oh, no wonder”), my immediate thought was, “Well, that’s the end of Voice of America.”
I thought that was behind a lot of the administration’s games they’ve been playing about who is calling the shots with DOGE - they keep presenting testimony then withdrawing it when people are asked to testify. If you don’t know who’s responsible for the illegal actions, you can’t jail them, after all…
Will “Where do we go from here #4” discuss how ignoring and defying court orders means we now have a constitutional crisis? Cuz it seems the (left-leaning) preeminent legal minds in our country are just whistling past the graveyard of our democracy.
Wow, Vox, I expected better of y’all.
Seriously?
Is this a rationalizing of authoritarian rule?
FTA:
… The answer to the question “will ‘the people’ tolerate authoritarian rule?” is yes, absolutely.
Americans need not look far to see what this kind of boring authoritarianism looks like. As University of Michigan political scientist Robert Mickey has argued, swaths of the US South were effectively under one-party rule during parts of the 20th century. These regions slipped into authoritarianism quietly, as local politicians sought to advance their careers and the interests of their supporters. It took not just the civil rights movement but also dedicated struggle to bring these pockets of authoritarianism to an end. …
Ugh. People were killed during the civil rights movement.
People were beaten within an inch of their lives during the civil rights movement.
What this article barely mentions is authoritarian violence against the out-group by the in-group (see “Wilhoit’s Law” etc.). Which apparently the MAGAs are ok with, as we have learned, repeatedly, in past years and in this one.
Eita. What’s the problem with this site? I mean, I am not used to the american sites/média outlets. The big newspapers, for example, they changed a lot in the last years.
There isn’t anything particular you need to know about Vox. It isn’t like the Daily Mail or Breitbart.
They are slightly left leaning, for US left (which is right/conservative in most of the world). But very neoliberal technocracy. A lot like current US Democratic party leadership. Beholden to corporate money and pushing corporate interests.
Occasionally they have something insightful. Sometimes they have complete BS like this article.
Oh, I see it now. But It reminded me of my own experience. I was a child during the military dictatorship that began in 1964 and ended in 1985. During that period, people were arbitrarily arrested, tortured, killed, exiled… We had fierce censorship, no opposition, and policies that created inflation and economic hardship, leading to a lost decade in the 1980s.
Despite all this, many people miss those times. For these people, nostalgia is like a sedative for today. Many say that things used to be safer, that there were police on the streets and that only those who misbehaved had to fear. Some young people, who didn’t lived through that time, say that their grandparents confirm these fantasies.
What these superficial analyses and daydreams do not take into account and what these people prefer not to think about is that the effort to behave, not attract the attention of the authorities and endure all kinds of injustice is very great, even suffocating. Any slip-up could cause a big problem, to say the least. The economic ruin that the military governments created, for example, was crippling, but there was no way for an ordinary person to even complain and the way was to behave and continue living. In the 1970’s an outbreak of meningitis caused many deaths, but official censorship did not let the population know for a long time, until it became impossible to hide it.
That’s why I posted this text here.
I’m not familiar with this site, I don’t really know what it’s all about. I’ll do some research before using more of their material.
yeah, that Vox article is some pollyanna bullshit saying, “oh, we’ll all get by under authoritarian rule. we’ll still go to work, eat lunch, and go home…”
to your point, yes - the out groups will suffer and die at the hands of the in group. under this type of regime, I and others I care about - or maybe don’t even know - will suffer and die.
the article makes it seem that all will be well, we just won’t be able to change things electorally. like changing laws that call for executions of LGBTQ+, or allowing the disabled, aged, and infirm to simply die. i cannot get onboard with this at all. i may be born a white male, but i do not fit the rest of the description: not “straight” or christian. as an anarcho-socialist, Buddhist-atheist, my type would not be met with favor.
fuck the king!
I’m sure that for some people living under an authoritarian regime would be boring and safe and maybe even nice. The privileged, the elite, the ones who think they are elite.
But only some few people. A lot of people would be persecuted and die. Injustice would be rampant. Everyone else would be exhausted trying to toe the line, afraid all the time, and anxious because they could at, any time, have their entire life destroyed. If not outright taken.
i’m not sure that even a constitutional lawyer could declare “ok we’ve now crossed into crisis”, and this is likely just a sop for our constant state of alarm, but this article says that the “ignored judge’s order” was delivered late and not in a written form so that the trumpies could declare they couldn’t violate a judge’s order which wasn’t …formal (?) yet? @#$!!
Edit added: The first news I saw today made me think it was game over. It looked like the Trump administration had openly defied a US District Judge. I searched until some possible clarification was published. I wanted to get this out to others who might be as upset as I was. In no way do I mean this to be a defense of the current administration. Apparently they are still wriggling around somewhat within the framework of the Constitution, and haven’t yet decided to openly ignore the judicial system.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in order to deport alleged gang members who came to the US from Venezuela. Hours later a US District Judge issued an order blocking the deportations.
… but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. [The Judge] Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.
That’s exactly what happened here. They use the ghost of communism, which is a very diffuse entity, basically everything that the most reactionary people don’t like, to justify atrocities.
My point is that life goes on in one way or another and this illusion of normality fools a lot of people, some who really want to be fooled. Other people crave violence against those they don’t like and a dictatorship is just the ticket.
This is where the intellectual contortionism begins, the mental gymnastics to justify arbitrariness or even deny it. Here in Brazil, they even deny the existence of the late dictatorship. Many praise former torturers, but say that no one was ever tortured, while they wait for the good times to return and their enemies, real or imaginary, to suffer all kinds of state violence.
In the current US at least, even that may not prove true. Toxic air and water, unsafe food and meds, loads of unvaccinated people, ongoing climate change, riskier air travel, and more-- those things will impinge on just about everyone.
But the liberals, trans kids, working women, immigrants and the woke scum Will pay, that’s what matter. Only these people Will pay, only them, won’t them?
“Oopsie … Too late,” Mr. Bukele wrote in a social media post on Sunday morning that was recirculated by the White House communications director, Steven Cheung.
Around the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in another social media post, thanked Mr. Bukele for a lengthy post detailingthe migrants’ incarceration.
