Friday, August 29, 2025

Step Back, Take It In: US Entering Full Authoritarian Mode

Jonathan Freedland: Trump's dictator-like behaviour is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. It's like being woken in the night by a burglar wearing a striped shirt and carrying a bag marked "Swag": we would assume it was a joke or a stunt or otherwise unreal, rather than a genuine danger. So it is with Trump. We cannot quite believe what we are seeing.

Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 11:31 PM | 43 COMMENTS | permalink

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On Donald Trump's march towards authoritarianism. Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ...

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-- Jonathan Freedland (@jonathanfreedland.bsky.social) Aug 29, 2025 at 2:02 PM

Comments

"The trouble is, people still don't talk about it the way they talk about Hungary, not inside the US and not outside it.," writes Freeedland.

That's partly the It Can't Happen Here mindset, partly a reluctance to accept a reality that would require, of foreign governments especially, a rethink of almost everything. If the US is on its way to autocracy, in a condition scholars might call "unconsolidated authoritarianism", then that changes Britain's entire strategic position, its place in the world, which for 80 years has been predicated on the notion of a west led by a stable, democratic US. The same goes for the EU. Far easier to carry on, either pretending that the transformation of the US is not, in fact, as severe as it is, or that normal service will resume shortly. But the world's leaders, like US citizens, cannot ignore the evidence indefinitely. To adapt the title of that long-ago novel, it can happen here " and it is.

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-08-29 02:28 PM

"US Entering Full Authoritarian Mode"

That's what Republicans voted for.
Just ask them.

#2 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-08-29 02:29 PM

I'm afraid anyone who expects even a mere handful of GOPers in the House and/or Senate to step up and help fight Trump's seizure of powers upon their return to town after skedaddling ages ago to escape fallout from Trump's Epstein Coverup is in for a disappointment.

#3 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-08-29 02:33 PM

I'm not saying they couldn't do it, because they could. They are simply lacking, just not up to it.

#4 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-08-29 02:40 PM

I agree, our law enforcement has been usurped.

What we have now is fratboys who initially had skant professionalism, who have been encouraged by a less than mediocre POTUS to surrender what little professionalism they may have internalized.

After all, what are the new "COP CITIES" springing up all over the country to be utilized for? To serve the people? Not hardly. Allows for illegal fratboy behavior.

To spy and bludgeon the population into silence or cooperation with policies so unpopular that if a public referendum were held, they would never pass. Which in itself is reprehensible.

Any vocal dissent is aggressively physically and electronically surveilled into compliance or resigned acceptance. This behavior is nationwide.

Meanwhile congress sits on their hands while all our 1st and 4th amendment rights are nothing but memories from daily violations and the citizens are left with no protection against an out-of-control, unprofessional fratboy "law enforcement" gang paradigm, full of dirty tricks, with the power of life and death over ordinary citizens. The Supreme Court has made them all "professional liars".

It appears us regular citizens will have to endure this abomination until Congress can rescue us all.

Just a nobody taxpayer

#5 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-08-29 04:18 PM

How the Elite rigged Society (and why it's falling apart) |

www.youtube.com

#6 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-29 09:20 PM

SNOOFY @ #2

"That's what Republicans voted for.
Just ask them.

I don't think so. At least not on purpose. Only if they believed an authoritarian President (quoting Trump) would bring down the price of groceries so fast they wouldn't believe it.

Trump's glib lie hit them right in the bread basket.

#7 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-08-30 03:37 AM

I also recall that people were going on . . . and on . . . and on . . . about the price of eggs, like they thought it was the end of civilization.

#8 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-08-30 03:55 AM

Well, that's the gullibility of the narrowly focused for you.

#9 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-08-30 06:03 AM

#7 In the other thread, 76% of Republicans are satisfied with the way things are going.

So they didn't vote for this then,but if you ask them now, they'll say they voted for this now.

#10 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-08-30 08:43 AM

Use your common sense, SNOOFY

Do those televised Republican town hall meetings look like 76% to you?

They're doing everything short of throwing rotten tomatoes at their GOP representatives.

And that's just the poor suckers Trump ordered to get out there and defend his policies. The others seem to find something else to do during August recess.

Under these circumstances my spidey sense tells me that there isn't even going to be a midterm ~ at least not one that we'd recognize as, in any sense of the word, normal. Trump's trial runs with the National Guard in Democrat strongholds, plus whoever his goons can intimidate with life threatening insinuations to challenge the count at the local level, will see to that.

Court cases could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court whom we already know are on Trump's speed dial which is becoming less and less a secret every day.

#11 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-08-30 09:16 AM

Allows for illegal fratboy behavior.

Sen. John Blutarsky is now POTUS

#12 | Posted by lee_the_agent at 2025-08-30 09:30 AM

They're terrified for the safety of their families . . . or perhaps a few random car bombs as a warning to any GOP member of Congress who is thinking about stepping out of line.

Remember ~~ Trump is getting desperate. He's only got another 26 months to get this done, and daylight is a'burnin'.

Or face the wrath of . . . (Oh, the horror) . . . VLADIMIR PUTIN who will need Trump and the non-NATO U.S. Military to invade, first Eastern and then all of Europe. i.e. World War III

#13 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-08-30 11:02 AM

"I also recall that people were going on . . . and on . . . and on . . . about the price of eggs, like they thought it was the end of civilization."

They were completely full of ----.

They didn't really think the world was ending.

Did you believe their doomsday rhetoric was genuine?

#14 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 11:11 AM

-my spidey sense

What does that mean?

I'll refer you back to my previous post and the suggestion that you can't tell the difference between -------- and legitimate panic.

#15 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 11:13 AM

No, did you?

#16 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-08-30 11:14 AM

You know I didn't believe it.

I struggle believing legitimate panic is real.

#17 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 11:24 AM

I'll refer you back to my previous post and the suggestion that you can't tell the difference between -------- and legitimate panic.
#15 | Posted by eberly

Which kind was Jan 6?

#18 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-08-30 11:30 AM

Did you believe their doomsday rhetoric was genuine?
#14 | Posted by eberly

Do you believe the economy is genuinely at risk under Trump, or not?

#19 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-08-30 11:54 AM

EBERLY

"I struggle believing legitimate panic is real."

Did you struggle to believe the Covid-19 panic was real? Or the panic the House legislators felt on January 6?

Or the panic Trump felt when V.P. Mike Pence double crossed him on January 6?

Or the panic Eastern Europe feels as they up armor against Russia's aggression.?

Or the panic innocent immigrant American citizens feel when they're shuffled off to El Salvador.

At what point do you START to believe legitimate panic.

#20 | Posted by Twinpac at 2025-08-30 12:30 PM

I won't be too too worried until everything gets really good economically, there's peace around the world, and Orange Adolf is Man of the Year and gets the Noble Peace Prize, twice!

Because that's what happens in the Story, right before everything really goes to hell on earth.

Then it all gets much better forever.

#21 | Posted by Corky at 2025-08-30 12:47 PM

At what point do you START to believe legitimate panic

For most Americans it won't happen until it's too late to do anything about it.

Until they realize the dollar doesn't buy anything anymore.

Until they realize that the grocery stores no longer carry the foods and supplies they once use to because we no longer import goods from other nations.

America peaked in the 1950s and 60s. When a man working a minimum wage job was able to afford a house and take care of his family.

Republicans destroyed that. One decade at a time.

They convinced people minimum wage was never supposed to be a living wage, then convinced those same people it was the immigrants who were to blame for the fact their lives weren't as good as they used to be. They started giving bigger and bigger tax cuts to the wealthy and started rewarding them with taxpayer dollars in the form of subsidies.

We've become a nation of people who fear and hate each other. Who would rather see the nation fail than cooperate with each other. We've become dysfunctional. We've fallen. Too busy worrying about what transgender people are doing rather than working to create a better society for all, not just the wealthy.

The world now turns to China. China is the biggest net exporter on the planet. They did it all without engaging in a single war.

Happy extinction, American exceptionalism.

#22 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-30 01:15 PM

Trump is getting desperate. He's only got another 26 months to get this done, and daylight is a'burnin'.

#13 | Posted by Twinpac

Is that Floriduh math?

#23 | Posted by Whatsleft at 2025-08-30 01:33 PM

-At what point do you START to believe legitimate panic.

I believed those examples you gave

#24 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:39 PM

-America peaked in the 1950s and 60s.

When women and minorities knew their place.

When We didn't ask the minimum skilled worker to compete with a minimum skilled worker in Vietnam.

The good ole days.

#25 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:42 PM

"For most Americans it won't happen until it's too late to do anything about it."

The S&P is up around 10% this year.

Nobody is panicking ... ..yet

Some of you want the rest of us to believe they are.

But nobody is buying it

#26 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:44 PM

The good ole days.
#25 | POSTED BY EBERLY

America is a nation founded on the genocide of the nation of people and the enslavement of another nation of people

So by all means we're doing better than we once were.

Great bar you've set.

#27 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-30 01:48 PM

Nobody is panicking ... ..yet

You definitely aren't.

The S&P is up around 10% this year.

"S&P 500 12 Month Total Return is at 16.33%, compared to 15.16% last month and 22.15% last year."

But nobody is buying it
#26 | POSTED BY EBERLY

The truth?

No worries, I wasn't expecting you to buy anything, you're who I was talking about above, who can't see the cliff he's heading towards.

#28 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-30 01:53 PM

-So by all means we're doing better than we once were.

Sure if you use a completely different metric than you used which is What a minimum skilled worker can afford.

If we keep the women and minorities out of the competition for that job ... ... go figure that job was better.

#29 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:54 PM

"who can't see the cliff he's heading towards."

LOL

What on earth does that mean?

#30 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:55 PM

So ... ..clown is panicking?

How so? And what SHOULD I do?

I'm all ears clown. Tell me what I should do.

#31 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:57 PM

-America peaked in the 1950s and 60s.

This is incorrect, the 90s was peak US.

Every nation around the globe was jealous of the US. From what I am reading and, seeing what's happened since COVID.
Extremist Liberals have destroyed it.

It was a slow decline, now it has accelerated since COVID, both party's congress's are on the extreme without solving anyones problems.


The S&P is up around 10% this year.
Nobody is panicking ... ..yet

The issue is the dollar is falling.

Did you struggle to believe the Covid-19 panic was real?

It was strange for me, I kept reading in papers about how things were devolving in China in December, but then I personally saw Pelosi in Chinatown saying SFO was open for business.
So I think Americans struggled with trying not to appear racist.
Congress was busy impeaching Trump in Jan and Feb.

So yes all non-Chinese reading Americans struggled to understand the COVID situtation. Many people I recall tore Trump a new one for blocking flights, I found this pretty interesting.

#32 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-08-30 01:57 PM

Set me straight, smart guy.

You've told me how parent, worship, where to live, etc.

Tell me how to avoid the cliff ... ...

I'm headed to a kstate football game very soon.

Not much time

#33 | Posted by eberly at 2025-08-30 01:59 PM

Pondering this ...

The reason America is falling apart is it doesn't want to appear "racist", "uncaring" etc etc.

So it throws away all discrimination, allowing people to get away with all sort of debauchery in the name of not being "racist" or "uncaring".
When it forgets that there are victims of crime, and child trafficking, to which it just ignores.

It worries about one shooting of a church, but ignores completely the collapse of the inner city.

Here's just an example, I am sure this progress is the same across the West.

Number of violent crimes reported each year in Toronto from 2010-2024:

2010: 15,417
2011: 14,147
2012: 14,177
2013: 13,127
2014: 12,750
2015: 13,473
2016: 14,971
2017: 16,193
2018: 17,750
2019: 32,704
2020: 29,585
2021: 30,550
2022: 33,359
2023: 37,649
2024: 50,836

It has become, in fact, the Wild West.

#34 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-08-30 02:06 PM

EMAW Eberly EMAW

#35 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-08-30 02:06 PM

This is incorrect, the 90s was peak US.

Wrong.

But. I expect no more from a moron who doesn't know jack about shht.

#36 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-30 02:09 PM

Number of violent crimes reported each year in Toronto from 2010-2024:

Was dropping, until Trump became president and encouraged violence.

Thanks.

#37 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-08-30 02:10 PM

#37: Dummkopf Trumpf encouraging violence or mayhem in Canada? No way! pressprogress.ca

#38 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-08-30 02:22 PM


#37: Dummkopf Trumpf encouraging violence or mayhem in Canada? No way! pressprogress.ca

#38 | POSTED BY C0RI0LANUS A

Since 2010? Why do you hate victims of violent crime that you use them to soothe your sickness?

Here's what you all are afraid of, that Trump is going to show that removing illegal immigrants, and those committing crimes, makes neighborhoods safer.

Duh ...

The Lumper worry is Trump is going to then promote to residents the idea that voting for liberal progressive mayors and especially DAs who tolerate criminal activity is what turned their neighborhoods into chaos.

I warned my fellow Liberals for almost 3 years now this sort of thing was coming. Shoot your arrows at me, but us Democrats better get a plan together or the party is over. The extremist need to be kicked out.

#39 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-08-30 02:33 PM

-America peaked in the 1950s and 60s.
When women and minorities knew their place.
When We didn't ask the minimum skilled worker to compete with a minimum skilled worker in Vietnam.
The good ole days.
#25 | Posted by eberly

Unfortunately for Republicans, putting women and minorities back in their place, and putting up huge tariffs, won't actually make American unskilled workers any more valuable compared to their Vietnamese counterparts.

We are entering the "Finding Out" phase for the next decade or two.

I advise you keep your powder dry. For a decade or two. And don't run out.

#40 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-08-30 03:35 PM

I advise you keep your powder dry. For a decade or two. And don't run out.

POSTED BY SNOOFY

Keep your head down, your powder dry and don't shoot until you see the red of their hats.

#41 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-30 04:11 PM

Keep your head down, your powder dry and don't shoot until you see the red of their hats.

Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-30 04:11 PM | Reply

Ahhhhhhh the newest version of the fight against the "red coats" ehhhhhhhh??

#42 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-08-30 04:13 PM

Yes Laura.

All tyrants deserve the same treatment.

Just ask any Virginian.

It's their state motto.

Sic Semper Tyrannis

#43 | Posted by donnerboy at 2025-08-30 05:11 PM

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