Sunday, January 25, 2026

State Terror Has Arrived

M. Gessen: After the past three weeks of brutality in Minneapolis, it should no longer be possible to say that the Trump administration seeks merely to govern this nation. It seeks to reduce us all to a state of constant fear ...

Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 07:31 PM | 20 COMMENTS | permalink

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It's a fascist power grab. And Congress has to put a stop to it.

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-- George Conway (@gtconway.bsky.social) Jan 24, 2026 at 8:37 PM

Comments

"Terror itself was not the end goal of those regimes," Gessen writes of Nazi Germany and Stalin's USSR, "but nothing that followed would have been possible without it."

For this was the secret about the secret police that became clear when the K.G.B. archives were opened (briefly) in the 1990s: They were ruled by quotas. Local squadrons had to arrest a certain number of citizens so they could be designated enemies of the people. That the officers often swept up groups of colleagues, friends and family members was probably a matter of convenience more than anything else. Fundamentally, the terror was random. That is, in fact, how state terror works.

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-01-25 06:15 AM

"The randomness is the difference between a regime based on terror and a regime that is plainly repressive," Gessen explains. "Even in brutally repressive regimes, including those of the Soviet colonies in Eastern Europe, one knew where the boundaries of acceptable behavior lay."

Open protest would get one arrested; kitchen conversation would not. Writing subversive essays or novels or editing underground journals would get one arrested; reading these banned works and quietly passing them on to friends probably would not. A regime based on terror, on the other hand, deploys violence precisely to reinforce the message that anyone can be subjected to it.

When we think of the terror regimes of the past, it is tempting to superimpose a logical narrative on them, as though totalitarian leaders had an extermination to-do list and worked their way through it methodically. This, I think, is how most people understand Martin Niemller's classic poem "First They Came." In reality, though, the people living under those regimes never knew which group of people would be designated an enemy of the state next.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-01-25 06:17 AM

Thank God Kamala was so bad. Look at what we almost missed.

#3 | Posted by fresno500 at 2026-01-25 07:21 AM

Thank God Kamala was so bad. Look at what we almost missed.

#3 | Posted by fresno500

I was just thinking that. What a Hellscape we would have had with Kamala in power. The mind rebels.

#4 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-25 08:40 AM

I wasn't a fan of Harris whatsoever.

But the absurdity to which Trumpers will act like her win would have been worse than this is insane.

#5 | Posted by jpw at 2026-01-25 02:42 PM

#5

She might have invaded Morgan Stanley and sent ICE to Mar a Lardo.

Maybe even put Tariffs on Russia and bombed Oligarch yachts.

#6 | Posted by Corky at 2026-01-25 08:12 PM

DEATH TO TYRANTS

#7 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-01-26 12:50 AM

NOT IN 47 STATES.......where governors actually care to get illegal animals off the streets...

there's no terror there.......

again you morons still can't give a real answer to the question.

WHY is this only happening in one city in one state ?

walz / frey and now the lT governor are the reasons 100 %...no matter how much you lie....

--Minnesota Lt Governor Peggy Flanagan instructed leftists to "put your bodies on the line" to protest Trump and ICE.

SO you illiterate hate mongering bigots can scream "death to tyrants" all you want.

just proves you're full of bull manure and indeed are....hate mongering bigots..

#8 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-01-26 07:13 AM

DEATH TO TYRANTS

#7 | Posted by LegallyYourDead

you're the perfect DR client...

you're stooooopid.

#9 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-01-26 07:14 AM

so the CROOK feeds THE CULT ...coffee / hot chocolate and donuts passed out by the NN GUARD...and tells the cops to stand down....

and you dopes say it's a state of terror..

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

GEESUSH you dopes are some kind of stupid ----------..

#10 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-01-26 07:27 AM

Hey all you gun owners: take a good look at those ICE fellas bashing in doors and dragging US citizens out into the cold. That's you and your guns next...

#11 | Posted by catdog at 2026-01-26 08:23 AM

MINNESOTA LT GOVERNOR PEGGY Flanagan has been outed as an administrator

at SIGNAL CHAT.............just as I SAID........the violence and riots

are being coordinated by the STATE OF MINNESOTA.

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

#12 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-01-26 08:39 AM

but we realize that nothing will happen to them....because when you people

and dems say "no one is above the law"....we know you're lying mother -------.

#13 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2026-01-26 08:46 AM

#12 | #13 Flag: Has the right to be ugly, but he abuses the privilege

#14 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-01-26 09:07 AM

#12 Fact check

news.meaww.com

#15 | Posted by Chantresse at 2026-01-26 09:14 AM

Good. We need to stop these ------- Nazis now, by any means necessary.

#16 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-01-26 12:00 PM

you're the perfect DR client...
you're stooooopid.
#9 | POSTED BY [DR CLIENT] SHRIMPTACODAN

#17 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2026-01-26 12:41 PM

I'm going to go out on a limb here and just say it, with the election of Kamala, both murder victims would still be alive.

#18 | Posted by fresno500 at 2026-01-27 07:02 AM

What a Hellscape we would have had with Kamala in power.

I know....

No blowing up fishing boats.

No overthrowing and nation building in Venezuela.

No threatening Greenland, Canada and apparently Iceland with invasion.

No $1,000,000,000 needed to upgrade Bribe Force One.

No Bobby Brainworms destroying prevention medical care.

People actually affording health insurance.

Farmers selling their products instead of letting the rot in the fields.

No middle class tariff taxes.

No middle of the night insane tweets.

#19 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-01-27 12:01 PM

Isn't racism grand.

#20 | Posted by fresno500 at 2026-01-28 06:07 AM

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