Illuminating analysis, as usual. I admit I had thought, what with Trump’s insistence on keeping businesses in the U. S., he would not try to export concentration camps when there’s plenty of room in Texas or Florida or Louisiana.
What I read about the ICE camps in Louisiana for women is 27 in a cell, and they are sleeping and defecting on the same concrete floor. I am sickened by the fact that the US is taken over by these people.
How awful! I had not heard anything about those camps. So I'm going to go with David's suggestion that we put them nowhere. Thank you for, as usual, opening my eyes.
I'm sure they would end up in Louisiana. Our little "Turdman" governor is very egger to please his master and that is probably why he has allowed ICE to bring in the immigrants that are already housed here. Louisiana - The Shithole State.
Yes. Johnson with his Seven Mountain Magical realism. His obsession with his son's masterbation, and porn consumption, and his own being caught on gay sex sites making dates. What about where he is living? Won't go into the rumors, but not only is a he a big Nazi, but a big hypocrite too.
Trump sycophants from "unimportant" states haven't figured out that he doesn't need them any more. (Like, Sarah, Cap't Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, Joni Ernst, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, etc.)
CECOT is the tyrant’s dream prison … compared to the broken state of Auschwitz when it was liberated. (A “Liberation Day” not accompanied by insane tariffs.)
I keep thinking I will create and send cards of these images to my MAGA brainwashed family and that they will wake up, but sadly, the truth is they will find a way to rationalize the depravity. I just can’t get through to them. I’m almost at a point that I think they are lost to me forever.
They likely are. It would take their lives being threatened with imprisonment in one of trump’s gulags to make a dent in their beliefs. People in cults rarely leave them. My family never did. I’m sorry.
I can understand how difficult it is to process how people that you know have joined a cult that operates on hatred, cruelty and greed.
I grew up in a white supremacy, hate & fear based, deeply misogynistic religious cult (far-right evangelicals). My mother & stepfather were both white supremacists and my stepfather was a member of the local Klan group. It was a horrible way to be raised. As a girl I was taught my purpose in life was to be a servant (basically) to a man and any sons we had. Violence was used as a teaching tool, both at home and at church. Two weeks after I graduated from high school I left for the Army, not having told anyone until the night before. I escaped and never returned to either group (religion, white supremacy). When I went to college (something absolutely forbidden to me as a female) I purposely studied cults, brainwashing and how it works (from religion, political groups, etc), rhetoric & persuasion, psychology, human behavior - anything to help me understand why people join cults.
You need a charismatic leader who appeals to the fears of the whatever group they are trying to take over and influence. You choose one or more groups to demonize as targets for those fears. Once you have everyone invested that way you can begin to influence and then control them (like setting up the Jan 6th insurrection). Fear, hatred and then greed are the motivators for controlling a cult.
You have to add in basic human behavior too. Quite a few people prefer to have an authoritarian figure (or daddy/Father figure) to tell them how to believe and behave. This is far easier than sorting through issues themselves. Once you have them hooked the human behavior of sunk cost fallacy kicks in. Sunk cost fallacy is the belief that you have to stick with something you’ve chosen (a relationship, a wonky car or house, a belief system, etc) because you’ve been with it for a while and it feels like abandoning it will be wrong (feelings) or more trouble or cost (how you’ve invested in it) than starting over. Plus, humans dislike to hate having to admit that they’ve made a mistake. Humans will turn themselves inside out to justify sticking with something that has been proven to be wrong, even to the point of horrific actions (like the Holocaust, sending people to a Salvadoran gulag). Think of all those who tried saying “I was just following orders” after WWII to justify their actions.
It is possible for a person to leave a cult. It is rare but possible. The person has to take on the enormous task of looking at their own beliefs and actions and determining if they are truly what they believe in. Change takes a long time and repeated effort to leave all the cult beliefs and behavior behind. It is not a one and done effort. And once in a cult it will always be a risk to fall into a different one. Certain personality types are more prone to this behavior than others - but, we are all susceptible.
I don’t mean to make your anguish worse but the truth is, it is very difficult to get someone to leave a cult. The deeper they are, the more they’ve had to convince themselves to believe and do awful things, the less likely they will ever leave. Your family may be lost for good. Except for my younger brother who also escaped early, mine was. In my case I had to cut ties with those who would not stop trying to convert me/drag me back in because they literally would start talking, then ranting as soon as I was around them. With a few others we agreed to not discuss anything related to the cult(s) they were in and we could, on occasion, spent a few hours together.
I hope this long-winded explanation helps. Please excuse any typos. I can’t seem to start at the top to proofread it.
PS. People who join cults aren’t always influenced by an outside figure to do so. Sometimes people really are awful human beings and want to inflict pain and cruelty on other people.
Lots of people leave cultic situations, so best not to misrepresent that. That said, you’ve shared a lot of insights that come from your experience. I hear you.
I studied people leaving cultic groups. My dissertation is titled Pressure to Believe, Behave, and Become: Identity Negotiation Stories from People Who Grew Up Cult
It is really scary to think that trump would go after Bukele's style of authoritarianism. Bukele clearly doesn't care who the people are that he arrests and disappears. It makes me very afraid for the Blacks who are already treated very badly, and the Latinos, whose population in the US is growing. I hope that I have reached the end of my life span by the time any such thing happens. (Note that even though I am older, I have no intention of leaving this world before my time.)
" . . . the apparent randomness of authoritarian repression . . . " the acausal nature of random terror was a feature of nazi fascism. appears that Bukele's has learned Leni Riefenstahl's aesthetics well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Riefenstahl. we're in it now. it's happening. it's real.
"The acausal nature of random terror". That's a feature and a foundational feature. It's random and acausal for the victims but very systematic for the perpetrators, very intentional. Project 2025 is the blueprint, the "gun" so to speak; "but it takes a hard heart to kill" to borrow from Full Metal Jacket. These perpetrators have hard hearts, fueled by a manic triumphant mood and sadistic glee. They enjoy inflicting the terror, it's a fetish, a compulsion. The appetite for it will grow and it will expand to others who will feel emboldened to gorge themselves. It's like the glowing orange (!) monster in The Blob eating anything in its path. We are living in a bad sci fi movie. It's part of the plan on their side. That's an important thing to remember. To visit and threaten random and acausal terror. To inflict trauma. Russ Vought said it,the architect of Project 2025, the Mein Kampf of MAGA. Trauma. Perpetration. Joyfully, lustfully,addictively.
Thanks for the link. I researched the subject after your first post. It turns out the Democrat was turned away and the Republicans were allowed in to make prison porn shots, a la Abu Ghraib, to say how much they liked the idea of using the Salvadoran gulag. An utterly predictable outcome.
I had left a smile face as I usually do to acknowledge that I received this newsletter but I had to remove it after seeing the pics and reading the article. I cant help but wonder how they coerced the men in these pictures to comply with the orders to stay in those positions. Honestly, my heart is breaking right now.
How did they coerce them? Beatings, torture, humiliation, sexual abuse, solitary confinement, murder... Get inmates to be enforcers against other inmates. Use public spectacle as a vehicle for persuasion.
As much as we want Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed, don't forget there are 237+ others jailed in El Salvador without due process. [Reportedly there were 47,892 people in ICE detention, i.e. El Salvador, GITMO, Louisiana et al, as of March 23. Of those being held, 23,014 --or 48.1%— have no criminal record, according to data as of that date. Many more have only minor offenses, including traffic violations. Trump also wants 5 more prisons built in El Salvador for "Homegrown" inmates, i.e. American citizens.
The abduction of people kidnapped off the street and imprisoned in a foreign land means the end of rights guaranteed since 1215 (i.e., the Magna Carta) and the 4th, 8th and 14th Amendments in our Constitution. The writ of habeas corpus, which allows individuals to challenge the legality of their detention, has a long history tied to the Magna Carta. The 4th Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, while the 14th Due Process Clause ensures a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. As if those violations of the Constitution were not enough, the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 8th Amendment prohibits such action inflicted by the government This amendment aims to protect individuals like Kilmar Garcia--and all other residents of the US, to be protected by the Constitution, from punishment that is excessively harsh or inhumane. Trump has destroyed the Constitution and the Magna Carta in 84 days, with the help of cowed, cowardlyRepublicans in Congress and the SCOTUS. Shades of Nazi Germany 1930s!
But we are NOT Germany of the period 1933-1845. We know history. Fight back, demonstrate, protest with signs or just stand in solidarity, write letters to the editor or internet columnists, call your congressperson or senator. Donate to Dem candidates, vote. Never give up. As Joyce Vance says: "We're in this together." Solidarity. Trump et al is not what America is about or its democracy!
Yes, and more. Everyone should watch this award-winning documentary about the world’s leading authority on strategic nonviolent action, the late Dr. Gene Sharp, whose writings helped launch and/or potentiate nonviolent uprisings and revolutions worldwide, many of which are depicted in the film: “How to Start a Revolution” (1 hr. 22 min.) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EKnoUbDIpjo
Disgusting how consciously they are destroying lives. No human being should be treated in the manner these men are being forced to endure until they die. Every strike of the hour, another slice of extinction of our common humanity, our lost brother/sisterhood of Man, goes up the smoke and bleeds our hearts away. No more pie in the sky, America. No more haven for the huddled masses--with the demoralized drudges of the Depression ahead, the poverty and unsafe labor conditions of the 19thc. Women have no rights except to bear children for the church or state. What a waste of lives, of money, just to empower the ego and power trip of maniacal,mean-spirited, greedy men. May they run quickly to their demise.
There were 8 women among all those men sent to Bukele's cecot. They were not accepted and returned to the US. Where are they now too? Have they been re-disappeared? That's been 2 weeks. I fear for them
This is the worst in an enraging display of disgusting actions that Mr Trump has foisted upon our people. This disappearing of people without due cause and shipping them away to hell. Omg.🥺
The "I am Spartacus" moment is here
Can we deport Trump to that hellhole? He's a convicted felon 34 times over.
A nearly naked Trump would be too horrible a sight, even for this place!
Illuminating analysis, as usual. I admit I had thought, what with Trump’s insistence on keeping businesses in the U. S., he would not try to export concentration camps when there’s plenty of room in Texas or Florida or Louisiana.
Please put those camps in Florida or Louisiana. They'd probably choose my area of Texas for them, which would ruin it in more ways than I can count.
Please put them nowhere at all.
Much better idea, though I do like the idea of gifting Governor DeSantis with one.
And to celebrate he’s got the go-go boots and an inkling to dance the watusi!
I thought he was trying to cancel Blacks. I don't remember who sang Watusi, but I'm absolutely certain she was Black.
The Orlons, 1962 … and yes, they were black. But it would be wonderful just to watch.
Remember his JAG days at Guantanamo.
What I read about the ICE camps in Louisiana for women is 27 in a cell, and they are sleeping and defecting on the same concrete floor. I am sickened by the fact that the US is taken over by these people.
How awful! I had not heard anything about those camps. So I'm going to go with David's suggestion that we put them nowhere. Thank you for, as usual, opening my eyes.
Blount County, Tennessee, for the "homegrowns", not much better.
I'm sure they would end up in Louisiana. Our little "Turdman" governor is very egger to please his master and that is probably why he has allowed ICE to bring in the immigrants that are already housed here. Louisiana - The Shithole State.
Your NAZI governor!
Yes! A short but irritating NAZI governor! And then, of course, there is Johnson - 😡
Yes. Johnson with his Seven Mountain Magical realism. His obsession with his son's masterbation, and porn consumption, and his own being caught on gay sex sites making dates. What about where he is living? Won't go into the rumors, but not only is a he a big Nazi, but a big hypocrite too.
Arkansas legislature just denied Gov. Huckabee a new prison. To their credit
Huckabee: “Nayib? This is Sarah!”
Trump sycophants from "unimportant" states haven't figured out that he doesn't need them any more. (Like, Sarah, Cap't Tom Cotton, Josh Hawley, Joni Ernst, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, etc.)
Excellent observation! And begs the question: Where’s Vivek? Wasn’t he supposed to be co-DOGE?
He's running for Governor of Ohio in 2026.
Gobsmacked, me.
Concentration camps also relied on dehumanizing Hitler’s victims
CECOT is the tyrant’s dream prison … compared to the broken state of Auschwitz when it was liberated. (A “Liberation Day” not accompanied by insane tariffs.)
Awful awful pictures showing Trump and Bukele’s depravity.
Yes, viscerally horrifying.
I keep thinking I will create and send cards of these images to my MAGA brainwashed family and that they will wake up, but sadly, the truth is they will find a way to rationalize the depravity. I just can’t get through to them. I’m almost at a point that I think they are lost to me forever.
They likely are. It would take their lives being threatened with imprisonment in one of trump’s gulags to make a dent in their beliefs. People in cults rarely leave them. My family never did. I’m sorry.
it’s so hard for me to process. I mean people I know had compassion before Trump
I can understand how difficult it is to process how people that you know have joined a cult that operates on hatred, cruelty and greed.
I grew up in a white supremacy, hate & fear based, deeply misogynistic religious cult (far-right evangelicals). My mother & stepfather were both white supremacists and my stepfather was a member of the local Klan group. It was a horrible way to be raised. As a girl I was taught my purpose in life was to be a servant (basically) to a man and any sons we had. Violence was used as a teaching tool, both at home and at church. Two weeks after I graduated from high school I left for the Army, not having told anyone until the night before. I escaped and never returned to either group (religion, white supremacy). When I went to college (something absolutely forbidden to me as a female) I purposely studied cults, brainwashing and how it works (from religion, political groups, etc), rhetoric & persuasion, psychology, human behavior - anything to help me understand why people join cults.
You need a charismatic leader who appeals to the fears of the whatever group they are trying to take over and influence. You choose one or more groups to demonize as targets for those fears. Once you have everyone invested that way you can begin to influence and then control them (like setting up the Jan 6th insurrection). Fear, hatred and then greed are the motivators for controlling a cult.
You have to add in basic human behavior too. Quite a few people prefer to have an authoritarian figure (or daddy/Father figure) to tell them how to believe and behave. This is far easier than sorting through issues themselves. Once you have them hooked the human behavior of sunk cost fallacy kicks in. Sunk cost fallacy is the belief that you have to stick with something you’ve chosen (a relationship, a wonky car or house, a belief system, etc) because you’ve been with it for a while and it feels like abandoning it will be wrong (feelings) or more trouble or cost (how you’ve invested in it) than starting over. Plus, humans dislike to hate having to admit that they’ve made a mistake. Humans will turn themselves inside out to justify sticking with something that has been proven to be wrong, even to the point of horrific actions (like the Holocaust, sending people to a Salvadoran gulag). Think of all those who tried saying “I was just following orders” after WWII to justify their actions.
It is possible for a person to leave a cult. It is rare but possible. The person has to take on the enormous task of looking at their own beliefs and actions and determining if they are truly what they believe in. Change takes a long time and repeated effort to leave all the cult beliefs and behavior behind. It is not a one and done effort. And once in a cult it will always be a risk to fall into a different one. Certain personality types are more prone to this behavior than others - but, we are all susceptible.
I don’t mean to make your anguish worse but the truth is, it is very difficult to get someone to leave a cult. The deeper they are, the more they’ve had to convince themselves to believe and do awful things, the less likely they will ever leave. Your family may be lost for good. Except for my younger brother who also escaped early, mine was. In my case I had to cut ties with those who would not stop trying to convert me/drag me back in because they literally would start talking, then ranting as soon as I was around them. With a few others we agreed to not discuss anything related to the cult(s) they were in and we could, on occasion, spent a few hours together.
I hope this long-winded explanation helps. Please excuse any typos. I can’t seem to start at the top to proofread it.
PS. People who join cults aren’t always influenced by an outside figure to do so. Sometimes people really are awful human beings and want to inflict pain and cruelty on other people.
Lots of people leave cultic situations, so best not to misrepresent that. That said, you’ve shared a lot of insights that come from your experience. I hear you.
I studied people leaving cultic groups. My dissertation is titled Pressure to Believe, Behave, and Become: Identity Negotiation Stories from People Who Grew Up Cult
It is really scary to think that trump would go after Bukele's style of authoritarianism. Bukele clearly doesn't care who the people are that he arrests and disappears. It makes me very afraid for the Blacks who are already treated very badly, and the Latinos, whose population in the US is growing. I hope that I have reached the end of my life span by the time any such thing happens. (Note that even though I am older, I have no intention of leaving this world before my time.)
" . . . the apparent randomness of authoritarian repression . . . " the acausal nature of random terror was a feature of nazi fascism. appears that Bukele's has learned Leni Riefenstahl's aesthetics well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leni_Riefenstahl. we're in it now. it's happening. it's real.
"The acausal nature of random terror". That's a feature and a foundational feature. It's random and acausal for the victims but very systematic for the perpetrators, very intentional. Project 2025 is the blueprint, the "gun" so to speak; "but it takes a hard heart to kill" to borrow from Full Metal Jacket. These perpetrators have hard hearts, fueled by a manic triumphant mood and sadistic glee. They enjoy inflicting the terror, it's a fetish, a compulsion. The appetite for it will grow and it will expand to others who will feel emboldened to gorge themselves. It's like the glowing orange (!) monster in The Blob eating anything in its path. We are living in a bad sci fi movie. It's part of the plan on their side. That's an important thing to remember. To visit and threaten random and acausal terror. To inflict trauma. Russ Vought said it,the architect of Project 2025, the Mein Kampf of MAGA. Trauma. Perpetration. Joyfully, lustfully,addictively.
And Congress does nothing.
There is a delegation of congressional Democrats in El Salvador at this moment.
Really? Thanks, I had not heard of that yet.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/15/congressional-democrats-trip-el-salvador-00292252
Thanks for the link. I researched the subject after your first post. It turns out the Democrat was turned away and the Republicans were allowed in to make prison porn shots, a la Abu Ghraib, to say how much they liked the idea of using the Salvadoran gulag. An utterly predictable outcome.
Republicans in congress and the senate.
I had left a smile face as I usually do to acknowledge that I received this newsletter but I had to remove it after seeing the pics and reading the article. I cant help but wonder how they coerced the men in these pictures to comply with the orders to stay in those positions. Honestly, my heart is breaking right now.
How did they coerce them? Beatings, torture, humiliation, sexual abuse, solitary confinement, murder... Get inmates to be enforcers against other inmates. Use public spectacle as a vehicle for persuasion.
The usual suspects. Is it that mysterious?
As much as we want Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed, don't forget there are 237+ others jailed in El Salvador without due process. [Reportedly there were 47,892 people in ICE detention, i.e. El Salvador, GITMO, Louisiana et al, as of March 23. Of those being held, 23,014 --or 48.1%— have no criminal record, according to data as of that date. Many more have only minor offenses, including traffic violations. Trump also wants 5 more prisons built in El Salvador for "Homegrown" inmates, i.e. American citizens.
The abduction of people kidnapped off the street and imprisoned in a foreign land means the end of rights guaranteed since 1215 (i.e., the Magna Carta) and the 4th, 8th and 14th Amendments in our Constitution. The writ of habeas corpus, which allows individuals to challenge the legality of their detention, has a long history tied to the Magna Carta. The 4th Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, while the 14th Due Process Clause ensures a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. As if those violations of the Constitution were not enough, the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 8th Amendment prohibits such action inflicted by the government This amendment aims to protect individuals like Kilmar Garcia--and all other residents of the US, to be protected by the Constitution, from punishment that is excessively harsh or inhumane. Trump has destroyed the Constitution and the Magna Carta in 84 days, with the help of cowed, cowardlyRepublicans in Congress and the SCOTUS. Shades of Nazi Germany 1930s!
But we are NOT Germany of the period 1933-1845. We know history. Fight back, demonstrate, protest with signs or just stand in solidarity, write letters to the editor or internet columnists, call your congressperson or senator. Donate to Dem candidates, vote. Never give up. As Joyce Vance says: "We're in this together." Solidarity. Trump et al is not what America is about or its democracy!
Yes, and more. Everyone should watch this award-winning documentary about the world’s leading authority on strategic nonviolent action, the late Dr. Gene Sharp, whose writings helped launch and/or potentiate nonviolent uprisings and revolutions worldwide, many of which are depicted in the film: “How to Start a Revolution” (1 hr. 22 min.) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EKnoUbDIpjo
Disgusting how consciously they are destroying lives. No human being should be treated in the manner these men are being forced to endure until they die. Every strike of the hour, another slice of extinction of our common humanity, our lost brother/sisterhood of Man, goes up the smoke and bleeds our hearts away. No more pie in the sky, America. No more haven for the huddled masses--with the demoralized drudges of the Depression ahead, the poverty and unsafe labor conditions of the 19thc. Women have no rights except to bear children for the church or state. What a waste of lives, of money, just to empower the ego and power trip of maniacal,mean-spirited, greedy men. May they run quickly to their demise.
Start chasing.
There were 8 women among all those men sent to Bukele's cecot. They were not accepted and returned to the US. Where are they now too? Have they been re-disappeared? That's been 2 weeks. I fear for them
This is the worst in an enraging display of disgusting actions that Mr Trump has foisted upon our people. This disappearing of people without due cause and shipping them away to hell. Omg.🥺
Traumatic visuals are terrifying— inhumane