18 Comments
User's avatar
Suzanne Shaps's avatar

This is too hard to read, and I've had to pause after only a few paragraphs. Maybe tomorrow I will find more strength. Like many, I think, I cannot take it all in, or believe this is happening in this country.

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jimbo's avatar

Seems like we’re heading for some vocal progressive or a left wing journalist or any legal citizen of our country to be disappeared at trumps will. With no recourse. What’s it gonna take for enuf republicans to understand where this leads

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Deborah J.'s avatar

This makes it clear to me that leaving the country is probably a good idea.

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Deborah J.'s avatar

Trump thinks he’s washing his hands of the human rights abuses he is committing by sending people to another country. And we are all potential victims. We are going to make a trip to Portugal in the fall to scout it out.

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TomD's avatar
Apr 7Edited

Re: the El Salvador contract. If Trump isn't lying--doubtful, I know--it's another example of why he is the world's worst negotiator..

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TomD's avatar
Apr 7Edited

The idea that criminality can be sniffed out in advance seems directly related to how AI was used in the war on terror--how the claim was made that certain people needed a missile through their car top on some Middle East back road. I would not be surprised to learn that AI has been used tby DOGE to sniff out and fire potentially disloyal federal employees.

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CarolineMaybe's avatar

I live in Australia. I warned and warned about this. Aust locked people up on a Pacific island for over a decade. Trump loved it. He said it was “tough”. It was inhumane.

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Sam's avatar

This is chilling. I am shivering reading that this is not fiction but real life event unfolding in the United States of America. God save us

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Peg's avatar

This is the definition of disappearing people.

They came for the criminals and I did nothing.

Expect a knock on the door at midnight.

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K'iya's avatar

Seth, I have been with you for about 10 years. Your brilliant meta-journalism is always painting us a pointillist picture with dots of facts. I don't know why, but it keeps me sane and with hope. Until tonight. I think you listed numerous "Wait, it gets worse." And you were right. I don't remember, ever, you saying "God Help Us." But I swear, we need to read it -because only the Truth can truly set us free. And we need this Truth OUT EVERYWHERE!

Found 2 minor edits: "But even the seeming “close” cases are, in fact, no that close at all."

"... a moment, this this goal is within." K'iya

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Muck-raker's avatar

What causes me the most distress is where did these people come from to carry out so many heinous, short-sighted and inhuman activities. I am thinking of Bondi, Martin, Blanche, Leavitt, (to name a few) and the rest of the band of misfits running our government? It is beyond my comprehension that one could become plexiglass in level of callousness, morally and ethically bereft. Is there a school for this? To put it more succinctly, how did they become so imperfect? Who would be their friend? Who birthed them and do they still have a relationship? Interestingly, energetically 4/20/25 is a time of a dramatic and life changing shift and it is going to be bad.

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Stan's avatar

Here’s a theory, fwiw: fundamentalist religion that emphasizes “getting the spirit,” the ecstatic manifestation thereof being indistinguishable from demon possession. Because, in fact, that’s what it is. It’s assuredly not from a good God. And they certainly will not question what that spirit moves them to believe.

By far the most dangerous kind of religion.

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STEPHANIE L. HARPER's avatar

"God help us," indeed.

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Jim Berkman's avatar

Seth, please start using a professional editor. This was a mosh pit of thoughts and ideas that even my ADHD-tuned brain could hardly sift through. Good reporting, but horrible writing.

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Shnurkistan's avatar

If the issue weren't so important, I wouldn't say anything about the quality of the writing, but since it is ... yes, this *definitely* needs editing. It's not good when you've forgotten how the sentence began by the time it ends. This article is a gem, but many people won't be able to see its light through all the dirt.

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K'iya's avatar

This is how Academics write. I am Sigma Tau Delta and love how he writes!

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Deepak Puri's avatar

Mapping Trump’s illegal scheme to detain and deport people from America to El Salvador

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/04/07/mapping-trumps-illegal-scheme-to-detain-and-deport-people-from-america-to-el-salvador/

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Dot's avatar

spelling issue: "Evil Bove". guy's name is "Emil" from what Google just told me. please fix it.

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