Red
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This is one sick president we got….declaring war on Chicago….
View: https://x.com/MoloWarMonitor/status/1964356586622624147
View: https://x.com/MoloWarMonitor/status/1964356586622624147
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Trump Dictatorship and All Things Politics
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Red
Well-Known Member
Really! No adults in this White House! Just toss s*** like that right out there!
View: https://x.com/harryjsisson/status/1964380064130400356
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Red
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My thoughts exactly. Although, I’m not out there marching today, so who am I to say anything about the “lethargy” of others? They are marching in D.C. today. Probably elsewhere as well.
)
www.firstpost.com
Thousands march in Washington DC against Trump’s deployment of National Guard
Several thousand Washington DC residents on Saturday marched to demand US President Donald Trump end the deployment of National Guard troops patrolling the capital city’s streets.
www.firstpost.com
enchilada_style
Well-Known Member
He's such a piece of ****.
Red
Well-Known Member
So long since I saw the movie, did not realize at first that Trump’s strange deportation comment was his takeoff on “I love the smell of napalm in the morning”. And Trump himself? He’s dressed as the psychopathic war crime nut job in the film, so he got that part correct…..I’m seeing so many “greatest president ever!” replies to his Truth Social post, just to confirm that so many of his followers are clueless, love cruelty, and are the worst kind of citizens imaginable in any democratic society. These are Americans, who, if this were 1938 Germany, would be thinking “hey this Hitler guy is alright in my book!”.
Without an understanding of history, far too many people fail to recognize what is happening….while….it’s actually taking place. This level of historical amnesia leads to terrible outcomes. But, in the case of the United States today, I believe we do need to spell it out: many of our fellow citizens are hateful, and gravitate toward cruelty and revenge.
They may not recognize Trump as a fascist, due to being uneducated in history. But their joy in being cruel? Matching Trump’s joy at dispensing cruelty? That IS on them. That’s not historical amnesia. No, that’s them. That’s what’s in their hearts. And they really need to face that someday.
PJF
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PJF
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Who's he truly declaring war on @Red ?
Criminals, but you know that
View: https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1964735109900439575?t=EUKRyVSkC0gMW_PwmI2DLw&s=19
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Red
Well-Known Member
Don’t find excuses for him. What US president would post this:
View: https://x.com/Miriam2626/status/1964377695703486526
Well, is that designed to make Americans feel their president is a president for ALL Americans?
That is as divisive a meme as a president could ever post. Or can you find a worse example, from Trump, of a president determined to put American against American? In fact, I’m sure there are many such examples of Trump’s determination to encourage hatred of Americans by Americans.
And hatred of undocumented human beings? Do you know any history at all? Can you relate to us what happens in a nation when the nation’s elected leader creates “the other”? Do you know what “the other” is? It’s the “them” in “us vs them”. “The other”= a scapegoat. And why does a man like Trump create a scapegoat? Indeed, on the very day he descended the escalator in Trump Tower in 2015? To demonize a group. To demonize and provide the disaffected members of American society with a group of “human beings”(that’s what they actually are, but, as “the other”, they are the reasons for all our problems). Can you think of ANYONE from history that used the same MO to generate a following? I can think of several, but then I know history. So far, you have never shown any evidence that you do.
And your reaction? To apologize for the monster’s own words.
You are as un-American as any citizen in the United States. You have no clue as to what the foundational ideals and principles upon which our national experiment in self rule and democracy were, and still are. Your attitude, your willingness to ignore the truth of the matter, make you the very worst type of American citizen.
I chose not to support a man who appeals to hatred and anger. I do not, for one second, believe the United States is a dystopian hellhole. Blaming scapegoats, creating “the other” is the MOST DISPICABLE thing a national leader can do! Show me where history demonstrates otherwise. Show me! You cannot. One, you don’t know any History at all. Two, having not learned the lessons of history, you make a fool out of yourself every single time you show how uneducated in history you really are.
Somehow, you believe Trump’s moves in support of a civil war climate in our country is actually a good thing. Dividing us, urging hatred toward liberals, simply because we believe in “the rights of man”, and are more aware of the nature of the experiment in self rule started some 250 years ago, than a terrible citizen like yourself will ever understand.
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LogGrad98
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Red
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The image spoke for itself. A 5 time Vietnam draft dodger dressed as the American war criminal from the movie, and a helicopter attack on Chicago. Trump knew that, otherwise, why did he try to retract the obvious message of the image later in the day?? So much pushback, he even called it “fake news”, even as it was posted to his private account on Truth Social.
Normally, my reply yesterday would be my last word on that, but there is a timely article in The Atlantic today. Talking about a lesson you need to learn. Because you are giving him your permission to use the rhetoric of violence against your fellow Americans, in your statement. And I want to leave this with you knowing that that is exactly what you are doing. What right do you have to do that? Why do you encourage his use of the rhetoric of violence against your fellow citizens, by finding a way to excuse him?
Donald Trump’s War of Words
Violent language is the mother tongue of this Trump administration.
www.theatlantic.com
For a man openly campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize, Donald Trump sure does love the rhetoric of violence.
On Saturday, the president posted an image of himself as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, the Wagner-blasting cavalry officer in Apocalypse Now. “I love the smell of deportations in the morning,” the meme said, paraphrasing the famous quote from the movie. In case the implication was unclear—little about Kilgore or Trump is subtle—the meme added, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The image replaced the film’s name with “Chipocalypse Now,” superimposing the city skyline on a fiery sky.
An American president threatening to unleash the U.S. military on—to make war against—an American city would have seemed unthinkable very recently. Although such behavior remains appalling, it is no longer unexpected. Violent language is the mother tongue of this Trump administration.
What Trump intends to do in Chicago is not clear. After deploying the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles—where he also dispatched Marines—Trump began talking about sending troops to other cities, including Chicago. Amid fierce pushback from state and local officials, he seemed to cool on the idea last week. He’s now trying to disavow Saturday’s threat too. Although Trump posted it to his personal account on a social network he majority-owns, he called it “fake news” yesterday: “We’re not going to war. We’re going to clean up our cities.”
Even if the president doesn’t want to go to war—he did obtain five draft deferments to avoid military service during the Vietnam War—he is attracted to the swaggering machismo he associates with the word. It’s the apparent inspiration for rebranding the Defense Department (passive, reactive) to be the Department of War. He can’t legally rename it without Congress’s permission, and the cost of changing the branding could reportedly run into millions or billions of dollars. Either he means it or he’s willing to light money on fire for a symbolic stunt. Neither is good.
Trump’s embrace of violent rhetoric is not new. During his first campaign, he encouraged rally attendees to beat up protesters. As president, he encouraged police to treat suspects brutally. As the runner-up in the 2020 election, he encouraged supporters to “fight like hell,” and they did, sacking the U.S. Capitol. Nevertheless, Trump has turned up the volume in his second term, with help from aides such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who, as my colleague Tom Nichols wrote last week, is obsessed with terms such as lethality and warfighters…….
……….Speaking fluent violence comes with a price. During Trump’s first run for president, observers who should have known better were willing to believe that the real-estate mogul really was a peacenik. The delusion persisted in some quarters until his return to the White House this year, when he fully abandoned any claim to dovishness, aside from half-hearted attempts to end the war in Ukraine. Initially, Trump’s embrace of militarism was directed outward, in the form of semi-veiled threats of invasions to seize Greenland and the Panama Canal. Threats became action when the United States bombed Iran, to the chagrin of some America Firsters. More recently, the military attacked and destroyed a boat leaving Venezuela whose crew members the administration has said, without offering evidence, were drug smugglers.
Pressed to legally justify the killing, the administration has offered little explanation. “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vice President J. D. Vance posted on X, later adding, “I don’t give a **** what you call it.” That drew a rebuke from Senator Rand Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican. “Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial,” Paul posted.
Implicit in Paul’s comments is the fear that brutal rhetoric and tools of repression that a government uses overseas will eventually be turned against a domestic population. This idea is called the “imperial boomerang,” and it’s attributed both to the poet-statesman Aimé Césaire and the philosopher Hannah Arendt. You don’t have to look very hard to see this happening today. For the first two decades of this century, the United States waged a “global war on terror.” Now it has withdrawn most of its troops from these conflicts and instead has held a Soviet-style military parade and deployed uniformed, armed soldiers to intimidate a District of Columbia electorate that voted overwhelmingly against Trump. Or, to choose another example: The president is taking a film that dramatized the senseless imperial violence of the Vietnam War and using it to threaten war against Chicago.
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fishonjazz
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That was awesome.
The second coming better not happen in America while trump is president. Jesus would definitely get deported.
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fishonjazz
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Have a friend who just got back from Chicago. Went to a concert there and did a riverboat tour and some other touristy things.
She said that she saw a total of 1 homeless person and that the streets of downtown SLC (where she lives) are dirtier and scarier and less safe than Chicago from her experience.
She said that she saw a total of 1 homeless person and that the streets of downtown SLC (where she lives) are dirtier and scarier and less safe than Chicago from her experience.
Trump and Erdogon, two peas in a pod. This is our future.
www.bbc.com
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Orla GuerinSenior International Correspondent, Istanbul
BBC
For 13 terrifying seconds on 23 April this year, Turkey's largest city was shaken by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. It was so strong that 151 people leapt from buildings in Istanbul in panic causing injuries, but no deaths.
But the Mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, could not lift a finger to help the city he was first elected to run in 2019.
He was behind bars in a high-security prison complex in the district of Silivri, on the western edge of the city – ironically close to the epicentre.
Imamoglu is accused of a raft of corruption charges, which he strongly denies – "Kafkaesque charges" in his words.
Supporters say his only crime is being the greatest threat to Turkey's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in presidential elections due by 2028.
YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images
More than 500 people linked to the CHP have been arrested since October
Many of his fellow prisoners in Marmara jail - on the day of the earthquake - had also fallen foul of President Erdogan during his 22 years in power, some of them as peaceful protesters.
The jail is still widely known by its former name of Silivri. Hence the household phrase to explain why the speaker might be wary of criticising Erdogan: "Silivri is cold now."
Critics say that after Erdogan's early years as a Western-facing reformer, he has become a latter-day Sultan, dismantling human rights, cracking down on dissent and weaponising the courts.
The jailed mayor, leaders of his Republican People's Party (CHP), veteran lawyers, and student protesters are all appearing in the dock this month in separate cases.
"Erdogan has taken a huge step towards turning Turkey into a Russia-style autocracy," argues Gonul Tol, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington, who is from Turkey and now lives in the US.
"What he has in mind is a Turkey where the ballot box has no meaning… where he hand-picks his opponents."
Ozan Guzelce/ dia images via Getty Images
Erdogan has fingers in many pies - including Russia, Ukraine. (Pictured meeting President Zelensky in Istanbul)
In all, more than 500 people linked to the CHP have been arrested since last October.
Prosecutors accuse the mayor and his associates of taking bribes, rigging tenders, extortion, and having links to terrorism.
But the CHP - which is centrist and secular - argues that the detentions are politically motivated and aimed at silencing the opposition. The party denies the charges.
Some are asking why, as Turkish democracy comes under fire in full view, has the international community said little and done even less? Could it be that Erdogan has fingers in too many pies - including Russia, Ukraine, Syria, and Nato - for European leaders to want to pick a fight?
And is US President Donald Trump's willingness to look the other way on human rights giving Erdogan a freer hand?
"We are facing great tyranny," he said, "but… I will not be discouraged."
He was composed and defiant - and "a mortal threat to Erdogan", according to Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research programme at the Washington Institute in the US.
"He's charismatic, he's relatable, he's conservative like Erdogan, but also secular. He ticks so many boxes."
But he can tick far fewer in jail.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
The arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, sparked the largest protests in Turkey in years
His arrest came just as the CHP – Turkey's largest opposition party - was poised to nominate him as their candidate for the presidency. (They did it anyway, after he was detained.)
Locking up Imamoglu sparked the biggest anti-government protests in more than a decade. It was mostly the young who surged onto the streets, members of Generation Erdogan who have known no other leader.
"It has reached the breaking point for most people," said one 21-year-old in Istanbul. "They have overstepped the boundaries of justice."
Another said this was "a direct attack on our democracy".
The government banned the demonstrations – which were largely peaceful - but could not stop them.
The turmoil in Istanbul played out in the shadow of a Roman aqueduct. Erdogan's legions of riot police took up positions under the arches, armed with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets.
KEMAL ASLAN/AFP via Getty Images
A protester dressed as a whirling dervish and wearing a gas mask was fired on with pepper spray by police
One photo made front pages around the world: a lone protester dressed as a whirling dervish - in traditional costume plus gas mask – being pepper-sprayed by the police.
Hours after it was taken, the photographer, Yasin Akgul of the AFP news agency, was detained at home, his hands still stinging from tear gas. Several other leading photojournalists were also arrested.
Some 2,000 people were rounded up after the protests – many in pre-dawn raids. More than 800 of them were charged with taking part in "unauthorised demonstrations".
These days, getting arrested is "the easiest thing", according to Gonul Tol. "You just have to like a tweet or a Facebook post criticising Erdogan."
Student protester Esila Ayia, 22, was detained after holding up a poster calling the Turkish leader a dictator. (Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey.) If convicted, she could get four years in jail.
YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images
Ekrem Imamoglu was seen as Erdogan's strongest challenger for the presidency
But he adds that Turkey is "not yet a fully fledged authoritarian regime… there is still some room for dissent".
Yet the arrests keep coming. More than 100 CHP members remain behind bars.
The president claims the CHP is "mired in corruption" with a network like "an octopus whose arms stretch to other parts of Turkey and abroad".
But Emma Sinclair-Webb of the campaign group Human Rights Watch sees a different octopus - the government itself.
It has "many, many, many, tentacles that go everywhere", she says. "There is a clear-sighted attempt by the government to go after critics and to go after the opposition.
Ugur Yildirim/ dia images via Getty Images
President Erdogan has accused the CHP of being 'mired in corruption'
"There is a complete loss of trust in the justice system. It's perceived more and more as highly politicised, and detention is being used to muzzle critics."
Members of the judiciary, prosecutors and judges themselves are "all the time looking up for instructions from above", she says.
The government says the judiciary is independent and impartial.
The latter gives President Erdogan an edge, according to analysts.
He enjoys relatively good relations with Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Trump.
"I can't think of many other leaders who are in this position," says Berk Esen of Sabanci University. "I think in the international arena he likes to present himself as a dealmaker, in the room, shaking hands."
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to enjoy relatively good relations with President Trump
President Erdogan has had some success – for instance, helping to broker an agreement for Ukraine to resume grain exports through the Black Sea in July 2022, after they were halted by Russia's invasion five months earlier. And this year he hosted negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow for their first face-to-face talks since 2022.
"Everyone is praising his role in Russia and Ukraine," says Dr Tol. "Western leaders are looking to him to build European defence. And Trump doesn't care [what Erdogan does domestically], so he understands he can get away with it. "
She says Trump's return to the White House "has created an international context where regional autocrats feel empowered".
Dr Cagaptay, of the Washington Institute, says Erdogan has a freer hand because Trump has turned inwards, and the two leaders have "a special chemistry, going back to Trump's first term in office".
"I happen to like him, and he likes me," Trump has said of Erdogan. "He's a tough guy and he's very smart."
Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia - the continents are separated by the Bosphorus
Erdogan is also well-placed geopolitically. Turkey's land mass lies partly in Asia, and partly in Europe, a bridge between two continents.
He holds plenty of other cards too - not least his leverage in neighbouring Syria. He backed the winning side there, supporting the Islamist rebels who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.
He also leads the only Muslim nation in Nato, with the second largest army in the alliance, and a population of 85.6 million people. What happens here matters, for East and West.
"What Turkey is doing under Erdogan is leveraging its multiple identities very successfully," says Dr Cagaptay. "With the EU, I think Turkey is playing a middle power game very well…. whether it's about stabilising Syria or stabilising Ukraine after a ceasefire."
What he won't do is cancel the next presidential elections, according to Onur Isci, professor of history and international affairs at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.
"Historically the Turkish people have been acutely sensitive about the sanctity of the ballot and attempts to curtail it would provoke serious consequences," he says.
Turkish elections are generally free on the day, though far from fair beforehand.
The playing field is not level. Most mainstream media outlets are pro-government. Those that are not, come under strong pressure from the authorities.
Burak Kara/Getty Images
The 2023 presidential election was close-run: Erdogan won 52.18% of the vote, just enough to defeat opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu (wearing the red tie)
During the last election in 2023, Erdogan hung on to power narrowly, winning 52.18% of the vote against the opposition candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Recent polls have suggested he could be beaten next time by Imamoglu. But the mayor remains behind bars, facing several different trials, and the opposition will probably be forced to choose a different candidate.
As a two-term president, Erdogan, 71, is barred from running again, but he can solve that problem by calling early elections or bringing in a new constitution.
"I have no interest in being re-elected or running for office again," he said in May.
Mr Esen thinks otherwise. "He will run for the presidency as long as he is alive."
KEMAL ASLAN/AFP via Getty Images
Despite opposition protests, many conservative voters credit Erdogan's AKP for modernising Turkey's economy and giving Islam greater prominence in a secular republic
As the longest-serving leader in modern Turkey, he has a loyal base who want him to. Many conservative voters are grateful for the development brought by his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and for his promotion of Islam, in this secular republic.
Plenty of devotion was visible at a rally of the president's supporters before the last election.
One supporter, Ayse Ozdogan, had gone there early to hear her leader's every word, a crutch by her side.
"Erdoğan is everything to me," she said, with a broad smile. "We couldn't get to hospitals before, now we have transportation. He has improved roads. He has built mosques."
But what of his impact on Turkish democracy?
"It's hugely eroded but not dead," according to Ms Sinclair-Webb. "There is a very vibrant democracy, wedded to democratic principles and to elections."
The opposition too is very robust, she says.
Soner Cagaptay cites the example of a doner kebab seller, slicing meat on a spit.
"To me, that's like Turkish democracy under Erdogan. He's taken really thin slices over the past 20 years, and there's very little meat left."
But he says there is a lesson to take from the Erdogan era: "It takes a long time to kill a democracy."
We contacted the president's communication office for an official response but did not receive one.
In a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here said that Turkey has "stood firm to protect and promote human rights... and has continued its efforts at further compliance with international standards in law."
The report adds that they country "spares no effort to create favourable conditions for civil society, including human rights defenders".
That may ring hollow in the cells in Silivri.
BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
Turkey's 'tough guy’ president is accused of silencing opponents
Erdogan's critics claim that he has become a latter-day Sultan, dismantling human rights, cracking down on dissent and weaponising the courts.
www.bbc.com
Turkey's 'tough guy' president says he's tackling corruption. Rivals say he's silencing opposition
2 hours agoShare
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For 13 terrifying seconds on 23 April this year, Turkey's largest city was shaken by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake. It was so strong that 151 people leapt from buildings in Istanbul in panic causing injuries, but no deaths.
But the Mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, could not lift a finger to help the city he was first elected to run in 2019.
He was behind bars in a high-security prison complex in the district of Silivri, on the western edge of the city – ironically close to the epicentre.
Imamoglu is accused of a raft of corruption charges, which he strongly denies – "Kafkaesque charges" in his words.
Supporters say his only crime is being the greatest threat to Turkey's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in presidential elections due by 2028.
More than 500 people linked to the CHP have been arrested since October
Many of his fellow prisoners in Marmara jail - on the day of the earthquake - had also fallen foul of President Erdogan during his 22 years in power, some of them as peaceful protesters.
The jail is still widely known by its former name of Silivri. Hence the household phrase to explain why the speaker might be wary of criticising Erdogan: "Silivri is cold now."
Critics say that after Erdogan's early years as a Western-facing reformer, he has become a latter-day Sultan, dismantling human rights, cracking down on dissent and weaponising the courts.
The jailed mayor, leaders of his Republican People's Party (CHP), veteran lawyers, and student protesters are all appearing in the dock this month in separate cases.
"Erdogan has taken a huge step towards turning Turkey into a Russia-style autocracy," argues Gonul Tol, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington, who is from Turkey and now lives in the US.
"What he has in mind is a Turkey where the ballot box has no meaning… where he hand-picks his opponents."
Erdogan has fingers in many pies - including Russia, Ukraine. (Pictured meeting President Zelensky in Istanbul)
In all, more than 500 people linked to the CHP have been arrested since last October.
Prosecutors accuse the mayor and his associates of taking bribes, rigging tenders, extortion, and having links to terrorism.
But the CHP - which is centrist and secular - argues that the detentions are politically motivated and aimed at silencing the opposition. The party denies the charges.
Some are asking why, as Turkish democracy comes under fire in full view, has the international community said little and done even less? Could it be that Erdogan has fingers in too many pies - including Russia, Ukraine, Syria, and Nato - for European leaders to want to pick a fight?
And is US President Donald Trump's willingness to look the other way on human rights giving Erdogan a freer hand?
'Overstepping the boundaries of justice'
Moments before his arrest in March, with hundreds of police on his doorstep, Mayor Imamoglu calmly carried on knotting his tie, while making a social media video for his supporters."We are facing great tyranny," he said, "but… I will not be discouraged."
He was composed and defiant - and "a mortal threat to Erdogan", according to Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish research programme at the Washington Institute in the US.
"He's charismatic, he's relatable, he's conservative like Erdogan, but also secular. He ticks so many boxes."
But he can tick far fewer in jail.
The arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, sparked the largest protests in Turkey in years
His arrest came just as the CHP – Turkey's largest opposition party - was poised to nominate him as their candidate for the presidency. (They did it anyway, after he was detained.)
Locking up Imamoglu sparked the biggest anti-government protests in more than a decade. It was mostly the young who surged onto the streets, members of Generation Erdogan who have known no other leader.
"It has reached the breaking point for most people," said one 21-year-old in Istanbul. "They have overstepped the boundaries of justice."
Another said this was "a direct attack on our democracy".
The government banned the demonstrations – which were largely peaceful - but could not stop them.
The turmoil in Istanbul played out in the shadow of a Roman aqueduct. Erdogan's legions of riot police took up positions under the arches, armed with batons, tear gas and rubber bullets.
A protester dressed as a whirling dervish and wearing a gas mask was fired on with pepper spray by police
One photo made front pages around the world: a lone protester dressed as a whirling dervish - in traditional costume plus gas mask – being pepper-sprayed by the police.
Hours after it was taken, the photographer, Yasin Akgul of the AFP news agency, was detained at home, his hands still stinging from tear gas. Several other leading photojournalists were also arrested.
Some 2,000 people were rounded up after the protests – many in pre-dawn raids. More than 800 of them were charged with taking part in "unauthorised demonstrations".
These days, getting arrested is "the easiest thing", according to Gonul Tol. "You just have to like a tweet or a Facebook post criticising Erdogan."
Student protester Esila Ayia, 22, was detained after holding up a poster calling the Turkish leader a dictator. (Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey.) If convicted, she could get four years in jail.
Ekrem Imamoglu was seen as Erdogan's strongest challenger for the presidency
The arrests keep coming
Many Turks are feeling the chill, according to Berk Esen, associate professor of political science at Istanbul's Sabanci University, which has a liberal reputation. He claims there is "rampant pressure and oppression" of opposition figures in politics, civil society, academia and the media.But he adds that Turkey is "not yet a fully fledged authoritarian regime… there is still some room for dissent".
Yet the arrests keep coming. More than 100 CHP members remain behind bars.
The president claims the CHP is "mired in corruption" with a network like "an octopus whose arms stretch to other parts of Turkey and abroad".
But Emma Sinclair-Webb of the campaign group Human Rights Watch sees a different octopus - the government itself.
It has "many, many, many, tentacles that go everywhere", she says. "There is a clear-sighted attempt by the government to go after critics and to go after the opposition.
President Erdogan has accused the CHP of being 'mired in corruption'
"There is a complete loss of trust in the justice system. It's perceived more and more as highly politicised, and detention is being used to muzzle critics."
Members of the judiciary, prosecutors and judges themselves are "all the time looking up for instructions from above", she says.
The government says the judiciary is independent and impartial.
'He's a tough guy - very smart'
As Istanbul's mayor remains behind bars in Silivri, the international community remains focused elsewhere - chiefly on Israel's war in Gaza, and Russia's war in Ukraine.The latter gives President Erdogan an edge, according to analysts.
He enjoys relatively good relations with Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Trump.
"I can't think of many other leaders who are in this position," says Berk Esen of Sabanci University. "I think in the international arena he likes to present himself as a dealmaker, in the room, shaking hands."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to enjoy relatively good relations with President Trump
President Erdogan has had some success – for instance, helping to broker an agreement for Ukraine to resume grain exports through the Black Sea in July 2022, after they were halted by Russia's invasion five months earlier. And this year he hosted negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow for their first face-to-face talks since 2022.
"Everyone is praising his role in Russia and Ukraine," says Dr Tol. "Western leaders are looking to him to build European defence. And Trump doesn't care [what Erdogan does domestically], so he understands he can get away with it. "
She says Trump's return to the White House "has created an international context where regional autocrats feel empowered".
Dr Cagaptay, of the Washington Institute, says Erdogan has a freer hand because Trump has turned inwards, and the two leaders have "a special chemistry, going back to Trump's first term in office".
"I happen to like him, and he likes me," Trump has said of Erdogan. "He's a tough guy and he's very smart."
Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia - the continents are separated by the Bosphorus
Erdogan is also well-placed geopolitically. Turkey's land mass lies partly in Asia, and partly in Europe, a bridge between two continents.
He holds plenty of other cards too - not least his leverage in neighbouring Syria. He backed the winning side there, supporting the Islamist rebels who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.
He also leads the only Muslim nation in Nato, with the second largest army in the alliance, and a population of 85.6 million people. What happens here matters, for East and West.
"What Turkey is doing under Erdogan is leveraging its multiple identities very successfully," says Dr Cagaptay. "With the EU, I think Turkey is playing a middle power game very well…. whether it's about stabilising Syria or stabilising Ukraine after a ceasefire."
The sanctity of the ballot
Erdogan may be empowered - and enabled - but there is a limit, according to some analysts.What he won't do is cancel the next presidential elections, according to Onur Isci, professor of history and international affairs at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.
"Historically the Turkish people have been acutely sensitive about the sanctity of the ballot and attempts to curtail it would provoke serious consequences," he says.
Turkish elections are generally free on the day, though far from fair beforehand.
The playing field is not level. Most mainstream media outlets are pro-government. Those that are not, come under strong pressure from the authorities.
The 2023 presidential election was close-run: Erdogan won 52.18% of the vote, just enough to defeat opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu (wearing the red tie)
During the last election in 2023, Erdogan hung on to power narrowly, winning 52.18% of the vote against the opposition candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Recent polls have suggested he could be beaten next time by Imamoglu. But the mayor remains behind bars, facing several different trials, and the opposition will probably be forced to choose a different candidate.
As a two-term president, Erdogan, 71, is barred from running again, but he can solve that problem by calling early elections or bringing in a new constitution.
"I have no interest in being re-elected or running for office again," he said in May.
Mr Esen thinks otherwise. "He will run for the presidency as long as he is alive."
Despite opposition protests, many conservative voters credit Erdogan's AKP for modernising Turkey's economy and giving Islam greater prominence in a secular republic
As the longest-serving leader in modern Turkey, he has a loyal base who want him to. Many conservative voters are grateful for the development brought by his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and for his promotion of Islam, in this secular republic.
Plenty of devotion was visible at a rally of the president's supporters before the last election.
One supporter, Ayse Ozdogan, had gone there early to hear her leader's every word, a crutch by her side.
"Erdoğan is everything to me," she said, with a broad smile. "We couldn't get to hospitals before, now we have transportation. He has improved roads. He has built mosques."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3r441zyw27o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2vr37yd4noBut what of his impact on Turkish democracy?
"It's hugely eroded but not dead," according to Ms Sinclair-Webb. "There is a very vibrant democracy, wedded to democratic principles and to elections."
The opposition too is very robust, she says.
Soner Cagaptay cites the example of a doner kebab seller, slicing meat on a spit.
"To me, that's like Turkish democracy under Erdogan. He's taken really thin slices over the past 20 years, and there's very little meat left."
But he says there is a lesson to take from the Erdogan era: "It takes a long time to kill a democracy."
We contacted the president's communication office for an official response but did not receive one.
In a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here said that Turkey has "stood firm to protect and promote human rights... and has continued its efforts at further compliance with international standards in law."
The report adds that they country "spares no effort to create favourable conditions for civil society, including human rights defenders".
That may ring hollow in the cells in Silivri.
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Chicago is an incredible city and it is beautiful. I grew up in Detroit and although Detroit is on the rebound it just doesn't compare to Chicago. I'd only rate a few cities in the U.S. ahead of Chicago in the summertime.
My son graduated college this spring and got a job in downtown Chicago by the Sears(Willis) tower. I went there five times this summer finding him an apartment, new vehicle, etc. His apartment is close to the Hancock Tower about 4 blocks from lake Michigan and one block from Michigan Avenue(Magnificent Mile). I spent a total of about 15-20 days there cruising everywhere on a scooter. I also rode subways to and from the airport and to various areas outside of downtown. Your friend is correct, SLC is worse. 90% of the crime we hear about is in the poor areas of Chicago, where they shoot each other for the most part. BTW, shootings are down quite a bit from the last few years.
There is crime downtown just as in any city. I bought him a sweet electric scooter and he loved it, using it to get to and from work. His first day he rode it to work and locked it up outside. I couldn't believe it and told him he's damn lucky it wasn't stolen, explaining that a simple battery operated grinder can cut through any lock instantly and to only lock it up if he has an eye on it. Well he went to the gym this week and guess what, he ****ing locked it up outside and got it stolen! I guess it's a really good if expensive life lesson and now he has to buy his own scooter.
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The Thriller
Well-Known Member
Another Trump loss! Repubs keep losing… bigly!
View: https://bsky.app/profile/gelliottmorris.com/post/3lyh2jktb5c2v
View: https://bsky.app/profile/gelliottmorris.com/post/3lyh2jktb5c2v
Red
Well-Known Member
You know, up to now, I just assumed we both lived in the United States. But, I guess not…..who’s your president? Very few reach 80% approval. What country do you live in?
Donald Trump's approval rating goes underwater on every issue
Trump's declining approval ratings on the economy, immigration, and foreign policy signal potential trouble for his broader agenda.
www.newsweek.com
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e31c5MhkCGs