The Threat To Our Military

Posted: September 5, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last Tuesday, video was released showing an attack by a U.S. military asset on a small boat reportedly sunk with the loss of all onboard. The location of the attack was not disclosed, but it was claimed that the boat was in international waters after leaving the mainland of Venezuela. Facts surrounding the incident are scarce. There are assertions from the President Bone Spurs Administration that it was an identified narco-terrorist boat filled with illegal drugs headed “eventually” to the U.S. In my career as on officer in the U.S. Navy, I participated in numerous drug operations in the Caribbean Sea.

For decades, the U.S. Navy (USN) and the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) have conducted anti-drug operations. They have always been considered law enforcement actions. The USN ships participating would carry USCG detachments onboard because the U.S. military does not do law enforcement. The USCG is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and does have law enforcement capability and authorization. I have seen a lot of boats similar to the one sunk on Tuesday during my days on these operations. Some were carrying drugs. Some were legitimate fishermen. I did not see any, but others are known to carry undocumented migrants trying to sneak into the U.S. Some are innocent civilians traveling about the Caribbean Sea. How do we know that the administration is legitimate in its claims that these were narco-terrorists without positive identification? Normally, the USN ship would stop the vessel — most stopped when asked, or if not, they did when we trained guns on them, but if they did not, accurate gunfire would disable their engines — and the heavily armed USCG detachment would go onboard and search the vessel. If drugs were found, the crew was arrested, the cargo seized and the boat taken over by U.S. military personnel or towed to port. Not every boat we stopped and searched was a drug runner. Most were innocent people undertaking innocent business of their own. It worked.

Unless you ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While in Mexico he said “the United States has long, for many, many years, established intelligence that allow us to interdict and stop drug boats. We did that. And it doesn’t work.”  He went on to say “what will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them.” Therefore, “instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up. And it’ll happen again. Maybe it’s happening right now.”  Maybe they killed innocent civilians without regard to international law. This is a frightening development if we really delve into it. It contradicts precedent, American values and the law. A secret document signed by the president does not change the law. If a criminal act is discovered, it is handled by law enforcement officials. Not the military. For this administration the words “national security” and “emergency” seem to be thought of as some kind of magic words that allow them to do whatever they want, be it tariffs, immigration, health care or the use of our military in domestic circumstances.

Trump likes to act like the tough guy but really he is quite weak. Just ask XI, Putin and Kim. Whether you believe him to be strong or weak does not matter, he is still expected to follow the law. Trump is consistently creeping ever closer to using the military for his own personal purposes. Under international law he cannot order a bombing attack on a non-threatening vessel in international waters just because he wants to look tough.

Do I sympathize with drug runners or want to see them succeed as Trump and his minions claim of anyone that questions their unlawful actions? No. Of course not. I do, however, believe in the rule of law and the president cannot just make it up as he goes along. Indiscriminately killing people in international waters does not enhance our liberty or the pursuit of happiness.

The Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C — 1385) from 1878 bans the use of the military for law enforcement “except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.” So far, none of his actions with active duty forces or the National Guard meet those criteria. While it is a little more complicated for the National Guard — depending on whether they have been nationalized as federal forces by the president or whether they are under the control of the state’s governor — the way that they have been used is not legal. Do not take my word for it, take the word of federal District Judge Charles Breyer who recently ruled that the Trump Administration’s federalization of the National Guard and the use of U.S. Marines in Los Angeles to assist ICE and other federal agencies in arresting undocumented immigrants violated the Act in multiple ways. His decision carefully debunks the three main arguments that the Trump attorneys asserted was within presidential power. Each of their three assertions basically say that the president cannot be held criminally liable because only the Executive Branch can prosecute violations through the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the president controls DOJ therefore the president can act in his own best interests.

I have oversimplified what is considered an elegant and air tight decision, but given that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) said that presidents are immune from prosecution when acting in an official capacity, none of us should rest easy. If the SCOTUS overrules the lower courts, Katie bar the door. It is open season on all of us.

The military has a proud tradition of pledging loyalty to the Constitution and not to any individual, including the president acting as Commander-in-Chief. They are bound to obey lawful orders from their superiors, but Trump is coming right up to the line. We will see if he crosses over.

There is no one in his administration that will pull him back. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is incompetent. He only does what he is told. And now he and the president want to rename the Department of Defense (DOD) the Department of War. There is a long history behind it — the Department of War was the Army until post World War II reforms. It and the Department of the Navy were cabinet positions, there was no Air Force. The National Security act of 1947 realigned the Defense Establishment. An act of Congress in 1949 created the title Department of Defense. They want to rename it because that is what it was during World Wars I and II. Ahhh. The good ol’ days. It would take an act of Congress to officially change it, but like everything else, Trump plans to issue an Executive Order (E.O.) allowing the use of the name, even if he is not officially changing it. In other words, a rebranding effort.

We have already seen that Trump will do whatever he wants. I think we are only beginning to understand how lawless his behavior already is and how much further he is ready, willing and able to go if he wants it. Remember that he fired the leaders of the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard as well as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and multiple other senior officers including the Judge Advocate General (JAG) in each of the services. Recently, Hegseth reassigned six hundred (!) other military lawyers to assist DOJ as immigration judges. (Recall that this administration fired or forced into early retirement over 100 immigration judges when they took over.) Who is left to advise leaders as to the legality of the military decisions that are being made?

Already our due process rights are in danger as masked, unidentified men are disappearing people off the streets of our country as I type. They are sent on their way to who knows where. What should we expect if the president can indiscriminately use the military for law enforcement purposes? Why not drone strikes inside the U.S.? Why not use the military to take care of criminal gangs? When that happens we are finished as a democracy. Stick a fork in it, we’re done.

In 2020 there was a draft E.O. ordering the military to seize all voting machines. Ultimately Trump backed down and did not sign it — mainly because senior military and civilian leaders told him it was illegal. Now there is no one in place that would stop him. It may happen in the future because he already says results from voting machines are not valid. What if he declares voting machines to be counter to U.S. national security interests because he thinks that they can be manipulated by foreign powers? (They cannot be manipulated.) Does he execute his E.O. and have the military seize the machines or does he just declare the results invalid?

I fear for our men and women in uniform and the pressure that will increasingly come their way in Trump’s endless pursuit of his own interests. Where are the senior uniformed military leaders? Are they okay with this? Afraid of being fired? If so, I am ashamed for them.

Trump Hates Me (And Maybe You Too)

Posted: July 7, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.”

— Trump referring to Democrats at a “Salute to America” rally on 3 July 2025

I am still trying to figure out how I morphed from being a moderate, maybe slightly left of center on social issues, into a “lunatic” and a “radical left Democrat.” I don’t feel any different today than I did, say, a year ago. Maybe I am just not self aware. Or maybe the President of the United States does not care about half of the citizens of those same United States. Or worse. Perhaps he is radicalizing his followers into committing acts of political violence so that he can promote his own autocratic agenda.

Whether or not you believe this is “just Trump being Trump,” his increasingly violent language has consequences. He calls undocumented immigrants “scum” and “animals” and “people with bad genes” among many other, even worse, characterizations of other human beings. There is a long historical record of how words used to vilify “others” eventually always leads to violence. Increasingly, it is apparent that Trump has an agenda to depict our country as under attack from “within” by people that, as he says, “hate our country.” Apparently, eventually or tomorrow, I am one of those people. Imagine my surprise! He is only six months into his term. He has three and a half more years to continue to implement his autocratic plan. Am I fear mongering? I don’t think so — and I am certainly not doing it on purpose — but to me, the evidence is there.

Trump has figured out that all he has to do is demand that something happen and refuse to back off when dealing with our institutions. His cabinet, in my opinion, is filled primarily with sycophants that are too busy designing photo ops to impress the boss, rather than running their departments. There is no pushback. Other institutions seem to take the same approach, impress Trump by giving him what he wants and hopefully he will back off — which of course no bully ever does if they keep “winning.” Whether it is the party formerly known as the Republican Party, Congress, the Supreme Court, institutions of higher learning, corporations, tech bros, or countless other groups, they cave. If the guardrails are still there, they are hanging on by one slightly rusty bolt. Perhaps some state governors and legislatures continue to do the right thing and to follow the law, but it isn’t clear to me how long they can keep it up. When the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) goes to California for a photo op with the National Guard and combat Marines protecting Los Angeles from a non-existent threat, there are already warning signs. When she declares “We are not going away. We are staying here to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and that this mayor have placed on this country” as she did on 12 June 2025, there is an imminent threat to our democracy. Like them or not, the governor of a state and the mayor of a city are duly elected representatives of their constituents. The DHS cannot implement a coup d’etat just because they disagree with an elected official’s legal policies.

Mass deportations are underway. When will they stop? Who knows, but given the pace of things and impotence of the Congress and the willingness of the Supreme Court to do Trump’s bidding, I expect them to continue to expand. When due process is not enforced, and apparently it isn’t really being enforced except in a few publicized cases, and masked men without identification can whisk anyone away off the streets with no restraints, we are already living in a police state. What is to stop it from expanding to others that merely disagree with this administration? When the president declares that he hates half of the country, what he is really saying is “fall in line or else.” I worry about the “or else” for the citizens of our great country.

With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), Trump has a para-military force (ICE) that is bigger than the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Agency, Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshals Service combined. Add to that the use of the military in the form of federalized National Guard troops and combat Marines in Los Angeles. But why stop there? The Trump administration is deploying 200 Marines to Florida to “help” ICE and has approved plans for deploying up to 700 Marines in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. Think about that. They are gradually increasing the numbers and locations of combat Marines throughout the United States. I seriously doubt that that will be the end of it. Coming soon to a city near you! The U.S. Marines! We should be so thankful. Believe me when I tell you that the Marine Corps absolutely does not want to do this. It impedes their readiness and training for, you know, their actual duties (the Marines are an expeditionary force to, as they like to say, “kick open the door” for the other services in foreign combat — hopefully they will not soon be kicking open my door), not too mention it uses Department of Defense (DOD) money that could be better spent elsewhere and takes those Marines away from their families, when they already have precious little time to spend with them to begin with.

I do not have a good feeling about the 2026 elections when the president declares that Democrats are unpatriotic and hate their country, with increasing numbers of troops deployed around the country, with a Department of Justice (DOJ) that is Trump’s personal law firm, and other warning signs. Trump continually debases our country and rants about how dangerous it is. What assurances do we have that the 2028 election won’t include Trump? Here is my “canary in the coal mine” concern about upcoming elections. Neither Trump nor his MAGA supporters in Congress seem to care about the political damage the OBBBA and other policies are causing. In what might be considered normal elections, the “Republican” party would be likely to take heavy election losses turning Congress over to the Democrats. They seem totally unconcerned about that — especially Trump. Why?

As Trump and his cronies continue to dismantle the federal government, from the National Security Council to our health care institutions, to environmental agencies, to education agencies, to just about anything you can name, Trump and his fiercest loyalists are consolidating power under the Executive branch. He likes to say that he loves Article II (of the Constitution) because I have “the right to do whatever I want as president.” Constitutional experts would disagree, but let’s look at the evidence. The Supreme Court says the president is immune and only they can rule on whether what he does is Constitutional or not. His Project 2025 minders continually tell him that he is the ultimate decision maker on almost everything. Truthfully, who has stopped him?

Here is the kicker. The following is a peek into the future for us and the current mind set of this administration.

Remember Tik Tok? The scourge of the youth of America? The one that was banned by a bipartisan vote in Congress, signed into law by the president and upheld in a 9-0 decision by the Supreme Court? Trump continues to ignore the law. He continues to give Tik Tok extensions for its sale, even as he campaigned that it was a tool of the Chinese Communist Party to spy on Americans. Stay with me, yes, who cares about Tik Tok, but here is where it gets scary.

Attorney General Pam “Whatever You Say Boss Barbie” Bondi declared that the president can decide which laws to enforce and further more, she declared that the companies carrying Tik Tok can continue to do so “without incurring any legal liability” and that DOJ was “irrevocably relinquishing” any legal claims against them for their actions.

How did she decide this? Quite simple actually. She declared that shutting down Tik Tok would impinge upon Trump’s “constitutional duties” because the law interfered with his “unique constitutional responsibility for the national security of the United States, the conduct of foreign policy, and other vital executive functions.” Hmm. If they will do this because Trump thinks Tik Tok helped him win the 2024 election, imagine what lawless lengths they will go to to do what they want, much less to interfere with any future elections.

I am sorry to be so negative. I see what is happening (and more) and worry greatly about the future of our democracy for our kids and grandkids. I see too many comments that “it can’t happen here.” It is already happening here and increasingly Trump and his loyalists are more and more brazen about it. I remember back in the fall when a voter focus group was asked if they were worried that we would lose our democracy under a Trump presidency. They all said “no.” Why? Because as long as we can vote we will have a democracy, they declared. To that I can only ask if they mean like in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), or like Russia, or like the People’s Republic of China (Communist China) or numerous other countries where the people vote, but they definitely do not have a democracy?

No one pays attention until they are impacted. By then it is too late.

The Authoritarian Playbook

Posted: May 29, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Recognizing that we live in unsettled times and that sometimes the rhetoric seems out of control, I needed a gut check to see if my concerns about our fading democracy were legitimate or if they were the product of an overly imaginative mind — was it a reality or merely a possibility that we are on a path to autocracy?

In researching the myriad works available on how authoritarianism takes over democracies, I read numerous theories, checklists, historical analyses and the like but found one, in particular, that seemed to me to be clear, succinct and relevant to what I see happening in these United States. In a series of social media posts in 2017, all ending with the tag “with love, your Eastern European friends,” Martin Mycielski discussed the tenets of authoritarianism and the tactics and methods with which it is imposed. He also posted ways to push back — to resist. His posts became internationally acclaimed and in March, 2018 they were collected in the Authoritarian Regime Survival Guide. The information below draws heavily on that guide. The entire thing can be found here. It is relatively short and worth a look.

The authoritarian’s check list looks like the following:

  • Win the election on fear and populist promises.
  • Reclaim power for the People from the “elites.”
  • Purge the highest positions in key government institutions.
  • Place cronies in the positions of highest power regardless of their competence.
  • Brush off any critical press as “fake”, “corrupt”, “acting against the People.”
  • Blatantly lie to the People.
  • Ban the press from the parliament/Congress/White House or selectively limit their access.
  • Limit press freedom and quietly take control of the mainstream media.
  • Label opposition and protesters as “traitors”, “elites trying to reclaim power.”
  • Limit freedom of assembly.
  • Fix the highest court to be able to bypass the Constitution “for the good of the People.”
  • Limit minority and women’s rights.
  • Ruin the economy to fulfil your populist promises in the short term.
  • Alienate international partners and allies, “making your country great again.”
  • Quietly fix electoral law under the disguise of making it better.
  • Start over until there’s nothing left…

For those keeping score at home, it appears that the Trump Administration is at about a 72 percent completion rate with efforts underway to make it 100 percent.

Within the playbook are some key factors to consider because those of us that pay close attention already see these elements at work. For example, the aspiring autocrat will be elected following a fear mongering campaign in a fair and free election. Once in office, the administration will counter any criticism with the claim that they have a “mandate” from the electorate to change the system. In so doing they will lie, obscure the truth, and substitute fear and emotion for logic and knowledge. Claiming that democracy means majority rule, racial or sexual or other minorities will be treated as a threat to the order they seek to enforce. Foreigners and immigrants will be promoted as potential threats and therefore they should be removed from the land. Gender equality will come under siege as the society is dominated by men. They will attack the judiciary as “monsters” or “left leaning judges with a liberal agenda” in order to undermine the Rule of Law and to enable the enactment of unconstitutional measures. By controlling the judiciary and Department of Justice they can prosecute anyone or any organization that tries to push back against the regime. The list goes on.

Can’t happen here? Few people, including in the House of Representatives who voted for it, know that The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has provisions in it that have nothing to do with taxes or healthcare or any of the other headline grabbing issues. In it is a provision that would effectively strip the power of the courts to hold any official of the current administration in contempt of court — the only real power that the courts have to ensure that their decisions are followed. If enacted in the final bill, it is a huge blow to the equal branches of government enshrined in the Constitution by severely hobbling the federal judiciary.

Another little known provision in the OBBBA prohibits state and local authorities from enforcing laws governing the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for ten years. The real intent of this provision is to impact elections. Misinformation, fake ads, accusations of election interference, deep fake videos, and all the rest that comes with the negative use of AI can easily confuse or discourage voters and thereby impact the results of the election. Why include it in the OBBBA if there are no plans to do this very thing?

In the end, my concern over the future of our democracy is only growing stronger. The threat is real. I, for one, am tired of Democrat politicians, pundits, political analysts and the rest talking about how “history will not look kindly on this administration.” They don’t care. (Which really is the motto of the MAGA politicians — “we don’t care” about anything or anyone except themselves.) Likewise, I am tired of all of the talk about a big backlash to the MAGA agenda come the 2026 and 2028 elections. I wonder what the talking heads are smoking. First of all, the Democrats cannot seem to get their act together to put up a viable resistance and effective policy alternatives that can get people’s votes. But, there is still time for them to get it all together.

More to the point, what kind of elections do we think we will have in 2026? I am not 100 percent convinced that we will have elections in the coming years. Probably, but not certainly. I do know this, MAGA politicians are acting like, repeat with me, they don’t care. They do not seem concerned about their actions impacting their re-election. Why is that? That leads to my deeper concern which is that I doubt that the elections will actually be free and fair. State governments controlled by MAGA politicians are working feverishly to restrict the numbers of people that can vote, especially in “blue” and urban areas of their states. Congress (see above about AI, for example) and the Trump Administration are working just as hard to alter the vote. Congress is trying to pass the SAVE Act that would require voters to prove that they are U.S. citizens by showing a passport or other form of identification. The alleged motive is to ensure that there are no illegal voters, even though study after study shows consistently that the number of illegal voters are so miniscule as to be nearly non-existent. Certainly, no election was decided by illegal votes. (States already have laws making it a crime to vote illegally.) The president issued an Executive Order that effectively gives him the power to set the parameters of who can vote and under what conditions — a clear violation of the provisions in the Constitution. (The order is under a court ordered stay while the issue is adjudicated.) In brief, the type of documents required to be able to vote would disenfranchise millions of voters (most people do not have a passport, women that marry and take their husband’s name would have a different name on their birth certificate, etc.). It also puts new requirements on military personnel and American citizens living overseas that will be onerous to fulfill and thereby limit the number of those voters. It requires states to decertify certain types of voting machines (used in 39 states) and replace them with machines that meet new federal standards — machines that do not currently exist. What could go wrong?

Most people do not know about these direct attacks on our democracy. They will probably not pay much attention until it directly impacts their own daily lives. By then it may be too late. For those of us following and understanding these developments how do we start to fight back? A little bit at a time, one by one, until a great sea of concerned citizens becomes too big to ignore. Bombard your Representatives and Senators — Republican, MAGA or Democrat — with questions, complaints and reasoned dissatisfaction. As far as you are able, attend rallies, especially those out in the open on the streets of our cities and towns. Talk to your friends, neighbors and families. Not to argue with them or to convince them of how wrong they are but rather to learn what they find attractive, or not, with the MAGA agenda and to educate (not preach) them about issues or policies that they may not know exist.

To answer my question to myself from the opening of this piece, yes, I think the threat is real.

Burn It All Down

Posted: February 3, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Let’s party like it’s 1984! Not the disco age 1984, but rather I mean the 1984 of George Orwell.

“Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing.” — George Orwell, 1984

Yes, that George Orwell.

The first two weeks of the new administration have been tumultuous, to state the obvious. It has been very chaotic. This is by design, as I will explain below. It has been nothing less than a full scale assault on the federal government in an attempt to attack from so many directions at once that it is difficult to keep up with all of the illegal, immoral and unethical actions currently underway. But then, we should not be surprised by the actions of a thirty-four time convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser who tried to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States. The examples are numerous, but let me highlight a few in order to illustrate the scale of the assault.

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984

The Trump Administration is trying to erase every fact surrounding the attempted coup on 6 January 2021. First came the pardons for roughly 1500 criminals that assaulted law enforcement officers and threatened to kill many of our elected officials, including the Speaker of the House and the Vice President. Then came the continual and overbearing claim that the 2020 election was stolen. To date, not one political appointee appearing before the Senate for confirmation would affirm that President Joe Biden won the election, only that he was sworn in as president. They try to convince people that the coup never happened and that the riot was really a love fest. The latest claim is that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) went “rogue” to weaponize our justice and law enforcement institutions to find and prosecute the alleged patriots who were only trying to “stop the steal.” As of today, the new administration is gutting the DOJ of experienced prosecutors and are pushing to fire about a third of the agents and leaders in the FBI. This is before the nominated Attorney General and FBI Director have been confirmed. Both have promised in public to go after anyone associated with upholding the rule of law on 6 January. Anyone involved, no matter how tangentially, will be fired and perhaps prosecuted. In this process, we are losing a valuable national asset that keeps us safe everyday. If the FBI is in internal turmoil, their energy is not focused on stopping drug dealers or terrorists. If “everyone” is fired there will be a critical loss of knowledge and expertise leaving our country vulnerable. There is an old saying that no one hears about the bomb that didn’t explode. The FBI and other intelligence agencies stop numerous dangerous plots that we never hear about. After the ongoing purge, our enemies will be emboldened to carry out their plans to kill Americans.

Trump fired all but two of the Inspectors General (IGs) in the federal government. These positions were established by Congress to be independent watch dogs in our government departments to weed out waste, fraud and abuse. Many of the IGs he fired were originally appointed during his first term. One can only surmise that they were fired to preclude them from calling out the illegal or unethical actions that his administration anticipates doing.

Last week we all mourned the tragic loss of 67 lives over the Potomac River in a mid-air collision. The nation mourned, except for the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) and the Secretary of Transportation (SDOT) who put on the most despicable and racist display I can remember from elected officials in my lifetime. By blaming “DEI” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs) for the crash they barely concealed their belief that only white males are qualified to pilot aircraft and control air traffic. Trump tried to prove his point by reading from an FAA recruiting website that tried to open jobs to every American. He ridiculed it, blamed the accident on Presidents Obama (!) and Biden and their woke policies. The problem is that the entry from the website that he read aloud was posted during his first term. The racist implication of all of their talk of a “meritocracy” (one could ask if Pete Hegseth got his job as SECDEF because of the merits of his resume — cough cough) lies in what they really mean — that anyone that does not look like them is clearly not qualified to have a high powered job. No women or minorities could possibly be qualified. Worse, they probably took a job away from a white male. If you think I over exaggerate, then please let me point you in the direction of Trump’s Executive Order (E.O.) that rescinds President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order 11246 that prohibits discrimination in hiring for federal jobs. It codified affirmative action to eliminate discrimination and delineated employee protections in hiring. I guess Trump is promoting discrimination now.

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”
― George Orwell, 1984

To take it a step further, NBC reports that several government agencies will no longer acknowledge or celebrate Black History Month, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, Juneteenth, LGBTQ Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day or “other observances.” We will see how that works as some are federal holidays by law. It also reflects that in the name of eliminating “political correctness” and “woke” ideology a very long list of terms have been officially expunged from government documents, websites and information outlets. In their place is a new list of approved words. We have traded one set of PC police to another set that are far more ruthless in weeding out what they do not like.

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”
― George Orwell, 1984

On the farcical level, to satisfy the Dear Leader, two dams in California’s San Joaquin Valley dumped billions of gallons of water that helped no one. Trump was trying to prove that he could have the Army (really the Army Corps of Engineers) “turn the valve” and have water flow to the Los Angeles area to help put out their devastating fires. A perfect photo op to show how he solved California’s water problems. The reality is that there was no way that water could ever be used to help with fires in LA. There is no infrastructure in place to get it to LA. The water in those reservoirs was wasted and was actually reserved for the upcoming summer irrigation needs to support agriculture. I am sure the farmers are thrilled he intervened.

More importantly, and a situation that is extremely troubling, Elon Musk and his acolytes now have access to every computer system in the government connected to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the Treasury Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (A.I.D.). Musk can now access classified information, the intimate records of every employee in the U.S. government, and every financial transaction made by the federal government. All six trillion dollars of it. That includes every payment to you, me, non-profits, government agencies, etc. etc. And oh yeah, that includes payments to every contractor doing business with the U. S. government, including those that are in direct competition with Musk’s businesses.

I need not remind you that Musk is a civilian with no official government position — not elected not confirmed by the Senate, nothing. He broke cybersecurity laws under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Worse, they used external hard drives to access the information which raises the chances of importing a virus, ransomware, or to allow disruptive operations.

Not only is Musk not a government official and he has no security clearance, his background and activities are troubling. He is a naturalized citizen who grew up in South Africa under apartheid. Apparently, he had no issue with that racist policy. Among other suspect political activities, he spent 288 million dollars in 2024 on Trump’s campaign and to help other Republican office seekers. He actively supports a German political party known as the Alternative for Germany (AfG), a far right neo-Nazi group gaining influence in German political affairs.

This is a very secretive administration that obfuscates and covers up its illegal activities until they are uncovered by determined journalists or government whistle blowers. We don’t really know all that they are doing. But we do know what they have planned.

Many of the actions taken to date are an attempt to marginalize the House and Senate. And Trump and his accomplices are succeeding. They are breaking civil service laws, appropriation laws and ignoring the Constitution. It is an all out assault on the rule of law and an attempt to totally sideline the Congress. So far they are letting him do it. There is no push back and a lot of “anticipatory obedience”. To date, the Senate has approved all of his nominees even as the majority of Republican Senators know that a lot of the nominees are unqualified and will readily carry out illegal acts if so ordered by their president. (For the first time in American history the nominees that have appeared for confirmation hearings thus far have all refused to answer the question as to whether they would resign rather than carry out an illegal order. They all used some form of the response that they don’t answer questions about “hypotheticals”).

“We do not merely destroy our enemies; we change them.”
― George Orwell, 1984

The uniting thread in all of this is the conservative playbook known as Project 2025. News sources relate that roughly two-thirds of Trump’s E.O.s are straight out of the playbook. Many of the authors that wrote the book are being appointed or approved by the Senate for leading the agencies and departments that they plan to destroy.

Some examples include actions within the DOD that began with the Soviet style erasure of anything having to do with the former Chairman of the Joints Chiefs (CJCS) General Mark Milley and former SECDEF Mark Esper. They have eliminated all references, pictures, biographies or other indications of their work. Gone. Like it never existed. All because they stood up to Trump and his illegal ideas in his first term.

Did you know that it is official DOT policy that money to support transportation upgrades or new projects or anything under the department’s control will go to states and cities with the highest marriage and birth rates? (Use the link in the article to get to the policy — para 5,f,iii — you can’t make this stuff up.) This is part of the Project 2025 playbook that nuclear families with a wife at home having children should be the established norm.

This is what I and others have been saying since last summer. Project 2025 is the plan for our future. They are trying to totally destroy our democracy (and probably our economy — billionaires don’t care about average citizens and they will win in the end) in order to rebuild it in their own image.

Thus chaos.

It could be that it is chaos because Trump likes chaos. He likes to create a crisis so that he can “solve” it and take undue credit for fixing a problem that did not exist before and should not exist now. It could just be incompetence. It is easy to write E.O.s but it is much harder to execute them.

Unfortunately, there are other more nefarious reasons for the chaos and confusion. Trump has been declaring as many “national emergencies” as he can find in order to issue orders that in any other administration would not exist or that would be challenged in court. (Some organizations and state Attorneys General are gearing up to take many of the illegal actions to court. But it is a slow process.)

I think he is trying to create chaos and crises for a purpose. Call it my doomsday scenario. When everything starts to collapse — the government cannot function because of all the firings, the economy is collapsing under the weight of tariffs and other ill conceived actions — he will declare martial law (as he tried to do several times in his first administration when SECDEF Esper and CJCS Milley stopped him). He will simply take over. Only the toadies that have pledged their fealty to him will run departments and agencies (we are nearly there already). They will try to burn it all down and then rebuild it as JD Vance and the other 2025 folks have publicly declared. They are unabashed in their desire and stated goal to create a white nationalist Christian country controlled by white male oligarchs and headed by an autocrat. Trump doesn’t really care about any of it as long as he makes money (he is making a ton of it right now as president in unprecedented ways) and can retain the trappings of power he so dearly loves (Sir!).

There is a lot of talk about elections in 2026 and 2028 and how the Democrats will be taking over because of wide-spread discontent with Trump. How do we know there will be elections? Under a “national emergency” he may declare them deferred until the danger from the crisis is over — which it never will be. Too out there? Too apocalyptic? Why? He and his cult already tried to void an election and take over the government once, why not try it again? He suffered no consequences. Why should he be worried about any future ramifications? He is already making “jokes” about his third term. There is every reason to believe that this time he thinks he can get away with it. Who is going to stop him if Congress is powerless and his toadies control the levers of power?

The Project 2025 playbook is boring. It is also scary. The cadre around Trump are serious. They will pursue their agenda until stopped. They have already gotten the Congress to roll over for them. The court system will be used to over turn some of their more draconian actions but will that really stop them? The courts put an injunction against withholding lawfully appropriated funds and yet the Trump Administration continues to refuse to disburse a wide range of those funds.

I feel sorry for the people that are “too busy” or “too tired” and don’t want to hear about politics, they prefer ignorance. Some day they will realize their mistake. Call your Senator, Congressman and other elected officials and ask them what they are doing to stop the hostile takeover. It seems like right now all that our Senators and Representatives are doing is collecting a paycheck for occupying space. With Musk and his techies already controlling all of the government systems, even that may go away in the future.

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.”
― George Orwell, 1984

Anticipatory Obedience

Posted: January 16, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“The first term everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.”

— The President-elect at Mar-a-Lago in December 2024.

Yale professor Timothy Snyder in his 2017 book On Tyranny focused on the United States’ turn towards authoritarianism and tyranny in the context of American politics. Among other issues, he addressed a key factor in authoritarian efforts to take control that he calls “anticipatory obedience.” In essence, it means that individuals and institutions change their behavior in an attempt to conform to what they think the repressive regime will want, conformity that comes without any effort on the authoritarian’s part to demand it. It is a key factor in cementing an autocrat’s rule as well as informing the regime as to what they can get away with. As a result, in many cases the incoming regimes accrue more power more quickly than they thought possible. Many scholars point to current events in Hungary under Victor Orban as illustrative of how to turn a modern democracy into an autocracy. Victor Orban, not coincidentally, is the shining star of the MAGA movement and a personal hero to our next president.

There is a fine line between political reality, lobbying for one’s preferred policies and practicing anticipatory obedience. With any new administration organizations and individuals work to influence the new policies sure to come with the changes in the power dynamic. For example, in the modern era inauguration funds are raised by the party of choice to make a grand event of the days leading to and on the day that power is transferred. It is not unusual for political parties to sell exclusive access or V.I.P. tickets to big donors. This year, the incoming administration has run out of tickets to give out and is still raking in huge donations. According to the New York Times, by early January the current inauguration committee raised over 170 million dollars and is still collecting large donations, despite the fact that there are no V.I.P. tickets still available. That compares to a total of 107 million dollars in 2017. By some calculations the President-elect’s allies since Election Day have raised roughly 250 million dollars for the inauguration, to help promote his policies and to fill his coffers. There are no limits on the amount of any contribution and even although access is now closed to many events, some contributors are still writing one and two million dollar checks. Some of the most famous of the tech-bros have contributed millions in their company names. It is not happening because they really like the guy. Many of those same individuals were attacked during the campaign including threats to throw Mark Zuckerberg of Meta (formerly face book) in jail. He donated a million dollars to the inauguration. Was that enough? Apparently not as Mr. Zuckerberg also did away with fact checking face book posts, moved staff out of “blue” California to “red” Texas and took other measures to ensure that he would be on the good side of the incoming president. All without being asked.

Other examples of anticipatory obedience include the decisions by the billionaire owners of The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times to ignore decades of precedent and to not endorse any candidate for president after they conferred at Mar-a-Lago with the MAGA candidate. (Both papers are said to have endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris ready to go when they were pulled.) As a result, both newspapers lost senior staff members and lots of subscribers, but they pleased a budding autocrat without being asked.

This week we are seeing numerous examples of anticipatory obedience in Congress. Republican (are there any left?) Senators are about to confirm several totally unqualified candidates to the incoming Cabinet because the Dear Leader wants them. He wants them because they will show absolute fealty to him and not to the Constitution. Does anyone really believe that, for example, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) really, truly believes that Pete Hegseth will be an effective Secretary of Defense? Of course not. Most of her colleagues do not think so either but they are afraid of what the MAGA president might do to them politically or even personally. In the process they are giving up one of their most important duties under the Constitution, the duty to provide advice and consent to a president’s Cabinet nominees. While it may be argued that incoming presidents should have the people in the Cabinet that share the same policy views, it is also necessary to entrust our nation to people with a solid understanding and devotion to the Constitution and that are competent in their ability to run their department.

The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (MAGA – LA) yesterday fired the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Representative Mike Turner (R – OH). The reason according to many sources (but not according to the Speaker who gave a really lame excuse that it was time for someone else to have a chance) is that a decree came down from Mar-a-Lago to get rid of him. Why? Representative Turner was too bi-partisan and would not always toe the dictated party line. By all accounts, Mr. Turner was a solid Chairman who took his duties seriously and understood the importance of overseeing the intelligence community in a bi-partisan manner. National security is a serious business. An ill thought out policy on education could hurt our country but it is recoverable. A national security mistake could end our existence. Apparently, there will be no serious oversight in the near future.

Other examples abound, and the inauguration is not until Monday 20 January.

I for one, believe that our democracy and the institutions that protect it will be sorely tested in the coming months and years. It is hard to figure out what individual citizens can do to actively protect our republic. Professor Snyder looks at the lessons taught through history — autocrats and dictators whether fascists or communists — and finds the common threads that cause people to allow themselves to be subjugated. In my mind, anticipatory obedience is akin to the old saying “go along to get along.” Expediency and self-preservation take priority over doing what is right. The Silicon Valley tech-bros are the budding oligarchs of the United States. They are hitching their wagons to the incoming president for a reason — they are sure that he will create the conditions to allow them to wield power unobstructed. Elon Musk already thinks he is the leader of our government. He is dabbling in politics in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, using his billions and his own platform “X” to influence millions of followers to support far right wing agendas in Europe. Surely he expects the MAGA crowd to push our country hard right. President Biden warned us last night in his farewell speech that “today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom” and he warned of a “tech-industrial complex” of unchecked power over our lives.

Don’t make it easy. As professor Snyder writes, “do not obey in advance.”

“So What?”

Posted: October 13, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

On 2 October 2024, Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released a 165 page indictment brought by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith in response to Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. This is a superseding indictment replacing a previous indictment following the Supreme Court’s decision that presidents are immune from prosecution when acting in an “official capacity.” Mr. Smith responded to that decision by arguing that Trump acted in his capacity as a candidate, not as a president, and therefore he should be held accountable for his actions. Note that the federal judge released the previously sealed indictment, not the Special Prosecutor or the Justice Department, despite accusations from Trump and his MAGA acolytes.

Most of Trump’s actions leading up to the attempted coup of 6 January 2021 are already known to us in broad terms thanks to the work of the House Select January 6 Committee. The latest indictment contains information previously unknown to the public and reveals the full extent of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, starting before voting was underway. It was a vast, multi-pronged effort at polling places, election offices, state capitals, in the U.S. House and Senate and finally through the violent attack on our nation’s capitol. The details are sobering. (Read it here.) In step by step detail, the indictment lays out Trump’s actions and the actions of those, mostly out of government accomplices, that worked to overturn the election. It lays out a timeline of events on 6 January with comparisons of specific events detailed on Fox News and Trump’s subsequent tweets, many of which were aimed at Vice President Mike Pence. When a White House staffer informed Trump that his Vice President was in grave danger (“Hang Mike Pence!”) and had been evacuated from the capitol his response was “so what?” Trump took no action to stop the violence.

“So what?”

To me that response is the essence of Trump. He cares nothing about anyone or anything unless there is a direct benefit to him personally. In his current campaign his willingness to hurt, defame or endanger innocent people has become increasingly obvious, less shielded in double speak and exceedingly dangerous.

There is every reason to believe that Trump will try to overturn any election result that does not declare him the winner. This time around, he has a willing accomplice in his Vice Presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance (OH). Trump and Vance continue to reject the 2020 election results and to cast doubt on the 2024 election. Indeed, it has become a litmus test for MAGA supporters and politicians. One must reject the 2020 election in order to be a full fledged member of the MAGA cult. Four years later, the numbers of people claiming election fraud continues to grow rather than recede. As a result, the MAGA campaign, and those of others down ballot, are becoming increasingly autocratic, bordering on fascism, with political violence as an ever increasing subcurrent of the rhetoric. Trump’s language is openly racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic. He is dangerous.

With the election just over three weeks away, I am increasingly fearful for our democracy. If Trump wins, we are in big trouble. If he loses a closely contested result, we are in big trouble. The attempts to undermine our democracy are already underway. Consider the following few examples:

  • Filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and North Carolina brought by Republican organizations and politicians seeking to disallow ballots cast by American citizens living overseas. The law known as the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) lays out the method for U.S. citizens living abroad to vote, and includes our military forces and their families whether overseas or otherwise away from their home states. Trump claims that this act is a plot by Democrats to “cheat” and collect illegal votes. He is trying to disenfranchise our men and women in uniform to increase his perceived chances of winning.
  • Claiming that “illegal aliens” are swarming across the border to vote for Democrats in the election. As a result, multiple states passed laws that resulted in thousands of eligible voters being purged from voting lists and enacted voting requirements that disenfranchised many Americans, especially in low income areas. It is against the law for non-citizens to vote in any federal election. The number of cases prosecuted in the U.S. is statistically zero, meaning single digit cases in some states.
  • Pushing state legislatures and courts to reject mail-in ballots. In some states, such as Pennsylvania, election officials accept ballots with minor clerical errors. The Republicans say this illegal. Similar efforts are underway in Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan. Democrats tend to use mail-in ballots more than Republicans. (I assume it is only a coincidence that these states are critical to Republicans winning the election.)

I can go on, but you get the idea. Here is the MAGA game plan as I see it.

First, challenge everything in courts. Many, many lawsuits in addition to the ones above are underway. The intent? Suppress the vote. No Republican has won the popular vote since George H.W. Bush in 1988 with the exception of George H. Bush in 2004. Trump has a ceiling on the number of votes he is likely to get, with a two time track record to prove it, so instead of getting more voters to support him, eliminate the opposition.

Second, intimidate voters in likely Democrat precincts through implicit or direct threats of violence in order to lower voter turnout. In some areas I expect to see armed Trump supporters loitering near polling places.

Third, put Trump supporters on local, county and state election boards to disrupt the counting of votes, challenge their legitimacy and ultimately to delay or outright refuse certification of the results.

Third, use state legislatures to tie up certification of election results or to even ignore the results and use alternate electors dedicated to Trump. They tried this in 2020 and failed. They have worked out the kinks.

Fourth, use Trump’s useful idiots in the House and Senate to disrupt the final certification of the results. The effort, also attempted in 2020, is to throw the election into the House. Under the Constitution, each state gets one vote. That means that Montana, with one Representative, gets the some number of votes as New York with twenty six Representatives. Currently, there are more states with Republican delegations than Democratic ones, which is likely to hold, even if the Democrats win the majority in the House overall. This is not some theoretical outcome. It was and is part of the plan. It happened once in our history. Following the 1824 election, Andrew Jackson had the most electoral and popular votes but not a majority. The vote went to the House and the second place finisher, John Quincy Adams, was elected president.

Meanwhile, Trump is using ever more autocratic tactics and vile rhetoric to undermine the public’s trust in the federal government. He and his mini-me J.D. Vance are spreading despicable lies about the hurricane recovery efforts, legal migrants in Ohio, and the citizens of Aurora Colorado to make it seem as if the government is either out of control or actually aiding and abetting illegal activity. The purpose is to sow further divisions in our country and for people to expect the worst. When it all goes haywire leading to, during, and after the election, Trump and Vance will step up as “saviors” to take over and use their “strongman” tactics to “protect” us. During Trump’s alleged seven phone calls with Vladimir Putin over the last few years while out of office, he may have been getting pointers on how to take over a government.

One area that will differ in the Trump/MAGA totalitarian playbook regards attacks on the U.S. capitol. I doubt we will see another January 6 attack in 2025 in Washington D.C. The city will be an armed camp this time around with very, very, tight security. I do expect there to be attempts at violence and other efforts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. I think they will be more geographically scattered but potentially even more disruptive. The attacks will come in large cities, especially with large numbers of minority voters, at locations collecting and counting ballots. Perhaps also against county and state election boards. Several state capitals will be targets as domestic terrorists attempt to change or prevent the certification of ballots. I fear we are in for a tough go of it.

So what? Lighten up, you may tell me. The U.S. is fine and we will all be okay. The guardrails of democracy will hold. The sky is not falling. I hope so, but I believe what Trump, Vance and their minions are saying. They have come to believe what they are spouting. We always hope for the best. But we need to prepare for the worst. Most demoralizing and frightening is the willingness of formerly main stream Republican politicians and leaders to just go along. There is very little to no pushback from Republicans in Congress or in state legislatures regarding Trump’s vile plans and increasingly unhinged behavior. The man is becoming delusional and people I used to think were smart and cared about our country pretend that it is not happening or have actually gotten onboard with the lies.

We can save ourselves with an overwhelming vote in support of the coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independents that want to preserve our democracy and are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris. There are several hundred former Republican and Trump Administration senior officials who have put aside their policy differences in order to keep our democracy. Take a look at the list. It includes two Republican Vice Presidents (Mike Pence — who refuses to support his old boss — and Dick Cheney), Trump’s former Secretary of Defense, two of his former National Security Advisers, his Chief of Staff, his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his Director of National Intelligence, former cabinet officials, security officials, ambassadors, generals, admirals, and on and on. These are the people that Trump claimed were “the very best people” who saw him up close and personal and do not want him anywhere near the White House ever again. We can overcome the efforts of the autocrats to install Trump as the Dear Leader. Every vote counts. Let’s keep our democracy.

Make America Hate Again

Posted: September 17, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“We’re in the process of taking this country back. We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.”

— Kevin Roberts, Heritage Foundation, primary author of the Project 2025 plan

Thank you, Kevin, for exposing just how violent a second Trump Administration will be. A more direct threat to democracy can rarely be found than exists in the sentiments behind this exclamation. We are supposed to let autocrats have their way with our democracy, and if we resist, then they will use violence to get what they want.

I intended to write a piece outlining the dangers in Project 2025 (found here: https://www.project2025.org/policy/) as exemplified in their roughly 900 page playbook called Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (found on the same website). It is intended as the foundation of policies to be implemented by the next Trump Administration and is wildly un-American. But check it out for yourself. Trump and his campaign loudly complain that he has no connection to the project and knows nothing about it. Which may be true, because I doubt that Trump has read any policy documents either as president or as a candidate. Regardless, at least 140 former Trump administration and campaign officials worked on the project including six former Cabinet Secretaries, four nominated Ambassadors and his former deputy chief of staff.

Instead of going blow by blow through the radical ideas espoused as future policies, the bigger picture is important as we see the stark differences between the campaigns of the two major party nominees. Project 2025 is really about people. There is a cliche in Washington that “personnel is policy.” To implement their plan, the forces behind the project intend to use a presidential Executive Order to change the status of over 10,000 government jobs from civil service positions to political appointees, firing all of those long time government employees. This is the way they plan to eliminate the “deep state” and put in place people that have pledged their support to Trump, not to the Constitution, whatever they may claim. This is the key step to creating an autocratic regime. If he is the president, Trump plans to pull in all independent and semi-independent departments, agencies, and commissions and place them under his direct control. The intent is to weaponize the government to go after those that he thinks are his enemies and to pursue policies that personally benefit him.

There will be no more guardrails to uphold our democratic tradition. If you think I am exaggerating, think about this. The Supreme Court this summer declared in Trump v United States that the president is immune from prosecution for any official act taken in office. They did not delineate the extent of “official acts” (a problem, but they left it to themselves to decide in the future what constitutes an official act). They did say that it was inherent in the Constitution that a president was immune from actions taken under the “core powers” delineated in that document. They also articulated two important additional cracks in the guardrails. Any official act is still immune to prosecution even if the president did not have any evidence of malfeasance or simply had bad intentions when, for instance, ordering the Attorney General to prosecute any of his political opponents. Additionally, they declared a president’s right to pardon anyone as “absolute.” Thus, the then thought ridiculous example of a president ordering SEAL Team Six to kill his political rivals and then pardoning them is no longer ridiculous, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion on the case. The president would be immune from prosecution because one core power is his ability to control the military as commander-in-chief. Remember that Trump wanted to use the Insurrection Act to put down demonstrators through military force and to help to keep himself in power in January 2021. Now he will be immune if he tries it again.

The Supreme Court, in my view, is no longer a trustworthy guardrail. Besides, does one really think that in the future Trump will abide by a Supreme Court ruling he does not like? Especially with a bureaucracy behind him that has only one goal in mind, keeping Trump in power? His favorite president is Andrew Jackson who ignored a Supreme Court decision in the 1831 case of Worcester v Georgia. The result was the “Trail of Tears” or the forcible relocation of Native Americans to western reservations. To me that sounds just a little too close to Trump’s promise to round up millions of immigrants, put them in camps, and then send them “back.” The courts in general are suspect when a Trump appointed federal judge threw out the case against him for stealing top secret war plans, nuclear information and other classified documents. Not because of the facts of the case but for some unprecedented legal finding about procedure that legal scholars had no idea was a thing. We are on flimsy ground.

Personally, I think that there are actually three campaigns underway. It is not Democrat vs. Republican vying for the presidency. It is a coalition in favor of democracy (quite the big tent when it stretches from Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) to former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney) led by Vice President Kamala Harris against the MAGA autocrat wannabes led by Trump. The third campaign? It is the not-so hidden agenda of the Project 2025 folks that want to take our country back to a time when women stayed home in marriages (whether or not they were loved or even safe) to raise kids, minorities knew their place (and it wasn’t in positions of power or even voting), and rich white Christian males ruled over all. Sometimes benevolently, most times in their own interest. This group’s standard bearer is Senator J.D. Vance (OH) the Vice Presidential nominee.

Trump is merely a figure head for the movement. Trump is only interested in making money and keeping himself out of jail. He will do anything the movement wants as long as he keeps the trappings of the presidency (he really likes being called “Sir!”) and anything that helps him personally. He has no real policy agenda, merely a collection of slogans and insults. Vance is the hit man. He was the personal choice of those behind the Project 2025 movement. They were over the moon when he was selected as the Vice Presidential nominee precisely because he was firmly in their camp, would pick up the slack when Trump is writing love letters to Kim Jong Un, actually run the government (with the new tens of thousands of devotees in place) and, let’s face it, Trump is an older man in generally poor mental and physical health, and should he not finish out his term, J.D. is ready to go.

How millions of Americans support a man running for the presidency who is a 34 time convicted felon, been adjudicated as a sex abuser, twice impeached for abusing his office, led a multi-pronged conspiracy to overthrow a free and fair election to keep himself in power and tells lies with real consequences such as the suffering in Springfield Ohio where he lied about the legal immigrants in that city, is beyond me. I honestly cannot get my head around it. We know they are lies because this week on the Sunday talk shows good old J.D. said so. “If I have to create stories” to get attention from the media then, he promised, he is going to continue to do so. (From watching him on TV I’m not too sure how quick on his feet he may be. The first rule of fake news is to deny that it is fake news.)

Trump is totally and completely unqualified to even be mentioned in the same sentence as “president.” He could not enlist in the military and he could not get a security clearance given his background. Yet, here we are. The real story is the one many Americans are too sanguine to believe. They think that because we saved our democracy in 2021 that we will always have it rather than thinking about how those that tried to hijack our democracy have now had some practice and four years to get it straight. The danger is incremental and thus harder to identify. As a student and as an adult I always thought about how Germans in the early 1930’s allowed their democracy to be stolen. It did not happen over night. It was years of small changes and diminished freedoms until suddenly it was too late. And, no, I am not comparing anyone or anything to the Nazis. At least not yet. More like the fascists in Italy in the 1930s. We need to recognize the danger and especially take a close look at that second campaign using Trump as their cover. Those folks are not going away even if Trump loses the election. Besides, the whole lot of the MAGA/Project 2025 crowd are already telegraphing that they will not accept any outcome other than their own victory. It isn’t going to be pretty.

I worry when I hear things like this. A news reporter asked a group of voters in a focus group about Trump’s pronouncements that he will be a dictator on day one and that after this election we won’t have to vote anymore and all the other statements he has made that he will rule as an autocrat. The focus group’s consensus was that worries about losing our democracy are just hyperbole to “scare” people and are just Democrat’s campaign talking points. They concluded that as long as they could vote, we would have a democracy. Hmmmm. I suppose Russia really is a democracy along with the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Not only do they vote but they even have the word “republic” in their country’s name!

What could go wrong?

More Than A Jury Verdict

Posted: May 31, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Yesterday was an historic day for the United States. For the first time in our history an ex-president and presumptive nominee for president of a major political party was convicted by a jury of his peers on thirty-four counts related to election interference, the violation of election laws, and the attempt to cover it up — all felonies.

That the rule of law prevailed, proving in a previously untested way that we are, in fact, a nation devoted to the rule of law and not to the rule of men is significant. No one is above the law. Personally, I take no joy in these thirty-four convictions. I thought that the evidence was there, and to be candid, I would have been disappointed if the now convicted ex-president had once again avoided responsibility for his actions, but I would still have been proud of the way our system of laws worked. Those twelve jurors were able to carry on in the traditions that we all say we believe in as Americans. They put aside their biases, experiences and personal beliefs to listen to the testimony and evidence presented and then unanimously came to a conclusion. Guilty. So it seems that we should pause and consider what just happened. It is sad that an ex-president is a convicted felon. It is a proud day that the system worked.

The convicted ex-president reacted in his typical fashion whining that the system was “rigged” that the proceedings were a “sham,” etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. The same old, same old. Except that it hit me that there is a bigger picture here that is truly frightening. This is Trump being Trump. It is also Trump, and his toadies and sycophants in the MAGA Republican party telling us that they want to destroy our democratic republic and rebuild it in their own image. Trump would be nothing if he did not have his acolytes vying with each other to out do themselves in debasing their own morality and in trying to help him tear down our rules, norms, and way of life. Note that not one of his defenders actually defends Trump. Not one of them claims that he is innocent. Instead they attack the system and work to undermine the public’s faith in our institutions. Not even his biggest flunkeys defend his actions. They only see him as their way to power and if that means destroying our way of life, then so be it. Shame is a dead emotion in today’s MAGA world.

Too much? Consider this. Trump uses the same language over and over to attack our elections, free press, and now the judicial system. All of them are “disgraceful” or a “sham” or “rigged” or any other word from his limited vocabulary. He constantly talks about how our country has “gone to hell” or that our country is in “serious decline” or that “we have a country that is in big trouble.” Over and over and over. Classic techniques of fascist propaganda. But let me allow the convicted ex-president to speak for himself with these quotes from his campaign speeches. Again, he repeats nearly the same things over and over:

“We will demolish the deep state. We’ll expel, we’re going to expel, those horrible, horrible warmongers from our government. They want to fight everybody. They want to kill people all over the place. Places we’ve never heard about before. Places that want to be left alone.

We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists, fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake-news media until they become real. We will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will finish the job that we started better than anybody has ever started a job before.“

In other words, call yourself a victim, blame it on the “vermin” that are not like us, and promise to destroy the institutions that stand in the way. And now he calls himself “a political prisoner.” An insult to our system and it trivializes those real political prisoners being held in places like Russia.

The thirty-four count felon ex-president is finally being held accountable. It only furthers his rage and inspires him to go further and further into the dark side. Politicians that know better like the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (second in line for the presidency behind the VP for gosh sakes!) says that Trump’s conviction is “a shameful day in American history” and called for the Supreme Court to “step in” to overturn the conviction. Senior Republicans only became ever more deranged with their comments. Senator Ted Cruz (TX) said of the conviction that “this is a dark day for America. This entire trial has been nothing but a sham.” Senator Marco Rubio (FL) called the proceedings the “quintessential show trial. This is what you see in communist countries” and without a hint of irony, given his Cuban family roots, compared the conviction to what happened in Castro’s Cuba that “led to executions.” There is so much more but it saddens me too much. These are supposed patriotic Americans that willingly debase themselves in the service of one man.

That is where we are in today’s United States. I firmly believe that a majority of Americans see Trump and the MAGA movement for what it is. The upcoming election will not be a referendum on two different sets of policies or who is too old to serve or any other issue. It will solely be a choice between a man that wants to protect and preserve our democratic republic and one that will burn it all down in order to give himself the power to glorify himself.

I am proud of our twelve fellow citizens who recognized their sacred and solemn duty and did their best to live up to the ideals of our country. This was no ordinary verdict.

MAGA Autocrats

Posted: July 18, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In recent weeks, the twice impeached, twice indicted, sexual abuser and former president Donald J. Trump has openly formulated his plans to turn the presidency in a second term into a centralized autocracy. He is directly telling us that he wants to create a fascist administration should he return to office.

There. I said it. I used the “F” word. He fashions himself to be a modern day Mussolini or perhaps more appropriately, he wants the same power as Putin, Xi, Orban and the other strong men he so openly admires.

As outlined in a recent New York Times article that encapsulates the information on Trump’s campaign website, his campaign speeches and on-the-record interviews with key Trump advisers past and present, he intends to weaponize the government in order to “demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. And we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.”

The plan is based on a “unitary executive theory” that has its roots in Article II, section 2 of the Constitution that lists the duties of the President and Vice President, how long they serve, how they are to be elected and other provisions of their offices. Some interpret the article as giving the president complete control over the executive branch, rejecting the idea that the Constitution created overlapping responsibilities for the three branches of government, thereby creating checks and balances. Under the unitary executive theory, independent agencies created by Congress — such as the Federal Reserve, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communication Commission and others — should be brought under direct control of the president and cannot make independent decisions as they do now (subject to Congressional funding and challenges in court). As explained in the New York Times, Trump and his advisers are openly advocating, and already taking steps to implement, their goal “to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.” Their goal extends beyond the independent agencies as they also want to purge career officials in the intelligence community, defense department, state department and justice department that are not “loyal” to Trump and most especially those that worked to temper his ambitions during his term. He wants total and complete unfettered power to do as he pleases. To further strengthen that power, the advisers to Trump claim that he has the absolute ability to impound funds within the executive branch. That means that even as Congress budgets and authorizes funding for various cabinet and agency activities, under the unitary theory, the president does not have to use those funds as they were intended. As the executive, he can move funding into or out of any area he chooses.

During his time as president, Trump tried to implement portions of this plan. Remember that he claimed during a speech in 2019 that “I have an Article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” Near the end of his term he signed an Executive Order giving him the right to fire career government employees. Known familiarly as “Schedule F” its intent was to remove anyone associated with policy making that did not do exactly as the president wanted. The order was rescinded by President Biden, but Trump stated that it would be reinstated under his presidency. Such an order would give him the means to remove the “political class” that he reviles and replace them with Trump sycophants. Apparently technical expertise, experience, and knowledge would no longer suffice to work in the government, only loyalty to Trump and Trumpism count. The civil service system created over a hundred years ago would be out and the old, rotten practices of the 19th century would return where political favoritism and even bribes were the basis for entering the government work force.

Trump, his advisers and his campaign all openly espouse these proposed policies where Trump is all powerful. As I have said many times in this space, autocrats tell you up front what they plan to do. It is only a matter of whether or not they can pull it off. Following his surprise election inn 2016, Trump and his supporters were slow to understand how to implement changes. Additionally, senior officials in his administration worked to stop or moderate his most extreme ideas. Only at the very end of his administration did Trump figure out how to use his powers, such as bypassing the “advise and consent” role of the Senate for filling senior positions (“I like ‘actings'”). This time around, the key elements and advisers are already in place and are already identifying personnel to fill key positions. There is a network behind the scenes putting together the plan in places like the Heritage Foundation, the America First Policy Institute, the Center for Renewing America, and the Project for 2025 — think tanks with key former and future advisers to Trump at work delineating policies and transition strategies.

Why are they so brazenly up front about their plans? First, they noted the lack of push back from “establishment” Republicans when Trump and his MAGA supporters in Congress attack the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They find this encouraging and tacit approval of their plans. Second, they argue that if they explain their agenda now, when Trump is elected he will have a “mandate” to carry out his plan.

The scale of the MAGA effort to transform our democracy is astonishing and well established. Should Trump not win the nomination, the effort will remain in place for the Republican nominee, whoever it is, with plans to implement it regardless of Trump’s absence. In particular, it would seem that Governor DeSantis (FL) could benefit from this organization as he has already instituted many of these measures in his own state.

This much is clear. Should any Republican win the 2024 election, the MAGA wing of the party intends to carry out the mission they have set for themselves. It is becoming increasingly clear that the 2024 presidential election will have one candidate that supports our democracy and one that supports autocracy. As Trump’s former personnel chief John McEntee explained to the New York Times reporters, “Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul.”

Whitewash!

Posted: January 21, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The proceedings in the Senate concerning the Impeachment of Donald John Trump got underway this afternoon.  Right from the start the fix is in.  We can no longer call it a trial.  I don’t know what else to call it other than a whitewash.

Moments ago the Republicans voted unanimously not to have any witnesses or documents produced as evidence.  How one could call this a trial, when they refuse to look at any evidence or listen to any witnesses, is beyond me.

Technically, they voted to table a motion to an amendment to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (TR-Ky) (aka “midnight Mitch”) rules for this hearing.  In theory, they could call for evidence, — get this — at the end of the whatever we call this.  The ramifications are many, including solidifying Mr. Trump’s claims that he can do anything he wants under Article II of the Constitution.  Oversight is DOA.

I am dumbfounded that a trial can proceed without any evidence or witnesses.

Recent polls show that 71% of Americans think that witnesses and evidence should be presented at this Impeachment Trial.  But now we aren’t going to have a trial.  We are going to have a whitewash of the president’s actions.

It seems that if the Republicans really wanted to exonerate the president, they would want to produce witnesses and evidence that exonerates him.  Without any evidence what-so-ever no one should claim that he was exonerated.  Having listened to all of the evidence, they may have decided to acquit him, but at least all the information would be out there.

Many pundits, historians and former politicians have often said that the Republicans in Congress are “on the wrong side of history” or “will have to look themselves in the mirror” and that they have lost all integrity.  Clearly, they do not care.  All that matters now, is that they retain power at all costs.  All costs.  All Republicans in Congress are all in on Trump.  They own everything that happens and all of his actions from here on in.

One can only conclude that the Republicans know in their hearts that the charges are true and that the president did all that he is accused of doing, but that keeping power is more important so the facts must not come out.  They are clearly afraid that if all of the evidence came out, they would be in political hot water if they acquitted him anyway.

Our democracy is becoming a sham.

God Bless America!

 

← Older Entries