Maybe we could agree that the masks are falling to show Donald Trump’s naked intents for total control as president.
The recent series of executive orders, ordered prosecutions, targeted social media posts, threats to free speech and protest, the shutdowns of agencies and the central government itself leave us with a raw view of just how far the Trump dictatorship sees itself extending. He even told the gathering of military flag officers yesterday that deployment of armed troops to American cities would prove “good training ground,” without spelling out what that might mean to the democracy.
Eight months in, Trump even is dropping the pretense of excuse for moving against perceived political enemies and threatening to shut down anyone and any organization that he thinks might back opposition financially.
We find ourselves with shuttered federal government this morning over partisan political hype, desire to ignore lost services and the opportunity only to score political points through blame for the other guys. The same Trump who thinks he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for settling multiple, complex wars (that in large part, he didn’t) lacks the dealmaking attention to deal with two Democratic Congressional leaders as well as the delusion that all is okay with Americans’ rising health rates.
The deeper weirdness continues to be the degree to which the Supreme Court’s right-leaning majority, the Republican-majority Congress, and any number of cooperating media giants and business leaders in pursuit of deals are letting it happen — despite evidence of growing public restlessness with the results to date of the Trump tactics and achievements.
Meanwhile, Trump insists on leveling vague, broadbrush attacks against individuals, institutions, even other nations with little public evidence or even definition with the apparent intent to bully agreement with matters important or not — only to end up facing fact-checks that undercut his arguments. Throughout, what seems to matter is only that Trump Has Spoken. If targeted individuals suffer unbacked prosecutions or wars continue despite some unrealistic would-be peace initiative or millions lose health care all seem to matter not at all.
A Lengthening List
This week’s ordered deployment of the military — we still don’t know if this is National Guard or active troops — to display “full force” on the streets of Portland, Ore. no longer even came with the euphemistic idea of helping local police with made-up violent crime numbers. On Chicago’s streets this weekend, we saw Homeland Security agents who were dressed in military camo demanding citizenry paperwork in random stops — stopping people, they say, based on their “look” or racial profile.
It’s straight-up intimidation to halt any organized protest of his mass deportation program and to protect masked ICE and Homeland Security agents and facilities that may be targeted. Already, the plan seems to be changing to something more limited than Trump’s belligerent remarks suggested.
Regardless of outcome, the loony, seemingly incompetent, Trump-ordered prosecution resulting in a split vote to indict former FBI Director James B. Comey Jr. on two counts with little to do with Trump’s vendetta against him has unsheathed any remaining, pretend nod to an independent Justice Department. Daily now we are getting word of FBI criminal probes of those who acted in their jobs to bring charges against Trump or his allies.
Meanwhile, Justice looks away when allegations touch its own, including the deepening bribery-on-tape incidents involving border czar Tom Homan. By White House logic, the Joe Biden administration “weaponized” Justice; the Trump administration seeks “accountability” and anything that points to wrongdoing by Team Trump falls into the first category.
Worse, Trump is showing us that he doesn’t even maintain the pretense of guilt for specified crimes as a gauge for his White House-run Justice efforts. The stuff Trump spews about “guilt” of Comey or New York Attorney General Letitia James or Sen. Adam Schiff, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and others has little to do with any eventual charge and everything to do with Trump’s personal grievances. Broadside attacks against those investing in Democratic causes as if they are financing “Antifa” and “domestic political violence” seem to have nothing to do with violations of specific laws based on evidence, just on Trump’s political radar.
The Supreme Court’s latest validation — against using the unexplained power of a hurry-up docket — of Trump’s legal path to stomp on Constitutional prescriptions about balance of powers among government branches and the prescribed duty of Congress to decide spending priorities rather than the president is catnip to a Trump administration bent on control. Through use of recissions, wholesale elimination of agencies and jobs, programs that “do not support the Trump agenda,” selected research about medicine, science, climate and education, the power of the purse to control is unlimited.
As with Justice efforts, the deportation tactics are excessive and aimed as much at spreading fear as achieving quota-driven goals that appear on their face to be heartless and random. The courts have split in allowing Trump to arrest and deport people without due process, but in any event, Trump is showing us he has no intention of stopping even with delayed, adverse rulings.
Department of War or Government of War
The hypocritical attacks on free speech in the name of defending free speech following the killing of rightist icon Charlie Kirk have extended to extortion and threats against networks and private companies, many of whom are bending to the same White House they need for approvals for unrelated business ventures — even ceding government payments or a piece of the company.
The change in the name of the Defense Department to return to gunboat diplomacy War Department standing not only smacks of Orwellian euphemism but underscores another naked ambition to dominate military in this hemisphere, even while withdrawing from global responsibilities. The idea of using the globe’s most honed military to sink individual drug boats and, apparently, to game out attacks against Venezuelan and Mexican cartels in blatant violation of international laws reflects an unsheathed intent to strike regardless of law, but reason enough to pull flag officers from all corners of the world to lecture them on “lethality” and “warrior” status.
Indeed, Trump’s administration has become a Government of War rather than a single department in which armed military troops are deployed on city streets against Americans as well as against undocumented migrants, in which paramilitary Homeland Security and private prisons deserve more protection than those governed by the Constitution, in which it is becoming a crime to mention words or ideas of diversity, race, gender and identity in classrooms or board rooms that risks military-level response by troops, Justice agents, government-approved doxing and intrusive tax audit.
The next election cycle already is underway, and the Trump administration is working with Republican states to rewrite congressional district maps and change voting rules to predetermine a favorable partisan outcome. What are the chances for full court review of various state redistricting plans even before a Supreme Court that seems okay with partisan gerrymandering in time for an unfettered election a year away? You can see the election disputes coming even from miles away. Even in the elections being held now, Republicans are playing games with seating newly elected Democrats for fear of overly tight vote outcomes on the House floor.
For those worried about democracy-turned-dictatorship, the signs are all in place now. The Trump version of dictatorship is more than an ego-stroke. It reflects cruelty, personal greed and anti-democratic values.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS … AND YOUR GENERAL FREEDOMS ARE UNDER ATTACK. HELP US FIGHT BACK!
