I’ve got so many thoughts going through my head at the moment I’m going to start a new rant and, likely, finish it at a later date. We are nearing the end of the FIRST week of Trump’s new reign on America and almost exactly what I knew (and predicted) was coming is in the works. I’m not sure how long it will be until Trump’s base begins to figure out what they’ve done, but my guess is it will be less than six months – possibly less than six weeks. I’ve explained FASCISM here MANY times since Trump’s first assault on our democratic republic and more and more I’m seeing members of the so-called “liberal media” figuring out what is happening. Here’s a quick refresher from Miriam Webster: Fascism is
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. Applying this to Trump: check, check, check, check, check and check! There you have it!
As I’ve said numerous times here a foundational piece of fascism is a corporate/government partnership. If you were paying attention to Trump’s inauguration, the top BILLIONAIRES in America’s economy (Over a TRILLION’s worth) were standing side by side IN FRONT OF his cabinet selections as he took the oath of office (and OBTW refusing to put his hand on the Bible – I guess that’s instead of crossing his fingers) The tech BILLIONAIRES weren’t the only ones in attendance. One after another, including those who promised not to support anyone who participated in the INSURRECTION, apparently with their fingers crossed when making that pledge, were America’s OLIGARCHS trying to kiss Trump’s large bottom. It was really disgusting.
So, now we have a president who acts as if our constitution and our legal system are nothing more than a minor annoyance. As I’ve stated, for example, I find him signing an executive order to end birthright citizenship an ARROGANT assault on our constitution. However, if you even have a short memory you KNOW our SCOTUS already found a way around the 14th amendment’s clause regarding anyone who participates in or gives comfort to an INSURRECTION after taking the oath to the constitution SHOULD be barred from holding any office in government including, of course, president – PERIOD. Very clear wording for those of us who are “textualists.” The SCOTUS sidestepped that one as I knew they would. And, quickly! Where they really surprised me was agreeing to Trump’s claim of “absolute immunity” (well, sort of agreeing to it) as they dragged out the case as LONG as they possibly could, in this instance, to make sure Trump wouldn’t face the SERIOUS charges of an attempted coup until after the election. (Of course, him winning the election was their goal so he’d NEVER have to face those charges.) This court tilted to the extreme “right” is the result of Trump’s first reign (And, Mitch McConnell’s skulduggery) – it’s going to get a lot worse.
Just as I say here often, there’s always more and just last night, Trump FIRED most of the inspector generals who are the backstop against illegal activity and corruption at the varying agencies of our government. This is another prime example of Project 2025 and the plan to undermine our so-called “administrative state.” By putting his “stooges” in these positions we can all rest assured that our legal system will not be an impediment to the Project 2025 plan to remove THOUSANDS of career public servants – who actually take an oath to the constitution and, in most cases, take that oath very seriously. To Trump and the project 2025 folks, these career people are a potential impediment to their plan for a total takeover of our government. And, legally, Trump is REQUIRED to give Congress 30 days notice before he can fire a Senate confirmed Inspector General – but, who’s going to call him out on this thumbing of his nose to our laws?
I point you back to the definition of fascism. This is where we’re headed, FULL STOP! I have never doubted Trump’s ambition to be “like Vladimir Putin” – who is actually the “richest person in the world” and Trump is already massively violating the emoluments clause of the constitution – as if it wasn’t there – attempting to pile up as much wealth as he can while in office. And, this time there will be no investigations. I mean, the firing of the inspector generals, legally, as stated above, requires the executive to give Congress 30 days notice before any such action. Like I said, Trump considers the law to be nothing more than an annoying impediment and, in reality, who’s there to challenge him. He’s making sure in his first week “we the people” understand the laws don’t apply to him.
As far as his decree regarding birthright citizenship, there have been multiple lawsuits in opposition and there’s a temporary restraining order in place (for 14 days) but, I believe Trump thinks HIS SCOTUS will upend well over 100 years of precedent. When they do that, I believe there will be a much larger section of America who realizes what they voted for. I tried as hard as I could to get people to read Project 2025 prior to the election but, it appears, “we the people” feel that’s too much of a burden on our busy lives. Well, now the s@#t’s hitting the fan. And, unless you’re a bit mentally challenged, you will be able to figure out what is happening before too long.
Trump didn’t get grocery prices to go down on “day 1.” He didn’t end the war in Ukraine on day 1. He wasn’t the one who negotiated the cease fire in GAZA as he’d like you to believe (just another in a MOUNTAIN of LIES) but, he’ll probably blame Joe Biden when the cease fire breaks down (if it does). The reality, though, is his Project 2025 “advisors” are being embedded into key positions and “we the people” are going to be the losers of what they have in mind. So far, Trump hasn’t implemented the tariffs he promised to implement on day1, but I consider that a temporary blessing. (And, it won’t be long until he’s arguing for the demise of the debt ceiling – because, he’s got some serious tax cuts for the wealthy on his mind.
However, he’s stopped the funding of the projects which were either planned or underway as part of Joe Biden’s signature bipartisan legislation – infrastructure projects and those which were part of the “Inflation Reduction Act.” I’ve already pointed out Trump will look for a way to take credit for Biden’s achievements – guaranteed. Additionally, he’s, in essence, shut down the National Institutes of Health – the foundation for America’s scientific medical research and, of course, he nominated the most unqualified person EVER to lead the department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert Kennedy Jr.. virtually assuring if there’s another pandemic it will be a DISASTER. Clean water and clean air? Hell no! America is rotting from the middle out! (He’ll blame that on Biden too)
His choice to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth (a Fox “news” weekend contributor – who once said he hasn’t washed his hand for months – he said this on the air) would have been laughable if it wasn’t so serious. The guy’s got a credible history of excessive drinking in public to the point of embarrassment (and coming to work smelling of alcohol), sexually (and emotionally) assaulting women along with a disgusting record of infidelity, plus a documented record of running two veterans organizations into almost financial ruin where he had to be fired – they had budgets of about $10 MILLION which he mismanaged and now he’s in charge of the DOD with a budget of almost $900 BILLION while overseeing a workforce of about 3.4 MILLION personel whose number one priority is keeping America safe. What could possibly go wrong.
From Trump’s standpoint, he knows when he wants to order the military onto our streets (in violation of that pesky constitution) to shoot protestors Hegseth won’t hesitate to follow the (illegal) command. Will the generals? I suppose the “generals” will be the next to be purged from our armed forces so that Trump can get his toadies in there as well. And, do you think there’s enough members of Congress on the republican side with the guts to say no to Trump? Especially, after the thugs who assaulted police officers on January 6th are back out on the streets. The republicans in Congress over the past 8+ years have proven themselves to be nothing more than a bunch of COWARDS. (I have to add, at this point I’ve got my concerns about the democrats as well – we’re not facing “business as usual” – they need to grow a spine – and FAST)
The 3 republicans who voted AGAINST Hegseth are, guess what, getting death threats from all those “Christians” who make up Trump’s base. This is how Trump manages to get republicans to go along with This fascist takeover. They value their jobs more than they value the oath they took to the constitution – and, the fear of Trump’s base – even if it’s just a promise to “primary” them seems to be enough to “keep them in line.” This is a sad, dark time in our history and it’s going to take a long time for “we the people” to recover. I’m about to start a book by Adam Serwer titled “The Cruelty is the Point” and he “hit the nail right on the head.”
For example, the people of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina have yet to recover from the two MAJOR hurricanes which came one right after another causing many BILLIONS of dollars in damage and the (still ongoing) wild fires in California that have been apocalyptic with damage estimates exceeding $100 BILLION – the people in both places are hurting and Trump is threatening to repeal FEMA. He says he “wants the states to take care of their own disasters.” I have to wonder if, for example, California – which is a “donor state” – meaning they send more to the federal government’s coffers than they get in return – I wonder if they can just peel off some of that outgoing tax money in order to deal with their own disaster relief.
That won’t work that well the next time a hurricane hits Mississippi, or Alabama, or Louisiana – and, I can’t imagine the people of North Carolina have the financial capability of helping those affected by the hurricanes to recover. Trump is proposing what would amount to the extreme version of America being a “me” country. Natural Disasters, pandemics, you name it – “we the people,” in Trump’s eyes are on our own. It’s becoming, for example, nearly impossible to get homeowners insurance in the places where these disasters happen all too frequently. Hurricanes in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, etc. – Tornadoes in the Midwest, wildfires in the West – all being exacerbated by the Climate Crisis which Trump believes is a “hoax.” (Just as he believes virtually anything he doesn’t like is a “hoax”) And, he wants to shut down FEMA. Yikes!
I have a former acquaintance who occasionally makes a coment here who considers me a “radical left” person who is unable to understand the opposing viewpoint. Well, to that, I say I’d love to sit down and discuss viewpoints with someone like Liz Cheney who I disagree with close to 100%. Here’s where I don’t disagree with her and where I have gained a lot of respect. She tells the TRUTH as she sees it. She was WILLING to lose her position in Congress instead of bending the knee to Trump – knowing he fomented the INSURRECTION – and, to anyone who doesn’t get that maybe I should say he attempted a coup d’etat, the overthrowing of our government after he LOST a free and fair election. How can anyone in good conscience try to find “common ground” in a circumstance where one side is attempting to destroy the longest running example EVER in world history of a people governing themselves via a democratic republic.
I have to believe my former friend simply doesn’t understand Trump is an out and out fascist and he’s, along with his Project 2025 mates, planning to turn America’ s “ship of state” into something resembling Russia – which is a country resembling 1930’s Germany. If you’ve read this far I’m assuming you can put “two plus two” together. Previously, on more than one occasion, I put a link to Project 2025, but the last time I did it I was forced to give them my email address – and, silly me, I actually did so. The result has been a flood of Trump’s request for money – emails where they somehow think I’m a Trump stooge. So, if you haven’t read it, I suggest you do – it’s easy to find online and maybe you can get it without giving your actual email address. (And, I have to add, if my former acquaintance knows Trump is a fascist and goes along with it, well there is no room for “common ground”)
To me, EVERYONE should read Project 2025. But, I also thought everyone should have read the Muller report too – I tried to get my former friend who I used to meet regularly for breakfast to read it, but he refused. Additionally, I thought EVERYONE should have read the report from the Select Committee on January 6th’s – about the attempted coup – but, hardly anyone has read any of this. That’s why people around the world believe America’s “democracy” is in the hands of “low information voters.” And, those voters going to have to “own” the consequences of voting a fascist into the Oval Office. (of course, they were warned by several of Trump’s high ranking oppointees prior to the election – almost ALL of the witnesses at the J6 hearings were republican members of Trump’s administration)
Final Thought: There’s so much to say, but I’ll end with this. I’m old enough to remember what life was like for women back before the Roe v Wade SCOTUS decision in 1973. Now, don’t get me wrong – for me an abortion is a procedure which I would only support in an emergency. Like when my first wife had a miscarriage, I took her bleeding to the hospital and didn’t know, at the time, the procedure she went through was in essence an abortion. She was already passing the fetus and potentially her life was in danger, plus her ability to have healthy children was at stake and no one hesitated to give her the care she needed. This was after Roe by a year or so. When I think back to that time I often shudder to cosider what if we’d been in Texas under today’s laws? I hate to even go there.
But, when I was in college in the 1960’s I remember several people I knew who had paid like around $75 for their girlfriends to have what amounted to “back alley” abortions. At the time, I had no idea what was involved and what trauma the girls, in those situation. went through. I never made a judgement on anyone because I was so focused on playing basketball that it just wasn’t, sadly, something I gave much thought to. But, over the past few years I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’ve written about my thoughts on this site (in the archives – I don’t know how you’d find it even if interested).
The reason I bring this up is because – despite both Trump and Vance saying they wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban – I believe that is exactly what’s on the minds of those who wrote Project 2025 and, I believe, they’ll find a way to pull it off. You know, no longer “let the states decide” – they want it banned – and many of them with NO exceptions. I have a good friend who, many years ago was about 6 or 7 months pregnant when the fetus died – in other words she was carrying a dead baby around – one that was likely decomposing. She had what is referred to as a “late term abortion” which, likely, saved her life. There are so many stories about the women who are suffering and dying because of these anti-abortion laws it grieves my heart.
As a Christian, I believe in free will. That’s one of the realities that drew me to Christianity in the first place. Christianity is not something you can force on someone else – which, to me, is why forcing Bibles and the Ten Commandments into public schools is so WRONG. (As an aside: Can you name one of the Ten Commandments Trump hasn’t regularly violated?) Forcing Christianity into schools is a direct violation of the freedom of (or from) religion which is a halmark of our democratic republic – the doctrine of the separation of church and state. That said, over the years as I was thinking about abortion I came to the conclusion if you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one. (and, pray that if you become pregnant you won’t have any complications – it’s gotten to the point were being pregnant in America is a life threatening condition) I don’t “get” where a bunch of old white men can tell women what to do with their bodies. This is a topic which could go on almost indefinitely, so I’ll end it here. Stay tuned…..
Sorry Tony, that’s a lot of paragraphs!