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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 6, 2026 at 12:05 am
On January 20, 2025, for the second time, Donald J. Trump took the oath of office as the 47th President of the United States.
Since then, he has aggressively committed a series of outrages against the country he claims to love, including:
- Granting clemency to more than 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack.
- Flooding Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, with 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who terrorized (and in two cases murdered) both American citizens and illegal aliens
- Signing executive orders reversing climate change initiatives and eliminating DEI programs.
- Revoking an executive order on Artificial Intelligence safety signed by former President Joseph Biden, to establish safeguards for the rapidly advancing AI technology.
- Threatening Greenland—an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark—with invasion unless it agreed to acquisition by the United States. Since Denmark is a member of NATO, such an invasion would pit the United States against its own alliance.
Greenland
- Purging about a half-dozen executive assistant directors at the FBI. These were some of the bureau’s top managers overseeing criminal, national security and cyber investigations. Their “crime”: Investigating Trump’s inciting the January 6, 2021 coup attempt and illegally holding highly sensitive national security documents after leaving office.
- Repeatedly threatening to make Canada—a United States ally for over 200 years—America’s “51st state” by military or economic force.
- Firing the board members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and appointing himself as chairman—just as Joseph Stalin made himself arbiter of what was permissible for artists in the Soviet Union.
- Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- Launching an unprovoked attack on Iran on February 28, he believes that in six weeks he can force its Islamic rulers to abandon their plans to develop nuclear weapons. Expecting victory in six weeks, after eight months he finds himself stymied by Iran’s closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Strait of Hormuz
- Shutting down the Federal Government on October 1, when Democrats refused to agree to his gutting Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), causing 10-15 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
- Shutting off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the poor to pressure Democrats to support his gutting of healthcare programs.
There were numerous instances where intervention by Federal legislators or law enforcement authorities could have utterly changed the outcome of the 2024 election—and prevented these outrages.
Case #1: On December 18, 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
Their motive: Fear that if they didn’t, they would be “primaried” by even more extreme, Trump-supported Right-wing candidates—and lose their positions and the accompanying power and perks.
Had Republicans agreed to convict him, he could not have run again for President.
Case #2: On January 13, 2021, Trump was impeached for the second time for “incitement of insurrection”—inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.
The reason: To stop the counting of Electoral College votes, which he knew would prove that former Vice President Joseph Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
The evidence against him was overwhelming—including video of his inciting a mob of his followers to storm the Capitol Building.
But Republican Senators again acquitted Trump on February 13, 2021—choosing ambition over patriotism.
Had they done so, he could not have again been a candidate for President.
Donald Trump
Case #3: Only on November 18, 2022—a year and a half after becoming Attorney General—did Merrick Garland appoint Jack Smith Independent Counsel to investigate Donald Trump’s role for:
- Inciting the January 6 attack on Congress; and
- Illegally seizing and storing highly classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida.
This gave Trump time to play his “deny and delay” game. Had he been prosecuted and convicted before the November 5 Presidential election, the results might well have been different.
Even hardcore supporters might have proved unwilling to vote for someone found guilty of inciting a riot or stealing highly classified documents.
Case #4: In June, 2023, Trump was indicted for illegally seizing and storing hundreds of highly classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee as Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, presided over the case.
She repeatedly ruled in his favor and finally dismissed the case in July, 2024. claiming that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Aileen Cannon
Southern District of Florida, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Many legal experts, citing her handling of the civil case against Trump, called for her recusal from the case. Jack Smith could have requested her removal from the case but did not ask a Federal appeals court to do so.
MSNBC analyst Barbara McQuade told Newsweek that Smith likely refused to do so to “return public trust” to the Justice Department, which had been challenged in recent years.
Cannon’s kid-gloves treatment of Trump echoed that of the Right-wing judge who presided over Adolf Hitler’s trial in 1923 for trying to overthrow the government of Bavaria.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 5, 2026 at 12:10 am
On November 14, 2019, the CNN website showcased an opinion piece by Jane Carr and Laura Juncadella entitled: “Fractured States of America.”
And it opened:
“Some worry that it’s already too late, that we’ve crossed a threshold of polarization from which there is no return. Others look toward a future where more moderate voices are heeded and heard, and Americans can find better ways to relate to each other. Still others look back to history for a guide—perhaps for what not to do, or at the very least for proof that while it’s been bad before, progress is still possible.”
A series of sub-headlines summed up many of the comments reported.
- “I was starting to hate people that I have loved for years.”
- “Voting for Trump cost me my friends.”
- “I feel like I’m living in hostile territory.”
- “Our children are watching this bloodsport.”
- “A student’s Nazi-style salute reflects the mate.”
- “Our leaders reflect the worst of us.”
- “I truly believe I will be assaulted over a bumper sticker.”
- “It already feels like a cold war.”
It’s natural to regret that the United States has become so self-destructively polarized. And to wish that its citizens could somehow reach across the chasm that divides them and find common cause with one another.
But that is to ignore the brutal truth that America now faces a choice:
- To submit to the tyrannical aggression of a ruthless political party convinced that they are entitled to power to manipulate and undermine the country’s democratic processes; or
- To fiercely resist that aggression and the destruction of those democratic processes.
In a November 14, 2019 column, “Republicans Can’t Abandon Trump Now Because They’re All Guilty,” freelance journalist Joel Mathis warned: “Trump’s abuses of power mirror those of the GOP as a whole. Republicans can’t turn on him, because doing so would be to indict their party’s entire approach to politics.”
For example:
- At the state level, GOP legislatures have passed numerous voter ID laws over the last decade. Officially, the reason has been to prevent non-citizens from voting. In reality, the motive is to depress turnout among Democratic constituencies.
- When Democrats have won elections, Republicans have tried to block them from carrying out their policies. In Utah, voters approved Medicaid expansion at the ballot box—but Republicans nullified this.
- In North Carolina, Republican legislators prevented voters from choosing their representatives. Instead, Republican representatives chose voters through partisan sorting. In August, 2018, the state’s Supreme Court ruled the legislative gerrymandered district map unconstitutional.
The upshot of all this: “The president and his party are united in the belief that their entitlement to power allows them to manipulate and undermine the country’s democratic processes….”
At the time of the January 6, 2021 coup attempt, even Republicans admitted Donald Trump’s responsibility for it.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy frantically phoned Trump, insisting that the rioters—who were breaking into his office through the windows—were the President’s supporters. He begged Trump to call them off.
“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said.
But on January 28, 2021, “My Kevin” groveled before Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, while they discussed how to win a House majority in the 2022 midterm elections.
Kevin McCarthy
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on January 12: “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
But when the Senate met to try Trump for inciting an insurrection, McConnell voted to acquit him—and successfully urged his fellow Republicans to do the same.
* * * * *
The United States has indeed become a polarized country. But it’s not the polarization between Republicans and Democrats, or between conservatives and liberals.
It’s the polarization between
- Those intent on enslaving everyone who doesn’t subscribe to their Fascistic beliefs and agenda—and those who resist being enslaved.
- Those who believe in reason and science—and those who believe in an infallible “strong man” who rejects both.
- Those who cherish education—and those who celebrate ignorance.
- Those who believe in the rule of law—and those who believe in their right to act as a law unto themselves.
- Those who believe in treating others (especially the less fortunate) with decency—and those who believe in the triumph of intimidation and force.
Those who hoped that Republicans would choose patriotism over partisanship got their answer on February 5, 2020. That was when the Republican-dominated Senate—ignoring the overwhelming evidence against him—acquitted Donald Trump on impeachment articles: Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power.
And they got their answer again on February 13, 2021, when Senate Republicans voted to acquit him of Incitement of Insurrection.
It’s natural to regret that the United States has become a sharply divided nation. But those who lament this should realize there is only one choice:
Either non-Fascist Americans will destroy the Republican party and its voters that threaten to enslave them—or they will be enslaved by Republicans and their voters who believe they are entitled to manipulate and undermine the country’s democratic processes.
There is no middle ground.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 2, 2026 at 12:06 am
In 1938, using threats of overwhelming force, Adolf Hitler successfully annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia.
Since resuming the Presidency on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump has moved aggressively against Canada, Mexico and Greenland.
Greenland is strategically significant to the United States. It sits between Russia and the eastern coast of the United States, and is the fastest way from Europe to New York.
Trump declared that the United States must own and control Greenland “for purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World.” He has not ruled out a military takeover of the island.
Greenland
This even though the Kingdom of Denmark—a member of NATO and an American ally—holds control of the semiautonomous island.
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his powerful Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union.
Less than two years earlier, on August 23, 1939, he had signed a “non-aggression” pact with his longtime arch-enemy, Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union.
Since then, his army had conquered Poland, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Greece and Yugoslavia. Hitler believed it would conquer Russia in about six weeks.
Adolf Hitler
Four years later, Hitler was dead and Nazi Germany lay in ruins.
Similarly, on February 28, 2026, Donald Trump conspired with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Israel’s mortal enemy and America’s longtime antagonist: Iran.
Trump predicted that the war would be over in four to six weeks—the same timetable Adolf Hitler gave for the completion of his victory over the Soviet Union in 1941.
And just as “Operation Barbarossa” proved a fatal mistake for Hitler, so Trump’s latest stab at playing Generalissimo has proven a total disaster. Seven months into his war, he still has no plan for winning it or withdrawing from it without losing face.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to control the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels of oil used to pass each day. That flow has been reduced to between two million and six million barrels each day.
Strait of Hormuz
This has created a worldwide spiral in oil prices—and fueled inflation in the United States and other nations. But as prices for housing, energy and food soar in the United States, Trump claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.”
Like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, Trump focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” literally overshadowing Arlington Cemetery.
In Nazi Germany, freedom of the press was non-existent.
- Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels forbade editors to publish any content that insulted the Third Reich.
- The regime closed down anti-Nazi newspapers and used the SA and SS to storm offices and destroy printing presses.
- Journalists who resisted were arrested, sent to concentration camps, or forced out of the profession, particularly if they were Jewish.
- Opposition and multi-party newspapers were banned, and their printing equipment and plants were confiscated by the Nazi Party.
Joseph Goebbels
During his second administration, Donald Trump has waged an even more relentless war on the free press than during his first one. This has included:
- Routinely denouncing critical journalists and mainstream outlets as “fake news,” “enemies of the American people” and national security threats.
- Revoking press credentials and barring reporters from outlets like CNN, Politico and MS NOW from entering the White House.
- Banning Associated Press reporters for refusing to use the term “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.”
- Filing multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuits against major news organizations such as CBS and the Wall Street Journal.
Donald Trump
* * * * * * * * * *
Those who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 knew:
- He was a man driven by greed, racism, egotism and hatred.
- He was a 34-times convicted felon for falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn “star” before the 2016 Presidential election.
- His lies about the dangers of COVID had killed at least 400,000 Americans.
- He had incited a treasonous attack on Congress to illegally remain in office as President.
None of this mattered to those who voted for him.
In “Death’s Head Revisited,” a 1961 episode of “The Twilight Zone,” Rod Serling offered a haunting story of otherworldly revenge:
A former SS captain visits the ruins of the Dachau concentration camp to relive his past sadistic pleasures—and is put on trial by the ghosts of the inmates he tortured.
As usual, Serling, as narrator, gets the final word:
“All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes; all of them.
“They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard.
“Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience.
“And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God’s Earth.”
In 2016, 2020 and 2024, millions of Americans—fueled by greed, ignorance and/or hatred—cast aside Rod Serling’s timeless warning.
And voted for a man who intended to turn the Earth into a graveyard.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABUSE OF POWER, ADOLF HITLER, AILEEN CANNON, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, ASSASSINATION, AXIOS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRD FLU, BLACKS, BLOOMBERG, BLUESKY, BUZZFEED, CANADA, CBS NEWS, CHINA, CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS, CLIMATE CHANGE, CNN, COVID-19, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DANIEL CASSINO, DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC PARTY, DEMOCRATS, DENMARK, DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION (DEI) PROGRAMS, DONALD TRUMP, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FBI, FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA), FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FUEL PRICES, GALLUP POLL, GAZA, GLOBAL CONFLICT, GREENLAND, GROCERY PRICES, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HILLARY CLINTON, HISPANICS, HUFFINGTON POST, HUNTER BIDEN, illegal immigration, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENVORCEMENT (ICE), IMPEACHMENT, INFLATION, INSPECTORS GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS, IRAN, ISRAEL, JACK SMITH, JAMAL KHASHOOGI, JAMES COMEY, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JARED KUSHNER, JIMMY HOFFA, JOHN ADAMS, JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH STALIN, Kamala Harris, KEVIN MCCARTHY, KIM JONG-UN, LATINOS, LETITIA JAMES, LOW INFORMATION VOTERS, MAR-A-LAGO, MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, MASCULINITY, MEDIA MATTERS, MERRICK GARLAND, MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA, MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATO, NAVAJO COLDE TALKERS, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NORTH KORREA, NPR, OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS, PARDONS, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROBERT F. KENNEDY, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, ST. PAUL MINNESOTA, STRAIT OF HORMUZ, SUPERMAN, SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP), TALKING POINTS MEMO, TERRORISM, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE DAILY BLOG, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THOMAS MATTHEW CROOKS, TIME, TRANSPORTATION COSTS, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. BORDER PATROL, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD), UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODMYR ZELENSKY, VOX, X, XI JINPING
BIRTHING FASCISM–AND TRUMP’S EVIL: PART ONE (OF FOUR)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 6, 2026 at 12:05 amOn January 20, 2025, for the second time, Donald J. Trump took the oath of office as the 47th President of the United States.
Since then, he has aggressively committed a series of outrages against the country he claims to love, including:
Greenland
Strait of Hormuz
There were numerous instances where intervention by Federal legislators or law enforcement authorities could have utterly changed the outcome of the 2024 election—and prevented these outrages.
Case #1: On December 18, 2019, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5, 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
Their motive: Fear that if they didn’t, they would be “primaried” by even more extreme, Trump-supported Right-wing candidates—and lose their positions and the accompanying power and perks.
Had Republicans agreed to convict him, he could not have run again for President.
Case #2: On January 13, 2021, Trump was impeached for the second time for “incitement of insurrection”—inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol.
The reason: To stop the counting of Electoral College votes, which he knew would prove that former Vice President Joseph Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
The evidence against him was overwhelming—including video of his inciting a mob of his followers to storm the Capitol Building.
But Republican Senators again acquitted Trump on February 13, 2021—choosing ambition over patriotism.
Had they done so, he could not have again been a candidate for President.
Donald Trump
Case #3: Only on November 18, 2022—a year and a half after becoming Attorney General—did Merrick Garland appoint Jack Smith Independent Counsel to investigate Donald Trump’s role for:
This gave Trump time to play his “deny and delay” game. Had he been prosecuted and convicted before the November 5 Presidential election, the results might well have been different.
Even hardcore supporters might have proved unwilling to vote for someone found guilty of inciting a riot or stealing highly classified documents.
Case #4: In June, 2023, Trump was indicted for illegally seizing and storing hundreds of highly classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee as Federal Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, presided over the case.
She repeatedly ruled in his favor and finally dismissed the case in July, 2024. claiming that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was unconstitutional.
Aileen Cannon
Southern District of Florida, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Many legal experts, citing her handling of the civil case against Trump, called for her recusal from the case. Jack Smith could have requested her removal from the case but did not ask a Federal appeals court to do so.
MSNBC analyst Barbara McQuade told Newsweek that Smith likely refused to do so to “return public trust” to the Justice Department, which had been challenged in recent years.
Cannon’s kid-gloves treatment of Trump echoed that of the Right-wing judge who presided over Adolf Hitler’s trial in 1923 for trying to overthrow the government of Bavaria.
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