Excellent analysis, Rob! You essentialize and tie it all together very well. You create cognitive order out of the Trumpian event chaos. Everything Trump is doing has an underlying modus operandi, and that is power, power for him to exercise over our lives.
It is very disturbing to think that it has happened here. But it has. And we must be realistic and knowledgeable about it so that we can fight back.
I feel better armed for that fight!
Incidentally, it seems that the next signpost of dictatorship will be for a complete defiance of the courts. It seems that we are there already. Trump just recently acknowledged that he can bring back Kilmar Garcia from El Salvador with a simple phone call, but he won’t.
It seems that the Supreme Court is choosing to evade/bury their head in the sand. They hope that if they are quiet the problem will just go away. But it seems very unlikely now that Trump will comply with their 9-0 decision to bring him back.
That means that increasingly Trump is just going to ignore the courts. If a lesser court holds him in contempt, he will just laugh and ignore it. Meanwhile, by choosing to stay silent and not denounce Trump for ignoring their orders, Supreme Court is sending a clear message to Trump: He can do what he wants, the judiciary be damned.
He will have become that “unitary executive” - i.e., dictator - across the entirety of government.
On a slightly different note, I think he has revoked some green cards. Next, he will revoke citizenship - first for naturalized citizens and maybe even for birth citizens. And he will throw American citizens into Bukele’s hell hole, and other to-be-announced hell holes around the world.
And eventually, it will be critics of Trump who will be sent to these hell-holes.
He already has co-opted huge financial and legal resources through his tariff and regulatory attacks on business, and his extortion of law firms and the media.
The path really seems clear. Only my inability to envision such things in America makes me feel this won’t happen. But logically and rationally, I know it will. It is where we are headed.
What I don't understand is why the police, the military or the state governments won't stand up for the rule of law. I always have held law enforcement in high regard. I would think some of them would not be willing to go along with this. In the end, this coup can only be stopped if someone wielding force refuses to follow his orders.
Excellent analysis, but there's one more area of Trump's activity you should mention: At the same time he's concentrating so much power in himself and his office, political, legal and economic, he has also established mechanisms by which people can give him unlimited amounts of money, more or less untraceably. I don't think we've yet gotten any credibly-sourced reports about how industrialists, foreign governments, indicted criminals, etc., have arranged his intercession and protection by buying a few million in $Trump coins, or DJT stock... but we certainly will.
"—including *children* who are citizens" -- As I understand it, the mother, who was being deported, elected to keep the child with her for lack of a feasible alternative.
"A Wisconsin judge was just arrested after she was accused of refusing to cooperate with an attempt by ICE to detain someone in her courtroom." My review of the gov't's complaint is that a charge of obstructing justice is plausible. If the complaint is factual, the judge did more than "refuse to cooperate."
"The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he must “facilitate” the return of at least one of these hapless victims" Unfortunately, the Court provided an "out": "The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs." --Noem v. Abrega
I offer these observations in the spirit of strengthening this post, as I wholeheartedly agree with its crux.
Thank you for your commentary. Threads, the social media platform run by Meta/Facebook/Zuckerberg, needs to receive a copy. Threads is currently FULL of pro-Russian, Trump-o-philia commentary and desperately needs a correction. The posts are either from Russian bots or trolls. Or they are from Putinized Amero-Russians, who are figurative Russians rather than literal ones, and who reside in the United States. Send them the message and take back the website and our country.
Excellent analysis, Rob! You essentialize and tie it all together very well. You create cognitive order out of the Trumpian event chaos. Everything Trump is doing has an underlying modus operandi, and that is power, power for him to exercise over our lives.
It is very disturbing to think that it has happened here. But it has. And we must be realistic and knowledgeable about it so that we can fight back.
I feel better armed for that fight!
Incidentally, it seems that the next signpost of dictatorship will be for a complete defiance of the courts. It seems that we are there already. Trump just recently acknowledged that he can bring back Kilmar Garcia from El Salvador with a simple phone call, but he won’t.
It seems that the Supreme Court is choosing to evade/bury their head in the sand. They hope that if they are quiet the problem will just go away. But it seems very unlikely now that Trump will comply with their 9-0 decision to bring him back.
That means that increasingly Trump is just going to ignore the courts. If a lesser court holds him in contempt, he will just laugh and ignore it. Meanwhile, by choosing to stay silent and not denounce Trump for ignoring their orders, Supreme Court is sending a clear message to Trump: He can do what he wants, the judiciary be damned.
He will have become that “unitary executive” - i.e., dictator - across the entirety of government.
On a slightly different note, I think he has revoked some green cards. Next, he will revoke citizenship - first for naturalized citizens and maybe even for birth citizens. And he will throw American citizens into Bukele’s hell hole, and other to-be-announced hell holes around the world.
And eventually, it will be critics of Trump who will be sent to these hell-holes.
He already has co-opted huge financial and legal resources through his tariff and regulatory attacks on business, and his extortion of law firms and the media.
The path really seems clear. Only my inability to envision such things in America makes me feel this won’t happen. But logically and rationally, I know it will. It is where we are headed.
It is time to fight with all we have.
What I don't understand is why the police, the military or the state governments won't stand up for the rule of law. I always have held law enforcement in high regard. I would think some of them would not be willing to go along with this. In the end, this coup can only be stopped if someone wielding force refuses to follow his orders.
Excellent analysis, but there's one more area of Trump's activity you should mention: At the same time he's concentrating so much power in himself and his office, political, legal and economic, he has also established mechanisms by which people can give him unlimited amounts of money, more or less untraceably. I don't think we've yet gotten any credibly-sourced reports about how industrialists, foreign governments, indicted criminals, etc., have arranged his intercession and protection by buying a few million in $Trump coins, or DJT stock... but we certainly will.
"—including *children* who are citizens" -- As I understand it, the mother, who was being deported, elected to keep the child with her for lack of a feasible alternative.
"A Wisconsin judge was just arrested after she was accused of refusing to cooperate with an attempt by ICE to detain someone in her courtroom." My review of the gov't's complaint is that a charge of obstructing justice is plausible. If the complaint is factual, the judge did more than "refuse to cooperate."
"The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that he must “facilitate” the return of at least one of these hapless victims" Unfortunately, the Court provided an "out": "The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs." --Noem v. Abrega
I offer these observations in the spirit of strengthening this post, as I wholeheartedly agree with its crux.
Thank you for your commentary. Threads, the social media platform run by Meta/Facebook/Zuckerberg, needs to receive a copy. Threads is currently FULL of pro-Russian, Trump-o-philia commentary and desperately needs a correction. The posts are either from Russian bots or trolls. Or they are from Putinized Amero-Russians, who are figurative Russians rather than literal ones, and who reside in the United States. Send them the message and take back the website and our country.