The below startling headline article from THE AP now us all over most of the major and minor media channels
that got my attention and hopefully yours:
“Trump's vow to only be a
dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric”
Using that as a
starting point I make the following post, which is rather long (9 pages). It
has a lot of links and references about a second Trump presidential term that
he now seeks. Right up front, what I am posting is not hyperbole. Listen to Trump
in his own words, not mine. Review what he has said, still says, done, tried to
do, and now promises to do and finish. It is truly scary isn’t it?
The links in this post are reputable and verifiable.
How much of this story do you actually believe from Trump –
well as for me not the “day-one part” – how about for the rest of his life part?
If he wins, more and more people are saying that he will never
leave the White House except in a pine box as the next Trump family takes over in
the way family-linked dictators do in non-democratic countries.
Directly related to all that follows comes from Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller running
the Trump “cabinet of losers” reported on here from SALON. Then that add to
your research list this from THE MESSENGER.
TUSCALOOSA, AL (AP) — As Trump faces a growing scrutiny over
his increasingly authoritarian and violent rhetoric, FOX News
host Sean Hannity gave his longtime friend a chance to assure the American
people that he wouldn't abuse power or
seek retribution as a dictator if he wins a second term by stoking that fire and
telling a live audience in Davenport, IA: “Except for day one. I want to
close the border, and I want to drill, drill, drill.”
Trump then told the audience
about Sean Hannity who asked that question: “We love this guy. You’re not going
to be a dictator, are you he asked me, and I said: No, no, no, other than day
one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After
that, I’m not a dictator.”
Trump has a long history
of making inflammatory proclamations that spark outrage from detractors and
generate a stream of headlines, without ever coming to fruition. Often they are
made in a tongue-in-cheek manner that allows Trump's allies to claim he was
joking and that the out of touch media takes him far too literally (we must take him serious because he acts on
these stunts).
Trump campaign aides said he was simply trying to trigger
the left and the media with his dictator comment while at the same time seeking
to focus attention on the influx of migrants at the border and stubborn
inflation, two vulnerabilities for President Joe Biden heading into the 2024
general election.
But the consequences of
Trump's rhetoric have been made all too clear, after he refused to accept the
results of the 2020 election and a mob of his supporters violently stormed the
U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 to stop the certification of Biden's election victory.
Trump has long expressed regard for authoritarian leaders
and the power they wield as he vows vengeance and retribution and outlines a second-term agenda marked by an
unprecedented expansion of executive power, unparalleled interference in the
justice system, and a massive purge of civil servants (e.g., taking away their
civil service rights).
Indeed, hours before his
remarks were aired, a longtime ally who is widely expected to serve in a top
national security role vowed to target journalists in a second Trump term.
That threat came from Kash Patel (pictured above along with Steven Bannon
and Stephen Miller) that some say he could
take over the CIA director’s chair said: “We’re going to come after the
people in the media who lied about American citizens, and who helped Joe Biden
rig presidential elections.”
That comes from numerous local,
state and federal election officials, a long list of courts (over 60 cases he
lost), top former campaign staffers, and even Trump's own AG all have said that was no evidence of the 2020 election fraud that Trump keeps alleging.
Other critics have seized on Trump’s comments, painting him
as a threat to democracy as they seek to turn the 2024 election into a referendum
on Trump and not President Biden.
Cognizant of the risks, Trump's campaign has tried to
distance itself from Patel’s statement as well as headline-grabbing policy
plans proposed by several outside groups staffed by longtime Trump allies. Some
of Trump’s top aides issued a statement last month saying those groups did not
speak for the campaign.
Trump, too, has tried to
turn the tables on Biden, who has increasingly argued the former president
poses a fundamental danger to the country. In a speech in Iowa this month, Trump insisted it is
really Biden who is the true “destroyer of democracy,” not citing himself with four
criminal indictments and 91 specific charges that he faces. That is a very weak
argument Trump and his campaign plan to continue to make heading into the 2024
general election.
Trump advisor, Jason
Miller, said Biden’s attack against Trump was: “It is a clear sign that the
Democrats believe their only possible pathway to victory is to go scorched
earth on President Trump. Four years of President Trump in the White House, and
he never did any of the types of things that Joe Biden is currently doing to
him.”
But, we cannot and must not forget nor dismiss Trump's own words like
in March 2023, for example when he said: “In 2016, I said I am your voice.
Today, I add, I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been
wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
In the months since,
Trump has repeatedly and explicitly vowed to use the DOJ to target his enemies
in a dramatic break from the long-standing, post-Watergate tradition of
independence.
In a June video clip,
Trump said: “I will appoint a real special prosecutor to go after the most
corrupt president in history, Joe Biden, the entire Biden crime family, and all
others involved with the destruction of our elections, borders and our country
itself.”
Then in an interview
with Univision shortly thereafter, he went even further, saying: “If I
happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very
badly, I will say: Go down and indict them.”
Last December, he mused about circumventing the Constitution, arguing that the election fraud he alleges “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
He has taken hostile approach to the
press, vowing to “rout the fake news media” calling reporters: “THE ENEMY OF
THE PEOPLE!” (Note a favorite Stalin phrase) by saying outlets like NBC News and MSNBC
should be investigated for treason.
Trump's extensive policy plans also rely on a dramatic
expansion of executive power. He wants to strip tens of thousands of career
federal workers of their civil service protections (his return to his once
tried & failed Schedule F employee policy) saying: “If you are not
loyal, you’re will be booted out and won’t have any Civil
Service protections.”
He has vowed new ideological tests for those entering the
country and has talked about increasing the military's role on domestic soil, including
sending the National Guard to the border and to cities like Chicago to tackle
crime.
He has warned that the gravest threats to the nation come “not from abroad, but from within,” and called for expanded use of the death penalty while praising countries that rely on “quick trials, and extrajudicial killings, saying looters should be shot on sight. He has continued to praise authoritarian leaders like China's Xi Jinping, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, while dehumanizing his enemies as scum, and thugs, who live like vermin.”
(Note: That vermin quip is an old 1930’s phrase that Hitler used about eradicating Jews in Germany).
Aides argue the former
president did not enact some of his most extreme campaign promises, like
jailing his then-rival Hillary Clinton, or enacting “a total and complete
shutdown of all Muslims entering the United States from sh*t hole countries.”
Those former aides also note his campaign operation this time around has been widely praised as more disciplined and professional than his previous efforts — a sign of what could be to come.
Trump is expected to face far fewer guardrails, including his administration
filled with loyalists, fewer rivals in Congress, and more appointees across the
courts.
Quentin Fulks, the
No. 2 official on Biden’s reelection campaign, pushed back at Trump’s attempts
to turn the issue back on Biden and said there is no comparison between the men,
saying: “President Biden is not standing at the presidential podium and saying
that he’s going to round up his political enemies and use government to go
after his political enemies.” (Like the old Nixon enemies list).
Fulks went on to say:
“It is imperative for Democrats to call out this rhetoric when we see it and
make sure the American people really know what’s at stake.”
Meanwhile, Ken Cuccinelli,
a top immigration official in Trump’s administration who now leads a super PAC
supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, called the former
president’s dictator remarks “Provocative
and vintage Trump.”
Cuccinelli then added: “Do I think he’s trying to needle everybody?
Yes, I do. He enjoys doing that. Does it help improve America? No, it doesn’t.
And he doesn’t care about that because his first concern is Donald Trump and
nothing else (sic).”
Added to all that above
is the name for a 2nd Trump term as we have heard the term
tossed around that is “Project 2025” – The Trump plan for a new American
system of government were Trump alone has control of everything from -to-bottom
as reported on here from SALON.com with a few of the Trump proposals that we know about:
1. He plans to gut the EPA and drill in
Alaska under the illusion that somehow the profits will pay
for Social Security and Medicare.
2. He's going to use the Insurrection Act to deploy the
military to quell domestic dissent and he'll ban homeless camps in cities and put the unhoused in
tent cities.
3. He plans to round up millions of migrants and put them in
detention camps before mass deportation. (We're going to have a whole lot of internment
camps in Trump’s America).
4. He plans to pardon a large portion of the January 6 insurrectionists.
5. He then
will go after Joe
Biden and other political enemies using the DOJ as well as the media.
6. He is going to pull out of NATO, abandon Ukraine and back the right-wingers in
the Israeli government.
7. He will declare war on blue states, particularly the cities where
he plans to send in what amounts to an occupying federal force.
Please read this
extract from THE AP on this same subject:
In a post on his
Truth Social network in September, Trump repeated both phrases and vowed to
investigate NBC News and MSNBC for “Country Threatening Treason” and try to
curb their access to the airwaves, saying: “I say up front, openly, and
proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others
of the Lame Stream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly
dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events. Why should NBC,
or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use
the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to
Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should
pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country.”
FYI: A long list
of Trump’s previous quotes over the years seen here.
Two loud mouth blowhards (Steve Bannon and Kash Patel) are making threats to a
wide variety of Americans as reported on here from CNBC:
· A second Donald Trump administration will take
action “criminally or civilly” against people in the media, a close allies warn.
· Kash Patel also served as chief advisor to
the secretary of defense and as counterterrorism advisor on the NS Council.
· The AP reported that the Trump campaign had told
the news agency that pronouncements “like Patel’s have nothing to do” with the
group.
Yeah, that Kash Patel: Patel said on Steve Bannon's podcast,
referring to a potential second Trump leadership: “We will go out and find
the conspirators, not just in the government, but in the media, yes, we're
going to come after the people in the media, who lied about American citizens,
who helped Joe Biden rig the elections, we're going to come after you. Whether
it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out, but yeah, we're putting you
all on notice. We will put all-American patriots in office, top-to-bottom.”
Trump has yet to be confirmed as the 2024 presidential
nominee of the GOP, and now he is running while facing four criminal
indictments and 91 charges, but he still enjoys ongoing popularity in the
polls.
Criminalizing free speech
at a government level would bring the U.S. closer to dictatorial policies such
as the censorship practiced in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine,
China, and North Korea.
Trump's relationship with the press has been historically
tenuous, including an episode of blocking several high-profile outlets such as CNN,
Politico and the New York Times, from a White House media briefing. Controversial
in headlines, Trump has often complained of “partisanship and unfair treatment
from mainstream media,” referring to several outlets as “fake news; the
opposition party, and “enemy of the people just like Stalin labeled them.”
Following his incitement January 6 violence against the
Capitol his accounts were suspended by Facebook and X (formally known as
Twitter). Trump’s “X account” was reinstated in November 2022 after the social
media platform was formally taken over by self-defined free speech absolutist Elon Musk.
Amid the bans, Trump launched his own social media network — the Trump
Media and Technology Group (TMTG) — and his “TRUTH Social” platform to stand up
to the tyranny of Big Tech he said.
My 2 Cents: What bothers me mostly about Trump and his plans for
becoming president again in 2024 is quite simple and not just what he is now
saying and proposing to do if that were to happen – which I think is not
possible unless he runs, loses, and then calls for a full blown ‘take over’ of
the country. That assumes January 6 was a practice or dry run for Civil War II.
All that is most
concerning to me, and I hope to Americans all across the land, too – that must never happen.
All this news today – in
Trump’s own words and plans as well as those close to him – all hoping that
will in fact happen and whoopee they shout Trump and we now own the world.
I have never had this
feeling about our county in my entire adult lifetime. I bet you haven’t,
either. So, what can we do about stopping this nearly total madman? I don’t
have an answer to that – do you?
But simply stated that
when the GOP does not win fair and square at the ballot box – like in 2020 and
2022 – so what do they do? They cheat, lie, drag out the past ad all the while
keep on blaming everyone except themselves for those losses by keeping the Trump
“Big Lie” alive and now apparently more dangerous than ever – or so it seems.
Thanks for stopping by.
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