The US as a Fascist Dictatorship – Part 2: Can Trump Become a Dictator?

This is going to be a long one, so let me apologize in advance. You may want to plan a little time to read it…

There’s a rule about articles or posts that start with a question: the answer is almost always “no”. Whether this post breaks that rule or follows it is ultimately up to you. For me, I think there are enormous roadblocks in Trump’s way, but I absolutely believe that he’s trying, and that he wants to be a dictator. And I also absolutely believe that if we’re not careful, at some point we’re going to see the current administration using the Constitution as toilet paper, and no one will stop them. That’s why I’m writing this…

It’s really a warning… however hard it may be, it is possible, and you better believe that Trump and his administration are already trying to find every possible way to get as close as the can to this outcome as possible.

So… with that said…

I’m going to start this by sourcing mainly from an article written by Eric Posner at Quartz called “The complete guide to how Trump can make himself the first American dictator“, published on March 3, 2016. Obviously, it’s been a long time since then, so I’ll be pulling from much more recent sources, as well…

I’ve said this already, but we are in extremely scary times, and we need to be vigilant. So… without further ado…

If Trump is elected president, will constitutional law and American political institutions protect us from a would-be dictator? Europeans worry about the emergence of Caesarism in the United States, just as the founders did when they invented the presidency. Authoritarianism is making gains around the world; why not here? Of course, Trump may not want to be a dictator. He has repeatedly stated his desire to make “deals,” implying a willingness to cooperate with Congress. But there is no reason to believe anything he says; many of his actions and statements are those of someone with a dictatorial mentality if nothing else, and his popular support derives from his authoritarian image: he appeals to people who yearn for a strongman to protect them. So the question is worth asking. What is the answer?

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Self Care – Great Guitar Solos: King Crimson Plays The Night Watch

Another one suggested by a commenter, this time Johnny Vector.

Robert Fripp is such an incredible guitarist. His playing is very unconventional; he does some weird and very cool things with his guitar, even, somehow, when he’s just playing a straight solo. This one, King Crimson’s The Night Watch, is a nice example…

The solo starts at 2:49 and ends at 3:39.

There’s just audio here, no video…

Enjoy!

The US as a Fascist Dictatorship – Part 1: The Powers Granted to the President

(Note… in this two-part series, I will be referring to Donald Trump by his name, instead of the hilarious nicknames. It’s not out of any semblance of respect, but out of expediency. Outside if these two posts, I won’t be dignifying him with his name. Also… yes, Wikipedia is used here. Bite me. This is not a scholarly paper or a school essay. If you don’t trust Wikipedia, just check the sources they provide at the bottom of the articles, or do some Googling of your own. I’m using Wikipedia sometimes and that’s the end of it.)

We live in some scary times. We have a president many people never thought could actually make it. One of the criticisms President Barack Obama got when he was running in 2008 was that he was inexperienced, and therefore unqualified. This was, of course, untrue. Sure, he was in Congress only a short amount of time before he became our President, but he was definitely far from inexperienced. But Donald Trump? By any comparison, Donald Trump is quite literally inexperienced. He has literally zero experience with politics on any level other than a business level.

And Trump is now doing a wholly hell of a lot things that could suggest he’s not planning to leave the White House any time soon… if ever.

But the question is… is this possible? The answer should be an easy one: of course not! We have the Constitution! Checks and Balances! The Executive Branch isn’t capable of extending such authority!

Well… one would certainly hope. Unfortunately, there are a few small loopholes that can be exploited, and that’s what I want to discuss.

But first, let’s talk about the Constitution, our government, and exactly what powers the Executive Branch, and the President himself, actually have. Keep in mind that this first post goes over basic Constitutional principles, so this is stuff most of you will already know.

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Orange Fascist-In-Chief Plans to Outright Legalize Discrimination

As promised…

From the Nation: Leaked Draft of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination

A leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked Monday about whether a religious freedom executive order was in the works, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue. There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”

Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

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There’s a Private Security Force in the White House…?

So… Trumplethinskin is apparently using his own private security force…

President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t seem to tire of setting new precedents. Despite being provided with a newly bolstered Secret Service detail after the election, the president-elect has retained his own private security and intelligence force, breaking with tradition and creating operational and potentially legal problems.

That article was written on January 20th. On February 3rd, we found out that Trumpligula fired Secret Service managers and had them escorted from White House grounds:

At least two manager level Secret Service officials were fired and escorted from the White House complex, according to a report by reporter Steve Clemons.

The Secret Service has been accused of slow-walking an investigation of an agent based in Denver who publicly stated she would not ‘take a bullet’ for President Donald Trump.

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From Melanie Mallon at Skepchick: Bannon And The National Security Council’s Secret “Kill List”

This is a rather terrifying article. As the title suggests, it’s about the NSC’s kill list, and the fact that Steven Bannon now has control over it.

The fact that the NSC has a kill list is bad enough. But now Bannon has a hold of it?

Things really do just keep getting worse…

While the United States and the world was in an uproar over Donald Trump’s executive order (EO) on immigration that even conservative sources view as unconstitutional and illegal, Trump reorganized the National Security Council (NSC), adding his chief strategist Steven Bannon and decreasing the participation and status of the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, currently General Joseph Dunford, as well as the director of national intelligence (DNI), a position that remains vacated until a Trump nominee, currently Dan Coats, can be confirmed.

Although various national security and intelligence experts have spoken out against the president’s memorandum, the news has been all but swallowed up by the chaos surrounding the immigration EO.

Meanwhile, a specific and particularly terrifying possibility has been making the rounds on social media—that Bannon could have a role in a secretive NSC panel with the authority to place suspected terrorists, including Americans, on a kill or capture list and to make decisions to kill or capture without due process or any information or justification provided to the public.

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