Listen To This Story

You may be wondering: Should I pay attention to the ominous developments happening not just weekly but daily and now even hourly under Donald Trump? 

Answer: YES. You are witnessing your democracy and your freedom dying. 

The optional fingers-in-the-ears, “I’m preserving my mental health” thing is simply no longer viable. 

Because this is coming for all of us. 

Taking over DC was a deliberate distraction from the declining public faith in Trump. But if you write it off as just a distraction, you’re missing the far more ominous reality that it was also part of Trump’s grab for dictatorial power. 

And it will keep on coming. First, it was calling in the National Guard. Then we learned the troops were all from red states, hence loyal to Trump. 

Now we learn that the guardsmen, who were patrolling unarmed, are going to be provided with — and carry — weapons. 

Should you be worried? Yes. 

If, as seems clear enough, Friday’s FBI raids on John Bolton’s house and office were chiefly intended to warn and to scare, that plan sure seems to be working. 

Everything that the government now does is in service of the dictator-in-making. 

‘I Don’t Want to Know’

Of course, Trump isn’t personally storming residences in the early morning or arresting and deporting hard-working immigrants to meet the quotas he has set, nor filing revenge suits against his perceived enemies. Installing a dictatorship takes a lot of help — hell, it takes a village. The true believers and easy tools: Trump eggs them on, while also claiming lack of foreknowledge. He makes it all happen, then takes refuge in deniability.

Speaking to reporters Friday in Washington, Trump called Bolton “a real, sort of a lowlife” but said he had no prior knowledge of the FBI’s search of the former intelligence official’s house and office. Wearing a hat that read “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING,” the president said he expected he would be briefed by [Attorney General Pam] Bondi later in the day.

“What I tell Pam, and I tell the group, ‘I don’t want to know… You have to do what you have to do. I don’t want to know about it.’” 

Scraping the Bottom

You’ve undoubtedly read about the low standards for those the administration hires to rid the country of brown people who may or may not be citizens, and who may or may not have committed any crime whatsoever.  

Masked individuals of varying official credentials and sponsorship, mostly hiding their identity — which not long ago would have been impossible and deemed illegal — have been let loose on the public and act like rabid dogs when set upon brown victims, no matter the gender, no matter how young. Some of these agents are decent people continuing to do what they were ordered. But many are newbies, thrilled to be handed a weapon and some modicum of power.

I keep going back to my readings on Hitler. His Brownshirt thugs were very similar — power hungry, often uneducated, dangerous misfits. 

Note the bullying behavior of the masked officers in these videos when arresting a man later identified as Cristian Enrique Carias Torres.

At first, two officers knock Torres to the ground. One of them appears to have tasered him, but the man’s legs still move slightly. A black car arrives, and more officers — wearing gray vests that say “POLICE” on the back — gang up on Torres, knocking him backwards on top of others.  One is apparently hurt and dragged away. As Torres is lying face up, an officer pounds him in the face. Then they turn him over, handcuff him, and take him away. At this point, a bystander yells, “You guys are ruining our country!” The officer’s retort: “Liberals already ruined it.”

It’s interesting to see the contrast in the way this widely publicized incident was explained by Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin versus the witnesses, including a Washington Post reporter, and what your own eyes and ears show you from watching the video itself:

McLaughlin: An officer was on the ground with a bloody head and concussion “due to violent resistance from the illegal alien they were apprehending.”

Washington Post: “Video shows the man and officers were in a physical struggle before another officer pushed the entire group to the ground, prompting the head injury.”

McLaughlin: The federal agents “did identify themselves and had their badges clearly visible.” 

Washington Post: “All but one, who was wearing the ICE badge, refused [to identify themselves].”

Torres is said to have entered the country illegally from Venezuela — and failed to show up for court dates for a “long list of traffic crimes.” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, bumped that up to “suspected gang affiliation.”   

She said the same thing about a gay makeup artist who had been shipped off to the notorious prison in El Salvador — based on his tattoos, which turned out to be religious symbols. Hard to imagine a gay makeup artist thinking it safe to join a bunch of macho gang bangers. (Go here and here to see a few more especially revolting displays of bullying by federal agents.)

What If Trump Is Actually Crazy? 

Pretty much everyone — from Vladimir Putin to Volodymyr Zelenskyy to anyone else dealing with Trump — has realized or been warned that they are dealing with a crazy man. There are a limited number of things you can do when face-to-face with a deranged narcissist — first and foremost is telling him how great he is. 

I have long believed that, based on what experts say, Trump is only reachable via flattery… or ridicule. The only real question is whether he is a narcissist or, as the noted psychologist Robert J. Lifton has said about him, a solipsist. To wit:

A narcissist, while deeply self-infatuated, nevertheless seeks the approval of others and will occasionally attempt seduction to get what he wants (I think of the French president, Emmanuel Macron). For Trump the solipsist, the only point of reference is himself, so he makes no attempt even at faking interest in other people, since he can’t really see them from his self-centered position.

Trump, however, does fake interest in others when it suits him, and he does differentiate criticism, which he thrives on, from ridicule, which wounds him mightily.  So I am very interested to see what impact Gavin Newsom and his clearly talented social media team have by hitting Trump right where it hurts: mimicking him at his most ridiculous. 

Not only is Trump increasingly understood to be a “troubled individual” — but his bizarre manner of communicating actually seems to be getting worse. For example, consider how the president of the United States recently put forth his objection to DC homeless encampments: 

Too many tents on the lawns of these magnificent lawns, and there’s tents.

He is operating from really primitive stimuli. Devoid of empathy — like Vlad the Impaler, 15th century ruler of Wallachia and model for Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula — he is bothered by unsightly poor people occupying lawns, as if they’re like the litter he saw on DC highways and also complained about. Anyone can notice such things, but few have the power to order a forcible cleanup of “undesirable” human beings.  

Here’s another thing: Trump called Fox and Friends and told them one reason he’s trying to secure peace in Ukraine is so he can get into heaven:

I want to try and get to heaven, if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole.

Such humility, such awareness, such modesty from a person whose native tongue is bragging! One has to wonder whether this was a rare moment of honest reflection, a comment about his health, or just another Trumpian “joke.” 

I wonder whether his desire to “get to heaven” inspired this memo from the Office of Personnel Management: Federal workers may now promote their religious beliefs at work — display religious items, pray alone, form prayer groups in empty conference rooms, and “engage another in polite discussion of why his faith is correct and why the non-adherent should re-think his religious beliefs.” (Note the reintroduction of the archaic male possessive to represent all workers.)

One can think of many analyses and retorts to Trump’s Ticket to Heaven quip, but what’s the point? 

That crazy and/or totally self-centered crackpots have taken power — together with what Neal Gabler characterized as a profound allergy to morality itself — has created a twisted reality that attracts similarly unhinged people. 

Add to this the incompetence, blatant corruption, and shameless hatching of disruptions and distractions.  

And then there is this overarching issue that must be addressed: While Trump continues to go after those who investigated his ties to Russia, and Russia’s role in influencing American politics, he continues to act like he is, in fact… a puppet of Vladimir Putin.

Certainly, his behavior around the Ukraine issue shows that. 

But so does what appears to be a concerted effort to damage almost every institution in America. He seems to be operating at warp speed to inflict as much short- and long-term harm as possible. 

So many things come at us by the week, day, and even hour.

The Habba Hullabaloo

A federal judge with strong Republican ties concluded that Trump had illegally made his former personal attorney, Alina Habba, an acting US attorney for New Jersey. The basis for the judge’s conclusion is complicated, and it isn’t necessary to go into details here. But certain things are clear. 

Trump got his attorney general to fire the US attorney chosen by a panel of federal judges, so Habba could remain in her position as acting US attorney beyond the expiration of her term.

Habba has no qualifications for this important post. Not only had she never served in a US attorney’s office, never worked for the Justice Department, and never served as a prosecutor on any level, even in a small town, she actually has zero experience of any kind with criminal law. 

A small-town criminal defense attorney would be better qualified to run this huge office — handling an enormous number of complicated cases ranging from financial fraud to civil liberties, and managing some 170 attorneys.

Her unethical, unprofessional demeanor and temperament, hugely wrong for such a position of responsibility, were on display for all the world to see prior to Trump’s election. 

Why appoint people like her? It can only be for one of two reasons — or both: She can be counted on to do anything Trump wants, no matter how outrageous and inappropriate, and she will wreak havoc in one of America’s most populous, urban, and largely Democratic states. 

Days after Trump announced her appointment on social media, Habba told a podcaster that she hoped to use her new, powerful, traditionally nonpolitical position to help Republicans “turn New Jersey red.” 

Within a short time, she brought charges, albeit unsuccessfully, against two prominent New Jersey Democrats, Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark and Rep. LaMonica McIver.

Given the nonpartisan nature of a US attorney’s work, and the importance of protecting public trust in the office, this is truly appalling. She might as well say that her goal is to “help my boss and his friends make more money and avoid justice.”

Besides hollowing out the judicial system, Team Trump has key elements of the economic and fiscal bureaucracy under siege. 

By continuously attacking these officials, Trump is able to convince a segment of the public to no longer believe any bad news about the economy under him. 

***

Oklahoma, already possessing one of America’s poorest performing education systems, now wants to make it even worse by putting hurdles in the way of teachers coming from California and New York. Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters declared they must pass the “America First Test” to combat what he calls “woke indoctrination” or “radical gender ideology.” And educators must promote “American exceptionalism.” 

The test was designed by PragerU, a conservative nonprofit. Walters has also ordered all public schools in the state to teach the Bible. Even more chilling — he has proposed rules requiring schools to collect citizenship data on students.

And now Trump wants museums to focus on making Americans feel good about themselves and their history. Actual facts are to take a back seat, if any. He is especially unhappy about these institutions letting Americans know about slavery and its consequences. He complains that Smithsonian exhibits reveal “how bad slavery was.” Which is tantamount to German museums soft-pedaling Hitler and the Nazi era. 

Is this leadership? Reassuring the dumbest and least motivated Americans to feel terrific about themselves, and to not try to improve as human beings? 

Of course, promoting hatred and  disinformation about everything under the sun enables the creation  of a latter day version of Hitler’s Brownshirts — as described above. 

Epstein Shenanigans 

Pardon me for being suspicious here. Given how little the administration has been willing to reveal about the Epstein affair, it’s kind of astonishing they would release on Friday the transcript of a jailhouse interview conducted by Justice Department officials with Ghislaine Maxwell, his onetime girlfriend and longtime enabler of his sexual trafficking of underage girls. 

That sort of thing would typically be the last thing the government would ever publicly release. 

This raises questions of whether the “interview” was prearranged, always intended to be released — with the specific intent of helping Trump, who has been under intense scrutiny for his own relationship with Epstein and Maxwell. 

Given that Maxwell was moved from a normal prison to a much more comfortable minimum security facility after the interview, one has to consider that she was already dealing for favors. 

Here’s the upshot:

GHISLAINE MAXWELL: And as far as I’m concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find — I — I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now. And I like him, and I’ve always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him.

TODD BLANCHE: What about Mr. Epstein’s relationship with him?

GHISLAINE MAXWELL: I don’t know how they met, and I don’t know how they became friends. I certainly saw them together and I remember the few times I observed them together, but they were friendly. I mean, they seemed friendly.

Yes. They seemed “friendly” indeed, and saw each other a “few times.” Go here to see how few those times were.

***

Least surprising thing? 

Newly unredacted documents from Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News show Trump’s recently appointed US attorney in Washington, DC, Jeanine Pirro, openly bragging about helping Trump and the GOP while working as a Fox News host, Jeremy Barr reports. 

According to these documents, in 2020 Pirro told then RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, “I’m the Number 1 watched show on all news cable all weekend. I work so hard for the President and party.”

Smartmatic also said Pirro tried to get a pardon for her ex-husband, Albert Pirro. Convicted 25 years ago of tax evasion and conspiracy, Albert Pirro was the last person Trump pardoned during his first term.

I’ll have more on this as we continue to investigate the Epstein matter. 

***

Had Barack Obama or Joe Biden done even one of the hundreds — thousands — of truly outrageous things Trump has inflicted on the country, we’d see a full-scale rebellion, with the legacy media no doubt joining the “new” media in expressing outrage. Instead, there is, by and large, silence. 

Something is deeply wrong here, on the most basic level. Understandably, the legacy media can’t find a way to make something so fundamental an ongoing topic — so it treats each iteration of a new outrage almost as an isolated news item, rather than yet another symptom of the same dangerously deranged mind.