Being "nice" is the wrong path -- and the most dangerous one

No, Donald.

The members of the January 6th committee don’t belong in jail.

They were performing their duty, and serve in a co-equal branch of government that is not subordinate to the executive branch.

There is no basis whatsoever — none — to prosecute members of Congress for investigating Trump’s coup.

Similarly, there is no legal basis whatsoever for Trump to deport US citizens from the United States, nor is there any basis whatsoever for his declaring that he will strip citizenship from a child who is born on American soil, and as such, is an American.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have no statutory authority, nor have they been appointed to any position, confirmed to any position, or have authority to do anything, anywhere at anytime in the US government.

None.

DOGE isn’t a government department; it is a hallucination.

Yet, it is covered as something real by a broken corporate media machine that has lost credibility with the American people because it steadfastly refuses to acknowledge reality to the American people.

Pete Hegseth is real and ludicrous. He is unfit for a bevy of reasons, which include his lack of basic probity, rectitude, dignity and stature for a position that demands all of the above. Media reports make clear that he is a drunk with a great deal of malice in his heart.

Maybe a smarter person can help me to figure out the difference between these two things:

Mel Gibson was pulled over drunk and delivered a crazed rant about Jews controlling the world. He lost his career.

Pete Hegseth got drunk, jumped up on a table, with Christian nationalist tattoos all over his body, and screamed “Kill all Muslims!” over and over again in a Cleveland hotel.

The difference between the outcomes is quite astounding. N’est-ce pas? Trump made the latter bigot his nominee to command over 5,000 nuclear weapons.

The US military is plagued by a recruiting shortage right now in every branch except the USMC, which refuses to cut standards, pay excessive bonuses, or even consider the inducements that other branches are offering.

I have two children who are both considering military service in the immediate future. It is something that I have always supported, but will not should Pete Hegseth be the secretary of defense. In fact, for the first time in my life with my children, I will assume an “over my dead body” position on something. (For the record, I’m much more mellow than people think.).

I want senators like MarkWayne Mullin to know that I see his casual disrespect for the young men and women who wear the uniform.

I see his utter disregard and contempt for their safety and well-being. He cares about Trump.

I’m not sending my kids into the hands of calloused men and women who would ever vote for a man like Pete Hegseth because they can’t be trusted. They would rather see my kid killed — or yours — somewhere than offend Trump, to whom they will not say no under any circumstances.

Let me show you MarkWayne Mullin talking about Matt Gaetz before Trump nominated him and afterwards:

The one thing that everyone in America with an IQ over 65 should be able to agree on is that the people who do things like this think the American people are stupid.

Truly. There are no words.

But there is always another to be had when MAGA is the subject.

These are two others: Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel.

No. Just no.

Again, the disrespect inherent in the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for director of intelligence is appalling and very real. She is unfit for the position because she can’t tell the difference between what is real and what isn’t. She is easily manipulated and malleable.

Why was she in Syria giving aid and comfort to Bashar al-Assad after he used chemical weapons against his own people?

Why?

Here is Trump’s future FBI director dreaming of being American Gestapo chief and locking up dissenters:

Maybe America’s future political prisoners will wile away their days waiting for execution by making merchandise at slave labor prices?

The United States is going to be transformed by Trump’s presidency.

It will end the 80-year era that stretched uncontested from Roosevelt to Obama. It will commence a new, deadlier age during which the furies will be let loose by wicked and arrogant people who think they have been picked by the hand of god to lead their people into a storm of their own making.

What comes next is either decay and collapse, or reform and renewal. In some sense, this has always been the cycle, and it will always be so until there is an event that alters forever the capacity for resilience.

The magnitude of the abuses and offenses against liberty, law and rights that are going to happen in America over the next six months are going to be shocking. There is a real lack of imagination about them.

With each week, the abuses will deepen, and the American media will shine them up as something normal, which they won’t be.

The new standard is a simple one. Be “nice” to Trump, and he will be nice to you.

This is the wrong path — and the most dangerous one.

Being “nice” isn’t the American thing to do when forces combine to take liberty away in this country. Trump’s opposition is a disaster right now. It needs to get healthy in a hurry. That starts by raising standards, not lowering them.

Knowing what we are fighting for is at least as important as knowing what we are fighting against.

Do you know what you are fighting for?

Do you think Chuck Schumer knows?

Is it the same thing that Lincoln, Roosevelt and King were fighting for?

The cost of losing to a man like Trump is going to be higher than most anyone imagines.

The Warning will not take one step back. I hope you won’t either.

---

---