There could have been no greater gift for Donald Trump on his 77th birthday than to be celebrated with saturation television coverage. Over and over again, cable news anchors stressed the historic nature of the day.
There was, of course, the overhead images of Donald Trump’s ludicrous motorcade slowly advancing across Miami. It was a sinister phalanx of black SUVs festooned with flashing lights, imitating OJ’s Bronco chase with a dash of King Charles’s coronation parade.
It isn’t hard to imagine Donald Trump dialing up OJ from the backseat, mocking his White Bronco and taunting him that he is going to borrow King Charles’s Royal Coach for the trial. No doubt Trump would have hung up on OJ when he realized his crowd of supporters at the federal court house was outnumbered by the media and much smaller than of the “Juice.” By the way, if General Flynn can serve in the next Trump administration, so can OJ. Truly, that would make up for the motorcade coverage, which was more banal than historic.
Next came the exciting stuff like the arrest, fingerprints and arraignment. This was definitely historic. No president of the United States had ever stolen the nation’s most sensitive military secrets on their way out of the White House, and hidden them from the government with his valet at his golf club. Absolutely historic.
But Trump was just getting started. He would make real history at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was feted, cheered and embraced by donors and supporters who want Donald Trump to become president again. They support his cause. They are funding his mission, and working to help him “obliterate” his enemies — which appears to be anyone who believes in American democracy, reality, legitimate elections, the rule of law and the United States constitution. Donald Trump is running to deliver retribution and revenge against everyone who believes that he should never hold political power ever again because of his outrageous conduct, betrayals, corruption, incompetence, indecency, pathological lying and fetish for dictators.
Donald Trump made history during the speech that he delivered to his fellow travelers on the evening of his arrest. He spoke listlessly, but clearly about his aims. He wants to tear down the American system of government that is the foundation of the American way of life. He wants to burn it to the ground because it restrained and constrained him. He does not accept the idea that there is a rule of law that is above his power. He refuses to accept basic realities, such as an election loss. Instead, he has chosen to declare war against reality, the truth and his country. It is all in the open.
These are dangerous words and hours. He seeks political power not to build, but to tear down his enemies. When men like this have come to power, it has always ended in tragedy.
Donald Trump is a monster. He seeks to take our country from us. He is a demagogue without compare. He is a threat and a domestic enemy who has been constantly appeased by an appalling mix of cowardice and greed. Now we have a real crisis on our hands. Make no mistake about what Donald Trump wants. He wants to be Putin. That is his ambition. It is a sick one. He must be stopped.
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Yes, he wants to be a dictator like Putin, but I fear it’s more than that. I think Putin owns him and Trump and his henchmen have far exceeded Putins wildest expectations. The Fox propaganda machine masquerading as a “straight” news channel, has been and remains a critical key to these authoritarian revolutionaries success. Patriotic Americans who believe in democracy and egalitarianism and our cherished traditions of free, honest, and open elections need to take the gloves off, roll up our sleeves and put Trump and his inner circle of reactionaries in jail where they belong, relegated to the ash bin of history. Then we need to turn our attention to his deep pocketed financial supporters.
Why do criminals like Trump make the Merrick Garland look so weak? Serious question. Is justice that vulnerable that we treat the wealthy and powerful so outrageously different when it comes to exercising the rule of law? Hasn’t this spectacle gone on long enough? Why ? Even the worst of natural disasters have a quicker finale then this travesty. So is the two tier justice system, Republicans latest projection of protection for Trump crimes, really a truth to further weaken our democratic institutions? Why did it take Garland this long to exercise justice?