Chris Christie is out. That means Donald Trump’s fantastical lies, insanities and sedition have prevailed if not yet at the ballot box, but within the whole of the GOP.
There is no dissent against Trump left within the MAGA/GOP. The charade between Haley and DeSantis isn’t a debate. It’s a screen test for Donald, who will be the biggest star in the room.
There is nothing that Ron DeSantis can do to save himself from Trump because for Trump, what DeSantis did was unforgivable. That marks the great divide between Haley and him. DeSantis ran against Trump, who made him when he was the most powerful figure in the party next to Trump. He went for the crown when he thought Trump was down, and he was strong. There will be no forgiveness.
Nikki Haley had nothing else to do and Trump understands that. She wasn’t running to hurt him. She was running to please him, and all that matters is she do so before there is one seat left in the room. I’m going to tell you what turns Trump on. It’s a woman who demolished all the disloyal men in the place of the missing Ivanka. Trump will be watching the DeSantis/Haley debate closely with the same predatory gaze that would leer at the teen beauty contestants under his dominion. Trump needs a queen, and it’s going to be Nikki Haley. She will be his partner and the ticket will almost certainly be Trump-Haley. There are no surprises in dictatorships, as they say.
On Monday, with Donald Trump sitting in court, his lawyer said Trump, if president, had the constitutional power to order the US military to commit political assassinations. Mark the moment.
It took 3,125 days between Donald Trump’s descent down the escalator in Trump Tower until the quiet part was said out loud. I don’t use the term “Little Eichmann” lightly. It’s not a pejorative, and it’s not name calling. It’s a description and it’s accurate. Trump is surrounded by people who would kill for power, and kill with power.
Just this week, Trump confidant Roger Stone was caught on tape provoking his security chief, a rogue NYC cop, to assassinate Congressman Eric Swalwell or Jerry Nadler, or both. Stephen Miller, who is speculated about as a potential Trump attorney general, wanted the US military to murder defenseless migrants at sea. He also claimed that cities were turning into war zones during Black Lives Matter protests. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, Mark Milley, turned towards Miller in the Oval Office and said, “Shut the f@#k up, Stephen.”
Here again is the undelivered resignation letter General Mark Milley wrote for delivery to Donald Trump. I hope you will read it. Very slowly. I also hope you will share it with people who might be persuadable in the months ahead. His words matter.
The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military. I thought that I could change that. I’ve come to the realization that I cannot, and I need to step aside and let someone else try to do that.
Second, you are using the military to create fear in the minds of the people—and we are trying to protect the American people. I cannot stand idly by and participate in that attack, verbally or otherwise, on the American people. The American people trust their military and they trust us to protect them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and our military will do just that. We will not turn our back on the American people.
Third, I swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States and embodied within that Constitution is the idea that says that all men and women are created equal. All men and women are created equal, no matter who you are, whether you are white or Black, Asian, Indian, no matter the color of your skin, no matter if you’re gay, straight or something in between. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jew, or choose not to believe. None of that matters. It doesn’t matter what country you came from, what your last name is—what matters is we’re Americans. We’re all Americans. That under these colors of red, white, and blue—the colors that my parents fought for in World War II—means something around the world. It’s obvious to me that you don’t think of those colors the same way I do. It’s obvious to me that you don’t hold those values dear and the cause that I serve.
And lastly it is my deeply held belief that you’re ruining the international order, and causing significant damage to our country overseas, that was fought for so hard by the Greatest Generation that they instituted in 1945. Between 1914 and 1945, 150 million people were slaughtered in the conduct of war. They were slaughtered because of tyrannies and dictatorships. That generation, like every generation, has fought against that, has fought against fascism, has fought against Nazism, has fought against extremism. It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against. And I cannot be a party to that. It is with deep regret that I hereby submit my letter of resignation.
There is something that must be understood about what terrifies President Obama, Michelle Obama, President Clinton, Secretary Clinton, President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Panetta, and scores of America’s most serious, sober, and competent statesmen and women and leaders of the US military.
They all understand that a second Trump presidency will be catastrophic, but more than that, they all have a sense of history and here is what that means: should Donald Trump return to power, every second of the ubiquitous chaos of the last eight years, including his whole first term, will be a historical blip, a speed bump barely worth a few paragraphs. Should he win, the story will just now be beginning. What is to come is the history that will be remembered. Like always, there will be a recollection of the warnings, but most people will simply say that they had no idea, they didn’t know, that no one could. Who could have seen it coming after all?
If it came down to a popular vote, I wouldn’t be that worried about tfg winning. But the undemocratic Electoral College is what determines who wins and that makes it scary.
A Donald Trump Second Reich is unthinkable. He seems to know exactly what he is doing by going full throttle Hitler.