I could spend some time trying to analyse what Trump has done during his first couple of days in office.
Alternatively, I can note the consequences of his actions.
He has released from jail and given pardons to those who committed crimes against police officers and others whilst trying to overthrow democracy without for a moment considering for a moment the severity of their actions.
That's bad enough, but there are now those living in fear for their lives, as many of these violent people seek retribution.
He has said that a Bishop who appealed to him for moderation and concern should apologise to the nation. Those he plans to victimise will have taken note.
He is making it an offence for Federal employees to support policies of diversity, inclusion and equality. The message is that tolerance, decency and respect are not just not allowed - they will cost you your job and maybe a conviction.
He is suggesting that those state employees who refuse to round up undocumented migrants for deportation will be similarly criminalised.
The actions he is proposing are frightening in their gross abuse of people, communities, rights, the planet and more.
But it is the embrace of threat and violence that is much more frightening still.
Trump is clearly seeking to unleash terror on the USA. It is his wish to oppress all those who stand in the path of the supremacy of the white, Christian in name only, male, powerful and wealthy in whose interest he governs. Whatever the cost, he will put their interests first. However great the toll on those millions who will now suffer, he does not care.
This, of course, is a pathway to totalitarianism. It is the route to the oppression of all opposition. It is the road to fascism laid out before us. This is the way of terror - and fear will be gripping many Americans right now.
I did not think I would see this in my lifetime. Now I am.
My heart goes out to those who are and will suffer.
My next concern is, how long will it be before we see it here?
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Another thread here it seems to me is the recent widening definitions of terrorism. Drugs cartels are terrorists. People smugglers are terrorists. Individual perpetrators of mass casualty incidents without any ideological purpose are terrorists.
They are all bad (or mad) and they are all criminals. But they are not terrorists.
Once you divorce terrorism from its primary meaning – the use of illegitimate violence, to instil fear and terror, to achieve political or ideological aims – it ceases to have meaning.
Except of course for the government who can take extreme measures against someone deemed a terrorist. An enemy of the people.
I very much agree with you
Trump and his backers are using the directions to push for the massive extension of direct exercise of Presidential power thereby bypassing the role Congress and the Constitution.
Take “abolishing” the right to US citizenship for anyone born in the US of non US citizens. This is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Trump has no “power” to deny the 14th. Trump’s order can be disregarded.
But to make sure the order must be challenged in the courts. Until the courts rule there is huge uncertainty.
Trump also cannot order individual state employees to do his bidding. He does not have the power to.
It’s the power grab that is being used to deliberate cause fear and cower American public officials into silence and acceptance.
Bravo to the Bishop of Washington for her direct challenge to Trump.
I wholeheartedly agree with Richard’s post, John and would like to add to your comment.
I am certain that I read recently that there is wording in the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights, to which the USA is a signatory, that states that citizenship, once established, shall not be removed.
That is not the big issue here
And we are guilty of taking that right away here in the UK now
The issue in the US is the Constitution
Shamima Begum had her citizenship removed, a decision that has been upheld through the UK courts. I am not convinced, therefore that the UN Declaration of Human Rights has any force.
This is article 15.
1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality not denied the right to change his nationality.
I’m afraid both the USA and the UK are in violation of many of the human rights to which they are signed up.
Soon.
And yet, we are many and they are few.
Illegitimate is as illegitimate does.
Trump and his funders and co-conspirators have stolen the election – no one else.
Thank you Richard, and your contributors, yes, the future looks terrifying to me too.
However we face it, face it we must.
That’s why I am *so* grateful to you and your contributors.
Thank you.
Unless the current govt legislates to STOP the far right disruptors within its own walls from platforming hatred and division, and the media from echoing their hatred and lies, and allies the country firmly to the EU we will continue to follow Trump’s malignity.
My mother, German Jew driven out of her home by Hitlers race laws always advised us to have a bag packed ready. Not quite there yet, but mentally reviewing my options.
The world is becoming increasingly worrying.
Richard
I was surprised that in response to an earlier posting, the implications of a blanket pardon to those convicted in connection with the 6th January 2021 events had received little comment, so it’s good you’ve highlighted it.
By granting a pardon, Trump is creating a situation which may escalate out of control.
In Northern Ireland, there were prisoner releases under the Good Friday Agreement, but these were publicly debated before the vote on the referendum, the releases only started 6 months after the Agreement and were phased over 18 months.
More importantly, prisoners were released on licence which gave the State the option to put them back in prison if the terms of the licence were breached (which has happened on a few occasions). They were not unconditionally pardoned!
With Trump’s release and pardon of the J6 insurgents, every police officer in America will think twice before even giving them and their supporters a parking ticket. Already the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are seeking retribution against those who put them in prison, much of which was due to the testimony and evidence of informants and turncoats. No doubt many of those individuals have relocated or gone on witness protection programmes, but I would fear for their ongoing safety.
And who in the future would ever act as an agent or informant given that the new FBI Director is likely to be an ardent Trump supporter. In the lightly regulated gun culture of America, who’s going to push back against the militias and the alt-Right.
It’s of little comfort to Britain & Europe, if America ends its involvement in forever wars abroad only to find itself embroiled in a forever war at home.
Of course, it is possible that Trump will overreach himself, but recent history is littered with the ‘success’ of those whom many others politically disliked to the point of hatred and loathing.
Slightly off theme, I read an article in Social Europe by Stiglitz yesterday. I’m not fan of this gentleman,but this rang true for me –
(Edited for brevity) “Francis Fukuyama famously called collapse of European communism the “end of history,” perhaps we should call the current era the “end of progress.” Those in power now are driven wholly by the pursuit of wealth. Tesla received a no-strings-attached $465 million loan from President Barack Obama’s administration 15 years ago.”
The Corporations are gradually take over America and next the rest of the world.
I’m attempting to write a novel which begins in 1939 and runs through several generations of one military family until an unspecified date far in the furture. Gradually, the Corportions take over each other until there is only one Global Corporation which issues the currency and imposes the taxes. I don’t suppose I will ever finish it, though.
Good luck
The unelected members of Trump’s cabinet are one thing – that’s the way the US system works, of course – the president is allowed have them in their cabinet. But you would think that the only decent thing for previously elected members such as Senator Marco Rubio or Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to do is resign in protest at Trump’s actions. That they haven’t leads you to the conclusion that they don’t actually believe in the democratic system they have availed of.
Agreed
“This, of course, is a pathway to totalitarianism.”
I don’t think it’s a pathway, I think totalitarianism if already here. The fact that so many are obeying in advance shows that many know this.
I do also think many on both sides are looking at the wrong template. The Nazis were a particularly effective totalitarian government. Evil yes, but they were able to build an effective industrial base.
There are countless other examples of tolatarian governments that collapse under their own disfunction. It’s possibly a more terrifying prospect.
Tha handmaid’s tale
It can’t happen here…
After listening to the words of the Bishop, her plea, directly to Trump and the response of so many Republicans. it made me realise that their understanding of ‘woke’ is against almost anything that the ten commandments tell us about being a good citizen.
Agreed
Is it happening here?
We have had a plethora of laws in the last few years – criminalising almost any form of protest, and under which there are already several political prisoners – some of whom have had all their phones and laptops confiscated and are in custody on remand even tho if convicted they would not be sentenced to prison.
I agree with Richard – bewildered at the times we are living in – a sort if sub-totalitarian Oceania – where production of goods and services , government, and media – all under control of ‘war is peace’ ‘ignorance is strength’ big brother. .
But as a comment above says – we are many they are few. It must be possible to resist.
Humour could be one approach – dictators and the ultra right dont like being mocked they prefer an angry response. The NF National Front were beaten by a music-based ‘NF = No Fun’ campaign. But………
.
We have to resist
Aah humour!
“The Laughing Policeman”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U9u5zqKvC7E
&
The Benny Hill theme music
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg
have a lot to offer for peaceful protest (played by a massed kazoo orchestra?), although you’d have to check that Yvette Cooper wasn’t annoyed by them or you might be breaking some new anti-terror laws. They would sound good in court too, as part of the defence case, the judge would struggle to keep a straight face. 😉
Having jut seen “A Complete Unknown” I was struck by how there is no protest at a cultural level – no songs, no equivalent of Spitting Image or That Was the week That Was
What has happened to satire- has it somehow been effectively banned?
What a contrast to the world of the late 60’s- a time of such hope.
Two of my favourite protest songs ever are ‘Ohio’ by Crosby, Stills Nash and Young (but it did not stop Roger Stone) and ‘If 6 Was 9’ by Jimi Hendrix (whether he meant it or not – and he was a black American – the song takes on a meaning against the social conformity that helps authoritarianism).
There are other notable songs I agree ‘ God’s Away on Business’ by Tom Waits – visceral commentary on more recent times; the cynical ‘Taking Care of Business’ By Bachman Turner Overdrive; ‘Telegraph Road’ by Dire Straits which seems to lament the death of the North East’s industrial scene; Springsteens ‘Downbound Train’ that sums up for me Reagan’s destruction of the American Dream also echoed by Neil Young’s ‘Crime in the City’ detailing life in suburban America in the 1990’s.
I could go on, but all I would say is that if society and the media has deluded itself about Neo-liberalism all these years, rock music has not.
Thanks
Inevitably it will come to the UK, eagerly guided by the footman of the wealthy elites in the forms of Starmer and Farage. These stooges will manufacture consent for greater authoritarian control and the upwards transfer of national income by continuing with the illusion of democracy and manipulating the innate racism and bigotry of a worrying number of citizens to foment fear of the other.
You say that the US is on “a pathway to totalitarianism. It is the route to the oppression of all opposition. It is the road to fascism laid out before us. This is the way of terror . . .”
That certainly seems to be the case – and not just under Trump but for most of this century.
To me, the big question for non-Americans is whether the UK, and the rest of the West, will continue to follow the US under Trump as they have done under previous presidents, or whether a break is possible before it’s too late.
One of the prevailing concerns, of course, is Trumpian-type proto-fascism taking hold elsewhere. One of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders here in Australia is our own Gina Rhineheart (the richest person in Australia). Oligarchic capitalism and fascism seem to marry well together – as evinced my Musk & co.
Addendum: Leaving aside the mostly Republican Party support for Trump’s mean-spirited condemnation of the Bishop – apparently, she’s ‘a radical hard-left Trump hater’ – she has nonetheless received a lot of support for what she said on the inauguration day. She epitomises what it means to be a decent human being!