Category Archives: Racism

The Divide Between The Left And The Right Is More Than Ideological.

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It’s cultural. With the left determined to maintain some degree of decorum along with traditional norms and institutions. And the right determined to exact retribution against its opponents – to own the Libs – and to tear our government apart.

Those differences have never been more apparent than following the recent political assassinations of Minnesota State Legislator, Melissa Hortman, and MAGA activist Charlie Kirk.

After the murder of Hortman and the violent attack on Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman by an apparent white Christian Nationalist, many on the right refused to acknowledge that the attacks were political despite abundant evidence to the contrary. Some falsely attributed the shootings to a “Leftist Marxist.” Others blamed the victims. A few used the attack to make sarcastic remarks aimed at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Further, Trump even refused to call Walz, saying it would be a waste of time.

Contrast that to the response following Kirk’s death: Almost every Democratic politician, political commentator and entertainer have decried the shooting and mourned the state of our political discourse. One glaring exception was MSNBC contributor, Matthew Dowd, a Republican, who was fired by the center-left network for stating the uncomfortable truth that Kirk’s hateful rhetoric likely led to his own death.

Meanwhile, those on the right are calling for vengeance by baselessly blaming the left for Kirk’s death though most political shootings have been committed by MAGA supporters. Trump quickly blamed the shooting on “the radical left.” Fox host, Jesse Waters, claims “we are at war.” MAGA ally Laura Loomer calls for “cracking down on the left with the full force of the government.” And, despite the fact that the vast majority of political violence has been committed by MAGA, Trump advisor Stephen Miller vowed to use the full force of the government to shut down leftist groups (aka MAGA’S political opposition).

In truth, the response from the right seems as extreme as its cruel policies.

Let me be clear: All murders, especially political murders, are disgusting and cowardly acts. But these targeted assassinations reveal a new low in the freefall of political discourse in our nation. That said, one must also acknowledge that Kirk was a prominent contributor to that freefall. Kirk not only tested the limits of his right to free speech. He abused that right in his pursuit of power, fortune and fame by promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories.

Moreover, Kirk used his freedom of speech to undermine the very government to which he owed that freedom.

As a white Christian Nationalist, he advocated for an end to separation of church and state. He opposed a woman’s freedom of choice to control her own body. He created a Professor Watchlist to threaten the academic freedom and careers of college professors with whom he disagreed. He promoted the Great Replacement Theory and claimed that the white majority are the actual victims of racism. He was integral to the January 6 insurrection in which many of his followers stormed the Capitol with the intent of hanging the Vice-President and others. And ironically, he thought that the thousands of deaths from gun violence are justified by the need for the Second Amendment.

Yet despite his contributions to help elect a dictatorial and autocratic regime, and despite the pain he inflicted on so many others, Kirk is being feted as a martyr and honored with the Medal of Freedom.

These unwarranted honors are further evidence of the asymmetry with which the two political sides are treated.

Now, as a blogger and a journalist, I’ll admit to resorting to hyperbole in some of my writings that contribute to the coarse tone of our political debate. And I will strive to constrain myself in the future. But I challenge you to compare the rhetoric from the right to that of the left. I think you will find that there is no comparison. The cruel and hateful tone from the right begins in the White House.

Only in the MAGA universe is it acceptable for a President of the United States to refer to immigrants as vermin, to Democrats as Demoncrats and traitors, to the legitimate press as enemies of the people, to women as nasty, filthy, crazy, or ugly, and to every problem as a Democrat hoax. He even suggested that the Second Amendment folks could deal with a rival. That rhetoric is repeated and even exaggerated by the MAGA base.

It’s long past time for reasonable Americans to reject such purveyors of hate and fear no matter which side they’re on. It’s one thing to oppose policies and to voice a differing opinion. It’s quite another to incite violence through words or actions. Indeed, no one should be targeted for expressing their thoughts and opinions.

A sharp criticism or a biting commentary may temporarily hurt. But under no circumstances is a bullet an acceptable retort.

Killing Truth.

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It was documented that the Felon-in-Chief told more than 30,000 lies during his first term in office. And during his current term, it seems he lies as often as he breathes. What’s worse is the fact that he has extended his assault on the truth to include the entire government, along with educational institutions, law firms, and media.

Since taking office, he has blocked research funding for universities he considers too liberal under the guise that they have failed to control antisemitism. (For the record, it’s not antisemitic to demonstrate against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.) He and his thuggish White Christian Nationalist followers continue to ban books from public schools and libraries. They have tried to erase any reference to the LBTQ community. And they continue to rewrite African American history and the long-lasting impact of slavery and Jim Crow.

They have criminalized brown and black immigrants, leading to what can only be described as kidnapping by anonymous masked men. The immigrants are then confined to concentration camps with deplorable conditions before being deported – often to countries thousands of miles from their homes.

The regime has denied law firms access to government property and information for representing clients the Dear Leader doesn’t like. It has also denied access to reporters and news organizations for reporting stories he dislikes, no matter how truthful they are. And, increasingly, the Felon-in-Chief has filed multibillion dollar lawsuits against media he feels have wronged him.

For example, he sued the Des Moines Register because he was angry that it published a poll that was unfavorable to Trump before the election. And he sued CNN after it repeatedly used “the big lie” to describe Trump’s repeated false statements that the 2020 election was stolen.

Trump sued ABC after George Stephanopoulos stated that Trump was convicted of rape. (He wasn’t. He was actually convicted of sexual assault and defamation. But the federal judge in the case stated that E. J. Carroll’s claim of rape was “substantially true.”) Although the case against ABC was frivolous, the network eventually capitulated and agreed to a $15 million settlement before trial.

Trump also sued CBS and 60 Minutes over what he believed was an edited response by Kamala Harris during an interview. Never mind that media routinely edit statements for clarity and brevity. But Paramount Global, the owner of CBS, also capitulated to the sum of $16 million over fear that its sale to Skydance Media would be blocked by the Republican-dominated FCC. The network even cancelled Late Night with Stephen Colbert, one of Trump’s most effective and humorous critics.

Trump even blocked the Associated Press from the White House Press Room because it ran a story referring to the Gulf of Mexico, instead of Trump’s preferred moniker: the Gulf of America. His cronies have also taken press credentials away from traditional news gathering organizations and handed them, instead, to more compliant bloggers and new (not news) media.

In the most glaring attack on independent news media, Trump and his MAGA congressional minions defunded PBS and NPR. And most recently, Trump has even sued the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal over its reporting of Trump’s friendship with a rival sexual predator – Jeffrey Epstein.

All of this seems a calculated attempt to intimidate and blind the media and, in turn, voters.

Not only is Trump completely divorced from the truth. So, too, are most of his appointees and cabinet members. Loyalty is prized above truthfulness and competency. And those who do not follow his lying lead are often quickly dispatched. The latest example is his firing of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he didn’t like the jobs numbers the agency reported.

The Felon-in-Chief and his underlings have removed Inspectors General, Whistleblowers and truth tellers from throughout the government. Even the Smithsonian Institution has succumbed to darkness after it was apparently forced to remove all references to Trump’s two impeachments. (The exhibit now lists only Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.)

If, as the Washington Post says, democracy dies in darkness, Lady Liberty’s torch is becoming very, very dim.

And Trump is as divorced from his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution as he is from the truth. Thus far, he has governed in direct violation of the 1st, 4th, 6th, 8th and 14th Amendments. In addition, he has talked about violating the 20th. He and his MAGA party have also violated the clause governing the separation of church and state. And he is clearly and continually operating in violation of the emoluments clause, which prohibits any federal officeholder from receiving gifts from foreign states or individuals and specifically bars the president from receiving gifts from the government or states.

In addition to gifts, Trump and his family have received the benefits of billions in investments from foreign governments. This year, he accepted a $40 million aircraft from Qatar and is spending an estimated $1 billion more of taxpayer money to convert it into Air Force One before he leaves office (if he leaves) and donates it to his presidential library.

He has also received tens of millions in personal donations from his MAGA supporters and billionaires. He spent $151.5 million of taxpayer money on golf trips to his own resorts during his first term. And, in his first six months of this term, he has already spent $50 million more. And that doesn’t include the estimated $10 million for his recent trip to Scotland to promote his new golf resort! If he continues to squander our money at this rate, he’ll approach nearly half a billion dollars by the end of the term. This from the man who complained that Obama golfed too much.

Of course, Trump justifies his golf habit by saying he needs time away from the stress of the office. (Apparently, destroying democracy is particularly stressful business.)

Consequences Of The Trump Regime.

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Most people are concerned about the impact on separation of powers, the Constitution, and our democracy. But there is much more to be worried about. Following is a partial list of consequences to the planet, the nation and its citizens as a result of the regime’s policies:

  1. Increased debt and interest payments thereby mortgaging the future of the next generations as a result of tax cuts for the wealthy.
  2. Increased inflation due to tariffs.
  3. Increased political division and political violence.
  4. Further weakening of institutions and norms.
  5. Increased hunger and homelessness along with a widening of the wealth gap.
  6. Massive decline in necessary workers for the food industry, construction and hospitality from deportations.
  7. More bankruptcies of family farms resulting in further corporate consolidation of our food chain.
  8. Increased vulnerability to terrorists and rogue nations as a result of the brain drain at the CIA and National Security Agency.
  9. More political control of our nation by billionaires (deepening of the oligarchy).
  10. Massive brain drain from cutting funds to universities and research.
  11. Further consolidation of media and erosion of first amendment rights.
  12. Weakening of public education furthering the wealth gap and brain drain.
  13. Further erosion of separation of church and state.
  14. Weakening or elimination of FEMA, NOAA and NWS resulting in lack of preparedness for extreme weather events.
  15. Further accelerating the global climate crisis by increased use of fossil fuels, increased lumbering, oil drilling in national parks and erasing incentives for electric cars and other mitigation efforts.
  16. Weakening of CDC and NIH resulting in lack of preparedness for another pandemic.
  17. Increased bankruptcies of hospitals and other healthcare facilities as a result of cuts to Medicaid and the ACA.
  18. Increased health insurance rates as a result of forcing the uninsured into ERs because they can’t afford routine medical visits.
  19. Undercutting citizen faith in vaccines making children more vulnerable to deadly disease.
  20. Weakening of our nation’s stature around the globe making us a global bully and pariah as a result of tariffs along with ICE and its concentration camps.
  21. Weakening of the arts by elimination of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
  22. Increased racism and misogyny as a result of the attacks on DEI.
  23. Overloading of the foster system by unwanted births due to denial of abortions.
  24. Mass extinctions of species as a result of ending mitigation policies for global warming.
  25. Increased state and local taxes as a result of cuts to federal grants.
  26. Massive loss of revenue from foreign tourists and foreign students.
  27. Loss of revenue from exports to foreign nations due to tariffs and offensive statements.

Given the regime’s policies, these consequences are inevitable. Are they what you voted for?

What Did You Vote For?

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Did you vote for increased inflation and higher prices due to tariffs? Did you vote to pay higher taxes so that billionaires and multinational corporations could receive large tax cuts? Did you vote to increase the deficit and add trillions to the national debt? Did you vote to consolidate more power in the executive branch by taking power away from the courts and your elected representatives?

Did you vote to have unvetted 20-something-year-old geeks sort through all of your private information and cut thousands of federal jobs? Did you vote to make America more racist again by eliminating DEI programs and firing government and military leaders just because they are women or people of color? Did you vote to have inexperienced and unqualified people take control of government agencies?

Perhaps you voted to arrest and deport immigrants who are violent criminals, but did you vote for mass deportations of essential farm workers and those who work in meat processing plants? Did you want to see families torn apart? Did you vote to have your immigrant neighbors and community members arrested and deported without due process? Did you want to see innocent immigrants and US citizens imprisoned in El Salvador and beaten and tortured or thrown in concentration camps?

Did you vote for cruelty?

Did you vote to have masked men with military weapons kidnap working Americans without warrants? Did you vote to have armed military in our streets? Did you vote to have judges and congressional representatives arrested?

Did you vote to dispense with the rule of law?

Did you vote to deport Afghan interpreters who saved the lives of US troops? Did you vote for massive cuts to the Veterans Administration? Did you vote to see millions thrown off Medicaid, including elderly in senior care? Did you vote to make healthcare unaffordable for millions of your fellow Americans? Did you vote to close hundreds of rural hospitals? Did you vote to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control? Did you vote to cut medical research on cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases?

Did you vote to eliminate foreign aid programs that save millions of lives? Did you vote to alienate are most loyal allies, including Canada? Did you vote to make foreigners afraid to visit our country and to stop buying our products? Did you vote to end Voice of America? Did you vote to help Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

Did you vote to ignore climate change while cutting funds for NOAA and the National Weather Service and eliminating FEMA? Did you vote to increase the use of fossil fuels and lease public lands to oil companies?

Did you vote to lower taxes on gun silencers? To watch our leaders engage in massive bribery schemes and corruption? Did you vote to pardon the criminals who violently beat police and planned to hang the Vice-President and many in Congress on January 6? Did you vote to have the president pardon felons in exchange for presidential bribes? To sell green cards for millions of dollars?

Did you vote for increased attacks on freedom of the press and freedom of speech? Did you vote to undermine the US Constitution?

Maybe you didn’t intend to vote for many of those things. But if you voted Republican in 2024, that’s what you got. Indeed, that’s who you are. Because your vote is a reflection of you.

One Of The World’s Greatest Propaganda Machines.

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As a former writer, creative director and owner of ad agencies, I could be considered somewhat of an expert on propaganda. So, despite being appalled by the Republican Party’s policies and utter cruelty, I have long been impressed by its mastery of propaganda.

In advertising and marketing, we are taught that the best way to attack competitors who have failed to articulate and promote a clear and positive brand is to simply rebrand them. To portray the brand as too expensive, too weak, too out of step with the times.

In essence, that is what the Republican Party and its propaganda outlets have done to Democrats. And the Democratic Party made it easy. For much too long, Democrats have embraced the Will Rogers quote: “I’m not a member of an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” That may have been humorous and harmless when the party was at its peak in the days following FDR’s New Deal. But it’s toxic today.

Sure, the Democratic Party offers a big tent with room for lots of disparate groups and minorities. That’s good. But for decades, the Party has failed to articulate its core beliefs of equality and fairness; of establishing a government that serves all Americans, especially workers.

That made things easy for Republicans, their billionaire benefactors, and their propaganda machine.

For example, by embracing the Moral Majority and rebranding anti-abortionists as pro-life, Republicans were able to successfully portray Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood actor, as morally superior and more religious than President Jimmy Carter, a Baptist preacher. Republicans also took advantage of Reagan’s repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, which freed electronic media to conflate opinion with news, by embracing Rush Limbaugh and his golden microphone. Recognizing that emotions – particularly anger, hatred and fear – are good for ratings, Limbaugh and his Republican sponsors began hammering Democrats with a continuous stream of propaganda that would have made Nazi Germany’s Goebbels envious.

A seemingly endless stream of Rush imitators followed suit. And they were soon joined by Fox News Channel, which hired Republican media consultant, Roger Ailes, as CEO. While operating under the ironic slogan “Fair and Balanced”, Fox became the nation’s most powerful megaphone praising Republican ideologies and spreading disinformation.

More recently, websites, social media, and podcasts have caused the viewers, readers, and listeners to be further separated into ideological silos where unbiased reporters and factcheckers are unwelcome.

For decades, the ratings and readership of these propaganda outlets have soared as they have blamed gays, immigrants, transexuals and Democrats for all of our nation’s ills. The attacks on minorities, taxes, an over-reaching federal government, the courts, and education are particularly effective in rural areas where the population is mostly comprised of straight, white Christians…all of it is aided by our nation’s abysmal literacy record. (21 percent of U.S. adults are illiterate and 54 percent of U.S. adults are literate at a 6th grade level or below.)

The propaganda’s impact on rural areas has led to Republican control of the South and much of the Midwest as well as the U.S. Senate. It also greatly impacts presidential races as a result of the Electoral College.

Republican propaganda in the form of disinformation and misinformation has given us Q-anon, Pizzagate, and the January 6 insurrection. It has convinced a majority to believe that vaccines are more dangerous than guns, that politicians know more about healthcare than doctors, that the climate crisis is a hoax, and that white people are the victims of racism. More worrisome, it has given us a second Trump administration headed by a thrice-married, twice-impeached charlatan who should be serving time for 34 felonies, for trying to rig an election, for inspiring an insurrection and for mishandling highly classified national intelligence.

Now all of that hatred and cruelty has been unleashed to detain, arrest, deport and brutalize ordinary people whose only crime is to seek safety, a job, and a better life for their children. And they’re not the only victims. We all are.

If our ever-so-fragile democracy survives this moment, the Republican propaganda machine will be a case study in mass media, marketing, and political science classes for decades to come. Hopefully, those studying it will also find a way to better implement the antidote for propaganda – truth.

Imagine The Worst Thing That Can Happen To Our Country.

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Whatever scenario you come up with, the Felon-in-Chief will do worse. Since taking office, his actions have exceeded every worst-case scenario Democrats and even his own voters could have imagined.

For example, he didn’t just nominate a cabinet of staunch conservatives; he nominated unqualified and wholly incompetent extremists. He didn’t just pardon the January 6 insurrectionists that invaded the Capitol, he pardoned those who brutally beat cops.

He’s not just deporting immigrants who are violent criminals as he promised, he’s trying to deport law-abiding immigrants and lawful residents including essential workers, parents, children with cancer, educators, students, refugees, even US citizens.

He’s not just lining his pockets by peddling influence to international leaders, he’s lining the pockets of his entire crime family and his billionaire friends.

He’s not just reshaping the government; he randomly fired tens of thousands of nonpartisan federal workers so he could replace them with MAGA loyalists. He’s not only discriminating against minorities by banning DEI programs in the federal government, but he’s also punishing universities and corporations that fail to follow his lead. He not only purged black and female leadership from our military, he’s all but erased the civil rights movement and LGBTQ rights movement from history.

He’s not just calling news reporters and the media “enemies of the people,” he’s suing networks for reporting the truth and threatening to take away their broadcast licenses.

He didn’t just alienate our closest allies. He’s sucked up to some of our worst adversaries and dictators. He didn’t just invoke tariffs to protect American industries; he invoked tariffs on all goods entering the U.S. resulting in higher prices and increased inflation. And he’s not only pushing a bill to cut taxes on billionaires and multinational corporations, but he’s also raising taxes on workers and taking healthcare access away from millions of ordinary Americans.

His DOJ isn’t just investigating those who worked on his own criminal investigations, it’s now arresting political opponents and charging them with crimes. His DHS isn’t just sending the heavily armed ICEstapo into communities to arrest innocent workers, the Felon has unnecessarily sent National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles to incite protesters in hopes he can invoke the Insurrection Act. And according to his executive order, it’s obvious that he plans to send the military into any city he considers worthy of his ire.

He ordered a $40 million Soviet-style military parade to celebrate his birthday. That’s bad enough, but don’t be surprised if he orders the troops and tanks to stay in Washington to take over the city and threaten Congress. (He did, after all, direct his supporters to overturn the 2020 election and hang his disobedient VP.) He didn’t just have the DOGE bros collect personal data on every living American, he’ll likely use them to electronically rig upcoming elections.

And these are but a few examples. What’s the worst you can imagine? Almost certainly, it won’t be as bad as the eventual reality.

The Trump Regime’s Toxic Racism.

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The MAGA movement began with racist attacks on Mexican immigrants and attacks on political correctness (aka courtesy and civility). It incorporated the slogan “America First” previously used by the Ku Klux Klan. And it gained momentum with the claim that Critical Race Theory was being taught in K-12 classes. (It was only taught in law schools to help attorneys understand the disadvantages faced by minorities.)

And now that Trump is, once again, in the Oval Office, his blatant racism has permeated the entire federal government as well as both private and public institutions with his assault on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), a long overdue initiative to create fairness for all Americans. The regime is even using its distaste for DEI to bludgeon corporations and universities by withholding federal contracts and research grants from those that refuse to accept the regime’s racist policies.

The Trump family’s well-known history of prejudice has led his loyal cabinet members to decapitate our military leadership by firing black and female military leaders and ordering the military to ban transexuals. It has led to the firings of minorities throughout the federal government. It has led to his takeover of the Kennedy Center for the Arts, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He and his MAGA minions have banned books featuring histories of slavery and any reference to the LGBTQ community.

None of this should come as a surprise. Since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has been built on racism and vicious attacks on minorities following the SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation of public schools. It counted on Jim Crow, attacks on gay marriage and voter suppression to win elections.

The Party continued to create new scapegoats and culture wars including the myth of black “Welfare Queens” and the racist belief that poor black women relied on abortion as a method of contraception. It gained power by claiming that all Mexican immigrants were murderers and rapists. And that boys and men were emasculating themselves as transexuals just so they can enter girls’ bathrooms and succeed in sports against girls and women.

Now the Trump regime is rewriting the history of the George Floyd murder suggesting that Floyd was a violent criminal who deserved to be choked to death or that he actually died of drug abuse. The regime’s “Justice” Department is seeking to dismiss police reforms enacted following racist murders in Minneapolis and Louisville. And, in a clear sign of racist immigration policies, the regime has welcomed white Afrikaaners as refugees while pushing to end the Temporary Protected Status of black and brown refugees from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and elsewhere.

Not long ago, the House of Representatives banned the nation’s first transexual congressional representative from using the Capitol’s women’s bathrooms. What’s next? Labeling federal buildings as white only?

The Trump Regime’s War On Everything.

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Much has been written about Trump’s insane trade war with the world, which has endangered our stock markets, our economy, our international reputation, and the strength of the US dollar. Even the very conservative Wall Street Journal has taken the regime to task for its stupidity.

We’ve also seen and heard a lot about the regime’s war on immigrants. Though Trump claimed that he would only deport immigrants with serious criminal records, it is now obvious that his thugs at DHS and ICE are targeting all immigrants, including those here on student visas.

But the Trump regime’s war is much, much broader. Since taking office less than 100 days ago, the regime has expanded its list of targets to include American citizens, federal workers, veterans, the LGBTQ community, news media and newswire services, people of color, disabled, women, Democratic-led states and cities, the environment, climate change mitigation, intelligence professionals, USAID, Voice of America, FEMA, NOAA, National Weather Service, IRS, FBI, CIA, VA, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, prosecutors, scientists, immunologists, health care workers and researchers, AmeriCorps, HeadStart, the education system, universities, libraries, arts centers, museums, law firms, judges and the courts, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Canada, Greenland, Panama, our closest allies, and virtually every longstanding positive norm and institution.

Not the least of the regime’s targets is the United States Constitution beginning with an executive order repealing the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of birthright citizenship and, more recently, full-frontal assaults on the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of press and the freedom of assembly.

The regime has gleefully overstepped its authority by illegally destroying agencies created by Congress and blocking congressionally authorized funding, a violation of Congress’ Article One powers as spelled out in the Constitution.

Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, the regime has even attacked the First Amendment guarantee of free speech by detaining students and legal immigrants who have spoken out against Israel’s many war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians, murders of journalists and aid workers, and the intentional targeting of children as young as 2-years-old.

Even worse, the regime has abducted and imprisoned dozens without acknowledging their constitutional right to due process. In fact, it has attacked almost every aspect of the rule of law – the very foundation of our democracy. That has led to a full-fledged constitutional crisis as Trump and his cronies have willfully ignored a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court demanding the regime to facilitate the return of a legal resident who, by its own admission, was sent to a Salvadoran prison through an “administrative error.”

By contrast, the regime has supported dictators and brutal strongmen, most especially Vladimir Putin. It has also pardoned and excused felons, including the seditious mob that invaded the US Capitol and violently attacked law enforcement on January 6.

All of this has led to massive nationwide demonstrations, to longtime allies making plans to defend themselves without our help, to trading partners banning the import of American-made products, and to almost every nation on the planet issuing travel warnings to the United States resulting in significant drops in tourism along with a corresponding drop in revenue.

Of course, none of this should come as a surprise to voters. Much of it was clearly laid out in Project 2025. Moreover, if you give a convicted felon, rapist and fraudster great power, you shouldn’t be surprised when he engages in criminal activity and breaks more laws

What Is Our Democracy’s Breaking Point?

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All but the most extreme of Trump’s supporters now have legitimate concerns about the future of the world’s oldest democratic republic.

After all, we’ve seen the Supreme Court of the United States give our Dear Leader immunity for official acts while in office. We’ve seen Trump pardon violent criminals who attacked police and vandalized our U.S. Capitol. And we’ve seen the unqualified and incompetent take control of our government agencies.

We’ve seen Trump, the world’s richest man and his DOGE bros usurp congressional authority by illegally firing more than 200,000 government employees and withholding congressionally approved funding in order to rationalize a $4.6 trillion tax cut for American oligarchs. We’ve seen them threaten Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. We’ve seen them decimate HHS, SSA, VA, the Department of Education and more. And we’ve seen go so far as to eliminate USAID and the Voice of America.

We’ve seen the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the National Security Agency decapitated. We’ve seen longtime FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors fired for simply having done their jobs by investigating Trump and his friends for legitimate and obvious crimes.

We’ve seen women, people of color and other minorities removed from positions of leadership as part of Trump’s attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We’ve seen history removed from government websites. We’ve seen Trump take control of the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian. We’ve seen universities have their federal research grants pulled for refusing to give up control of their institutions to the administration. We’ve seen Trump threaten some of the nation’s oldest and largest law firms along with legacy media and newswire services.

We’ve seen former president Joe Biden and former Trump and Biden officials have their security clearances pulled. Some have also lost their security details leaving them vulnerable to the Oathkeepers, Proud Boys and other violent MAGA supporters.

We’ve seen Trump threaten Canada, Greenland and Panama. We’ve heard him speak glowingly about his plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza and build a Mar-a-Lago on the Mediterranean. We’ve seen him alienate our closest allies and side with brutal dictators and autocrats. For example, we’ve seen him side with Vladimir Putin by claiming that Ukraine started the war with Russia.

We’ve seen Trump institute tariffs against all of our trading partners – tariffs that have crashed the stock markets, and increased prices on all imported goods.

We’ve seen retribution and threats against judges who have signed injunctions to block Trump’s illegal and unconstitutional actions. We’ve seen immigrants arrested and sent to an El Salvador torture center without due process. We’ve seen a DOJ attorney fired for admitting in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal immigrant, was mistakenly sent to El Salvador through an administrative error. We’ve seen foreign students detained for having written or spoken out against our government’s support for Israel’s war crimes. We have heard Trump talk about sending US citizens to El Salvador. And we are in the midst of a very real constitutional crisis now that Trump and his minions are defying a unanimous Supreme Court order to facilitate Garcia’s return to the US.

All of this has happened in less than 3 months! And the Republican’s narrow congressional majority seems uninterested, willing to fall in line behind Trump without so much as a vote. Indeed, the only thing that seems to motivate the majority is to further restrict voting in Democratic-leaning areas.

The question is: How much longer can our democracy hold? Will we still have our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms by the congressional midterm elections in 2026? Our nation is already unrecognizable to the majority of our citizens and to most of the world. If the administration’s illegal and unconstitutional actions are allowed to continue for another 22 months, what of our democracy will be left? Even if Democrats win an overwhelming majority in both houses of Congress in 2026, it will take decades to rebuild a functioning government, and generations to rebuild our stature around the globe.

The A In USA Now Stands For Autocracy.

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Fellow Americans: The good news is that we no longer have to worry about our nation becoming an autocracy under a second Trump administration as many Democrats feared. The bad news is that it already has.

Trump has moved the nation toward autocracy faster than Putin of Russia, Erdogan of Turkey or Orban of Hungary.

Indeed, in just two months, he has ignored or dismissed most of his campaign promises to end inflation and cut costs for American consumers. He has elevated dozens of loyalists – many of them grossly unqualified – to cabinet positions. He has fired Inspectors General and others responsible for identifying government corruption. He has replaced Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs with racism and misogyny.

He has purged the DOJ and FBI of nonpartisan civil servants and replaced them with submissive toadies. He has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. He has defunded the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. And he has blocked funding for medical research.

He has punished news media that have had the temerity to confront him with difficult questions, to report his illegal actions, and to debunk his numerous lies. He has permitted an unelected and unvetted billionaire to fire tens of thousands of federal employees and to access classified information and the personal data of millions of Americans. Further, he has indicated his desire to eliminate Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security in order to justify an additional $4.5 trillion tax cut for billionaires and large corporations.

He has embraced our nation’s greatest adversaries while abandoning our most loyal allies. He has begun an international trade war that is almost certain to send our economy into recession. And he has threatened to make Canada our 51st state, to take Greenland, and to retake the Panama Canal by force.

Without debate or congressional input, he has governed by Sharpie.

Thus far, the Felon-in-Chief has signed 90 executive orders – many of them blatantly unconstitutional. For example, he unconstitutionally abolished birthright citizenship as established under the 14th Amendment. He has illegally blocked congressionally approved payments. He has illegally threatened research grants to universities that fail to suppress student demonstrations against Israel and his policies.

He has shuttered Voice of America and effectively closed USAID. He has ordered the closing of the Department of Education. He has revoked the temporary protected status of more than half a million refugees. And he has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 to justify detaining and deporting those who do not meet his definition of desirable immigrants without the protection of Habeas Corpus. That includes those legally in the US who have committed the “crimes” of expressing contempt for Trump and his policies.

More worryingly, he has blatantly and dismissively ignored judicial orders and threatened the judges who made them, thereby creating a constitutional crisis. Not even a rebuke by Chief Justice Roberts seems to have deterred him.

Of course, all of this was predictable. What else would you expect from a presidential candidate who stated he would be a dictator on day one, who has been convicted of 34 felonies, who was judged to have committed sexual assault, who was the subject of multiple felony indictments, who inspired a violent insurrection, who announced his intention to exact revenge on those who tried to hold him accountable?

The only questions remaining are to what end and how do we save our democracy from his grasp? Waiting until 2026 to elect a Democratic-majority Congress may be far too late.

Already stock markets are plunging, inflation is soaring, and consumer confidence is falling. Adding to our economic woes, many former European allies have warned their citizens against travel to the US. Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs and dismissive speeches have infuriated Canadians causing Canadian tourism to the US to fall off a cliff.

Other NATO allies are making plans for their defense against Russian aggression without help from the US. In addition, our national security is at risk after Trump’s reported sharing of the nation’s most secret military plans with Musk and others who lack security clearances.

The question is: To what end?

I understand the desire of Trump and his oligarch friends to send the US economy into a recession. Many have already sold off their stocks and could reap immense profits by repurchasing shares at a lower price. I can understand the oligarchs’ desire to profit by privatizing pools of public funds, such as those intended for education, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Though it sickens me, I can even understand Trump’s desire to undermine the Constitution by weakening Congress and the judicial system in order to consolidate his own power.

And given Trump’s years-long ties to Russia and reports of kompromat, I can understand why Trump would personally bow to Putin.

But why destroy most of the agencies of the federal government? Why make our government so dysfunctional? Why destroy our national parks? Why ignore climate change and endanger the entire planet? Why rewrite history and so embrace fascism, racism and misogyny? Why deport necessary undocumented workers? Why treat tens of thousands of hardworking civil servants so cruelly? Why destroy our decades of goodwill with democratic nations around the globe thereby weakening the US for decades to come?

Is Trump inviting Americans to take to the streets in protest – to engage in violence – so that he can institute martial law? If so, what then? He’s already acting as a king. What is the end game?