Trump is shifting his reelection pitch, and it has frightening implications for the country. Over the weekend, the federal crackdown in Portland, Oregon continued, with people in unmarked camouflage uniforms arresting peaceful protesters and taking them away in unmarked vehicles. And then, they appeared—for now—to let them go. The administration appears to be constructing a scene of violence and disorder for the news media to show to viewers.
I have this list I compiled after the 2016 election of what moves toward authoritarianism this administration was going to engage in and so far--alas--it is going in many of the directions I feared. The issue is that Trump is not only deranged, it is that he is scared. And a cornered rabid animal is the most dangerous. Trump sees the writing on the wall, no matter how much he might ignore it: when he is no longer in office, and if Pence or another Republican isn't there to pardon him, he is seeing decades of litigation and charges in his future. He won't be able to hide behind his cans of beans on the Resolute Desk.
However, teargassing a line of moms in yellow vests is not the media look he was hoping for. The fact that a huge percentage of these demonstrations are white protesters, standing up with Black and PoC companions also is not a visual this administration wants to portray. But all he looks at is Fox and we know they skew their visuals to meet the propaganda they are selling.
So hurrah for Moms! And for Chris Wallace (I never, ever thought I would say that). The more Trump gets "agitated" (which is how the NY Times described the interview), the more unhinged he sounds.
Horrifying! I actually saw a response to the info about the secret military, “what’s the big deal?” on a different post. A history lesson came down on him! From everyone!
There have been many acts that have hurt my mom heart! George Floyd crying out for his mom, for instance. I think this time, the call for change is calling moms to action! Among many people and many actions of course! But moms! Feeling the hurt of the abused!
Time to remember Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and get out there with the Moms to put a stop to this dangerous stupidity. What shocks me even more is that DHS can raise a private army and that a whole slate of federal employees obeying these lunatics in the White House rather than refusing and resigning!
I copy/paste these letters into a Word document, and bold or underline certain parts like students do when they deface textbooks. I even make comments like margin notes. This one is almost entirely bolded and underlined.
I know allusions to Hitler, whenever some petty demagogue arises is so common it is dismissed as hyperbole. However, ppl don’t realize that Hitler and the Gestapo didn’t just appear in 1939, killing ppl they considered undesirable. He grew in the 1920s and was ELECTED in 1933. So, this fascist activity going on right now seems like the Nazi regime in progress in the early 1930s. Also, holocaust survivors have told us that the tRump regime is the same as Hitler’s. Even Stern magazine has portrayed him in a 2018 feature, wrapped in the American flag with the caption “Sein Kampf” (His Struggle).
Reading these statements by Herr tRump of his struggle, I see his easily diagnosed Narcissistic Personality Disorder also displaying Paranoid Delusions and even Messianic Complex. HE IS NUTS, and the ignorant bigots elected him and now follow him like cult members. I feel the frightening implications for our country. The fact that the Repugnant Senate is absent and silent adds to that. Are they merely ignorantly sticking to party cohesion at this late stage when it is obvious tRump is nuts or are they actually complicit in the destruction of this nation? I hope the courts resolve this today, or at least try to so we can see the next illegal aggression tRump and his Göring, Wm. Barr attempt. When will their actions become so outrageous that the complicit Repugnants see the bigger picture beyond the next election?
Thank you, thank you, Heather, for putting all of this together with the complicated mix of who is doing what. Especially for doing this on a day when you were mourning the loss of 2 people you described as having lives well lived.
Heroes of the day:
* Portland Wall of Moms yellow shirts (my leftie-progressive friend in Oregon did not even know about them when I talked with her on the phone today)
* US Attorney of Oregon and Oregon Attorney General who are pushing back
* Esther Salas, U.S. District Court Judge who 4 days ago was assigned the civil case suing Deutsche Bank over relations to Jeffrey Epstein and whose husband and son were shot by a gunman dressed as a FedEx driver: her son was killed, and her husband is in critical condition.
If anyone wonders how nefarious Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were, watch the Netflix documentary. It's compelling in regard to their sexual abuse of young women, including minors, both for his own gratification and to set up blackmail. There were only hints in regard to some foreign agent connection that swayed then US Attorney for Southern District of Florida, Anthony Acosta, to make an unbelievable deal for Epstein. Acosta moved on to be nominated by Trump and confirmed as US Secretary of Labor, until his federal non-prosecution agreement with Epstein came to light, was challenged, and he was forced to resign. Of course Trump and Epstein were pals back in the day.
First, thank you, HCR, for your dedication to this project. It takes hours of your time to source and write a concise brief of each day's events and share them with us. They are a valuable resource today and will prove even more so in the years to come.
There is so much going wrong in the United States that under ordinary circumstances just one of these events would set off alarm bells. But now there is an onslaught of dangerous actions against the American people not the least of which are the gunning down of Esther Salas's son and husband, federal paramilitary forces being dispatched to quash protests, or the willful mismanagement of the coronavirus.
Like everything else Trump has undertaken and failed at throughout his life he has made sure that we, too, are now damaged goods. We live our lives anxious and afraid for our family's health and safety, our livelihoods, our nest eggs, the roof over our heads. And, once again, Trump is asserting that he may not accept the election results in November. To those Republicans in the Senate who claim to be constitutionlists: This should scare the hell out of you and yet you refuse to act for the good of the American people. Watching Chris Wallace's interview made my blood run cold. Trump is convinced he will dominate this country by hook or by crook and, frankly, in many ways, with his party's support, he has. It's our duty to stand strong against him till November, vote him and his out then take back the country once and for ALL in January.
Heather, this is terrifying and it’s what I’ve been fearing for the last year. Can you please suggest something we as citizens can do? What resources do we have beside the Democrats in Congress? what strategy can we use to communicate the peril and have anyone hear, given the hysteria over COVID?
They're throwing lit matches in a fireworks factory. The Meadows interview mentioned on cities run by Democrats and Trump called out "Democrat-run cities" as failures in his "interview" with Wallace.
Send agents provocateurs to make things worse, then when "civil disturbance" happens declare martial law. When more demonstrtations break out, declare more martial law. The election is cancelled due to "lack of security" as a result of the "civil violence" and in January there is no House of Representatives because no one got elected, and the "rump" Senate is majority GOP under McConnell's control, and Trump (who also declared in that interview that he would not accept the outcome of the election if he loses) is in the White House. And, good-by America as we have known her.
Don't like awake worrying about whether it can get worse. It IS getting worse. And we are dealing with an individual who has no boundaries to his depravity.
If you're going to lie awake, lie awake figuring if you can afford a gun.
When will this end? Can we wait until Nov 3? If tRump and his gangster thugs have their way, there will be no election because they have declared themselves rulers of America. They won't be able to call this country the "United States" as the states will never "unite" under tyranny. As always, one asks, "Where is Congress? Where is the outrage?"
Follow the lead of the heroic examples of peaceful protest. Violence and guns are tools to injure and kill, not persuade.
“There was a new force on the Portland streets this weekend: moms. Dressed in yellow shirts, wearing helmets and masks, several hundred women are forming chains between the officers and the protesters. They call themselves the Wall of Moms, and are chanting: “I don’t see no riot here; take off your riot gear,” and “Feds stay clear, moms are here!” Officers tear gassed them last night, but they came back tonight in bigger numbers.” (Today’s Letter)
On Saturday night, Christopher David, a US Navy Vet, was beaten with nightsticks (which broke his hand in two places) and gassed when he had the temerity to ask the guardsmen why they were violating their oath to the Constitution.
“It’s just us normal people out there,” he said. “There were a whole group of pregnant moms standing out there linking arms and they got gassed. You hear people like [President] Trump say it’s just a bunch of wacko fringe people in liberal cities who are out there, but no way. We’re all just normal people who think what’s happening is wrong.”
It was the first time he had ever attended a protest.
The move to use unmarked federal troops in cities, detaining people without due cause, without the approval of local authorities, is a move towards tyranny. This is compounded by the probability that many of these troops are from regions other than those they are policing, creating a psychological distance from those they are detaining. These could be trial runs for an eventuality of a trump loss in November, and a need to take over in a different way
What’s going on in Portland is very personal to me. My daughter and her family live there, close to the area where this is happening, and walks to work, even closer to where this is happening. She usually walks home at night by herself and has been doing so for many years, feeling safe. Now her partner is picking her up from work to drive the few blocks home. She now texts “we are living in a terrifying world.” She posted about “the moms” and thanked them for trying to
de-escalate the violence that the feds are creating. While she looks young, she is not a youngster at 48 years. Thankfully, she and others like her are posting daily to get the word out about what is really happening there (not the script that Trump/Barr/Wolf are trying to sell.
I live in Kansas City. What we have heard is, feds will be arriving tomorrow (Tuesday). Our mayor did not ask for them to come. He asked Governor Parsons for funding help curb the violence in the city. Parsons (Republican) saw this as an opportunity to kiss up to Trump. Barr has used the tragic shooting and death of a little 4 year old boy to escalate his war on democracy. May God protect us all.
I have this list I compiled after the 2016 election of what moves toward authoritarianism this administration was going to engage in and so far--alas--it is going in many of the directions I feared. The issue is that Trump is not only deranged, it is that he is scared. And a cornered rabid animal is the most dangerous. Trump sees the writing on the wall, no matter how much he might ignore it: when he is no longer in office, and if Pence or another Republican isn't there to pardon him, he is seeing decades of litigation and charges in his future. He won't be able to hide behind his cans of beans on the Resolute Desk.
However, teargassing a line of moms in yellow vests is not the media look he was hoping for. The fact that a huge percentage of these demonstrations are white protesters, standing up with Black and PoC companions also is not a visual this administration wants to portray. But all he looks at is Fox and we know they skew their visuals to meet the propaganda they are selling.
So hurrah for Moms! And for Chris Wallace (I never, ever thought I would say that). The more Trump gets "agitated" (which is how the NY Times described the interview), the more unhinged he sounds.
Horrifying! I actually saw a response to the info about the secret military, “what’s the big deal?” on a different post. A history lesson came down on him! From everyone!
There have been many acts that have hurt my mom heart! George Floyd crying out for his mom, for instance. I think this time, the call for change is calling moms to action! Among many people and many actions of course! But moms! Feeling the hurt of the abused!
I’m gonna need a yellow shirt!
Time to remember Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and get out there with the Moms to put a stop to this dangerous stupidity. What shocks me even more is that DHS can raise a private army and that a whole slate of federal employees obeying these lunatics in the White House rather than refusing and resigning!
I copy/paste these letters into a Word document, and bold or underline certain parts like students do when they deface textbooks. I even make comments like margin notes. This one is almost entirely bolded and underlined.
I know allusions to Hitler, whenever some petty demagogue arises is so common it is dismissed as hyperbole. However, ppl don’t realize that Hitler and the Gestapo didn’t just appear in 1939, killing ppl they considered undesirable. He grew in the 1920s and was ELECTED in 1933. So, this fascist activity going on right now seems like the Nazi regime in progress in the early 1930s. Also, holocaust survivors have told us that the tRump regime is the same as Hitler’s. Even Stern magazine has portrayed him in a 2018 feature, wrapped in the American flag with the caption “Sein Kampf” (His Struggle).
Reading these statements by Herr tRump of his struggle, I see his easily diagnosed Narcissistic Personality Disorder also displaying Paranoid Delusions and even Messianic Complex. HE IS NUTS, and the ignorant bigots elected him and now follow him like cult members. I feel the frightening implications for our country. The fact that the Repugnant Senate is absent and silent adds to that. Are they merely ignorantly sticking to party cohesion at this late stage when it is obvious tRump is nuts or are they actually complicit in the destruction of this nation? I hope the courts resolve this today, or at least try to so we can see the next illegal aggression tRump and his Göring, Wm. Barr attempt. When will their actions become so outrageous that the complicit Repugnants see the bigger picture beyond the next election?
Thank you, thank you, Heather, for putting all of this together with the complicated mix of who is doing what. Especially for doing this on a day when you were mourning the loss of 2 people you described as having lives well lived.
Heroes of the day:
* Portland Wall of Moms yellow shirts (my leftie-progressive friend in Oregon did not even know about them when I talked with her on the phone today)
* US Attorney of Oregon and Oregon Attorney General who are pushing back
* Esther Salas, U.S. District Court Judge who 4 days ago was assigned the civil case suing Deutsche Bank over relations to Jeffrey Epstein and whose husband and son were shot by a gunman dressed as a FedEx driver: her son was killed, and her husband is in critical condition.
If anyone wonders how nefarious Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were, watch the Netflix documentary. It's compelling in regard to their sexual abuse of young women, including minors, both for his own gratification and to set up blackmail. There were only hints in regard to some foreign agent connection that swayed then US Attorney for Southern District of Florida, Anthony Acosta, to make an unbelievable deal for Epstein. Acosta moved on to be nominated by Trump and confirmed as US Secretary of Labor, until his federal non-prosecution agreement with Epstein came to light, was challenged, and he was forced to resign. Of course Trump and Epstein were pals back in the day.
God bless the moms! That’s citizens doing something I am so proud!
The Portland law enforcement needs to stand up with the protesters and protect their citizens from unreasonable federal force and seizure.
Congress needs to draft article of a second impeachment.
Trump may be maneuvering to declare a state of emergency, due to rampant deployment of moms.
First, thank you, HCR, for your dedication to this project. It takes hours of your time to source and write a concise brief of each day's events and share them with us. They are a valuable resource today and will prove even more so in the years to come.
There is so much going wrong in the United States that under ordinary circumstances just one of these events would set off alarm bells. But now there is an onslaught of dangerous actions against the American people not the least of which are the gunning down of Esther Salas's son and husband, federal paramilitary forces being dispatched to quash protests, or the willful mismanagement of the coronavirus.
Like everything else Trump has undertaken and failed at throughout his life he has made sure that we, too, are now damaged goods. We live our lives anxious and afraid for our family's health and safety, our livelihoods, our nest eggs, the roof over our heads. And, once again, Trump is asserting that he may not accept the election results in November. To those Republicans in the Senate who claim to be constitutionlists: This should scare the hell out of you and yet you refuse to act for the good of the American people. Watching Chris Wallace's interview made my blood run cold. Trump is convinced he will dominate this country by hook or by crook and, frankly, in many ways, with his party's support, he has. It's our duty to stand strong against him till November, vote him and his out then take back the country once and for ALL in January.
Heather, this is terrifying and it’s what I’ve been fearing for the last year. Can you please suggest something we as citizens can do? What resources do we have beside the Democrats in Congress? what strategy can we use to communicate the peril and have anyone hear, given the hysteria over COVID?
They're throwing lit matches in a fireworks factory. The Meadows interview mentioned on cities run by Democrats and Trump called out "Democrat-run cities" as failures in his "interview" with Wallace.
Send agents provocateurs to make things worse, then when "civil disturbance" happens declare martial law. When more demonstrtations break out, declare more martial law. The election is cancelled due to "lack of security" as a result of the "civil violence" and in January there is no House of Representatives because no one got elected, and the "rump" Senate is majority GOP under McConnell's control, and Trump (who also declared in that interview that he would not accept the outcome of the election if he loses) is in the White House. And, good-by America as we have known her.
Don't like awake worrying about whether it can get worse. It IS getting worse. And we are dealing with an individual who has no boundaries to his depravity.
If you're going to lie awake, lie awake figuring if you can afford a gun.
When will this end? Can we wait until Nov 3? If tRump and his gangster thugs have their way, there will be no election because they have declared themselves rulers of America. They won't be able to call this country the "United States" as the states will never "unite" under tyranny. As always, one asks, "Where is Congress? Where is the outrage?"
Follow the lead of the heroic examples of peaceful protest. Violence and guns are tools to injure and kill, not persuade.
“There was a new force on the Portland streets this weekend: moms. Dressed in yellow shirts, wearing helmets and masks, several hundred women are forming chains between the officers and the protesters. They call themselves the Wall of Moms, and are chanting: “I don’t see no riot here; take off your riot gear,” and “Feds stay clear, moms are here!” Officers tear gassed them last night, but they came back tonight in bigger numbers.” (Today’s Letter)
On Saturday night, Christopher David, a US Navy Vet, was beaten with nightsticks (which broke his hand in two places) and gassed when he had the temerity to ask the guardsmen why they were violating their oath to the Constitution.
“It’s just us normal people out there,” he said. “There were a whole group of pregnant moms standing out there linking arms and they got gassed. You hear people like [President] Trump say it’s just a bunch of wacko fringe people in liberal cities who are out there, but no way. We’re all just normal people who think what’s happening is wrong.”
It was the first time he had ever attended a protest.
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/20/christopher-david-portland-protest-video/?hpid=hp_morning-mix-8-12-rr1_mm-navyvet%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans)
Saeed ahmedjust now
The move to use unmarked federal troops in cities, detaining people without due cause, without the approval of local authorities, is a move towards tyranny. This is compounded by the probability that many of these troops are from regions other than those they are policing, creating a psychological distance from those they are detaining. These could be trial runs for an eventuality of a trump loss in November, and a need to take over in a different way
What’s going on in Portland is very personal to me. My daughter and her family live there, close to the area where this is happening, and walks to work, even closer to where this is happening. She usually walks home at night by herself and has been doing so for many years, feeling safe. Now her partner is picking her up from work to drive the few blocks home. She now texts “we are living in a terrifying world.” She posted about “the moms” and thanked them for trying to
de-escalate the violence that the feds are creating. While she looks young, she is not a youngster at 48 years. Thankfully, she and others like her are posting daily to get the word out about what is really happening there (not the script that Trump/Barr/Wolf are trying to sell.
I live in Kansas City. What we have heard is, feds will be arriving tomorrow (Tuesday). Our mayor did not ask for them to come. He asked Governor Parsons for funding help curb the violence in the city. Parsons (Republican) saw this as an opportunity to kiss up to Trump. Barr has used the tragic shooting and death of a little 4 year old boy to escalate his war on democracy. May God protect us all.
Whenever you say something has 'frightening implications' I get even more deeply concerned.