"It became necessary to destroy the town in order to save it."*
There are times when I'm not sure who frightens me more, DJTrump or those who follow him slavishly.
The above quote is one of the most infamous sound bites from the Vietnam War, and is frequently held up as an ideal example of the absurdity of war and a censure of the "military mind." Laying waste the town of Ben Tre cost the lives of as many as 1,000
civilians and had virtually no effect on the ultimate outcome of the
conflict.
I can easily imagine the Destroyer-in-Chief saying something similar about Chicago, or California, or the entire country for that matter. There is only one image in DJTrump's excuse for a mind right now, and it is of him as absolute ruler of this nation, with neither laws nor term limits to restrain him.
I genuinely believe he would start a war if he thought it would be to his advantage, destroying the country even if it would mean presiding over a lawless wasteland. He is that ruthless. It is not hyperbole when I say I have an existential fear of his lust for power, which is driven by his extreme narcissism.
As I and many others have pointed out, the unpresident can't abide
the thought of someone being greater than he. When he began hobnobbing
with tyrants who rule absolutely he knew he had to
join their club. On their part, the tyrants of
the world saw him coming a mile away and set their sights on his vanity. He is so delusional he thinks Kim Jong-un, perhaps his equal in megalomania, likes him, when in fact the North Korean leader mocks him, calling him "Excellency."
He makes no secret that he believes he can be elected to more than the two allowed terms. When he first mentioned the idea most commentators agree he was joking; but in 2020 he's turned serious. He believes he is entitled to more than two terms because--are you ready? This is out-of-the-ballpark bonkers--Barack Obama and Joe Biden "spied" on his first term, thereby "robbing" him of quality time he could have spent doing his usual presidential activity, which is to say, nothing.
As ludicrous as the idea is, he seems to have begun to believe it, and given his penchant for magical thinking that means it must be so. The 22nd Amendment sets a strict limit of two terms on the presidency, but the Traitor-in-Chief has repeatedly demonstrated that he holds the Constitution in contempt. Its only use to him is to fire up his trigger happy supporters by mentioning the Second Amendment from time to time.
He has used the courts to make several unsuccessful attempts to override parts of the Constitution, including a multi-pronged attack on Congressional oversight of the executive branch. He has completely disregarded the First Amendment a number of times, most egregiously by unilaterally sending federal troops to confront protesters in Portland, Oregon and other cities.
Most dastardly, he has blatantly caused the degradation of the Postal Service's capacity to carry and deliver mail in an open attempt to suppress mail-in voting. As a favor to his buddy Vlad he has further quashed reports about Russia's attempts to disrupt our electoral process and begun highlighting the same kinds of attempts by Iran.
Finally, it has recently been disclosed that the Liar-in-Chief knew a great deal about COVID-19 from very early in the pandemic. He claims he downplayed the virus because he didn't want to create a panic. That is precisely the thinking that caused the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 to be so deadly: governments kept the public in the dark rather than informing them about safety procedures, which might have saved thousands of lives. It is more likely Trump held the information close with the thought of somehow turning it to his advantage, perhaps as a bargaining chip.
I don't fear Trump as a man. He is rather a pathetic specimen, after all. I do fear his madness and the power he wields, because the former could cause him to use the latter recklessly. He could blithely unleash nuclear Armageddon without a second thought if he believed it could keep him in power.
As long as one person follows the Lunatic-in-Chief's orders we are all in danger.
--- Diogenes, 9/10/2020
*The statement from an anonymous U.S. Army officer has been misquoted so many times it's unlikely anyone remembers the actual text. It appears here in the most common version.