The Trump Cult: Treason and Sedition

We are in the midst of a coup attempt. 

Over the course of his presidency lame-duck Trump has been steadily building a cult of personality, a classic and proven way to overthrow government.

Wikipedia has an excellent article on the nature and history of such cults, which I recommend to you. Here is its opening sentence:

"A cult of personality, or cult of the leader, arises when a country's regime – or, more rarely, an individual – uses the techniques of mass media, propaganda, the big lie, spectacle, the arts, patriotism, and government-organized demonstrations and rallies to create an idealized, heroic, and worshipful image of a leader, often through unquestioning flattery and praise."¹

If that sounds familiar it's because we've been watching that exact thing unfold over the past four years. Trump's platform of racism, bigotry, paranoia, and xenophobia appealed to the darker instincts of a shockingly large number of Americans. Although he lost the popular race by some 3 million votes, he accrued sufficient electoral votes to win the presidency.

He offered no coherent plans or policies. His "America First" doctrine, repeated ad nauseam, was a litany of the wrongs suffered by America at the hands of international cartels, i.e. treaty organizations and such, and of the injuries done to loyal Americans by foreigners, immigrants, and nonwhite races.

"America First" is code for "whites only."

The only foreign policy the Xenophobe-in-Charge pursued was to remove the United States from as many international treaty and aid organizations as possible and to isolate us from the rest of the world.

His wish to be an autocrat became clear when he made at least two attempts to have the Supreme Court remove Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch. When those attempts failed he attempted to assert control over the Supreme Court by stuffing it with a conservative super majority.

He has attempted to use the armed forces as his personal security force to put down civil unrest and has praised vigilantes as heroes.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began he paid little attention to it, its rapid spread, or the alarming numbers of victims who were falling ill and dying. Throughout 2020 his focus was on one thing and one thing only: his re-election bid.

In the midst of the pandemic, seeking to silence true information about COVID-19, he gutted the CDC.

Because the pandemic was likely to persuade a lot of people to vote by mail, he attempted to dismantle the Postal Service.

With the election over he and his apparatchiks have inappropriately and unsuccessfully flooded courts at all levels with requests to overturn the election. His attempts to subvert the electoral process, one of the cornerstones of our government, clearly amounts to sedition, if not treason.

Donald Trump has created a cult of personality: the first step in creating an autocratic regime. He has incited his followers to intimidate voters, disrupt the electoral process, and threaten voting officials who were simply doing their jobs. He and his followers are consciously and systematically attempting to subvert the will of the American people by trying to reverse the presidential election results.

If you're still not convinced that this is a cult, consider this: The Arizona State Republican Party in a recent series of tweets essentially asked its members if they were willing to die in the effort to overthrow the vote.²

The list of personality cults that have grown into tyrannical autocracies is long. In the modern world it includes Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Idi Amin, Mao Zedong, and Kim Jong-un. Will Trump be added to that list?

No cult of personality has yet confronted the Constitution of the United States. Trump has mounted a number of attacks on the Constitution, to no avail. He has attempted to suborn the Supreme Court, the chief guardian of the Constitution, with no success. 

People like Trump are the reason that all federal elected officials except the president swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Trump is a domestic enemy of the Constitution, even though he also swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend it.

For now the Supreme Court is the last governmental bastion between democracy and the lying, seditious, hypocritical, treasonous creep that is the president. 

There are ways to remove him from office, and even now someone should do it. He and his rabid followers can do a lot of damage in the next 39 days.

La lutte continue!

--- Diogenes, 12/12/2020

 

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

² The Arizona Republic, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/08/arizona-republican-party-asks-if-followers-die-election-president-donald-trump/6488952002/

Immunity, Shmimunity

This started out as a brief statement that became something else. So I'm going to state the gist of it and let it go.

The president is not immune from criminal prosecution, either constitutionally or legally. Immunity is a fiction that Congress and the Executive Branch have been living behind since the Nixon years. The truth is that any prosecutor with a case and jurisdiction could indict the president now. Right now. And someone damn well should.

I urge you to contact your state's attorney general and suggest she take action while we still have a country. A lot of damage can be done in 41 days.

If you disagree with me about this let me know and I'll cite the details.

--- Diogenes, 12/11/2020

Concerning Sedition

On his Youtube show of December 1, David Pakman made the excellent point that Lame Duck Trump, grasping at the smallest imaginable straws in an insane attempt to overturn the presidential election, repeatedly commits sedition.

Because that's not a word most of us use frequently, here's the Merriam-Webster definition: "incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority." Yes, that sounds like what Trump does when he tries to rally his army of gun-totin' knuckle draggers. So why hasn't he been called out on it?

Because, dear readers, except for a few months at the end of WWI, we haven't had a law against sedition since 1801. That law was the first real test of the First Amendment right to free speech, and the amendment won. The Sedition Act of 1798 was on the books only about three years.

Laws against sedition are fairly common around the world. They are most commonly found in less-than-democratic nations as you might expect, but they also show up in otherwise freedom-loving European monarchies, where badmouthing the royal family is a crime.

Here in the good old U.S. of A. we fiercely defend our right to speak freely, and defend even the right to say things we abhor. As Voltaire allegedly said, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Few of us who are not military would readily contemplate that kind of sacrifice. But there are some things being said by the Litigant-in-Chief that seem to many of us to to require a strong response.

Can we do anything about it? Well, maybe. Tucked away in Title 18 of the U. S. Code is 18 USC § 2385, which provides penalties including up to 20 years in prison for advocating overthrow of the government. Here is part of it: 

"Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, . . . Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction."¹

This is a de facto sedition act. I think there is evidence that Trump has, by attempting to subvert this country's electoral process, by attempting to dismantle the postal service, by attempting to end Congress' oversight of the Executive Branch, and by inciting violence against state governments, has violated the act.

At this point I doubt anyone with the power would charge him, although his threat to withdraw funding from the military is surely a grave threat to national security. He may be found immune to the charge now, but maybe the FBI will add it to the list of his offenses and swoop in to gather him up after the Biden inauguration.

I can dream, can't I?

--- Diogenes, 12/5/2020

¹ Legal Information Institute, Cornell University: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2385

National Review Sees The Light

When we relaunched Vox Populi last winter I commented that we were not a breaking news outlet, but a small voice in a big wilderness speaking out against Trump and his administration.

Still, I've consistently seen major news outlets say the same things I've been saying, although with a bit more restraint. Not that they heard it from me; I'm not prone to hubris. But it's nice to have one's voice reinforced.

Latest to join the chorus denouncing Trump has been the National Review. This is, as far as I know, unprecedented. The journal was founded by arch-conservative William F. Buckley, and it has been the source of many a Republican wet dream. 

Having temporarily slipped into the Trump cesspool a while back, the editors have recovered sufficiently to actually speak the truth. The article says in part, "make no mistake: The chief driver of the post-election contention of the past several weeks is the petulant refusal of one man to accept the verdict of the American people. The Trump team (and much of the GOP) is working backwards, desperately trying to find something, anything to support the president’s aggrieved feelings, rather than objectively considering the evidence and reacting as warranted."¹

Wow! You have to understand that this biweekly journal is probably the most ultra-conservative publication in English. It no longer has the erudition and intellectual potency of Buckley at the helm, but it is probably the most important source of conservative opinion for right-wingers who don't get all their news from Facebook or Twitter.

Well done, NR editors. Welcome to the real world.

--- Diogenes, 12/1/2020

¹ https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/11/trump-election-fraud-disgraceful-endgame/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=homepage&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=featured-content-trending&utm_term=first

Numbers

57 Days until Joe Biden's inauguration;

12,000,000+ Americans afflicted with COVID-19;

250,000+ Americans killed by COVID-19, with an assist by Donald J. Trump--approximately the population of Buffalo, NY, North Las Vegas, NV, or Winston-Salem, NC;

≈1,500 American deaths per day from COVID-19;

60% Of South Dakotans have tested positive for COVID-19 thanks to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem's no mask, no protection policies;

1.6% Of Vermonters have tested positive for COVID-19 thanks to Republican Gov. Phil Scott's rigorous common-sense based policies;

535 Members of Congress + 15 Cabinet members + 1 vice-president = 551 spineless politicians who can't or won't try to summon the will and/or courage to muzzle or sequester Lame Duck Trump;

158 Sovereign nations (out of 196) whose leaders have recognized Joe Biden as president-elect;

15 International treaties, agreements and arms control measures abandoned by Trump--the majority have to do with human rights;

200+ Lawsuits filed by Trump administration attorneys and GOP apparatchiks with the aim of disrupting the election and suppressing votes;

0 Lawsuits with potential effect ruled on--most dismissed or dropped;

50,293 Trump Tweets during presidential term;

≈ 25,000 Trump lies since 2016;

1 Trump presidential term;

0 Future Trump presidential terms.

Your additions welcome.

--- Diogenes, 11/24/20

 

 

 

 

 

Lies, Betrayal, and Le Cirque de Rudy

59 Days and counting, and we can't let our guard down until Joe Biden is inaugurated.

Dirty tricks, obfuscation, wholesale lying, deception, inveigling and skullduggery--all standard Republican tools--are afoot and the republic is still in danger.

Throughout Lame Duck Trump's term we've all said something like, "It surely can't get worse than this," only to find out a few days later that yes, indeed, it can. Trump's "worse than" moments have escalated and multiplied until it truly does seem there could be no more. And yet, especially during this past year, the pace of multiplication has picked up exponentially as the Fool-in-Chief's minions have joined him in making the world a worse place. 

I'm tempted to compare the multiplication of Trump's "worse thans" to the infinitely reproducing Tribbles of Star Trek fame,¹ but there's nothing cute and cuddly about what's coming out of the White House.

The alleged leader of the nation is a pathological liar and malignant narcissist. He is a laughingstock and pariah to other world leaders, a bumbling fool whose grip on reality is steadily loosening. It's all what we've come to expect--and what does that say about us? 

But the Fool-in-Chief has the world's most powerful military at his command. We can only hope that if he decides to throw some bombs--maybe on Tehran, maybe on Portland, Oregon--that those in command will politely but forcibly tell him to go to Hell.

Some of Trump's minions come close to matching the depth of his delusions.

Scott Atlas, who has become Lame Duck Trump's medical mouthpiece, has recently spoken against mask use, size limitations on gatherings, and has urged people in Michigan to "rise up" against Governor Gretchen Whitmer's stringent public health policies and actions. Why Whitmer and not another governor with similar policies, like Ralph Northam? Because Whitmer happens to be LDT's current whipping girl. He's intimidated by women who wield power--and who will outlast him in office.

But back to Atlas. If you go looking for his public health credentials you'll find nothing. Atlas is a neuroradiologist, a specialty that positions its practitioners about as far away from sick people as it's possible to get. Not to trash talk the specialty; it's important to people with certain neurological problems. It's just that one would seldom if ever mention neuroradiologists and public health in the same sentence. And yet this hands-off physician, who sees his patients only in radiology media, is telling us to ignore all the other "expert" doctors with public health cred.

It's hardly surprising; he's Trump's tool, more valuable for being a fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a right-wing think tank that provided a number of the unpresident's advisors, than for being a doctor.

Yet he is still a physician who has sworn to uphold the precepts of the Hippocratic Oath. Contrary to popular belief, the Oath does not contain the words "First, do no harm." It does, however, bind medical practitioners to the promise of dedicating their lives to healing the sick. It says, in part, "I will . . . benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgement, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. . . . Into whatever homes I go, I will enter them for the benefit of the sick, . . ."²

Scott Atlas has betrayed any trust the American people might have held him in, and has also betrayed his professional oath. His medical licenses should be rescinded.

Then there's the Rudy Roadshow. Rudy Giuliani, whose grip on reality is no more secure than LTD's, leads a team of boutique litigators and attorneys from small firms (of course; no major firm would touch this nonsense) in a brazen attempt to overthrow the 2020 election result. So far they are batting zero, and getting paid ridiculous sums to do it. Rudy is said to be paid $20,000 a day. Talk about throwing good money after bad.

Once again, here are overpaid professionals, whose job it is to uphold the law, trying to subvert the voice of the people. The lot of them should be disbarred.

Stay alert and watch for tyranny everywhere.

--- Diogenes, 11/22/2020

 

¹ Star Trek, "The Trouble With Tribbles," Season 2, Episode 15.

² National Institutes of Health, "Greek Medicine," https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html.

POTUS MIA

It's Friday the 13th and no one is at the helm of the ship of state.

Unpresident Donald Trump, the nominal leader of the nation, has retreated to his fortress of solitude, licking his wounds and endlessly seeking someone to blame for his downfall. Are there mirrors in that fortress?

His most visible action so far has been to decapitate the Department of Defense, firing Secretary Mark Esper and several other top defense personnel; others have resigned. The reason for this massacre seems to be perceived disloyalty to the Idiot-in-Chief by those who have been removed. They have been replaced by a bevy of Trump loyalists, some of whom have dodgy credentials, such as retired Brigadier General Anthony Tata, a known Islamophobe who has called former President Barack Obama a terrorist.

One can't be sure how concerned to be about those actions. Is it just Trump showing he still has power over a few people, or is he planning to do something tremendously stupid?

It's well known that Trump demands loyalty above all else, as most tyrants do, and Esper had been notably outspoken--especially about sending federal troops into U. S. cities. What is most troubling is the obvious fact that this temporary restructuring of the DoD virtually gives a delusional and frustrated president direct control of the nation's arsenal, including nuclear weapons. Is the Narcissist-in-Chief demented enough to use them, in an "If I can't have this country, nobody can" Armageddon? And does anyone want to find out?

More importantly, if enemies perceive the DoD shakeup as a weakness, they might be prone to strike. Not so much the big guys, who are always under scrutiny, but smaller nations or terror groups, who could slip in under the radar. Let's not forget it was such a group that brought about the most disastrous attack on American soil in history--and that at a time when we had a stable defense structure.

Most of Trump's post-election time seems to have been spent trying to come up with newer and zanier lawsuits. I have to wonder how he can get so many attorneys to work for him, unless he's illegally using DoJ staff. Surely they know they'll have to get into a very long line to get paid. If they're working pro bono, I'm afraid I don't see any "bono" in it.

At this writing most of those suits have been withdrawn or thrown out. The Supreme Court is holding its own counsel, but doesn't seem keen to deal with any more fluff. As a judge once reminded me, "de minimis non curat lex": "The law does not deal with trifles."

Speaking of which, if the Trifler-in-Chief is going to declare himself hors de combat, he is bound by duty and his by oath to provide a replacement for himself. He can voluntarily invoke the 25th Amendment, put Mike Pence in the Oval Office for a few weeks and go off to sulk.

Or he can put on his big-boy pants and actually act like an adult.

---Diogenes, 11/13/2020

    

Veterans

Today is Veterans Day, or Armistice Day if you're old enough to remember that appellation.

My family tree includes people who have served in every war America has been involved in, from the Revolution to Vietnam.

Some saw battle, some didn't. Some tended to humble jobs in the background like my great-great grandfather, a Civil War wagoner who was nonetheless wounded in battle. Others flew into the thick of things like my uncle, a B-29 flight engineer who flew raids over Germany in WWII.

Those who served did so honorably. I believe that is the case with the great majority of our warriors today. It must be especially difficult in times like these when so many of their senior administrators and commanders, right up to the putative Commander-in-Chief, are corrupt and willing to use them as pawns for their own purposes.

In they next few weeks, when they may be ordered to fight their own people or undertake some other false or unlawful mission at the whim of the president, we can only hope that their innate honor and sense of duty prevails. 

They must understand that the part of their oath to protect and defend the Constitution trumps the part about them obeying the president.

--- Diogenes, 11/11/2020

Reflectiions

I've written elsewhere about thinking I had retired from political dissent until the Orange Obscenity won the presidency. I know I wasn't the only person to be profoundly shocked when the results of the 2016 presidential race were announced. Shock quickly turned to alarm, and finally outrage. 

The very thought of Donald Trump, one of the world's most obnoxious and toxic personalities, in the Oval Office turned my stomach. I'm a retired journalist, but I've not read a newspaper nor watched a TV news program since the 2017 inauguration, because any mention of Trump made me angry and disgusted.

I knew I had to find some way to express my rage, or I would explode. On February 1, 2017 I launched the Trump Alphabet Project on Facebook, inviting everyone to come up with a daily adjective to describe Trump, beginning with A and running through the alphabet. It was a bit lighthearted, but provided an outlet for a surprising number of people. There were some among my "friends" who were already into the Trump Kool-Aid pretty deep, who expressed their displeasure--some with surprising acerbity. I was surprised and a bit saddened, but it was clear that lines were being drawn.

About the time we hit T I was still seething, and knew I had to find another outlet. The world of blogs and blogging was foreign to me, but it seemed a reasonable way to express my anger in essays of some length, so I looked up my old buddy Diogenes, and on February 28, 2017 we inaugurated the Vox Populi blog, of which he has over time become the principal writer.

That run of Vox went through November 3, 2018. It was mostly anti-Trump, but also looked at other subjects, including the unpresident's confrontation with Bashar al-Assad, the policies of the Democratic National Committee, and a four-part piece on the dangers of stored nerve gas.

Following the 2018 election we went dark, feeling that we had finally said all we had to say at the time, although our anger had not entirely subsided. We returned, perhaps fittingly, on April Fools Day of this year when it became clear that Trump and his actions (I can hardly say policies) were becoming increasingly dangerous.

At the time we supported Bernie Sanders for president, believing that his brashness and chutzpah would counter Trump's bluster. When Bernie left the primary race we shifted our allegiance to Joe Biden, not without misgivings. We have said many times that Democrats, and particularly the DNC, play too nice, and need to counter the Republican fire with fire of their own. We thought that Joe Biden was too mild to excite voters.

We were also skeptical of his choice of a woman, regardless of race, as his running mate. We knew that Hillary had won the popular vote in 2016, but we also knew how militant Trump's followers had become, and were afraid the choice of a woman would hurt Biden's chances.

We we wrong on both counts; decency trumped belligerence, and Kamala Harris turned out to be the perfect choice. During the candidates' victory speeches I felt a weight lift off me. I know what a cliche that is, but it's the best metaphor to describe the feeling. I still feel the lightness and excitement that came over me watching the spontaneous celebrations taking place in several cities. America was happy again.

In his victory speech Biden quoted the hymn "On Eagles' Wings." It was a good choice in that context, but the hymn that's been running through my head is "Once To Ev'ry Man and Nation." Here are the lyrics of the first verse: "Once to ev'ry man and nation/Comes the moment to decide,/In the strife of truth and falsehood,/For the good or evil side;/Some great cause, some great decision,/Off'ring each the bloom or blight,/And the choice goes by forever/'Twixt that darkness and that light."

We, the people of the United States of America, have made the choice for light and turned away darkness. I genuinely believe Trump to be an evil force; we've not seen the end of him, but we've removed him from power. As he himself predicted, we've turned a corner.

Going forward I expect we'll be considering the unpresident's actions at least through January 20, but I foresee a lot more time looking at the positive developments of the transition period.

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

--- Richard Brown, 11/10/2020 

 

270! Thanks, Pennsylvania!

The Orange Obscenity is now officially irrelevant. He will no doubt spend his Lame Duck period doing as much mischief to the country as he can in his diminished state, but his loss to Biden will almost certainly reduce his power and influence among his former supporters, in Congress and elsewhere. 

Even the Archdemon Mitch "Moscow" McConnell is beginning to distance himself. Brown-nosing lickspittles Mike Pence and Lindsay Graham continue to hang on, however, the result of being fully immersed in the Trump Kool-Aid.

We have to remember that it's not over. I have faith that none of Trump's legal stratagems will succeed, but we still have to be aware and ready to support President-elect Biden in any way we can. Dirty tricks know no season, and there's always the danger of a yob pushback.

But for now, light a candle, drink champagne, shoot off firecrackers, give thanks to God. Celebrate and relax.

--- Diogenes, 11/7/2020