It is Time: it’s not too late, yet
I, we,
can no longer wait. Time is not on our side. It is time to take
off the gloves. His mental illness, cautiously alluded to by several mental
health professionals, before he took office [and without reservations by me, in
this blog on the eve of his Inauguration] is becoming impossible to ignore. The
Trump Psych Debate: Is It Wrong To Say He's Mentally Ill?. (2/19/2017)
Yes,
he definitely cray cray. But worse, Herr Drumpf is a dangerous demagogue. He
may or may not be a fascist,
but he’s certainly an authoritarian
with fascist tendencies.
“It would appear that some of the folks who were hoping that
Donald Trump was actually an isolationist ‘jobs’ president, rather than the
authoritarian white nationalist with imperial ambitions that he clearly showed
himself to be on the stump, are now being forced to face reality. Everything he
has done since his inauguration proves he is dead serious about unleashing the
military and the police to enact his agenda, and he wants the other branches of
government to understand that if they obstruct him he’s going to make sure his
rabid followers know whom to blame…”
“In mid-January, after the appearance of some embarrassing
material or another (it is hard to keep track), President-elect Trump tweeted:
“Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into
the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”
That charge has made escalation of the Trump/intelligence
conflict difficult. What is the next step after the Nazi card?
More recently, President Trump has called leaks from the
intelligence community “un-American” and “just like Russia.” It is difficult to
imagine a set of attacks more likely to be galling to intelligence
professionals, some of whom risk their lives with no prospect of credit, in one
of the purer forms of patriotism…
All this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of
American populism. In Venezuelan populism, for example, it worked to remove all
institutions between the dear leader and the people. In the United States,
populists have a more difficult but more constructive task: They must persuade
institutions to reform themselves. This can involve hardball politics (see
Franklin D. Roosevelt). But real and lasting reform comes through the consent
of strong institutions — including the cooperation of intelligence services,
the agreement of courts and the approval of Congress. American life will not be
transformed through bullying.
And why is that? Says Hayden: ‘We are not Venezuela.’”
What would I have done?
After WW II, many American’s smugly and naively maintained
that Hitler’s rise to power could never
happen here. They assured themselves—and, maybe, their Jewish friends—that,
unlike those authoritarian Germans, they
would have seen his insanity, risen, and stopped him.
Well, my fellow freedom and democracy loving citizens, here
is your chance to answer that question. Not only could a dangerous, mentally ill demagogue with fascist tendencies
rise to power in America. One just has; only a month ago. What
began way back then in that simpler time as ‘Alternative facts,’ has now
morphed into ‘Enemies of America’ who dare to challenge Trump’s alternate
reality. Dissent, honest discourse, the sacred Separation of Powers
exemplified by Judicial review and enshrined in our Constitution, a free Press,
even reality itself, these are all weaved into a grand conspiracy to thwart
‘The Will of the People’ as clearly expressed by the non-plurality so called
election of Donald Trump. Backed up by an ever-shrinking core of lunatic
supporters and emboldened by a cadre of enablers and sycophants, Trump, the
populist, is now The Messenger.
My grandparents all
got out of Italy in the early 1900s before Mussolini rose to power. My father
enlisted in the Army in late 1943 at age 19, served as a Scout Jeep driver in
the 10
th Armored Division under Patton, and fought the German Army
across France and into Germany through the end of The War. I carry the name of
the paternal grandfather who made it out of Italy, Andrew. He mentored me from
my birth in 1950 until his death in 1981. His son helped raised me; a difficult
and demanding patriarchal father—decorated (Bronze Star) veteran John Chares
Schettino (named after his grandfather, John Schettino). My father did
not fight and survive the carnage of a
World War, only to have the son he helped conceive let
another lunatic do for and to America,
today, what Hitler did to Germany and the World, decades ago. Once
again, a Schettino son of Italy, rises to face an unspeakable Evil.
The Resistance to The Era of Trump grows, not just in
America but World-wide, by the minute. No Solace, No Quarter, No Peace—24/7/365
and everywhere (in the streets, in News rooms, on social media, in classrooms
and academia, in the Public Square, in literature, art, science, places of
worship, in Super Bowl commercials, on TV and in the movies, on mass transit…) We
shall overcome, again. This
will not stand. Future generations will not say of us, “How did
they let this happen?”
The Trump Rally in Florida on Saturday
The
response to his “Rally” in Florida on Saturday, Feb 18, 2017 has been swift,
wide-spread, and damning.
“Look,
we're big boys. We criticize presidents. They want to criticize us back, that's
fine,” Wallace said Sunday morning on “Fox & Friends.” “But when he said
that the fake news media is not my enemy, it's the enemy of the American
people, I believe that crosses an important line.”
“Sen.
John McCain spoke out Saturday in defense of the free press after President
Trump lashed out against the news media several times over the past week, at
one point declaring it ‘the enemy of the American People!’
Such
talk, McCain (R-Ariz.) said on NBC News in an interview set to air Sunday, was
‘how dictators get started.’
"‘In
other words, a consolidation of power,’ McCain told ‘Meet the Press’ host Chuck
Todd from Munich. ‘When you look at history, the first thing that dictators do
is shut down the press. And I'm not saying that President Trump is trying to be
a dictator. I'm just saying we need to learn the lessons of history.’"
The
80-year-old Republican senator was responding to several tweets by Trump over
the past week, in which he repeatedly attacked the media as “fake news.” In one
widely shared tweet Friday, Trump said the press was “not my enemy” but that of
the American people…”
Fact
checking is becoming a cottage industry…
“President
Trump’s speech at a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, Fla., was filled with a
number of dubious claims. Here’s a quick round-up of his rhetoric — and the
facts. We will examine these statements in the order in which he made them…”
“’Much
seemed familiar on Saturday as President Trump held his first campaign rally as
president — the hats, the chants, and even some of the misstatements and
exaggerations made by Mr. Trump.
Mr.
Trump compared himself to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, presidents who
‘fought with the media and called them out.’
‘We
are here today to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,’
he said. But he then offered several misleading claims…”
In the lunatic’s own words
Here
are just the best pieces of Herr Drumpf’s speech Saturday [highlights added
by me]:
“I
also want to speak to you without the filter of the fake news. The dishonest
media which has published one false story after another with no sources, even
though they pretend they have them, they make them up in many cases, they just
don't want to report the truth and they've been calling us wrong now for two
years. They don't get it. But they're
starting to get it. I can tell you that. They've become a big part of the
problem. They are part of the corrupt system. Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson,
and Abraham Lincoln and many of our greatest presidents fought with the media
and called them out often times on their lies. When the media lies to people, I will never, ever let them get away
with it. I will do whatever I can [to ensure] that they don't get away with it.
They
have their own agenda and their agenda is not
your agenda… But despite all their lies, misrepresentations, and false stories,
they could not defeat us in the primaries, and they could not defeat us in the
general election, and we will continue to expose them for what they are, and
most importantly, we will continue to
win, win, win.
We are not
going to let the fake news tell us what to do, how to live, or what to believe.
We are free and independent people and we will make our own choices.
We are here today to speak
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I hear your demands, I hear
your voices and I promise you I will deliver. I promise that. And by the way,
you've seen what we've accomplished in a very short period of time. The White
House is running so smoothly. So smoothly. And believe me, I and we inherited
one big mess. That I can tell you, but I know that you want safe neighborhoods
where the streets belong to families and communities, not gang members and drug
dealers who are right now as I speak being thrown out of the country and they
will not be let back in…”
“We're
standing up for the incredible men and women always of law enforcement. We're
standing up. And I can tell you, the military and law enforcement they stood
up. I don't say for me. I'm the messenger
folks. …"
