“Whatever is going to happen is really here now – if only one could see it.”
H.G. Wells
“You don’t have to be effective to be destructive.”
Brian Klass, “The Despot’s Apprentice”
Trump has it down to a science. He may not be intelligent, but he isn’t dumb.
His decisions, tweets, actions and comments are so fantastical, such a departure from the norm, and so frequent that it’s literally stunning. He uses one delusional tweet to take attention away from another, more damning one. He leaves little time to react – and why bother, because the next thing he says, does or tweets will be more outrageous than what came before.
But to ignore is to approve. To ignore is to forget. To ignore is to make the dysfunctional and abhorrent normal – and this presidency is anything but. What follows are a few of the lowlights, which as of this writing, is only day 493.
• naming the free press is the “enemy of the people;”
• setting domestic and international policy in 140 characters or less;
• paying off a porn star to keep quiet about an extramarital affair; more accusers are in line;
• hiring unqualified family members for high positions in the White House;
• appointing people with no experience or background to head their cabinet agencies;
• denigrating Gold Star families;
• appointing a foreign agent to a highly sensitive White House position,
• not providing income tax returns as promised;
• inadequate vetting for positions requiring top secret clearance;
• providing access to highly sensitive information to staff without top secret clearance;
• tolerating officials who use taxpayer money to fund lavish life styles and/or purchases;
• continuing to financially profit from Trump holdings, foreign and domestic;
• tolerating corruption at the cabinet level;
• lowering the level of discourse and decency;
• approving removal of infants and children from immigrant families seeking asylum;
• monetizing the presidency;
• modeling lack of respect for others with differing opinions, religions, ethnicities;
• calling self-identified Nazis ‘very fine people;’
• calling the FBI Nazis;
• lying so often only 13 percent of the electorate considers him honest and trustworthy;
• disregarding cyberattacks on the vote – an act of war by a hostile foreign power;
• mimicking someone with disabilities;
• bullying anyone who exercises free speech if he disagrees with the content;
• calling African nations and Haiti derogatory names;
• signing Executive Orders decimating clear air, water regulations and consumer protections;
• increasing the National Debt to $21 trillion due to tax cuts mostly benefiting the top 1 percent;
• on track to sign more Executive Orders than any president in the last 50 years;
• denigrating American prisoners of war;
• ordering a military parade that will cost taxpayers $30 million;
• eliminating Cybersecurity coordinator at a time when cybersecurity is under threat;
• threatening to take away credentials of media outlets that run negative coverage;
• five guilty pleas and 17 indictments regarding Russian tampering of election to Trump’s benefit;
• first time ever solo secret meeting in Oval Office with top Russian officials;
• sharing highly classified information with Russian officials about secret Israeli operation;
• hiring a staff member with a record of spousal abuse;
• admitting firing the FBI director in order to curtail the Russian investigation;
• hiring staff who admitted to upwards of 40 previously undisclosed foreign contacts;
• using his office and government agencies for personal vendettas against perceived enemies;
• stating that everyone from Haiti is HIV positive;
• depriving needed resources to Puerto Rico to assure recovery from the hurricane;
• asking the Department of Homeland Security to track news sources, including bloggers and journalists;
• directly intervening in the FBI’s investigation of Russian influence into election;
• verbally supporting autocrats Putin, Erdogan, Duterte, Xi Jinping and more;
• communicating using insecure cell phones;
• demanding the Justice Department reveal intelligence sources;
• calling for the imprisonment of the leader of the opposing party;
• referring to the U.S. government intelligence agencies as Nazis;
• “I do it (attack the press) to discredit and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.” (Trump to Leslie Stahl);
• dictated his own medical report;
• oversaw 58 dismissals or resignations (so far) from the Executive Office – a record;
• poor vetting resulting in 26 withdrawals from consideration for government positions;
• said NFL players who don’t stand for the flag “maybe don’t belong in this country;”
• threatening people who are involved in a criminal investigation of him;
• seeking impunity for Michael Flynn who pled guilty to lying regarding contact with Russian officials;
• encouraged police not to “be too nice to thugs” slamming “laws to protect criminals;”
• overseeing the addition of $1.5 trillion to the national debt resulting from his tax bill;
• currently averaging nine misstatements/lies per day.
This list is a fraction of Trump’s attacks on institutions, people and the Constitution. These are not normal. None of them.
See if this quote by Timothy Snyder from his book, “On Tyranny,” rings any bells:
“Fascists despised the small truths of daily existence, loved slogans that resonated like a new religion, and preferred creative myths to history or journalism. They used new media…to create a drumbeat of propaganda that aroused feelings before people had the time to ascertain facts. And now, as then, many confused faith in a hugely flawed leader with the truth….”
The dots are there for connecting. This is what autocrats and aspiring despots do.
Michael Gerson, Bush speech writer and conservative journalist, writes that Trump’s pattern of deceit has a numbing effect. You just want it to stop. It’s so tempting to tune out and turn off. That’s what he wants. But by doing so, everything, every decent thing of value, is placed at risk.
Keep your own list. Add to this one. If there was ever a time to give a damn, this is it.
Villager Marsha Shearer is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com