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Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse
- Thread starter CdnGuy
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Crises are a time-tested means of subverting democracy.
From Getúlio Vargas and other better-known dictators in the 1930s to Indira Gandhi and Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s and on to Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan more recently, autocratic-minded leaders have long used national emergencies — some real, some fabricated — to claim extraordinary powers. One of our greatest concerns about Donald Trump’s presidency has always been that he would exploit (or invent) a crisis in order to justify an abuse of power. Recent events have given this concern new immediacy.
Authoritarian leaders often chafe under the constraints of constitutional rule. Democratic politics is, after all, grinding work. Family businesses and army units may be ruled by fiat, but democracies require negotiation and concessions. Setbacks are inevitable; victories always partial. A president’s most cherished policy initiatives may be savaged in the media, derailed by Congress or struck down by the courts.
Crises offer these would-be authoritarians an escape from constitutional shackles. National emergencies — especially wars or major terrorist attacks — do three things for such leaders. First, they build public support. Security crises typically produce a rally-round-the-flag effect in which presidential approval soars. Citizens are more likely to tolerate — and even support — authoritarian power grabs when they fear for their safety. Second, security crises silence opponents, since criticism can be viewed as disloyal or unpatriotic. Finally, security crises loosen normal constitutional constraints. Fearful of putting national security at risk, judges and legislative leaders generally defer to the executive.
Crises present such great opportunities for concentrating power that would-be autocrats often manufacture them. In 1937, President Vargas of Brazil, resisting term limits that would force him to leave office the next year, used the “discovery” of a communist plot (the so-called Cohen Plan, later revealed to be a fabrication) to dissolve the Constitution and establish a dictatorship.
Similarly, President Marcos of the Philippines did not want to step aside when his second term expired in 1973. But he needed a reason to subvert constitutional checks. An opportunity arrived in 1972, when a series of explosions rocked Manila. Following an apparent assassination attempt on his defense secretary, Marcos, blaming communist terrorists, declared martial law and established a dictatorship. This crisis, too, was largely fabricated: The bombings are believed to have been carried out by government forces and the assassination attempt was staged. The “communist menace” that Marcos used to justify martial law amounted to several dozen insurgents.
Although President Trump operates in a different political environment, his behavior, particularly since the November midterm elections, betrays similar autocratic instincts. The president manifestly lacks the patience or negotiating skills needed to deal with divided government. His response to Democratic control of the House of Representatives has been a refusal to compromise and, more dangerously, a refusal to lose.
Unlike Presidents Clinton and Bush, who conceded defeat when it became clear that their initiatives lacked legislative support, Mr. Trump has refused to accept the failure of his border wall project. Unable to obtain the necessary votes in Congress, the president recklessly forced a government shutdown. When that didn’t get him his wall, he moved to circumvent Congress altogether by inventing — if not yet declaring — a national emergency.
In his Oval Office speech on Tuesday, he used the word “crisis” six times in eight minutes. That is how autocrats respond to legislative opposition. Following in the tradition of Vargas and Marcos, Mr. Trump fabricated a security threat to make the case for bypassing Congress.
But no matter the outcome, these developments should set off alarm bells. Our president is behaving like an autocrat. His willingness to fabricate a national crisis and subvert constitutional checks and balances to avoid legislative defeat places him closer to Ferdinand Marcos than to Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Trump lacks the self-restraint of Lincoln, F.D.R., or even George W. Bush. Indeed, he seems incapable of exercising executive power responsibly. Mr. Trump’s first encounter with divided government has produced what is proving to be the longest government shutdown ever. And any reckless use of emergency powers would set a dangerous precedent for overriding the legislative branch. Unlike other national emergency declarations, this one would openly defy the will of Congress.
This raises a terrifying question: How would a president who is willing to fabricate a national emergency over a simple legislative impasse behave during a real security crisis?
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If Trump had never met a Russian, he should be impeached for his corruption while in office. Had he never been corrupt, he should be impeached for trying to defraud the American people with hush money payments during the campaign.
If he had never done that, he should be impeached for his obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. If he had never done that, he should be impeached for his willful dereliction of his presidential responsibilities in Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
If he had never done that he should be impeached for his serial violation of human rights and international law at our borders. If he had never done that he should be impeached for his decades of hidden tax fraud.
If he had never committed those crimes, he should be impeached for his company's serial efforts to launder money or defraud customers worldwide. If he had never done that, he should be impeached for covering up the known crimes of his cabinet and senior staff members.
If he had never done any of those things there are undoubtedly other high crimes & misdemeanors we do not yet know of,lies to the special prosecutor, providing secrets to our enemies, secret pacts with foreign leaders, participating in the cover up of the murder of a US resident.
While a case can be made to hold off impeachment hearings until the Mueller investigation is done, there can be no doubt that while the founders created the impeachment remedy with president's like Trump in mind, they had no idea such wide-ranging egregious crimes...
...would ever be committed by a single president. Nor could they have ever imagined that one of their carefully considered "checks and balances",the power of the U.S. Congress to oversee and offset the president, would be so ignored or suppressed by leaders like Mitch McConnell.
Some say we should wait to remove Trump in the 2020 election...and if he is not removed before, he should surely be removed then. But that said, with each day we see the extraordinary nature of the threat posed by this profoundly corrupt, incompetent, unfit man.
Each day he is in office that office is diminished, the country is done a disservice, our alliances are weakened, our enemies are strengthened, the rule of law is undercut, and our futures are put more in question. He must go.
The patriotic path is to constrain him until we can remove him. But remove him we must just as soon as we can.
Thread by @djrothkopf: "If Trump had never met a Russian, he should be impeached for his corruption while in office. Had he never been corrupt, he should be impeach […]"
If he had never done that, he should be impeached for his obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. If he had never done that, he should be impeached for his willful dereliction of his presidential responsibilities in Puerto Rico and elsewhere.
If he had never done that he should be impeached for his serial violation of human rights and international law at our borders. If he had never done that he should be impeached for his decades of hidden tax fraud.
If he had never committed those crimes, he should be impeached for his company's serial efforts to launder money or defraud customers worldwide. If he had never done that, he should be impeached for covering up the known crimes of his cabinet and senior staff members.
If he had never done any of those things there are undoubtedly other high crimes & misdemeanors we do not yet know of,lies to the special prosecutor, providing secrets to our enemies, secret pacts with foreign leaders, participating in the cover up of the murder of a US resident.
While a case can be made to hold off impeachment hearings until the Mueller investigation is done, there can be no doubt that while the founders created the impeachment remedy with president's like Trump in mind, they had no idea such wide-ranging egregious crimes...
...would ever be committed by a single president. Nor could they have ever imagined that one of their carefully considered "checks and balances",the power of the U.S. Congress to oversee and offset the president, would be so ignored or suppressed by leaders like Mitch McConnell.
Some say we should wait to remove Trump in the 2020 election...and if he is not removed before, he should surely be removed then. But that said, with each day we see the extraordinary nature of the threat posed by this profoundly corrupt, incompetent, unfit man.
Each day he is in office that office is diminished, the country is done a disservice, our alliances are weakened, our enemies are strengthened, the rule of law is undercut, and our futures are put more in question. He must go.
The patriotic path is to constrain him until we can remove him. But remove him we must just as soon as we can.
Thread by @djrothkopf: "If Trump had never met a Russian, he should be impeached for his corruption while in office. Had he never been corrupt, he should be impeach […]"
The FBI, according to the New York Times, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether President Trump was secretly working on behalf of Russia after he fired former FBI director James B. Comey in 2017. As a former FBI agent who conducted investigations against foreign intelligence services, I know that the bureau would have had to possess strong evidence that Trump posed a national security threat to meet the threshold for opening such an investigation. But the more important question now is not how or why the case was opened, but whether it was ever closed.
The goal of a counterintelligence investigation is to identify and stop threats to national security. Such cases are fundamentally different from criminal investigations, which seek to collect evidence of a crime and are eventually resolved by pursuing or declining to pursue charges in court. By contrast, once a counterintelligence investigation is opened, it is ultimately closed by determining no threat to national security exists or it has ceased to exist, or by taking actions to render ineffective — in intelligence lingo for “neutralize” — the threat.
The FBI can neutralize a counterintelligence threat several ways. ...
Unfortunately, none of these is a feasible option if the national security threat is the president of the United States.
This leaves only one option for neutralization: exposure.
If the counterintelligence case against the president was eventually closed because it found that Trump did not pose a threat to U.S. national security, Trump should welcome Mueller’s report reaching Congress. This conclusion would stop the speculation about Trump’s relationship with Russia and reassure the American public that his loyalties remain with the United States. But if it wasn’t, and the threat to national security is ongoing, then informing Congress of the nature of the threat is paramount. This would be the only way that Congress can determine whether it should take the ultimate step to neutralize the damage that the president could inflict on the nation — through impeachment and removal from office.
Regarding this NYT story from this weekend, imagine you are a FBI Agent working Russian counterintelligence in 2016 and you witness the following:
- you witnessed Russian hackers targeting a wide swath of Americans including the DNC, DCCC, former Secretary of State & a Presidential candidates staff
- someone previously targeted by Russian Intelligence joins the Trump campaign and then appears on a stage in Moscow supporting Russia policy and speaking negatively of US policy
- A Presidential candidate hires a new campaign manager whose not been in the business in the states for years, but has been seen pushing a Russian agenda in Ukraine and has Russian intel contacts
- an Australian official contacts you and says the Russians have stolen emails of a Presidential candidate & may want to give them to the candidate’s competitor
- a Russian lawyer & others tied to Russian government visit a Presidential candidate’s son in the candidate’s building in NYC
- Candidate Trump stands on a stage and calls out Russia and asks about emails from his competitor, says they will be rewarded if they have them and release them
- website that’s released sensitive & classified documents from US for years, helped deliver a US insider to The Kremlin, begins publishing document & emails during Dem convention, content you know was stolen by Russia. Site administrator once hosted a TV show on Russia State TV
- A strange, unexpected policy change occurs at RNC convention, the change is a less supportive position toward Ukraine and is advantageous to Russia
- candidate’s campaign manager goes on CNN and asserts a false terrorist attack in Turkey, one tied to and advanced by Russian propaganda
Thread by @selectedwisdom: "Regarding this NYT story from this weekend, imagine you are a FBI Agent working Russian counterintelligence in 2016 and you witness the foll […]"
- you witnessed Russian hackers targeting a wide swath of Americans including the DNC, DCCC, former Secretary of State & a Presidential candidates staff
- someone previously targeted by Russian Intelligence joins the Trump campaign and then appears on a stage in Moscow supporting Russia policy and speaking negatively of US policy
- A Presidential candidate hires a new campaign manager whose not been in the business in the states for years, but has been seen pushing a Russian agenda in Ukraine and has Russian intel contacts
- an Australian official contacts you and says the Russians have stolen emails of a Presidential candidate & may want to give them to the candidate’s competitor
- a Russian lawyer & others tied to Russian government visit a Presidential candidate’s son in the candidate’s building in NYC
- Candidate Trump stands on a stage and calls out Russia and asks about emails from his competitor, says they will be rewarded if they have them and release them
- website that’s released sensitive & classified documents from US for years, helped deliver a US insider to The Kremlin, begins publishing document & emails during Dem convention, content you know was stolen by Russia. Site administrator once hosted a TV show on Russia State TV
- A strange, unexpected policy change occurs at RNC convention, the change is a less supportive position toward Ukraine and is advantageous to Russia
- candidate’s campaign manager goes on CNN and asserts a false terrorist attack in Turkey, one tied to and advanced by Russian propaganda
Thread by @selectedwisdom: "Regarding this NYT story from this weekend, imagine you are a FBI Agent working Russian counterintelligence in 2016 and you witness the foll […]"
Washington D.C. (Jan. 13, 2019)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Rep. Adam Schiff, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Chairmen of the House Committees on Oversight and Reform, Intelligence, and the Judiciary, issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s comments last night on Fox News regarding Michael Cohen’s testimony before Congress:
“The integrity of our process to serve as an independent check on the Executive Branch must be respected by everyone, including the President. Our nation’s laws prohibit efforts to discourage, intimidate, or otherwise pressure a witness not to provide testimony to Congress. The President should make no statement or take any action to obstruct Congress’ independent oversight and investigative efforts, including by seeking to discourage any witness from testifying in response to a duly authorized request from Congress.”
New York (CNN)Most drugs are smuggled into the United States onboard fishing boats, trains, tractor-trailers and ordinary cars that come into the country at legal ports of entry, according to former cartel members who've testified in the trial of notorious cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
Some cartel members have testified about using underground tunnels. But none have said they've transported drugs into the United States at unwalled sections of the border.
The testimony comes at a time when President Donald Trump's push for a border wall includes arguments that it would help stop the flow of drugs into the United States.
This is hardly a “beyond a reasonable doubt” case that Trump is a Russian agent — certainly not in the way that Robert Hanssen or https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/26/rick-is-a-goddamn-russian-spy-does-the-cia-have-a-new-aldrich-ames-on-its-hands/ (Aldrich Ames) were. But it is a strong, circumstantial case that Trump is, as former acting CIA director Michael Morell and former CIA director Michael V. Hayden warned during the 2016 campaign, “an unwitting agent of the Russian federation” (Morell) or a “useful fool” who is “manipulated by Moscow” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/former-cia-chief-trump-is-russias-useful-fool/2016/11/03/cda42ffe-a1d5-11e6-8d63-3e0a660f1f04_story.html?utm_term=.a09abb124cae (Hayden)). If Trump isn’t actually a Russian agent, he is doing a pretty good imitation of one.
Last night, Donald Trump went on Fox News to rant and rave about reports that the FBI believes him to be a Russian agent. During the interview with Jeanine Pirro, the President called out by name Cohen and publicly demanded the news network investigate his former lawyer’s father-in-law as retaliation for his upcoming testimony to Congress about the illegal hush money payments Trump ordered him to make.
Maybe it’s Deep State. Haha. What a bunch of bananas
No, no wait... Illuminati!!
Or flat earth nazis!
No, no wait... Illuminati!!
Or flat earth nazis!
