One of the biggest problems facing sane Americans living through the Trump disaster is that the President’s bizarre behaviors continue to suck all the oxygen out of the room–the one thing he is demonstrably good at is grabbing media attention. As a result, we can easily miss the day-to-day mayhem being wreaked on the federal government, and the persistent undermining of that government’s capacity to discharge its responsibilities.
It’s like a roof leak that goes undiscovered until the damage causes your ceiling to collapse.
Not long ago, I came across this particular leak in America’s roof.
With the frequency of domestic terrorism rising, Trump has apparently decided that the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t need its primary intelligence unit that investigates and analyzes that problem and has disbanded it. Virtually all domestic terrorism in recent years has been committed by right-wing extremists.
The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing.
There have been a growing number of articles focused upon the growing threat posed by white nationalists, and reports have documented that rightwing extremists have been responsible for the majority of terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Right-wing extremist violence is a major domestic threat. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s database, it has accounted for about 73 percent of terrorist-related murders in the U.S. in the last 10 years.
An article in the New York Times in the wake of the New Zealand mosque attack traced the connections between white supremacists around the globe, and the growth of their movement.
Given the reality of the threat, and the obvious need to confront it, why would the Trump administration disband the effort to understand and contain these dangerous radicals? Why is Trump so unwilling to call them out, even in the wake of horrific attacks? Why does he encourage them by minimizing the harm done by white supremacists and focusing instead on Muslims?
I think we all know–or can guess– the answers to those questions.
Let’s face it; these particular terrorists are a significant–and clearly welcome– part of Trump’s base. They are also increasingly open about the connection: Recently, a couple sporting both swastikas and a MAGA hat were spotted taking photos in front of a Holocaust Memorial in Rhode Island.
Even more troubling, large numbers of neo-Nazis and other White Supremacists–who already have several apologists among the Republican members of Congress–are running for office.
According to an article in Vox,
In 2018, an astonishing number of self-described white nationalists (including a former president of the American Nazi Party) ran for local, state, and national office in states from California to North Carolina — with the vast majority running as Republicans.
Most who candidly described themselves as Nazis or neo-Nazis lost–but several candidates with ties to white nationalists, including but not limited to Steve King (R-IA) and Matt Gaetz, won their races. A number of avowed white supremacists have declared their intent to take over the GOP, and even a superficial review of Republican officeholders makes it clear that they have already made significant inroads.
No wonder Trump disbanded the DHS unit.
How many departments have been downsized?
Under Neoliberalism, that is how we tackle Big Government. We shrink government while Capitalism grows then complain about the outcomes.
What do you expect will happen?
In Indiana, IDEM is a joke so it’s understandable that our environment is filthy.
Taxes, anybody?
Meat processing, anybody?
It’s very easy…wait…the politicians get paid well to minimize “government regs.”
Go visit ALEC WATCH website. It has the strategy:
https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed
“Given the reality of the threat, and the obvious need to confront it, why would the Trump administration disband the effort to understand and contain these dangerous radicals?”
WHY? Because Trump has decided the Hispanics at or crossing our southern border are our only terrorists! He has given powers to ICE not part of their original responsibilities as part of Homeland Security. “Immigration” (weeding out any terrorists among immigrants) and “Customs” (stopping and confiscating drugs and other contraband coming across our borders). Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) He has sent our military to the southern border and increased the Border Patrol along his imagined “national emergency” portal for terrorists in only that area.
Look at Trump’s bosom buddies Roy Moore and Sheriff Arpaio who are blatant racial terrorists who used their legal positions to dispense their personal brand of “justice”. Trump pardoned Arpaio after his conviction. Disbanding the intelligence analyst division of DHS is simply Trump’s preemptive act to pardon those terrorists not yet discovered.
Well, this is what “dismantling the administrative state” looks like. This stuff is straight out of the Steve Bannon playbook. These bastards thrive on chaos and anarchy. It’s what they live for. It’s who they are….and 62 million American citizens – mostly white – voted for this even though all the signals were plain as day. Hating Hillary was part of the strategy. Well done, assholes! You just created the second coming of the Third Reich.
Now, watch the rest of us try to put that genie back in the jug. The Republican party is complicit in the destruction of our democracy and our government. Corruption, on this massive scale, has created this monster. It’s been coming for a long time: Milton Friedman, Donald Regan, Ronald Reagan, Grover Norquist and the rest of lesser creatures from the swamp of greed and lascivious power grabbing are the main perpetrators of today’s horror show. Donald Trump is not just merely the latest iteration of this enormous scam, he is the leader of the cult that has no idea what to do except to feed their own hate, bigotry and mayhem. They do this because they are NOT intellectual at all, but merely demented souls with modern explanations for the most base instincts of the ancient animal that emerged from the forests.
As Vernon mentioned, this has been coming for a long time. The movement has been pushed into overdrive since so many media sources have been swallowed up by a handful of corporations that are pushing white nationalism.
Unfortunately, those media sources have found it far too easy to reach weak minds and mold them to think and behave the way they want them to. As long as they can keep pounding their propaganda into those empty heads 24/7 there seems to be no way to stop their evil plan.
It has been interesting watching the lack of even a response from Republicans in Congress to the Executive Branch’s refusal to honor subpoenas from the House of Representatives. This is a clear sign that they think of the Constitution as a convenience to be used only for their own benefit. Andy McKean must have been the last honorable Republican in America. Welcome to the light, Mr. McKean.
I’m just finishing up a sequel to my essay: “Democracide” published in 1992. See http://www.Democracide.info. It’s entitled “Futurcide: Something terrible is happening to America, and WHY Donald Trump must be stopped NOW.”
Betty, I’ll keep you informed.
Well as long as he has Barr, this nation’s chances of seeing djt or his lackeys being tossed or brought to justice is fading quickly. If the game wasn’t fixed before – it is fixed now. I still think I would rather take my chances dragging him out kicking and screaming and putting him and the rest before a Military tribunal for treason, because the longer we sit and talk – the quicker and more surely this nation slides into hell. I have 7 buckets of roofing tar! Whose got the feathers?
The head of the current administration didn’t think he’d win the (s)election, and was shocked and terrified that he did. I think he still doesn’t want to have the office he was given, and since he didn’t get the attention of the anti-Hillary bunch of Progressives the first time around, he’s probably still in that mode.
Seeing the headline that the Bernie-bots have said they will not vote for anybody who is not a ‘True Progressive’, including our own guy, Pete Buttigieg, maybe another round of absolute terror is what it’s going to take to get their attention and help get rid of him.
For more on the history, see Nancy McLean’s book, “Democracy in Chains” (and the reaction: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Nancy-MacLean-Responds-to-Her/240699).
Otherwise, this is not new news about destroying our democracy from within…it is taking place every day, in every Federal department, each “henhouse” lorded over by a carefully selected “fox” who spent his/her life announcing their hate for that department’s work.
Marv – I am pleased to see your contribution today! Where have you been, writing books?
Some background > Perhaps it’s time to state the obvious, i.e., that Trump himself is a White Nationalist, which explains his lukewarm equivocation between mainstream thought and hatred (democracy versus Charlottesville in a human society still trying to recover from Hitler and Stalin) as well as hatred for anyone or anything in his way to assertion of absolute power and who, like Hitler (who also had no conscience in an all-consuming drive for dictatorial power and who referred to the German constitution of his day as “a piece of paper”), is now telling us that Madison’s carefully crafted Separation of Powers Clause in the Constitution is meaningless, that he the fuehrer will let us know what parts of the Constitution are to be followed, that like Hitler, he is the victim and “they’re out to get me” with their subpoenas and similar projections of his real intention “to get us” via trashing of our Constitution.
The Versailles Treaty and French reparations which fueled Hitler’s rise have morphed into some modern day mix of victimhood based on race, gender, hatred of Muslims etc. The statistics Sheila quotes suggests that Trump’s plan is working and is the means by which he is fleshing out Bannon’s admittedly Leninist view of “deconstruction of the administrative state.” (Strike administrative state and insert democracy.)
The real culprits in this upcoming manufactured crisis include McConnell and his merry band of senators and McCarthy in the House who by their silence are applauding our descent into some form of authoritarianism, Nazi, communist, or some new form of control based on race, gender, class, religion etc. in varying combination(s) as determined by Bannon and der fuehrer.
Our task? Defend our democracy and the Constitution from all enemies both foreign and domestic – no holds barred.
One important point left out is the Reactionary Right Wing Extremists have access here in America to military style weapons. The manufacturers and distributors of these military style weapons could care less if they wind up in the hands of gangsters, criminals or political extremists as long as they can sell them.
Our collective micro attention span has moved on from the days following the 2016 election when the country was like the proverbial deer in the headlights thinking how did that happen and can we survive it?
Now we know how that happened. Conservatives and Putin imposed on us the strategic failure of democracy in order to feed their new world order of plutocracy; what we thought we had ejected by the Revolutionary, Civil and World Wars.
Now we know that we can survive it though every fiber of democracy’s being is strained to nearly the limit and there is still time enough to fail.
We discuss here, every day, the details of the attack on our country and observe the methodical destruction of normalcy by the combined forces of corruption and incompetence empowered by celebrity.
Will 2020 come in time?
History teaches us this does not end well.
My wife is a lawyer. She and I discuss events every day. Yesterday, a pundit who I respect, suggested that the White House ordering stonewalling of Congressional subpoenas would bring about contempt of Congress charges. That would require that the Senate issue arrest warrants for those individuals. He didn’t see Mitch McConnell ever allowing those issues to come to the floor. And if the Senate DID issue arrest warrants, Barr and the DOJ would ignore them. Good bye to the rule of law.
Oh, and is it then so far away for the slime ball president to invalidate elections because he thinks they’re unfair? What if he cancels the 2020 election? Will the vast majority of real Americans finally wake the hell up and see what they’ve allowed to happen? Or will we descend into open rebellion and civil war…just as Putin had hoped? It’s not that far a reach, is it?
Vernon; you have just named my nameless fears of Trump remaining in the White House after the 2020 election. Ordinarily; not information deserving a “thank you” but now at least I know what to be watching for. Also a deeper warning regarding the dangerous powers of McConnell; more far reaching than we imagined.
Gerald,
Marv – I am pleased to see your contribution today! Where have you been, writing books?
No, just a 15-20 page essay on Donald Trump’s misperceptions which have resulted in a major, political miscalculation on his part, and the effect of which, I hope, can create a major cascading effect throughout his constituency.
Marv – You are a patriot and I will be interested to know your essay’s take on what his miscalculation is about and how it will dent his cult’s vote.
Good to see Marv around again. I was worried that Putin had you kidnapped and placed permanently into a black-site location. It’s obvious your essay will save democracy,America and the world.
Resist!
Buttigieg 2020!!
Don’t forget to take into account Trump’s deep streak of sadism to which White Nationalist agents pander by inflicting pain as a way of honoring their most successful leader ever. Trump is not simply playing to the supremacist base. He is reveling in the cruelty that reflects his personal aspirations if only there weren’t that pesky impeachment thing. Nothing is more sadistic than separating children from their parents. So nothing is beneath his depravity. Is it going too far to believe that if President Bush (43) had not been so enthusiastic about torture, that Trump would not feel so empowered? Or to think that if he instituted a reign of terror that the Republican Senate would find a way to rationalize it? This is a very sick man who is fully aware of what a flawed creature he is. His only strength lies in his power, and by damn he’s going to use it to inflict as much pain as possible on as many people as possible for as long as possible. Therein lies his only joy.
Upon review, I misstated a fact in my offering today. I wrote that Hitler called the German constitution of his day as “just a piece of paper.” It was rather the Treaty of Versailles that he called “just a piece of paper.” Mea culpa. He had other ways of trashing the German constitution of that day, and did, as Trump is trying to do today with ours.
It’s no secret: Domestic terrorists are his ‘peeps.’ as they say. His base, his voters. Sickening! Seen him lately? Madman on a screaming rant. As we say down heah, ‘Da boy ain’t right! He jus’ ain’t right.”
Thanks, Morton Marcus, for the idea about limiting words and the length of our comments! Frankly, I skip those which are lengthy, repetitive, and/or poorly written.
And, as I live and breathe! There’s Marv! Missed ya, Man! We need you more than ever now. Copied down your Democracide information. Thanks!
Marv: “…a 15-20 page essay on Donald Trump’s misperceptions which have resulted in a major, political miscalculation on his part…”
I doubt Trump is capable of calculating anything, thus I myself would not write about his “miscalculations”; I would write about his missing calculations…and where anything of his that mis-appears to be calculated actually comes from.
Many comments today, as well as recently, express the massive damage the Trump administration has reeked on American government. A few comments remind us that those damages are supported and encouraged by powerful elements.
I remind (again and again) that those powerful elements (big oil, big banks, big pharma, big religion, big military-industrial complex, big crime and big crazies) are not only powerful; they are cruel, ruthless, demented…and they are armed.
By armed, I mean they have at their money’s disposal over 300 private armies (and growing) of the ilk of Erik Prince’s Blackwater. Blackwater and all now have air force capabilities (and growing)and intelligence divisions (and growing)
…and the 300 of them total a fighting force as large (and growing)as the entire United States uniformed services. Their allegiance is to whomever pays them the most. They recognize no moral code. They have no oversight. They have license to kill.
To fix what is broken, the next rational president must be a reform president. It little matters if he or she promises policies that agree with you or me. It little matters if he or she is a pleasant person. It matters if he or she has what it takes to reform and rebuild our demolished government.
What it takes, first, is for the new president to survive the forces enumerated above and, second, to defeat their money, their influence, their threats, their terror, their blackmail, their every deviant move at every policy battle. If they are not defeated, no reform can be instituted.
The next rational president will have an existential fight on his or her hands and will need to be seasoned in the political fighting arena…or he or she will fail, be bought off, scared off or killed off.
Our part in this is to nominate a candidate who is a reformer and a fighter and a survivor and who is immensely courageous.
From what I see in these blogs and comments, we are looking for the wrong qualities in our candidate.
Gerald,
The essay needs to be published within the next 30 days. I own the URL: Futurcide.com. I’ll let you know when the essay is online, like its sequel: “Democracide.”