In Front of Our Noses: A President Who Calls for the Execution of Members of Congress
You know, as is normal in democratic politics...
“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.
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Two Truth Social posts from POTUS in the last several hours:
So, what is the Dear Leader upset about? Here’s the link from the Washington Examiner: Democratic veterans in Congress urge service members to refuse unspecified unlawful orders.
A half-dozen Democratic veterans in Congress released a joint video urging U.S. service members to disobey unlawful orders, though they did not specify what those would be.
Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Reps. Jason Crow (D-CO), Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) said the “threats to our Constitution” are coming “from right here at home.” They repeatedly urged military and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders.”
One thing is for certain: reminding service members not to obey illegal orders is not seditious. The fact that I just typed that sentence is just a ridiculous testament to our political moment.
Here’s a report on that video:
This just in: it is not controversial (or shouldn’t be) to remind service members not to obey illegal orders because they aren’t supposed to obey illegal orders.
In terms of the drama here, this is like reminding your accounting department not to follow any instructions from their bosses to violate the tax code.
A non-authoritarian wannabe would just say, “Of course, the military shouldn’t obey illegal orders!” and move on.
The fact that Trump has to go to DefCon 1 because a bunch of hippies military and intelligence veterans are warning against illegal orders kind of indicates that he thinks he should be able to do whatever he wants, the law be damned.
I agree with Senator Murphy, this should not be allowed to be seen as normal.
People can pretend he is “joking” or that it is all empty threats, but none of that changes the abnormality of it all, nor the truly corrosive effects this kind of stuff continues to have on our politics and society.
This whole reality-tv episode has so many different possible endings, I don’t want to make predictions.
Frankly, though, Trump’s behavior does not seem like that of someone who feels he’s in control of events.
EL Taco’s calling for a mass lynching more than executions.
It is dangerous to dismiss the man’s threats as hyperbole or reality TV. All members of congress should be reacting like Chris Murphy. It is unacceptable and if a Democrat had said this there would be a massive uproar by republicans and democrats. This man tried to get Georgia to throw an election, had fake electors in multiple states, assisted J6 coup organizers and refused to call in police support, is
investigatingprosecuting political enemies. It is deranged and America as a whole is not reacting as if it is any sort of a big deal. It’s frightening.Is the Trump administration doing anything bad yet?
Or are we still waiting for that to happen?
Asking for a friend.
Fucking idiots.
Republican President Donald Trump is a madman.
None of the major media outlets seem to think this is newsworthy of reporting about. Its not mentioned on ABC, CBS, CNN…Remember when Howard Dean went “Rahhh!” at a campaign rally and CNN played it 900 times in 3 days? A sitting president calls death of elected representatives, silence.
Theres a German film, one of the darkest comedies I have ever seen*, about Hitler returning to present day Germany, and people believing that he is an edgy comedian, because no one would say those things seriously. He then gets involved in politics.
It’s Look Who’s Back, and while searching for the trailer I found that the entire thing has been uploaded to YouTube, with the English subtitles and everything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtx7bt1hczU
I recall it being a little preachy at the end. Something about how a rise in fascism is bad.
*: I’m practically a sociopath, and I needed to take a break the first time I watched it.
@HelloWorld: Gee I wonder what political parties those people are members of…
@HelloWorld:
NBC mentions it at their website. But I agree. This should be huge, major news.
The press may be thinking, “Oh, Christ, there’s Trump bloviating again. Ignore him.”
@CSK: I’ve had two thoughts on this. One is that, as we are all aware, most of these media outlets are now operated by corporate behemoths with billionaire owners, who maybe are not willing to poke the bear by running stories that make him look even more unhinged. Second is that maybe they think they are being responsible by not further publicizing this bonkers call to violence. IDK.
It’s all just so surreal.
JFC, he should have been gone after calling the Bloomberg reporter “Piggy.”
Or after hosting MBS in the White House. Whatever happened to “never forgetting” 9/11?
And I still haven’t received my $2,000 tariff refund check.
Good on Senator Murphy for going beyond the regular “Once again, Trump shows he is unfit!” rhetoric and pointing to the complicity by association. Any politician who doesn’t outright condemn this has to be explicitly called out as in agreement that these Democrats should be killed.
@Gustopher: I watched that on Netflix a while back. My wife has the book, in the original German it’s titled “Er Ist Wieder Da” (He’s Here Again, or more colloquially, He’s Back). The author, Timur Vermes, also wrote the script for the film.
Also, probably not a total coincidence, Vermes was born and raised in Nuremberg.
No surprise. Remember the Central Park five? Trump is a eunuch who is living out his fantasies of being a tough guy, but we know the reality is that an unfortunate case of bone spurs is keeping him from any personal action. Further evidence, he admires MBS’ handling of a troublesome reporter.
The response from the MAGA faithful has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic, not only in suport of Trump’s calls for them to hang but also of unhinged histrionics from Stephen Miller that the Democrats called for sedition! Insurrection!
By urging soldiers not to commit crimes.
We’re not yet 12 months into Trump’s second presidency. I’m afraid America, and the world, face another three dark and dangerous years.
@Gustopher: I saw that 3 or 4 years ago. Interesting. IIRC, the newly reincarnated Hitler finds that antisemitism is not popular in the 21st century so he switches to anti Islamic.
It is appalling, but it is also a sign of weakness that people are largely ignoring him. The Epstein vote broke him, and he knows it. He had no choice but to allow the vote and then to sign the bill. No choice. Donald Trump was unable to stop Republicans from voting to expose him.
If you resist the bully once and get away with it, both you and the bully understand that the balance of power has shifted. The midterms are coming, the polls are falling, jobs are on the line. Yet, faced with their MAGA base the invertebrates are not clinging ever more tightly to the strong man.
Trump can’t bring Marjorie Taylor Greene or Volodymyr Zelensky or Xi Jin Ping or Mark Carney or Claudia Sheinbaum to heel. Europe has not wimped out. To my surprise Maduro has not fled. Even some universities and law firms are defying him. His revenge prosecutions are failing. He’s becoming even more thin-skinned, raging at Jimmy Kimmel and being defied by Disney. He’s 79 and at some level he knows both his body and mind are failing. He’s talking about heaven while people are talking openly about a MAGA without Trump.
I’m not being glib, I’m not feeling relaxed, the dying beast may yet lash out, but the Trump balloon has a leak in it and a coup would be bad for the stock market.
PS: If there’s to be a Republican Jamie Lannister – king slayer – my money is on Rubio.
@Michael Reynolds: I mean, maybe. But I would point out that this is how he always behaves.
Stephen Miller appears to have Authoritarian Tourette’s Syndrome, which causes him to blurt out INSURRECTION 20 times a day.