The arsonist is filling his gasoline can.
Now we wait to see if we’ll hand him the match to burn our country to the ground.
In a frightening must-read story titled, Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025, reporters from The New York Times lay out former president Donald Trump’s master plan to maximize his power if he’s returned to office in next year’s election.
This would entail an overall of government that would “concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands,” the Times reported.
We already know he plans to end the independence of the Department of Justice by ordering it to conduct a criminal investigation into President Joe Biden. That’s called weaponizing the government, and it’s a long way from where this criminal president plans to stop his power grab.
The Times story explained that Trump’s goal is “to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates … with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.”
Reporters reviewed his campaign policy proposals and interviewed people close to him. His plans include:
*Bringing independent agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, under direct presidential control.
This could allow him to strip licenses from media outlets that oppose him and ignore various antitrust and consumer protection rules at the expense of the public and to the benefit of the business community.
*Reviving the practice of “impounding” funds, which would allow him to refuse to spend money Congress has appropriated.
This would let him override congressional funding decisions and cut funding for any agency, department, individual, or program he doesn’t like or wants to punish. This authoritarian tactic was banned by Congress during President Richard Nixon’s time in office.
*Striping employment protections from tens of thousands of career civil servants.
This will make it easier for Trump to fire government employees who he feels are standing in the way of his agenda or aren’t loyal enough in his mind. Of course, corrupt people in charge want corrupt people under them, and you can forget about whistleblowers because everyone will be members of the cult.
One of Trump’s guys is John McEntee, who was responsible for White House personnel and worked to get rid of officials who were seen as disloyal during the former president’s only term in office.
This hatchet man told the Times that, “The president’s plan should be to fundamentally reorient the federal government in a way that hasn’t been done since FDR’s New Deal,” and “Our current executive branch was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies.”
This, of course, is bullshit.
Franklin Roosevelt instituted the New Deal to try to pull the country out of the Great Depression and lessen the suffering of the people, not to give a wannabe dictator a clearer path to absolute power, and our executive branch was conceived by our founding fathers when they wrote the Constitution, but at least it gave McEntee a chance to say the word “liberals” in still another pathetic attempt to trigger Trump’s followers.
Listen to a clown named Russell Vought, another former Trump administration member, who said, “What we’re trying to do is to identify the pockets of independence and seize them.”
Seize them? Does that sound democratic to you? It sure doesn’t to me.
The Times reported that Trump and his campaign are making no secret of their plans. Apparently, this kind of thinking appeals to the GOP base. The old strong-man theory, only in this case played out by a candidate of extraordinary weakness combined with extraordinary corruption.
One more piece of Right-wing bullshit: A spokesman for the Trump campaign – presumedly with a straight face -- said Trump has “laid out a bold and transparent agenda for his second term … Voters will know exactly how President Trump will supercharge the economy, bring down inflation, secure the border, protect communities and eradicate the deep state that works against Americans once and for all.”
The truth is, Trump has no plans to do any anything for the greater good. He just wants to grab as much power as he can and seek revenge against his enemies, both real and perceived. He’s the textbook definition of a fascist, and the America he envisions will be one where democracy has been replaced by the authoritarian rule of one man looking to maximize his power and wealth, surrounded by an army of underlings, each pursuing their own agenda of personal gain.
Such an America cannot be allowed to happen, and, if it does, it can’t be allowed to stand.
It should be noted that the Times reported that this effort is supported by “a well-funded network of conservative groups.”
Let me emphasize that: A WELL-FUNDED NETWORK OF CONSERVATIVE GROUPS.
You’ve been warned over and over again here about the war of the rich against the rest of us. About how the rich are spending ungodly amounts of money – a lot of it “dark money” whose donors are unknown – to promote policies that increase their wealth at the expense of the poor and middle class and the environment.
Do you think a lot of the rich care what Trump does to this country as long as their taxes are cut and regulations related to their various businesses are eliminated? I don’t.
For instance, the Times reported that there’s something called “Protect 2025,” a $22-million operation that’s preparing policies, personnel lists, and transition plans to recommend to any Republican who ends up getting elected president in 2024.
This project is headed – no surprise here – by the Heritage Foundation. Those guys have their dirty little hands in everything.
You can read the Times’s story here.
When Republicans talk about a “deconstruction of the administrative state,” this is what they’re talking about. They’re telling you what they’re going to do – rip the government to shreds, cut taxes for the rich, eliminate programs that help the poor and middle class, get rid of regulations, such as those designed to help fight climate change -- and how they’re going to do it.
Given the chance, Trump and the Republicans will roil our democracy. And if you’re thinking, we’ll just vote them out the next time, you’re underestimating their ability to use their power to subvert our election system in their favor. Then what happens? Then what do we do?
This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This is fear, hate, and lies channeled by one man, funded by rich opportunists, and soaked in by a significant number of Americans suckers. All you have to do is listen to what Trump said at a rally in Michigan to see what could be coming:
“We will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. And we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.”
And he’ll end our country as we know it, if we give him the chance.
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Thank you for reading my post. You can see more of my writing on my blog: Musings of a Nobody. Also, please check out my video blog: The 3:13 on Politics.