If Trump Gets Re-elected, America Will Become a Tyranny

I would like to begin with a fable by Aesop, who lived in ancient Greece 2500 years ago.

“A hawk long had his eye on a flock of pigeons, but no matter how often he had swooped down upon them from the sky they had always had been able to reach their cote in safety.  Thinking that it might be his shadow they had spied, he waited for a cloudy day for his next attack, but still to no avail.

“At length, the hungry hawk decided to use craft instead of attack.  From the top of a nearby dead tree, he called down to the pigeons:  ‘Why do you prefer this life of constant fear and anxiety when, if you would make me your king, I could patrol the sky and make you safe from any attack that could be made upon you?!

“The foolish pigeons, believing the hawk’s interest to be sincere, called him to the throne as their king and their protector.  But no sooner was he established there than he issued an order that every day one pigeon would have to be sacrificed for his dinner.”

The moral of this story is:  They who voluntarily put themselves under the power of a tyrant deserve whatever fate they receive.

Does this sound familiar to you?  This moral applies today as it did 2500 years ago, even more so, and has been proven throughout the ages.

We, the people of the United States, are facing this threat again, this time under the power of Donald Trump, and his followers.

What I am about to say here has been published in both The Economist and The New York Times, and it is about Trump’s plans should he ever regain the Presidency, and they are not good.

There are organizations now planning Trump’s new agenda, and the main purposes are to greatly expand his presidential powers, reduce and even abolish independent organizations involved with the government, control ALL branches of the government, including Congress and the judicial system, and last, take away any and all rights any American citizen has, especially those of women and minorities.

In other words, Trump will have absolute authority over the entire United States.  Can this really happen?  Yes, and Trump has many in the government, especially in Congress, the Senate, and the Supreme Court to back him.

Will it happen?  This depends on YOU, the voter.  Like the pigeons in the fable, if you decide to put Trump back in office, you will deserve whatever fate you receive, and it will be a fate you will not like.

So what does Trump plan to do?  Plenty, and he had help in planning his agenda from organizations like America First Policy Institute and the Heritage Foundation, both based in Texas.  He also has a Schedule F to remove perceived obstructionists;  i.e.  anyone that gets in his way.

First, Trump wants to capture the civil service.  Through this, he hopes to control the bureaucracy.

Trump’s “commandos,” in quotation marks, plans to deconstruct the administrative state.  This state consists of over 300 federal offices that issue and interpret regulations.  Trump intends to abolish regulations he does not like, in any field.  With the dismantling of the administrative state, Trump will be able to do so.

The reality is, the government cannot function without the administrative state, but I think that is his scheme.  Trump intends to dictate what will be done (hence the word, “dictator”) without the approval of Congress or the federal government, just by his own word. 

An example is the Environmental Protection Agency, which issues anti-pollution laws to protect the environment.  Abolish these laws, then polluting industries will just do whatever they want.  They will, with the backing of certain Senators and Congressmen, will burn coal for energy to their heart’s content, thereby increasing the temperature of the Earth even more than it is now.  This summer, 2023, is literally the hottest on record.  Are we going to even make it hotter, literally broiling the Earth and killing its people with extreme heat?  It’s happening now, so are they, the fossil fuel industries, going to make it worse?  Does Trump and his followers even care?

If that isn’t enough, the fossil fuel lobby wants LESS alternative energy, even to abolish it, if possible.  With the advent of electric cars, this may be impossible, fortunately.  Nonetheless, they want to use more coal and oil, in spite of the increasing extreme heat.

The TPPE, Texas Public Policy Foundation, opposes the development of wind farms and solar plants.  They may have thought up an excuse for this, but the real reason is for them to make billions from fossil fuels, especially oil.

This is but one example, but it WILL happen, and what I have just written is NO exaggeration.  Just go outside on a summer day, and imagine the temperature increasing five or ten degrees.

It has already been proven that Trump does not care about the environment or climate change, and has even admitted it.

This is where the deconstruction of regulations will begin, and more is to come in other fields.  

 

There is a separation of powers, independent of each other, being the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of government, along with many independent departments.  This insures checks and balances, which in turn insures that no one, be it the President or members of Congress will go to extremes, violating the Constitution or any laws pertaining to it.   

Trump wants to do away with this process.  He wants to control all three branches of government, being the President (himself), Congress, and the Supreme Court, the independent organizations and any and all departments, and his party is doing everything they can to do it, by nominating judges and department heads who will do Trump’s bidding.  The Supreme Court is already packed and the House of Representatives has a narrow Republican majority, but if the Republican Party wins both the Senate and the House in 2024, there will be no stopping Trump.

Trump wants no independent agencies.  Trump’s supporters have developed centers on bringing independent agencies under his thumb.  Whatever they do, they will have to submit actions to the White House for review.

All this has been stated on his campaign website, where he proposes to bring everything under “presidential authority.”

The FCC, the Federal Communication Commission, and the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission are two of Trump’s top prizes for him to control.  With the FCC, it means no saying anything negative about Trump on radio, TV, the internet, or any other broadcast band.  The media has to agree with everything Trumps says, i.e. “Climate change is a hoax, and that’s that!”  

With the FTC, Trump will determine how international trade will be performed.

Don’t forget the FDA, deregulating food and drugs for profits.

Every part of the federal government will be under Trump’s control, and he intends to remove anyone and everyone who opposes him and his policies in government.  Trump only wants loyalists, and he will remove ALL constraints to get whatever he wants.

Trump also wants to control the federal budget, and regulate finance markets.  If Congress appropriates government funds in a program that Trump doesn’t like, he plans to impound these funds.  This could mean, no funds for any department if they go against Trump’s beliefs.  (This was a tactic banned by the lawmakers under President Richard Nixon because of his own abuse of it.  Trump wants to bring this back.)  This could be anything, even programs present Trump supporters are benefitting from right now, so beware!

For those in the Civil Service, present employees are protected under laws insuring their employment, so they can’t be fired.   These protections will be stripped, so if they oppose Trump in any way, they will be removed.

This also applies to intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, etc.), the State Department affecting foreign relations, and license bureaucracies.

This incudes the Department of Education, to “find and remove radicals.”  This means controlling what will be taught to children in our public schools, possibly brainwashing them, as in totalitarian states like Russia, China, and North Korea.  Don’t forget, Trump has a love for these very leaders, being Putin, Xi, and Kim Jung-un.  

There will be book bans, not only in schools, as Governor Ron DeSantis is doing in Florida now, but in the general public as well.

The Federal Reserve, which controls our money supply, is also in question.  If it loses its independence, investors in the U.S. economy may become nervous.

Trump will lower taxes, for all industries and businesses that support him, but he will not be able to find the money to cover these tax cuts, unless it’s from the American people.  This could lead to an economic catastrophe.

There will be NO independent agencies, NO separation of powers, and NO checks and balances.. Trump wants absolute power.  He wants to completely control every part of the federal government.   There will be NO internal resistance to act as a check on presidential power.  If Trump throws a temper tantrum in the White House like he did in his previous administration, he will always get his way.

What will Trump do when all these obstacles are removed?

1. He will complete the wall on the Mexican border.
2. End automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. 
3. There will be NO LGBTQ rights.
4. There will be NO women’s rights.
5. There will be NO rights for minorities.  (Trump condones racial hatred.)
6. There will be NO religious liberties (especially for the Muslims and Jews.  There is a wave of anti-semitism rising, and Trump seems to be condoning it.)
7. All regulations will be abolished for the sake of business profits, meaning NO environmental protection laws, and NO regulations for the safely of food, drugs, or any other consumer products.)
8. We will desert Ukraine.  We cannot allow this not only for the sake of Ukraine, but for the sake of the world.  Doing so will be the final nail in the coffin of America’s standing in the world.  The world will also become a more dangerous place, increasing wars, not decreasing them.
9. Trump promised that he will pardon ALL rioters involved in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
10. Trump will call of ALL criminal investigation involving him, and probably his friends, also…and the Department of Justice WILL do just that!
11. Trump will exact revenge on everyone who ever crossed him during his first administration.
12. There is a good chance that Trump will abolish the U.S. Constitution.  He has publicly stated that he favors this.

Some of these proposals may sound good to the American voter, but removing guardrails (checks and balances) and centralizing greater power over our government will lead to tyranny, very fast.  

Congress and the courts will eventually become resentful, but it will be too late.  This will only lead to mayhem and chaos, even worse.  Our society will break down.  Hate and violence will rise, and factions with fight each other, leading to riots in the streets.  Who knows what might happen after that.

Again, Trump wants absolute power over literally everything, and he just might get it.

Once America loses its freedoms, it will be very hard to get them back.  Fascists regimes will succeed fascist regimes, and a new democratic movement may not rise again for 25 to 50 years, maybe more.

America’s leading position in the world will fall, and we may never get that back.  What will the world be like then?

None of this has to happen!

There is a way to stop this.  Vote, and don’t vote for Trump.  Make sure he never returns to the White House.

If you are a Republican, make sure he does not get nominated, for any office.  Trump is not helping your party, he’s hurting it, and he doesn’t care about the party, you, or anything else but himself.

Trump has also been indicted twice, and is up for two more indictments.  Trump trial of keeping top secret documents past his tenure begins in May, and is up for three more trials.  There is a good chance that he will go to jail.  

Help disqualify Trump and put him in jail.  Use the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to disqualify Trump for running for office, because of his part in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump can be stopped.  He can be stopped legally within the confines of the law, and he can serve a prison sentence for the rest of his life.  Help make this a reality.

YOU have the power to save this country, if you want to keep your rights and freedoms.

Alastair Browne

SOURCES

1. The Hawk and the Pigeons, Aesop’s Fables, Easy Eye Books, Lancer Books, New York, 1968, pp. 45, 46.

2.  Swan, Jonathan, Charlie Savage and Maggie Haberman, “Trump and           Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in 2025,”  The New York Times, July 17, 2023, pp. A1, A14.

3.  “ The meticulous, ruthless preparations for a second Trump term,”  The Economist, July 13, 2023,  https://www.economist.com/briefing/ 2023/07/13/the-meticulous-ruthless-preparations-for-a-second-trump- term.

4. Haque, Umair, “America’s Battle to Save its Democracy from Trumpism,”  Medium Daily Digest, July 18, 2023, https://medium.com/eudaimonia-co/ americas-battle-to-save-its-democracy-from-trumpism-a6067eeff029.

5. Madison, James, “The structure of the government must furnish the proper checks and balances between the different departments,”  The Federalist Papers, Federalist No. 51, 1787-88,

The Indictment of Donald Trump - Why He Did What He Did!

This essay attempts to answer the above question.  Now mind you, much of this cannot yet be proven, yet, but from what we know about Trump’s personality, I think we can speculate on this.  Who knows, it may come out, just like that of Nixon.

Finally, Trump’s sins have caught up with him.  He may still be popular now (June, 2023), but we still have a year before the primaries and a year and a half before the election, and a lot can happen in that period of time.

He still has two more indictments to go, one in Georgia, for trying to interfere their state election, by asking Secretary of State Brad Rafensperger to “find” 11,780 votes, and to use “fake electors” to certify to state for Trump to insure him a victory;  and the charge in Washington, DC, for the January 6, 2021 riots.

There is also the indictment in New York for paying Stormy Daniel hush money for a sexual encounter in 2006.  

It’s all piling on him like a ton of bricks, and Republicans, at least those with a shred of decency, along with other Trump supporters, may turn against him.  Other Republican candidates for President are available for them to choose, so this may be more of a liability to Trump than an asset.

Now let’s try to the present indictments of stolen classified documents, the main subject of this paper.  For the sake of this essay I will first summarize what everybody already knows.

Trump took classified documents with him when he left the White House on January 20, 2021 when President Joseph Biden took office.  

The government knew he had these document and they wanted them back, but Trump denied that he had them.  He later refused to give them back, so the F.B.I. raided his home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

Boxes by the hundreds were found, some knocked over and lying on the floor in a basement storage room, on a ballroom stage, and in a bathroom.

What these documents contained were secret intelligence reports on foreign countries, i.e. Iran; U.S. nuclear secrets; potential vulnerabilities to an attack on the homeland (that’s us); and plans for retaliatory attacks on foreign adversaries.  (Feur, Alan and Maggie Haberman, “Evidence a President’s Actions Were More Overt Than Known,”  The New York Times, June 10, 2023, pp. A1, A14.)

Imagine Trump saying to his friends, “This is secret information.  Look, look at this,” and then showing them these documents.  In fact, there is eyewitness testimony that he did do this, though the source is unavailable to the writer at this time.

Who did Trump tell?  Trump supposedly showed classified documents to others on TWO different occasions.

When Trump answered the original request to return documents, he provided 15 boxes, being 184 classified documents with 125 marked “Top Secret.”  (Top Secret means dangerous, possibly fatal to the U.S. if exposed!)

On June 3, 2022 a small batch of files were also provided, hoping to satisfy the F.B.I., being 138 documents with 17 labeled “Top Secret.”  

Then on August 8, 2022, 100 more classified documents were found at the highest levels.  (French, David, “Indicting Was the Right Call,”  The New York Times, June 11, 2023, Sunday Opinion, p. 4, 5.)

It was when the indictments came out on June 9, 2023, that the real dirt came out, with photos of boxes of classified documents strewn out over Mar-a-Lago, as described.

Trump refused to turn over these documents, and even lied to the F.B.I. about having them.  

When Bob Woodward interviewed Trump, Trump bragged that he had weapons that neither Putin nor Xi knew about.  Here is his quote in an interview, Woodward confirmed on CNN.

“I have built a weapons system that nobody’s ever heard about before.

We have stuff that you haven’t even seen or heard about.  We have stuff that

Putin and Xi have never heard about before.”

-Donald Trump to Bob Woodward

Even as a former President, Trump was not supposed to do this.

Here is what we know what he did do with some of them, so far!  

He used many of these documents to show to his friends at social events at Mar-a-Lago, to impress them.

This act alone is dangerous!  These people whom Trump showed the documents to could then go out and tell others about what they saw, boasting about what a former president has shown then, and then, like gossip, be repeated to other people still, until, and this is a possibility, a spy from an enemy country could pick this up from casual conversations and investigate what they heard.  

What this can lead to can be very devastating to the security of the United States, affecting every person living here, in one form or another.  It wouldn’t be in a good way, either.

From what has been uncovered so far concerning Trump and these documents, there are at least three charges, so far, that Trump could be tried:  

1. Obstruction of Justice
2. Lying to the F.B.I.
3. Sharing classified information with unauthorized persons.

There is a saying that came from World War II: “Loose Lips Sink Ships!”  This means that no one, not even civilians with no part in the war effort, should discuss plans about military strategies, even if they come from their own imagination.  This is because spies from Germany and Japan might overhear this, even in a place like a diner, report back to their superiors and use it against our own troops.  There were posters of a soldier from a ship that was torpedoed pointing his finger saying “Somebody talked!”  Look it up in a history book.

This applies even now, and Trump has already blown a lot of this wide open.  

So what other purposes would Trump have used these classified documents?  The following are my own personal guesses, but is very likely that others, including Trump, may have also thought of the following.

1. Power - Trump loves power.  He loves to control things and people so he could get his way.  He wants to control people to get what he wants, when he wants it.  For example, he had battle plans against our own enemies.  Suppose he were to give these very enemies these plans?  

2. To hold onto perks he lost when he left office.

3.   Revenge against his enemies.  Trump is a man of revenge, and he has     sworn vengeance against certain people should he return to office.  Suppose these documents contained information against certain individuals he could use as leverage, or blackmail?

4. Trophies - Trump felt that he had personal ownership of these documents and could do whatever he pleased with them, leading to-

5.  Turning over many of these documents, perhaps selling them, to our enemies, such as Russia, China, and North Korea.  He has praised these leaders many times, and has buddied up to them.  I believe that Trump would stoop to the level of selling, or giving, top secret information over to our enemies for special favors, regardless of what it may cost to the security of the United States or to the American people.

This could be the most damaging act of all.

6.  Business deals - Trump is always broke, but he can raise money from his followers.  Money is always given to him.  He can sell secrets to businesses for millions, even billions of dollars.

There could be many reasons, but the bottom line is that these documents mean money, and that, along with power, are two of the main things Donald Trump craves.

Trump supporters need to wake up!  He does not care about them, he does not care about anybody but himself.  

Trump used his lust for power and wealth to blackmail and just plain abuse people to get what he wanted, never caring whom he would destroy.  

Trump has never been held accountable for any crime he has committed in his entire life.  His family always bailed him out with their wealth and prestige, but now his sins have finally caught up with him. 

Greed and his thirst for power have always been his ambitions, and now they will be his downfall.

His day of judgement is coming soon.

Alastair Browne

America Saved, by the American People

Days before the 2022 mid-term election, I isolated myself from the news, up until Election Day.  I did not watch the returns that night. 

I was scared!

For months on end, I’ve been writing about what would happen should the Republican Party completely takes over Congress, the Senate, and the Presidency.

They would rig the voting system by gerrymandering and voter suppression, making it impossible for Republicans to lose any more elections.  If they did, the election would be overturned in favor of any Republican that’s running for that particular office.  Eventually, the Republican Party would become the only ruling party in the nation, making the U.S. a tyranny, possibly establishing a theocracy.  

White, neoconservative males would solely be in charge, oppressing women and minorities, reducing them to second-class citizens, or worse.  The wealthy would dominate, the poor would have no chance to improve their lot, literacy would be controlled via censorship, people who committed violent acts in Trump’s name (Jan. 6) would be pardoned, the U.S. Constitution would then be abolished, and this would only be the beginning.  

One party rule would be ugly, oppressive, and violent.

If this sounds far fetched, remember what Mitch McConnell once said, “I know it’s written in the Constitution, but I don’t care!  Make me!”

Trump himself at a party at Mar-a-Lago, with Q-Anon supporters, anti-Semites, and White Supremacists called for the suspension, even termination of the Constitution, to overturn the 2020 presidential election (still, after the 2022 election) to have himself restated as President.

What does that tell you?  Our Constitution would be no more, and shortly thereafter,  all our liberties would vanish.We, and the world, would then plunge into a new Dark Age.

I have already explained all this in previous essays I have written, all accessible on my blog, foundationandstate.blogspot.com.  You can look them up, for I stand by them.

Fortunately, we did not meet that fate!

The American people caught on to all this, and voted many of the extremists out in droves.  Many followers of Donald Trump and his factions, such as MAGA and Q-Anon who were candidates, lost the elections for whatever office they were running, and the more reasonable Democrats won.

ALL of Trump’s chosen candidates for the U.S. Senate lost their bids.  

It was these voters, (that’s you) who saved America, saved democracy as we know it, and preserved our freedoms.

America, which many thought would die after this election, survived.  What just passed was the biggest crisis since the Civil War, and again, we pulled through.

History is moving forward, and the American people finally realized what is at stake.  Here are examples:

In Wisconsin, Tim Michels, the Republican candidate for governor, also backed by Trump, stated that if he is elected, no Republican candidate will ever lose another election.  Go figure!

Instead, his Democratic opponent, Tom Evers, won, so all plans for stealing any future elections were dashed.  Integrity prevailed, and so it was across the country.

Every state-wide ballot in the country guaranteeing the right to an abortion also passed.

As of Saturday, November 12, the senate race for Nevada was called in favor of the Democratic incumbent, Catherine Cortez Masto.  This left Georgia for their special run-off election in December.  On December 6, the Democratic candidate Ralph Warnock won.  This leaves the Senate now with 51 delegates.  The U.S. Senate retains its Democratic majority.   (There are three Senators in that majority that are Independents, but they lean towards the Democratic side, so it doesn’t matter.)

Trump failed with his chosen candidates winning office, but he is still determined to take back the White House in 2024.  He announced his candidacy for President on December 8, 2022.

I’ll be daring; Trump does have a chance of being nominated and elected, but it is decreasing by the day.  First, the American people are tired of hearing him rant that “the election (of 2020) was stolen.”  It wasn’t, but that is all he ever says, and as a result, he is becoming crazier and crazier.

Second, it may destroy the Republican Party by, first irritating everybody, and second, forcing other potential candidates to run early, such as Ron de Santis and other Republicans.

More and more people, especially Republicans, are losing interest in Trump.  He’s already served one term, accomplished almost nothing, and caused a lot of trouble, both here (January 6th riots on the Capitol) and abroad.  

Trump acts like a spoiled child, which he is, throwing tantrums over his defeat in 2020, and the American people don’t want this anymore.  They want new blood!

They’re getting it.  

Ron de Santis is a rising star, and he will run for President, and he will acquire a large following, taking voters away from Trump.  Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland and a lot of other now unknown candidates may do the same.  

Trump, however, still has hard-core followers.  There are also the extremists, such as the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, White supremacists and other racists, anti-immigration factions, and neo-Nazis who still support Trump.  These groups are extremely violent and Trump, out of desperation, will support them and condone their actions, as he did on January 6.

Trump has stated that if he wins the election, he will pardon everyone who participated in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

However, many, but not all, Republicans have realized this and are turning away from Trump as you read this essay.  Other candidates are stepping in, and where they will stand on issues still remains to be seen.

Trump has also stated that if he loses the Republican nomination for President, he will run as an independent candidate, splitting the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party will greatly benefit from this, and they will end up winning the 2024 election, no matter who runs.  This happens every time there is a party split.  That party always loses. 

Trump is now on his way out and there are many who say otherwise, but that doesn’t alter the fact that he is.

When Trump was acquitted during both his impeachments, many Senators who voted to acquit him, I believe, really wanted to vote to remove him from office, but were afraid to do so because of what Trump and his cronies threatened to do to them.  This is very similar to the Mafia when they call in favors.

Trump is now losing that power, due to many people deserting him, along with his problems in the courts, so more people of all strips are becoming emboldened to stand up to him.  Remember Liz Cheney.  She lost her Congressional seat in Wyoming, but that didn’t stop her.

Trump is of the lunatic fringe, and in the U.S., fringe candidate are bound to fail.  Just look at this past election.

Trump and his supporters failed in their efforts to seize control of the government.  There are 155 election deniers elected to Congress, and overall, the Republicans may have a slight majority in the House, but again, it doesn’t matter.  

The Republicans were doomed from the day, June 24, 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned.  This resulted in women getting mad and voting against everyone who favored this act by the Supreme Court, mainly male Republicans who had no right to control women’s bodies;  i.e. interfere with their reproductive rights.

This is what brought them and their party down.  As a result, they lost votes, and many, the election.

And Now The Test

Once again, Trump has declared his candidacy for President.  It was at Mar-a-Lago on the evening of November 15, 2022.

Few of the major networks broadcasted it, and I couldn’t find it, so I turned to C-Span, 10 minutes into his speech.  Not having declared his candidacy yet, he simply rambled on about how much President Joe Biden is destroying the country, in everything, from energy to the economy, and from Afghanistan (President Trump agreed on a pullout date with the Taliban, of which President Biden simply followed through on the agreement.  The fiasco that followed wouldn’t have been any different at any other date or time, or with any other President.) to Ukraine.  

Trump simply rambled on, and didn’t declare himself a candidate until 20 minutes into his speech.

Trump then revealed his plans of what he would do.  I turned off the TV, because I saw that it was the same old stuff.  Trump has nothing new to offer, and I remember all the chaos from his last term.  It was Biden that calmed everything down.

On the CBS Evening News the next day, I saw that much of the audience at Mar-a-Lago tried to leave early, except for the security detail that wouldn’t let anyone leave.

Many billionaires who regularly donate money to political candidates decided to support some other Republican in the future, whoever he or she may be. 

In other words, the world was not impressed.

There are many editorials and professionals, including political scientists, who believe that Trump may win the nomination, and some even fear that he might win.  These fears are not unfounded.  One third of all Republicans still support Trump, and many others fear this support may once again increase.

I disagree.

The world now knows Trump for what he really is.

If he chosen candidates in Congress he supported during the midterm mostly lost, or won the House by a bare margin but lost the Senate, and lost major state elections for governor and especially Secretary of State, Trump isn’t going to fare better in the 2024 Presidential race, even if he runs against Joe Biden.

It already shows.

The January 6 riots mere reflects Trump throwing a temper tantrum for losing the 2020 election.

It also reflects those who participated in the riots, and the politicians who condoned this action because of their gullibility in believing everything Trump says.  

“If Trump said it, then it’s true!”

Trump coddled up to dictators, especially Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un.   Note in his speech Trump said that he never would have let Putin invade Ukraine.

Yes he would, and if Trump were President when Russia invaded, Ukraine would have gone down in defeat, being totally occupied and annexed by Russia.    Trump would not have sent a single weapon to Ukraine for self-defense.

Trump had no regard for the environment, allowing more pollution and deforestation.  

He messed up the economy, cutting taxes to favor the rich while leaving the poor and middle class out in the cold.

Trump alienated the rest of the world, greatly embarrassing the United States.

Do we want to go through all this again?

I think not, and neither does the rest of the country, Democrat or Republican

Trump is losing it, though, by his temper tantrums, his rambling speeches, his lies, his misinformation, and his age.  Biden is older than Trump, but he has more control of himself and his actions.  

Republicans are going to want fresh blood.  They will want younger candidates with clear minds, and voters will be able to tell the difference between Trump and his younger competitors.  They will also know Trump’s weaknesses, and they will exploit it.

Trump still has a good chance of getting the nomination, with one-third of all Republicans still following him regardless of what he says or does.  

A lot can happen in two years.

Does Trump have a chance of winning?  He may have a chance now, but it is decreasing.  Judging from the mid-terms, and looking at Trump for what he is, more voters, even hard-core Republicans, will either be tempted to vote for the Democratic candidate or and Independent, to Trump’s detriment.

There is also the subpoenas from the January 6 committee, along with Georgia and New York.  Many are calling for the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from running for President because of his part in the January 6 insurrection.  Of course, there are politicians who have no regard for the Constitution will to look the other way.

We have a two year show ahead of us.

Stay tuned!

Trump’s Legal Problems

This is what may finally bring him down, and his sins are finally catching up with him.

Trump’s residences at Mar-a-Lago and other mansions are constantly being raided by the F.B.I., and more and more documents are being found, confidential documents that he is not suppose to have.  They should have been turned over to the national archives.

Trump’s tax returns are finally in the hand of Congress, and they will investigate them.  Already, there is evidence of tax fraud by Trump’s organizations, and more is being uncovered.

The January 6th committee has subpoenaed Trump, though he is resisting.

There is evidence of fraud in both Georgia and New York.

Trump is doing everything he can through his lawyers to say that he is innocent, but he is now on the losing side.

A lawyer, Jack Smith, from prosecuting war criminals in Bosnia, has been appointed to investigate his attempts at voter fraud, overturning the election through the electoral process leading to January 6, and his handling of stolen document from the White House.  He is a professional investigation, ruthless, and will show no mercy towards Trump.  This will be the biggest investigation since Watergate.

If Trump were innocent, then he wouldn’t have to worry about any investigation.  He could simply say, “Bring it on.  You got nothing on me.”

Instead, he is ranting and raving about these investigators, accusing them of being pawns of the Democrats, say that they hate him and want to get rid of him.

What has he got to hide?

Trump is also running for president a year early, thinking that no legal system can touch him if he is a candidate.

Again, what has he got to hide?

If Trump is innocent, then he wouldn’t have to worry about any investigation

Where do we go from here?

Both the Democrat and Republican parties still exist, and both parties still have power.

Many say we should abolish the Republican Party, but that is not going to happen.  The Democrats control the Senate, but just barely.  The same goes for the Republicans controlling the House.

Many 2020 deniers (about 155 of them) are still in office, including many who participated in the January 6 attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol.

Here is a tally of election deniers:

155 House wins

    9 Senate wins

    7 Governor wins

      5 State Attorneys General

    2 Lt. Governors

    3 Secretaries of State

In the categories of Sectaries of State, we were lucky, for they have the power to overturn elections in favor of another candidate.  

We need to go beyond a two party system, having members from multiple parties elected to the House and the Senate, like they do in Europe.  This will result in many new ideas from many other points of view.

Everyone should also talk to each other, reach across the aisle once again, so the U.S. will never again revert to a state of polarization, where nobody speaks to anyone else with views different from their own.

If the Republican Party is to continue to exist, it has to change, but they do not have to become Democrats.

The Republican Party was at one time a noble party.  Many prominent Republicans had working class backgrounds, where many candidates worked all their lives, unaided, received an education, sometimes by working their way through college, and worked their way up into politics.

The Republican mantra was that you should make it on your own to be successful.  The term “Nixon Republican” (regardless of what happened with Watergate) meant the workers, as opposed to “Reagan Republicans” which meant the rich, who later hijacked the party.

Back in the 1970s, the Republican Party abided by the U.S. Constitution.  Case in point, Watergate.

When Watergate first occurred, the Republicans stood behind Nixon, being President and of their party.

As time went on, the Watergate hearings commenced, and the truth of what was really going on in the White House came out, the Republicans then turned against Nixon.  The reason was obvious.  Either they, the Republicans in office in 1974, had to choose, Nixon or the Constitution.  They chose the latter, and Nixon was forced to resign in order to avoid impeachment and removal from office.

This had to be done.  Nixon’s actions were clearly illegal and threatening to the legal system, which, if left unchecked, could have led the U.S. to becoming a tyranny.

It is the same thing that in happening today.  Unfortunately, many in today’s Republican Party are extremists, have no moral compass, and will stop at nothing to get what they want, mainly wealth and power.  It doesn’t matter to them have the American public feels.

This has got to change.

How?  Here are a few ways.

1. Get rid of the lunatic fringe.  That is, the extremists who want to steal elections any way they can, and will even resort to violence.
2. Go back to ethics, morals, and abiding by the Constitution.
3. Do not tolerate dishonest people.  Don’t even tolerate people who behave badly in Congress.  Throw them out!
4. Be open to change.
5. Cross the aisle and talk to people of other parties.  
6. Have a multiple party system.
7. No more lying, cheating, and stealing.
8. Participate in rebuilding America, with rebuilding the infrastructure and other such projects.

We have barely escaped becoming a tyranny by the skin of our teeth.  The American people have spoken, and they have spoken wisely.  They knew what we were up against and they fought it through their votes, and won.

Trump is still here, and he is still strong through his followers, but there are still two years to go before the 2024 election.  A lot is happening, Trump is being investigated for his crimes, and the recently appointed prosecutors will not be so lenient towards him as others were.

Trump is going down, slowly, but surely.

Like Nixon before him, Trump will fall. 

Reason and common sense prevailed.  May it continue to do so.

Alastair Browne