On the Precipice

Elon and his geeky fanboys raiding the computer systems of the Treasury Department with the blessing of trump and his ass-kissing executive toadies. Payments to whole agencies being stopped, employees being 'offered a buyout' or be fired in 30 days. The US government is being hollowed out in the name of efficiency and cost-cutting. We all think government is bloated and inefficient, so that makes some sense. But is that what's actually going on? If it was being done in good faith, wouldn't there be audits to identify and strategically target inefficiencies? Where is the report and the transparency? Why the wrecking ball and the secrecy? Why flout the law? Actually, hollowing out the government, and replacing employees with a cadre of loyalists in the name of 'efficiency' and rooting out 'corruption' comes directly from the dictator's handbook, page one. They are already telling lies about 'the corruption' they've been finding. It's ominous.          

It got me asking: How close is America to a full-blown dictatorship. The answer may be, much closer than you think.  

Well-known lawyer George Conway is despondent. He says, legally-speaking, we're on the precipice of the end of federal rule of law. Here's the scenario he paints. Trump orders a lackey to do something illegal, take your pick. It goes to court. They lose in court and the judge orders them to stop what they are doing.  Trump says, I don't care, and orders them to continue. The judge finds contempt of court and orders the US Marshall to arrest the offender. The US Marshall is an agency of the federal Department of Justice, under AG Pam Bondi, who takes her orders from, you guessed it, trump. All it takes is for Bondi to order the federal Marshall to stand down, for the entire system of rule of law to collapse. Without enforcement of the law, there is, maybe not total anarchy, maybe selective enforcement, it comes to the same thing. That's the very definition of dictatorship. Law used by the powerful selectively, to promote their political and financial interests and against their opponents. Think Russia under Putin. There are currently a dozen or more legal challenges making their way through the court system as trump and his co-president Elon take a wrecking ball to federal agencies. It only takes one to show how far trump is willing to go to demonstrate that dictatorship has effectively arrived. Once the precedent is set, it will snowball. Oh, and even if the order could be traced back to trump, according to the Supreme Court he is immune for 'official acts' like a discussion with his AG. And his loyal lackeys will do anything he asks, because he will promise them pardons. He's already shown how willing he is to use that power for his loyal supporters, like the Jan. 6 rioters. He holds in his hand the ultimate unchallengeable 'get out of jail card'.   

Is there an answer? Impeachment and removal from office? Won't happen, as we know. 

Conway ends by saying that playing the scenarios through to their logical conclusion the only way he can see this end is, as all dictatorships end, with violence in the streets.